Selene's Heir
Chapter 9
I heard the girls calling for me and the horns were blowing. I wanted to run back to them so badly and I could tell Alpha wanted to run back to his pack, but mom had died because my power drew the monster to me. I couldn't let anyone else I loved get hurt. I emerged from the forest into a clearing.
Unfortunately, there were quite a few Dracenae women, and they all looked up as I came into the clearing. One of them sniffed and smiled a razor-sharp smile. Next to me, Alpha growled, his ears flat against his head and his fur standing on end. "Hmm, ssshe sssmellsss sssoo good. Can we, Ssssayal?" The first Dracaena said, turning to another Dracaena who must have been the leader. "Yesss, go ahead, Sssslytheen." I looked at the trees, spotted one that had branches low enough for me to jump onto them, if I had a springboard. The only problem was that Slytheen was in front of the tree and was currently charging towards me. Despite being on two snake tails, she moved really fast. Hmmm. I smiled and ran towards her, hoping this would work. Her face had confusion written all over it. I jumped onto her head, and pushed off, landing in the tree. "What the…?" A dracaena said. "Get back down and fight, little girl!" Sayal yelled at me and threw a javelin at me, which I easily dodged. I pulled my bow and arrows out and took aim, and jumped a bit when Alpha howled. His pack howled back and the girls burst into the clearing. "Dracenae! Huntresses, attack!"Artemis yelled and they drew their weapons. With us working together, the Dracenae didn't stand a chance and were soon dust on the ground.
I slowly climbed down, not expecting them to rush toward me and envelop me in a giant hug. I wasn't expecting Thalia hitting me on the head and yelling "You little idiot! What the hell were you thinking?! You could have been killed!" and hugging me so tight, I thought my head would pop off. "Thals… can't… breathe… please… release!" I gasped out and Annabeth chuckled and pulled Thalia off me. "Serena, what were you thinking? You're almost 10, you're too young to go wandering off like that." Artemis demanded. "Mom died because my smell called to the monster. Apollo told me that I draw more monsters to me than a child of the Big Three. I wasn't going to let anyone else die!" I yelled, starting to cry. Aoife sat next to me and started to rub my back, "do you think we didn't know the risks when we decided to go on this quest with you? I know I have no intention of dying anytime soon and neither do the others. We all watch each other's backs and protect each other." She said gently and I hugged her tightly. "Hey, kiddo, it's Ok, I promise. We're not gonna leave you." She said, hugging me back. "Promise on the River Styx?" I asked her, looking up at her. Krysta sat next to me and pulled back my hair, which had come loose, into a ponytail. "I swear on the River Styx that I won't leave you." Aoife swore and thunder rumbled overhead. "Come on, let's go. We still have driving to do." Annabeth said, and the carsickness prone Huntresses groaned, myself included.
We had finally pulled into a seedy-looking hotel, as it was late at night and if we kept driving without stopping for sleep, we wouldn't have any energy for fighting or anything really. "Can I let my wings free now?" I whined and Scarlet laughed and said "sure". Scarlet was a female child of Iris and as Iris was a goddess of the rainbow and had wings, her female children had wings while her male children were better with pegasi and iris messages. My wings burst free from my back and I sighed in contentment. "Better?" she asked me, rubbing my wings. "Yeah! They actually started to hurt a little bit. It's kinda like putting your feet into too-small shoes, and after a while, your feet start to hurt." I said and she nodded, mulling it over. "OK, Rena, it's 1 in the morning, get some sleep. We're leaving at 8 Am after we eat, so rest up. We should be in Louisiana tomorrow afternoon." Thalia said and after I jumped under the blankets, she turned off the light.
