Secret of the Silver Bow Part VI: The Return of Orion
Key – The Wild
The Conscious
The Instinct
Shamrock
One
Secret of the Silver Bow fun Fact 1: The original title was going to be "Change" The title Secret of the Silver Bow only came around after the first one had been finished, and the Second one was well into the first chapter.
April Showers and May Flowers
Shamrock
The last two months have been great, some of the best in my short meaningless life. The weather warmed up, I traveled with my mom and the hunters, and spent a couple of days over spring break in West Virginia with Will Solace, my cousin. Right now though we were in the Shenandoah Valley with my mom, Grace and I were down by a river doing some laundry when Thalia came by. She knelt next to me and watched my scrub my shirt. It was unnerving, under her electric blue gaze.
"Um hi." I said.
"Hi." She chirped.
"What are you doing?" I wondered.
"Oh yeah, I was supposed to tell you, your mom had to go away on immortal business so don't cause any – oh my gods look at that blue jay!" She said, I looked up and she drew her bow and killed it.
"Why did you do that?" I asked, it seemed a bit mean to kill something like that for no apparent reason..
She shrugged. "It woke me up, at four in the morning, the little bird was just asking to be made into fried chicken." Her scowl changed to a smile. "Anyway just stay out of trouble, and we need to go to camp, but we're going to make an, uh, detour first."
"Okay." I said, she nodded and left us alone, Grace was taking the dry clothes off the clothes line. Her wavy red hair was in a ponytail and her plain green hunting tunic, that emphasized those green eyes, hung loosely on her body. She turned and caught me staring.
"What?" She wondered, tucking a lose piece of hair behind her ear as she studied me.
"Oh nothing, I'm just finished with the clothes." I held up the shirt, she nodded and took it from me. Together we walked back into camp, I was pretty happy, the camp had been calmer than it ever had been for me, the full moon was coming and I was content at the moment. Grace wasn't though, she never really liked spring, she said it was a week from now that her family died.
Between us things had gotten a little better, she seemed more relaxed around me and I felt more comfortable when she checked up on the bite, which was now no more than a scar but we still had to make sure it didn't open up because Vampire wounds are very temperamental
Lilly was doing well, she would still Iris Message Jake and things but she fit into the hunter's role much better than I had at first, and the others had finally accepted me. Accept, didn't mean they liked me though, I believe a majority of them still disliked having me around but, that was their problem. Over all Lilly and I didn't get along great yet, we might over time but I had a feeling there were lots of things we would never see eye-to-eye on. Mom had decided that since we were twins we would be sharing a tent, and she was messy.
Not normal teenage messy no, the Obsessive Compulsive Disorders worst nightmare messy, yes, it was awful. I have OCD and she hates it when I pick up her side, something about being, messily organized, but trust me that is not organized. Since all we have to do is snap out fingers to pack the tents the mess stays that way. It drives me insane, Grace says I am welcome to spend time in her tent and I used to, but then I didn't need to see her bra on the floor. She says that if I hadn't come in at six am, when she was down at the creek bathing I wouldn't have seen that but I beg to differ.
We got back to camp and the whole camp had been packed up, which at least meant I didn't have to look at the mess, but in the back of my mind it was still there, lurking like a monster, waiting to come out and get me. Grace and I stuck our clothes in our back packs and shouldered them. After that we started to walk. The ability to bend space and time with that hunter speed comes in really handy; we were soon in New York. Thalia put me in charge and said she was going to see Percy, she also said that if I so much as thought about abusing the power, or getting any of us, myself included into life or death situations that I would never be left in charge again.
The girls made me wait outside while they changed into their bathing suits, I wasn't really sure why but they made me promise not to come in and then went down to the lake but I was staying in the cabin. I needed to get some time alone, which I hardly got now a days.
I would have gone to sleep but I had recently had nightmares, mostly about the Delaware incident. Grace or Lilly had been waking me up, Lilly was a little violent she would throw a pillow at me or something (Usually something hard and heavy, like a book), and Grace was calmer and more gentle she would stay with me until I fell asleep again, which was nice. It was Lilly most of the time though (which was not so nice) because we shared a tent, but if Grace was up to go to the bathroom or something she would come by and make sure I was okay.
