Disclaimer: the only thing I own in this story is the characters I made up. The rest belongs to its rightful owner
The blessing of the moon
Chapter 9
The next morning, Keriss was woken up by an arrow falling on her head. Her eyes snapped open in surprise to see every single one of her ten, celestial bronze weapons embedded in the ceiling. Her first thought: Beth, the girl from the campfire. The one who she slopped with marshmallows. She scrambled out of bed, not having to worry about making a noise (she was alone in the cabin), and surveyed the situation.
"Climb? Too high… Ask for help? No. Too embarrassing…" Keriss mused to herself, then, suddenly, and idea sparked into her mind, and she ran outside in her pyjamas, grabbed a handful of gravel, and took it back inside. She was glad that it was still pretty early, so the sky was dim, almost milky in the fresh morning air. She didn't want to risk anyone seeing her in her cat-pyjamas (which, to add to the problem were bright pink.). With that thought, she loaded the first piece of gravel into her bow, held sideways like a bizarrely elongated sling-shot, and let loose. The stone whipped through the air, hit the tip of the nearest arrow, and sent it plummeting to the bed. Second stone; not so lucky. It hit, deflected downwards, smashed into the ground and embedded itself deep in the floorboards. After eight minutes, sixteen stones and four new additions to the floor; Keriss had reassembled her collections of arrows in her quiver, changed into her typical camp half-blood attire and hidden all evidence of pink cat pyjamas. She stood, scowling at the ten, small holes that now crisscrossed the celling of the Artemis cabin. Then something exploded.
Upon instinct, Keriss grabbed her bow, slung her quiver over her shoulder, and ran out of the cabin. A plume of thick, black smoke was rising from the forest, clouding imposingly in the air. Naturally, Keriss ran towards it. She swerved through the forest, adrenaline racing through her, steely eyes narrowed, bow in hand. The acrid tang of the smoke was uncomfortable in her throat, but she knew someone was in danger, and she had to help them. She burst into the clearing, and let out a gasp. A huge, black dog stood in the clearing, fire blazing at its jaws, eyes glinting manically. At its paws, curled up defensively, was a girl, about the same age as Keriss. She had raven-black hair, and wore a badly singed leather jacket, and was obviously a demigod; monster-dogs don't just attack random people. Keriss quietly slotted an arrow into place, drew back the string to her bow, and fired. The monster-dog let out a yelp of pain and anger as the arrow drove into its side.
"Come on! Come and get me!" called out Keriss, taunting the dog into facing her. Its eyes seared with fury, and a howl rose in its throat, but it fell for the trap being formed around it. The dog howled again, then pounced. Whirling around, Keriss grabbed an arrow, loaded it and fired in a single fluid motion. The celestial bronze tip plunged into the monster-dog's chest, and it burst into dust, crumbling to the ground. Problem one: sorted. Problem two: the girl. Trying to judge whether she was unconscious or not, the brown-haired girl edged around the pile of black dust, and prodded the girl's arm. She sprung up faster than Keriss could register, dark eyes blazing in such a fury that could match the monster-dog's.
"Great parenting skills, dad!" she yelled, turning towards the ground.
"You let one of your own creatures from the stinking underworld attack your daughter, and don't even lift a finger?! I hate you! That Hellhound might as well have killed me! It's not like you would have cared!" the girl yelled at the ground, slammed her foot against the earth, and turned on Keriss, who was thoroughly startled.
"I'm no expert in the gods yet, but I'm guessing you're a child of Hades?" guessed Keriss, and the other girl rolled her eyes.
"Oh wow. You managed to figure it out! Give her an A*!" snapped the girl sarcastically, before turning and stalking away.
"I'd like to go to my cabin, if you don't mind." She demanded without even looking back. Keriss shot her a dirty look, gathered her arrows, and ran to catch up with the child of hades.
"What's your name?" she asked, trying to provoke the dark-eyed girl to be a bit friendlier.
"Cynder." She grumbled, shooting Keriss a bored glare.
"I don't see why you'd want to know, though." Suddenly, Jessica, hair messy from sleep, burst into the woods, took one glance at Cynder, and demanded,
"Explain. Now."
"Go away, nerd-girl." Snapped the Cynder, pushing past the child of Athena. Jessica clenched her fists, and shot the younger girl a dirty look.
"Ignore her." Whispered Keriss discretely as she passed Jessica. A crowd had assembled as Keriss and Cynder emerged from the woods, and they were instantly swamped with questions. Keriss tried her best to answer, but Cynder had obviously decided that she didn't want human company.
"Get out of the way, idiot!" she exclaimed in exasperated tones, pushing aside a camper from the Hermes cabin.
"If anyone's an idiot, it's you!" he yelled back, and Cynder froze. She looked back over her shoulder.
"What did you say?" she asked in a deadly calm voice, eyes seeming to darken into swirling voids.
"I-I-I s-said-" He broke off, as the air temperature seemed to drop, and he let out a quiver of fear, eyes wild, and ran away from the commotion.
"What did you do?" Demanded Keriss, a sense of fear and respect rising up inside her. Cynder merely looked back resentfully, and narrowed her eyes.
"I just showed him what would happen if he didn't hold his tongue. Now, if you don't mind, I've had enough human contact for one day." With that, she whirled around, long, black hair flowing out behind her, and stalked away towards the looming, obsidian structure of the Hades cabin and entered, slamming the door behind her.
A/N: all rights to Cynder go to my friend at school (NutellaFox on fanfiction!) who made her up, and also helped with the storyline! Thankyou!
Review please!