Chapter 11: Captured

Artemis had left her tent to get a good breathe of the night air. She breathed deeply, allowing it to purge the exhaustion from her lungs. She turned around and was heading for the mess tent when she heard something strange coming from the tent next to it. As she stopped and listened harder, it became apparent what it was. Artemis frowned and entered the tent.

Lying on her bed, her knees up to her chest, was one of the newer huntresses, a little girl named Holly. She was facing toward the tent enterance when Artemis arrived and was rocking herself back and forth, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her face was shielded by her long brown hair, and Artemis could hear the gentle weeping coming from the young girls mouth.

"Are you alright?" She called out.

Holly stiffened at the sound of her voice, and brushed the hair sticking stickly to her face. Artemis could see the fresh tears sliding down her cheeks.

"Yes, My Lady...I'm just...I'm just..." Then she broke off into another round of crying.

Artemis walked over to her position on the bed and sat down, gently reaching an arm around her trembling shoulders. Holly seemed to stall her crying when she realized what Artemis was doing, and slowly allowed her head to bury itself into her shoulder. Artemis made no attempt to stop her, allowing the emotionally hurt huntress some comfort.

Holly eventually composed herself enough to lift her head and stare out at the wilderness through her tent's enterance, and finally spoke, her words garbled slightly in her sadness.

"I...I'm worried about Lisa."

Artemis sighed. Lisa was the one missing. She was scared to wonder what might be happening to her if she had been captured. But she could not scare Holly, the poor girl's nerves were already frazzled.

"I'm sure she'll be fine. We'll get her back."

"You really think so?"

"Positive."

Holly smiled a sad smile and laid her head back on Artemis's shoulder, Artemis offering no protest.

They stayed like that for a while, comforting each other with their collective fears. Artemis finally heard one of the huntresses call out that dinner was ready, and stood up, offering her hand to Holly, who still sniffled. Holly slipped her hand into hers and Artemis gently led her out of the tent, trying to ignore her own fears for the future...

-Camp Half-Blood-

"Wait just a minute!"

Apollo stopped talking at Percy's sudden outburst. He grumbled in annoyance and looked over at Percy, who was sitting next to Annabeth, his hands on the table as he forced himself up to stand.

"You say that Orion has come back?"

"Why yes Percy, I just did. Right before you interupted me. Which was quite rude you know," Apollo replied.

Percy realized that angering Apollo at this moment was not something he would want to to do, considering Apollo's need to help his sister. He had been told by Apollo himself that nothing messed with his sister. Nobody, he said. Percy slowly lowered himself back to his eat.

"Sorry..."

"Now, as I was saying before I was rudely interuppted, Orion somehow has returned from the dead. Please don't ask me how, I really do not know yet. But he has and he has formed his own group of hunters, boys."

"Boys?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes Annabeth, boy hunters."

Annabeth's eyes widened slightly at the information. She couldn't visualize boys being hunters. She couldn't see boys wearing similar clothes and possessing the same fighting skills. It was one of those things that just didn't seem possible.

Almost as if he were reading her mind, Apollo turned toward her.

"Yes Annabeth, they are quite alike. And they are also different in several ways. They have an extreme disdain for girls, much like the hunters have for boys. But they have much more fighting prowess and I have been told, a much more brutal style of fighting. My sister said one of them was able to hold them off by himself."

The group let out some impressed sounds. If someone was able to take on Lady Artemis, then these were not boys that they would want to tangle with. Just How had Orion come across such boys, or was it that he trained them himself. All the legends talked about his prowess. And speaking of Orion, just how did he come back anyway?

Apollo leaned back in his seat and sighed. He closed his eyes tightly for a moment and ran his hand through his hair. He then leaned forward once more and put his hands on the table in front of him, slowly opening his eyes.

"It's really sad ya' know. My sister is the strongest person I know. She always had a stout heart. To see her outright pleading for help is just heart-breaking."

Thalia sniffled, and Annabeth put a hand around her.

"And so I am here. Artemis asked me to relay this back to you guys. She is asking for help from Camp-Half Blood. Anyone who has some good skills in combat is asked to come and help. Even boys."

The group shuddered. Just how bad could it be, that Artemis would request help from boys? Did these people she was fighting scare her that badly, or were they just that good? One thing was for certain, this was not something to be taking lightly.

Apollo looked each of them in the eye.

"Do you people know of anyone who you think might be willing to help her?"

