Sorry, I know it's a little late (I said I would try to get in two a month at least), but I've been busy with exams and school stuff...Ah well, the main thing is it's here now, right?

Felix's POV

I woke up on a hospital bed. There was a weak light coming through some half-closed blinds, but otherwise my surroundings were fairly dim. I groaned as I sat up, felling a dull ache in my ribs. I remembered yesterday fairly clearly, and smiled as I realised that I had beaten Piper. My last minute maneuver had taken her by surprise, and she had landed awkwardly as well - not that I cared much, since she had nearly broken some of my ribs. A tall glass of ambrosia sat on a small table next to me, which I sipped on until it was gone.

I glanced at a clock on the wall, and figured I should just go back to sleep. 6:45 was usually too early for me - hell, 6:45 was usually too early for anyone. Aphrodite kids might be up, doing make-up and stuff, as well as the Athena cabin. They were usually working on some project, and tended to have an addiction for coffee so that they could get up earlier and go to bed late.

But I had slept along time, and felt rested and awake. I sighed, wondering if I would be strong enough to walk. I slid out of bed and landed clumsily on my feet, swaying a little before righting myself. I was still in my grimy clothes from the fight, so I made my way to the my cabin to change and clean up.

It was windy outside, a strong, chilly breeze snapping at me as I hurried best I could to my room. It occurred to me that someone might be worried if they found me missing, but now that I was up I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep. When I opened the door, a gust of wind blew stuff around and slammed the door behind me, but Nico didn't even stir. Still upholding his reputation for 'sleeping like the dead' I thought, smirking.

When I was feeling a little more refreshed, I realised I really had nothing to do. I glanced around mine and Nico's 'organised mess' (or so he liked to call it) and saw I needed more arrows for my bow. Throwing knives were my preferred weapon, but I could work with a bow and arrow as well. And if I ran out of either, I had a wicked sharp dagger, jagged along the edges with purple and silver markings along the handle and blade. My friend, Harley, had made it for me (son of Hephaestus), but Lizzie had enchanted it so that it was more or less invisible. Only I was supposed to be able to see it, but I had later discovered that Nico could see it too, as well Annabeth when she had her invisibility cap on.

She had been intrigued by this, and had spent a good week or so examining and comparing the magic of her cap, given to her by her mum, and my dagger. She said it must have just been that Lizzie had used similar magic to what her cap was enchanted by. It turned out that it worked both ways - when I held my dagger, I could see Annabeth as well. She hadn't been too thrilled by this.

I quickly found what I was looking for - Stygian iron arrows, but slightly modified to be lighter and more aerodynamic. Harley had warned me that we were a little low on Stygian Iron, so I had tried not to lose the arrows, but they had seemingly vanished in various training exercises in the woods. I returned to the archery range to pick up my knives as well, but found they were gone. I didn't think too much of it. I'd find them later - someone had probably just put them away - not many other people used throwing knives.

I returned to my cabin and put the arrows in my quiver, but then hauled it over my shoulder and dug around for my bow. I decided a bit of monster hunting wouldn't do any harm, and I was keen to do something active - the ambrosia had fixed me up pretty good so I figured that I would be alright. I found my bow in my underwear draw (go figure) and left, but not before setting Nico's alarm clock for 7:30 and laying it gently on his pillow next to him. Hey, I was probably doing him a favor - he rarely gets up early enough, and as the Athena kids said, 'Carpe Diem!'

I loosed my arrow just as the manticore realized it was being targeted. It darted off and I followed in quick pursuit, grabbing my arrow that had lodged into the ground. Manticores were dangerous - a human face and a lion's body, but with a scorpion's tail. They could shoot spikes from their tail with deadly accuracy, and they were usually poisonous. I made sure to keep my distance, but didn't let it out of my sight.

The manticore scrambled down a hill and leapt over a fallen tree. They could be quite nimble on their paws, and it gave me a job to keep up. The forest became denser and I started wondering if I should stop pursuing it - they were more dangerous beasts in these parts of the woods and if I attracted, for example, a dragon's attention, I might be in trouble.

