Silena's POV

Blood.

Blood. Blood.

Blood. Blood. Blood.

Wha- Why did this happen?

My stomach turned. It felt like vomit was working its way up my throat.

My body refused to listen to me; all I could do was sit on the grow and shiver.

Images of those monsters replayed endlessly.

That girl monster tasting Atalanta…

Atalanta brutally fighting the monster.

That other monster crashing the bus.

Atalanta covering me as we were thrown from the bus.

Her torn part body dripping blood on me.

That other monster's mouth being covered in the blood of his wife.

Atalanta blowing his head in half, covering herself in blood.

I vomited. The images were too disgusting.

My stomach continued to burn even after vomiting.

How was Atalanta able to fight those things? How could she keep moving despite those horrible wounds?

Weakly, I managed to look towards the crashed bus.

I physically shivered as I remembered Atalanta's blood-stained body. Her cold silver eyes were looking down at the body of the monster she had just killed. How was she so emotionless?

Fear and guilt got all mixed up in my stomach.

Atalanta was almost more terrifying than the monsters. But she's my friend, isn't she? She saved me; she hurt herself to protect me.

Would she have gotten hurt if I helped her? Did she become so terrifying to protect me?

Swallowing, I barely managed to stand up. The smell of sulfur almost caused me to vomit again.

That is sulfur, isn't it? Mom said monsters turn to sulfur if killed, right?

One step after the other… I made my way to the crash bus towards Atalanta.

I had to carefully walk around the glass scattered around the bus, the light of the bus's emergency light letting me notice them.

Reaching up to the emergency door, I lifted myself onto the bus.

My eyes immediately fell on Atalanta…

She was sitting on the bus floor, a white towel under her. On the side of the towel was a small pile of bloody shards of glass.

Her bareback was exposed…

The burning feeling inside my stomach rose into my throat; I brought my hand up to my mouth. It took everything to swallow the vomit.

Atalanta's back was covered in blood, which bled through holes in her back… they must've been caused by the glass. The bleeding was so bad that I couldn't even tell how many pieces of glass were in her back.

"At- Atalanta," I called weakly, shivering slightly when she turned her head, and her silver eyes fell on me.

Sweat covered her face, which looked pale. Atalanta looked like she was about to faint.

"What is it? Is everything alright?" She asked, her voice filled with a mixture of pain and weariness.

Wh- why'd I called out to her again?

Atalanta's gaze went to the floor before a sigh left her. "What? Are you here for your makeup bag or something? No, don't answer something so obvious… Why don't you go sit outside, and I'll find your bag?"

No- that isn't why I'm here.

I clenched my fist while looking at Atalanta's back.

My friend got hurt because of me… because of me… Atalanta got hurt because of me.

The more I thought about that, the further the burning in my stomach got, but it never disappeared.

To protect another above themselves, isn't that an act of love? -It's a fundamental part of all forms of love.

Atalanta covering me was an act of love between friends. She put me above her own well beings.

If I can't do the same, then I can't champion love… nor would I really be Mom's kid.

"No, I'm here to help," I managed without a stutter.

Atalanta looked back up at me; she looked kind of startled. "Well, that's unnecessary. I don't need your help, so why don't you go sit over there and stay out of the way. "

"No, I can help get the glass out of your back."

The burning feeling in my stomach grew yet again, but I ignored it for Atalanta's sake.

"You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?" Atalanta asked with a sigh.

"No… I'm going to help you."

"How typical, you're still the same idiot even after you almost die… then again, expecting self-reflection and growth out of Aphrodite's kids might be asking for too much," Atalanta insulted me.

For a moment, I forgot everything and just felt annoyed at Atalanta. I'm trying to help her, and she insults me!

That was only for a moment, though, as I calmed myself.

"Fine, if you want to help, then you could pull the glass out these spots," Atalanta pointed towards three different spots on her back, each directly in the middle. "I can't reach those, but only one should be deep."

Atalanta grabbed a towel from the bus seat next to her and used it to clean her back. With the blood gone, it was easier for me to see the spots she was pointing to.

With one hand, she tossed the pliers she was using to me before laying down. "Feel free to back out if you want, I won't blame you."

I caught the tool Atalanta tossed to me and looked between it and Atalanta's back. "No, I can do this."

That's right; this is nothing.

I walked towards Atalanta's side and kneeled by her side. She started to give me directions on want to do.

Looking at where she pointed earlier, I used the pliers to reach into a small part of her sliced-up back.