I crossed the room to the large silver dresser; each of us had our own drawers to keep our things in. Nothing was in mine except for a small wooden box, I had never opened the box, I had never touched the box, I didn't even know how it had gotten in there. Apollo or Mom most likely, I hadn't told either one of them, something told me not to tell them I knew. It had appeared just after Orion left, in February. The top of the box had a crescent moon and my name carved into the top. As though mesmerized by the box I reached down to stroke it, just as I was about to touch it the door opened.
"Shamrock?" It was Grace, She sounded slightly puzzled.
"Yes." I said, turning around and kicking the drawer closed.
"Nico needs to talk to us." She said warily.
"Just you and I?" I asked.
"Yes, he said Lilly already knows." She muttered, motioning for me to fallow her. Instead of going to cabin 13 we went to the big house, Lilly, Annabeth, Percy, Rachel, and Nico were waiting with Chiron.
"Okay what I miss?" I asked.
"You have been summoned to the- Rachel!" Nico started but Rachel started flopping and sputtering, her eyes turned a smoky green, and green smoke came out of her mouth and ears. It was disgusting, that couldn't be natural, or normal.
"Hello Shamrock." She croaked, only it wasn't her voice, it was the voice of someone much older, ancient practically. "I am the Oracle of Delphi, Speaker of the prophecies of Pheobus Apollo approach seeker and ask."
It was as though I had no control over my own actions. I moved forward. "What must I do to find my father?" I didn't even know what I was saying, but I felt oddly calm for being out of control.
"Five will go west to the land of death
One will leave in the land of the grain
Four will continue to the land of toxic breath
One will remain with extreme pain
Four will enter the Underworld
Six will come out to the land of the sun
And reach Olympus as the day is done" Rachel steadied herself and looked at me.
"A prophecy has been issued. Shamrock who will you take with you?" Chiron said. I looked around.
"Grace and Lilly." I said slowly, she nodded. I turned. "Annabeth." Annabeth nodded. "Percy." Percy looked up from the Diet Coke can he had been kicking around.
"Where are we going?" He asked. Annabeth rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand.
"We'll go pack. We can leave tonight." She said.
I frowned. "Hold up, did anyone notice that poem had a different rhyme scheme?"
"A what?" Percy asked.
"Well most prophecies are AA, BB, AA but this one was ABABCAA it had one more line and that extra line had no rhyme." I said.
"You seriously notice these things?" Percy asked.
"He's right!" Annabeth said. "That could mean it wasn't given by Apollo or that he ran out of rhymes."
"No I know Apollo better than anyone else at this camp, and my uncle never runs out of rhymes. Believe me if he had I would know by now. Have you ever heard his limericks?" I started.
"We get the point, let's just go pack." Grace said, laying a hand on my shoulder and causing me to jump and yelp.
"Would you not do that?" I asked.
"Do what?" She asked.
"You know sneak up on me!" I said.
She blushed. "Sorry."
"It's okay, just don't do it." I sighed. We headed back to our cabin and started to pack.
I stuck a sleeping bag, pillow, tooth brush two spare hunting tunics and a dog whistle in my back pack. Thank the gods they're enchanted. Then as an afterthought I opened my drawer and gabbed the box out. I stuck it in the back pack and we assembled for dinner.
It had only been about twenty minutes and news of our quest and prophecy had spread like wild fire. Will Solace told me good luck and about a dozen campers came over to the hunters table wishing us luck, and much to Grace's disgust Nico wished us luck.
We assembled at Thalia's pine, I left Emily in charge with specific orders to tell Thalia where I went and not what I was doing, we didn't even know that. Argus decided that since I could drive just to let us take the van. As I climbed in the driver's seat Grace raised an eyebrow.
"You are going to drive?" She said skeptically.
"Yes, Apollo taught me how to drive." I said. Putting the keys in the ignition and buckling my seat belt.
