War's Little Princess

Prologue

The darkness brightened so suddenly, it could've blinded me. Or that's what it felt like, anyway. There was dulled feeling in the back of my mind. I struggled to find the words for it. Pain. That was what I was feeling. Pain. It wasn't from the light, it was coming from...my stomach. I struggled to get my bearings, blinking until I could see properly. I tried to sit up, but it hurt so much, I could barely breathe. It felt like I was splitting apart... Finally, the light faded back out into darkness, and I felt glad, comforted by the feeling of the blankness settling around me and enveloping me in its warm, strong arms.

Suddenly, the scene became clearer, but it was different now. There were faces hovering above mine; worried, unfamiliar faces. Somehow, the fact that they were worried about me angered me. I didn't need anybody to worry about me, nobody at all. I was just fine.

"Is she conscious?" someone asked, their voice sounding dulled and staticky, as though I were hearing it through one of those old telephones with a really bad signal.

"Is she even alive?" whimpered somebody else, poking me in the neck.

I flinched away from the touch, the bruises all over my body beginning to ache like hell. "Go away," I mumbled.

"There's your answer," came another voice, louder and wiser-sounding than the rest. "Someone get a stretcher, we'll need to get her to the infirmary immediately. I need an Apollo kid right away, if possible."

The owner of the voice came trotting over to me. For a moment I felt as though I were dreaming, because I'd heard the voice come from a horse. When I looked up, I squinted and saw a tall, proud-looking white stallion. Then I saw the head of a bearded middle-aged man and realized the voice must belong to its rider. "Are you alright?" he asked, peering down at me. "We'll get you healed up as soon as possible, okay? My name is Chiron, and I'm the activities director here at camp."

My first thoughts? How the bloody hell did I get to a camp? And second...Chiron? What kind of name was that, and why did that name sound familiar? 

I shook my head. "No," I said icily. "I'm not alright, thank you very much. But I'll be fine, and I don't need a goddamn stretcher." I forced myself into a fetal position, knees clamped to my chest. I'd never hurt so much before, but I wasn't about to let them know that. I got to my knees, braced myself against a tree, and climbed to my feet. Immediately I staggered and fell against the tree, my injuries screaming for mercy. 

"Be careful," advised Chiron, acting concerned. Why should he be concerned about me? I sighed and turned to him, my feet killing me as I did so. "Look, grandpa, why don't you just--" I stopped as I realized the man wasn't riding a horse. He was a horse. At least partly.

Everything went black again, and the last thing I heard before I crumpled to the ground was the horse-dude yelling for the stretcher.

[Hello new readers! This is my first Wattpad fic. I know this chapter was short, but it's a prologue. The following chapters will be longer, I promise. Thanks for reading! :)
Also, the picture included is my portrayal of Clarisse La Rue: Lindsay Shaw. c:
~Kai

Update: 03/07/2013: The next chapter is up, and it's 4x longer. Enjoy! <3]