It was dark, and the cold just added to the eerie feeling in Theresa's stomach. She'd already been forgotten by her so called "friends" at the dinner, when they'd left her behind to catch up with some guys from behind the counter, but she guessed that's just how life was when you were average and your friends were above. And when there was only two guys on shift. She sighed, kicking a rock on the path, how much worse could her Friday night get?

As a low growl sounded from nearby, she had her answer; very. At the moment, she seriously regretted taking the forest-route to get back home, especially knowing her father didn't like her walking that way in the daytime, what would he say knowing she'd walked it at night? Theresa's fingers began to shake, could it be a bear? She imagined dying at the hands of a bear, and no one would know where to look to find her body, as her father would never suspect she'd blatantly disobey the rules put in place for her own safety.

Yet, there she was; breathing heavily, heart beating unsteadily. Fear coursed through her veins, just a thick as the blood. Theresa's eyes darted around her surroundings, as if moving them faster would help her see any better. It didn't, she was just as disoriented as she was standing still.

"H-hello?" She said, backing into a tree, she let out a started yelp. When did that get there? "Who's there?"

Or whats.

The growl sounded again, only this time, it carried out, stretching on for what felt like forever, it was a low tone that hurt her ears. The bushes moved again, and in the moonlight, she made out the shape of a gigantic figure, almost human like, if not for the immense size of it. An ear-breaking caught in her throat, and she took off in a sprint down the path, hearing the loud, heavy footsteps of the giant behind her.

No way could a human be that big-no way. Sure, she'd seen the occasional 6"6 guy, but this one had to be five times her size!

She didn't dare look back, the sounds of it's feet pounding on the dirt was enough let her know he was already too close for comfort. Just as she neared the end of the trail, where the tree's would break for the field behind her neighborhood, a hand gripped onto her wrist picking her up off the ground, the fingers covered almost her entire forearm. She was held higher up than the head of the creature that held her, and this time, her scream was audible, as she looked down at the face of what could only be described as a troll.

Dry, green skin and blazing eyes, it stared at her like a late-night meal, making her scream continue on.

"Put her down!" Someone yelled, and she looked up, nearly fainting from the second impossible thing of the night.

A man sat on what Theresa could only make out to be a griffin- a very large one at that. Clutching onto a collar, he was on it's back whilst it flew around the troll and her, circling them, making her dizzy. She stared in awe as the griffin swooped down, biting into the arm that held her and tearing out a chunk of flesh. Theresa squeezed her eyes shut, but it was too late; she'd seen the skin torn out, blood oozing from the lack of green flesh.

The troll roared, and she was dropped to the ground, landing on the dirt, her knee's taking the impact. Adrenaline soon joined the fear, and she no longer felt the pain; instead, she felt ready to fight.

Getting to her feet, she watched as the griffin swooped down to take another bite at the troll, and she picked up the nearest item to throw at it, driving it's attention away from her flying savior. As the rock hit the trolls head, bulls-eye, it turned to give her a threatening glare, and the griffin took the opportunity to bite into its neck, spitting the flesh out almost immediately. It continued on towards her, and the man held out his hand to grab her as they passed.

Weighing her options to either stay with the troll, or go with the duo that'd saved her, she latched onto his hand, being dragged up off of the ground, she held in another scream as the troll jumped to try and reach them, but they were already too high.

Way, way too high.

Her feet dangled under her, giving her a perspective of how far she was from the ground. Should we have fallen from that high, she'd be smashed to pieces by the ground that lied below. Moments later, the hand that gripped her own swung her to the left, letting go. As she fell, she let out a piercing scream, her lungs draining of oxygen right up until she landed on the back of a creature much similar to the one the man rode, and she felt silly for her yell. Theresa breathed heavily, the fear and adrenaline making panting the only way to catch her breath.

"I trust you're okay?" The man said, smiling at her, "We showed up just in time, didn't we, Cora?"

The creature below him let out a grunt, and Theresa did a double take, still amazed by it in every way. Since when could griffins and people have such an understandable conversation?

Since when were griffins eight feet tall?

Since when were griffins real?

The man continued, "You are alright, though? Right?"

Theresa nodded, shaking her awe away, "Yeah, I... what was that? Who are you?"

He seemed to sit up straighter, as if suddenly prouder, "Hermes; god of Communications, at your service."

She blinked at him, but she didn't fight against his claim. After the nights previous events, she would have believed him if he'd said he was Harry Potter, back from the future to save Hogwarts, even if he was missing the infamous scar. She grabbed the collar of the bird underneath her a little tighter, her fear of falling down taking control of her muscles, "And that... thing?"

