The Daughter of the Sky // Wattys 2016

Chapter 4

If there's one thing I've learned through being a half-blood, it's that every thing was fragile. Nothing was permanent or stoic. The world had been programmed to be ever changing in order to establish order and balance, as backwards as that sounded; it was their way of life.

Pause. Before we get into how my life changed forever and you decide to stop reading this when my story stops sounding like a fairy-tale, let me backpedal.

There's this cook at Taco Hut named Bull-Man.

Okay, maybe his name isn't actually Bull-Man, but I like to call him that in my head because...well...that's what he looks like.

Bull-Man is at least six foot five, with all sorts of Greek tattoos on his body and a big golden hoop right in between his nostrils. That's what really made him look like a bull. I think he knows I call him Bull-Man or something because every time he rings up my order I swear he gives me the evil eye. What's even weirder is whenever I bring up Bull-Man to Danny, he just chews his lip, crosses himself, scratches his head, tells me I'm being paranoid or changes the subject.

But The guy still gave me a funny feeling, what can I say?

Just as I began to drift off underneath the warm sun for the second time, I felt a shadow loom over me. A big shadow. Huge. There was no way storm clouds could've formed that quickly, it hadn't rained in northern California for months.

"Hey, buddy," I began to tell off whatever tool was blocking my rays but it wasn't a tool, and it sure wasn't any buddy of mine. It was Bull-Man. Or a literal Bull-Man I should say. He had grown at least another ten feet in size and gotten some weird face transplant. Wow. I wondered who his plastic surgeon was. Instead of his usual meaty, very human head, he now had the head of a caramel colored bull. Thick fur led all the way up his neck and stopped above his three foot long snout, dripping with snot. His long obnoxious ears twitched in anger next to two long, sharp, black and white curved horns.

I scanned the bottom portion of his body, which was just the body of a man wearing bleach white underpants. Normally, this would have been hilarious. I might have even taken a picture, but it wasn't any ordinary man's body - it was a body builder's body. The Rock's muscles would've been a joke next to this guy's glistening, tattoo covered biceps and gnarly forearms.

I could tell Bull-man wasn't just here to talk. In his left hand was a five foot long axe, a very, very sharp axe, might I add, with a gleaming golden head. Someone was on Santa's nice list last Christmas.

"Orion Vera," The Bull-Man boomed over me. I furrowed my eyebrows at the use of my mother's maiden name. I had never used it, so why was he under the impression that it was my name? Actually, how did this guy even know my name, period. "Return what you have stolen, or suffer the consequences."

"What?!"

Before I could even process what this freak was talking about, if he was just crazy, on drugs, or if this was even real, he raised his axe and made a move straight for the middle of my eyebrows.

Every muscle in my body was screaming, "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"

It was like I was seeing everything in slow motion and instincts I didn't even know I had kicked into maximum overdrive. I knew when to duck, dive and dodge the bull...or man's advances, but I had nothing to defend myself with.

"Give it to me! Or Hades will have your head!" He sounded mad. Really mad, but wait a minute. Did this guy just say Hades? Why did that name sound so familiar? My mind raked my brain for any clues as to who the guy was, but it was hard to think clearly when a bloodthirsty half man half bull wanted to chop me in half.

I had nothing left to do but run, and fast. For someone who had never run in their life, I was doing pretty good. I sprinted all the way down the beach, with absolutely no idea where I was going. Everything was a complete blur.

How was no one at this beach paying attention to a teenage girl running from a gigantic half-bull monster?

"Somebody help me!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs. Through the blur, I could see that I was surrounded by hundreds of people playing games of sand volleyball, playing in the water, building sandcastles, eating ice cream, tanning, listening to music, and laughing but no one on the beach seemed to hear me, or care for that matter. Even Danny had vanished into thin air.

I could feel Bull-Man's heavy feet thumping on the dense sand. He was getting closer and closer to me, every booming step sending a chill down my spine.

Finally, I found an empty ice cream shack with dozens of empty wooden tables scattered around it. I picked the one furthest away from the shop, dove underneath and prayed the monster forgot his prescription glasses at home.

Then, I squeezed my eyes shut so tight I thought my eyelids might rip.

"I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming...this has to be a dream, or a joke or-"

SMASH!

The wooden table I was under spit in two, leaving me exposed to the merciless monster hovering right above me.

"Die, you demigod thief, die!" His nostrils began to flare furiously.

"Demi-what?"

Bull-Man wasn't in the mood for questions. He raised his axe once again, and I quickly sprung out of the monster's way, into a pit of sand as he tried to go in for the kill.

As I attempted to spit all of the sand out of my mouth, I heard someone call my name. 

"Orion! Can you hear me?" I heard Danny's voice loud and clear, but he was nowhere in sight.

"D-Danny? What's going on? Where are you?"

"Listen to me, use the necklace!"

"Use the what?"

"The necklace is a locket! There's no time to explain, just aim and shoot as best you can!"

Bull-Man turned to face me from ten feet away. His right hoof began to dig deep in the sand as his bull head became level with his muscular body. He was getting ready to charge me at full speed.

Danny was right. I had no time to talk about his lack of knowledge about jewelry usage, but it was worth a shot. A two hundred pound Bull-Man was coming for me, and he was coming fast.

I closed my eyes shut and opened the necklace, feeling a sudden heavy weight sling over my shoulder. It was a silver bow and arrow.

What? I had never even shot a gun in my life, let alone an arrow. How was I supposed to kill a moving bull...man...thing?

I was out of options. It was fight or flight. Now or never. I quickly took an arrow out of the quiver behind me and attempted as best I could to load the bow in front of me. As soon as my fingertips touched the arrows they began to sizzle and spark as if ignited by lightning itself. I was definitely hallucinating now.

The sky around me flickered and darkened, multiple grey clouds began to surround the beach in mere seconds. I hadn't even noticed the gentle droplets of rain hitting my face. This was the first storm I'd seen in months; we were in a drought.

I prayed to someone, anyone, that this would go away. That Bull-Man would evaporate and the storm above us would disappear. That I'd wake up from this bizarre hallucination. But there was no such luck.

 Bull-Man began to charge. I had seconds before I went from Orion the teenage girl to Orion the teenage pancake. I aimed the arrow slowly, straight for the heart of the beast and fired before falling to my knees in exhaustion.

Then everything went still. Completely still and dark.

I was dead, wasn't I?