Chapter 9 –
Rhonan's prediction of lasting less than a night seemed like a dream come true to him at this point.
Artemis might have misjudged just how much the Hunters really hated males. Thalia had immediately pushed (and dragged at one point) into the mess tent, and set him into cleaning the mountain of dirty dishes they had accumulated at some point or another. He was pretty sure that being immortal and magical, if they really wanted they could just magic them away. So far his mother's choice in followers didn't seem much thought out to him.
He was wondering what Thalia was playing at. Sending him to be their personal kitchen when there was a quest he needed to go on. He had half a mind throwing the plates to the ground in a very Greek fashion and walking out, which he almost would have done if not for a group of Hunters walking in at that moment.
"So, it seems Thalia got her way." They snickered, much to his annoyance.
"What, you have more plates for me to clean?" He said with an expected degree of anger.
"Actually, no we are not, my lord." 'My lord?' He almost wanted to but in and ask but he better not question the first sign of respect he had gotten since arriving. "You are the son of our lady after all, and some of us even remember our lady baring you."
"Gods, the cravings lady Artemis had." Said one.
"So, you're going to help your 'lord' do the dishes?" He asked hopeful.
"Oh Zeus no. Your still a male, doing the dishes is far within your power." The oldest of the group said.
"We do however, believe you have far more important things to do." Another said. "You were sent here by the Gods on a quest, and we don't think washing us up is part of it."
"So, what, your helping me escape?"
"Ha! Typical male, expecting someone to hold their hand the whole way." Said a beefy and big girl.
"Phoebe give him a chance." Said another. "Thalia believes we don't need you to defeat whatever is making these monsters, but we trust that our lady believes in you, and so does she in a way."
"Ignore Thalia, she's just trying to make an impression. Give her time. Tomorrow is a new day, and we shall be heading west. Just remember you are male, but you are still the blood of our lady, and that means, in a way, you are our… our…" She seemed to struggle on the word, all of them shuffling awkwardly. "Our Brother!" she burst into tears and ran out the tent, followed by the other girls.
Rho sighed, confused and rather relived the conversation hadn't resulted in his early demise, and returned to the plates.
Rho's sleep was plagued with nightmares. It happened mostly when the moon was approaching new, but they had never been this strong. He was running, running across a rocky valley. It wasn't him being in the valley that he found strange, it was what he was wearing. He was wearing the same clothes he wore during his claim, the white hunting cloth that was almost a dress, except it was short, ending at his knees and was cladded in leather. He was running from, something. Something he wasn't quite sure.
He turned his head to see the something, and regretted it. Behind him was a snake, and just any snake, it was a giant snake with many other snake heads on it. Its hide was red, and its eyes were black, and full of murderous lust.
He tried to keep running, but the slithering sound came closer, and closer, until he felt a rope wrap around his ankle, making him crash to the ground. He tried to grab at the binds around his leg, and as he felt it he noticed it wasn't a rope. It was the tongue of the snake, pulling him towards its open mouth. He tried to cry out but he couldn't, and he closed his eyes, prepared to enter the monsters mouth.
But he soon felt the binds untie, and he opened his eyes to find himself flying above the mountains, similar to his dream when he first got to Camp Half-Blood. He looked around, finding he was not alone, just like before. The Dot-To-Dot man was standing next to him, smiling with a wide smile.
"Hello again." Rho said, surprised that he could finally speak in this dream. The man waved, obviously still unable to communicate. He tried to point towards the lake again, then trying to speak and getting frustrated when he couldn't. Rho frowned, thinking about how they could do this.
"How about we play charades?" The man frowned. Rhonan guessed he was too old to know of the game. "Right, this might be hard to explain."
The man raised a finger, as if to ask him to wait a moment. He reached out for a nearby star, and magically pulled it from its space, then placed it in front of them. Then he pulled another, then another, until a word formed from the stars, the lines forming the letters like they formed the outline of the man.
Προσοχή στη λίμνη , προσέξτε την, προσέξτε το φίδι και το εξάνθημα.
"Beware the lake, the mountain, the snake, and the rash?" He read aloud, and the man nodded. "Okay so all that made sense apart from the rash thing. Am I supposed to avoid some Poison oak or something?"
The man laughed gently before just gazing out towards Rho, his smile lighter than before and almost like he was exerting… pride? Rho didn't feel weird by this strange lined figure, in fact he felt calmer then usual. Rho started to notice something stranger. The eyes of the man in front of him, or at least what resembled a man more than a woman with just lines, were obscured, the stars that he had where his eyes should be were dim and hard to see.
"Thanks I guess."
The man saluted in the American fashion, laughing silently as he did. Rho laughed back, wondering why this line-drawn man was so familiar.
Rho was awoke from his deep dream by a kick, literally, on his thigh. He jumped up, half predicting who would do such a thing, and having his prediction confirmed.
"Get up, male. We are heading west on this 'Oh-so-important' quest of yours." Thalia said, her arms crosses, and a scowl which was almost totally ruined by the tiara like headband she wore atop her black hair. Rho huffed himself out of the uncomfortable sleeping bag he was in, but he stopped remembering he was sleeping just in underwear. She noticed him pause, "What's the problem?"