Disgust built inside me as I saw Atalanta's skin part as the pliers dug into her skin. The glass shard was near the surface, which made it easy to pull out. As soon as I saw the pliers close on the shard, I pulled them out of Atalanta's back.

I looked to see the blood-red shard, which caused a nervous smile to form on my face even as though I felt nauseous.

I did it! I helped Atalanta!

Even if it was just the first one, a feeling of confidence built in me, at this rate, I'll be able to help Atalanta without vomiting.

"Atalanta, the first one is out!" I cheered as I placed the small piece of glass into the pile next to her.

"I noticed," Atalanta spoke with a pained voice.

"Is everything all right?"

"Yes, just please hurry up," Atalanta ordered me as the pain slowly left her voice.

"Ok," I agreed and then pulled out several more shards of glass.

Each one made me feel sick, but I ignored those feelings.

"There's only one left, the deep one. This might hurt, Ata; I'm sorry."

Atalanta grunted in response.

As the pliers went into Atalanta's back, I couldn't see the glass shard… No, I couldn't even see the end of the wound.

My hand twitched as I dug around for the shard of glass.

My stomach at that thought, but it didn't stop me.

It took half a minute for the pliers to hit something that wasn't flesh. I took the pliers and grabbed it.

I started to pull at it, but it wouldn't budge. Atalanta's hands began to clench.

"Sil- Silena! Stop!" Atalanta tried to warn me, but it didn't come in time as I felt the thing I was pulling finally come free. Atalanta whimpered as the thing slid from her skin.

The sound of a glass shard hitting the grow followed shortly after, but I still felt something in the pliers.

In the pliers was what looked like a piece of metal connected to a piece of flesh… no, it was as if the flesh was part of the metal piece. It was as if the metal was becoming Atalanta's flesh, or her flesh was becoming metal.

I tossed the piece to the side. I felt like I would vomit if I looked at it any longer.

Atalanta was breathing heavily while I swallowed down my vomit.

After a moment, Atalanta's breathing slowly steadied. "Silena, turn around. I need to continue treating my wounds."

"Um… ok," I responded, still trying to calm down from the metal flesh. I turned around quickly. After a moment, I slowly gathered my courage. "Why was there some sort of metal flesh in your body?"

I heard Atalanta sigh. "Do you know what an origin is?"

"Origin? Is that the start of something?"

"Yes, but what I'm talking about is the origin of a person. Everyone is born from something; it is the concept guiding us throughout our lives… or something like that. I'm not an expert."

Despite my back being turned, I could almost imagine Atalanta rubbing the back of her head at that admission.

"Well, it doesn't matter, just go with my explanation. For me, my origin is sword, so I'm born from the concept of a sword. As a side effect of that, plussomeotherthings, my body tries to 'recover' by stitching my wounds closed, but things don't work like that. On top of it not really being healing, the effect is useless and dangerous. If I take too much damage while turning my body to swords, then the swords will run wild and impale me from the inside out."

I shivered as I imagined the image Atalanta described. "That's horrible!"

"Not really," Atalanta quickly waved off my concerns. "I would have to suffer lethal damage for that to happen, so I'd die either way. Now, I have a question for you."

"What?"

"Have you ever encountered a monster before today?" She asked me, her voice serious.

God... why'd Atalanta have to ask that?

"N-No," I replied.

For some reason admitting that made me feel bad. Why? It's not my fault no monsters came after me, and it's not like I want to be attacked or anything…

"I see… that makes sense now," Atalanta muttered.

"What?" I asked her without looking at her.

"Oh, sorry, just ignore what I said."

I had to stop myself from turning and glaring at her. "You can't just say something mysterious than not explain yourself!"

"Listen, Silena; I don't want to talk about it."

"I don't care, just tell me!" I pleaded with Atalanta, even though my back was turned.

I heard Atalanta shifting slightly from behind me. "Fine, I'll tell you. Both of us are half-bloods born to powerful gods and know the identity of our divine parents, and individually our divine scents are powerful enough to attract monsters. With both our scents in the same area, monster attacks are going to happen. But, it looks like all of them have attacked me-"

"Wait! Are you saying you've been attacked more than once?!" I asked Atalanta in shock.

Monster attacks always seemed like a scary thing Dad exaggerated, but now I know they aren't. They're much scarier; I couldn't imagine being attacked over and over again.

"Yes, I've been attacked several times, the first time was during the camping trip during spring break, and there have been several more since then. The monsters must've been attracted to us but chose to come after me instead."

"Why?" I asked while feeling horrible like I stole some chocolate from Dad.