Luckily, the manticore stopped behind a boulder and launched a volley of deadly spikes from behind it. I swore and dived to the left, grazing my arm on a bush. I winced as I picked out something from my hand, and then dodged behind a tree as I heard it hissing. The ground around me was studded with spikes. I notched another arrow in my bow and glanced out from round the tree. It was standing alert next to the boulder, deciding if I had gone or not. I slowly knelt down and picked up a stone, and threw it to my left. It bounced off a tree, which almost immediately got a fistful of thorns embedded in its trunk. I darted out from behind my tree and fired. The arrow only glanced off its tail though, and it returned fire quickly. I ran around it in a wide arc, and rolled behind a large rock.

The manticore had retreated behind the boulder again, launching random volleys of poisonous thorns in my general direction. I wouldn't be able to hit it behind the boulder, and if I came out, it would probably hit me before I could aim and fire. The running and chasing it had made me tired, and every time something brushed across my chest my ribs would hurt a bit, reminding me of my injury. Dammit, why did Piper have to kick me so hard? The fact she been wearing combat boots hadn't helped.

I caught sight of a tree not too far in front of me, and an idea formed in my head. If I got high enough, I could target even when it was hiding behing the boulder! But if I came out it was bound to spot me. I sighed. I could go 'invisible', but I wasn't sure how long I would be able to keep it up. I was going to try anyway. I took another stone, got ready to run, and then threw it. It ricocheted off a tree and actually nearly hit the manticore, but had only distracted it for a moment. I jumped up and jogged over to the tree quietly. I slung my bow over my shoulder and began climbing steadily, being careful to maintain my aura of darkness that hid me while I grabbed hold of the branches.

Now, as I might have mentioned before, I'm not exactly a hulk of muscle, so that gave me an advantage when I was climbing. The lighter I was, the higher I could go. As I reached the thinner branches towards the top, I swung round the other side of the tree so that I would be able to see the manticore (and hopefully he wouldn't see me). This reminded me of Katniss and The Hunger Games, one of my favourite movies. I grinned as I imagined Katniss in the exact same position. I had read the books as well, and understood why she liked to be high up, able to see everything around and below you. I stopped manipulating the darkness and a wave of relief flooded over me - I wouldn't have been able to stay like that much longer. I drew two arrows form my quiver, slotted one in a loop on my belt (it was meant for my knives, but the arrows fitted as well), and slowly took aim. The manticore was in my line of sight, and I had a clear, unobstructed shot at it.

I was just about to fire when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I quickly drew back and sat as still as possible. A nest had been built in the tree next to me, barely ten meters away. But not your everyday, cute, pigeon's nest. Your well above average, deadly, Stymphalian's birds nest. They tended to group together and attack in large swarms, so I guessed that their nests would be more or less in one area. Unfortunately, I was right. I looked at the trees around me and saw similar nests, mostly occupied. I cursed under my breath. I remember Percy and Annabeth retelling an encounter with them when Chiron had been away and replaced with Tantalus, a man that had been and was once again condemned to the Underworld. They had attacked viciously and pretty much shredded any flesh on sight, as well as being able to shoot their feathers like arrows.

When I was hidden by the darkness, they must have not noticed me, I thought. But there's every chance they will now. I forced myself to calm down as panic rose inside me. Think, think, think, I told myself. They were scared by loud noises, but I had no idea how I was going to make one of those. Shout? Bang some rocks together? I leaned back against the tree and felt my quiver dig uncomfortably into my back. My quiver...

I had heard some Apollo archers talking about all sorts of arrows with various attachments, including something called a sonic arrow. After their success in the war against the Titans, they had made more, and I had found a few lying around in the armory. Naturally, I took them. If they were just leaving them out, I presumed that meant they had more than enough. I could use the arrow the scare the birds...