"Would you mind looking away? I wouldn't want to taint your eyes with my manhood while I change." He smirked, much to her annoyance. She did turn away, and he stood up to change is clothes. As he was putting on his shirt, he felt eyes on the back of his neck, and he turned to find her suddenly standing up straight, like to attention, her ears red for some reason.
"Just… hurry up okay, gods." She stormed out the tent, leaving him puzzled.
"What's her problem?" He asked himself. He pulled on his white jacket and camo tracks, finding his sword surprisingly still attached to his backpack as he slumped it over his shoulder and left the tent. He found the entire camp of around 20 Huntresses all taking down the tents with ease, compacting the canvas into small sheets.
A moment later Thalia was standing on the road leading west. "Tonight is the first night of New moon, which means as acting commander I shall lead the hunt to Lake Utah. We must reach their by nightfall."
"Nightfall!" Rho shouted. "I can understand flying over 7 states on a Pegasus, but on foot? From the border that's-"
"Around 200km from here yes." Thalia smiled. "You underestimate our pace."
The Hunters began to mobilise, some collected into a group to go hunting for food and supplies, going parallel to the main bulk, who headed west straight through the arid landscape. Thalia had been right about their pace, they didn't seem to break a sweat in the heat, whereas Rho was tired after the first few hours, but he refused to show it.
He noticed that as they walked something seemed, off. They walked and the world around them changed in environment a lot quicker than it should. On moment they were on a rocky flats then they cross patchy grass plains, and finally they were in a forest, the midday sun thankfully blocked out by short but densely packed trees.
"Wait, where did the tree's come from?" Rho asked, "Why is it the middle of the day suddenly?"
"We travel the paths of the Hunters." A nymph hunter told him. "These paths cut our journeys in half, it very useful."
Rho frowned, but accepted the idea. He breathed in the forest scent, a smell all too familiar to ones back in North Dakota. It had the same pine richness, but with something else added to it. Something not quite right.
"Hold on." He said. She sniffed again, trying to focus on the scent again. It was fresh, no, musty, like a damp fog. It mixed with something else, something viscose, acidic. Two separate scents.
"What is it now?" Thalia turned, but she shut up when she noticed Rho completely still, like a statue, focusing on the scented air. He could smell whatever it was get more powerful, like it was approaching where he was standing. Approaching fast from the left.
He pressed the symbol on his ring, bringing up his bow with an arrow in his hand. He notched it and fired before Thalia could even react to the midget Cyclops that ran at her with an axe. The arrow passed straight through the monsters head, making it flail to the floor and melt into dust. Thalia looked at the dead monster, then back at Rho, then she finally registered they were under attack.
"Ambush!"
Immediately all the Hunters pulled their bows, knifes, any form of defence they could, moving into a circle formation. So far nothing else came out of the trees, but he could hear them. Sounds of different sized feet running, circling the group. "Why aren't they attacking?" Rho asked as he tightened his grip on his bow nervously.
"How am I supposed to know?" Thalia shouted at him. He voice not angry but serious, which was certainly different from her usual moody madam.
Rho readied his bow again, trying to find a target but nothing caught his eye, but nothing entered his vision, in fact, the forest was clear from his angle.
"This is the blood of the hunter, is it?"
Rho spun his bow around, trying to find the source of the voice. It was a women's, but something about it was defiantly bad, it seemed too rattle the air around them.
"Who is that?" He shouted to the air. The other Hunters turned to him confused.
"Who is what?" One said to him, before pulling up her bow. "Behind you!"
He spun on the spot, breathing in to speed his reactions. He had gotten a lot better at it since he first tried it around Apollo. Time slowed, and he turned to see an Empousa, claws bared and fiery hair flying towards him. He fired his arrow, hitting her in the chest and reducing her to dust.
"Ohhh he is good." The voice toyed. "But I still don't see why Menoetius is so worried about this one."
'Menoetius?'
"Rho, look out" Another two monsters, two green skinned Cyclops's who shared a leg, hobbled over toward him clumsily. Rho retracted his bow, pulling his sword from its sheath and charging at the monsters. They tried to swipe at him, but he slid under their swipe and slashed through their shared leg. The Siamese Cyclops's roared in anger, to busy trying to organise with each other on how to move to notice Rho jump on their back, driving his sword into one of their spines. More roars in anger and he pulled himself up the leathery hair back of the monster and bought his sword through their necks, the head falling to the floor and the body turning into dust.
Rho fell to the ground, rolling to a crouch, his cargos stained by blood but his jacket untainted. Pretty nifty. The voice hissed, not like a human hiss like a reptilian hiss. "My precious monsters! My children! Son of Artemis, you shall rue the day-"
"Would you please shut up?!" He shouted, the voice feeding straight into his mind and getting very annoying.
"No one is talking Rho." Thalia said, appearing next to him.
"You can't hear her?"
She looked at him and shook his arm frantically to get his attention away from the space around him he thought the voice was coming from. "Hear who!?"
"Me." The turned to see two snakes, fangs bared, bite into their necks.
