Orphans of Legends

Ch-16: Teachings and Plans

Faith POV

Why am I so terrible at arts and crafts! I thought as I looked at my fourth attempt to create a somewhat pretty picture.

Now I didn't expect myself to have renaissance level skills here, but you'd think I'd at least do a half-decent job at coloring in characters as simple as Lilo and Stitch!

Now if this was something like language arts, martial arts, or even the art of war I'd be decent, but when it comes to art-art, I was terrible.

On the bright side; Jenna and Linda aren't big on criticism.

And on the other side; it was getting a little lonely here. Thaddeus had been gone for over half an hour now, and the rest of the kids who had come here to train had taken their chance with the teacher being gone to slip away.

So now it was just me and the girls, which wasn't a bad thing, but the atmosphere had gotten more still like I was just quietly waiting on a train till it got to the next stop.

I only wish this train would go a little faster.

I was halfway through coloring that one alien with the one eye and three legs in the color of purple when boredom was beginning to take effect.

Ugh! If I draw one more alien in a hula shirt, I'm gonna lose it.

I decided to take a break and got up to stretch my legs. I sighed as I felt them crack, which they tend to do after a long day of training and when I sit too long,

Linda looked up for a second but seeing as I wasn't doing anything special just went back to doodling.

Jenna, on the other hand, didn't even acknowledge I had moved, being utterly focused on making Pumbaa the warthog green.

I walked down the length of the pavilion, stretching out my arms and shoulders, feeling more satisfying cracks in my joints as I did.

I wonder what Thalia and Thaddeus are up to? Whatever it is, I hope they get back soon; watching these two isn't hard, but it's getting really-

My thought process hit pause when my eyes caught sight of a certain firing lane box that just happened to still have a bow and a set of arrows in it.

-boring…

I looked all around to see if anyone else, except the girls, were here or downrange getting their arrows.

All clear.

I walked up to the box to check the equipment out.

The bow was simple and standard in shape, a little on the smaller size, but still usable.

Whoever was here before must have either forgotten to put their gear back or probably just didn't care and lazily left it here.

Hmm…

I glanced around again for good measure; again, no one save for the occupied artists. I looked back and pondered till I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.

"Ah, what the hell." I whispered.

Sucking another breath, I picked up the bow, my hands drifting over it.

It was pretty basic, with a good grip and recurved slightly so that it would increase the power and distance despite its small size

I pulled the string and it seemed well taunted. The only oddity about it was that it was the color of lime green.

Why lime? I thought randomly.

It felt like it was meant for one of those summer camps. (No, not Half-Blood. They at least have good taste in plain colored bows).

But I do hate their shirts' color.

I gripped it firmly up and drew the string back like I had an arrow notched, aiming it downrange.

The feeling of my muscles tightening and my breath becoming relaxed felt refreshingly familiar due to the countless hours of training and practice.

I lowered the bow and for a moment and thought; maybe a little training wouldn't hurt.

I reached for an arrow but stopped a hair length away.

What the…?

My hand was shaking, or more like shivering as if it was freezing outside. I didn't know why, but it just was, I couldn't feel it moving. If I hadn't seen it, I never would have known it was shaking at all.

After a few more seconds it stopped on its own, but the fact that it happened at all made me... scared.

I guess… I'm not ready yet.

I sighed to myself and turned to put the bow back when my wandering eye caught a certain young girl watching me.

She immediately looked down and enthusiastically continued her doodling, trying to act as nothing happened, but she was hardly convincing.

I perked an eyebrow and glanced at the bow in my hands, then back at the girl. A smirk forming on my mouth as an idea came to my head.

With the bow still in my hands, I walked over to the table and kneeled down to the shy girl that was doing her best to act casual. So cute.

"Hey Linda, you wanna give it a try?" I asked her.

The young eight-year-olds ears were a little red from embarrassment with her face following suit. She hadn't wanted to try it before with Thaddeus, but that didn't mean she wasn't still interested.

