This is the last chapter for version 2 of Hunt of the Maelstrom. To be honest, I don't even remember if this is a complete chapter or not. There were other fragments from version 1 that further explored Annabeth and Thalia, but this version didn't go down the same path. There was also some version with a monstrous human headed bird and angsty Nico, but I don't know where that is. This is approximately where I think my work becomes passable, or at least where it becomes something more than 'rule of cool' and wish fulfillment. Just a bit.
"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." -Edgar Allan Poe
"MOM!" Percy leapt forward to embrace Sally Jackson, tightly gripping his one and only mother. He was almost even in height with her, he noticed - had he grown that much?
"Percy, I think you might be killing her again."
"Daphne!" Percy let go of his mother, immediately turning around to hug his younger sister. He felt her sigh in his embrace, before returning the gesture.
"I just knew you were going to do that," he heard her mutter.
"Oh, my lovely children." Percy smiled, feeling his mother gently join the hug. "My dear sweet children. You're not fighting anymore, are you?"
"What?" answered Percy, aghast as he broke away. "We never fight!"
"I stopped needling him," Daphne added, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah! She stopped -" Percy continued, before "Mom!" Percy leapt up, wrapping his arms around the apparition of his mother, who reciprocated with a little difficulty.
"Yes, you dolt, that's mom. We're kinda on a time limit here though, so stop squeezing her," snarked Daphne from behind him.
realizing something was off. "Wait! What do you mean you stopped needling me?"
"Daphne, don't you start it now!" scolded their mother. As she began to lecture Daphne, Percy finally managed to get a good look at their surroundings. It was a rather large cave, brightly lit by sparkling gems that redistributed and increased the amount of light created by luminescent mosses. Percy could see various fixtures here and there, all reminiscent of his old home.
Their old home. "Mum, is that the same fridge?"
Sally Jackson ceased her heart to heart with his sister to answer. "Yes, dear, it is. Your father and uncle have been very accommodating with allowing me to redesign the place."
"You got a lot done in the past month, then. So the deal is going well?" Daphne put in. "Amphitrite not going nuts yet?"
"Well," said their mother, smile soured slightly, "It wasn't as if I didn't already know what I was getting into with the marriage. And thankfully with this arrangement, I still get to see you two."
Percy shuddered. "Please don't refer to that."
"To what, dear?"
"He means how you died, mom," answered Daphne for her brother. "He still hasn't really gotten over it, despite the times we get to visit you since the deal."
"Yes, yes," their mom demurred. "I still kind of wish you two hadn't been so hasty with it, the consequences could have been far, far, worse."
"But we missed you so much, mom!" Percy cried, rubbing away at salty liquid near his eyes. Ah, just remembering what had happened always caused him to use his powers to summon seawater. Because those were totally not tears.
"That does not excuse being rash, Percy!" retorted Sally, once again scolding, before calming down. "C'mon, my babies, let's sit at the dining table. I only see you once a month and I want to get the most out of my time."
They all glanced glanced at a crystal sitting on the center of the table, which unlike all the other minerals actually gleamed with its own light. Or at least, just over half of it was lit, and the light was slowly eating away at itself until it was most definitely halfway.
"The dreams we have together are already kept more stable than most, but let's get everything in order, yes?" said their mom, eyes furrowed with sadness as she looked down at the table.
"At least we have the time, huh mum? If it wasn't for me we wouldn't have any!" Percy really wasn't about to let go of the subject.
However, before their mother could argue against it, Daphne mediated for the both of them. "Let's agree that we really weren't in control of this, ok? If it weren't for Hades reaching out to Poseidon to strike the deal, and us dreaming of that, we wouldn't even have known about it. I was the one to convince dad to follow along with Percy's suggestion when we prayed to him later to agree."
Sally raised a single black haired eyebrow in surprise. "We've had talks about two dozen times and you never saw fit to tell me?"
"Did you ever really realize just how difficult it was to live on our own, just the two of us for a year?" countered Percy, taking his sister's stance. "I didn't even have a proper weapon while Daphne had her magic whip, that deal got me the sword! All the other Celestial Bronze blades we came across were already damaged so much that Hephaestus wouldn't use them as scrap metal!"