"They might be attracted to my far stronger scent, or it might be that I'm rarer than you, a generic daughter of Aphrodite. You and your siblings are the popcorn of the magic world, plentiful and good for a light snack. Meanwhile, monsters might view me as an exotic meal."

At first, that horrible feeling grew worse the more Atalanta talked, but that feeling disappeared once she called me popcorn.

"I'm not popcorn!" I yelled.

"Sure, you don't need to convince me. But shouldn't you be putting your makeup on or something?" Atalanta asked me, but I could tell she was mocking me!

Ugh! If I get up to search for my makeup, then that'll make her right! Not that I plan on leaving Atalanta, the only reason I thought about my makeup was because of her.

Huh! Wait a minute!

She did that on purpose, didn't she?!

I suddenly felt angry, but I hid it. Turning around and knocking the snot out of her wouldn't be beautiful.

She wins if I attack her or walk away, but I refuse to lose to her. So, I'll just sit here doing nothing.

"Finished," Atalanta weary declared after a while. I don't know how long I sat there waiting for her to finish. "We still have a few hours before morning, and I need to rest. Silena, would you be willing to keep watch?"

I turned and looked at Atalanta. She had moved on top of one of the bus seats. I could see bandages wrapped around her body, but most of them were hidden by the green shirt she'd put on.

"Why?"

"We're out in the open and at least a four or five-hour walk from Phoenix. If we let our guard down, then we'll be prime targets for any nearby monsters."

I shivered. "Fine, but what happens if a monster attacks us?"

"Just wake me up, and I'll deal with it," Atalanta answered with a relaxed expression.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" I asked her while twitching.

"Stop being so soft-hearted, Silena; the only thing you should worry about is your wellbeing. I'll handle the rest," Atalanta explained while looking into my eyes.

After a moment, I looked away from her. "Fine."

Atalanta hums a reply before slowly turning to lie down on the bus seat.

She looked like she was hurting.

I don't think Atalanta could protect us if we get attacked, and I don't think I could fight a monster.

If I abandon Atalanta, I might be able to escape, but I can't do that.

Swallowing once, I walked out of the bus to look out for monsters. Nothing would distract me.

"Atalanta. Atalanta. Atalanta!" I shouted at Atalanta while trying not to touch her. Atalanta's body was covered in wounds, and I didn't want to accidentally hurt her.

"I'm up!" Atalanta complained as she opened her eyes.

"Then why aren't you getting up!" I complained.

Why's she getting angry when she isn't the one getting up!

"I am sorry for not instantly jumping up," Atalanta grumbled as she sat up. She stretched slowly, winching randomly. "What time is it?"

"I don't know; the sun is starting to rise, though."

Atalanta looked towards the rising sun. "Silena, I can barely see the sun."

"Yeah, well, you've been sleeping for forever," I muttered while looking away from her.

Sure, I won't want to be woken up this early, but keeping watch is boring. I mean, I focused hard on it for the first couple of hours, but that got boring. Then I tried to keep watch while fixing my hair, but I finished an hour ago.

Plus, the quietness is horrible! It makes me feel so lonely.

"Did anything happen while I was sleeping?" Atalanta asked as she started to check her wounds.

"Not really. Are your wounds ok?"

"Don't worry about them," Atalanta waved off my concerns.

Yeah, right. I can't not worry about my friend being wounded. "No, you're gonna tell me about how you're hurting."

Atalanta flinched. "My body still hurts, but I can still fight. Though I would prefer to keep any combat long-distance for now."

I pouted at Atalanta as she talked. Whenever I ask her about serious stuff, she never thinks about herself. Sometimes I feel like I care about her more than she does.

It's so frustrating!

"I want to know how you feel, not your abilities!"

Atalanta looked surprised. It's like she doesn't understand friends care about each other.

She looked away from me with a complex expression. "My condition doesn't matter."

"It matters to me," I sadly told her.

The raven-haired girl looked at me, she almost looked uncomfortable, but I didn't really know what she was feeling.

Um, that's not going to stop me, though.

"My wounds still hurt; actually, my entire body hurts, but not enough to bother me." Atalanta looked down at her knees.

Unlike her torso, she hadn't wrapped up her legs. They were covered in cuts, and her knees were skinned. It was as if she had fallen off a bike.

"You need me to help you walk?"

"No, I can handle walking," Atalanta refused my help while standing up.

I don't know much about getting hurt, but it was hurting her.

"Silena, I told you earlier, didn't I? Stop being so soft-hearted and worry about yourself. I can handle myself… but I do appreciate your concern."

A small smile graced Atalanta's face. It lacked any of the sarcasm she normally had. It was so warm.

