Alexis could barely make out anything in front of her as she was dragged into the woods. She struggled against whoever was holding her but the person did not budge until they were far enough away from the scene at the edge of the cliff.

    "Who are you?" it was a girl asking, and she wasn't letting go of Alexis just yet, her hand still clasped over her mouth albeit now a bit more loosely.

    "Alexis...?" she replied, her voice muffled and shaky.

    The girl holding her remained very still, and Alexis could hear her breathing as she seemed to ponder the matter of releasing her or not, until she finally decided on the former option and released her, standing back as Alexis took some steps away and whirled around.

    Even in the dark Alexis was starting to make out some of the girl's features: she had really dark spiky hair, cut short right below her ears, and wore heavy eyeliner as well as a leather jacket. She looked like a rockstar.

    "What are you?" the girl asked asked, her eyes narrowed.

    Alexis narrowed her eyes back in disbelief. "What do you mean, what am I?"

    "It means, are you a monster?" the girl asked, walking around Alexis like she was some sort of animal she'd hunted down and was expecting to attack or run away. Alexis, however, just scoffed.

    "No," she said. "I'm a human girl, stupid — look, if you think I'm one of those...whatever that guy just turned into, you're so wrong, missy!"

    "Are you a demigod?" the girl demanded, and suddenly Alexis became aware of the fact that she was carrying a spear. Her multi-tool felt utterly useless in her hand now and she had to figure out what the best answer to that question was, or, more accurately, which answer wouldn't turn her into a human barbecue skewer.

    "A what?" was the smartest response she could manage. The girl raised an eyebrow and lowered her weapon, looking Alexis up and down curiously.

    "My name's Thalia." She finally said.

    "Okay, Thalia. Maybe you should've started there before you got your spear out."

    Thalia ignored this and kept observing her before she asked, "What are you doing here?"

    "You ask a lot of questions, don't you, Joan Jett?" Alexis huffed. "Listen, I'm just a tourist, I've got no idea what the hell you guys are up to — role-play group, dragons and dungeons, whatever you wanna call it — I'm not interested, and I'll actually be on my way now, if you don't mind — "

    "No." Thalia said firmly, and Alexis felt so idiotic for listening to her instead of running away like she should've done a while ago. "You can't leave. Not until it's safe, anyway."

    "And when's that gonna be, exactly?"

    Not very soon, apparently. Just then, the whistle of shots flying through the air came from behind them. The kids fell to the ground in an instant and the creature-man was left startled as the volley of missiles he shot from his freakish tail missed them.

    "That's my cue." Thalia said before taking off in their direction, leaving Alexis dumbfounded. Today was not a day for good decisions, it seemed, as she followed after her.

    She stopped abruptly when she saw it all unfold in front of her, however: Thalia advanced on the creature-man from behind, and she was now wielding a shield in one hand and her spear in the other. The shield had the face of Medusa molded into it, and for a moment Alexis wondered if that alone could turn her into stone. But no, she realized that even after staring at it in awe, she was still made of flesh and bone. Besides, that was a myth. It wasn't real.

    Thalia moved in with her spear held up high. "For Zeus!"

    What, like, the God of thunder?

    Alexis blinked, baffled. Thalia jabbed at the monster-creature-man's (she needed to come up with a better name for that) head, but he snarled and swatted the spear aside. His hand, now a huge orange paw with enormous claws, slashed against Thalia's shield, sending up a little shower of sparks. Thalia, thankfully still in one piece, managed to roll backward and land on her feet like it was nothing.

    The sound coming from the helicopter was getting louder and when Alexis looked up she saw that it was trying to hover as close as possible. She felt so useless then. What good would knowing how to fix an engine do now if she couldn't even get up there in the first place? All she had was her multi-tool and a couple of weird people who transformed into creatures and knew how to battle each other with pointy weapons.

    The man-beast (still weird) launched another volley of missiles from his scorpion tail at Thalia, which deflected off her shield, but the force of their impact knocked her down.

    The someone sprang forward — Grover.

    Alexis watched in disbelief as he put a set of reed pipes to his lips and began to play a frantic jig that sounded like something Jack Sparrow would enjoy. Grass began to grow and break through the snow-covered ground. She looked down as green swallowed her feet and was amazed to see that within seconds, rope-thick weeds were wrapping around the weirdo's (that's more like it) legs, entangling him.

