Well this is my first story so plz read! 3

My life wasn't easy. Was it hard though? Yeah, yeah it was. I never was a normal girl. When I was born I never knew my dad. The only thing I have to remember him by is a necklace that has a cloud of thunder on it. I lived with my mom till I was 8. After that my mom got married and they acted like I wasn't even there. I got fed up and ran away. So, that's my little sob story. My name is Ophelia Grace. I'm 13 years old, and have brown hair and bright blue eyes. When my mom still cared she said they were like the blue in the most amazing rainbow ever.

For 5 years I have been living on the streets. Yes I know what you're thinking. How can an eight year old girl live alone on the streets? Well i'll tell you. I pickpocket and buy my food and clothes with their money. Also I sleep where ever I can find a safe spot away form gangs and stuff.

Though if your thinking my life as easy and your thinking about running away. DON'T! I have been having odd creatures chasing me since I left. So if I was you, I would stay in my cozy house with nothing running at you trying to do who-knows-what.

I keep low key and people never give me a second glance. They are narrow-minded people who think I'm just chilling on the street. Idiots. I walk causally enough behind a plump, old, and balding man. He is talking on his cell phone.

"Hey, lets catch a Yankees game tonight!"

I figured he was talking to one of his buddies. He wasn't paying any attention to me so quietly walked behind him and grabbed his wallet. He didn't notice a thing. I checked the leather wallet and pulled out fifty dollars! I grinned evilly and sliped his wallet back into his pocket.

I was just about to leave when I heard a ripping of expensive clothes. I glanced back to see what was up, thinking it was a gang fight. We tend to have a lot of those in New York. I had to do a double take. At first I thought I was hallucinating, but then his red eyes stared right at me. They were like fire. I turned on my heel and ran like I never ran before. I was screaming at people to get out of the way. To save themselves. They gave me looks like I was a freak. It was like they didn't notice the thing. The thing had a body of a lion, face of the old man, and a tail that could do some real damage.

The lion thing made sure that it didn't hit people as it chased after me. I thought that was weird.

"Come back here, you worthless Demigod!" he shouted.

I stumbled at the word Demigod. I don't know why, but I had some kind of weird thing stirring in me. I didn't pay much attention to it. I just kept running till I had enough courage to look behind me. The monster had disappeared. Weird, I thought. I decided to keep going.

I was scared out of my mind. I was sweating and clammy. My legs felt weak at the knees. I wanted to collapse and die right then and there. But i knew I had to keep going.

Thump! The lion thing landed right in front of me. I was going to say something really smart-ass but the only thing that came out of my mouth was, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The lion thing just laughed. I turned back around to run when I saw a boy around my age; I couldn't make his features out but could tell he had a little limp. He yelled something that I couldn't make out and then he threw something at me. I caught it. I was about to drop it though; it was a freaking glowing knife! Was that guy trying to kill me? He ran at me and yelled something around the terms of,

"Kill the Manticore!"

"What's that?!" I screamed. I wasn't really concentrating on what it was but on why it was there.

"The lion behind you!"

I turned around to see the lion was still laughing. It opened his eyes and saw that I was holding the knife. Then, oh so slowly, it turned around and shot something out of its tail. Whatever it was caught my left arm and I instantly felt woozy. My eyes closed and I shot my arm out in a random direction. I hoped to at least do something. I opened them in time to see that the Manticore had dissolved in a rain of black ashes. I collapsed to the ground breathing hard, and then blacked out.

The boy who threw me the knife rushed over to me, drooping down next to me. He fed me some thing that tasted like peanut butter cookies. After that he made me drink something like homemade brownies. I felt a lot better and started to regain conciseness. The boy, now that I got a closer look at him, had a mess of brown and curly hair. He wore a pair of baggy jeans and a 'Save Our Oceans' shirt. I had to weakly smile at that. He had deep brown eyes and his ears had a bit of a point to them. Also with a little goatee.

"Are you feeling any better?" he asked a little shakily.

"What he hell do you think!?" I screamed at him. How was I supposed to be feeling okay!

"Sorry!" he replied.

"Well, I was normal person just standing there and then out of nowhere some mutated lion comes out and tries to kill me! Do you think I'm ok?!" I screamed.

"Well, for someone just learning who you are that was a really tough monster. You should be proud," he retorted.

"Proud?! You think I'm proud I nearly died! I'm not proud of nothin'! And what do you mean 'I don't know who I am?' I'm 13 and my name is Ophelia Grace!" I screamed once again.

"Well, you are Ophelia, though you are a Demigod. Manticores have an extremely good sense of smell. "

What a freak!

"What the hell is going on?!" I finally screamed for the fourth time.

"I'll explain at camp," he said turning on his heel, "now hurry; your scent is stronger now that you realize who you are."

All I could do is gawk and stand where I am, until I finally said determinedly,

"I ain't going nowhere till I get some answers!"