After meeting Melody and informing her of the basic plan I learned that her mortal parent was her father and they used to live above his costume shop before the incident. I believe that she was too young to learn how to fight but as we travelled I began to teach her some basic knife skills I picked up and enchanted with runes so she can at least defend herself if I'm ever distracted. Even having read Percy Jackson, I underestimated how much monsters wanted to kill and consume demigods as i have killed hundreds over the course of the month since we met. After arriving in America it got worse which I assume is due to being closer to the center of western civilization or whatever it is the gods follow. My main goal so far is to locate a satyr to maybe escort us to the camp but soon the weather started clashing more frequently and the storms increasing in violence, I knew this meant Zeus and Poseidon were gearing up for war.
In other news I have made a sort of sanctuary for me and Melody as well as the occasional Dryad who visits. With my rune skills I attempted to create a ward like in those harry potter fanfictions and managed to create a perimeter in central park that keeps the normal mortals and even the monsters from seeing or tracking us in that area, the traps are just a bonus.
Melody has really grown on me in this time and is extremely adorable, I have begun to suspect who her mother is based on some of her observations. she is good with her knife training and I also taught her some wilderness survival tricks. As I was sitting in the shade with Melody playing nearby a Dryad approached me.
"Hey Jack, I know you have been looking for a satyr and I thought I should tell you that one has been spotted at a school nearby hear, if you hurry you should be able to catch them at the end of the day." she said with a cheer as she awaited to be praised.
"Wow, that's amazing news!" I exclaimed," With this me and Melody could head to Camp and she could meet friends and have a stable place to stay."
Giggling the Dryad responded "Silly, if you just needed to get to camp you could of asked any of the girls here to tell you!" I froze with that realisation. Slowly getting up I walked past Melody who had stopped playing with the ball I got her and just started at me as I went towards the dryads tree.
THUNK
THUNK
THUNK
I was broken out of my despair at the sound of Melody and the dryads laughter. Which just led to me resting my head against the rough bark of her tree. After a few minutes I approached them my red eyes glimmered with what I was about to do. The laughter stopped and when the looked at me they saw what I had done. On my knees, with my hands held as if I were praying I spoke "Oh great and wise tree spirit, could you provide this humble, handsome and heroic looking traveller with the direction to the camp of Chiron the trainer of hero's so i may complete my arduous quest"
Silence...
...
..
"hahahaha hahahaha" they both burst out laughing at my grandiose declaration. I ended up joining them but I did get the directions to camp.
Melody walked up to me as I was packing up our supplies using Gae Bolg to hook the travel packs on. When she reached me she asked a question I have been dreading.
" Mistah Jack, when we get to the camp w-would you be st-s-staying with me?" she stuttered out. Picking her up in to a hug I respond with,
"Melody, when we arrive I will be making sure you are settled in and stay for a few months but after that I will probably be traveling again, I don't want to lie to you so I'll just tell you my goal. I want to save as many demigods and demigoddess's as I can and to do that I must travel. The camp you are going to is great for training young children like yourself to be able to survive but not all can make it to camp, so I am making it my goal to be a guide and protector to demigods and all from the monsters who hunt them. To do that I will be gone quiet often but never doubt that no matter where I am you can still contact me for what ever you need. Remember when I taught you how to Iris message with those coins we got?" she nodded to my question." well you can do that to contact me at anytime! well except when I'm fighting though I suppose you could anyway but if I'm still fighting just wait until I'm done so I'm not distracted got it!" I finish with a mock strict face ans she giggled and saluted.
"SIR, YES SIR!" she yelled before hugging me tightly.
It was pretty uneventful traveling to camp, maybe with my scent blocking runes I could start making necklaces or bracelets for demigods to use when travelling as the monster seem to mainly track them based on their smell. As we travelled, I ended up playing a game with Melody as when ever she saw a monster she would point it out and I would assassinate them with Gae Bolg or a rune stone id throw. 10points if I got it through their stomach area and 50 points if it goes through their heads. By the time we came up to Half-blood hill I had scored a great 780 points.
As we approached I felt like I was being watched, as if being weighed for my worthiness and I knew if it found me lacking I would not be able to enter as I was not a Greek demigod or even Roman. With Melody tightly in my grip I entered.
And that's when the screaming started.