I wanted something to spice up the story. Younger me decided a mysterious little girl was the way. Maybe not the greatest execution but the idea is right, I suppose.

I've been lazy and I'm sorry. First exams, then vacation came and I've dedicated only some time to writing. Sea Girl's next chapter is halfway finished, En Route to Happiness chapter is in its concluding phase and the new PJO/MCU story has finally started. I decided to take a different approach to it. I hope you all are interested!

Go check out my other stories. They're pretty cool. Also, leave a review if you have something to say!

Happy reading!

Chapter 10

"So?" Phoebe demanded as soon as Artemis went out of earshot. "What did she say?"

"What do you mean?" Wisty half mumbled, half asked. Phoebe rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"What did you two talk about?" she asked again.

"Not much," Wisty muttered back. Phoebe's eyes widened.

"By the gods," she exclaimed. "Did you ask her out? Have you kissed yet-"

"Shut up!" Wisty hissed. "No, we didn't talk about that. We were talking about my fatal flaw."

Phoebe looked disappointed. "Oh. For Hades' sake, you two need to hurry up and confess. What is it?"

"What's what?"

"Your flaw," Phoebe replied impatiently. "What's your flaw?"

"Personal loyalty," Wisty sighed.

"But...that's good, right?" Phoebe asked.

"The most dangerous flaws are good in moderation," Wisty said, quoting Artemis. "To save a friend, I would sacrifice the world."

Phoebe shrugged. "Well, if you put it that way...it does sound kind of dangerous."

"She told me it was the most dangerous flaw of all," Wisty swallowed.

Phoebe grinned cheerfully, clearly unconcerned with the matter. "Well, hooray for you! Now come on, we're pairing up for the hunt. It's a competition - whoever brings back the most food wins, including plants, berries, fruits, and animals. You're with me because you need a carry."

"How do you even know what carry means?" Wisty demanded. "As far as I'm concerned, that is a twenty-first-century slang."

Phoebe shrugged. "Zoë never liked the modern world. She preferred the old ways, as you can tell from her English, but I kept up with the times and liked modern stuff. Well, some of them. May have picked up a few video games here and there."

Wisty frowned. "You're allowed video games in the Hunt?"

"No, just when we visit Lady Artemis's palace or something like that," Phoebe explained. "Now, come on, your girlfriend is waiting to announce the rules, and I'd hate for you two to break up over being late to a date."

"Girls, the rules are simple," Artemis announced. "They are the same as always: free roam inside the woods for an hour, do not attempt to maim or injure the other teams. However, traps are allowed as long as they are not harmful, and whoever brings back the most food wins. I will be supervising. Is that clear?" There were a bunch of nods and mumbled yeses from the assembled Hunters.

Wisty leaned close to Phoebe and whispered to her: "How's she going to supervise? She can't be everywhere at once."

"She can, if she wanted to," Phoebe replied. "The forest is her domain. Her presence inhabits it. Plus, she's got her moon chariot, which is just starting to climb, so we're all good."

"Be everywhere at once? How does that even work?" Wisty wondered.

Phoebe shrugged. "Yeah, your girlfriend's awesome. Come on, let's get going, I want to keep my twenty-seven win streak going."

"What is this?" Phoebe demanded as they trudged through the woods, all pretenses of stealth long since forgotten. In the forty-five minutes they've been in the woods, the pair had encountered a single, measly squirrel which Phoebe had quickly shot with a tranquilizer arrow and a small patch of raspberry bushes. Apart from that, they encountered no potential prey, and all the berry bushes had been recently picked.

"Wonder if the others are doing this bad," Wisty grumbled. So far, she'd had minimal contribution to the hunt. Phoebe had shot the one squirrel they saw before she had a chance to summon Katharos. She glared at her bow for being so slow to respond, to which it responded by glowing with indignation, as if saying, Hey, it wasn't my fault. "Probably better than us."

"Nah," Phoebe shook her head. "We've walked like all of the forest and found only this. Someone else must've been here before the Hunt. I don't think our luck can be that bad."

"Try me," Wisty muttered. Phoebe opened her mouth to respond, but apparently decided not to. Wisty was about to ask what was up when the daughter of Ares held a finger to her lips.

"What is it?" Wisty whispered. At least, she thought it was a whisper. Phoebe visibly winced at the amount of sound she produced.

"You seriously need to work on whispering," she whispered back. "I heard a sound. Sounded like footsteps."

"Where?" Wisty's hand instinctively drifted towards her pendant, ready to summon her staff in a heartbeat.

"Behind us, six o'clock," Phoebe muttered. Wisty began to turn around, but Phoebe's hand clamped down on her shoulder.

"Careful!" she hissed. "Don't know who it is. Might be another pair, but I doubt it. The footsteps sounded like they came from one person."

"Well, what do you say we do?" Wisty snapped, then winced at her harsh tone. In her defense, she was tired and cranky after nearly an hour of walking and not doing anything exciting.

