Harry and Zoe leaned against each other as they sat on rather comfy couch taking a brief rest as they watched the other demigods go to and fro, healing their comrades and preparing for what was to come. It was a few hours from dawn and for now they were safe.
"You know, after all of this is over," Harry whispered to Zoe, "I think I deserve a vacation. Four years of defying death at school and then running around with the hunt these past three years, I think I deserve one."
Zoe hummed in agreement as Harry's hands gently stroked her hair attracting a few curious stares from those from Camp Half-Blood as they were not aware that Harry was so close to one of the hunters. That and they looked even closer than what was allowed for a hunter and male. "What do you plan on doing?"
"I'm not sure. I'd like to travel, probably to the orient or at least the Polynesian Islands, somewhere I can relax and have fun. Hopefully, where no monsters love to reside."
"That does sound fairly nice."
"Of course, you'll be welcome to come with me, not that Mum would let me go alone and you know she would send you to supposedly keep me out of trouble. Then I'll need to see if Thanatos can give you at least the partial immortality that I have."
"Wait, why would I need to have the immortality from another deity? I already have it partially from my lady."
"Fair enough, but that immortality has stipulations and I really want to be able to kiss you." Harry said this so casually, that if one were just going by the tone of his voice, they would assume that Harry had just said it was going to be sunny tomorrow.
"That would be nice," Zoe agreed in the same tone of voice, but snuggled deeper into the side of Harry showing her appreciation for the idea. "I don't know if I would be able to leave the hunt, but it would be nice to do some of the things that regular couples in this age do."
"Who said anything about you leaving the hunt?" Harry asked and Zoe looked up in confusion. "After all, Artemis has all but confirmed the adoption and loves having me around. I highly doubt that she would say no to my girlfriend if it meant that I wouldn't be around camp as much."
Zoe's eyes lit up at Harry's words and burrowed into his side even more. "Now I really want to kiss you," She stated matter of factly. "You are making it very hard to stay true to even the loosest definitions of my vows." They both chuckled a little and just enjoyed the feelings that they were currently enjoying.
"So did you get the story of why there are no Ares kids here helping out with the defense? You would assume, if nothing else, that they would be here to protect their father's throne," Harry questioned after enjoying a few minutes of utter silence and contentment.
"Phoebe asked one of the Apollo campers, since she's a daughter of Ares as well. It seems they are tired of being overlooked and only appreciated when battles roll around. Plus, they are seen as the camp bullies, so unless they get a promise to be treated better Clarisse has decided that she would keep her cabin at camp."
"Stupidity has no bounds," Harry sighed. "They want things to change, but if this defense fails all they will do is die. If this defense succeeds and they don't show up, their treatment will only get worse as they won't be considered bullies anymore, but the cowards of camp. Plus, even though it isn't rational, every one of these deaths will be laid at their feet." He shook his head ruefully as he tried to make sense of it all.
"Don't try to make sense of it all Harry," Zoe chided, "It's not your place to figure out what people are thinking. Besides, you're more of a man of action, not thinking," She descended into a teasing tone with a small smile on her face.
"Oh you wound me," Harry swooned dramatically getting a giggle from Zoe. Before they could descend into any more seriousness, Percy came out wide eyed and frantic calling for all the counsellors and even though Thalia was the designated spokesperson of the hunt, they were not above going to the meeting and figuring out what was going on. Harry and Zoe may not have agreed with Percy on a lot of things, but he was usually was a calm one on the battlefield or anything pertaining to it. Harry idly wondered if Annabeth was pregnant and that was why Percy was panicking at the moment.
"I just had a demigod dream and it isn't good," Percy intoned and Lee Fletcher couldn't help himself.
"When are they ever good? For once I would love to have a dream where I wasn't about to die and instead had directions to an island full of beautiful women that want to love me." This got an amused snort from everybody and Zoe couldn't really get mad at that as demigod dreams tended to be very bad. Not that she passed up the chance to glare at the Apollo counsellor.
"Kronos is sending a draken soon and he said that we couldn't beat this monster. Apparently our spy is rather good as he knows we're missing a child of Ares from our forces and this draken is destined to fall to a child of Ares." It appeared that Percy forgot about the hunters, but now was not the time to remind him.
"Okay, we really need to find out who this spy of ours is because they are really starting to piss me off," The counsellor of Hermes' cabin stated.
"Now is not the time for that," Annabeth said, "In case you have forgotten there's currently a Drakken flying towards us and we don't have a plan to stop it. Where are we going to find a child of Ares?"
"We'll just have to hope that Selena comes through and that our defenses will hold. Come on, we need to take up our positions. The monster will be on us at any moment."
As the campers scrambled to prepare their defenses, Harry looked around and if it wasn't such a desperate situation. "Now, this is why we should be the ones pitching the hissy fit and not the Ares cabin," He told Zoe and Thalia.
"What do you mean Harry?" Thalia asked while Zoe knew exactly what he was talking about.
"Seriously Thalia look at every running around and preparing for this fight and not expecting to win because there's a prophecy that only a child of Ares can defeat this monster."
"Yes, and we don't have a child of Ares here. They are all at camp and Selena's trying to convince them to come and help us defend Olympus."
