A Lunatic's Reality

Chapter 8: New Demigod at New Rome

Chapter 8

*New Demigod at New Rome*

I woke up in a grassy place overlooking a highway. Beyond the highway was a long tunnel on the hillside. Two people that looked like soldiers were guarding a door that seems to be the entrance to that tunnel.

"Huh? Where am I?" I asked myself. "And wait, who am I?" Okay, this is strange. I don't know who I am. Perhaps I have amnesia.

As I said those words, a young woman, with a ghostly glow, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The woman had shoulder-length yellow-blonde hair. In her right hand, she holds, pointed straight up, a two-edged golden sword with large rubies on both ends of its cross guard. In her left hand, she holds a balance: a copper crossbeam from which are suspended two silver, paraboloid-shaped bowls, marked with an alpha and an omega. She is dressed in a green cloak which almost covered a long blue robe. On her chest is a red goat-skin fringed with snakes, on the center of which is a lady with snakes on her head instead of hair. Pushed back on her head, she wears a helmet with a tall, red horse-hair crest flanked by two golden ostrich plumes.

"What the --!" I jumped backward and almost fell. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" the woman smiled slightly, "Your memories shall tell you. But for now, you must go into that door you see over there in the hillside. That door is the entrance to a tunnel that shall lead you to New Rome."

"New Rome?" I arched an eyebrow. I was pretty sure I wasn't in Rome but somewhere else. I scanned the surroundings for a clear indication of my location and found one in a shop sign. "In the United States? Man, are you crazy?"

"You will start your new life there as a demigod on Camp Jupiter." the woman continued on, taking no heed to my questions.

The woman suddenly disappeared. But as she said the words Camp Jupiter, all my memories hit me like a meteor. I felt like a computer whose memory was reformatted then reprogrammed immediately with loads of information.

"A long blue robe... underneath a green cloak... A golden sword..." I say as I try to piece together my memories. All of them entered my brain at once, I think it's going on overdrive.

"Camp Jupiter... Life as a demigod..."

Suddenly, a couple of things made sense. I remembered that I was a demigod. I saw a goddess just now. My memories are all about gods and goddesses, both Greek and Roman, their stories, what is their abilities. And... a portion of my memories was black. It's like a memory was there and yet it was painted black by... by who?

If that is a camp for demigods, then I guess I have to go and follow what that goddess' instructions are.

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Getting into the tunnel was extremely difficult. Cars and trucks were speeding in the highway. If I was a second too late in dodging, I would be roadkill by now.

Two demigods in uniforms were standing at the tunnel entrance. They let me in the second they saw me.

The tunnel was quite long. I walked for about 20-30 minutes before I reached the glow at the end of the tunnel. What I saw next was breathtaking.

A bowl-shaped valley, several miles wide was spread out at my feet. The basin floor was rumpled with smaller hills, golden plains and stretches of forest. A small clear river cut a winding course from a lake in the center and around the perimeter, like a capital G.

In the center of the valley, nestled by the lake, was a small city of white marble buildings with red-tiled roofs. Some had domes and columned porticoes, like national monuments. Others looked like palaces, with golden doors and large gardens. I could see an open plaza with freestanding columns, fountains and statues. A five-story tall Roman coliseum gleamed in the sun, next to a long oval arena like a racetrack.