Chapter 4

A Wolf's Lackey

After the little fight with the hellhounds, the hunters of Artemis seemed pretty demoralized. I couldn't tell if it was me or the Hellhounds that caused them to look be this way. Phoebe hauled me off to a large tent. Who's name I just learned—Thalia followed along. I was dragged around like a ragdoll by Phoebe as she sat me down in a chair. She then began to tend to my wounds. I could tell she was giving it a half- assed job. All she did was dump some freezing cold water onto my hand and wrapped it in some 2nd grade tattered bandages, but hey… it stopped the bleeding.

Conversation was no where held inside the tent I was in. Phoebe looked like she was being punished and Thalia (the nicer one) seemed to be watching over Phoebe, in which I was grateful.

I decided to break the silence with some small talk. "You guys handle yourselves quite well in a fight." Phoebe looked a me with disgust.

"What were you thinking?" Asked Thalia with disappointed tone of voice. "Why were spying on the other hunters?"

"Spying?" I said trying to understanding how they feel about me. "I just happened to smell something to eat and I am pretty famished."

"Wait a second." Thalia walked up to me and grabbed my non sliced hand. "This is empusa magic!" Said Thalia.

"That it is Miss Thalia." I said nonchalantly taking back my hand.

"But how are you using that type of magic? You'd have to be acquainted with the goddess Hecate for that to happen."

"Well Miss Thalia, I'm not. An empusa gave me this mark and as far as I know is the one using the magic." Thalia and Phoebe seemed shocked by my answer. "Its showing me the way to Camp Half Blood."

"You must have figured out already that your a demigod then. " Said Thalia

"Oh, I knew that for a long time now." I stood up off the nursing station. "Now I just need to..." I was cut off by my stomach growling. Thalia noticed and dug into a nearby satchel. She pulled out a block of what looked like a brownie.

"Here." She handed me the block of food and I happily accepted it.

"Itadakimasu." I sad great fully as I scarfed down the food. It weirdly tasted the food I ate back in the other hell. Something called Met Cubes. They were small sugar sweets made by the best chefs in hell. They were my go to thing to eat. My little but older immortal sister always found a way to steal them away from me. "I'm Damien by the way. Wow, what is this stuff?" I said finishing off the rest of the block.

Thalia had a smirk on her face. "Its called ambrosia and it pretty much proves your a demigod."

"If you weren't you would have burst into flames by now." Said Phoebe in a some what disappointed tone.

"So you took a gamble and gave me something that could potentially kill me?" I said.

"Not really." Thalia looked outside the tent. "The way you handled yourself and the fact that you can see through the mist basically confirmed my suspicion that you were a demigod."

"So I take it your demigods as well?"

Thalia nodded. "Zeus, the king of gods, is my father."

"One of the big three, eh?" I stood up and walked out of the tent. I took a good look around. "Where's your little ring leader gone off to?"

"Lady Artemis is no mere ring leader!" Said Phoebe obviously offended.

"Calm down Phoebe." Said Thalia cutting Phoebe off from the speech she was about to give. "She's in her tent over there." Thalia pointed at a large tent across the camp.

"Artemis, eh?" I had my fingers on my chin thinking about… things. "I should give my thanks before heading out."

"Your just going to up and leave like that." Said Thalia.

"I assume your just going to call it even and take your leave then?" That was a voice that came from behind me. I turned to find Artemis standing behind me.

"Artemis, goddess of the hunt, the virgin."

"Correct." Said Artemis.

"I thought you'd be taller." I stood directly in front of Artemis and right into her eyes. "And forgive me."

"What for exactly?"

"Not only for my actions to day, but for what has happened for you to be this way towards males. I can see the pain in your eyes."

I briefly sensed the presence of Artemis' true power. She preceded to back hand me across the face. As you would expect, it hurt… a lot. She then placed her finger on my forehead and positioned my head to meet her gauze. "I don't need sympathy from the likes of you, boy."

"Yes, ma'am." I said not wanting to get hurt again.

"Glad you understand." Artemis then pushed me with her single finger and I fell back into the snow. "We'll have dinner and afterwards I'll see about your punishment."

"Well I did help fend off those hell hounds. Did I not? That should compensate for something shouldn't it.

"That you did, but you harmed my hunters. Something that I could never forgive." I thought back when I held that one hunter by the neck. The fear on her face...

