Hey guys, Jack here with a new chapter. Let's get it underway:
The di Angelos were gone, and so were Percy and Thorn. Which meant that they were all probably together. If we were lucky, the three on our side were still alive, and if we were very lucky, Percy would have managed to kill the monster, whatever it was. The guy killed the Minotaur when he was twelve, that had to count for something.
Luck, however, is rarely on the side of a demigod. Annabeth seemed to share in that sentiment, because she was already pressuring Grover to find Percy by the time Thalia and I got to them. The previous summer, Grover had established something he called an empathy link between himself and Percy. I don't know how it works exactly, but the gist I got from it was that it was some kind of Stayer magic that set up a bro chat or something.
"Where is he, Grover?" the blonde was asking as we finally got within earshot. It's amazing how much distance you can cover when you're dancing and not paying attention. Grover had his eyes closed and was concentrating so hard a vein was bugging out of his forehead.
"They're still close, but the distance is growing. Wherever they are, it's cold, and Percy is hurt," Grover answered.
"So he's either outside or being kept in the freezer in the cafeteria," I said. Grover immediately opened his eyes shook his head at that.
"The freezers are all too small to fit a person inside. They're the regular type, the kind you find in an average kitchen," he said. I just cocked my eyebrow at him, and he in turn gave me a guilty look.
"I know because I got KP duty a lot, not steeling enchiladas in the middle of the night," he defended.
"Whatever. If they're outside, then unless Thorn has transport they won't get very far," Annabeth said.
"I can follow the link and lead us too them," Grover said. That earned an annoyed glare from all three of us. Seeing our faces, he immediately realized his mistake.
"I probably should have led with that, shouldn't I?" he asked. I held out my hammer and pointed toward the entrance that we came in through.
"Lead on, cloven hooved wonder." He wrinkled his nose, but otherwise led the way outside. Thankfully it had stopped snowing, which meant it was easy to find the fresh group of tracks leading away into the woods next to the school. Grover followed them without a moment of hesitation. It was like watching a bloodhound do it's work. The entire time, his nostrils were flaring as he studied the scents from all around us.
"They defiantly went this way," he said.
"Thank the gods someone saw fit to light this path," Thalia muttered, referring to the old fashioned free standing lamps that lined the path we were taking.
"Grover, where does this path lead?" Annabeth whispered.
"There's a clearing along the cliffside, overlooking the sea," Grover replied.
"That doesn't make any sense. Why would Thorn take them somewhere and corner himself like that?" Thalia asked.
"Unless he has transport," Annabeth answered.
"Or he plans to throw their bodies into the sea after he kills them," I added. The other three paused and gaped at me with a strange look.
"What?"
"Dude, you're a little morbid sometimes," Thalia said. I shrugged.
"Like my explanation is any less plausible than the transport idea," I replied.
"Thorn clearly wants them alive, Jack. Not everything is an overly dramatic attempt at homicide," Annabeth hissed. We reached the edge of the clearing and fell silent. Thorn had Percy and the siblings standing with their backs to the cliff while he held up a small device in his hand. It was only after a moment did I realize that it was one of those push to talk phones. We crouched behind the trees on the edge of the clearing, watching what was going on with an air of caution.
"Well, what do you know? Annabeth was right," I whispered.
"Not the time!" Thalia hissed. In the clearing, Percy glanced behind them before focusing on Thorn again. He seemed to be hurt, and bleeding.
"By all means, Son of Poseidon, jump! Go on and save yourself," Thorn taunted.
"Tell me you have a plan," I whispered to Annabeth. The blonde's gray eyes scanned the entire clearing so hard I could almost see laser beams coming out of her pupils.
"I do. Form a shield wall and get as close to Thorn as you can without being noticed," she said. Thalia and I looked at each other.
"Then what?" she asked.
"Then you strike at the signal," Annabeth answered before putting on a ball cap and vanishing. I blinked and then signed before pressing the start button on the military watch on my left wrist. Instantly the metal frame expanded outward until I had a bronze hoplite shield on my forearm.
Despite how impressive mine was, it could never hold a candle to Thalia's. Hers' was an exact copy of her father, Zeus' shield, Aegis. It had the head of Medusa in the center, cast in bronze, and as such it seemed to radiate fear. A lot of new campers and even some weak monster had been known to flee at the sight of it, pissing their pants. Even now, I forced myself not to look at it in order to keep my nerves.
"Grover, tell me you got some woodland magic," Thalia said as she deployed her spear from a mace canister. Grover turned his reedpipes over in his hands nervously.
"I've got a song or two that might help. I don't know how effective they'll be, but it should be enough to distract him," he said.
"It can tickle his balls with dandelions for all I care, just keep his gaze off of us for as long as possible," I said as I drew my hammer. With that, Thalia and I locked shields and began to advance as quietly as we could over the snowy ground. Thankfully the wind was blowing in from the sea, so neither our scent nor the crunch of our footsteps reached Thorn. Percy, Bianca, and Nico were also doing a pretty good job at distracting him, asking a bunch of questions about what was going on.
