Chapter Seven

Lion Hearts

All members of the ensuing quest to save Lady Artemis gathered in the Big House to discuss the best course of action. And to the surprise of literally everyone, including me, Zoe Nightshade had added me to that party. In fact, the second of command under the virgin goddess had one more surprise in our roster change.

"Okay, I'm still not sure why you picked me for this quest." I stated as I walked next to Zoe on our way to the camp's largest building. "But how are you okay with only taking one other hunter? And that hunter being Bianca? She's not ready." Zoe stopped walking and turned to face me.

"It is because of something you told me during our battle with the manticore." She told me. I urged her to continue. She sighed. "I'd like to think that I have been a good leader for my hunt." I shook my head.

"No one thinks you haven't been a great lieutenant, Zoe." She put her hand up to stop me.

"But part of being a leader is spotting weakness. My emotions have been a weakness. Sometimes I get so caught up with my oath as a hunter, with my imposition toward your gender, with the fact my lady could be in mortal danger, that I sometimes don't use my head. So, that's what I'm doing." I nodded.

"Okay, then what's your plan. Why bring Bianca and not someone like Phoebe? Why bring three campers who you've never fought beside? And Thalia? I mean for all her strengths she brings to the table; she really doesn't like you." She looked off in the direction of the Big House.

"You and Annabeth are the obvious choices. You are clearly the strongest among all the demigods here at Camp Half-blood. When it comes to combat, you're unrivaled. And that's not including your godly powers. Your only weakness happens to be Annabeth's number one strength. Her mind for strategy is nothing short of genius. The two of you make the perfect team."

"That makes sense. What about the other two?" She looked thoughtful.

"Thalia's a wildcard. Incredibly powerful, being the daughter of the King of the Gods, but definitely has some red flags. However, her style of combat when paired with the group is an ideal addition. As for Bianca, well, you'll just have to trust me. I can see something in her, something I haven't seen in many of my hunters. I think she has the potential to one day take my position as lieutenant." I looked at her blankly.

"You're immortal. Why would you give up your position?" She shrugged.

"Immortal doesn't mean invincible."

"You mean the prophecy? You think one of the lines is about you." It wasn't a question. Zoe looked saddened.

"Some of the lines are concerning, but none of that matters as long as we free Lady Artemis." Zoe watched the ground. I stepped forward and placed a tentative hand on her shoulder. To my surprise, she didn't recoil at the touch.

"We're all going to make it back from this quest, Zoe. That's a promise." She looked at me with a reassuring smile that would've driven me crazy, if it weren't actually a façade. Zoe steered me toward the Big House where all of our friends were already gathered. Annabeth stood from a chair.

"There you guys are." She announced calmly. Thalia and Bianca rose from their seats as well, seemingly prepared to get on with the mission. Zoe looked around the room.

"Thank you all for agreeing to aid me on this quest. It means a great deal that you'll join me in freeing my lady." Her words inspired a bit of a shift in the aura of the room. Thalia stepped forward and pulled Zoe into a hug, a gesture that had Annabeth and I exchanging surprised glances.

"We've got your back, huntress." Thalia told her. "I've been itching for the next quest anyway." Zoe smiled and it was one of sincerity.

"Wow, Thalia." I interrupted. "Way to extend an olive branch." The Daughter of Zeus glared at me and grabbed her bag.

"One more tree joke, Kelp Head. That's all you get." She bumped into my shoulder as she walked past me and out of the room. Annabeth followed with a smile on her face.

"I thought it was funny." She whispered and joined Thalia in the other room. Bianca stepped up to her fellow huntress and handed her a pair of keys. Zoe studied them curiously.

"What are these for?" She wondered. Bianca pointed out the window where Thalia and Annabeth were cramming their bags into the back of a min van.

"You're driving." Bianca told her and followed the girls' example of packing the car. Zoe's face contorted into a mischievous grin and I began to pale.

"You can drive, right?" I asked. She tilted her head.

"More or less. Come on, lets get on the road.