Daphne leaned forward, immediately continuing as Percy took a breather. "You told me to never go to camp because of all the risks, and that's what we did. Distracted every satyr, killed every monster. You weren't there for us for that. You haven't been there for us for the most difficult period of our lives, and even now-"
"Yes, I know that!" erupted their mom, surprising the siblings. "I know." The second time was much softer, almost too soft to hear. "Let's please not end on this note, alright? I'm very sorry that I left you two alone in the world running around on the streets, and despite all my unhappiness at the risks you two took making this deal with your father and Hades I am grateful.
There were tears in Sallys eyes as she continued, Percy too unnerved by the drops of liquid and Daphne too stunned at the sudden turnaround to cobble together a response. "I'm grateful that you two are now off the streets and can get your education, I'm so happy that you two are making friends and alive and relatively happy. You two are happy, right?"
The crystal winked off, and the light faded away. Percy could no longer see anyone, but he choked out a single response that he wasn't sure whether Daphne echoed or not.
"Yes. I love you mom."
It was no longer stormy, and the moon shone fully amongst periodical clouds leftover from the storm. The ground was soggy and Zoe blinked, trying to understand the situation before her.
She quickly tallied everyone around her.
Her half of the Hunters, first and foremost the easiest to account for.
Luke Castellan, the disgusting boy that was with Thalia when she was recruited. Zoe really had no idea what the boy was doing here in the first place, but it was obviously contrary to the Hunter's orders and relevant to why the demigods were gone.
A satyr at the head of the other group of Hunters. Something extremely odd, considering Thalia's nature, but not the immediate issue.
A manticore backed by mortal soldiers, male and female alike. Obvious threat, and considering the maiden that was being stowed away behind the enemy group in a helicopter whatever was going on was not good.
She sighed, resetting her mind to fully refresh.
The orders were supposed to be simple. How did it reach this? Zeus had suspected his brothers corroborating, and sent his spies to check. Due to how engrossed the two were, he had learned of some very important issues. Zoe struggled to remember the exact talk for a moment. Ah, yes, Zeus had ordered Artemis to hunt down and kill the demigod children he had learned of from the fragments his spy heard.
It was somewhat - well, very hypocritical to allow Thalia her own life back if whoever they caught that were the children of the Sea or Underworld. Artemis had brought such a point up herself, so Zeus actually agreed to compromise and said that if any of them were female, they had the choice to join the Hunters. If male, they should be immediately brought into Olympus.
And so they had hunted, and come across the trail of two very strong scents of the sea and dead. The owners were very obviously female (due to the blood tint from the menstrual cycle of a non-immortal or stasis female - thank Artemis that joining the Hunt took away periods) and extremely powerful at manipulating their elemental powers, judging by the strength of the scent.
But now they were here, forced to interact with ghosts of a fellow Hunter's past. Such occurrences never ended well, and as much as Zoe respected Thalia, their personalities and viewpoints had been far too distinct. If Zoe herself only saw trouble with this event, Thalia most definitely sensed opportunity.
Well, it would be best to immediately negate a few threats. Zoe drew three arrows in an instant and launched silver bolts through the air. One sliced into the tail rotors of the helicopter, another through the still spinning main blades, and yet another striking through the throat of one of the mortals.
The mortal dropped dead, falling back from the force of the arrow embedding itself through his neck. A few of the other mortals around the man screamed - and they spread out, strafing bullets away at the Hunters and demigods. The main blades kept spinning until the weakened support tore away, and the large flaps spun down, cutting into the ground and off-setting the helicopter.
The Hunters were still picking off the mortals one by one, ensuring that the incoming bullets would no longer be an issue. The demigods, Zoe noted, were lucky that the mortals did not focus their gunfire at them at first. Though perhaps it was smarter for the mortals to attack the Hunters first - they would be more threatened by arrows, as she herself had clearly demonstrated.
