Annabeth's Story (continued):
I held the arrow in my hands; my fingers slid over the feathers- eyes of Argus, peacock feathers. Jason and the Hunters never should have rescued her. On the head of the arrow was a shimmery, golden, "J". Juno – Hera's Roman name.
Then I heard a howl in the distance- deep inside the fog. The sound of feet splashing through the snow and brief incomprehensible shouts followed. I didn't back down- not now. I couldn't run from whatever was coming- I had nowhere to go, whatever it was had the advantage. As it was, I had evaded Juno's attempt to strike me dead, perhaps that was only her attempt only to get to me first.
A silhouette emerged in the fog- just a shadow, rushing at me. Then a second one appeared. And a third. I held my knife out, shivering with fear- perhaps the cold too- but mostly fear. I could see more of them- but they had stopped running.
I stepped forward, hating now very much that I was alone and could be gobbled up without anyone ever noticing or caring- heck, there's a chance even Seaweed Brain won't remember me.
Shaking, I heard the snow crunch under my boots.
"Salve, filia Minervae *," A voice called out. I first noticed: it was a girl's voice- what a relief! But wait- why was Juno trying to kill me then? Oh, that's right, because she's Juno; I shouldn't have been so surprised, she never wanted me getting involved- to possibly be a hero. But I guess it's like that for just about every hero- except for Jason that is- at least it isn't as awful as what she did to Hercules.
I lowered my knife. Then, I actually tried to think of what they had said- why does everyone all the sudden have to say everything in Latin? English is a perfectly good language you know.
I wanted to call out, 'No speak-ere Lingua Latin!" If I did, I'd never be taken seriously again. So I began, "Salve! Um…" I couldn't think of anything else I knew how to say. I probably should have gone with my first thought- I must have seemed pretty stupid anyway.
With my knife down at my side, the group approached. I could see them- the Hunters of Diana. They were dark-haired and pale-eyed, dressed in furs with wolves sitting at their feet. These hunters looked a lot like Artemis's hunters, but something told me they weren't. These hunters were older- the youngest being no younger than fifteen. They all seemed quite serious- in a way that Artemis's hunters never were- they didn't smile or suggest that they were in anyway happy to see me- helping me it seemed, was nothing more than another task for them to complete.
"…Ergo, ego Bellatrix, et-**" One of the girls- the one wearing a red fox fur cape began speaking. Ugh! She thought I knew Latin…
"No, no, I don't speak Latin," I interrupted.
"Oh, sorry, why didn't you say something earlier?" the girl in the fox cape asked.
"I'm learning."
"You're recently claimed then? Congrats!" another girl butted in.
"Actually no… I'm Greek."
They gasped as though it were some scandalous news. The girl in the fox cape spoke up first, "Oh, a daughter of Athena, I should say then. By the way, I don't know if you caught this earlier- you don't speak Latin, so probably not, but I am Bellatrix. And these are the rest of the hunters."
They went around introducing themselves, starting with: "Fauna," followed by:
"Aurora."
"Meg."
And "Luna."
As though I'd ever remember all of these names, there were only five of them- a surprisingly small group, but they all looked alike. Upon further inspection, I noticed that they all wore different animal furs and that would be incredibly helpful if I actually knew who wore which.
"So, what is our mission?" Bellatrix asked. I could remember Bellatrix- she must have been their leader. "Our patron, Diana, called us to you- to help you or whatever."
"Artemis- I mean, Diana, was helping me look for…" I decided saying 'my boyfriend' might not be the greatest word choice considering I was talking to a small group of dedicated, anti-boy, hunters. "-For my friend, Percy Jackson. He disappeared a few months ago and I have reason to believe that he may have been taken to the Roman demigod camp. Artemis- Diana- agreed but told me she couldn't leave her hunters- the Greek ones- to help me find it, so she called you in."
They nodded, but definitely weren't happy with my explanation. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned Artemis was with the Greek hunters, that just might have struck a nerve. If it did, they tried to cover it well- really tried to.
"Okay, then." Bellatrix spoke up to break the awkward quiet. "We should start moving- we're going on foot if that's okay with you, filia Minervae."
"Actually, it's Annabeth- my name," I was quickly getting sick of Latin. "And it's just fine." Not ideal, by foot could take months, I was barely out of New Jersey and we were headed west- California, west- but it had to be just fine- I had no other choice.
I packed up my tent while they stood by to watch, never lifting a finger to help. Then, we left trudging through the snow, frost, and freezing cold. Lucky me.