"Fine, but tell me if you need help."

"Sure, but you shouldn't hold your breath."

After Atalanta said that, we gathered our things and ate some food she'd made beforehand. It tasted so good!

Mom told me all about Artemis and how she was selfish, cruel, ugly, rude, arrogant, thuggish, a crybaby, among many other things. I honestly didn't listen the entire time she was talking.

One of the other things I remember from Mom's lecture was that Artemis was a terrible cook. This means Atalanta's cooking skills are all her own!

"Hey, Atalanta, how'd you learn to cook?"

"I just practiced," Atalanta explained as I walked out of the bus.

"Really?! Well, that's cool; I guess it took you a lot of practice, unlike me."

"What's that supposed to mean?" My silver-eyed friend asked from inside the bus.

"Half-bloods are supposed to get our talents from our parents, and my mother is a good cook while yours isn't. Right?" I innocently question.

After Atalanta didn't answer, I looked into the bus's window. Ata was sitting on the ground; a red thingy was drawn on the ground in front of her. She looked so embarrassed.

"Yeah, Mom isn't a good cook… no, that's an understatement; her cooking is horrible."

"Ahahahah," I couldn't help but laugh at her. "I think I might've said this before, but you're a total dork, Ata."

Atalanta went back to whatever she was doing while I watched. At least until I got bored.

"Atalanta, what are you doing? Didn't you say we needed to get going?"

The sun was now mostly risen. We must've been sitting here for like twelve hours, at least. Ok, I might be slightly off, but I got ADHD! Sitting around is hard.

"We'll start walking once I finish this boundary field," said Atalanta after a moment.

"Boundary field, what's that?"

"Think about it as a magic forcefield that'll make people ignore this bus and will inform me if anyone enters it, at least for a little while."

What! She knows magic!

A sickly feeling emerged in my stomach as I remembered last night. Was that how she cut that monster's head in half?

"I'm finished," Atalanta said as she grabbed her backpack and walked out of the bus.

"Atalanta, how'd you learn to use magic?" I asked her.

My shorter friend looked at me curiously, as if she was surprised by my question. "Training, just like how I learned to cook."

She looked at me for a moment after she answered as if she was analyzing me. For a moment, I thought her eyes were glowing.

"What?"

"It's nothing," Atalanta responded before looking away. "Let's get going."

"Oh, no, you don't! You're going to tell me what you were thinking," I demanded.

I could almost see the gears turning in Atalanta's head. "I was just checking if you could do magic too."

Magic! I might be able to use magic too?!

That's awesome! Couldn't I use magic to do my homework or make myself prettier?

"So, can I?!"

"Yes," Atalanta answered honestly while looking guilty. "But you shouldn't try it. A little girl like you shouldn't be trying something like that."

"'First, don't call me a little girl; you're shorter than me. Second, tell me how to use magic."

Even if Atalanta's use of magic was so disgusting and scary, I still want to learn it.

"No, magic is dangerous. Besides, I can't just tell you how to use magic; it's way more complicated than that."

"I can handle it! Just tell me!"

Atalanta just looked at me dryly. Fine then, I know how to get her to teach me.

"Come on, Atalanta! Please help me learn magic. Even learning basic magic will make it easier for me to protect myself."

My black-haired friend went from dry denial to conflicted. Atalanta is super easy to manipulate, even if charmspeak doesn't work on her for some reason. Probably because she's so stupidly hard-headed or because she's like the exact opposite of me. Then again, it could be because she's a half-blood too, and I might not be good enough to charm them.

Not that I've really tried to charmspeak her, though, or anyone else. Dad told me that was wrong. I'd never do something wrong, especially when I don't need to.

Atalanta may have a bad attitude, but that's not who she really is. She just acts that way because she's sad. The real Atalanta is really nice, someone who always helps those in need… though I can't imagine her without her sarcasm.

If someone asks her for help, she'll help while complaining about it and acting like she isn't helping.

"Silena, opening your magic circuits is extremely painful; it's not something you can handle."

"I can handle it," I ignored her warnings.

Atalanta's ability to withstand pain is honestly kind of scary, so I don't think she finds anything really painful. She's probably just saying that to scare me off, at most opening the magic, whatever will be mildly annoying.

After a moment, Ata finally relented. "Ok, Silena. We'll do it now before we set out, but I'll only open your magic circuits, nothing else."

"That's fine," I smiled. I'm sure this whole magic thing is easy.

"Opening your magic circuits will boost your magic resistance and physicals," Atalanta lectured as she walked behind me.