Zoe casually sidestepped a launched thorn, waiting the helicopter carefully. A man dropped out, the pilot, carrying the Daughter of Athena over his shoulder …
"Excuse me, um … lady?" Bianca still wasn't sure what to call her, but then again she still really didn't completely comprehend who the lady was, besides an immortal.
"Yes, dear?" Well, the silver dressed lady wasn't phased at all at least.
"Um … W-what's your name?" Bianca was too nervous to speak up properly - everyone was still pretty much asleep, and speaking up could disturb the lady's driving. "We ne-never did get it from you."
"Ah … yes, my dear children wouldn't have wanted you to know. Even Hades, such a good boy he is usually … he wouldn't want you knowing." There was a tension in the air that was palpable - not particularly aimed or aggressive … just there. Slowly it weaned away as the lady continued. "However, I can understand why he wouldn't want you to know. I don't even remember how many times he's told me that it's all for my safety! That children should watch over their mother - pah, he's the only one that does out of all of mine!"
Wait … so if she was Hades's mother … then … father was Kronos … the name of the mother … just at the tip of the tongue … "Rhea?"
"Oo, now, dear, watch what you say," tutted the lady, pulling over to a gas station, "Names have power. Perhaps not as much as they used to - if the gods still showed up to every place and time they were insulted or compared to the mortals would be wiped off the face of the Earth. There's just too much background noise that they blank out meaningless phrases like 'being prettier than Aphrodite' nowadays. But Rhea, that's something that the self-proclaimed King of the Gods keeps an ear to the ground for."
The woman pulled up, opening her door to access the pump. She simply poked the machine, and the pump magically lifted itself to insert into the slot which also opened itself. "B-but … you are her?" asked Bianca, wincing at the squelching noise coming from the gasoline line.
"Dear grandchild, I am … her indeed, but also not her. Perhaps you can understand me?"
"Uh … no."
"Well, I'm simply a tad surprised you haven't gone into any Titan tangents yet, screaming of my evil and the such … I suppose I've gotten too used to Olympians making it seem that way. Indeed, they have been quite successful; I suppose I can further understand my eldest son's desire to protect me if so much has already been done to villainize me and my fellow Titans … to think that Zeus occasionally holds arguments on who I loved most!"
"You see, dear," commented the maybe Rhea as the pump retracted, ignoring the absence of payment and magically returning to normal, "His campaign to do so - eliminate availability of information on Titans over the centuries has weakened many a Titan. Slowly, quite a few fade away … oh, my sons and daughters …"
For a few minutes it was silent as Bianca let the Titan start up the car again, heading off to who knew where.
"You are fully aware of what fading is, grandchild?"
Bianca nodded hesitantly, forgetting that the lady couldn't possibly have seen the action normally. Well, if she wasn't a rather super-powered immortal.
"The gradual disappearance of many of my fellows eventually brought about … well, me. For you see, I am as much your grandmother as several of your grandaunts - we decided to use some of our flagging strength to bond together as one - and here we are now. We're still much the same as we used to, but of course many of our realms of power have since been transferred to others … a part of me used to watch over the moon, once. It's a bit of the reason why I wear this silver, besides that it's such a flattering hue upon my skin."
"B-but then … what is your name, if you are parts of many?" Bianca asked, still a bit lost. She was suddenly startled by some sudden restless movement from Nico, but shortly refocused back to the Titan.
"Hm … I've never truly thought one necessary, for really I am one Titaness. The collective memories makes me feel as if I was always just this one person … I've given birth to a lot of children, seen so many things …" The Titaness trailed off, and they continued on in their drive south.
"May I call you Haima?"
"You know what, Bianca? You are now the favorite of my blood."
Thorn changed - hunched over, his now furred arms batting away the golden haired boy's celestial bronze knife throw. It was certainly an odd knife, too … it seemed rather jagged, almost like a broken sword. The manticore jabbed his tail forth, but he flinched as the gruesome features of Medusa's head appeared in his sight and thus missed, off over his intended target of the satyr's head by several feet. However, he quickly recovered from his exposure to the now wielded Aegis from the infamous Daughter of Zeus, and now shot spikes towards her. Nonetheless, she was equally nimble and jumped, actually flying over the manticore and scratching the monster alongst the arm with her drawn spear.