"When?" She asked.
"When I was like eleven." I answered. "Now buckle up or I'm not going anywhere." She buckled her seat belt. I turned around, Percy and Annabeth were snuggled up together, they were buckled and Lilly was gazing out the window also buckled. Good. I drove away from camp, Grace put in a CD she had brought with her. I turned to her. "Really? Irish music?"
"You be quite, it's better than the stuff you listen too!" She scolded.
"Hey, don't insult the lyre, I know it's pretty bad at first, but it grows on you!" I said.
"Here then try this one," She pulled out a different CD labeled. Shamrock's Lullaby "Apollo gave me this, he said it calmed you down and that there were fifteen different versions on here." She skipped a head to the fifth track.
"He did a Celtic version?" I asked.
"Yes he also did a Middle Eastern one but that's pretty bad." She wrinkled her nose. Lilly coughed, Grace turned and grimaced.
"What?" I asked not taking my eyes off the road; I glanced once in the rearview mirror. "Oh really? Annabeth would it kill you two to wait to make out or something."
"Why?" Percy asked.
"Um we're all hunters." I said.
"Oh yeah, sorry." They blushed and sat separately
"Thank you." Grace and Lilly said.
Soon it was getting dark, we had reached Ohio and decided to stay in a hotel for the night, we stayed in the dingiest hotel seven that was possible. Grace, Lilly and Annabeth scowled when they saw the room, two beds, a couch and a television. We didn't look at the bathroom and when we did we decided that it would be best to not shower.
Grace and I pulled out sleeping bags, Lilly hesitated but grabbed hers. Percy climbed in one bed and Annabeth in the other. Based on the look Grace had on her face as we lay down she was not too happy with the sleeping arrangements.
Soon everyone was asleep, Grace and I were in our sleeping bags in between the couch and the bed, a comfortable spot for one but nearly invading for two, Lilly was on the couch and Percy and Annabeth on the beds.
In the morning I woke to Grace brushing her hair, I didn't tell her I was awake because I love to watch her brush her hair, call me what you may, but I might have a slight obsession with her hair. She turned around and raised her eyebrows.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Oh, um nothing." I said, I could tell she didn't believe me but oh well. We checked out and went to the parking lot. It was empty. "I could have sworn I parked here last night."
"You did." Grace said.
I frowned. "Then where's our car?"
"It got stolen!" Grace rolled her eyes. "I told you to take the keys with you!"
"We're in the middle of nowhere, how was I supposed to know it would get stolen!" I yelled.
"Gee Shamrock, I don't know, maybe its common sense that would make you take the keys!" She shouted.
"Oh common sense now is it! Are you saying I lack common sense?" I questioned.
"Yes I am! You are reckless with everything!" She yelled.
"I am not!" I insisted.
"You fell of a damn cliff!" She screamed, and that's how I knew she was not mad she was blinded with white hot fury, because she never curses unless she's furious.
"Oh so that's my fault is it!" I yelled.
"Yes if you had listened and calmed down then things would have been fine!" She shouted.
"Would they really have been? What on earth is your problem?" I asked.
"My problem is I can't live every day of my life wondering how much longer it will be until you get us into a life or death incident, or how long it is until I lose you again!" She yelled.
"Why would you care if I died?" I yelled, maybe this was a little over the top but I was a bit angry at her right now.
A little mean don't you think, she –
"Just shut up!" I shouted to Conscious but Grace clearly thought I was talking to her.
"Fine I will and just so you now I would care if you died, because you're the person I trust the most." She snapped and stormed off.
"I'll go get her." Annabeth said.
"I'll help." Lilly said.
Percy whistled. "I don't know what you just did but the biggest mistake you can possibly make it to make a girl who can kill you in your sleep mad."
"Be quite Percy!" I snapped and sat on the curb.
Couldn't you be a bit nicer?
Oh be quite.
Maybe you can make him see reason Wild.
Shamrock, she cares about you. A lot more than you think.
She's so-o aggravating though.
No offence but you aren't the easiest person to live with either.