"Face forward, Silena, and focus. I'm going to place my hand on your back and then open your circuits. Afterward, you will feel intense pain until you gain control of yourself," I felt Atalanta place her hand on my back. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Of course, if you can do this, then so can I."

"Fine, remember what I said. You'll feel your magic circuits open; to stop the pain, you need to control them."

I just nodded in response, though I was starting to get annoyed. Why won't she just do it-

Suddenly, I felt a strange force enter my body, and I felt something opening. That must've been the magic circuits Atalanta told me about.

Then an intense burning sensation spread from where my back to the rest of my body.

It hurt! It felt as if my body was burning from the inside out.

My legs almost gave out from under me as my chest became tight. Nothing ever felt this painfully, and it felt like I was going to die. The edge of my vision turned black.

What was I doing again? What did I need to stop this pain again?

Something grabbed me before I fell over. "Silena! Focus on controlling your magic circuits."

Oh! That's right. I just need to focus, control myself. If Atalanta can do, so can I!

I simply focused on controlling myself. Slowly my breathing deepened, instead of being a bunch of small gasps for air. My temperature lowered.

My consciousness slowly returned as I felt Atalanta slowly let me drop to the ground.

"Impressive; I didn't think you'd be able to control your magic circuits so easily. It must be because you're a half-blood. Plus, it looks like I was right. Demi-gods have a ton of magical energy… I probably need to redefine my scale."

"What! Is that all you have to say? Why didn't you tell me it would hurt that much!"

Atalanta was just standing above me as if she didn't almost kill me!

Then she had the nerve to sigh before responding. "Seriously, I told you it would hurt. You have no one to blame but yourself. Hopefully, you'll reflect on this experience and listen to me in the future."

I glared at her. Sure, she told me it would hurt, but she didn't make it clear how much it hurt!

"Stop glaring at me. If you want to use your magic circuits to use magic, then you need to open them. That pain is one of the prices of using magic this way."

I was about to shout at her until I realized something. "Hey! You said, 'this way,' what's that mean? Is there a way to use magic without opening your magic circuits?"

Suddenly, Atalanta looked sheepish before looking away from me. "Well, there are ways, but I don't know how they work."

"What?!" I shouted in disbelief.

Why would someone use such a painful method when there's a painless method?!

"Silena, my mother is Artemis, not Hecate. I'm not good at magic, nor do I claim to be. If you wanted the painless methods, you should've found someone who's actually good at this stuff."

"But what about that boundary field thing from earlier! That looked super complicated."

"Boundary fields can be impossibly hard to make, but the one I made was extremely simple. And it's also one of the few things I have any ability in whatsoever."

"You unlovable, ugly jerk! I'm never gonna take magic advice from you again!"

"Hm, yes, that's probably for the best."

After I finished cooling off from the torture Atalanta subjected me to, we made our way towards Phoenix. Ata was able to figure out our location with the help of a map.

Though I wonder if she even needed it, once she figured out our location, she led us without even needing to look at her map. She said it came naturally to her as the daughter of Artemis.

That seems like such a useless power. Like how would that help you in everyday life? My abilities are way more practical; I can charm people into doing whatever I want, naturally attract people around, and have a perfect understanding of love!

I don't think there's anybody else in the universe that understands love more than me; I bet my devotion to love even surpasses hers.

The truths of love are obvious to me! True love is a miracle, a meeting of soulmates. It brings happiness to everyone who finds it. Just like how Dad described it… oh yeah, I forgot to ask Atalanta about that.

"Hey, Atalanta, how'd your dad get with your mom?" I asked her as we walked through the forest.

Now that we're alone, Atalanta won't have to hide anything she doesn't want to talk about in front of her parents.

Atalanta turned around and looked at me; her eyes were strangely normal. "I guess there are no negatives to telling you that. My mother and father didn't get together. They've never felt romantic feelings for each other. I was conceived by accident when my mom saved my father."

"Wait- what happened to your dad?"

"He, along with my paternal grandparents, was attacked by Orion, an enemy of my mother. In the end, my mom managed to save Dad, but not his parents. The process of which- have you ever heard of how Athena has kids?"

"Um- no," I responded blankly as I tried to process rapid change in topic.

Atalanta sighed before she started to lecture me.

She explained that Athena was a virgin goddess along with Hestia and her mother, which means that they all promised not to have kids or get married.

Athena developed a method to have children by connecting her mind with someone else or something to get around that.

That's so stupid, though! If Athena loves someone enough to have a kid with them, why doesn't she just have kids normally? Why doesn't she just admit she was wrong to become a virgin goddess and embrace love?