"Um-uh… N-no thanks." She said, pretending to focus more on her drawing.

Still, playing hard to get eh?

"Hey, it's just us here. Just you and me. It'll be fun!" I pushed, rubbing her back to try and get her to calm down, but she still shook her head.

Hmm, alright. Let's try the reverse.

"Well, okay then. It was probably way too hard for a small and little girl like you to do anyway." I said with a dramatic tone that I hoped wasn't too much for the effect I wanted.

It got her attention at least, her face contorted into a mix of confusion and anger. Just what I wanted, Yahtzee.

"I am not little!" She retorted. Her shy voice actually raised a few decibels than before.

Alright, time to start the dramatics.

"Hm... well only big girls can do archery, but since you don't want to do it, I guess you're not ready to be a big girl yet." I said crossing my arms with the bow still in hand and my chin higher, so I had to look down at her, I was trying my best to make my voice sound condescending.

"That's not fair! I don't even know how!" She retorted.

"I'll teach you, but only if you're up for being a big girl?" I suggested.

"Mmmmgh…" she pouted, her cheeks becoming a little bigger.

She folded her arms and scrunched herself, her eyes looking away from me. After a full minute passed, I half-heard a whisper from her.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you?" I asked, knowing well what she probably said.

"...C-can you... teach me?" She asked with a hint of spite still in her. But there was also longing in there too.

While I could have pushed more; she could have asked more clearly and with eye contact or more politely. But it's not like I was the girl's mother, all I wanted was for her to give in, which she did.

But I still couldn't help but lightly laugh at her action.

"I would love to." I said with a smile and offered her my hand.

She seemed hesitant again and must have realized she'd been played. But eventually, she took my hand and we both started walking to the shooting lane.

"Oh! Oh! Can I learn too?!" I heard Jenna's enthusiastic voice ask.

Oh right, almost forgot her being here. I looked back at her starting to get up from her chair.

"Um… why don't you ask Thaddeus for lessons later Jenna? I bet he'd love to teach you." I said.

"Aww, oookayyy. But you promise he will?" She asked, her eyes sparkling with childish enthusiasm.

"Sigh...Yes." I said. Sorry, Thaddeus. At least she didn't-

"Pinky promise?" She asked, offering me her smallest finger. I could almost feel that coming the moment I started thinking about it.

I had no choice but to take the tiny pinky with my own and shook it. "Pinky promise."

That seemed to guarantee her goal, and she simply went back to drawing, not having nearly as much enthusiasm about learning archery just a second ago.

Darn little kids, always getting interested one moment, and then they become uninterested the next.

Thaddeus is not gonna be happy I made a promise for him behind his back, that's if he's anything like I think this is. I thought.

There really is nothing worse than giving a little girl a promise, then shoving it onto someone else's shoulders.

The other hunters would do that to me sometimes as a joke when I first arrived. They'd promise Artemis one thing, or another would get done, then they'd put me in the middle. As an excuse, they said it was the same for every newbie.

Anyway, poor traditions aside, I led Linda back over to the shooting lane. We spent the next half hour going through stances, grips, and how to aim for a target at an angle.

She may have been shy before, but know she was attentive like a top tier student. She didn't ask questions or argued, she just did her best to follow my instructions.

When she finally made her first shot at a fifteen-meter target, it missed. Her power was sort, but her aim looked good when the arrow hit the target's wooden base.

She, of course, looked upset at her first try and it took a little convincing from me to make her keep going.

Her second shot hit the bottom edge of the target. It was an improvement, not a lot, but better than most on their second shot.

We went through another dozen or so shots. Whenever we needed more arrows, I just grabbed any that were left behind in the other lane boxes. Kids at Half-Blood were the same, they really didn't like cleaning up after themselves.

As she practiced, she was getting better. Not getting all shots on the target, but most of them. At this point, Linda was still only at a beginner level, so just getting any of the shots on the target was a win.

