Why, hello there" The hunter spoke with a slight Italian accent, her arrows still aimed at us.
"Latvia, how nice to see you again" Holly replied, grinning, with sarcasm.
"I don't think we're acquainted" Latvia frowned. "Please, enlighten me on how we know each other."
"You stabbed Laurel last year, during a heated game of Capture The Flag. She got a nasty infection from the wound, which took days to heal." Holly said through gritted teeth.
"Ahh, of course! You're the overprotective sister, who was glaring at me every time I was in the same room as you." Latvia cheerfully said. "Anyway, idle talk aside, let's get down to business. I want you to drop all weapons, every single one, on the ground, on the count of three. One, two, three."
At three, Holly and I glanced at each other, before we reluctantly placed our weapons on the ground. My sword, however, was still with me, because Latvia didn't know that my bracelet could turn into a sword, like Percy's pen. Which, was a good thing. At least now, our chances of escaping her clutches would be greater.
"The daggers too, Holly" She added, with a grin. Holly cursed under her breath and removed the daggers from her boots. Which, I never realized she had with her. I looked at her from the corner of my eyes and then looked at my wrist to indicate that I still had my sword. Sadly, I don't think she understood, so I stopped because I didn't want Latvia to become suspicious.
"Good girl. Now, you're coming with me, to prison. I'll be right behind you too, so don't even try to pull any tricks on me, or you know what will happen. Oh, and hands behind your back. Understood?" We slowly nodded, and she walked forward until she was directly behind us, her bow held up all the while. Then, as soon as she got behind us, she prodded us with her foot, and we began walking.
"Where to," I asked her.
"I'll be guiding you, so don't worry. You'll be fine" She replied, her voice now as cold as ice. We walked the next few minutes in silence, as I tried to formulate a plan.
My hands were behind my back, so any brief movement would also be noticed by her. She was a hunter after all, which meant that I should never, ever, underestimate her. Even if we ducked out of the way, sideways, one of us would get hurt, so that wouldn't work out. Maybe, if one of us pretended to injure ourselves, it would distract her long enough for the other to do something. That distraction would preferably be Holly, as I was the one armed with a weapon. Fortunately, Latvia had to keep her distance, if she wanted to have space to shoot us with her arrows if needed, so there is a chance that she wouldn't notice us, whispering.
"Hey, Holly. I need you to pretend to trip and invite your foot or something. I have my sword, just trust me, okay?" I whispered, nudging her first to grab her attention.
"Okay," She whispered back, not turning her head to look at me. Smart girl.
"On the count of one," I told her, as I prepared myself. "Three, two, one."
As soon as number one came out of my mouth Holly immediately got into action. She pretended to trip, over absolute nothing, and fall to the ground, clutching her ankle in fake pain.
"Ouch, ouch, OUCH" She groaned after she tumbled to the ground. "I think I sprained my ankle or something. Don't think I can walk." While she put up her act, I silently shivered out of the way and willed my bracelet to change a sword.
"Nice try, girl. I saw this coming" She smirked. Sure, she saw it coming. What she didn't see, was me, pulling my sword out. Which, by the way, was now touching the side of her neck. If I pressed a little bit, blood would surely begin to flow out.
"Idle talk aside, let's get down to business," I said, repeating her lines. "Drop your bow, and arrows to the ground, now."
"Okay, Miss Bossy." She mocked, as she put her bow and arrows on the ground. I simply ignore her mock and continued.
"Right. Now, you're going to listen to each and every word I say, carefully." I tell her, trying not to let my nervousness show. "Holly, run."
"Don't be stupid Ster. I can't just leave you here."
"Go, Holly. Get back up, or whatever if you must. Just run" I said, giving her a pointed look, after which, she looked back at me one more time, before hesitantly beginning to run. I sighed with relief but kept my guard up.
"Such a hero" Latvia cooed.
"Whatever you say, hunter," I said, shrugging her words off. Great, now what do I do? I hadn't thought this far ahead. I needed to escape now. Taking her to jail would be plain stupid, as I knew she would outsmart me and turn the tables. So I had to act, while I had the upper hand. Maybe, I could just strike a deal with her. If that didn't work, then, I would just have to make a run for it.
"Okay, let's make a deal. I remove this sword, back up, and we go put separate ways."
"How about, no. Instead, you could just lower your sword, and we could have a proper fight" Latvia sneered, pretending to give it a thought.
"Pity, I'm not interested" I offhandedly replied, as I silently cursed. That didn't work out. I looked around me, trying to see anything that would offer me enough protection. To my left, the forest was very thick, and there was barely any light seeping through. Which meant, that any arrows flying at me, could be blocked.
"Come on, let's get moving. We don't have all evening" I said, nudging her. She began to move, at an extremely slow pace, as she stepped over her weapons. A mere seconds later, I let my sword fall down and immediately began running for the dense part. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her quickly retrieve her bow and arrow, as she shot at me.
I dodged the arrow, and it flew past me. I kept running, and in distance behind me, I could hear Latvia swear, quite loudly, might I add. I guess she wasn't in the mood to turn after me. Lucky me. After a while, I began to tire, so I slowed down.
As I panted heavily, I looked around to see if I knew where I was. Since I had only played Capture The Flag a few times, I still wasn't familiar with all of the forest. I debated on going back in the same direction that I came from, as I knew that it was the path to the Hunter's 'Prison', but I didn't want to risk it because Latvia could still be there. The sun had almost completely set by now, so it was getting harder to see.
After a while of frantically looking around, I heard sounds coming from my right side. I contemplated not going, as it could lead me right into a trap, but at this point, it was much better than getting lost, so I hurriedly began sprinting in the direction of the sounds. As I got closer, I saw that it was a group of demigods, who were arguing amongst themselves like cats and dogs.