There wasn't much to report from our road trip. We mainly just talked about the quest, randomly going off topic to surprisingly normal conversations. I slept through most of it. I was the only male, after all. Zoe could drive surprisingly well, but also with a lack of concern that only an immortal huntress could have. It took the better part of the day, but we eventually arrived in Washington, D.C.

Annabeth shook me awake.

"Come on. We've been driving for a while." She explained. "Were going to make a quick stop before we get back on the road. I think we all could use a break from driving." I rubbed my eyes and took in my surroundings.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Washington, D.C."

"Is this the best idea." Annabeth extended her hand.

"I guess we'll find out." I took her hand as she helped me out of the van.

"Wow, quite the strategy, Daughter of Wisdom." She rolled her eyes.

"Alright, a few of us want to do some sightseeing."

"And the truth comes out."

"Shut up. Just go get yourself a coffee or something and try to stay out of trouble." I gave her a mock salute and went off on my own to do some exploring. Looking at a bunch of old stuff in museums might've been Annabeth's idea of fun, but didn't really appeal to me all that much. Regardless, I figured there had to be some way to keep myself entertained. Fortunately, that entertainment came not ten minutes later in the form of a ghost. Well, someone who should've been a ghost. I noticed a man entering the National Museum of Natural History who was a lot more monster than mortal. In fact, it was an enemy I'd slain already. The manticore. I believe his alias was Dr. Thorn, but it was definitely the monster that I'd sent crashing into the ocean when we'd rescued the di Angelo kids in Maine. Annabeth's Yankees hat would've really come in handy in a situation like this, but I had to rely on good old-fashioned stalking.

I followed the manticore into the building from a safe distance and around a few turns until we were in a room that was certainly not accessible to the public. I almost fell through the doorway, but managed to duck behind a wall as I listened in to what the good doctor was saying. There were two other people in the room for some kind of evil meeting. One of them looked like a normal kid who could've only been a few years older than I was. The other was a beast of a man, towering over the other two. They were all standing around something on the floor. It almost looked like they were studying a plant, but I had the suspicion that whatever they were growing wasn't out of a love for botany.

"With spartoi on their trail, the quest is doomed to fail." The teenager explained.

"Just add blood, general, and there will be five less demigods to worry about." Dr. Thorn added. The general did as recommended and sprinkled the life-giving fluid on the plant.

"Excellent." The largest man moaned. "And with this cloth from the huntress, they'll be hunted into extinction." Just then, a sour look crossed his face and he all but jumped to his feet. "We're being watched." The three men looked over to my hiding spot, but I was already on the move. I parted through crowds of mortals and out of the building, frantically looking for my quest mates. After a bit of searching, I located Zoe near the entrance to the National Air and Space Museum. I practically ran into her as I kept an eye out for our potential assailants. She was laughing at something Bianca had said, but paled when she saw the expression on my face.

"What is it, Perseus?" She asked seriously. The other three girls gathered around us as I caught my breath.

"Not sure, but the manticore is alive. He was having some meeting with two other guys." I informed the group. I looked at Zoe. "They had some kind of cloth from your jacket or something. I don't know. They were growing something with blood that's apparently going to hunt us. I think they're giving it your scent so that it can track us." Most of the group seemed confused, but Annabeth had seemingly connected the dots.

"Spartoi." She whispered aloud. Upon hearing the name, Zoe turned a sickly shade of white.

"We need to go. Right. Now." No one argued with our quest leader. We ducked into the building. "Someone likely heard us talking. We'll try to lose anyone that was tailing us and loop back to the car."

"Is the mini van safe?" Bianca wondered. "If they got close enough to steal your clothes, I doubt they'd just leave us with a perfectly safe mode of transportation." Zoe didn't answer as she continued guiding us through the building. We'd made it into a rather open part of the building when we heard a deep roar that froze us all in place.

A massive lion, larger than I new was even possible in the wild, bounded down a flight of stairs and came to a halt before us. I wasn't as great with the whole history of demigods as Annabeth, but even I knew what we were looking at.