If she wanted to get proficient as an archer, then it will take much more practicing.

After one last shot, I noticed her string fingers were getting a little red, so I thought it best for her to take a break to collect her arrows.

She actually looked disappointed in stopping, but she still put her bow down and ran to collect her shots. I made a quick glance left and right to make sure no one was shooting, seeing that there wasn't, I relaxed a bit. That is until a voice spoke behind me.

"Having fun?"

I turned back and leaning on a wood post was none other than Thaddeus. A small smirk on his lips.

Jenna was with him too. Or better put; she was on top of him. She sat on his shoulders, playing around with his short and frisky hair while watching Linda.

"Linda is so cool! I want to be that good too! Can I Thad?! Pleeeeease?" she begged while swaying around his head.

"Sure thing trouble, a pinky promise is unbreakable right?" he said, giving me the eyebrow at the same time.

I have to admit that I felt a little embarrassed. I wasn't sure what exactly that made me embarrassed more; the pinky promise or getting caught teaching? But my cheeks became slightly warm anyway.

"Um... how long were you watching us?" I asked, trying my best so my voice stayed unbroken.

"Heh, long enough." He replied, grabbing Jenna off his shoulders and asking her to go help Linda collect her arrows.

I prepared myself for an argument about proper archery teaching and promises, but what I got was different.

"So… I take it my help is no longer needed?" He asked, leaning back on the post with his arms crossed. "If it was ever wanted in the first place."

"Huh?" He caught me off guard and I wasn't sure what he was talking about at first. But then I remembered our previous conversation about my new phobia of fighting and how he offered to help me. "What do you mean I don't need your help anymore?"

"Oh, come on, don't tell me you didn't enjoy teaching that girl." He said, referring to Linda.

"Well, yes. Of course, I liked it, but what has that got anything to do with my problem." I asked.

"It's simple, you don't need me or whatever help I could give you. You've just found your own way of coping." He stated, walking up and leaning on another post closer to the firing line and me.

"What? Teaching a little girl how to shoot is the answer?" I asked, to which he simply nodded.

"But… I don't get this. It can't be that simple! How is this gonna help me with my… fear of fighting?!" I said, getting annoyed.

"Sigh…" he rubbed the back of his neck as he looked like he was trying to find the right words to use. "Look, your problem is that you think you can't fight. What you really need to ask yourself is if you want to fight."

Whether I want to fight?

"What kind of weird philosophy bull is that?! Of course, I do! But each time I try to use a weapon, my hand…" I unconsciously rub my right palm. "Shivers…"

"Of course it does." He said as if that was what a hand was supposed to do.

"You went through a rough beating. If not for the nectar, you'd have a concussion, a broken arm, not to mention enough scars and bruises to make Rambo jealous." He said, then looked off somewhere. "Nectar fixes the body well enough, but the mind, the memories… that's up to us to fix."

Suddenly, Thaddeus looked much older. His eyes had a look in them as if they had seen a whole lifetime go by.

"You make it sound like you've been through it a few times." I said but immediately felt like I shouldn't have pried into his past. But instead of tensing, he smiled and gave a huff of a laugh.

"You could say that. After my first fight against actual monsters, I was a mess. Barely ate, didn't sleep if I could help it, avoided weapons, fighting, even talking to others." He said.

That seems about the right reaction. Hailey, one of the only newer Hunters after me, was almost the same way after her first battle with monsters in Iowa.

"... How'd you get through it." I asked, my eyes paying more attention to the gravel my foot was kicking.

"Time, lots and lots of time." He answered.

Well, that's not what I was hoping to hear.

"Thanks, for talking with me… It helps." I said.

"Your welcome. And… well, there is something else I need to tell you about." He said, tensing a bit like he was preparing for a slap to the face or something.

"Sigh. Is it at least going to be better than what we've been talking about so far?" I asked, hoping but not expecting.