    The freak (sure, that works, too) roared and began to change his form once again, because that's totally normal for him to do. Alexis tried to remember what on earth she'd had for dinner. Was it possible the mushrooms on her sandwich were too wild? The weirdo/freak/creature/beast-guy situation grew larger until all that was left of him was his ugly face, but his body was now that of a lion. His leathery, spiky tail whipped deadly thorns in all directions.

    "A manticore!" a girl who had literally appeared out of thin air said. Alexis had to admit that did sound a lot better.

    "Who are you people?" the girl who'd been led into the forest by the manticore demanded. "And what is that?"

    Right away, Alexis liked her. She felt just as confused as her, and the girl was the only one asking all the important questions.

    "A manticore?" the little boy next to her gasped. "He's got three thousand attack power and plus five to saving throws!"

    See? Dungeons and dragons shit. The manticore clawed Grover's magic weeds to shreds then turned toward the kids with a snarl. Alexis knew she couldn't let them get hurt, no matter how geeky they were.

    "Hey!" she shouted once more, because she clearly could not learn a lesson even if it was right under her nose. She rushed through the newly grown thick grass — courtesy of Grover, somehow — flicking her multi-tool open. This got the manticore to look back at her, growling and glaring at the weapon in her hand. She looked down, flushing once she remembered what she was holding.

    "Get down!" the girl who'd been invisible said, pushing the youngest kids flat into the snow and getting the manticore's attention away from Alexis. The oldest boy remained standing and hit his wrist where a watch sat unassumingly, and in a second a bronze shield sprang into his hand. And right on time, too. The thorns the manticore had shot at him impacted against it with such force they dented the metal, ruining the design that had adorned it just seconds ago.

    Next to him, Grover landed with a yelp. Alexis clearly wasn't thinking, seeing as she hurried over at once, dropping her multi-tool behind her now that she'd realized it wouldn't be doing her any favors.

    "Yield!" the monster roared.

    "Never!" Thalia yelled from across the field. She charged at the manticore, and for a second, Alexis was sure she had him. But then the helicopter reappeared, its blades spinning deafeningly and its searchlights disorienting. It was a sleek black military-style gunship, with attachments on the sides that looked like rockets. Definitely not the kind of aircraft Alexis wanted be in the range of. The searchlights blinded Thalia, and the manticore took advantage of this and swatted her away with its tail. Her shield flew off into the snow, her spear flying in the other direction.

    "No!" the boy with the shield shouted, rushing over to help her. Alexis, on the other hand, had been staring at the side of his face the entire time, rather unhelpfully. He parried a spike away from Thalia and then raised his shield over the two of them, disappearing behind it. Alexis gaped at the scene until she managed to pull herself together and remembered who was on the ground next to her.

    "Grover," Alexis panted, looking down at him with wild eyes. "Is it — is it really you?"

    Grover nodded but wouldn't meet her gaze. Alexis pursed her lips. Sue Storm on her right was just eyeing her with a lot of interest, like she was a puzzle and she was solving it in her head. The smaller kids held onto each other, their eyes darting around nervously.

    "Care to explain what all this is?" Alexis said, gesturing around them.

    "I will — just not right now, Alex — "

    "Is this the girl you told me about? The one you thought was — " Sue Storm interrupted.

    "Later, Annabeth." Grover said quickly, shaking his head at the girl. "All that matters is we get her out of here and back to — "

    He was interrupted by the sound of a horn blowing in the woods. The manticore froze, and for a moment, no one moved. There was only the chopping of the helicopter blades and Alexis's own heavy breathing; she felt like her mind was an old TV as she tried making sense of everything that was happening around her, struggling to find the right channel but the static was so aggressive she couldn't focus.

    "No," the manticore said. "It cannot be — "

    But apparently, it could. His sentence was cut short when something impaled itself on his shoulder. A glowing silver arrow had been shot from somewhere in the woods and landed with perfect aim.

    The manticore staggered backward, wailing in agony.

    "Curse you!" he cried. He unleashed more spikes, dozens of them at once, into the woods where the arrow had come from, but just as fast, silvery arrows shot back in reply. They all destroyed the manticore's thorns mid-flight before dissolving.

    The manticore pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. His breathing was heavy. The boy from earlier stood and tried to swipe at him with his sword, but the manticore dodged his attack and slammed his tail into his shield, knocking him aside so he landed on his butt. Somehow, Alexis mused, that didn't make him any less attractive.

