Second chapter, alrighty, this is where I'll have switching perspectives for the characters. Don't like it, bear with me please, because I find it more comfortable to write and read like this. With that said, good reading!
Artemis
Two years, it's been two years since the saviour of Olympus vanished, and it frustrated me. Poseidon was mad that Zeus wouldn't tell him what happened during the private conversation between him and Percy, while even Zeus was surprised that Percy was nowhere to be found and sent me of course to find him. Nothing was able to evade me for that long, especially a boy. With the new Great Prophecy issued by Rachel, the gods were no doubt nervous about how long this peace would last. Nevertheless, besides finding Percy, I just had two new Hunters join the hunt, Christina, child of Hermes, and Jackelyn, child of Hecate. Percy would have to wait, giving experience to my new sisters were more important.
"Everything's going as planned milady." said Thalia. As I looked at my lieutenant, I could clearly see the dark circles hanging underneath the baggy eyelids due to insomnia. Ever since Percy left, Thalia had no one else to talk to besides the Hades boy in hopes that he found their cousin.
"As expected, tell me, have there been any mistakes that Christina and Jackelyn made so far?" I asked, giving Thalia something else to think about and to see what her observations were.
"Christina has a habit of digging her foot into the ground making enough sound that would alert a full grown hellhound giving it enough time to escape, Jackelyn is too focused on being prepared to draw her bow instead of paying attention to the tracks and listening to her surroundings." noted Thalia as I nodded at her. Of course, there were several other mistakes that I saw, but those were the two main mistakes that needed to be fixed. Before anything else could be said, Christina raised her hand, signaling that the hellhound wasn't too far. Bows drawn as they sighted the young hellhound eating the remains of a rabbit, they circled the hellhound so there would be no escape. I then signaled to Jackelyn, giving her permission to kill, and it was then where everything went wrong.
The moment the arrow flew, the hellhound flickered for a brief second before completely disappearing, only for a larger ring of monsters to surround us. In a matter of seconds, I knew that we were the ones being hunted as I scanned my enemies. A horde of hellhounds growled at us while several Cyclops stomped the ground, ready to strike, but something was holding them back. Harpies were everywhere in the trees, outnumbering us greatly, when a man stepped in front of the monsters.
"Who are you?" I said, bow aimed right at his heart, ready to fire. The man's eyes were pulsing blood red, clad in blood colored clothes while red sparks crackled at his fingertips. Clearly this was the one in control of the monsters, shooting him would give us at least a few seconds to reduce the numbers to our playing field as I bit back my lip. I had forgotten to tell the Christina and Jackelyn about what to do should I have to use my godly form to eradicate the monsters and I was not willing to lose them due to my ignorance.
"Who am I? I am but a pawn, a pawn that is to be well rewarded in this much larger game should I take down one of the enemies' bishop." he said, his lips curling into a smile.
"You think you can kill a goddess boy?" I smirked. Give boys an army and they think they can do whatever they want, typical.
"Actually, I think I can, with this that is." the mysterious blood clad figure replied, opening a blood red portal. What is it with him and the color of blood, stupid boy, I thought, only to blanch as I saw him pull out Backbiter, the sword version of Kronos scythe. " Like I said, it doesn't matter who I am, the others could've been the ones to kill you, but I've never seen the blood of a godly immortal before, how it would run down you as your very life leave you." grinned the sadistic man, signaling for his monster to attack.
As the monsters charged, he lifted the cursed blade to strike, I tried to move away, but found myself frozen to the ground, only to wait for my death coming towards me. I knew the moment the blade touched me, I would begin to fade. The hunt would lose their blessings should I fade, and be no more. I closed my eyes, cursing myself for my foolishness for falling for such a trap.
As I waited for death to arrive, it didn't come. Replacing it was a cry that sounded throughout the woods.
I love cliffhangers, don't you? Yea, this chapter was kinda short, sorry, but I didn't really feel like describing every detail of the hunt for the "hellhound". See you next chapter!