"Thalia think about what you just said and then about your sisters," Zoe counter argued. "Phoebe is one of Ares' daughters and I'm fairly sure we have another five sisters that share the same godly parent."
"But," Thalia started and then she paused as Zoe's words sunk in. "Oh yeah, that makes sense and now I feel stupid."
"It's understandable, especially when you get caught up in the campers' panic, but you must remember that we may be hunters first, but we all have our parents."
"Then why didn't you or Harry stop them? They are out there panicking because a monster that is supposedly unbeatable is winging its way towards us?" Thalia half asked, half shouted at the two.
"I simply let Harry lead as he was the one that pointed this out to me," Zoe answered slightly sheepishly. "I fell into the same trap as you did unfortunately. It seems we both kind of panicked."
"Well then why didn't you say anything?" Thalia stared at Harry expectantly.
Harry shrugged and had a bit of rueful smile. "Although I don't like the panic they are in right now, they do need to learn to not take everything so literal. I mean look at me, I was subject to a prophecy the same as Percy and it ruined my life because of a literal interpretation and what one man thought it meant. Supposedly I was supposed to fight a glorious battle to finally end the dark lord's existence after what basically amounted to a scavenger hunt and absolutely no training. Instead, I skipped all of those deaths and that time wasted just by asking a few simple questions with the right people. Now, I'm standing here with you all in a world that I was probably never meant to meet with sisters that would have had a much different reaction to all males. Prophecies are real, there is no question to that after all we have been through, but the translations aren't literal. We'll be there able to save their sorry butts, so it doesn't matter too much."
"I don't think this is right and I don't think you make sense at the moment," Thalia stated, "But, you haven't steered us wrong before, so I'll trust you this time. Hopefully, this won't happen again, but if it does, you need to promise me that you will tell whoever we're fighting with."
"That's fine, now come on," Harry agreed while pushing himself off the wall. "We need to prepare for this baddie and tell the rest of the hunters of our thinking."
The hunters were very happy with their leaders' interpretation of the prophecy for this monster, after all telling the hunt that they couldn't defeat this monster had put a few arrows in the campers that were brave enough to tell them that. They hadn't ended up in anywhere life threatening, but having an arrow even lightly graze you hurt like hades. There were actually six girls that were the daughters of Ares that were looking forward to bringing down a Drakken.
It was only a few minutes after word had spread and everybody had taken their positions when a terrifying roar reverberated across the streets of New York City. Harry had to admit that if he would have had to face that creature in the first task of that blasted tournament, he probably wouldn't be here at the moment. This Drakken dwarfed the Horntail and although it made the Horntail look like him when he was a firstie next to Hagrid, it moved with a grace that was rarely seen in the air. If it was another time and Harry knew that the beast wouldn't kill him, he would have loved to fly with something that looked that amazing in the air.
"Harry," Zoe hissed, "You're drooling about flying with that monster aren't you?" She knew of his love for flying although he hadn't flown much since he arrived in America. However, he had flown almost every day when they were in England and had taken her up with him a few times. She hadn't seen such a pure expression on someone's face in quite a while.
"Yes," Harry grinned, not repentant in the slightest and freaking out those around him.
"Whatever," Zoe huffed before shaking her head fondly at the raven haired boy. "Archers prepare to draw, you know the plan."
Many of the campers stopped and stared for a moment as the hunters smoothly launched wave after wave of arrows and many finding the few vulnerable spots of the monster. The Apollo cabin had their share of skilled archers of course, but they only practiced an hour or so a day and then had other duties to attend to. The hunters however were always practicing with the bow or using it against the monsters that they hunted. The arrows flew in concert and if the campers would have paid attention, they would have noticed that while all arrows were flying on a path to hurt the Drakken, only six were going for vital areas and hitting as all others turned by some other force.
"What is that idiot doing?" Harry shouted as Percy stepped forward to face the monster with nothing but his sword. "I don't know whether to applaud his bravery, or kill him so he can't procreate and pass on his stupidity."
Thalia wanted to defend her friend, but she couldn't completely disagree with Harry's words so she settled with a noncommittal grunt. While the campers stopped their onslaught on the monster, the hunters did not. Just as the beast roared at the tiny human in front of it, Phoebe let loose an arrow that soared through the open maw of the monster in an overly used cliché, not that anyone would complain as it soon crashed to the ground dead to the surprise of the campers. Before anyone could question just how the beast had been defeated, a war cry that could only come from that of humans carried to the defenders and a small group on Pegasus's approached.
"Are we late?" The newly arrived Clarisse asked as she and the rest of the Ares cabin landed with Selena leading the charge and sending her spear through the head of the Drakken and starting the disintegration. Now, everybody was really confused, especially when Zoe caught the glint of silver around Selena's neck and exposed the scythe. Harry knew the following conversation would be a doozy.
A/N: So I realized as I posted this on the site, that I had completely skipped the centaur arrival, so pretend I did that. I'm glad that this story is coming to a close as this quarter is probably going to eat me alive, but I never want to tell my readers to wait two and a half months for the end. The end of this chapter kind of sucked, but at the same time I wanted everything to happen like this. Thanks for reading!