I own nothing.
"So, does anyone actually know where we are"? Asked Gisco staring out into the lake.
We left the structured area of the canal and now we were floating somewhere in the Great Lakes. I couldn't tell you which one but I did know that we weren't in Lake Superior. So being my natural sarcastic self I replied to Gisco.
"In the water."
"Not yet at least." Gisco mumbled turning back away from me.
It had been at least two days since we had ran out of breakfast bars and started to eat the jerky that the bearded man had packed us.
Some of you may be wondering "Why haven't we eaten that first? Surely that would have tasted better."
I could go into a long rant about how any type of processed meat is bad for you, how all the additional stuff they put into it can dramatically decrease your lifespan, or I can tell the truth and say that this brand just plain sulked. If you don't believe me that it tasted awful listen to what Elissa said emerging from below deck
"This tastes awful."
I rest my case.
After that enlightening tidbit the three of us sat down on the deck waiting for a clue as to where we were.
"Sitting around like this is getting us nowhere." Gisco said obviously peeved. "I swear," he said standing grabbing the hilt of his hunting knife "those mercenary scum are going to pay for my inconvenience."
He continued to utter several Punic curses, which I won't tell, before he threw his knife at the floor, the blade embedding into the deck, and went back down below deck.
Elissa and I looked at each other nervously; Gisco had always been the calm and collected one of us, if something got under his skin of all people…
I shook my head refusing to think about it.
"That was certainly unexpected." Elissa said rising. She walked over to where Gisco had thrown his knife and yanked it out of the deck.
"Brother, I forgot to mention but when we first were apprehended by the hunters one of them, Zoë I think, wanted to see if we were demigods by nicking us with Celestial Bronze, it didn't affect me but it was able to draw blood from Gisco"
"Yes, "I responded, "I remember Gisco telling me something like that; however I believe I have an answer to that." I responded thinking back to the woman on the train.
"Apparently there are some Punic demigods,"
"What, but then…" Elissa interrupted.
I held my hand up to silence her, "there not the same though, Greek demigods are born directly from a god and a mortal, while when it happens with Punic gods a mortal would host a Deity because the physical being of the Deity is trapped gods know where.
"So his father was…"
"Mother actually, sorry go on."
"So his Mother was once possessed by a goddess"?
"I, guess." my voice said rising.
Then I found myself thinking back to when the boy, Luke, and his sword, the one that had melted in the dragons acid, and also the one that I had definitely felt on my neck. I was about to bring this up but I quickly bit my tongue, I didn't want to remind Elissa of our own parents so I decided to excuse myself and head down below deck to tell Gisco, but when I got down I found him fast asleep and I decided to follow suit.
Now, having had breakfast bars thrown at my face you would think that that would have been the strangest wake up call, but I've always had a soft spot for the ole sword at you throat thing.
"Now what are ye doin here lad"?
I hastily opened my eyes and saw a man with the body of giant wearing a torn kilt that almost looked like it had been through a paper shredder, and wielding a massive claymore aimed right under my chin.
"I'll ask again case you didn't hear me the first time, who are ye and what are ye doing hear"?
I almost didn't understand him, he had one the strongest Scottish accents I had ever heard, which considering I was raised in Cuba that wasn't saying much.
"Right," I said looking up at the giant, his long red hair almost reached past his beard making it hard to decipher which was which. "Um, can I at least stand"?
The giant looked at me a little annoyed as if he was thinking about how much extra energy he would have to exert helping me up if he was going to let my body fall back to the ground, minus the head, he eventually extended his left hand and almost pulled my arm out of my socket when he was helping me up.
"Thanks." I said massaging my shoulders and looking around for any signs of Gisco or Elissa.
As if sensing my anxiety the giant said "Your friends are safe, for now at least" or, at least, that's what I think he said. "Now tell me who are you and what are ye doing here"?
I sensed that there was little use in trying to play a sob story so I just laid the facts in front of him and waited for him to respond.