I looked through my quiver, where I found two. I carefully slid one out. It occurred to me that they might have just been some dodgy prototypes, but I dismissed the thought. I had no better ideas. I leaned forward and aimed at a nearby tree. Here goes... The arrow made a high pitch whistling noise before hitting the tree and emitting a loud blast of sound. The sky was suddenly blotted out by a mass of black feathers and golden beaks. Cries broke out as the birds were thrown into chaos, flapping about and fleeing. The force of the blast also knocked me off balance, and I fell, catching on branches painfully. I briefly managed to grab hold of one, but my momentum and gravity meant that my hands slipped.

I was just about to face plant the ground when I stopped falling and hovered about five inches off the ground. Then I hit the ground, but not half as badly as I would've done.

"Looks like someone needed a bit of help."

I grunted a sat up. Lizzie stood close by on a small hill, holding a bunch of herbs and flowers in one hand.

"I was doing just fine!" I protested, trudging over to her.

"You're idea of 'fine' is free falling from a tree while disturbing Stymphalian birds?" she asked.

"Well..." I sighed. "Okay, thanks."

"No problem."

"What are you doing here anyway? You're not really one for exploring the forest, especially not at this hour of morning."

"I was collecting some ingredients for a spell that I needed to get on with today... I guess I went a bit to far in, but that's where these were," she said waving her handful of plants. "I heard a loud noise and, well, found you." She gestured at me. "And what were you doing? Aren't you supposed to be in the infirmary?"

"Uh...nooo? Um, maybe." Lizzie rolled her eyes. "I was hunting a manticore." As the words left my mouth my eyes widened and I rugby tackled her to the ground, rolling behind the small hill and into a ditch.

"What th-? Get off me!" I realized my awkward position on top of her and blushed, rolling away.

"It's probably still there," I whispered, still red at the cheeks.

"Do you think we can confront it together?"

"Probably. Could you, um, blow it up, or, set it on fire or something? That would help."

Lizzie thought for a moment. "I could freeze it. Ten seconds at most."

I nodded. "Okay, on three. One; two; three!"

We burst out from our hiding spot and Lizzie waved her hand at the monster. It slowed and then stopped. I fired my arrow that was notched in my bow, but I had forgotten that Lizzie had frozen it. Normally, you had to fire just in front of a moving target to hit it, so the arrow flew just in front of it. I quickly grabbed the arrow in my belt in fired again, hitting the monster in the neck. Nothing happened for a moment - it just stood there, frozen, and then collapsed.

What I like about Stygian iron was that it didn't turn the monsters to dust, like Celestial bronze or Imperial gold, but drained the life from the victim until there was nothing left. It kind of absorbed them, which apparently meant they stayed dead for longer, according to Annabeth.

"Nice," I grinned to Lizzie, who looked a little tired.

"I need breakfast," she said. "I haven't eaten a thing yet."

I nodded and quickly jogged over to retrieve my arrows. I found the one that had killed the monster easily enough, but the arrow that had missed was nowhere to be seen. I tried summoning it, but even that didn't work. I frowned. It couldn't have gone far.

A roar suddenly echoed through the trees and a plume of fire rose from a clearing nearby. I sighed. "Yeah, I think we should get going," I agreed, turning my back towards whatever was out there. A dragon? A small drakon? One of the Hephaestus kid's haywire inventions? I didn't want to find out. I would have to leave the arrow.

Me and Lizzie jogged through the woods, heading for the mess hall.

Okay, I know it's like a week late, and my next update will be late as well probably, but I've got lots of school projects going on at the moment. When we hit the holidays I'll be updating much more often hopefully, so please bear with me!

Yes, I'm a Hunger Games fan as well, so I put in a few references to that :)

Also, thanks for the reviews! J.D, I would suggest getting an account or something instead of just reviewing as a guest - you can follow the story and other stories as well, and we could chat or something, I don't know. Anyway, thanks!

-Nightlock64-