"I think you know two for certain," Annabeth said. She stood up, along with Percy. Apollo grinned at them.

"Anyone else you think?"

Annabeth looked over at Percy, who returned her gaze. They both seemed to mentally consider things for a moment, and then turned back to Apollo.

"Give us some time to see, and we might be able to gather up some others," Annabeth said.

Apollo nodded. The two left the room.

Chiron asked Apollo if he were going to stay for a while, and Apollo nodded his consent.

"I need to get them to her camp, right?" He replied.

-Several hours later-

Chiron had made the announcement at dinner, and everyone was mumbling to themselves, wondering just who these boys were that could threaten the hunters. Chiron had allowed Apollo to make his appeal, and now campers were talking it over with each other. Percy and Annabeth were going around the camp during the after-dinner gatherings, and trying to talk those they felt could help into coming along.

There were a few who swore that they were in, just after Apollo made his speech to them concerning the situation. Several Apollo campers had signed up, wanting to help their Aunt. Katie Garder volunteered as well. She might not have the combat prowness inherit in some of the others, but being in several battles against armies of monsters ramps up your skills quickly.

Connor and Travis Stoll had both volunteered as well, having grown to admire the hunters ever since their battle alongside them in Manhattan. Annabeth knew others who might be of great assistance, but it was kind of hard to get them to help them. They, after all, were not particuraly fond of the hunters.

"No," Clarisse replied.

"Come on Clarisse, we need you for this," Percy pleaded.

"Forget it punk, the hunters have dihonored us too much in the past."

"Clarisse-"

"I said NO!"

Percy was about to give up. He flung his arms in the air in annoyance and turned to walk off. Annabeth started to walk off with him, but began to talk very loudly to him, just loud enough for Clarisse to hear.

"It's just as well, I mean, there is no way the Ares campers could face those boys. Not if what we are hearing about them is true."

Clarisse whirled around and started listening to what they were saying. They wouldn't dare...

Percy seemed to catch wind of what Annabeth was trying to do and joined in.

"Yeah, after seeing what the hunters did to those Ares campers, then knowing that they could be fighting people more skilled than them must really put a crock in their armor straps."

Clarisse was almost shaking with rage. Her face turned bright red and her jaws were so tight that she could have shattered a skull with them. Percy just continued to rant about the Ares kids way of getting out of a scary situation when she finally marched over and grasped his shoulder. Spinning him around, Clarisse stared right into his eyes.

"I'm in...and if I ever hear you say those things about the power of Ares, I will personaly jam this blade right up your Achillies cursed ass!" Then she marched off to her cabin to prepare.

Percy gave Annabeth a satisfied grin.

"And that's how you recurit, my Wise Girl friend!"

-Somewhere in the wilderness, unknown miles away from the hunter's current camp-

Christina kept her head down as she slowly moved through the brush, making no sounds that any animals may have heard out of the norm. She kept her breathing under control, not allowing herself to huff or make any loud gasps of air as she maunuvered her way through the woods aound the hunters camp. Her bow was in her hands, at the ready.

She knew that she probably should not be wondering out away from the camp alone, not with the boys possible close. But there was a shortage of potential scouts, now that Lisa was missing, and Chrisitna was one of the better ones. And so she volunteered to go alone, not wanting to risk any other sisters on her mission. She wanted to minimize casualties should she be ambushed or discovered.

She moved onward until she heard something. She stopped to listen harder and could make out what sounded like voices in the distance. She strained to hear what they may be, but found that she was still too far off to make them out very well. So she crouched lower and made her way toward the voices, now becoming louder as she neared.

She found them in the distance. In a small clearing in the woods, a group of about five boys were standing around a fire. They were clothed in the clothing of the boy hunters and their bows were slung across their backs. They were talking amongst themselves in a quiet, yet not to quiet manner. Christina scanned their small camp, and saw a girl tied up near them, laying down on her side. Christina had to hold a gasp back when she saw who it was.

Lisa laid beaten and bruised. Her eyes were closed, but Christina could just barely make out bruises underneath them, as though she had endured kicks to the face. The rest of her body was covered in bruses, and she looked like she was barely breathing. Christina hoped to the gods that the boys had not actually forced her to break her oath unwillingly, and shuddered at the thought.

She knew she could not rescue her alone. There was no way that she could face five of these boys by herself and hope to come out alive. What she needed was to bring Lady Artemis here. Christina hurried away, moving as fast as she could maintain relative silence, and began to move back toward the huntresses camp.

