Chapter 6
The story Be-hind the hind (get it?)
(P.O.V. Alex)
I bet others thought the crunching of my teeth and the smack of my lips together with every chip I ate out of the bowl was annoying. I also bet I looked like a mad man as I devoured my third bowl of chips and guacamole. But I didn't much care for proper etiquette in that moment as I was enjoying the salty green gift from the gods before me. Though as I lost myself in the nirvana before me, I heard someone cough off to my left. Forcing myself to turn my head while trying desperately not to aggravate my cuts and bruises. When I finally manage to shift my gaze over there without hurting myself, I am sadly met with two pairs of curios eyes belonging to my new friend's Aqua lad and stalker chick (get it?). they stared at me in quiet expectation as I slipped some guac on a chip down to lilly slowly and in an almost comedic awkward silence. She munched on the chip eagerly as it seems Amanda had finally learned how to speak." So…are you going to tell us how you got…that?" she managed to ask as she gestured to lilly who was still munching on her chip at my feet. Being the Ass I am though I bent down and began to pat Lillie's head lightly, while at the same time giving Amanda a small pout "she's not a THAT Amanda, she's my cute little baby girl!" I told her off in a teasing baby voice causing me to receive not only a glare from her but a small chuckle from the boy next to her.
"Well my dear if you insist upon my telling of the epic tail behind the hind! Why it all started not too long ago- "I began in my best story tellers accent, making sure to exaggerate every word. Only to receive a sharp pain in my side as she had jabbed at one of my wounds' fine I'll do it your way!... anyways it started maybe right after you left- "
My vison was blurry, my head had a dull ache in it, my limbs felt like lead. At least that's how I felt as my body awoke from what had to be a short-lived coma. As my vision cleared, I made sense of two things. The first being the massive amount of pain in my head, the second being the girl before me. With her blond hair and grey eyes "your awake" she spoke with a strangely sharp sense of indifference. "good morning to you to princess… mind explaining to me why I'm here…again." I spoke with a hint of spite in my tone as I was not entirely ready to deal with this sort of thing with my splitting headache in tow. "First of all never call me that again if you want to live, secondly you're here because your oh so powerful mother is about as smooth as a pineapple." Now the first question I wanted to ask was why of all things a pineapple? But knowing that could get me knocked out for a few hours more I went with my second option.
"So, I take it my introduction didn't sit to well?" This would receive a laugh from her as she replied oh so kindly with "that is the understatement of the century. It's good to see someone else be the punching bag of the gods though." For some reason, I felt as if I should take that statement with a grain of salt as it seemed important for later. "Anyways, I'm here because I've got a message for you from the hunters have a job for you, and none of them wanted to come near you." Well it was good to know that my dozens of adopted sisters just adore me. You know, enough to knock me out, avoid me, and make me their errand boy (now that I thought back on it, it seems strangely like a normal family relationship). Unfortunately, I knew that if I wanted any sort of relationship with my mother, I'd have to make nice with them for now.
"so what exactly is this JOB you speak of." I could only ask her with a very exaggerated sigh as I rubbed my hand on my temples in an attempt to make the pain go away. This prompted a shrug from her apparently" knowing those girls their going to pull you through Tartarus by your toes." Even knowing that statement didn't answer my question, I was more focused on trying to avoid saying my reply on how women in general do that to me anyway. This came from the fear of being knocked out for the third time in two days, and not waking up this time." You might want to pack a weapon incase though. Because most likely your fighting your first monster today." My eyebrow didn't take long to raise sky high after that statement." So, your just ok with this. The new guy dragged off by a strange group of people he doesn't know. Likely never to return again?" I must admit that it seems like this camp has one heck of a stranger danger policy. Once again this only earned me a silent shrug "Why not, it practically happens every other week here. Should've seen my boyfriend's first time here." For once I was happy not to hear a story, because Annabeth was chuckling under her breath like a maniac. Anything that managed to make a girl like her laugh had to be either really funny or really scary.
"Fine, but the moment someone asks me if I want some candy I'm out." I told her as I managed to finally stand from my oh so familiar bed. Shaking the dizzy feeling from my head I made for the door, only to feel a hand clap close on my shoulder. "Hold on their ginger boy, you can't go outside camp without a weapon. Luckily though they may not like you, they have a little respect for you. Being that your Artemis son after all." She waved me over to a nearby corner where there laid a few interesting items. The main item being a large recurve longbow, it seemed to be made of some kind of bronze. I picked it up and proceeded to pull back on the strings to test the draw strength. When I had managed to pull it back long enough that I felt the string wouldn't snap on me, I shifted my gaze to the sight which seemed to be at the right eye level.
When I finally felt confident that my weapon wouldn't break in the middle of the fight, I finally went to examine the other item, it seemed to be a simple quiver made of some sort of white animal fur and leather. What was far more interesting to me though were the arrows in the quiver, each of them was made from the same shiny bronze material as the bow itself. Though the only difference between them being the coloured stripes near the feathers at the end.
"before you go off into another bout of questions, let me answer them for you." Annabeth began as if reading my thoughts (freaky). "The metal these are made out of is called celestial bronze, it's one of a few know metals to be able to slay monsters, and so far, the easiest to access. Now from what the hunters told me, each arrow has a coloured stripe meant to represent its abilities. The blue ones are signal flares, the ones without a stripe are regular arrows, and the green ones are...sadly imbued with Greek fire." Wondering what exactly Greek fire was I raised my hand. Once again as if reading my mind, she answered (am I THAT easy to read?).
