Some things about being a hunter of Artemis are cool. But others I hate. Like hanging out with a goddess, that's cool. But hanging out with the hunter's themselves, not so great. It's like living in the forrest with four sister's who all just sit around and wait for monsters to attack and complain about men.

"Focus, Thalia." Artemis urged me. I've tried many times but the truth is, I stink at archery. I lowered my bow.

"I can't do it!" I whinned.

"Nonscence!" Artemis snapped. "I never want to hear that word."

Can't, can't, can't.

"Focus your mind. Be the arrow." said Artemis.

"What?" I asked, lowering my bow. Artemis raised it for me.

"Just try it." Artemis said firmly

Alright. Be the arrow. I pulled back on the string and let go. The arrow whizzed through the air unsteadily, yet it hit the target, right in the middle

"Yes!" I exclaimed, a wave of axcitement and a smile coming upon me.

"I knew you could do it." said Artemis, her twelve year old face giving me a smile.

"Thank you." I told her graciously.

"Don't thank me quite yet." Artemis said pulling my arrow out and sliding the Archery target back about fifteen feet, making it about thirty feet away from me. "Try it now."

I let out a breath to relax me. Be the arrow. I let Artemis's words flow through me. I shot the arrow. Again, whizzing through the air unsteadily, it hit the target, not quite as good as the first time, but it did hit the target.

"Not bad." Yelled Artemis, who was standing next to the target. I'm just glad I didn't accidentaly hit her.

The sun was setting over the mountains of Colorado. We were in the woods, clearing the area of any Monster we could find. There are five of us. Right now you're probably saying "There are suposed too be tweleve hunters." well, one day we were going through the forrest, all together, exept for Artemis, who was back at camp, when we were attacked. Honestly I don't remember much, but this thing was huge, about twenty-five feet off the ground. He attacked us, we fought our best, but he was too much for us. He took down most of us, only leaving five of us. The remaining of us thought we were gonners when an arrow flew through the air with the grace of an eagle, striking the monster in his heart, killing him. We turned around too see Artemis, her bow in hand. She explained too us that that was the King of the Giants, Aklyoneus. She also told us he was immortal, but only when he was in his homeland, thankfully, he wasn't. Artemis has been trying to replace the hunters we lost that day, but no one seems interested.

I have two best friends here, Zana and Saeva. Zana is a daughter of Hermes and Saeva is a daughter of Athena. Saeva honestly reminds me so much of Annabeth that I want to leave the Hunters sometimes because I'm homesick.

"Let's head back to the camp." said Artemis. "It's almost dark, we have too go to bed soon."

That's another thing, she makes us go to bed at around sunset, right after dinner and we have to wake up at sunrise. We headed towards the fully set up camp.

"What's for dinner?" I asked Saeva.

"Deer." she said, not even looking up from the skinning she was doing. Now, most people would be disgusted at even the thought of eating a poor little deer, but it's not that bad acually, and most people think Artemis would be a vegetarian. Well she's not. She loves animals but she is the goddess of the hunt. Therefore, she eats meat.

It was repectful to let the goddess eat first, but Artemis didn't like that custom. She says that if we all kill dinner, we take turns getting first serve.

After we all sat down in front of the campfire, we started talking.

"Thalia." said the eldest Hunter, Amity, a daughter of Apollo. (The rest of us are the same age as me) "Tell me more of this pine tree thing. I don't get it."

Zana nodded her head in agreement.

"Well," I started for the second night in a row. "when I was younger, I traveled with Zana's half brother, and Saeva's half sister. We were barley surviving, when we were found by a saytr. He was instructed to lead me to Camp Half-Blood, but I wasn't willing to leave my friends behind. He tried to-"

"Yeah, yeah, just get to the part about the tree so we can hit the sack." interrupted Elana, a daughter of Ares. She had rough, jagged features, much like my half-brother Ares, but there was something soft about her, I... I can't explain it.

"As I was saying-"

"Wait a second. Why were you traveling on foot? Where was your Mom? Getting a bagel?"

I put my hand on the skinning knife.

"None of your bees wax!" I snapped. Bees wax?

"I know the story." Elana said with arrogance. "She was about to die when her Daddy took pitty on her. If you ask me she should have died with honor, like a real hero."

I gripped the skinning knife and stood up.

"That's it!" I screamed, runnig at her with the knife. She loaded her bow.

"Stop!" bellowed Artemis, holding me back and yanking the skinning knife from my hand.

"My daddy is your Grandfather, so show some respect!" I barked, letting my rage getting the best of me.

"You're acting like children! Thalia, Saeva and Zana, you're on scout duty until mid night." she said with an edge in her voice. I looked at her hand where the knife was, there was also ichor, the golden blood of the gods.

"Lady Artemis,-" I started apologetically.

"Go!" she said pointing out of the camp.

We walked outside the camp.

"Yeah! That's right!" yelled Elana. "Run! Like you've run away from everything else in your life! Your Mom! Your death and your fate!

I gritted my teeth and kept walking. What is her probelm? I've never done anything too her. What was a daughter of Ares doing as a hunter of Artemis anyway? Ares's daughter's just don't seem like hunter material to me.

"Hush, child." I heard Artemis tell her. I painted my face with a smirk and caught up with my friends.

"Thalia," started Saeva knowingly "you shouldn't give in to her. She's trying to press your buttons."

"Well she's doing a good job at it." I said looking down and kicking a pine cone. I knew she was right, but I just couldn't help it. That girl should show me respect, because, if we were going by family tree, I'd be her aunt.

"Two wrongs don't make a right." said Saeva. I looked into her gray eyes, they seemed too pop with her dark brown hair.

"So?" asked Zana. "at least you get revenge."