The manticore growled as he tried to assess all the many enemies around him, but the huntresses were currently running circles around the mortals and eliminating them one by one before backing out of his spike range. The blond boy had been knocked out by a few Hunters and pulled back, which counted in his favor. But with the satyr now playing on a set of reed pipes that he pulled out of wherever, green growth was burst through the soggy earth to tie down one of his legs. The thick rope-like vines would be easy to break, but couldn't be dealt with easily at the moment due to the constant arrow fire that was forcing Thorn to maintain his concentration elsewhere. The only real luck he had was that the spear-wielding demigod was forced back.
So currently Thorn was forced to hold one position. He roared as several more mortals dropped over the cliff from the rain of arrows, including the pilot who had put down their captive near the edge. Giving up on blocking all the incoming bolts, Thorn reached down to pull his leg away and bounded over in a single leap to the unconscious demigod's body.
He had asked for a fight, and he had got it. The odds were unfair, but it was really no time to complain. Reinforcements were coming soon, though. Even if he could smell one of his fellow manticore's remnants on his enemies - a clear sign of her death, though Thorn was completely fine with that because she had been a total pain in the foot - he could stand.
There weren't many options available to him due to sheer numerical advantage, so to get out alive all he had to do right now was … stall.
"Stand down," he yelled, yanking an arrow from his hide and reverting to human form. "Or else this demigod dies!"
And indeed they did, for Thorn had also pulled up Annabeth's body and held the arrow's blade to her neck. The monster was at the edge of the cliff, and there was no where to back up to - but that also prevented the Hunters from getting a clear angle to shoot from without the devious manticore possibly moving the girl's body to block the shot.
Several of the dozen were now attempting to subdue the satyr, who was also causing issues by attempting to take the blond male's body to heal him. Seems like it was a standoff, Thorn noted. Well, not for long. It was faint, but his ears were far sharper than any of those with humanoid intelligence here, and the wolves probably wouldn't register wing beats as a threat.
"What do you want, monster? Holding her isn't going to keep us from killing you!" Ah, Thorn seemed to have touched one of the Daughter of Zeus's nerves, judging by her yelling.
"And just what is your attachment to this girl, eh, Huntress? She is not one of your maidens … old history perhaps?" At Thalia's flinch, Thorn grinned nastily. "Oh, then is it she?
Thorn's grin only increased in malice as he watched the Huntresses shift nervously in the night from the obscene amount of anger radiating from Thalia. "You are notorious amongst monsters, Thalia Grace! Surviving for years along with two others before suddenly, the group disbanding!"
He cackled at Thalia's literally glowing facial expression from sparks hanging out from the girl's spiky hair, and dug in the arrow he wielded just a bit further into his captive's neck to draw a bit of blood. "Yes, I know the tale! How the group disbanded because of the Great Prophecy, how the oh so valiant Daughter of Zeus felt so angry with Fate to have needed to do so! How she left her friends who were now closer than family in order to protect them, a choice that they disagreed with! So she hunts with a vengeance - massacring monsters before her path, searching for a way to release her anger from the losses she has had! "
Thalia was now pushed beyond her ability to contain her emotions. Zoe next to her had ceased to aim her bow at Thorn and was instead forced to restrain Thalia from assaulting the manticore - a smart thing too, for Thorn would have taken the threat against him as a signal to kill Annabeth. Nonetheless, the monster who continued to taunt. "Yes, the story tells of how the weak girl couldn't let go of her past, how she unlike her fellows chooses to grow old! So that she isn't trapped in the world which caused her so much pain, because she just - can't - let - go!" With each of his staggered words, the manticore launched spikes that forced the girls apart in order to avoid being poisoned.
"The monsters call you weak, Daughter of Zeus! They say you were unwilling to face your fate and bring a new era, where the Olympians that forced you away from your friends could be dead and never to return!" Accenting his final word was another growl - not coming from Thorn, but rather another manticore swept aside the Hunters still poised to strike at Thorn to strike Thalia, who barely brought her shield around in time in order to keep from being clawed to death.