"The Nemean Lion." I announced in awe. Zoe primed her bow, that was quite well concealed. Bianca imitated her sister.

"Scatter!" Zoe commanded. The two hunters backtracked, unleashing an onslaught of arrows that did little to no damage against the lion's hide. Annabeth slipped her baseball cap over her eyes and disappeared into thin air. Thalia readied her weapons as Anaklusmos became unsheathed in my hand. We held our ground. Thalia looked at me with a wicked grin and I nodded in response. We charged the lion together. Thalia vaulted into the air like a spartan warrior and drove her spear down into the lion's shoulder. It ricocheted off the lion and into the ground, causing Thalia to stumble at the lion's feet. I quickly slid to the lion's side and hacked at one of its hind legs, only to leave my sword vibrating from the contact. Thalia and I got to our feet as a couple dozen arrows distracted the monster long enough to escape certain death.

"This isn't working!" I called out to the girls.

"Yeah, no shit." Thalia reiterated. Zoe continued raining down arrows, but didn't seem very confident.

"Everything has a weakness. We just need to find it!" She called back.

"How did Hercules kill this thing again?" I asked. Annabeth materialized next to me.

"He used his bare hands." She explained.

"Well, that's not going to work!" The lion bounded toward us. Annabeth, Thalia, and I jumped out of the way as it flew by and knocked over a stand of magazines. "Any ideas, Wise Girl?" Annabeth watched the monster carefully.

"Maybe." She glanced at Thalia and me. "Try to get it to open its mouth. Its hide is impenetrable, but I doubt that's the same for everything else." Zoe overheard the suggestion.

"Let's see if you're right!" She called and steadied an arrow. I watched as it sailed through the air and directly into the unprotected eye of the Nemean Lion. The arrow imbedded itself deeply and the monster bounded backwards in pain.

"Nice shot!" I yelled. Zoe bowed in response. I smiled. "Okay, I've got an idea." I grabbed Thalia's spear from her hand.

"Hey!" She called out, but I was already advancing on the lion. With a pull in my gut, I willed a water fountain to explode and propel me into the air. The lion eyed me with its one good orb as I came flying down into its jaws. At the last moment, I grabbed the spear with both hands and drilled it into the monster's lower jaw, as if I was planting a flag. The spear met little resistance and pinned the lion to the ground. With a swift kick, I wedged the spear's handle between its open rows of teeth, prying its mouth ajar. Zoe wasted no time, priming multiple arrows in the string of her bow, and unleashing a swarm of silver into the lion's throat. With one final weakened roar, the Nemean Lion collapsed on its side, turning into a pile of powder as it hit the ground. The five of us rallied around Zoe, who approached the lion's remains. She sifted through the powder until she found what she was looking for. A pelt. The pelt of the Nemean Lion. It was a spoil of war from our battle, but this spoil was a bit more significant than a Minotaur horn or Cyclops eye. She shook out the pelt gingerly and looked around at the questers as if she wasn't sure what to do with it.

"It's yours, Zoe." I told her, to the agreement of everyone. "This is your quest and you had the final kill shot. It's yours by right." She shook her head.

"It's Annabeth's plan that led to our victory." She argued. "And you took the biggest risk by planting the spear."

"And Thalia showed us that her spear couldn't break its hide and Bianca's arrow fire kept us alive. We won because we fought as a team. And you're the leader of that team. The pelt of the Nemean Lion is yours." I glanced around for support, but everyone had a similar reaction. Zoe smiled and draped the hide behind her back.

"Very well. It may prove useful on our quest. But this is not my spoil alone." No one argued about her words.

"We should get going before the spartoi arrive." Annabeth suggested. "They'll likely have Zoe's scent by this point."

"Agreed." Zoe stated. "But like Bianca said, I'm not sure going back to the van is our best course of action." Thalia smirked.

"I might have an idea." She voiced. "This homeless guy was telling me about something that could be our ticket west, but you're not going to like it." Zoe frowned.

"What is it?" Thalia was trying to hold back laughter.

"How do you feel about trains?"