"Hunters of Artemis," the giant said clenching his fist around the hilt of his sword which was now stored safely away in its sheath on his kilt,
"How we all hate their kind, they act all high and mighty like they're the only ones who need earth, and that everyone who isn't a hunter is contributing to its destruction. Tell me wee lad," he said leading me above deck and into some sort of camp. "How many females can ye count excluding your own sister"?
I looked around the makeshift village, almost all of them were male but the age range was varied, most of them were in their mid twenties but there were some teenagers and some old men walking around.
The giant man led me into the village "We may all have different heritages, heck most of us aren't even Scottish, but we all have had are families ruined by the Hunters of Artemis, when we realize that we can see through the mist you would think that would improve relations, but no, as soon as they realize that the world isn't what it seems and that there is a group of immortal girls their own age they abandon their own family thinking only about their own selfish preservation."
"David how was yer hunt." the giant said turning to a smaller younger man who almost looked like a young version of Patrick Stewart's Macbeth."
"Good sir, we caught two elk, should be enough."
"Sorry about that." the giant said as we continued our way to wherever he was taking me
"So, where are you taking me, are we to be trapped here because of our association with the hunters"?
The giant studied me for a while and then broke into a grin.
"Nah, we've been informed of your arrival, an old friend called a we bit back. Said his name was Frederick though I didn't buy that for a second. Anyway this be the meal lodge. You'll find yer friends in there as well as an additional member to yer party." The giant said ushering me inside of a large hut.
"I'll be on me way, good luck on yer journey."
I stopped in my tracks turning around in the doorway, "What you're not coming in."
"I've already eaten."
"Well, can I at least have name." I asked.
"I suppose so, I'm Duncan, chief here." he said before leaving my from sight.
I now feel kind of bad because I would never be able to thank him for anything.
"Brother, they didn't kill you."
"Nice to see you to Elissa." I said to my sister who was sitting at a round table next to Gisco and a female whom I never encountered before. She was wearing a long green trench coat and leather boats almost making her look like that one character in the Hobbit movie that wasn't even in any of the books, you know, I think Tauriel was her name.
The fact that she had a bow slung on her back helped the image. The only difference was that she had black hair.
She then stood up reaching her hand out looked at me with a rather large smile. "Bethóc Wallace, daughter of the village chieftain, at your service.
"She seems knowledgeable of these parts, she should be a good navigator." Gisco said looking up from his bacon."
Bethóc seemed to shy away from the attention and quickly added "Actually, this will be the first time I leave the village besides the occasional hunting trip to the mainland, father suggested that this would be a good way to get to know the outside world a little better."
"Anyway we're glad to have you aboard" I said taking a seat opposite of her pulling a plate of bacon and a type of sausage towards me.
After breakfast and Bethóc returned from saying her farewells we returned to the Delphi which was pulled ashore near a couple of Celtic looking galleys.
She must have caught me staring because Bethóc responded, "For our hunting trips I mentioned earlier."
I nodded as we boarded. Luckily for us Bethóc had almost no accent, unlike her father.
"Tell me something," Gisco asked jumping onto the boat, "I've never understood the whole Celtic thing."
"The founders of the first villagers were all mortals who could see through the mist, they thought they were the only ones so they banded together and found secluded areas that they thought they would be safe in." Bethóc said as we shoved off from the shore.
"At first all of the monsters that followed us were Celtic spirits, so we thought nothing of any actual gods, just monsters and spirits. The trouble started when we realized that we weren't alone. The first other descendants of the gods we met were a couple of Norsemen, they ran into our camp, we shared our fire and they left, and we felt nothing of it. Then came the hunters. That's when everything went down the toilet. They told us about the world and asked the females to join them. Of course being promised immortality swayed a lot of their minds. The remaining bunch of males and females had different opinions of them; some thought they were just a bunch of foolish girls while others admitted that it did sound good. That's when the one giant tribe split, of course there were others but our one major tribe split thanks to fighting amongst ourselves.
"Or at least that's what everyone says happened." Bethóc replied as the mechanical boat resumed its course to Chicago.
Elissa then took Bethóc down to show her all of the open spots on the floor, why on earth she did that I don't know, slinging her backpack one Elissa led the way.
"Mago, the chief, Duncan I think left us with improved supplies from the weird bearded man."