The next morning, we all packed up and went down to breakfast. Knowing that Thalia was a bear in the morning, I made sure to avoid her until she could get her coffee. Black with an extra shot of expresso. I tried it once and made such a face that Kylie snorted her milk out of her nose, she was laughing so hard. I grabbed a bowl of cereal, a couple of apples and some apple juice and went to sit down with the girls. Annabeth was typing super-fast on a computer and taking a bit of a bagel every so often. "We're only 5 hours away, so if we leave now, and don't take any breaks, but just eat in the car, then we should be there by 1:30, let's just hope we don't hit traffic." She said and Kat, a daughter of Tyche, goddess of good luck smacked her on the arm and almost yelled "Are you trying to jinx us? Stop calling down mother's bad side on us!"
The next 5 hours involved Annabeth playing chess and checkers with me and teaching me numerous battle strategies while Thalia tried and mostly failed to keep her cussing and road rage down to a minimum. "Don't drive angry, Thals!" Annabeth yelled at one point, smiling while she examined the chess board. Thalia flipped her off with a black sharpied middle finger without even turning around. "Don't f***** tell me what to do, I'm older than you and I do what I want! F***!" She yelled angrily and swerved toward an exit so hard that I was thrown against the door, causing the chess pieces to fall off the board. "Ok, let's work on strategy, I guess. Now, your back's against the wall, you still have your weapon, but your outnumbered 5 to 1. What do you do?" she said and waited while I frowned. "Umm… you keep your back against the wall, so no one can sneak up on you and when the first person attacks, strike them down and as the rest come at you, just wait for them to come to you!" I said triumphantly and she grinned at me and ruffled my hair. "Good job, moon kid!" and I grinned at her. "Now, how do you pick a weapon for yourself if you haven't held one before?" Ooh, that was a hard one! I bit my lip and thought about it. "It depends on how strong you are and what you're fighting and if you prefer to fight close to your enemy or farther away. If you prefer fighting close to your enemy, then a knife or an axe. If you prefer to fight from farther away, then a bow or a pole arm?" I said hesitantly then smiled as she nodded. "Very good! And perfect timing, cause we're here!" she said and I looked out the window and watched as we passed a "Welcome to new Orleans" sign. I took a deep breath, nervous at the thought of meeting Eros, our first Primordial. "You'll be fine, we'll be backing you up. Just breathe, ok?" Scarlet said, and I nodded. "Can you sense anything, Krysta?" I asked as we got out of the van. She closed her eyes and concentrated. "I can sense his magic, but I don't know the name of the place where it's strongest. Just let me lead you there." She said and started walking.
After walking around for nearly an hour and a half, we got to a place called the Garden district and it was absolutely beautiful place. "His magic is strongest from that building." She pointed to a very large and picturesque house that looked exactly like the kind of place a Primordial of Love and other things would hang out. I took a breath, walked up to the door and knocked loudly and waited nervously and jumped about a foot when an elderly man dressed in a suit. "Ah, Lady Serena, descendant and heir of Lady Selene, please come in. Lord Eros and Lady Psyche are expecting you. Please follow me." He said and turned and walked away.
We walked up the stairs to a sitting room where a man with large white wings, black hair and red eyes was sitting on a loveseat with a beautiful woman with black spiral curls, light brown eyes and a warm smile. Eros and Psyche. "Welcome, Serena, descendant and heir of Lady Selene, and welcome to you, Hunters of Artemis, Lady Artemis, and Annabeth Chase, child of Athena. Please, sit." Psyche said to us while Eros looked at us with open distrust. Psyche turned to the butler and told him to get us something to eat and drink. In moments, a plate of pastries and cups of hot chocolate were set on the table in front of us. "Now, what can we do for you, child?" she asked me kindly. I bit my lip, wishing I had been more prepared on what to say. "As you know, the Primordials are awakening, or have awakened," I paused to nod at Eros who nodded back, "we know that some are preparing to fight against the Olympians. We ask that you become our allies, rather than theirs. If they fight against the Olympians, countless lives will be lost. You can decrease the loss of those lives and help us to seal away the wrongdoers at that time." I said, and waited for their answer.