She never spotted the figure in the shadows, tailing her ever since she began to scout...

-Thirty minutes later, huntresses camp-

Christina burst into her tent without asking for permission. Artemis normally frowned upon that, but these days, she did not really call any of them on it. Artemis looked up to see the face of Christina locked in anger and despair. She ran to Lady Artemis and gave a short bow, then, without being told she could, she began to say what she saw.

"My Lady, I saw Lisa!"

Artemis bolted upright to a standing position. She listened to her scout's report of what she saw, and she felt her anger flare at what she was hearing. How dare they...how dare they do that to Lisa. She could feel herself beggining to lose control over her form and fought to maintain it. She thanked Christina and sent her out to inform her sisters, while she planned on what she needed to do.

Based on what Christina told her, there was only a scouting party guarding Lisa. Artremis was sure that she could sneak in and retrieve Lisa. But what if it were a trap? Artemis paused at the thought, but she quickly decided against it. The boys had such a small group guarding Lisa that she should be easily retrived without bloodshed. Artemis was tired of killing for a while.

She left her tent to cries of outrage and sadness from her hunters. Many were pleading with her for permission to launch a raid and retake their lost sister. When she announced that she would be going alone, there was silence for a moment. Then several spoke up.

"But my lady, what if it's a trap?"

"I do not think so. Christina reported that they were lax and unaware, and she saw no others besides the guards themselves. If this report is accurate, then I should have no difficulty sneaking in and returning Lisa to us."

Her huntresses looked like they still disagreed. But they allowed her to walk away into the woods unchallenged. Just before she disappeared, she turned back to them and called out.

"When Thalia reuturns, she will be in charge. That is assuming I have not yet returned..."

She then disappeared into the woods. The sounds of her camp died out behind her and she moved in the direction that Chrisitna pointed out for her. The trees were dark and looming, and the sounds of the woods were dimming as she moved deeper inward, toward where she was told the boy's camp was. She could not be too far now...

She slowly pulled a branch out of the way and finally saw the camp itself. A dying fire was dimly burning, it's faint glow casing dim light over the sleeping boys. They slept in their armor, almost as if they were expecting to wake up to a fight, and their bows were on the ground next to them, just within arm's reach. Artemis regarded them for a moment, before deciding that they were quite asleep.

She saw Lisa at last. She was laying on her side with her mouth still gagged and her arms tied behind her back. She was not facing Artemis, and she could see the bruises along Lisa's neck. She was tempted to slit the boys throats right now, but decided that Lisa was the first priority. Artmemis gently moved closer to her, and gently rolled her over.

Lisa's eyes shot open and she saw Artemis. She began to flail around and make desperate cries against the shielding of her gag, and then jerked her head in several directions. Artemis suushed her and gently removed the gag. Lisa spat out the cloth and frantically looked up into Artemis's eyes.

"My lady, get out of here, it's a trap!"

"Not without you Lisa."

"You don;t understand, they're right-"

Artemis was startled by sounds erupting all around her. She whirled around, a sword in her hand, just to be met by a net flung over her. Artemis was covered before she could raise her sword, and to her dismay, found it to be made of celestial bronze. Her powers would be useless within it. Artemis flung around, desperate to escape, and only succedded in tangling herself further. Hoots and whoops of victory rang from around her as the boys revealed themselves from their perfect hiding places, and the "sleeping" boys got up, looking at her with unhidden triumph.

"You didn't actually think we did not know you were there, ya' little hussy? You can't sneak up on the masters of trackers!"

Artemis snarled almost like a wild animal and clawed at the net, only earning another round of laughter from the boys around her.

"Well, the little goddess fell right for it! Let's get her back to the Lord!" One of them, apparently the leader called out.

Artemis felt herself being dragged, and dragged roughly. She stopped struggling, knowing the helplessness of struggling against nets such as these. How could she have not seen that it was a trap? Was she just that overconfident? She did not know. The only thing she did know was that she was now a prisoner of these boys...and completely at their mercy. And she knew that they did not have much...

Well, this is not good. Artemis has been captured. But Apollo and Thalia seem to have managed to gather support from Camp-Half Blood. Will they be able to get back to the huntresses camp and make plans to rescue Artemis? What will Orion do to Artemis, now that he has her under his boot? Well, you'll find out very soon...Until then, remember to leave a comment, and not to forget your Kevlar!