Daniel

Daniel remembered running into the oncoming barrage of arrows.

They broke right through his aurum-unfolding-shield, then he was falling, then the arrows were being plucked out of his arm, now he lay in shackles in one of a row of jail-cels. Across the row of cels was white walls, with grocery-store lights hanging from the ceiling. There were mounds of crates stacked up and down the row, marked: “EXPLOSIVE” in big red paint. Daniel was in an orange jumpsuit, his bones felt like a loose bag of rocks. Footsteps echoed down from the halls. In the cel opposite Daniel a small shadowy figure was hunched over, in-between the two in the hallway was two metal doors, a whistling sound rushed the doors rattling, suddenly they burst open the tall girl bursting through them, Daniel didn’t get a great look at her before, she was dark skinned with dark curly hair, she had fiery red eyes and a fierce look on her eyes, a mix between sad confused and angry, she was lost, Daniel knew that look. She wore a denim jacket over a purple shirt., she had denim shorts and a leather strap around her back which held a large axe, it had a slightly charred handle, the front of it was cracked, she had a small satchel slung over her other shoulder, that and the leather strap making an X, she whipped her axe off her back and her left hand snapped into flames from the palm, Daniel could see someone with a spear and in armour down the hall, the armour was golden, wait was that the mark of Tonitru? On his chest plate was two lightning runes side-by-side in the middle of them was a cloud.

“ARE WE?!” Daniel begun.

“In Jupiter’s field?” the tall lady (fourteen?) interrupted.

Gusts of wind launched at her, she threw fourth her palm flames flowing from it, she swung around her axe over her head breaking down the bars Daniel was trapped in, she struck her axe against the chains freeing Daniel, Daniel stumbled into her arms.

“Easy!” she said extending an arm; “I’m Rachel.”

“Daniel. THERE!” he screamed pointing down the hall as a horde of demigods lumbered toward them. Some with air arrows, (Not all demi-gods possess powers similar to their parents, but the genes can weigh in on whether or not someone has magic). Rachel looked down the hallway clenching the axe, she threw up her hand smoke shooting down the hallway, “THEY HAVE AIR SORCERY IDIOT!” Daniel shouted, though coughs came from down the hallway. Three shadowy figures leapt at Rachel her slamming the back of the axe into the figures, blue light crackled from one as they clambered up, Rachel’s hand ignited into flame punching down. Where’s Joel? Where am I? is Joel okay? Did we fall from the S.S Theseus? How did we survive? Did Joel survive? If I didn’t try to save Rachel maybe he would be alive! Daniel collapsed to the floor burying his head in his hands, tears ran like a river from his eyes. A bow clattered by Daniel’s feet along with a quiver. “DANIEL!” Rachel screamed. Daniel grabbed the bow and slung the quiver around his shoulder jumping up beside Rachel. Daniel pulled an air arrow from the quiver, the point was light blue, the stem was white with streaks of blue, and as Daniel pulled back an air arrow, the arrow soared through the air toward one of them, it cut through one of the people like they were made of butter, Daniel nocked two more arrows into people, “Is Joel alive?” Daniel couldn’t manage to hold back any more tears.

“YES I... think?” Rachel said marching down the hallway, she pulled a coin out of her denim jacket and tossed it into the air, it was three inches in diameter. “THIS WAY!” She screamed. As Daniel ran after her he looked down at his new enchanted bow. Rachel’s sneakers screeched as she halted to a stop at the end of the corridor, she leapt back into the corridor shocks of electricity slamming against the wall. Daniel kept running as more people turned the corner. Rachel spun her axe into the wall of people, letting out a war cry as fire shot from her calves. Daniel grabbed the wall and swung around, he lifted himself off the floor and his feet flew toward people. Daniel lost his grip; crumbling down upon the guards, Daniel pulled back an arrow, in front of him opened up a large concrete warehouse, cels hung from the ceiling holding all kinds of monsters, there was a large snake, in another stood a large twelve-foot beast, it had lion legs even though it stood upright, it had a bare muscly chest, it had big scaly and furry arms with long black claws, it had an arching red-scaley neck, a long snout with horns, orange eyes, and sharp narrow teeth. It snarled at the guards. On the far-right side of the warehouse was large furnaces and clanking, to his left guards stood in training equipment on a mat, to his right was a large bucket golden weapon. Directly in front of him was at-least a dozen-armed-guards. “THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO DIVIDE THE WARE-HOUSES INTO DIFFERENT RESPONSIBILITIES!” one yelled. Rachel grimaced holding her axe high above her head. She quickly took out a wooden figure of a goddess, it went up in flames, which caught Daniel’s attention. Suddenly her axe plunged through the concrete. Nothing happened. For seconds everybody stared at her in confusion, three of the guards started to run toward Rachel and Daniel, then there was a large boom and the earth shook, crates fell over and chains rattled, the ground vibrated, suddenly the earth below them started to rip large chasms opening to a fiery descent, the three guards fell in and the other froze in terror, a chasm opened up below them enveloping them, cells that hung from chains clattered against the wall causing large chunks of concrete to fall down onto other cells; them intern falling to the floor. The roof started to cave in rocks falling down around Daniel and Rachel. Daniel stared in awe. Suddenly the biggest cage holding the lion-dragon clattered to the floor, other monsters tearing everything up including the cage the lion-dragon was in, it smiled at Dainiel licking its lips, other guards came to their senses and into the warehouses, they looked mortified at the sight of the beast, it lowered its neck and lifted its dragon tail into the air.

“WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!” Daniel screamed. Suddenly the guards rushed at the beast, its tail swung around batting many away, its mouth hung open and slammed down on a few more, its arms lifted grabbing two of the guards out of the air and hurdled them at more, its savage claws struck through even more, when a blast of lightning struck its neck, it staggered, it’s leg getting caught in the opening ravines. It roared leaping out thirty feet onto the wall, it crawled up it, roaring and dodging oncoming chunks of rock and concrete. It escaped at the top... “RACHEL!!!” Daniel screamed as a concrete slab too big too dodge; fell toward them. All at once the concrete slab shattered with sound of thunder booming, the quaking stopped, Tonitru floated above. The smaller chunks of concrete rained down. Finally, Rachel stood up tired and dazed, she looked less than half awake. Tonitru wore a golden skirt and chest plate, he had a Roman-republican-Gladius by his side. His blonde hair flowed over his forehead and his eyes seemed to shift, they weren’t all at once, they were grey, and blue, and white, all at the same time. “HOW DARE YOU!” He screamed, thunder beckoning. The clouds swirled above, Rachel eyes turned a dark red. She ran at the wall at incredible speeds leaping onto it, her fingers breaking through the stone. She crawled up, Tonitru looked at her with confusion, Daniel looked by his side, the axe was out of the ground, lightning struck Daniel as Rachel collided with Tonitru, Tonitru fell to the floor wind warping around his palms, “DARE ATTACK ME!” he threw fourth a hand, wind slammed Rachel back into the wall, in the blink of an eye Rachel’s axe swirled gracefully through the air and launched Tonitru onto a slab of concrete. Daniel lay on the ground his orange jumpsuit charred, Daniel saw a locker crumpled under a large slab, Daniel placed his damaged fingers under it and heaved it up, his bones felt like crushed up Jello. In the locker was all of Daniel’s supplies, rope, clothes, bow, quiver, wire, duct tape. Daniel put on his clothes as the battle raged on. Daniel held back the string on one of his now two bows. He let go an air arrow, it soared through the air into the arm of Tonitru, gods only know how Rachel was holding up against him. Tonitru grunted and whipped his head around to Daniel, Rachel’s axe slammed into his perfect face, and he clattered against the concrete, for a second all Daniel saw was the outline of Tonitru, his heartbeat creating small vibrations, his power, it was contained. His hand shot up lightning rippling through the air at Daniel, Daniel once again got struck. He was through out of his daze, Daniel gripped his new bow, he skidded against the ground throwing his feet back against the concrete, “Vinari, you have been absent my whole life, only putting me in danger, so for once... help me...” Daniel said gripping his chest. A large wall in the now open cavern crumbled with a boom catching everyone’s eye, it slid down creating a road to the surface, every other wall started to crumble too. Dust filled the cavern, Daniel coughed in the dirty mist feeling out everything in front of him. Daniel could fell the heartbeats of the many, it was mystical, relieving, calming, Daniel breathed in, he looked up, almost in slow-motion he saw a blue outline of Rachel soaring at Tonitru, Tonitru had a red outline, a heart different from everyone else, he felt surprised that Daniel survived, scared, pulsating from the middle of his two-eye-brows were red circles, Daniel took a deep breath and put an air-arrow in his bow, he pulled it back as Tonitru flew at him; but Daniel remained calm, Daniel let go of the arrow.

Next thing Daniel knew Tonitru skidded behind, golden blood ran from his head, his body still looked tense, and Daniel knew he didn’t kill him, he had to run before Tonitru woke up. Daniel felt a large grin form across his face: “ummm... thanks... mom.” He said, Rachel looked banged up, above her eyebrow was a large slash, the sides of her denim jacket were burnt off, as well as small patches on her purple shirt. Her denim jacket had golden, and red blood splattered over it, on her left cheek she had a gash.

Rachel grabbed Daniel’s shoulder and started trailing him to the top. Daniel stumbled slowly getting his grip. His brain done black flips while he continued to be trailed along through the dust and dirt. Daniel tightened his grp around his bow ready to shoot it at any children of Tonitru, Daniel could hear Rachel huff and puff, only being able to see three feet around him but he could see golden blood dripping onto the floor. Rachel’s grip loosened and she halted, Daniel kept walking for half-a-second, the dust cleared the air and Joel stood; his t-shirt was in tatters and blood dripped from his stomach, his leather jacket had blood stains, and cuts covered him, his mouth and nose was scrunched up and he stood crying staring at the ground, his hair was tied in bunches by blood and he clenched his stomach. Daniel ran to him and wrapped his arms around him. Daniel rests his head on Joel’s shoulder, he could hear Joel weeping and that made him weep too, he hated hearing him sad. Joel pulled Daniel close; he felt warm, his head jerked up and down as he cried, Joel’s arms tight and strong he didn’t want to let Daniel go, that was obvious, Joel’s Scimitar lay on the floor, its Norse runes almost glowing, beckoning Daniel to pick it up. Joel pulled away and sheathed it by his side.

“Rachel.” Rachel stood fourth and offered a handshake, “Sorry am I interrupting your cute little get together!” she started to be snappy when she didn’t get a response immediately, she trampled off around a house and onto the beach out of view.

Joel looked at Daniel: “Let’s go!” he said grabbing Daniel and running off.nning off.