Chapter 21

Everybody was sleeping but I just couldn't, I was thinking about the team that was looking for me for who knows how much time, about what my mother told me which lead to think about Hunter, how did I see him and what decision would Zeus take about him? The thoughts of my mother or anybody taking him from me scared me but it also infuriated me because I didn't know why I felt that way. And ultimately the question that came and went in my head was who knew about Annabeth cheating on Percy? Well he'd better never admit it before Hunter because he (Percy) seemed to be someone he liked. It was still around 3 am. So could sleep again and for a dreamless hour or two. Did Hunter kidnap a god? But how could he do it while he never was far from me, at least Zeus won't asking any question as he will take him as the kidnapper. I fall asleep with all these questions which didn't find any answer.

I woke up in the morning, rather I was waked by the 8 years girl that traveled with us, I barely had the time to glance at my watch to see that it was 09:30 am, "Oh gods my training" a said enough loud for Arya to laugh and tell me that Hunter find me asleep and he thought that I was so cute asleep that he refuse to wake me up. When I heard it I was startled and it didn't help with all those things my implied yesterday in my dream that seemed to come back in my mind now. Arya laughed at my expression and says

"I was just teasing you, he actually said nothing except to let you sleep and wake you before he's back" she kept on laughing at me. I could feel the blood rushing to my face but decided to do nothing as I didn't know how Hunter would take it if I was to hit his sister.

Once she stopped laughing at me she shows me my breakfast and says that "There is a creek down there to your left if you want to wash yourself"

"Thank you, I think will first wash up before taking my breakfast" I replied to her but that just widens her smile which now was suspicious to me. But I leave it and go to the creek, I start to take off my clothes (I was already in my underwear) when something came out of the water, and that something as a certain dark brown haired demigod who only had his lower half covered by a khaki Bermuda. His eyes were still closed and I wanted to find a bush to hide myself but it was too late as he opens his eyes and sees me. I could just do it anymore because I could think any longer, his eyes were bight sea-green and then sea-blue, and they were changing from one color to another so fast that you could tell the color of his eyes.

There was a complete silence, even the birds stopped themselves. The only thing I could hear was the sound of the running water and each other's breath as we stood motionless for Zeus knows how much time. As my mother's real daughter I could help myself but check his body "Oh gods" it seems the difference between what I see and what I've told my other is like the difference between the earth and the sky because he had a better body than what I described, back then it only was assumptions and lies but right now it was the real thing before me and it screamed one word: HHHHOOOOOOTTTTTTTT. He turned around leaving me to face his muscular back as he muttered

"I'm sorry I didn't know that you already waked and wanted to be down here" and I could tell that he was beef red and for myself I might be redder than a tomato. In my head, my heart's beating was far too strong to understand what he just says so I only nodded. When he added "I will leave you now" I honestly didn't heard him only later when he walked out of the water that I understood what he said.

Once out of the water and few meters from me, he says "Nice bikini" which made me blush even more than before.

"It's not a bik..." but he already was gone when I turned around to tell him that it wasn't but actually I was wearing a bikini, it seems like my mother new or planed something like this would happen today for she must have turned my underwear into a bikini one piece. "Damn you mom" I say to myself but wait I think, he didn't check even on my body when most boys do, strange, he must be a real gentleman or..."non non non je ne veux pas y penser" (I don't want to think about it) I say loudly in French.

I took my bath, and strangely the water wasn't cold as it should've been especially for a little creek like this in the middle of January. Even if we had well Hunter or Arya had a magical item that seems to heat the air around us to shelter us from the cold of the night but water seemed to have been heated up but how and by whom? That I couldn't tell.

When I finished, I went back to our camp to find Arya smirking at me but the glare she received from Hunter made it fade quickly. I observed that they were sitting quite far from each other and then it came back to me that I heard people arguing and there is no doubt in my mind that it was Hunter and Arya because she didn't warn me that Hunter was bathing in the creek.

"It seems like we had a visit of some god yesterday while we were sleeping" Hunter says as he looks at me and then point out the bag of clothes that was near my bunk and says "your mother dropped some clothes by for each one of us" it wasn't a question and I could see in his eyes that he almost ordered me to give an explanation about it but my answer clearly wasn't what he prepared himself to have.

"NOW YOU INSPECT MY BAGS? HOW DARE YOU" I scream at him but he didn't seem to care because he was still sit and looked at me as if there was no problem and it drives me even madder when he gives me that look.

He was perfectly calm when his answer came, but the sound of his voice was so cold and so sharp that it instantaneously made me stop my tantrum "I didn't have to do it as someone else took the charge of it" he casts a look on Arya and I got what he meant "But please tell us how you came afford it" he tells me with his eyes that went through my soul.

Knowing that my charm-speak has no effect on him, I decided to tell him the truth, except for the part about Thalia's team neither about mom's remark about he and I which I kept for myself. But it felt strange to hide something from him but those details were too personal and embarrassing to share and it wasn't as if the two of them were fully opened to me, and I must admit he was a good listener because not even once did he made a comment nor stopped to say something, the only things that changed about him during my 'report' was a glare he was giving Arya to stop her whenever she wanted to interrupt me he strangely reminded me of Chiron with the way he listened to me just like Chiron did when we came back from our quest or when we told him about Dylan and the other monsters. When I finished, he just sat there with a faraway look.

"Yes I didn't expect that she felt that way, poor Nyssa." He paused, "Yes neither that there was a book or scrolls about m..." he stopped himself and I thought about whom? But he wanted to say me? It seemed to me that he was talking to someone only he knew the presence.

"Is there someone else there" I asked him and for the first time I founded that my charm-speak could work on him because he looked at me and began to respond

"Yes there is someone else, well he's just in..." he stopped as if his senses suddenly shut out my charm-speak or as if someone shook him out of it. But he just looked at me and smirked as if saying 'Well done Piper you managed to charm-speak me congratulation to you, but unfortunately for you I'm too strong to fall in it' and just seeing that amusement in his eyes drove me mad and I wanted to knock him out.

And as if the even heard my silent prayer he said "Now we're gonna train take your weapon out" to me, I brought out Katoptris and took my stance. He looked at me for a moment as if trying to remember my stance or trying to find a flaw in it, but all I could see was recognition and pain and later anger but he shook himself out of his emotions. It always startles me how fast he could shift from one emotion to another, but my thoughtful must have bored him because I felt his sword on my neck and I heard his voice

"Daydreaming in battle is fatal; you must always concentrate on your enemy and never give him the time to see that kind of face"

"I wasn't daydreaming, I was just thinking about other things" I tried to defend myself but it seems to anger him as he snapped at me

"Then don't think" there was an heavy silence between us and none of us moved or tried to apologize but as I was thinking about joining Arya at whatever she was doing, he took a deep breath and said "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you" but he would look at me in the eyes thought I could see that he meant it but I didn't want to leave it like that.

"You shouldn't but you did" I paused and then snapped at him "what's wrong with you, whenever you see me with a knife you're angry at me just like yesterday. What did I do wrong?" I asked him the last part, he wanted to reply but I beat him to it the moment his mouth opened "NO" I screamed "I'm the one who's talking now, is it because my sword used to belong to Helen of Troy that you don't like it or is it because it's a daughter of Aphrodite who's carrying it" I didn't knew but at the end of my speech tears were falling of my eyes, I wanted so much to be accepted by him as his peer even if he was stronger than me, I wanted him to gaze at him just as he would at Arya but I could see that I would never impressed him, that he would never accept me and he would just look at me as a useless daughter of Aphrodite and I broke down.