"That's a good point" I said looking at her. She looked just like Luke. But of course, in a girls body.

We didn't talk for a while. The point of patrol was to make sure nothing snuck up while the other hunters slept. If we talked, whatever might be out there would hear us.

I had to ask them a question, it couldn't wait.

"Did I run from my fate?" I asked them in a whisper.

"No." said Saeva, glancing nervously at the camp.

"Yes." said Zana

But they said it in unison.

"She did not!" cried Saeva, making an Athena like 'I know everything' face. I hate that look, it's like they're trying too make you feel stupid.

"Yes she did!" replided Zana in a yell.

"Um, guys-" I said, giving a glance back in the direction of camp, which wasn't visable from where we were.

"How so?" asked Saeva, crossing her arms.

"She joined the hunters to get away from it!" yelled Zana.

"Prove it!" asked Saeva in a snide tone.

"Guys!" I screamed.

"Shh, Thalia you're going to wake up the whole forrest." said Zana, then she directed her attention back to Saeva.

"What? Me? You-" I started but was interrupted by a sudden collapsing tree.

"What was that?" Asked Zana.

"That." replied Saeva, pointing in to the distance. I looked in the direction she was pointing, a tree had fallen down.

"Oh." I said "That's okay. At least it wasn't a monster."

"Maybe it was." said Saeva curiosly, looking around me.

"Say what?" asked Zana, her face was turning pale in the moonlight.

"Follow me, and be on your gaurd." said Saeva firmly.

We walked slowly but swiftly through the trees. It was definitly eerie, tonight esspecailly. I hate the dark. It makes me think of my grandfather, Kronos. We made it to the tree in a short period of time. Zana and I kept our bows loaded as Saeva inspected the tree.

"This was pushed over." she told us.

"How do you know?" I asked in a kind of mean tone.

"It's a perfectly healthy tree, there's no way it would have fallen itself."

I nodded my head.

"So what pushed it over?" asked Zana, probably remembering the incident that had occured with the giant-king.

"Well, I'm guessing he did it." I said calmly, pointing at the cyclopes who had not yet seen us. He looked somewhat lost, with an innocent look on his face. but, I knew we had too kill him, if he saw us, we would be in big trouble. We moved into behind a nearby tree, to hide us as we got a closer look and figure out what we were going too do.

"Okay," whispered Saeva. "attack plan beta."

Have you ever noticed all the children of Athena tend to be a tad on the bossy side?

"Gotcha." I said, starting to move, but Zana grabbed my arm.

"Do we have to do beta? I mean it's so-"

"Just go!" ordered Saeva in a hushed tone.

Attack plan beta, is where we surround the monster, without him knowing, and attack him from diffrent angles. This can only work if there are places to hide. Athena came up with this attack. If all of us were here, we would shoot him at the same time. But that wouldn't work here. From the angles we would shoot him here, he wouldn't die, he'd hardly get hurt in fact.

I hid behind a bush. Bow ready. I'm going to be honest, I was scared. Ever since the giant attack, fighting large monsters gave me the chills.

I looked at Saeva, she was behind a tree.I gave her a small wave, letting her know I was ready. She looked at Zana and repeated the signal, Zana gave a nervous nod. Oh gods.

Saeva stood up and gave a battle cry, she shot her bow, the arrow whizzed through the air, landing in the monsters rib. He cried in pain, the he ripped the arrow out of his rib cage and slung it to the ground. He headed in the direction of Saeva. You see, beta is a good attack plan to use on a cyclopes, since he has limited vision. I stood up and shot the monster, the arrow landing in his leg. He didn't even ackowledge that it was there, he kept heading for Saeva.

Once he got there, he stood still, looking for any signs of movement. He didn't know he was almost standing on top of her. Saeva foolishly shifted her weight. The monster picked her up.

"Thalia!" she screamed. But I was to late. He threw her. She was hurled violently towards the tree we were all originally hiding behind.

Zana shot an arrow. It hit him in the gut. He cried out in pain. He ripped a huge branch off of a nearby tree and hurled it in her direction. It hit her, forcing her to the ground. I didn't dare shoot an arrow. I was the last hope to keep this monster from attacking Artemis in her sleep. I felt on the ground for a rock, keeping my eyes on the monster. my hand went over something large. It was a stick, it will have to do. I picked it up and hurled it as far as I could.

"You can run but you can't hide!" he said, running in the direction of the noise. The ground shaking as he ran.

This was it. I searched my specail belt for a vial of poison. My belt was a gift from Artemis, it had many slots on it, to hold vials filled with poison. It was more like a fanny-pack, but It served it's purpose. It was black and had six slots on each side, all were filled was vials full of poison that I could apply to my arrows.

Be the arrow.

If I missed, I would most likely die. I aimed, for the simple minded cyclopes was still searching for me.

Be the arrow.

I pulled back on the string.

Be the arrow.

I let go.

Be the arrow.

The arrow flew through the air, striking the monster in his chest right as he turned around.

I ran to Saeva. She was knocked- out. She had many scratches on her face, and I'm sure she would have broken bones.

I made my way towards Zana. I pulled the brach that was on top of her and tossed it to the side. It took alot of strengh. She was cut in many diffrent places too. Although, she wasn't as bad a Saeva.

"Nice Job, Thalia." said I voice behind me. I spun around,fast. There, behind me stood Luke, his sword Backbiter and a shield.

"Luke." I said flatly.

"In the flesh." he said.

"What do you want?" I asked, taking an arrow from my quiver. But he was fast and had his sword to my neck. A tear slid down my cheek.

"For you to come willingly. But that won't happen. Will it?"

"No." I said firmly.

"I was afraid if that." He said lookng down.

The last thing I remember seeing is his shield racing toward my head.

A/N What do you think? Review.