Archived:Aurora Zatara

Personality
Aurora is a type of girl who puts a smile on everyone's face. Most of the time, she comes off as flirtatious and promiscuous but underneath that she's amazingly caring and gentle. She'll help out anyone in need, no matter what the problem is. She's quite willful and doesn't simply take "no" for an answer. She's not the type of girl who's easy to woo over, but hates it when people are really obvious that they like her that way.

History
Wesley Zatara, a charming young man who made everyone around him feel special. He never smoked, he never drunk and he never lost his temper with anyone. He was a student at New York University, majoring in Art, History and Classics. He was one of the top students in his class and made it his goal to put a smile on his teachers' faces. Even after his mother died of leukemia when he was 2 which caused his whole family to fall apart, he never let it him down. Everyone loved him, his friends, his family, his teachers, and soon, the woman of his dreams.

One day, on a late Friday, Wesley let his friends talk him into going to a bar off-campus. However, he promised them that he was not going to drink anything alcoholic, not wanting to break his record of not drinking. He sat with his friends at their table, bored out of his mind. He almost fell asleep when one of his buddies tapped him, saying that someone was eyeing him from across the room. He looked around to find a young woman smiling at him from the bar table. She was beautiful with long, flowing black hair, sparkling eyes, amazing curves tucked in a simple purple dress. Wesley had a hard time believing the woman was looking at him until one of his buddies hit him and hissed in his ear to go talk to her.

And talk to her, he did. As nervous as he was, he walked over to the bar table where the woman sat. She watched him with ever step he took and smiled when he came close of enough. Before he came close to her, he had a panic moment where he couldn't think of what to say to the goddess before him, but he suddenly just relaxed and let his mouth do the talking. And before long, both of them were deep in conversation. The woman even talked Wesley into having a couple of drinks with her. He protested at first, but the woman seemed to charm him into having a few. And before long, they were both very tipsy and decided to leave the bar together. They took his car back to his dorm room, where the woman had slept with him.

The next morning, he wakes up to an empty bed. He groans, wondering what happened last night when he spots a little note on his dresser. It read: "I had a great time with you last night. Someday, I will return the favor." He put his head in his hands, as a great headache rained down upon him, along with the memory of last night. He remembered the woman from the bar that night and how he'd brought her back to his dorm. After that, it was all blank, but he knew they had slept together. He had know idea what she meant by "returning the favor" meant but he wasn't concerned about it at the time. He had to get ready for class in an hour.

A couple months later, Wesley found out how the woman would repay the favor. He was just settling in his new apartment after graduating and getting his diploma. He was laying on the couch, napping when he heard a knock on his door and the cry of a child. Slightly annoyed, he got up to answer it to find a crying baby girl in a small, dark purple basket. The annoyance he felt quickly disappeared, replaced a sense of astonishment. He immediately took the baby inside and closed the door. He picked up the baby and tried to calm her down, but to his surprised, she immediately stopped crying when he held her. As soon as he got her to sleep, he noticed a small scroll tied with a purple ribbon placed neatly on the handle of the basket. He carefully picked it up and untied the ribbon. As he unwrapped the scroll, it read: "I told you I would repay the favor. This is your daughter, Aurora."

Not wanting to turn away his only daughter, Wesley took Aurora in with him. He tried his best to raise her by himself while trying to get a job for himself. At first it seemed okay. He managed to get a job at a small corporation, getting paid enough money to support Aurora. However, it all started to go down hill due to a number of cutbacks and ultimately getting laid off. The stress of having to take care of a child and finding a paying job was starting to get to him, along with the landlord bugging him everyday for the rent. Aurora hadn't known that her father was breaking until it was too late.

When Aurora was only 4, Wesley had committed suicide by hanging himself with an extension cord. She found out when police officers and child services came looking for her at her school. They told her as gently as they could that her father had gone away for a while and that they had to find her a new home. They took her out of her school and drove her back to her apartment. They told her to get as much stuff as she needed from her room. One of the officers walked her up to their part of the apartment, where police were cleaning up their investigation. As Aurora walked by, her eyes caught the sight of a lifeless hand sticking out of a green body bag. She had no idea that the hand belonged to her father at the time but she would find out on her own in time.

Child services had placed her in a small orphanage in Queens, New York. It wasn't rich, but it wasn't poor either. Aurora got settled in and met with the woman in charge, Veronica Troy. She was very nice to her and helped her settle in her room. She introduced her to the other kids, though most weren't very enthusiastic to greet her. Only one of them came up to greet her. It was a boy named Wayne Santos, and he was one of the only children who was even talking to her. Soon enough, they became very close friends and spent all of their time together.

Aurora and Wayne had been living in the orphanage for as long as they can remember. Wayne had always protected her whenever the other kids were messing with her. They had each others back no matter what. As the years went by, kids where getting adopted sooner or later. Only Wayne and Aurora were the ones who parents had just passed by as if they weren't there. Because of this, they spent they spent there whole childhood and early teens at the orphanage. Luckily, the orphanage had experienced teachers hired to teach the kids should they ever stay there past childhood and it seemed that Aurora and Wayne would live their entire lives in that orphanage, so they thought.