"Ever Watched game of thrones?" she asked before I gave her a nod of confirmation. "it's just like wild fire but much much worse." I couldn't help that my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets after hearing this. That was a lot of power to give to someone who was barely a teenager. "I recommend you don't use one of those unless you have absolutely no other choice." She told me with a rather serious look as she handed me my new-found gear. Pushing me out the door she gave me a warm reminder to 'try not to die' as she so eloquently put it. Finally managing to gather what little sanity I had left at this point, I strapped the quiver on to my shoulders and made my way to where I distinctly remember the hunters camp to be.
Somehow one way or another, I somehow managed to get lost anyway. I could've sworn I had been heading in the right direction, but when I got to the spot I could've sworn was where the tents were, all I could see was grass, trees, and broken twigs for miles. I had been walking for what felt like hours, but couldn't have been more than five minutes. My feet felt sore as if the ground had decided to impale my foot. My forehead was drenched in copious amounts of sweat, my breathing heavy as it felt as if a rock had been placed on my chest." Wonder if they have a gym at the camp, probably not but it couldn't hurt to ask, right?" I began talking to myself as if hoping my one-sided conversation would scare my exhaustion away.
Fortunately (or unfortunately) my external monologue was cut short by a squeal, as if a thousand angry fourth graders armed with chalk had scratched it against the board all at once. It ringed though out the area (likely scaring any nearby animals so much they committed to mass extinction). It resounded in the nearby area, bouncing back off the trees once it had hit them. Just as I managed to be able to hear again (also making sure my ears weren't bleeding) I ran in the direction the sound came from. Now I know your probably thinking 'oh sure run TWORD the loud scary noise. I'm sure whatever it is just wants to have a fun little tea party!' and to you good sir/madam I say…I had no idea what I was doing at that point. When I finally found where that sound was coming from, well it could be said I was reasonably surprised at what I found. In the center of the small clearing was a tall stag, its fur a brilliant shade of gold that rivaled the sun, and its antlers were massive, stretching to the sky (how he didn't topple over I still don't know.) Currently it was locking horns with the tusks of a massive boar with a strange greyish brown hide. Its eyes fierce as it struggled against the horns of the stag. Off to the side was however a much grimmer sight. There lay a doe bleeding and horribly wounded, it was obvious to me that she has been dead for a matter of minutes, and nuzzling against her head was a young faun. Its coat much like the brilliant gold of the stags, only slightly dimmer and more so warm than blinding.
Acting on impulse, I ran to the doe and faun as if expecting it to not be afraid of me, though surprisingly it wasn't. more so, it seemed to simply stagger back away from its mother's body as I approached. I did my best to calm it, holding out my hand with my palm facing it. (it works in the movies, right?) slowly it made timid strides word my hand, the ground crunching below its hooves as it slowly approached. For a second, my gaze changed from the faun to the lifeless doe at my feet, I don't know why, but for some reason it saddened me. I had seen dead animals a few times before, but this felt so wrong. A new mother, just killed as if it was nothing. It kind of made me question what the fates plan for me was. As I begun to ponder things id later need much assistance from a therapist for, my thoughts were cut off by a soft feeling against my palm. Looking up I found the young faun rubbing itself against my hand. I couldn't help myself as a rubbed between its ears affectionately. I let out a small chuckle as it gives me a look that if I had to guess, was supposed to be a smile. Sadly though, this gained me the wrong type of attention. Not only a second later the stag turned its head to look at me, but in its distraction allowed the boar to tip it of balance. The boar threw the stag into a nearby tree where it slammed against the trunk, and various cracking noises could be heard. The boar reared its head as it then lowered its tusk to charge at the disoriented stag.
As if by reflex I pulled an arrow from my quiver and notched it, without paying attention to the color of the stripe on it. All I cared about for that half a second, was the little faun with a limp next to me. It had already lost its mother, it didn't deserve to lose its father in the same day. The wind on my face seemed to make time slow down, as I drew back the arrow. I aimed where I needed it to land, and I let it fly. In the next second, my arrow pierced the boars eye, and with another loud squeal it suddenly just evaporated into golden dust. For a moment afterwards I was still, and all but silent as the stag, now with his bearings returned stood and made his way over to me. Only bothering to spare me a glance as it knelt down to nuzzle the fallen doe's head once. Then raised its head and took off into the forest, leaving its only child…alone.
As I finished my story (along with my chips and guac) apparently, I hadn't noticed the large crowd gathered around me listening in. "dude, you actually saw the hind." Percy stated while I was chewing my last mouthful of chips. "That big golden dear thing you saw was the hind. One of the fastest creatures in all Greece." I could only nod in vague understanding at this, as my mind began to drift elsewhere. It seemed as if the only one to notice was my potential stalker (go figure) as she laid a hand on my shoulder. "you look like somethings eating at you, what's up?" she asked with a surprisingly genuine amount of concern. "I…I was wondering, is it just in the nature of immortals to abandon their children? The hind didn't even spare Lilly a glance before he left." As I said this, Amanda seemed to have what id like to call, her first act of genuine kindness to me. She offered me a smile.
A smile which was short lived as at that moment, Chiron came in to the dining pavilion. His face pale as my skin. He looked absolutely terrified and concerned. "Amanda…Alex…I need to speak with you both…alone." Something tells me my day is about to get oh so much worse.
