Previously
"If only you had listened when I told thee to freeze, yet you persisted. Now you have so little power left in you that you are on the verge of death, the fact that you are bleeding out does not help." She said. "Foolish boys like you will never learn." She said as she hit me with the butt of her knife, knocking me out.
Chapter seven
At this point I can't even count how many times I've been knocked out. This time I woke up to total darkness. A blindfold, I realized. My mouth was also gagged and my hands and feet were also tied, and my whole body seemed to be tied to a pole or something.
"Zoe, I think the boy is awake." Said a soft feminine voice.
"About time, it has been hours since I knocked him out. Surely I didn't hit him that hard." Replied the leaders voice, who I assumed was named Zoe. "Sierra remove the blindfold and gag at once so I can speak to it." She said. "At once." Replied Sierra. A moment later the blind and gag were removed and I was able to see. I smacked my lips a couple times to get the weird tase out of my mouth.
I viewed my surroundings. I was tied to a small log sticking up by in the middle of the tent. The tent itself was quite large with a large mattress to the right of me. By the mattress was a desk with bandages and some medical alcohol. I assumed this was the sick bay or something. I looked down at my leg to see it bandaged with no traces of blood. Couldn't really move it but it didn't hurt at all, but did ache quite a bit. By I still felt extremely tired, I guess that I hadn't recovered my power yet.
"Explain yourself boy, why where you following the hunt." Said Zoe in an demanding voice. "I don't have to tell you anything." I said definitely. I was still kind of mad that I lost to these guys. Zoe calmly walked towards me and slapped me across the face, hard. "You will talk, for you are the one who invaded the hunters territory. Now use the little sense you have and tell me your reasoning, and you may make it out of here alive.
I didn't want to tell her the whole truth but I also did want to complete my quest so I explained myself. "I wanted to find and kill the chimera myself. With my ability's I wouldn't be able to find it alone so I decided to seek out the hunters so I could find it. I planned to wait for you to find the beast then step in and kill it. I didn't expect it to be so hard just to simply follow you guys." I replied with the half truth.
"Hmmm," murmured Zoe. "I do not sense a lie but I feel as if your leaving something important out." "Oh no." I thought. "But I see your reasoning for your actions. Of course they are not excused, especially for a boy. As such I will not kill you here but I will release you into the wilds and have my wolves chase you. If you survive, good for you, if not, more food for the wolves I suppose." She said.
"Wait, what?" I exclaimed. "I didn't go through all of this just to be thrown to the side."
Zoe gained a hard expression. "Do you expect me to just allow a boy to join the hunt? Fellow hunter or not, you are still a male and the fact is you trespassed on the hunters property. You should be thankful I don't kill you here and now."
"Look I'm sorry for stalking y'all, but I knew that I couldn't just approach y'all and ask to join the hunters. This hunt is really important to me and if I don't succeed then It will effect lots of other people."
Zoe though about it for a moment. She couldn't believe she was contemplating this. A boy joining the hunt?! Even if temporary this was a crazy idea, seeing as what happened last time. What would Artemis do? The boy seems to be quite powerful by the fact he was able to immobilize all the hunters of Artemis. "Even I struggled against his power." Zoe thought to herself. The chimera is a powerful enemy, and I won't be able to take all the hunters into battle for their own safety. "If I bring the boy along he may be able to help and if he dies it won't be my problem," she thought.
After a moment of silence she spoke. "I will allow you to accompany the hunters on this one hunt only. Your safety will not be the hunts responsibility though." Said Zoe, surprising the nurse girl and Percy.
"Thank you!" Said Percy "I would hug right now if I could!"
Zoe squinted at him. "Well maybe not." I corrected.
"As I was saying, you will not be allowed to sleep in the hunters camp and just provide for yourself. Is that pat understood?" Said Zoe.
"Of course, I get it." I replied.
"You still wish to accompany us then?" Zoe asked, seemingly surprised.
"Yeah, I get it, but one more thing. I need the body of the chimera to sacrifice." I said. "That's the whole reason as to why I need to kill it.
Zoe though for a moment. "Very well. We shall leave tomorrow at sunrise. You may spend the night as you please. Sierra cut him from his ropes." She said as she exited the room.
Being free from the ropes was such a relief, I don't know how I slept in that position, let alone for a whole day. "Thank you" I said to the nurse huntress. She nodded in response. I was about the leave the tent when the girl, Sierra, said something. "What are you gonna do now?" She asked. "Uhh I thought y'all weren't responsible of me?" I said, slightly confused. She blushed slightly. "I know it's just that, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go too deep into the woods. Your low on power and if you use too much you may pass out and get yourself killed before we even get to the chimera." She replied frantically. "Well uhh, that was kind of my plan." I said chuckling a bit. "But I should be able to fight without using energy. But thanks for worrying." "Oh, uhh, no problem." She said. "Guess I'll see you tomorrow." I said as I left the tent.
"Hmm." I thought hunters were supposed to hate boys. Zoe definitely does but that Sierra girl didn't seem to dislike me at all. Almost seemed as if she was worried for me. Well I guess it doesn't matter, really." I said trudging my way out of the camp. I guess Zoe already told the hunters about me cause none of them shot me down. Though some looked like they wanted to. No matter seeing as how once I get this monster I'll be on to the next part of this quest, and I won't need the hunters anymore. But for now I need to train. There's no way I'll be of any use to the hunters if I can't fight. I walked deeper into the woods waiting for monsters. I decided to use a spear against the chimera seeing as how it had worked for the original Perseus. Made sense to practice with one too.
I stopped in my track at the sound of a growl. No. Not one but multiple. Seconds later I was surrounded by a group of four or five hellhounds. "This should be fun." I thought. Immediately the biggest two charged me, with little time to think I stabbed my spear behind me, instantly piercing one through the skull, and yanked my spear out to hit the other one with the end of it. The rest of the dogs were weary of me, and so was I. Even though they probably couldn't take more than one hit, I was still outnumbered.
One of the smaller ones, apparently the most confident charged at me. I didn't expect it to attack to it got a good swipe on me. But I twirled my spear around and stabbed it threw the side. If that thing was a chimera that swipe may have killed me. I needed to be more careful. Getting tired of these games I quickly pounced forward and stabbed the biggest remaining hound in its upper thigh. With it crippled I landed the finishing blow to its head. The other two remaining ones fled the scene. Five hell hounds and only left with a scratch, not bad. I though to myself.
But my victory was short lived as a new challenger arrived. I realized that the two hellhounds were not running from me but from the thing coming out the shadows. From the darkness emerged a cyclops , slightly smaller than the one Athena saved me from. In one hand it held a six foot long trident that looked like a toothpick in its meat hand. In the other it held a heavily looking iron leash. And one the leash was the biggest hellhound I had ever seen (granted I hadn't really seen to many). This thing had to had been at leas seven feet tall it's back slightly shorter than the cyclops. The worst part was that both monsters were looking straight at me.