STRENGTH
━━ prologue.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
NABI CHO-HEE WAS GOING TO DIE.
Perhaps she deserved such an untimely death, right here—on a street dimly lit by the flickering streetlights, with the darkness draped over the sky like an omen, as a man... or what seemed like a man, trudged toward her. An awfully stereotypical setting for such a small child's death.
Maybe she was fated to die this way, alone and frightened. Death followed her wherever she went, after all.
The man's suspiciously large teeth and intimidating grin were enough to have Nabi second-guessing what he truly was, especially with the singular eye in the centre of his deformed face.
He sneered, cracking his fingers, "You'll taste so good, filthy half-blood. I have not eaten in a while."
Nabi didn't know what he meant by that, but his words made her tremble. Her heart was hammering, and the dreadful, twisted feeling in her stomach had spread down to her legs to freeze her in place. She needed to run.
My child...
"Hm." He sniffed, then grinned. "I smell death on its way.... maybe since yours is soon, demigod."
She took off into a sprint. But when she turned around to catch a small glimpse of him, he was smiling wickedly. The monster must've had supernatural strength, because with his bare hands, he had managed to rip a streetlight from the ground and throw it at her.
She yelped as it barrelled towards her, ducking just in time for it to hurl past her head. Though Nabi slipped and tumbled, scraping her hands and knees.
She scrambled to get back up, wobbling to her feet as her ears began to ring and her insides began to coil. But Nabi had already been trying to lose him for ages. She had grown tired. The entire evening, she had ducked into alleys and hastily sped past groups of people to lose him. It hadn't worked. It was as if he had caught her scent and had tracked her down like she was prey.
He strode toward her and plucked her up with one hand, snorting at how easy she was to grab hold of. Nabi swallowed a lump in her throat as the monster examined her, so tall that he was dangling the small girl from the ground, and breathing so close to her face that she could see the terrifying sight of his veins throbbing in his eye.
"Please— please don't kill me." Nabi begged.
My child...
Nabi tried to block the voice out.
He laughed, cruelly. "You are so young. Barely eight or nine. So ripe to eat."
"I— I promise I won't taste good!" She cried, "See, I actually don't like vegetables that much, so I'm probably not nutritious, and—"
"Heads up, you one-eyed freak!"
The monster turned as a baseball bat swung at him, and he let go of Nabi with a disgruntled noise. She fell to the concrete ground.
A man in what seemed like a gym teacher's clothes had been the culprit of the baseball bat's trajectory. Except... Nabi's eyes widened. He had goat legs. He puffed up his chest, ready to fight, then said, "I'll distract the cyclops, kid. You save the girl."
That's when Nabi noticed a girl around the same age as her, with intimidating, dark eyes and curls of brown hair next to him. She looked exactly what Nabi would envision a superhero to look like — determined and brave. The girl nodded at his words, and the goat-legged man charged at the monster with a weird mixture between a battle cry and a bleat. Whilst the 'Cyclops,' as the man had called it, was distracted enough, the girl ran towards Nabi.
She pulled her up, and seemed to scan Nabi for any injuries. Nabi blinked. She stared at her like she was some sort of knight in shining armour, "Thank you, Saviour Girl."
"Saviour Girl?" She mumbled, scoffing at Nabi's stunned expression, "Look, just get to the side so you don't get hit. Coach Hedge will deal with the monster."
She did as she was told. Though, Coach Hedge — who Nabi assumed was the goat man — wasn't doing great. The one-eyed monster's voice had changed into one of a woman's, spouting nonsense at Coach Hedge to distract him and land a few blows. The coach seemed to recognise the sound of the voice and glowered. "That's it! You stupid cyclops, trying to mimic my ma!"
He swung a hoof at the Cyclops, which hit him right in the eye. The monster howled in pain, "Curse you, satyr!"
The Cyclops swung a burly arm in retaliation, and knocked the satyr back. He stumbled, then charged once more with his baseball bat — the monster grabbed the bat from his clutches and punched Coach Hedge hard enough to send him skidding across the concrete.
"Coach!" The girl next to Nabi yelled, eyes wide. Nabi gasped. He was knocked out cold.
The cyclops turned to them. His eye narrowed at them, raising his fist. "You are next, demigods. You have no celestial bronze. Funny."
My child...
What was... who was speaking to her? Nabi tried to ignore the whispers in her ear. Every time this voice made its way into her head. Something always happened. Someone always died. Struck with fear, she tried to tune it out.
The girl took a step forward and stretched her arm out in front of Nabi, as if she could shield her from the oncoming attack.
But just as the cyclops took a step in their direction— like the darkness had a mind of its own — shadows from the ground began forming into people; undead people. He made a sound of surprise as they began to grab onto his body.
My winged child... stretch out your hand, embrace the calm, and let your will consume him.
Nabi had been ignoring the whispers for a while. But this time, with no other choice, she listened.
I am sorry for not aiding you sooner. Do not fret, for death is no where near, yet at the same time, always ever so close — your time is not now, though. Not now.
"Let go!" The Cyclops growled.
She startled when one of the undead, flickering souls of darkness asked, "Would you like us to save you?"