Yeah, you're right, but neither is she
She knows that. I know that. You know that, but you could be a bit more docile
Yeah because she was so docile
Don't get sarcastic with me!
"Shamrock." Percy snapped his fingers in front of my face. "Shamrock. Shamrock!"
"What!" I snapped.
"I found a car." He pointed to a silver Girl Scouts of America van.
"Are we really going to steal from the Girl Scouts?" I raised my eyebrows. "Yes, yes we are."
"You just answered our own question." Percy pointed out.
"So? Look Percy just go get the girls please." I rubbed my temple. Percy nodded and ran around the corner.
The day was warm and there was a slight breeze blowing. The parking lot was empty except for that Girl Scout Van, the cement was old and full of pot holes, the white lines faded and in daylight the Motel 7 looked even worse than it had last night. Which is saying something.
The paint was chipped and the L in the sign had fallen off and hung limply under it. The sign no longer lit up and last night I had nearly run into it. The door didn't close, and inside dust had gathered on the bench in the lobby, half the time the guy wasn't even behind the desk and there was an odd smell under one of the beds that we hadn't been brave enough to check out.
It took a long time for Percy to get the girls and when they did come back Grace glared at me like the huntress of Artemis she was. I sighed and climbed in the driver's seat, there were three seats up front, three in the back and boxes of cookies in the trunk. Lilly climbed into the middle seat next to me and Grace sat on the other side of her. Behind me Percy had stretched out and looked like he was about to take a nap.
"Percy, Annabeth has to sit down." I told him as I bent down to hot wire the car, as I had done many times with Apollo's. I got the car started, Annabeth climbed in and finally I could drive away. "Let's hope we didn't steal from the Daisy's"
Lilly bent down and grabbed something. "Daisy troop 62." She showed me the badge. "Only you would steal from five year olds."
"Of course I did, just one more thing on my list of things to balance out." I muttered.
"What's on there so far?" Grace asked.
"Well the time we stole clothes from your mom, the time I stole clothes in the 1700's and this." I frowned.
"Wow." She muttered "So falling off a cliff, killing four people, and setting Ellis Island on fire aren't on there?"
"Those are on the list of things I know will never be balanced out." I frowned. "I don't like to steal though but it always seems to come down to that, in fact I pride myself on being a pretty truthful guy, most of the time."
I could see the tension between me and Grace, tension that seemed to thicken as time went on. How is it that yesterday we were so comfortable now were aren't? No that's not it, the tensions been there for months we just kept burying it. The question is when did it start? Probably when we were on the island, after the kissing post incident, that's when it had started. Poor Lilly, we had stuck her in the middle of it all. Literaly.
Lilly seemed fine she had her nose buried in a book but I knew the tension would start taking a toll on her, if not now soon. This time driving was uncomfortable and silent. At least it was until we pulled into Indianapolis, we stopped and Percy called his mom. From there things got bad fast.
"Hey." Percy said. "I have to go home. My mom's sick and Paul wants to take her to the hospital but can't leave Natalie and our neighbors are gone."
"Okay then, this is all part of the prophecy. Go home and take care of your sister and mom." I said. He nodded and blew a dog whistle. Mrs. O'Leary bounded up.
"Thanks, bye Annabeth , I love you." He leaned over and kissed her, and was off. We turned around and the cops were inspecting out van.
"Walk away slowly, then they won't think it was us." I muttered, we turned and walked away. Only problem now was we needed to find a ride that wasn't stolen. We walked into a coffee shop and got four coffees I handed Grace hers and before I could remember that she couldn't have coffee it was gone.
"Hi Sham." She smiled.
"Hi." I said as though I was talking to a pre-schooler
"You know something?" She muttered. "You're kind of cute and I love you."
I nearly spat my coffee all over her. I stood up. "I'm going outside." I walked out of the door and sat down around the corner. Lilly came around and nearly tripped over me. "What?"
"Oh hi. Sham are you okay?" She whispered sitting down next to me. I shook my head, I felt as if something inside me was loose and I was trying desperately to hold on to it just a little bit longer. I shook my head and wrapped my arms around myself. Something inside me burned.