I identified a girl from the Demeter cabin- WIllow, I think was her name. I also spotted Julia, who I was surprised yet happy to see. She wasn't arguing, but once in a while, she would mutter something under her breath. I stood there, hoping they would stop after a while because I didn't want to announce my entrance in the middle of a brawl and make myself a black sheep. However, it seemed like it had been going on for eons, so I had to do something. I crept behind Julia and called her name to grab her attention.
"Hey, Julia," I said to her, tapping her on the shoulder. She swiveled around, her sword pointed at my face, as I backed away from the blade. "Whoa, dude, sword away from my face please" I pointed at the sword with one finger, meekly.
"Sterling" Julia sighed, "Don't ever sneak on me, or any demigod for that matter, like that again unless you actually want to injure yourself. Got it?"
"Sorry, sorry" I replied sheepishly "I had totally forgotten about always being vigilant, and alert. I promise it won't happen again"
"It's alright" She smiled. "So, what brings you here?"
"Well, I was escaping a hunter, and ended up getting lost in the middle of the trees, and since I heard voices in this direction, I came here."
"Oh, that's right! You're still not very familiar with the forest. That's okay, you'll get used to it, soon." She assured me.
"Yeah, I hope so too" I admitted. It was then, that I realized that all eyes were on me. I guess I ended up doing the opposite of what I wanted to do, which was to stay under the radar.
"Hey guys" I waved "Sorry for interrupting your...talk. I hope it wasn't important" I was nervous that they would be mad at me, so I figured that there was no harm in apologizing. Better safe than sorry, right?
"Oh, nonsense" Julia spoke, "In fact, I'm glad you interrupted their silly little argument. It was pointless, really."
"Oh, okay" I shrugged. "So, um, do you guys know what's happening right now. Any updates.."
"Nothing much really," A camper said. "I think the hunters are going to win, as usual, so no surprise there." He muttered the last few words under his breath, but Julia heard him.
"Don't be so pessimistic, Hayden. There's always a chance we might win" She reprimanded him, like an older sister. Which, I guess she was to him.
"Alright then, enough chatter. Let's keep moving." said an Ares camper, so we began walking in a group. Julia, and Hayden, were having a conversation, while the Ares camper just walked on, silently. He seemed to be glaring as well, but I wasn't sure at what, or why. Willow hadn't uttered a word in my presence, and trailed behind us, silently. I was bored, so I decided to make some small talk with her.
"Hi, I'm Sterling, daughter of Nike. You're Willow, right?"
"Yes. It's nice to meet you." She gave me a small smile, before looking away. I guess she wasn't too interested, so I just left it. It felt wrong to force her into a conversation.
We prodded on for quite some time. The Ares Camper, who's name was Arnold, got into another talk (read brawl) with Hayden, while Julia simply overlooked it. I listened in, and then tuned out, after some time, because I got distracted. All of a sudden, I hear a horn sound, which signaled the end of the game.
It was night now, so I was very thankful for that, as I did not want to be wandering around in the forest, while it was dark, with all those creatures out there. I was told that the forest was certainly not monster proof, and had other creatures like nymphs, satyrs, and many more. Another bonus was that Hayden and Arnold finally stopped arguing after the horn sounded.
"That means the game's over, right?" I asked Julia, for confirmation. She nodded, in reply.
"Right then, I think we should head back now. The game's over, and it's getting way too dark" Julia suggested,
"I agree," Hayden said, and Willow consented too. I did notice how Julia didn't really care about Arnold's response, who by the way, didn't even respond. Seems the guy only liked talking to defend himself. I don't blame Julia, because even if he disagreed, I'm sure we would still head back.
Thus, we began making our way back. We spotted a wood nymph on the way, but she was sleeping, so we tried our best to not wake her up. After another twenty minutes of walking, we finally arrived.
As I exited the forest, I sighed with relief, and stretched my sore limbs, as I winced. I had forgotten about my shoulder. The hunters had already made it and were cheering, which meant that they had won, once again. They weren't shouting with glee but still had a quiet, but joyous celebration. Artemis, too was present, I realized. She was standing with the hunters and was smiling, with a proud look on her face.
I also noticed the dejected faces of a lot of campers, who were extremely disappointed that we had lost. I too was sad, but it didn't bother me much, because I was expecting it. Once Chiron officially declared the hunters as the winners, I immediately headed to my cabin, to clean up. I would miss a bit of dinner, but I didn't mind.
First, I took a quick shower, because I was grimy and dirty from all that running, and hiding. I made sure to carefully wash my cut, before drinking some nectar, which healed my wound in no time. Now that I had freshened up, and took care of my wound, I walked out of the bathroom, to see the twins in the living room.
They were currently unstrapping weapons and brushing off dirt from their clothes. I wrinkled my nose, thinking about all that we have to clean up the next morning, for the regular cabin inspections. I heard rumors, earlier today, that it was going to be one of the Athena campers, which I was definitely not ready for. Those campers were perfectionists!
"Hey guys," I said, walking in to greet them after what was a long and tiring evening.
"Hi Sterling," Laurel said, wearily. "How's your wound?"
"Much better, thanks. I hope you two are okay?" I asked, glancing at them for any signs of injuries.
"Yeah, a few scrapes and bruises, that's all" Holly replied, and I nodded.
"Why don't you guys freshen up, and we can go for dinner together?" I suggested. They gave me a thumbs up, before leaving. I slumped on the sofa and exhaled deeply. Ten minutes later, the twins emerged from their room, in a much better state, and the three of us left for dinner.
Immediately after dinner, we all went to sleep, too tired to even bother brushing our teeth. Screw it, I told myself, as I laid down on my bed. Nothing's gonna happen if I don't brush for one night. With that in mind, I fell asleep, as my eyes slowly closed shut.
