A colourful butterfly flew across the clearing. Birds chirped and sang, cattle grazed and chewed at the long grass. Then…
WHOOSH!
As quick as lightning, something fast and long caught a dragonfly by its wing, the arrow lodging itself in a branch of a tree with the dead dragonfly hanging. Leaves fell and the animals fled in shock. Thalia and the other Huntresses walked into the clearing, sweating and panting from the target practice they had started at four in the morning. It was noon now.
"Alright." Thalia announced, sitting down. "Let's have a break."
The rest of them joined her and started their separate conversations in groups of two or three.
Artemis was up on Olympus and had left Thalia in charge while she was gone. The goddess had told them there was some 'important business' she had to handle up on Olympus and that she would return as soon as she could. Unable to protest, they had to go by her orders.
"What do you think Artemis is doing?" One of them asked Thalia, who shrugged.
"Probably having some meetings about the last war or something like that." She guessed.
They all agreed, nodding or just saying simple statements like, "Yeah."
While they kept on talking, Thalia got up and walked around in the woods. She was making some tough decisions at the moment – part of her wanted to quit the Huntresses, and the other part didn't. She wanted to go back to camp and hang out with her friends. She didn't want to still be 15 when they die. But she also loved being the Lieutenant of Artemis, being a Huntress and all the other friends she had here. It was a hard decision that she had to make. Camp, She thought in confusion, or the Huntresses?
Thalia thought for a while and finally decided. She went back to the clearing to tell the others, just to get it over with.
"Guys!" She got their attention. She closed her eyes and took off her bow and quiver, throwing it on the ground. They gasped.
"I can't do this." She told them, "I'm sorry."
Thalia ran out of the clearing and made her way to camp. Little did she know there was a huge surprise coming at her…