I could feel something going insane, going wild. The last thing I needed another attack on my core.
Lilly put a hand on my shoulder. "Shamrock, I'm not perfect, I'll annoy you, I'll tick you off, I'll say stupid things and take them back but put all of those things aside and you won't find anyone who cares about you more than I do, I'm your sister. You can tell me anything."
I looked up at her and decided I should tell her the truth. "I'm scared." She sat down next to me and put an arm around me.
"It's okay to be scared some times, we all are. Remember what Grace says on caffeine isn't always true." Lilly whispered.
"It was though Lilly; if you saw the look in her eyes then you would know just how true it was. It's terrifying."
Lilly
The poor guys eyes were the size of the moon, he was shaking violently like he was about to throw up it wasn't a good sight. I just wanted him to stop, he was my twin brother I just wanted him to be okay. I could hear Annabeth and Grace coming around the corner.
I looked up at them and motioned for them to go away, he needed his time, and someone who understood what was wrong. Annabeth nodded and led Grace into a nearby book shop. The caffeine had clearly worn off and Grace was wondering what she had done, though I was sure she could tell it was something extreme, and she obviously felt terrible about it. I could only hope Annabeth would explain it to the best of her ability.
Shamrock and I sat there for a little while longer, we probably looked pretty sad, like homeless kids or something. Not one person stopped to make sure the two kids huddled on the street, on close to tears were okay. Soon Shamrock calmed down and we walked to the bookstore. I saw Annabeth and Grace in the back, Annabeth was talking to her, explaining perhaps.
Grace's face was as red as her hair and she looked like she was going to die of embarrassment any second. We headed through the crowded rows of bookshelves and displays. The small bookstore would have really have been quite a quaint place to be if Grace and Shamrock hadn't been in this situation. Seriously was my brother really this clueless about girls? He had lived with twenty of them for the last four (well really three unless you count the cliff incident) months.
Shamrock
I whimpered as Lilly drug me to the back of the bookshop where Grace and Annabeth were talking. I'm sure I looked like a five year old being drug off to somewhere I didn't want to be. Before we got to where they were waiting Lilly turned around suddenly, her auburn curls whacking me in the face.
"Ow." I said spitting strands of her hair out of my mouth, her shampoo may have smelled like strawberries but that's not how it tasted.
"Sorry." She didn't sound very sorry. "Look Shamrock, try to be nice, it's not her fault she said what she did." She begged.
"I know but-"She cut me off.
"No buts! Girls are sensitive to anything guys they like say." She said and stalked off leaving me with no choice but to follow her.
If I'd had a choice I would have run out of the building as fast as the hunter speed would carry me but I had a feeling that if I did that I would be followed and caught quickly.
Run! Get away from here! We can't handle it much longer.
I can't, help me!
You see now you need my help! I don't know how much longer your core being can handle this, and it will affect others around you!
I knew I had to ignore the instinct that told me to run (Which is actually what got me to meet up with Grace in the first place) I went up to Grace and looked at her, she looked back at me. We stood like that for a few more minutes before she hugged me. A silent 'I'm sorry.' I hugged her back, my silent 'it's fine'. Then everything was okay, it all would be.
"Let's go get a bus." I said, the others nodded and we walked out of the bookshop. The bus terminal for greyhound buses was dirty. The benches were covered in gum and cigarette marks. The signs hung limply from their wires. The buses looked clean enough, but that was the outside not the inside. We had to wait for our bus to arrive for half an hour.
Lilly climbed on and sat next to Annabeth, leaving me to sit with Grace, not that I minded. The seats were made of purple leather and had nets on the back of them so you could put things in them. It wasn't the nicest place to sit but it was better than driving a stolen Girl Scout van. We had bought tickets to St. Louis and we were going to take a train from there.
Grace remained rigid, and tense, ready to run if the time came. About an hour into the ride I noticed her relaxing, unlike me she was falling asleep, I was trying my hardest not to bother her but it wasn't easy, I felt like the ADHD was going to lose its mind if I didn't do something.