Thinking back on it calling him "the bearded man" for so long would have irritated me now.
"That's good I suppose." I said as Gisco started digging through a bag that had been placed on our boat by the chief.
"Our weapons," he said throwing me my falcata "My bow and a new hunting knife." He said drawing his bow from the sack and a dagger that looked more ornamental than anything.
After handing back the weapons that had been compensated from us we had a small lunch of deer meat, some kind of berry jam, and biscuits courtesy of the same people who took our weapons.
"This is... different." I could tell Gisco was having trouble keeping it down, Elissa and Bethóc were happily tearing into it, me on the other hand, it was food I guess.
Bethóc wiped her mouth on her sleeve, "It shouldn't be much longer until we reach Lake Michigan. I can keep watch go down bellow and get some rest I'll awake you when we get there."
"I was just about to think the same." Gisco said already heading down the stairs.
"Come on Mago, let's go." Elissa said rising.
"Nah, I think I'll stay up here." I said looking out.
"OK, well no funny business you two."
She was silenced by a piece of the meat I hadn't eaten.
I was about to turn to ask Bethóc something but forgot when I saw a Phoenix flying overhead.
"They rise from the ashes of a slain one, their beautiful." Bethóc said in an awed tone.
"As long as they don't set fire to our boat I guess." I responded.
"You're full of sunshine."
"You're just observing that now."
"I have known you for what five hours at most."
"Yes, your two hours late, most people would have come to the same conclusion in just three."
It took us a couple more hours to reach Lake Michigan. The remaining time was filled with Bethóc asking questions about New Carthage and in general being rather obnoxious but anything was better than what was going on below decks.
An hour after my delightful conversation of Phoenix and my sunshines I went below decks to rest for a while, and I found Elissa polishing her hunting Knife and dirk furiously, and Gisco mumbling incoherently drawing symbols in the deck with his new Knife.
I returned above deck shortly after.
I was almost worried when it came time to get them to come up for dinner now that we had entered Lake Michigan.
Luckily for me Bethóc volunteered to go down.
During dinner we went into detail about our journey so far, Bethóc seemed understanding enough at least until the part that we parted from Luke. she didn't voice it but I noticed her disappointed look.
"What do you plan on doing when you arrive in Chicago." She asked siting up putting down a biscuit.
"First trying to find how to free Khasis and have him finish my bow." Gisco said studying his bow.
"I was actually thinking that we should find the safe haven before we do anything maybe replenish our supplies and get more help." I said.
"That seems like a safer idea." Bethóc agreed.
"But I do think it would be wise to try to find how to free all of the deities, not just one." I added.
I couldn't tell but I thought saw Gisco look at me strangely. He opened his mouth, maybe to protest, but was interrupted by Elissa.
"Mago is right; we need to help all of them."
"I suppose I can stay around to help then." Bethóc said pulling out a highland dirk from inside of her boot.
After dinner I went below deck to catch up on my sleep along with Elissa and Bethócl. Gisco had volunteered to remain above deck to keep watch to avoid any more situations like today's.
"Tell me more about New Carthage I'd like to hear more about it." Bethóc asked.
"Sure." Elissa jumped up at the mention of our old home, "We based it after the original Carthage so of course at the center was our Tophet, our senate building was also nearby to allow for quick travel in case one of our senate members ever needed to consult the gods in a time of need."
"Do you have a head of state"?
"Yeah," I cut in. "it really depends how far back you want to go, if you go back far enough in history we had an emperor, however they were replaced with two Sophets, or judges, they were the head of the senate. However after the third Punic war when Rome conquered Carthage the underground Carthaginians reduced the number to just one. There were few of us so some changes had to be made.
"What the, how do you know all of this Mago"? Asked Elissa asking from underneath a makeshift blanket made out of flour bags.
"Unlike some of us, I actually listened to Clitomacus." I replied.
"Hmph."
"Anyway, as I was saying until a couple years ago the one Sophet was in charge of the senate. However, our late Sophet was murdered, assassinated, some say by a renegade Greek or Roman Demigod."
"And you, what do you think"?
"I… don't know what I think" I said sliding into my makeshift bed.