    No. Focus.

    A group of girls emerged from the woods, about a dozen of them, all of them looking younger than she was. They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all armed with matching gleaming bows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expressions.

    "Who are they?" Alexis said, just getting more and more confused.

    "The Hunters," Sue Storm — no, sorry, Annabeth explained. "You should know — you're a demigod."

    "No, I'm not, I'm — " Alexis protested, but the moment she caught Grover's eyes and he nodded weakly her words died on her tongue.

    One of the older archers stepped forward with her bow drawn. She was tall and graceful with deep tan skin. Unlike the other girls, she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair, immediately making her look more important.

    "Permission to kill, my lady?" she said, keeping her eyes fixed on the manticore.

    The monster wailed. "This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws."

    "Not so," another girl said. This one was a little younger than the previous one, but she looked like the real deal. She had auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail and eyes a curious yellow color, like a rising moon. She was very pretty. "The hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She looked at the older girl with the circlet. "Zoë, permission granted."

    The manticore growled. "If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!"

    He lunged at Thalia and the cute boy, fully knowing they couldn't fight him back now that they were lying on the ground, tired and weak.

    "No!" Annabeth yelled, and she charged at the monster.

    "Get back, half-blood!" the girl with the circlet, Zoë, said. "Get out of the line of fire!"

    But Annabeth leaped onto the monster's back and drove her knife into his mane. The manticore howled, turning uselessly in circles with his tail flailing as Annabeth hung on for dear life.

    "Fire!" Zoë ordered.

    "No!" someone screamed as the arrows began to fly. One of them caught the manticore in the neck, while another hit his chest.

    The manticore staggered backward, wailing, "This is not the end, Huntress! You shall pay!"

    And before anyone could even think to react, the monster, with Annabeth still on his back, leaped over the cliff and disappeared into the darkness.

    "Annabeth!" the cute boy and Thalia yelled in unison, rushing to the cliffside, but the moment they did, gunfire erupted from the helicopter.

    Grover yanked Alexis by the elbow and got them both to lie low in between the weeds he'd somehow grown with his reed pipes, the younger kids diving out of the way as well. Alexis spat a bunch of dirt and grass blades while most of the Hunters scattered as tiny holes appeared in the snow at their feet, but the girl with auburn hair just looked up calmly at the helicopter.

    "Mortals," she announced, "are not allowed to witness my hunt."

    She held out her hand to the air, and the helicopter exploded — well, not exactly. It transformed into a flock of ravens, which scattered and cawed into the night.

    The Hunters immediately advanced on everyone that was on the ground.

    The one named Zoë stopped in her tracks when she saw Thalia.

    "You." She spat with distaste.

    "Zoë Nightshade." Thalia's voice was nothing close to level, trembling with anger. "Perfect timing, as usual."

    Zoë scanned the rest of the kids there: Alexis, Grover, the little ones who looked like they were related, and the cute boy. "Five half-bloods and a satyr, my lady."

    "What the hell did she just call me?" Alexis hissed, looking at Grover for answers. He shook his head frantically and held a finger to his lips.

    "Yes," the girl with the auburn hair said. "Some of Chiron's campers, I see."

    "Who?" Alexis muttered, her eyebrows creasing. Grover sighed. Clearly she hadn't changed much since the last time he spoke with her.

    "Annabeth!" Cute boy demanded. "You have to let us save her!"

    The auburn-haired girl turned toward him. "I'm sorry, Percy Jackson, but your friend is beyond help."

    Percy Jackson. Alexis mulled the name over. Write that down.

    He tried getting to his feet, but a couple of the Hunters held him down.

    "You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs," the auburn-haired girl, who was now evidently in charge, said.

    "Let me go!" Percy Jackson demanded. "Who do you think you are?"

    Zoë stepped forward as if she was ready to smack the life out of him.

    "No," the other girl ordered. "I sense no disrespect, Zoë. He is simply distraught. He does not understand."

    Alexis was not distraught, and she did not understand, either. She considered raising a hand to start asking questions, but the girl beat her to it and explained, "I am Artemis. Goddess of the Hunt."

     That's perfect. Stuck in the middle of the woods near a cliffside, on the side of the country Alexis didn't know, without her mom near, surrounded by a bunch of crazy people who took mythology far too seriously. Totally how she wanted her first time away from home to go.