It was clear that the girl's arm was deadened by the battering blow, even from the Thorn's point of view tens of feet away. Also, a spray of spikes from both manticores had hit several Hunters, who backed off in order to tend the wounds before the toxins became a larger issues.
"And now," for Thorn would not cease his gloating monologue, even as the few Hunters still combat ready fended off the new attack, "You sit in power right beneath dear Nightshade …" the beast glimpsed at the eldest of the Hunters around the Daughter of Athena's frame, "Weaker than she, even though you can call powers to hand that she cannot! Then again, it is obvious why you are beneath her, if you are currently in charge of this mission of yours! She is clearly letting you call everything, even if you seem to be failing at it! She won't say a word right now to justify my claims, but I can see the agreement in her eyes while she holds back her bowstring! But it's no matter now," the manticore continued, voice rising as the gradual beating of something extremely large reached their ears. "I think you have long since failed!"
With that, a humongous - as in, large enough to comfortably carry a grizzly bear - red peacock with the front body of a lion and the face of the pilot who had earlier dropped off the cliff swooped up with a piercing screech. It was certainly stunning, the sight of a peacock with a wingspan of probably a hundred feet wide. The bird looped and dove in, aiming at the fighting group.
Thorn grinned as he heard the gasps of "Simurgh!" and the Hunters and satyr ducked away to avoid the incoming claws. However, Thorn only stood proudly as he exchanged smirks with his fellow manticore Claw as both were grabbed by his their airborne ally Talon. Given appearances, the simurghs were actually relatively similar to manticores - human face on a body made of two different beasts. Naturally, the two would work together, regardless of how the flawed ancient Persians had dictated.
"Prepare for your devastation, Hunters, for the Great Stirring is already upon us!" Thorn called out one last time even as he and his fellow monsters departed with Annabeth Chase.
Thalia screamed as the monsters swiftly departed, the arrows shot by the Hunters not doing significant enough damage to even slow down the simurgh's flight.
There was nothing she could do to save Annabeth. After leaving her and Luke in order to protect them, did it all turn out for nothing? She almost called down another lightning bolt when she heard Amelia mutter, "You have to wonder why they need a helicopter if they have that bloody thing," but managed to reign in her anger. She would need to channel it if she wanted to save Annabeth.
Grover had noticed the flight away, but now seemed to prioritize on what he could immediately with. Specifically, he was loudly screeching away at a piercingly high series of discordant notes that seemed to be healing Luke. Thalia could deal with the two later, the satyr was hardly the issue right now anyways - it would have to wait until Luke was conscious for Thalia to understand what happened.
What could she do to save Annabeth? The Hunters were still tending to the after battle, focusing on recovering before assessing the battle. Picking up stray recoverable arrows, healing wounds, checking equipment and the wolves … but then there was Zoe's black eyes glaring, right in her face, mouthing words that she couldn't hear. Thalia tuned her in.
"What art thou done, swine? If thee had simply defeated the Son of Hermes at the gymnasium as I allowed thee to do so, none of this would have occurred! Now look at us, we are scattering to at least have some semblance of respect before My Lady returns, and what dost thou think she will say when we tell her of our failure to capture the demigods, then watch a maiden get captured by monsters?"
"Shut up!" Thalia could suddenly hear herself yelling. "And if you can't, can't you at least speak straight? Anyways, you are the one who was supposed to find the demigods after the Luke diverted us, are you blaming me for what you couldn't do?"
Grover had now stopped his music, pulling Luke away from what looked to be an imminent mudfight between the lieutenant and junior lieutenant of the Hunt. The other Hunters had long since backed away, knowing that fights like such would be … electrifyingly dangerous.
"By the stars, ye nincompoop, I wasn't the one to blindly follow some satyr!"
"I only followed him because he told me of Annabeth being captured!"
"And then thou let her get away, belaying my signs to shoot down the manticore! I myself prevented the helicopter from taking off, what was thee doing standing around like an angry porcupine head holding a spear?"