"What does that have to do with you, though?" I asked.

"When saving Dad, Mom accidentally did something similar to Athena's process to get pregnant, and that's how I came to be."

"That's weird," my response caused Atalanta to frown. "But I can accept weird; we are two half-bloods after all! Common sense doesn't apply to us!"

Atalanta's frown dissolved into disbelief, which was followed by her shaking her head. "You may be insane, but I haven't lost my common sense."

"You would need common sense in the first place to lose it," I shot back before frowning slightly. "Do you want to talk about your grandparents?"

"I've never met them, but that is for the best," Atalanta looked up at the sun. "I haven't had good experiences with my divine family members."

"I wasn't talking about your mom's parents, but your dad's," I explained with a frown.

Not liking our divine relatives is obvious; they're all jerks that don't care about us. Even though they're all-powerful, I'd trust my dad's family over the gods.

"Oh them… I wish they weren't killed; their death hurt my father after all… but I don't feel any affection for people I've never met. It's just like my mom's hunters, the death of the sisters I never met makes me sad, but I can't say I love them."

I felt chills as Atalanta talked about the death of her family without visibly reacting. She was talking about the death of her family as if she was talking about schoolwork. It was scary.

"Wait! What was that part about your sister's death?! I thought you were an only child!"

Atalanta looked away from me, a guilty expression on her face. She somehow managed to sidestep a root that would've tripped her without looking at it.

Without realizing she almost tripped, Atalanta turned and focused on a series of bushes ahead of us. "We need to go through these bushes."

Atalanta walked through the bushes, easily brushing them aside.

"Hey!" I shouted at her as I followed behind her.

I tried to rush through the bushes, but they pricked me!

How'd Atalanta make it seems so easy! She didn't even have to slow down.

It took me forever to get past the bushes!

Meanwhile, Atalanta was just standing there on the other side, judging me!

Behind her was a gravel road that connected to a lake… or is it a pond?

I walked towards the lake and looked at my reflection.

My hair was all kinds of messed up! And I had a couple of minor cuts on my arms and one on my cheek!

It's humiliating!

"I wouldn't drink from any of that water," Atalanta said as she walked next to me. "That water's toxic."

"Oh yeah, how'd you know that?" I asked while glaring at her.

"I've got good eyes and can see the pollutants towards the bottom," Atalanta explained as she kneeled next to me. "Someone must be using this place for illegal dumping of toxic chemicals."

"Why don't you ask your mom to do something about it? Isn't that part of Artemis's duty?"

"I could, but I don't want to bother her. And she can be quite brutal to those who don't respect the wilderness, and she might overreact… Honestly, I'd rather face an angry Aphrodite than my mom when she's angry."

I didn't argue with Atalanta's words… Meeting Artemis once was enough for me to tell she's far scarier than mom. While mom is more wishy-washy, Artemis seemed far more dangerous.

There was a slight brushing noise behind us.

Me and Atalanta both turned to see a sickly young girl, no older than us, emerge from some bushes. She had blonde hair and ocean blue eyes… but there almost seemed to be an unnatural green in them. Her skin was pale and glistened with sweat.

"Cough hello cough," the strange girl started to wheeze.

"Atalanta, is she a monster?"

"Wait! I'm not a monster! I'm a Naiad, a nymph that presides over bodies of freshwater. Cough."

Atalanta nodded. So, I guess she isn't a monster, that's good.

"What's a nymph?" I asked Atalanta in a whisper.

"Spirits that watch over and maintain nature. A Naiad is a type of nymph that protects freshwater, such as this pond," Atalanta quietly responded.

"Oh, so this is a pond! Not a lake," I exclaimed, loudened than I meant to.

I turned towards the Naiad to see her standing in front of Atalanta and me; her head was down.

"Snivel. I'm still a couple of years from being old enough to watch a lake."

"Are you alright?" Atalanta asked before turning to look at the pond. "Is the pollution making you sick?"

"Yeah, two men have been dumping stuff in this area, and it's been making me sick."

Atalanta sighed and then crossed her arms.

"Why don't you just move?" I asked.

If the water is making this girl sick, then moving should make her feel better.

"I can't do that; my job is to protect this pond… and my life is connected to it."

What? That's horrible!

"Atalanta! We have to help her!"

The black-haired girl stared at me, then at the Naiad.

"I could use help, please? The men should be here soon," the Naiad begged. "You said Lady Artemis is your mom, right? I can tell that's true; only a daughter of Artemis could be so one with nature! Please help me protect my pond; I can't do it alone…."

