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His blitzing mind took a moment to catch up with what his eyes were seeing. Standing before him was an older girl, anywhere from eleven to fourteen for all he could tell, a cautiously friendly look on her pretty face. She looked to be a rich kid, dressed in a blue floral sundress, hair pinned up under a fancy looking sun hat, and white, elbow-length gloves. Hanging off her were two little kids, one being a girl around kindergarten age, the other looking like he was still using diapers.
They had been using the swings earlier, the boy thought inanely, before everything went to Hell and everyone else had run away screaming. His useless sword had not wavered from where he was holding it. He was in no state to be letting his guard down, not when he was down a weapon and literally anyone could be a monster in disguise.
He had been on the run for several months now. In that time, he had discovered that more monsters lived among the regular people than he had thought and that every single one of those monsters were willing to toss aside their unassuming front at the drop of a hat just to get their claws in fresh demigod meat.
Just earlier that day, he had been trying to buy a box of doughnuts from a bakery with the money he had pickpocketed off a crotchety old businessman the evening before when a dude in a friggin' wheelchair tried to take a bite out of him. The resulting chase led to him zig-zagging across town and eventually laying waste to a really nice playground, likely scarring several kids and their parents for life.
Knowing what he did about the Mist, he wondered if he'd be featured on the local news as some Satanist juvenile delinquent that brutally murdered a disabled person. After what happened with that shoe-store employee that one time when he was still in Connecticut, he wouldn't be surprised.
"Alright then . . ." the girl said slowly, cautiously lowering the toddler from her hip and depositing him in the little girl's arms.
Once the transaction was completed, the younger girl automatically stepped behind the older girl and backed up a few steps. The little ankle-biter squirmed in agitation but made no protest.
The blond boy's conscience twinged at seeing the scared look on the little kids' faces, but he wasn't ready to lower his guard, not when he was still running on hyped up instincts and adrenaline.
The older girl's newly freed hand came up to join the first one in the placating gesture.
"There now," she said soothingly. He noted that her accent wasn't American. "We're all friends here. I didn't mean to startle you, mate."
"Wh-wha —" he tried to say, his jitters not helping at all. He flicked his head in irritation. "Who . . . ?"
"I'm Heri," the girl said, her lips quirking in a wry smile. "Behind me is Ollie and Allie. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but you're pointing something that you just used to kill an acid-spitting monster at me. May I know the name of such a dangerous young man?"
He gaped at her. No monster ever—! So she— But no mortal he had met before—!
"Mm-mon-s-ster?" he stuttered, his brain all jumbled.
No monster called each other 'monster', it was always proper names or species with them. It was as if they didn't realize that killing people on a whim and trying to eat them was horrific. The only other person beside himself that he knew of that called them monsters was his mother—
"Are you a goddess?" he blurted out before he could even finish the thought.
She blinked at him in surprise, her hands faltering. He blushed at how tactless his question was, but didn't take it back. There was an odd air about her, and he didn't know how else to phrase it.
"A goddess?" she echoed, blinking rapidly. "Not as far as I know. I don't need to be a goddess to see that you and that monster did a number on each other, though I suppose you came out the better."
She then tilted her head and frowned at him with a concerned look on her face. "Do you need to sit down, dear? You look rather dizzy, and I don't like how much that cut on your arm is bleeding. Best to calm down your heart-rate."
Having concluded she was no monster despite whatever else she could be, the blond boy finally dropped his ruined sword, letting it fall to the ground as the older girl gently caught him by his shoulder and eased him down as well.
She clucked over the aforementioned cut, looking very unhappy indeed.
"Fetch me the first-aid kit from my bag, would you, lambkin?" she said to the younger girl. "In fact, bring the entire thing."
The little girl snapped to immediately, returning the toddler and dashing off.
"Have you never met another demigod before?" the Heri girl murmured as she held the sides of his gushing wound together to stem the bleeding. "'Goddess' isn't usually the reaction I get."
His blush returned. Oh. He hadn't considered that as a possibility.
"I didn't expect to run into another one, not so soon at least," he mumbled. "You don't even look like one."
"Oh?" she said, cocking her head again, gently prodding some bruises. "I didn't know we had a uniform. What is one supposed to look like then?"
"Well . . ." he hedged as the little girl returned. Heri immediately pulled out some bandages and creams. "Heroic looking, I guess. Like Hercules, you know? Swords and scars and stuff. I figured they'd be on the run like me."
Heri paused in what she was doing and looked up at him.
"You're on the run?" she asked very seriously. "Is it that bad over here? You look like you should still be in primary school."
He shrugged uncomfortably.
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