Thalia definitely knew she was sparkling with anger now. She screamed inarticulately, drawing a dagger to cut away at Zoe's snobby upturned nose - it would do well to mar the haughty look on her pretty face.
However, Zoe equally swiftly drew and parried, and the duel commenced, black hair flying this way and that from each. The Hunters merely knocked out Grover and began to set up camp - they were used to such displays by now, and their only option at the moment was to set up camp and wait for their Goddess's return.
Daphne blinked slowly, readjusting to the new lighting. It wasn't exactly bright, shifting from the familiarity of her old home to the throne room of Hades - but, one had to deal with what one had to deal with. At least her shoes wouldn't actually get dirty from the ground here.
Not that it was that dirty - hell, the palace was beautiful and well kept in its black obsidians and gold and bronze metallic decorations, lit by torches lining the walls. But the black onyx throne before them made from skulls absorbed a lot of the light in the room, which seemed rather empty.
Well, it was probably because Uncle Hades kept out all of his security. Then again, it was probably because of Persephone, the goddess hated the skeletons and ghouls from previous eras hanging around in the the throne room. At least, from what Daphne heard him mumble one time. Daphne could still glimpse the flashing movement of what were probably hellhounds scuttling about, but they were all hugging along the walls of the room.
Daphne's eyes finally refocused, and she curtsied before the intense gaze of the Lord of the Dead. "Uncle," she said clearly, unlike her brother's shabby nod of acknowledgement and muttering. It was a tad unnerving to face the extremely tall God of the Underworld, but reports were reports, and they had to be made.
"Must we stand in ceremony here, Uncle? It would be far simpler to tell you the details informally," Daphne respectfully stated. It wasn't too hard to defer to Hades, for he was truly a sight to fear. Taller than even the average increased god size, the god was imposing with his bone white muscular body and contrasting black robes and hair. The most noteworthy feature, however, was the god's dark eyes that shimmered like black ice. At times the gleaming that shone with purple fire from within made her question whether her Uncle was a genius or a madman (before thinking the two were virtually the same).
"Do not think, child," Hades's oily voice rang out in its deep charismatic baritone, "That the last meeting commencing at my dining table meant anything in the continued … deal, of ours."
"Of course not," scoffed Percy. Idiot brother. Well, at least he remembered to say it so softly that Hades couldn't hear it this time, godly hearing or not. Then he vanished.
"My patience not boundless - I do not wish a repeat of the immature outburst your brother gave in our last meeting. Now … I would like the progress update on my children," the god drawled, tracing his right hand along the armrest throne.
The far more intelligent and respectful Child of Poseidon internally sighed at her older sibling's actions, before speaking. "Bianca is fairing well, Uncle. She is much less shy than even the last time we met, and her strength in manipulating the dead and the earth are on par with my abilities to manipulate water." Daphne paused, carefully taking in her uncle's expression, which seemed to be apathetic. Still safe, then. "Nico is also progressing well, though his skill much favors the use of his blade rather than his inherited abilities from you."
Daphne took another glance at Hades's stony face, which had yet to truly give anything away.
"Hand me your weapon."
What?
Daphne glanced down at her wrist, where she knew that the scavenged magical item rested even in dreams. Was he angry with her, wanting her weapon? She could never tell with the Lord of the Dead. Unfortunately, she couldn't afford to offend the god, especially with the deal that had been made.
She wasn't particularly fearful for her life, no. But she could still remember the day when she met Percy in a dream - which was a rarity, actually, since they usually received separate premonitions. But in fact, it had been the older brothers of Zeus that had summoned them. The first time either of them had truly seen their father.
In that dream, they didn't have the ability to make noises. Their voices were cut, and they could only listen in silence for even stomping their feet made no sound. But Poseidon had cut a deal with Hades - using Daphne and Percy, whom he had never even met before, to protect Hades's children. And in return, all that was necessary was for Hades to allocate a special area for whom Poseidon claimed was one of the most wonderful mortals of he had ever met.