"Troll. Or ogre, if you prefer." He said as he looked back at it retreating, now far away in the distance. "One of Cronus' no doubt. You hear of him? Titan of time, favorite pass-time is causing chaos?"

"Yeah," Theresa said, her mind reeling. "My mom was sum-what of a Greek mythology nut; those myths were my bedtime stories as a kid."

"Well, they're not myths, Theresa." He said, smiling my way, "Cronus broke out of the tartarus prison that'd held him these passed few millennium, and he's back to his old tricks."

"So, that was just a wrong place-wrong time kind of thing?" She asked, her voice full of hope. She'd always had a thing with her intuition, and it was never wrong, and at that moment, she really didn't like what it was telling her.

As Hermes gave her a pitiful look, she knew her intuitions winning streak was still on, "No, it wasn't. How familiar are you with Theseus?"

Theseus? The name felt anything but foreign as it bounced around her head. The griffins swooped down towards the town, going lower and lower. She felt that they would be landing soon; but where? She had no clue. "Pretty familiar, I suppose. He was a king of Athens, right? Son of Poseidon?"

"Yes," He said, smiling, "I'm impressed that you knew that. But, anyways... he was your ancestor, and even if it's a diluted bloodline, the blood of a hero runs through your veins, Theresa."

"Oh," Theresa said, unsure how to reply to that, or what it had to do with any of the events that'd taken place. "That's cool, I guess."

"And there exists a prophecy," Hermes continued, almost as soon as she'd finished talking. "That when Cronus once again poses a threat, he will be stopped by seven heroes."

"I still don't see where I fall into this," Theresa said, laughing humorlessly.

A field came into view in front of them, large enough to act as a runway, Theresa recognized the lines of white on the grass as a football field, the location falling into place; it was the field outside of Archos high school, one of the countless schools in the city. It proved to be the smallest, but the most academically-valuable one, too, which explained why she didn't go there. Her grades were average, if that.

"As I said earlier; the blood of a hero runs through your veins," He said, and it became a little clearer to Theresa what the end game was, but she still refused to let herself entirely believe it. In her mind, she was anything but a hero, especially one of prophecy. "You are a hero, Theresa, and you're destined to defeat Cronus."

"That's..." Her voice trailed off; there was no sense in denying it, not then, anyways. She was too tired to fight, especially since her adrenaline had worn off and she was beginning to feel the pain of her knees, the impact of her falling to the ground apparently had done some damage. "You'd better hope the other 6 are damn good."

"Well," He said, laughing, "After I drop you off I'm off to them, so, I guess we'll find out."

Theresa blinked, gripping on for dear life as the griffin began to make a springing motion with it's legs, nearing the grass. When they hit, it felt like that of a plane, and Theresa lunged forward on it's back, her head coming closer than she would have liked to bashing into that of the creature. How mad would it have gotten then? And with those talons... Theresa really didn't want to anger it. As both of them slowed to a stop, she climbed off of it, suffering through the pain of landing on her feet beside it, she bit her tongue as she did, her knee's taking her weight with agony.

"Wait, drop me off?" She questioned, "Here?"

"Well, yes." He said, "Is that a problem?"

Theresa nodded; all she wanted was to go home. She'd had enough chaos, and all she wanted-needed, really- was a good night's rest to sleep off what was hopefully a dream, even though she knew she'd wake up and remember it all as it'd really happened. Her instinct wouldn't even let her hope that it wasn't real.

"Theresa, you were just attacked less than a mile from your house." Hermes reminded her, and her face fell. She could easily predict the words that would come next, and she knew she'd have no argument. "It's not safe there anymore, not for you."

She bit back tears of frustration. Her exhaustion was getting to her now, in ways she didn't want a stranger like him to see. "What about my dad?"

She pictured her father, seated at his desk as he was every night, the photo of Theresa and her mother sitting on the corner, one of the last ones ever taken before her death. And him, taking phone calls and pretending that the only thing in existence was his business, completely unaware of the trouble Theresa'd gotten herself into. He could be dead because of her, at the one of those things that'd been looking for her. She felt guilt and fear weigh in her heart.

Hermes waved her worry off, "He'll be fine. When morning comes around, he'll think you're staying with your grandma for a few weeks."

"In the middle of the school year?" Theresa urged on, my hands crossing over my chest. No way would he believe that, especially not from a stranger. Her only grandparents lived in palm springs, across the country; she was lucky to see them once every summer, but in the school year? He would never risk her grades like that. "No way."

Hermes winked, "He won't know to doubt it, Theresa. Not when I'm on the case."

She snorted, of course; how could she have doubted a god?