"I can't make any promises, it's one of those: 'glass half empty/half full things'." he admitted.

Oh great…

LINEBREAK 1

Thaddeus POV

This isn't going to go well.

Faith and I were now sitting at a picnic table. We had Linda take a walk with Jenna to give us some space. But honestly, I wished we'd kept Jenna around, she's the master when it comes to comforting others because she's basically a human teddy bear.

"So…" Faith stated, trying to get the conversation going.

She was leaning on her arms and twiddling with her thumbs, that told me she was anxious and knew whatever I had to say, it was important… Or that she's bored?

Damn it, I wish Thalia was here instead. Why didn't I just wait for her to tell her? Way-to-a-go Thaddeus, way to jump the gun.

I cleared my throat. "So, um... Atalanta is back."

That got her full attention, her eyes shouted questions faster than her mouth could, and I already expected what she'd ask. But she surprisingly held her tongue; Instead, she waited for me to tell her the details. If only I knew all of them.

"She arrived just over an hour ago, wounded but alive… and alone." I said and paused, letting that sink in.

Faith's look of interest changed to one that's hard to describe.

If I had to place it, she looked defeated. But in every sense of the word. Her whole body slumped, and she started to fidget and sway around like she didn't know what to do.

Her head turned as her eyes kept glancing around almost frantically. Then she quickly stood up and made a beeline for… well, I'm not sure where she was going, but I got up and followed her.

"When dealing with a distressed patient, follow them as best you can but be tactful of what you say, or you may have a bruised jaw later." Jane's words of wisdom never ceased to be useful.

"Wait, Faith?" She ignored me and was already around the corner of the pavilion. As I turned the corner after her, I couldn't help but remember this kind of thing happening before with a certain daughter of Zeus. Are all Hunters like this?

There were still quite a few people around even though it was nearing lunch hour. And they all started glancing at us as I followed the disheartened huntress, she fast-walked through and around people like they were nothing but trees in her way.

I followed and waited till there wasn't anyone nearby to finally reach out and catch her arm, making her stop.

"Please, just wait a minute." I asked as she kept trying to walk off, not even looking back at me; the power behind her movement was sluggish like she didn't even register I was trying to stop her.

"Let go." she said, but I kept my grip firm.

"I said. Let. GO!" she screamed as she finally yanked her arm away.

I was almost tempted to let her go off to wherever she needed to go, give her some space and whatever time she needed to process it all. But instead of storming off again, she just stood there for a few seconds, then she walked over to a bench on the trail we were on and sat.

She was facing away from me and was holding one of her arms in front of her like my grip had wounded her, but I was certain I hadn't used too much force with her; after all, I only wanted to calm her down.

Then I noticed the shaking; her shoulders and head were trembling like she was cold. She's crying...

My mind raced with what I should do. If Atalanta was one to go off, Hunters of Artemis don't break easily. Thalia had only cemented that fact with her stern attitude and glaring personality.

But seeing the struggling Huntress before me, I realized that they are still people; tough, skilled, awesome people, but people, nonetheless.

Minutes passed and I just stood there like a tree, feeling useless and awkward.

"Well come on then you idiot! What're you gonna do?" That annoying inner voice spoke. She always liked butting in at times like this.

"..."

"Oh! Trying to ignore me for what? The thousandth time?! Never seemed to work for you before, so stop wasting time with your own inner debates and trust your instincts, they aren't too bad… most of the time at least." she pushed.

And go figure, a small gust of wind hit my back, urging me forward. Damn you, Lucy.

I surrendered to the winds push and walked over to her, she kept her head down so I couldn't see her face, but I already figured what it looked like.

Glancing over to the open part of the bench next to her, I quietly sighed and sat down with a good distance between us because I didn't want to make her any more uncomfortable than she already was.

And so, we just sat there.

The wind blew slowly through the forest; it was still nice and sunny out with the light showing through the leaves and branches of the trees above us, bringing a calming effect.