Nabi nodded, her lip trembling, and outstretched her hand like she was told to.
At once, the undead beings were pulling him into a hole that was growing underneath him. He let out a cry as the shadows shackled him in place, bringing him to his knees. The monster's body was being engulfed in complete darkness, sinking into the hole.
You won't be as strong next time, for I might not be here to guide you. But here, I lend you strength.
Nabi twisted her arm, and the rest of his body crashed to the ground, writhing. She swallowed down a scream. She recalled the last time she had did this before... the last time she had used this power of hers before.
She tried to block out the memory.
The girl, in a mixture of fear and amazement, asked, "How— how are you doing that?"
"I don't know." Nabi said.
She felt her head begin to spin, and it became too much for her. All of a sudden she saw stars swarming her vision, and for a moment, as panic began to rise within her, the shadows seemed to hesitate in their actions.
Nabi took another shaky breath, then another, and let her will consume him. As the Cyclops fully bled into the shadows, he let out a wail, and the undead souls sank down with him, completely vanishing... Nabi passed out.
You did very well, Nabi.
【 🦋 】
WHEN NABI WOKE UP, SHE WAS INSIDE OF A CAMPING TENT. The goat guy from earlier was snoring loudly on the opposite side. She rubbed an eye, adjusting to her surroundings, then she got up to unzip the tent and walk out. Nabi was greeted by the sight of the curly-haired girl from earlier, gazing at the hazy hues of a campfire.
"You're awake."
She watched as Nabi awkwardly stumbled out of the tent to sit cross-legged next to her. "Hi."
The girl gave an agitated sounding hum in acknowledgment, but Nabi couldn't really tell.
"Thanks again for saving me with Mr. Supergoat, Saviour Girl." Nabi said.
It seemed like the girl didn't expect her to start a conversation. Maybe it was just the colours of the fire, but the girl might've blushed. She scowled like she didn't know how to answer Nabi's sentence. "Don't call me that stupid nickname."
"Sorry... but you saved me, and you're a girl." Nabi shrugged.
The girl huffed, rolling her eyes. "My name's Clarisse. Besides, just because you're pretty doesn't mean I'm gonna start calling you 'Pretty Girl', huh?"
"Thank you for calling me pretty." Nabi gave her a genuine smile, "But my name's Nabi."
Nabi watched as Clarisse folded her arms together and averted her gaze, still scowling, to stare once more at the crackling flames. "Whatever. You thank people too much."
"Oh," Nabi shrugged meekly, and said, "sorry."
Clarisse muttered, "You say sorry too much, as well. Quit it."
"What were you and Mr. Supergoat doing there in the street, anyway?"
"We were trying to make it somewhere." Clarisse grumbled, "We were about to set up our tents in the woods nearby — where we are now — when Coach Hedge smelled a demigod. Turns out it was you."
"Demigod?" Nabi questioned.
Clarisse spoke of how they had Greek gods as parents; of how they were half god, half human, and how Coach Hedge was called a satyr, a protector that saved kids like them from monsters. She explained as much as she could about the myths and the legends. Nabi listened in rapt attention, since Clarisse said that she refused to repeat anything a second time. After Clarisse had finished, Nabi innocently asked, "Do you know your godly parent?"
Clarisse gave Nabi a menacing glare. Clearly, it had struck a nerve with her. She growled, "Mind your business. The least you could do is stay silent after you put us through the trouble of saving you."
"Oh. I'm sorry." Nabi fell quiet instantly.
Clarisse winced, feeling bad for her outburst. The awkwardness that came after was just barely diluted by the campfire's sounds. She softened, and tried to apologise, but Nabi could tell she didn't really know how to. "I didn't mean that."
More awkward silence. Clarisse pretended she didn't feel bad at the way Nabi had deflated like a kicked puppy. Clarisse asked, "Why were you out there that late at night?"
Somehow, somehow, she had managed to make it worse. Immediately, Nabi began sniffling, blinking back tears and rubbing her nose with an oversized sleeve — her jumper and the rest of her clothes were much too big for her, making her more frail and small looking than she already was. It did little to hide the bruises on her body. She'd been on the streets for a while.
Nabi mumbled, "Ran away."
"Oh." Clarisse said, dumbly.
Clarisse squirmed, uncomfortably. Nabi thought she was gonna be all mean, again. Instead of continuing to speak however, or asking Nabi about how she had... defeated the cyclops earlier, Clarisse pursed her lips and kept her mouth shut.
Though, when Clarisse couldn't handle the silence, she found herself making a promise. Clarisse seemed to surprise herself when she looked into Nabi's eyes, and whispered, "We can protect you. Coach Hedge and I."
Nabi whispered back, like she was being let in on a secret. "Really?"
"Yeah..." Clarisse mumbled. "We'll protect you. I'll protect you. There's a way to keep you safe."
Neither of them knew it yet, but those words were the beginning of something else—a blossoming friendship and a step toward the path of their destinies.
"How?" Nabi asked, "How are you going to keep me, keep all of us, safe?"
"There's a place for demigods like us; a place where we'll be protected from monsters... it's called CAMP HALF-BLOOD."
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