"I don't know," Phoebe admitted. "I was hoping you'd have some genius idea."

"Well, I don't," Wisty groaned. As soon as she said that, her vambraces glowed brightly, as if saying, Are you sure about that?

Her mind drifted back to before they had started their journey, when Artemis asked her to identify which direction west was. Carefully, she put her hand on Katharos and tried to tap into its power. She had to be careful. The last time she'd used its power, she had passed out from overexertion. She feared that if she accidentally overextended, the consequences would be a lot worse than a little nap.

Trying to control the power of her weapons was like surfing during a hurricane in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The power of the Day was wild, untamed, and not necessarily benevolent. It could hurt her just as easily as it could help her, just as how the Day could easily change from clear skies to a raging storm in a matter of seconds.

But, Wisty was a child of the sea. She had experiences with hurricanes and storms. Heck, she'd even created some before. Managing to stay in control and not drown in the violent currents, she carefully channeled an infinitesimal amount of power. Closing her eyes, she felt the currents lift her consciousness out of her body. She floated in midair, seeing everything around her with striking detail. She saw Phoebe's questioning expression as the Lieutenant stared at her still body. She smelt the fresh scent of the forest at night, and heard the chittering of birds and critters. Instinctively, she knew they were responding to her aura of power.

"Wow," Phoebe muttered from below her floating consciousness, "that's powerful."

She focused and stretched her senses out to all around them. Her sight expanded, her view becoming larger and larger until she had a view of the whole forest, yet she still saw every single little detail and heard every sound as clearly as if she was right next to it.

There! She zeroed in on a tree, a few meters behind their position. Willing her consciousness to zoom in, she noticed a young, shivering form of a girl hugging herself tightly, curled up with her back to a tree. She breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't some big threat. Of course, she could be a monster in disguise, but her instincts, or more specifically, Katharos' instincts told her she wasn't.

She was about to allow her consciousness to return to her body when a growl made her freeze. Zooming out once again, she spotted the dark form of a huge hellhound some fifty meters away, its hungry, red eyes staring right at the girl, saliva dripping from its snarling maw. The hellhound began silently stalking towards the girl, its huge paws barely making a sound on the forest floor.

She flew back towards her own body, gasping and opening her eyes when her consciousness was firmly anchored to her body again. "What did you-" Phoebe began, but Wisty cut her off.

"No time!" she began running towards the tree she saw, Katharos already in her hand, Phoebe close behind her.

"What did you see?" Phoebe demanded as she sprinted next to Wisty. "Why are you running like a maniac?"

"Girl. Hellhound. Stalking." Wisty managed to get out between breaths. Fortunately, Phoebe seemed to understand, because her eyes widened and her bow materialized from nowhere. They skidded to a stop next to the curled-up girl, who yelped and started crawling away from them.

"W-who are you?" the girl whimpered, her eyes alight with fear. They were an unusual shade of purple and black, and seemed to glow with power.

"It's okay," Wisty tried to soothe. "We're here to help you. Now, where is the-"

WOOF!

"Well, I guess that answers our question," Wisty muttered as she whirled around to see the hellhound halfway through its leap at her. Rolling aside, she allowed her bow to disappear and pulled on her pendant, which expanded into her six-foot long sword. Morphing the staff into a lance, she stabbed forwards with two hands into the side of the hellhound.

She expected the stab to penetrate the hellhound through its belly, considering that most monsters weren't extremely intelligent, but this hellhound seemed to be an exception, because it sprang aside, simultaneously avoiding a volley of arrows from Phoebe, and lowered itself into a fighting stance, its red eyes shimmering with intelligence that hellhounds shouldn't have.

"Something about this hellhound is different," Phoebe called. "He seems smarter than most. Protect the girl, I'll get it!" Wisty wanted to protest, but Phoebe was already springing at the hellhound with her two hunting knives drawn. Sighing at the daughter of Ares' recklessness, Wisty knelt down next to the girl, who's violet eyes were wide with shock and fear. Upon closer inspection, the girl seemed to be of Asian descent, around eight or nine years old, with pale skin and hollow cheeks, indicating that she had been malnourished for quite some time. She noticed numerous scratches and bruises on her body, probably from wondering around the woods.

"It's okay," Wisty comforted. The girl was obviously a demigod, judging from the slight glow in her eyes and the fact that she seemed to be able to see the hellhound just fine, so Wisty gave her a square of ambrosia. "Here, eat this, it'll make you feel better."

"Dad said to not eat food from strangers," the girl replied defiantly. Wisty's mind was whirling. So, the girl's mortal parent was his father. So, who was his mother?

"It's your choice," she finally told the girl. "I won't force you to eat anything, but I swear it's not poisoned."