I couldn't say if it was helping Faith calm down, she still looked to be sobbing from time to time. But it definitely helped me.

Despite how I might look all calm and caring, I actually felt very awkward. How could I not? Here I was sitting next to a girl I had known less than a day who was dealing with a lot and looked so… lonely.

We were still practically strangers to each other, and my brain kept trying to question if this was the right action to take. I couldn't simply comfort her like a friend would, that'd be overstepping it, but I couldn't leave her feeling alone, so the only solution I could see was to sit and wait.

"Sometimes that's all anyone needs." my inner haunting ghost said, causing a memory of a long time ago to surface.

A younger me wearing battered battle armor with a cracked and dulled sword at my feet, a cloud of shame hovered over me as I sat outside the New Rome Colosseum. I could still hear the roar of the crowd inside as they watched another mid-afternoon match.

What brought me to this was a stupid decision; in my stubbornness, I had challenged my cohorts' senior centurion, Cole, after he had recklessly led us in a recent war game, again. I was angry with him because twelve of our troops were injured and a better plan would have saved them from getting hurt.

The part that really got me in trouble was that I had stupidly pointed this out right after the battle in front of the rest of the cohort and a few members from others.

As punishment, I was made an example of by being assigned to both clean all the legions weapons and being made a gladiator of the colosseum games, meaning I was the one that was meant to lose.

Usually, colosseum matches and plays were all voluntary; often the children of Mars and/or Venus would do them because one likes to fight and the other likes to be dramatic. Today, being a gladiator was more along the lines of being the target car at a monster truck rally. In recent years this task has become an unofficial yet preferred method of punishment.

Thankfully, nobody ever dies in colosseum battle reenactments anymore like in Ancient Rome, but you still get pretty beat up for it. After going through three separate reenactments of different battles, my sword arm finally failed, and I got more bruises for it than I could bear with.

The only reason I was allowed to leave was because of safety rules and because Centurion Cole was convinced I had had enough and learned my lesson.

And now there I was, sitting alone and in pain. Wishing I had just kept my mouth shut about the war game.

But my moments of reflection were shattered when I heard someone take a seat next to me. I glanced over and saw it was an older girl who I recognized from another cohort, the fourth maybe? But I never heard her name before.

She was a girl of average height, with golden hair that flowed on her right shoulder. She wore a blue jean jacket over a white shirt, tan short-shorts and some red/white classic-looking sneakers on her feet. Her posture was relaxed with her legs crossed and hands in her coat pockets.

She looked like any average high school girl that tended to be the livelier member of a group.

"Rough beating out there." Was all she said. I didn't respond, letting my head sink back down and trying to ignore her. The last thing I wanted was somebody taking pity on me, especially someone I had never met.

Strangely, she didn't say anything else. She just sat their next to me like she was shooting the breeze. I figured she'd leave eventually either from awkwardness or my sweaty stench from the fight, so I just ignored her and we both sat in silence.

After maybe twenty minutes, nothing had changed. I wanted to tell her off, make her leave, or maybe even fight her so she would leave me alone. But another part of me was glad she was there, it made me feel better, but I couldn't tell why.

More time flew by and we both still sat in silence; I actually started to like it. Eventually, I began trying to find the courage to talk with her. But, of course, I was only fourteen years old while she looked to be sixteen or seventeen, and she was kind of pretty too. So, go figure my nerves started acting up and my palms began to heat.

I'd like to think I was about to drum up the courage to talk to her when, sadly, my hopes were shattered.

"Martin." I heard my last name shouted, I turned and saw it was Cole, he was walking from the colosseum steps with his centurion badge gleaming in the sunlight. He wasn't looking mad anymore, but he didn't look like he regretted what he made me do.

I prepared to be scolded and put down by his words. But what I really didn't want was for the girl next to me to see it happen, it would be embarrassing.