Atalanta looked away from the Naiad. "Yeah, and what will happen next time your land is attacked? Actually, what have you done to protect your pond? You're a Naiad; scaring off two human adults should be easy for you, at least near your pond."

"I was too scared, sniff," the girl started to hold back tears.

It felt like I was watching a mother scolding her child, but Atalanta's being way too harsh on our new friend.

She's a girl our age! How's she supposed to take on two grown men!

Before I had time to tell Ata off, she started talking again.

"It's your job to watch over this land. What use are you if all you do is hide? Do you think that half-bloods will appear every time you need help? Or are you arrogant enough to think that gods like my mother will handle all your problems?"

"No! I won't-"

"Then prove it by dealing with this situation on your own, prove your worth as a Naiad," Atalanta turned and started to walk away. "You're not going to get any help from me."

The blue-eyed girl looked at the ground in shame and defeat. It was horrible!

"Atalanta! We have to help her!"

"You can do what you want, but I need to rest," Atalanta responded as she sat down under a tree and crossed her legs.

I nearly growled at her! Why is she acting this way?

Seriously! For someone that loves nature, she seems happy to abandon it.

"Don't worry; I'll help you," I told my new friend. "My name is Silena."

"I'm Aimilia," Aimilia told me after a moment. "Thank you for helping me."

Aimilia and I walked down the gravel road. Apparently, the criminals dump chemicals in several ponds in this area, and Aimilia said we should encounter them if we follow this road. The sooner we find the criminals, the less damage they'll do!

Atalanta said she would sit under that tree until I got back… the stupid jerk.

"I'm sorry for Atalanta," I felt compelled to apologize to Aimilia. "I don't know what got into her head. She can be a jerk sometimes, but nothing like this."

"No, it's alright… She was right," theNaiadd looked down gloomily. "It's my job to protect that pond, but I've failed. Even if we stop the criminals, my pond is already polluted."

"There must be something we can do to clean up your pond!"

I don't really care about nature; it's just too yucky and disgusting. Aimilia is the only reason I care about the pond.

"I can't do it on my own; pollution done by modern humans is too powerful for me. Some of the more powerful of my kind could do it, but they can't help; they already have their hands full trying to maintain their own domains. And Pan is missing…."

"Wait, Pan? As in the cooking utensil?"

Aimilia looked at me like I was crazy. "Lord Pan isn't a cooking utensil… he's the God of the Wild and treated Satyrs and nature spirits like his kids. At least until he went missing two thousand years ago."

"Wait, I thought Artemis was the god of the wild and nature stuff."

"There can be multiple gods of the same thing, and they do different things. Pan was supposed to be the super kind protector of nature, and he supposedly could completely heal nature. Lady Artemis can heal nature too, but she's more about hunting down things than healing."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense. So, we either find Pan or convince Ata's mom to help," I summarized while crossing my arms. "Um- is everything all right?"

Aimilia suddenly turned paler and had a horrified look on her face. "We couldn't possibly ask Lady Artemis for help, not when her daughter has already said no."

"You know that half-bloods don't speak for our parents, right?" I told her. "We barely see our parents."

"But y'all are like your parents, so wouldn't her words be like Lady Artemis?" Aimilia tried to justify herself before looking back down at the ground.

"Fine, then focus on finding Pan."

Aemilia's hazy eyes looked into mine. "How-"

"Come on! You have nothing to lose! Hm, Atalanta and I will help you," I encouraged her.

"Miss Atalanta said she won't help me, though."

"Don't worry about that. I know she'll help; worst case scenario, I drag her along," I explained. "And why are you calling her, miss? Stop that."

"I don't know…."

"Trust me!" I cheered with a huge smile. "You have nothing to fear when you have friends by your side!"

Aimilia looked into my eyes, and I could almost see her eyes brightening. "Ok, I guess I'll try."

"Good! Let's give you a makeover later!"

"Sure!" Aimilia responded with a smile.

Finally! Another friend that'll go along with my makeovers! Sure, convincing Atalanta was fun, but she always struggled against me.

Aimilia suddenly stopped, her eyes darting forward. She then pushed me to the side. "There's the chemical truck!"

I looked where she was pointing and saw the very back of an unmarked truck… I think it was a gas truck, or at least that's what Dad called them. The rest of the truck was hidden behind trees and stuff. It looked like it was pulled off onto a side road.

"Don't worry; I'll charmspeak them into turning themselves in," I proudly answer before marching forward. Aimilia followed in my wake.

Monsters may be super scary, but these is just two normal humans. I can handle this without Atalanta's help.