I let my mind wander to the box in my back pack. I wanted to open it, but something inside of me told me to wait until the quest was over and then open it. Like if I opened it now the whole quest would unravel. It be honest it was the light coming from the box that really freaked me out, it was sea green as though there were several light bulbs lit on the inside, and they were reflecting off of something, but that wasn't possible. The box wasn't big, only nine inches length, and six inches width. What could fit in there that was glowing?
Dreaming.
I was in a hospital room; Apollo had his back to me and was dealing with something that had clearly been wrapped in a blanket at one point. I highly doubted that it was his own child, he wouldn't care that much if it was. He turned, oblivious to the fact that I was in the room. He was indeed holding a child, with a tuft of fuzzy black hair, skin as pale as the moon, its eyes were closed and it slept soundly. He was talking in to the child.
"Yeah, little Aikatrina, its fine, your mommy will be home soon." Apollo cooed the infants face twitched into a scowl. "You're just like your brother. I promise you'll be fine by the solstice." Apollo was worried about something as though maybe the child was sick.
I felt a pang of worry for the kid. She, I assumed it was a girl and with a name like Aikatrina I would hope it was a girl, wasn't more than six days old at most. If she was sick I wondered what it was, slowly at first a faint green glow started around the child. Her eyes flew open and she started screaming a terrible heart shattering scream. Apollo grabbed something off the table, a bottle filled with a green liquid, like Orion's essence had been. The little girl didn't look hungry she looked like she was in pain. A lot of pain.
I wanted to scream at Apollo to take her to see a doctor, or to do something. He was a doctor he should fix it!
Surprisingly though the baby took the bottle and the light subsided. It was weird. The dream faded to black and I slipped into an uneasy sleep.
The Underworld
The hooded figure was watching the Artemis loom moving slowly, the clothes of the older two now long, and you could see where a rough patch was coming up, the older two's lives had been inter twined for a while but once the beginnings of the next cloth joined he could see Chaos. Especially for the boy, Shamrock.
Shamrock had been the intended one. Give Artemis a child she hates, a child she could never love, a child who hates his very existence. That plan had become momentarily foiled when Artemis found she could love the child.
Lilly had been nothing but a mistake, he ought to have guessed that when you have the goddess of fertility you're bound to get more than one, but that was okay things had tied in perfectly. Still those two were still too perfect for his liking, they may have had hard childhoods but they weren't dying.
That was where the third cloth tied in, the cloth of the dying child. A child who was doomed to die, even Apollo couldn't stop that. All the figure had to do was remove one thread and the child was doomed. That was perfect. Artemis couldn't stand it when children died. This was perfection, he could finally cause her more pain then she had caused him, and he could cause that fool Orion pain too.
Orion, how he detested that name, if he had his way it would have been Orion that had been killed on sight. Not him, but no. Artemis had loved Orion, he was a decent male and all too perfect for Artemis for the figures taste. Orion would have been a good father, too bad she had killed him, they could have gotten married and had their own kids but her virgin oath kept her from doing that.
The figures thoughts were interrupted by Sean O'Donally running into the room. He was painting and sweating. He stopped to catch his breath and looked at the figure.
"It's all in place we just need, Shamrock, Lilly, Annabeth and- and Grace to arrive and the plan will work perfectly." He panted.
Under his hood the figure smiled demonically. "Good, good now tell me, what is Shamrocks biggest weakness?"
"His mother." Sean said. The figure nodded.
What the figure hadn't known was the Sean had lied to him, Shamrocks biggest weakness was Grace, but he couldn't let anything else happen to his sister, she had been through too much. It was better to put an immortal through what they had planned...
I'm back! I can't really dedicate this to anyone at the moment. Anyway I am at my grandparents house and decided that I would publish this. Because there is nothing else to do around here. Updates will be on Wednesdays and regularly.
Guess what? America is weird! The food makes me sick too, but that's kind of always whats happened. I haven't made a small child cry in weeks, that happened In Korea because I'm blonde! Anyway I'll shut up now...