"Come on, I'll take you to Apollo's Temple to get you checked up. Tomorrow you start cleaning the weapons with the probatio kids, and then it's back to your regular schedule." He said, offering his hand to me.

His words weren't the ones I was expecting and I just Iooked at him for a second too long till he gestured his hand again and it broke me out of my confused thoughts.

Maybe he isn't so bad after all. I thought, gaining a new perspective of my centurion.

Taking and letting out a breath, I took his hand and he helped me up. I glanced back at the girl before we left. She smiled and waved goodbye, not exchanging any words; I didn't smile because I was disappointed at not being able to talk, but I at least waved back.

After we had gotten out of earshot, Cole looked to me. "Next time you want to talk strategy, just come talk to me alone. I'm open to constructive criticism, but I expect you to talk to me about it in private and not in front of the whole legion. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir." I said defeatedly.

Cole wasn't a bad leader; he just wasn't the best strategist. He was a tall kid with black hair he almost never took care of and so it was drooping down his neck and forehead. I wasn't sure what his age was, but he had been in the legion for seven, maybe eight years and has been the Fifth Cohorts lead centurion for three.

A lot of people said he didn't like being chosen as the cohorts' leader, but he did his best at it because as a son of Victoria, the goddess of victory, he didn't back down from a challenge.

After having time to think back, I knew that I was out of place when I called him out and that my punishment was to show what would happen if I or anyone else in the Fifth Cohort was ever openly rebellious like that again.

This way of life is not the easiest to understand, it took me a while to get used to it, and as you can see, I was still working on it.

The Twelfth Legion works under what Cole calls a chain of command, each member of the legion is a part of that chain and is expected to follow whatever orders or action the first chain does; in my case, that first chain is Cole.

I had overstepped myself and went against that command; even if I might have been right to point out his mistake to him, I had done so in front of everyone and probably made Cole look like an idiot of a centurion. I'm lucky I wasn't transferred to another cohort for my action.

"So, what did Lucy have to say to you?" Cole asked as we walked.

"Who?" I asked back, I didn't know what he meant because I didn't know who he was talking about.

"The girl you were just sitting next to. Her name is Lucy, she's a centurion of the Third Cohort and is their second-in-command. She's known all over the legion as a friendly face and often volunteers in teaching probatio's the ropes. She give you any advice?" he asked.

I shook my head. "She just sat with me for a while."

"Huh, yeah; sounds like Lucy. That's a child of Venus for you I guess." he said.

So that's why she looked pretty. I thought as we walked off.

A sneeze broke me out of memory lane, and I looked to see Faith had sneezed into her elbow, she sniffed again to try and clear her nose.

Out of habit, I offered her my handy Kleenex travel pack I usually reserve for Jenna, but I figured she needed them more then Jenna will today.

With my head elsewhere, I had lost track of time and almost a half-hour had passed with the two of us sitting there. It's funny how time flies when- Oh shit! Jenna and Linda!

I mentally berated myself for forgetting the two girls we had left alone at the range! I coughed and got up, knowing that those two took priority.

"I've got to get back to the girls, take all the time you need out here." I said to Faith, she only spared me a glance and a small nod.

With that, I took my leave of the lost huntress. I had wished to stay and help more, but I suppose there was nothing more I could do except to wait.

On the way back, I thought back to that day I had first met Lucy at Camp Jupiter. That day was long and grueling, but the time I spent on the bench with her was the highlight of it.

"Aw! You had a crush on me since then!? That's so adorable! If you had managed to talk to me then, I wonder, what would have said?"

"Speak of the devil and she will appear…" I whispered to myself, which was followed by soft yet almost maniacal laughter in my head that faded out as it went.

After that, it was a quiet walk back. When I got there, I yet again found a Hunter showing a little girl archery. The difference now was that it was Thalia and… Jenna!

I had to take an extra breath when I saw my troublemaker try to pull an arrow back on a bow that was too big for her and a smirking Thalia trying her best not to laugh at the poor display of strength.