I had a sense of guilt in my stomach. "Very well I'll follow your punishment by any means. What I did was out of artificial anger and can't be over looked because of my irresponsible actions.

Artemis and I locked eyes with each other, again. After a while she walked on past me.

"She's quite beautiful, is she not?"

Phoebe punched me in the side of the head. "You watch that dirty tongue of yours."

"Okay, okay." I said rubbing my head.

Time passed and spent the majority of it sitting against a tree on the very edge of the camp in the freezing cold. The camp was silent and no hunters were in sight. Soon a familiar face appeared.

Thalia walked up to me. "I need you real quick, Damien. Follow me."

"Sure thing." Anything was better than just sitting around, waiting to be punished. We walked over to one of the tents. Inside were a large group of hunters including Phoebe.

"Here. I brought him." Said Thalia to the other hunters.

"Wait. What's this about?" I said slightly scared.

"Nothing much. Your just going to be preparing our meal for us."

"Cooking?"

Phoebe walked up in front of me. "Well we didn't want to miss the opportunity to have our own slave.

"Slave?"

One of the hunters, a mere child, eleven years old, walked up to me. "You'll be cooking with me." The girl said in a assertive tone, yet I could still hear fear in her voice. Then I realized that was the hunter I held by the neck. My heart sunk at that very moment.

"I guess I could help out." The other hunters left except for Thalia, Phoebe, and the little lady. There was a table laid out with the meat that was over the fire earlier, various fruits and nuts, and seasonings.

The girl was next to me in front of the table. Due to her height she had stand on a chair to reach over multiple things on the table. "I need you to cut up the meat." Said the girl as she handed me a fancy silver kitchen knife.

"Will do." I took the knife from the girl. "I'm Damien, by the way."

"Lora." Said the girl. She had her long blonde hair behind her. Her eyes were a light blue.

"Listen." I began cutting the meat into serving sized pieces. "What I did to you was unfair and I'm sorry."

Lora was silent for awhile. Thalia and Phoebe remained silent. "That wasn't your fault. After all, we attacked you first."

"That doesn't change my morals. I made you feel unnecessary fear, so I am truly sorry for that."

"I- I forgive you, but you have no right to worry about how I feel."

"I guess you right there, but I can't control my emotions." I began making plates and of course the plates were silver. I'd place two well cut pieces of meat onto a plate and Lora would add the fruit and nuts.

With the food prepped I brought plate by plate out to a table that was prepared for the food. That got me thinking. Just how do they move all this stuff when they pack up and leave? The table with silk table cloth sitting right by the fire. The campers planted themselves in a seat. I was lucky enough to be able sit at the table. I sat in-between Thalia (to my left) and Lora (to my right). Phoebe sat across from Thalia and kept giving me the stink eye. So did a couple of other hunters. Soon Artemis joined the table and hunters stopped talking. She sat right in between Phoebe and Thalia. Artemis gave a little speech and their plan of action. They were going to be leaving for camp half blood right after they finished eating.

When she finished talking she focused her attention towards me. "So, for your punishment…" Phoebe looked like a child who just learned they were going to "Disney World".

"Wait, milady." Lora spoke up.

"What is it?" Artemis had the sweetest voice when talking to her hunters, but no so much with me.

Lora held her hands together and continued to look down as she talked. "Damien apologized to me already so I don't think a punishment is really necessary."

Artemis was prepared to speak but kind of butted in. "Don't worry Lora. If its not death I'll only be in physical and mental pain. So I'll be okay." Lora looked as if she was done talking.

Artemis was currently about to deliver her verdict. "Damien will serve as our lackey on our way to camp half blood." Chef? Lackey? Slave? Those are the only things I'm good for here with the hunters.

"Very well. I'll serve as the lackey for the hunters of Artemis."

"Good." Said Artemis. Phoebe on the other hand wasn't as satisfied with my punishment, but I'm sure that she isn't going to make it any more easy.

"By the way, Artemis." I said.

"What is it, boy"

"The boy, Percy Jackson."

"You know about Percy?" Asked Thalia.

"Kind of, yeah. Only known mortal son of Poseidon, the hero of Olympus, fights gods."

Artemis spoke up. "What about him."

I then spoke like my brother, a god of death. "What were to happen if I killed him?"