RION: THE TITANOMACHY

Chapter 1: TRUST

I STARTED SPRINTING, I knew I couldn't stop...not with that thing behind us.

I whipped my head around, "Run!" she yelled right behind me, as if I didn't know that I should be running. I could hear her exhaling like her life depended on it as she ran too.

"Ayana, come on!" I exclaimed while I turned my head back to my front, almost out of breath myself.

We had only just started travelling together, and it felt like we knew each other since we were kids. During the war between Gods and Titans—dubbed the 'Titanomachy' by those who still live—Earth started...dying, everything became wasted, and the only "humans" that survived were those who had blood relations to Gods, like Demigods.

Some Demigods know who they're related to, and some never find out. Being a child of someone like Zeus would be relatively easy to figure out, I should know, Ayana always accidentally summons storms (you do NOT want to see her when she sneezes). Though, being the child of a minor god like Nemesis, the goddess of Vengeance, would take time to figure out. Of course, your Godly parent or relative could tell you, but we were the last thing on anyone's mind, especially the mind of some divine being.

A war-torn world with only Demigods and disinterested parents led to only more war. Children declared war against one-another, kids of Athena would slay Cyclopes and kill horses to spite Poseidon, kids of Ares would hunt down owls and fight with children of Athena, children of Aphrodite would pick on and fight with children who were unclaimed; war was everywhere, and the Earth is its battleground. Honestly, I guess its kind of like a Demigodomachy. (Ayana said this pun was insensitive, if you're a Demigod and you want me to get rid of it let me know).

With all the fighting, different Demigod groups emerged. I heard of The Seekers, who were a neutral group led by a child of Apollo and a follower of Artemis. They had amassed a large following, and established a few camps near what used to be New Jersey. Another group known as Retribution were against the Gods and Titans, and worked on training Demigod armies to fight them, I didn't know much more than that about them though.

Ayana was a proud child of Zeus, the God of Gods, the Almighty, blah, blah, blah. I never really cared to listen, maybe because she was one of the very few alive Demigods of the Big 3, if not the only one alive, and it made me jealous because I still don't know who my godly parent is (something I will never admit), or simply because she brags about it all the time that I've grown old of it. Being the child of Zeus doesn't make her strong though, she doesn't even know how to control her powers. I found out the hard way—as soon as I started travelling with her we've been followed by several different types of monsters and people—and now we had to run away for the...8th time today? Great, right?

We picked up the pace, Ayana right behind me.

"Throw lightning at it!"

Ayana looked at me like she wanted to throw lightning at me instead, "You know I can't just do that! I don't know how on command!" she exclaimed, like she was talking to a brick wall.

The monster was trailing us, it looked like a ghost flying through the air with its grinding teeth and evil eyes that stared us down. It had dark flapping wings and talons, it looked like a vulture if it were human, a very evil vulture. On its head I noticed a helmet, it was one that the Demigods wore in war. I've seen similar helmets on the war sites (now graveyards) Ayana and I passed while travelling.

Suddenly, the wind picked up and it began raining.

I looked at Ayana while we were still running, "Did you do that? I thought you said you couldn't do it on command!"

"No, I don't think that was me." she yelled, panting while trying to keep up.

In the distance, I noticed a couple buildings that were collapsed, concrete slabs and brick debris was all that was left of what was once a town, "We need to get there!" I pointed.