The girl eyed her warily. Wisty almost saw the gears turning in her young brain as she debated the matter in her mind. Finally, her painful wounds won out against her common sense and she took the square of ambrosia. She nibbled on it, her eyes widening at the taste, since godly food always tasted like your favorite food.

Quickly, she wolfed the square down and widened her eyes at the sight of her wounds healing, new skin growing over it within seconds. Some color returned to her face, and her eyes glowed a little brighter. "Thank you!" she squealed and caught Wisty in a tight hug.

Wisty laughed. "It's okay, girl. What's your name?"

"Aerwyna," the girl answered shyly.

"Friend of the sea," Wisty immediately translated and grinned. She could work with this. "Any last name?" she asked softly, trying not to sound like she was prying. It seemed to work, because the girl relaxed a bit into her arms.

"Shimizu," she said. Wisty thought it sounded Japanese.

"That's a nice name, Aerwyna," she told her. "My name's Wisty."

Aerwyna grinned happily, showing off a gap in her teeth. "Thanks, Wisty!"

"No problem," Wisty replied with a smile. Suddenly, a loud bark sounded from near her, accompanied a second later by a cry of pain from Phoebe. Wisty's pulse quickened at the prospect of her friend getting hurt and she cursed herself for completely forgetting about the monster.

"Vlacas," she muttered. "Aerwyna, stay near but out of fighting range. I need to help my sister." Aerwyna nodded dutifully and ran over to another tree, further away from the battlefield. Wisty re-summoned her staff and bashed it into the side of the hellhound just in time, because it was about to bite Phoebe's neck.

The Lieutenant rolled up to her feet, wincing slightly. "Thanks, Jackson. Good save."

"No problem," Wisty replied, tossing her a piece of ambrosia. "Let me handle this. You're injured."

Phoebe began to protest, but Wisty glared at her defiantly, so she merely huffed and limped over to Aerwyna with her bow on standby. Acting on pure instinct, Wisty swung her staff backward just in time to block a swipe from the hellhound's claws. Twisting, her staff transformed into a sword and she aimed a slash at the monster's neck. The oversized dog blocked it with its claws and counter-swiped at Wisty, who jumped away to a safe distance to regroup.

"Since when were hellhounds so hard to kill?" she muttered as another stab from her sword was avoided. She noticed its red eyes glowing with a faint, grey aura. It was nearly imperceptible, but it was definitely there.

What in Hades? Wisty wondered as she dodged a bite that would've ripped her throat out and kicked the dog in the chest. I don't pay a lot of attention during Chiron's classes at camp, but I'm pretty sure hellhound eyes don't glow grey.

Regardless, she was tiring quickly, and she didn't dare to tap into the power of Hemera again for fear of losing control. Before, it was a perfectly calm situation. Now, in the heat of battle, Wisty wasn't sure she would be able to channel it without being overwhelmed.

It wasn't like she had a lot of choices though, as she dodged another swipe from the hellhound with mere inches to spare. Its sharp claws left three, long gashes in her Hunter's parka. Unfortunately, the moment of distraction allowed the hellhound to pin her down. Wisty struggled futilely underneath its grasp, but her efforts were in vain as the hellhound snarled, its sharp teeth glinting in the gray light coming from its eyes.

Well, I guess this is it, Wisty thought. Dimly, she heard Phoebe screaming her name and Aerwyna crying. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.

It never came.

Wisty dared to open her eyes, just a crack, just in time to see a wall of darkness slam into the monster, slamming it against a huge tree, whose trunk cracked, then fell, burying the hellhound under several thousand pounds of wood and leaves.

Carefully, Wisty got up, wincing slightly at a twinge of pain in her side, and approached the wreckage. She spotted some golden dust on the edge of the pile of wood. The hellhound had been crushed to death, quite literally, and quite painfully.

She turned back towards Phoebe and Aerwyna. Her sister and Lieutenant's eyes were wide with incomprehension and shock, while Aerwyna had a wild look in her eyes, her little arms outstretched. Her eyes glowed a midnight black color.

"What just happened?" Phoebe demanded after a moment of shocked silence.

Wisty shrugged, but on the inside, her brain was working overtime. If Aerwyna really summoned the wall of shadows...daughter of Hades?

But for some reason, she felt like that wasn't the case, and that there were many mysteries about the Japanese demigod which hasn't been uncovered. Yet.

Deep in thought, she nearly jumped when Artemis's voice sounded next to her. Whirling around, she saw the goddess's beautiful face in a misty image.

"Wisteria? Phoebe?" Artemis called out, confused. "The hunt ended ten minutes ago. Where are you?"

Wisty felt too exhausted to explain at the moment, so she just replied with a tired: "We're fine, my lady. I'll explain everything when we get back."

Artemis nodded. "I sensed two spikes of power from near your location. Return to the campsite, I feel we have a lot to talk about."

Spiderman: Far From Home is in theaters and I watched it on the second day. It is very fun, but everything pales a little after Endgame. Definitely a terrific movie though, go watch!