Taryn was practically destined to be weird. Her father had unknowingly attracted not one, but TWO Greek goddesses. She was originally named Raeyn, but due to the technicalities, she goes by her given name, Valeria Taryn Guevarra. After Mnemosyne switched her and Raeyn in the hospital, she was whisked off to another mortal home, owned by a clear-sighted couple - the Guevarras. Now, Keelin Guevarra, her foster mother, was barren, unfertile. They couldn't have children. Despite this, she and her husband stayed together, searching desperately for a way to adopt a baby. Unfortunately, some trouble with the government prevented them from doing so, and so they were left childless (though honestly, I blame the gods.) When Taryn arrived at their doorstep swaddled tightly in a small basket and accompanied with a letter and an ankle bracelet, they were overjoyed. Somehow, they managed to adopt her as their own, finally getting the appropriate requirements. (I changed my mind. It WAS the gods.) The letter given stated no name, so Keelin and Luke named her Valeria Taryn.
Taryn was quite the child. She did what she was told...as long as she was given a good reason for it. The Guevarras were loving parents, and Taryn grew up properly, not spoiled.
Keelin and Luke were both half-Irish and half-Filipino, and they had a dual citizenship for their heritage. Born in Ireland, they moved to the Philippines as soon as they got their papers right. After they got Taryn, they taught her their foreign tongue of Irish Gaelic. Taryn quickly grew accustomed to speaking a mix of three languages - English, Irish Gaelic, and Tagalog.
Taryn was naturally good at school, scoring above average grades with moderate effort. She was not a braggart, however, and humbly shook off any praise sent her way. Whenever they had some time on their hands, her parents would take her to the beach. Taryn was an adept swimmer by the age of three. Taryn had quite a happy childhood, though her brash personality seemed a little iffy to her peers. She sometimes got in trouble at school, but her actions were commonly justified.
One day, when she was almost eleven years old, Taryn spotted something strange-looking lurking about while she was swimming. Before she could swim towards it, the thing disappeared into the water. This was the first time she ever saw a monster - proving she was in fact, clear-sighted like her foster parents. On her twelfth birthday, Keelin and Luke were forced to tell her the truth of her parentage. Why she didn't look like them. Taryn, stunned from the shock, numbly took the letter that had been with her the day she was left on the doorstep.
After discovering what had really happened, she strangely felt no anger whatsoever towards her supposed half-sister. Instead, she was pretty P.O.'d at the gods (and yes, she shared her sister's "cray-cray" imagination, meaning she easily believed gods existed.) And mind you, she had quite the nasty temper. She was also somewhat miffed that her foster parents never said anything, but they managed to placate the agitated girl, comforting her. Knowing time was precious, the already tightly knit family grew even closer. Taryn's few friends noticed her getting distant, and were a little hurt at this. Taryn didn't want them to suffer on her account, seeing as in the letter, she was going to leave them soon.
Taryn was a mortal. Monsters didn't pay attention to mortals, most of the time. But that didn't mean clear-sighted mortals couldn't pay attention to them.
Shortly after her twelfth birthday, Taryn spotted a hulking shadowy dog in the entrance of an alleyway. Frozen, she watched in shock as it took no notice of her. Remembering what her parents had told her about monsters that lurked around, unseen by most, Taryn's fear subsided. She stiffly walked past and home, telling her parents later that night on what she had seen. Keelin and Luke immediately realized that Taryn's sight was growing stronger as she grew older, which was strange, since usually as a mortal grew older, their sight grew weaker.
The day came for her to leave them when Taryn had a dream of floating over Long Island, finally seeing Camp Half-blood. "You will come," A voice seemed to boom from the heavens. Once Taryn informed Keelin and Luke, they knew it was time. Taryn was accompanied by her parents on the plane to New York. Things didn't go as planned.
The plane crashed in the sea due to a raging storm (Zeus. Why.), and Taryn and her parents were the only survivors, managing to stay afloat seeing as they were all quite good swimmers, and they found a nice floating plank of metal. They managed get to land, immediately assisted by people who had heard of the plane crash over the news. They soon found out that they had landed in Maine. Keelin and Luke were in critical condition, and Taryn had suffered the least injuries. Under her semi-conscious parents' plea, Taryn headed for New York. She had nothing with her but the letter from Mnemosyne, her ankle bracelet, and the clothes on her back. Fortunately, Taryn happened to stumble upon a barn owl nymph named Thyto, who was heading in the same direction. After Taryn explained her situation, Thyto immediately called for assistance from her nymph friends who lived in the mortal world. Instead of flying off, Thyto accompanied the clear-sighted mortal (she was intrigued on how well Taryn could see through the Mist) in a boat, seeing as Taryn had developed a phobia of planes.
Things were not looking up. That thing about things getting better? Um, Taryn didn't believe it. As soon as they landed at New York, she was kidnapped. A distressed Thyto only remembered a hand clamping over her mouth before she blacked out, the last image in her head being of a terrified looking Taryn. By investigating, Thyto found signs of struggle, and whip lashes in the alley they had been dragged into. Apparently Taryn had tried to fight, but was overwhelmed. Miserable, Thyto was forced to continue on to Camp Half-blood under Athena's orders.
