User blog:Rosella6/Ellora's Untold Story

"Ellora! Take the box and GO!"

I started. My mother never talked like that to me, unless we were in serious trouble. I had just gotten offstage. From performing at Carnegie Hall. At age 14, I was a child prodigy. I had tried out for a position as soloist in a young performers concert, and had made it. My single mother had flown me out to New York all the way from Las Vegas Nevada just to perform in it.

My mother, her gold hair flying out behind her, her turquoise eyes filled with worry, was running towards me, hard and fast. Her former track star legs hadn't worn out, and she was crouching with her hands on my shoulders in a matter of seconds.

"Ellora, you need to get out of here. They're coming." Just then, a backstage door rattled alarmingly. I looked into my mom's eyes. Tears were spilling from them. She pushed the box into my hand. I opened it to find two glowing gold suns -- earrings.

"What --" I started to say, but my mom interrupted.

"No time," she said, grabbing my hand. We ran out of the building and into the cold dark alleyway behind it. An unearthly howl sent a shiver down my spine, and my mom muttered something I couldn't understand.

Something slithered into the alley, and my mom stifled a scream. "Take the earrings from the box."

I obeyed. A gleaming bow and sheath of arrows appeared in my hands. I was confused. "Why do I need a weapon, mom?"

"Run." My mom uncapped a pen. It turned into a sword. That made more sense. My mother was a demigod -- a daughter of Poseidon.

I turned and began to run, as fast as I could. I looked back to see my mom in combat with a thing that had the torso of a woman, but the tail of a snake. A single word came to my mind: Lamia.

I took an arrow from the quiver and loaded the bow. I took careful aim and shot it. It hit the thing squarely in the eye. My mom turned in shock, but then collapsed. A monster was standing behind her with a knife. It was bloody.

"MOM!" I screamed while running.

Why, why, why, I said to myself as I ran, my feet beating the ground hard. I heard something behind me but I never looked back. "What is going ON?" I screamed aloud. I tripped painfully over a rock, landing oddly. A nasty crack sounded in the air, and I felt my ankle breaking.

All of a sudden, a large black thing fell from the sky. Two people slid off it and stood between me and the thing in the alley. One was a tall, beautiful girl with long, straight blond hair and dark blue eyes, and the other was an even taller boy with curly black hair and freckles. Each was holding a weapon. One was a silvery dagger that shone slightly in the moonlight, like my bow. The other was a black ax that seemed to radiate darkness. They began killing things left and right.

After they were done, they came closer. The pretty girl knelt close to me. "Hey," she said softly. "What's your name?"

"Ellora," I said, feeling safer than I had all night. "Ellora Calliope McBride."

"Ellora," said the boy, "we were friends with your mother, Janelle Brooks. You're a half-blood as well -- actually, you're techincally a three-fourths blood, but . . ." I liked this boy. He was attractive, about my age, and almost impossibly tall, with tan skin and perfect teeth. He wasn't even trying to look cool, but he did, and he was looking at me so kindly.

"James," the girl said firmly, "don't confuse her before she arrives at Camp."

"Wait," I said, my voice stronger, "how am I a half-blood? Who's my dad?"

"We're not sure yet," the boy said, biting his lip, which I thought made him look really cute, "but we're guessing Apollo, god of the sun. We were watching you from the top of the building -- not many have that knack for archery that you displayed back there."

"I'm James," he continued. "James Ferrin. This is Lily Auberyt."

"You two look like you could be related," I said, looking at both of them.

"Well, technically, we are." Lily grinned.

"We're cousins," James explained. "I'm a Son of Hades. She's a daughter of Zeus." He smiled at me. I returned it. "Well, let's get you to camp." He picked me up and carried me princess style to the horse they'd arrived on, which I noticed (and it was hard not to) had wings.

James slid me onto the pegasus, which I was silently freaking out about, and then clambered onto it, followed by Lily. "Hold on," he warned, and I grabbed his waist just in time -- the flying horse took off, and I would have slipped off the back if I hadn't.

We arrived at Camp Half-Blood in no time. It was a warm night there, and I took in the scent of fresh strawberries on the breeze. So this was the place my mother had told stories of. No wonder she loved it here.

I hadn't realized, but at the thought of my mom, tears had started to stream from my eyes. I hadn't cried when she died, but now reality was setting in.