When Aurora turned 12, strange events began to happen. It started when the sound of wolves howling filled the orphanage, which was strange since there were no wolves in New York. Nobody else could sleep, except Aurora, who found the howling quite soothing. The next day, Aurora got into a "disagreement" with a girl over a metal jack she found in the garden. Ultimately, the girl snatched it from her and stuck her tongue out in triumph. As she walked away, Aurora burned with anger so bad she felt a sort of tugging in her stomach. At that moment, the girl cried out and dropped the metal jack, which was humming with energy. As the supervisor walked over to the crying girl, Aurora picked up what was hers. When she picked up the jack, it felt normal under her touch and not charged with power. After that, similar strange events had been happening. Old candles started to burn when she touched them, cats and dogs alive seem to become attracted to her and the sound of howling wolves filled the whole place at night.

All of these events had caused the other orphans to think of her as some type of freak. The only person who didn't think less of her was her friend, Wayne. When she had cried that night from the slandering of the other kids, Wayne was there to comfort her and try to make her feel better. At that moment, Aurora felt so glad that she had Wayne and hoped nothing would happen to them. Alas, the Fates just couldn't have that. On her 13th birthday, she was visited by a not-so-friendly giant. And to make matters worst, he had a taste for african-american demigods that no one likes.

It happened as soon as she blew out the candles. A huge man, approximately 8 feet tall with deep red skin and crazy eyes burst into the building. As everyone ran around, screaming like crazy, Aurora only stood there by the table, frozen in shock. The giant pointed at her and said, "I'm coming for YOU, Zatara!" He raised the object in his hands, which was to be a gold sphere that happened to be on fire, and threw at her with all his might. She seemed to jolt back to reality when Wayne pushed her out of the way to save her from being killed. However, Wayne wasn't so lucky. The giant bowling ball hit him square in the chest, crushing his ribs as he hit the wall. She screamed his name before turning her attention to the cannibal giant, who was laughing his ass off. With tears in her eyes, she burned with furious anger, but she didn't know what she could do without getting herself killed. She wished that there was something or someone to help her. At that moment, something big and furry launched itself at the giant and started biting and clawing furiously.

As the giant whipped around, yelling in anger, Aurora could see that it was wolf that had came to her aid. She didn't know why a wolf would be way out here, but she didn't put to much thought on it. She ran over to Wayne, who was breathing rather painfully due to the broken bones. She knelt by him, tears dripping onto his face. He looked up at her and raised his right hand to brush a tear out of her eye. With his final breath, he breathed out one final word:run. As soon as he said it, Aurora heard the small yelp of the wolf. The giant had managed to throw off the animal against the wall and was wiping the strands of fur off his face. She took that moment to take her dying friends advice and ran out of the giant-sized hole. She didn't know where she was going but anywhere was better than there.

It wasn't long before she got tired. She found a small bench by Broadway and sat there for what felt like an eternity. She managed to get away from the giant, but she couldn't stop thinking about the people at the orphanage. She didn't know if they were okay or not, but what she thought about most was her friend Wayne. He had sacrificed himself to save her and she never got to say thank you. It was too much to bear and she started to cry. She cried until the police had stopped in front of her to take her into there custody. She couldn't remember much of the interrogation, but she could tell it was boring. She managed not to get herself arrested, but she still couldn't go around New York by herself. So the only other option for her was foster care.

Social Services provided her with new clothes, since she left her old ones at the orphanage. They introduced her to Dinah Goldberg, a 30-year-old woman with 10 kids. Half of them were hers, the other half were adopted, and get this: none of them liked her. She didn't care. She simply just spent her days there by herself. Only Dinah seemed to treat her like one of the family, which she appreciated. 2 years went by, she expected to be attacked by more freaky giants. Luckily, there haven't been any attacks lately, but strange events have been happening that have either involved lights flickering, wolves howling, and things "accidentally" burning. Of course, the latter blamed Aurora. It started to annoy her.

When she turned 16, the one thing she didn't expect was someone with furry legs to save her skin from a one-eyed monster. She was sitting on the roof of the house to get some fresh air after a falling out with her "siblings". She stared out at the forest that was stationed behind their house and felt someone or something staring at her from inside. She didn't know what it was until she heard a loud bellow, which made her decide that somethings are better left unknown. She slid down the roof and jumped off, landing on their trampoline. She didn't get three steps in before the monster stomped its way into view. It was a giant, like the one she saw at the orphanage, except this one had only one eye and was a bit smaller. However, it was still just as mean.

She was about to make a run for it until a red truck drove into the yard and swerved right in front of Aurora. The driver stepped out, carrying a type of hunter's bow and a quiver of arrows on his back. He nocked an arrow, aimed at the monster, and released the string. As soon as the arrow touched it, the monster simply disintegrated like all of its molecules fell apart. As the wind blew away the monster dust, Aurora had to push her mouth up to keep it from dropping it to the ground. She looked at her mystery savior and was so awed by his marksmanship, she didn't know the guy had goat legs. When she looked down, the satyr put his hand on her mouth to keep her from screaming. He told her that she was safe now and that they needed to go before more come. Surprisingly, she got into the truck without hesitation. "Huh. I like this one.", the satyr said to himself. He started the truck and they went on their way.

It was a long trip, but they managed to get to their destination. They drove through a tall entrance with the name "Camp Half-Blood" titled on it. From out the window, Aurora saw that it looked like a simple summer camp. That is, until she saw a kid riding a pegasus right over them, did she realize that this was no mere summer camp. As they both go out of the van, they were greeted by a couple of campers. As soon as they got close, a flashing light appeared over her head, as she was claimed as a daughter of Hecate.