I walked towards the truck and turned to see the rest of the truck—

!

The front of the truck wasn't pulled into a side road but crashed into trees. Blood was splattered all over the place…

On the rearview mirror.

On the truck door.

On the ground.

On its hands.

Th- The girl monster from the bus was somehow right in front of me. She was bathed in the blood of the two bodies carved up in front of her.

No, carved isn't the right word; they were torn apart into more pieces than I could count. The only reason I knew there were two bodies was the two heads that stared back at me. Their expressions were twisted in pure terror.

The girl's mouth was covered in blood from the arm it was biting into.

It became harder to breathe.

What do I do? Atalanta isn't here!

I stopped breathing when monstrous green eyes jerked towards me, her silted pupils boring into my own. Her eyes were those of an animal, not a human being. My very soul cried out in revulsion and terror.

As its neck slowly twisted, I saw a set of bite marks around its neck. Was that from that other monster?

The monster charged at me; she seemingly moved slower than before, not that it mattered.

I couldn't run. My legs just wouldn't respond. I felt like I was watching everything in third person.

Everything happened in four or five seconds.

I felt Aimilia pulling me out of the way.

The snake monster slithered towards me, but she suddenly twisted as an arrow shot past between her and me.

Her eyes shot towards the direction the arrow came from, causing her to miss the arrow curving around!

The arrow went right through the monster's head, killing her instantly. Her corpse started to fade before gravity could bring it down on Aimilia and me.

"The two of you are ok; that's good," Atalanta said as she slowly walked towards us. "Not that I care, I was just here to kill that monster, nothing else. Only an idiot would go around getting involved with other's messes."

Hello! Hopefully, everyone is well!

Um… here's another chapter.

…

Ok there's a lot to talk about, so let's start with the guest reviews.

To the person asking about update- here you go! And by the way, if you go to my profile y'all see a progress report on my stories along with how far along they are. And if something happens that'll cause a delay, it'll be posted there. (for example, I updated my profile before a natural disaster rolled through and knocked out my power, internet (still no Wi-Fi, have to use hot spot to upload this :( ), and cellular date.)

On Atalanta talking tell Artemis about her past life, I plan on improving that part during the rewrites (more on those later and the ensuing mess.)

There was a review on why Atalanta's last name is Moonlit, it's a mixture of things. Firstly, it's a reference to the fate fanon term of 'moonlit world', and the second reason being that the moon part kind of references Artemis. The third reason is that names are very hard (in rewriting I've changed one of the character names, the monsters weren't named since I could come up with appropriate names, etc.), and Moonlit worked as a reference to Atalanta's position as Artemis's child, so I went with it. As for why it isn't in Greek, well its cause Greek isn't something I know, and don't want to risk messing naming a character with a language I don't know. (Good news, I've ironically ended up in a class learning ancient Greek, so neat!)

And the last guest review… um no, I'm not a vegetarian.

Next thing let's talk about the state of the rewrites.

Firstly, some mistakes were made over this first month.

The first issue came with the fact that some chapters were already in the process of being rewritten before chapter 9, and most of those changes had to be removed, along with trying to get all the chapters to line up.

The second mistake was that I tried to alter things out of order which made everything even more of a mess.

And the third mistake is that I kept following into the same issues as before – and my power just went out again, WTF. Hopefully I have enough battery to upload this before my laptop dies-

With that in mind, lets speed run through the rest of the AN, so that the chapter can be uploaded tonight.

Basically, attempts at rewriting flopped this month, I'll upload the changes but there aren't that many big changes.

Also, I decided to have Artemis be more pensive about being pregnant, which seems slightly more in character, and make her love of Atalanta more powerful…

Honestly, my laptop is almost dead, so I use my hotspot and upload this chapter now and finish the rest of this AN later or in the next one. Some of the story points will be explained then or in the next chapter

Last words before that- sorry if I messed anyone's reviews, it ended up a big mess. Long story. If you were a missed and want a response PM me.

Please tell me how y'all feel about Atalanta's character in this chapter, I'm still trying to find the right balance. Though it should be noted that I couldn't show her view in this chapter, so some of her actions, specifically her words to Aimilia among some other things. I'm still worried I played her jerk side to much, but I tried to make sure most of her jerk moments had a point behind them. Plus, I tried to how her lack of magecraft knowledge in this chapter, hopefully that came through well. (Medea/class card caster uses the -painless method- of not using her magic circuits, plus Egyptians from a few chapters ago)

Silena had several character choices that I'll explain when I fix this AN later.

Have a great day!