Percy would agree that their mother was a wonderful person, but Daphne was the cynic and would simply consider Poseidon's infidelity.
But everyone won. Poseidon got visit their mother when he felt like it, Mom could have a better time than she would have in what likely would have been the Fields of Asphodel, Hades got to stick it to Zeus and protect his children, Nico and Bianca were now being trained and protected, along with getting a full recollection of their past. Percy got a weapon, which he hadn't had before (at least one of any good quality) - and it was certainly a marvelous blade too. Cut from bone with designs that not only lightened the blade but did so without removing structural integrity, an excellent magically fit grip, and a return if lost feature.
But she hadn't gotten anything, besides being able to see her Mom again. Perhaps … ? She pulled it off her wrist and snapped it open, and the leather unfurled along the barren floor, the tip clinking on the marble. In a flash of black … black? Somehow, black. But in a flash of black, the whip appeared in Hades's upturned palm, in which the god contemplated.
"You are aware, child, that a whip is not quite a weapon?" Daphne opened her mouth, but Hades continued on without any sign of stopping. "It is a useful device to inspire fear and pain yes, but the condition necessary are far too exact to do so. You surely should have noticed that you must always remain at a specific range to maintain full effectiveness, that while the addition of the bronze tip is meant to injure monsters, it is not generally sufficient."
"Whips were never meant to be used in battle. It has always been too impractical for such. However, your talent with the weapon is quite impressive … thus."
In a gesture that seemed almost lazy, the whip disappeared from his hand and returned to Daphne's wrist in its less obvious form - a hair band. And … with it appeared a gorgeous bracelet made of metals and minerals she couldn't even identify. "Yes, Uncle?"
"You will need it. It will be far more effective than your old whip, provided you learn to use its multitudes of forms. Think of it as a … reward for continued good work, and an incentive for more. Your driver has already contacted me, and I fully …" Hades seemed to be trying to keep from choking as he spoke. "I fully trust her judgement on where she will take you next."
Daphne was pretty sure as the dream faded she heard The Rich One mutter, "Or that I can't do anything to keep her from doing what she wants besides when I'm begging on my knees."
The reason that Artemis had yet to be seen was that she was distracted by the local wildlife.
Or not so local wildlife, considering that a sea cow - a true half cow, half fish, not some manatee, had popped up and mooed right in front of her face.
And she couldn't understand it, and frankly did not wish to. All it said was moos in various lengths, but the creature was surprisingly endearing.
A rub here, a few scratches there, and soon Artemis had found herself swimming in the icy cold midnight ocean to more closely observe the unknown creature. Exactly what was it? Was it a new species of monster, one of the many that came about from her Uncle Poseidon and his various trysts? It couldn't have been Hera, despite the cow. It just felt so familiar, but why?
Artemis was now gazing up into the night sky, which was unfortunately still polluted by the city lights from far away. The sky had cleared of clouds, and despite light pollution she could see the many stars; she could feel the moonlight bathing her skin as she calmly floated along with the rising tide with the unknown creature supporting her.
There was no reason to kill it. It wouldn't be good sport to do so, the beast was like a cow in far too many regards. Some bulls were worthy of being hunted, yes, but this creature was more docile than anything else. What fun would it be to kill for no reason, especially a creature with nothing in its evolutionary body aiding in protection? It was too large to move quickly, had short and blunt horns - it could really only shoot out water on the occasion, just playing around and circling peacefully. So innocent.
No, it would not be right to hunt such an animal. But still, there was a connection that she felt with the sea cow that her intuition just kept screaming at her for, tolling a bell to.
Artemis flipped languidly, turning her skybound gaze to the peaceable cowfish that seemed to be content in bringing her around in lazy circles. She would see the creature again, she knew it would happen. She did not have her brother's talent with prophecy, but she could feel her soul and destiny tied to the beast.
"I will see you again, won't I, bull?"
The mournful moan of a moo echoed softly across the bay, but there was no other living creature there. Only a flash of silver light showed any evidence of change from the moment before, along with the vibrancy of the shine from the moon dimming.