I coughed in my hand to get their attention and that turned out to be the wrong choice as Jenna had turned her whole body to look, pointing it low in Thalia's direction; with her arrow still partially drawn back, she accidentally let go and it struck a few inches away from Thalia's foot.

Thalia, surprisingly, barely flinched while Jenna looked shell-shocked.

"Oops." the small girl said after a few seconds of nobody talking. "Sorry…"

"I'm alright. Just remember to always point downrange, okay? Go ahead and get the other ones you shot. Look to make sure no one is firing first." Thalia directed to which trouble agreed and went to work picking up her shots.

"Did you have to do that?" I asked as I walked up to her.

"Do what? Teach her archery? She's probably gonna pick it up eventually so why not start now? Besides, she wouldn't stop begging me." Thalia pointed out.

"Yeah, I know. She is persistent. Mind helping me clean up?" I asked and she nodded and we both got to work.

"What happened to Faith? All I got out of the girls was that she got upset and ran off with you right behind her." she asked as we worked.

"She's okay, I think. I told her about Atalanta and she kind of… didn't know what to do anymore I guess; she's sitting on a bench down the trail you went down with Lignum. I would have stayed with her, but I had to get back to these girls because you never know when Lieutenants of Artemis will come along and try to teach them a skill or two." I ended with a joke to try and lighten the mood.

"Oh ha, ha. For the record, there is only one Lieutenant in Artemis's Hunt. And getting a lesson from her on archery is considered a high honor by Olympus." she rebutted.

"I'm sure it is." I simply said. A few minutes passed with the two of us and the girls cleaning up till Thalia decided to break the silence.

"Thanks for making sure she was okay, she's still a young Hunter and this was supposed to be her first big mission. I just hope she's not out of the fight yet, we're gonna need her for getting Alice back." she said.

I nodded at her assessment. I found it odd to believe Faith to be a sort of rookie in the Hunters when she actually looks older than it's Lieutenant; that's immortality for you.

"Atalanta give any clues to that?" I asked.

"Yeah, a direction. We had better go soon or the trail will become cold and Zeus knows where Alice will end up after that." I nodded, agreeing with her.

"I've already got a plan for how to help us out there. The trick will be getting the 'go' for it." I said, making Thalia paused like I said something she didn't expect.

"Us? You want to come with us?"

"Yup."

"But… this isn't your fight. As the Lieutenant of Artemis's Hunt, it's my responsibility to get all my Hunters home. And going with us will mean risking the world finding out about this place." she pointed out.

"When a friend needs help, you help 'em." I countered back.

"Where'd you get that nugget of wisdom? Nursery school?" she joked.

"Letterkenny." I answered.

She simply looked more confused, I guessed they either don't like comedy shows or don't have Hulu in the Hunt.

"Besides, whether we like it or not, we failed to save your friend that night too. So, I believe it's on us to help rescue her." I said, putting the last of the bows away.

Thalia looked at me like she was trying to solve a puzzle as she loaded the arrows up into Blue's cart. But she was quick to smirk and shrug like she was thinking 'why not'.

"Alright, I guess Artemis would scold me for turning away help when I really could use some. But I gotta ask; what plan have you got in mind?" she asked with a smirk.

A/N - Still hanging in there fellas, work and life keeps a person busy. I wish I found more enthusiasm to write these last few months, but I'm still chugging along with the story.

How did my rewrite look? Better, worse, somewhere in the middle? Constructive Criticism is welcome.

I must admit I've started thinking of more stories, not just in PJO, but in other works too! A few ideas for Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Fate series. The hard part would be the action and plot.

I know it's not smart to work on multiple at once, and I won't post another story till this one is finished, but it's fun to tinker.

Also… how about The Witcher, is it not awesome! I'm not a gamer, but I might pick up the books now cause I am loving the story.

Happy New Year everyone, stay safe in 2020.

Next - Ch 17: The Final Decision