As I stumbled along, I pulled out a photograph of me and Percy- Chiron had taken it last summer. I had kept it in my coat pocket. We were both smiling and I was actually happy, really happy, perhaps happier than I've ever been before- and it seemed he was too. Looking at this almost made me start crying again- I couldn't do that now- not in front of the hunters. This was all for you, Seaweed Brain. All for you.
I didn't want to think about Percy and since the hunters seemed to enjoy traveling in silence or near silence- since the hunter wearing a badger-fur coat and the hunter in the rabbit-fur cloak were chatting about some hunting technique or another- so I let my thoughts drift back to Camp Half-Blood- home. When I left, Leo had been working on his new idea for a ship- the Argo II- I think. He was trying to figure out how to set flames to it without it instantly burning and then sinking. The poor boy did it on a smaller scale, and pushed it around with his finger in a bowl of water. Unfortunately, the boat was actually on fire- so therefore he was the only one who could touch it. I bet right now, he was probably still drawing up plans and Jason and Piper were probably doing… whatever they do. And I'd bet Clarisse was working on some new weapon that Chiron will declare illegal and shortly after have to confiscate. Thinking of all that made me smile.
"What are you smiling at?" A girl in a bob-cat hood started. "Oh, who's this?" she said, snatching the photo of me and Percy from my grip.
"Hey! Don't!" I pleaded.
"A boy?" the girl laughed. "Are you serious?"
"Just give it back!" I whined, grabbing for it, but the girl held it out of my reach.
"Aurora!" Bellatrix whipped her head around when she heard the commotion. "What is it?"
The girl in the bob-cat hood hooted, waving the picture around, "It's a picture of her and some boy!"
"Please!" I whimpered.
Bellatrix rolled her eyes, "Aurora, give it back to her. It obviously has some importance to Annabeth."
"Give it back to her?" Aurora asked, surprised. "But what about Diana's-"
"Annabeth is not a hunter- let her keep her picture," Bellatrix declared making me feel all the more like some outsider.
"Fine," Aurora grumbled dropping my photograph into the snow. I picked it up, whipped the snow off of it, and put it back in my coat pocket. I'd have to be more careful with what I show them- I guess.
We walked for another hour before taking a break to rest- even though we walked entirely through wilderness and covered a good distance, I doubted we had even left Pennsylvania or for that matter even made a dent in our travels. Walking was not going to be fun- perhaps I can opt to take a bus or something and just meet them over in California.
"Who was that in your picture?" One of the girls asked- this time it was a hunter wearing a brown jacket with what looked like a hood made out of squirrel skins- that would be gross, but she made it look nice and warm, stitched up and cleaned.
I pulled the picture out of my pocket- squirrel girl didn't seem mean enough that she might want to tear it up or anything. "That's my friend, Percy- Percy Jackson, the one we're looking for."
"He's your friend? Or your boyfriend?"
I hesitated before answering.
"I won't bite- it's just Aurora who's gone over the edge a little- she might actually bite," Squirrel girl joked.
"He's my boyfriend, and I would like to rescue him from the Roman camp, okay?" I muttered.
"I knew it!" Squirrel girl grinned. "Quit worrying so much. Really! Well, maybe not so much around Aurora- or Fauna- even Bellatrix, kinda… The rest of us though."
"That's three already, and there's only five of you."
"Alright, then, your 'secret's' safe with me. Aurora was just mad because of what happened before she joined our little group," Squirrel girl began.
"What happened?" I asked.
"She's had her fair share of boyfriends- each worse than the last and she's not shy about sharing any of this- I've heard it so many times- look at me- I can tell myself. Anyway, one day she just couldn't handle it anymore- and so she joined us. She's a daughter of Mars- they aren't great at dealing with emotions- but I'm sure you probably already knew that."
"Luna and Annabeth!" Bellatrix called, "We'd better keep walking- we should go a few more miles before stopping for the night."
Luna- that must have been Squirrel girl's name. I shoved my photograph back into my pocket- happy now that if anything, I at least had an ally.
Footnotes/Translation:
* Hello, Daughter of Minerva
** ...Well, I am Bellatrix and-
I decided to add in other characters- will not be doing too much of this as I do plan to stick with stuff from the books and Greek and Roman mythology. Please, write a review- as I would love to hear what you think! (Love it, like it, or hate it - I'd love to hear about that).
Also additional note:
new characters were not pulled from or inspired by Harry Potter.
Bellatrix is the name of a star, and means "warrior woman" (which I thought was fitting for the character)
Luna is Latin for moon- one of Diana's symbols
the other names fit with the theme of Diana's symbols, etc.