"Ah, your transportation is here," came Thorn's thick accent, carried on the wind. Sure enough, I could hear the sound of a helicopter and see a spotlight out over the cliff. It was pretty clear that we were almost out of time. I said a silent prayer that if Annabeth was going to act, that it would be soon.
Then, suddenly, the wind changed direction. Now both Thalia and I were upwind from Thorn. We instantly came to a halt and held our breaths. But even though we could stop making noise, we couldn't stop our scents. Thorn's nostrils flared, and he whipped around to face us, his multicolored eyes wide with surprise.
It was act that exact moment that Annabeth made her move. Still invisible, she tackled Percy and the di Angelos into the snow. Hearing the scuffle behind him, Thorn turned and fired several spikes from a scorpion like tale over his shoulder. He'd reacted on instinct, and as a result, the spikes soured well over their target and out over the cliff, into the night.
"For Zeus!" Thalia cried before breaking the shield wall and bounding forward with her spear and shield held high. Her plan was to use the fear her shield radiated to either keep Thorn distracted long enough for her to impale him, or drive him backwards over the cliff. To her credit, it worked, but not nearly as well as she'd hoped.
Thorn was driven backwards, but it was more like an annoyed alley cat that was being threatened with a water gun than a full blown panic. As a result, when she got close enough to stab, he managed to dodge her initial thrusts before countering by having his hands turn into large orange paws and slicing at her. Sparks flew from her shield, and Thalia was forced onto the defensive.
Grover came from behind me, running to join the fray. But I held out my hammer and stopped him. He looked up at me with a confused cock of his eyebrow, and I simply nodded my head to the space behind me. Thorn had a spike launching tail. All Grover had was a set of reeds. At least with me standing between them I could use my shield to provide some cover.
Thankfully Grover understood in an instant and fell in behind me before he started playing something that sounded like a pirate shanty. At Thorn's feet, the snow burst apart as thick, rope like weeds quickly wrapped themselves around his lower half. The monster in question let out a roar and shifted into his true form. His face remained the same, but his body became that of a lion with the tail of a scorpion.
As his front paws began to maul the weeds that bound him, Thorn's tail began to fire spikes wildly in all directions. Thalia, being the closest, was knocked flat on her back from the force of the spikes impacting her shield. Beyond them, Percy had managed to deploy his own shield, which saved himself, Annabeth, and the siblings, but even from where I stood I could see that the bronze disk probably wouldn't withstand another volley.
I raised my own shield, and felt six distinct impacts as the spikes hit the bronze. The impact was enough that I had to bend my knees and brace so as to not be forced backwards. Peaking over my shield, I realized that there were now six spikes sticking out of it like arrows. With an annoyed growl, I raised my hammer before bringing it down, smashing all of the spikes like I was a Spartan in a movie.
"Uh, Jack?" Grover asked, having noticed my sudden shift in mood.
"It's going to take me months to buff out the dents," I muttered darkly before I began to advance on Thorn. It started as a trot, but quickly built up into a full on charge. As he was held in place by the weeds, I had a stationary target. I leapt into the air with a yell, fully intent on bringing my hammer down and caving in his skull. At the last second, Thorn managed to get free and jump backwards, just barely dodging my attack.
My hammer stuck the ground where he had been nanoseconds earlier, and instantly all the snow flashed steamed out of existence. With another roar, Thorn pounced on me, fully intending to tear me to sheds just like he'd done to the weeds. But I managed to get my shield up in the nick of time. Sparks flew as his claws raked across the bronze. Despite his sheer weight bearing down on me, I was able to stand my ground.
I shoved, forcing Thorn backward and giving myself about a half second to breathe before he fell on me again. This time, I failed to duck far enough behind my shield and a passing swipe from Thorn stuck my face. It was like a massive cat had slapped me across the left cheek, leaving a swath of pain from my sideburn to just below my eye. I reeled back from the strike before anger surged through me, and in retaliation I drove the flat head of my hammer into the space between his eyes.
The blow was enough to force the monster to disengage. He sat hunched on his hind legs, holding his head in his front paws. I went to advance, to give the killing blow, but I was suddenly blinded by the spotlight from the helicopter. My shield came up, blocking the light just enough so I could see what I was looking at.
It was a black gunship, an Apache to be exact, fully armed with anti tank missile pods and a chain gun. More than enough firepower to rip us to shreds and not leave a trace behind. Monsters were one thing, mortal mercenaries with modern tools of war was something else. Where or how Thorn had even managed to secure their help was beyond me, and not exactly relevant at that point. The chain gun alone would rip through my shield and leave more holes in me than an ant colony.
My grip tightened on my hammer and I focused on Thorn. There was no way I could take the gunship down, not with the equipment I currently had anyway. But Thorn? I could make sure that there would be at least two of us heading to the Underworld tonight.
"Do you see how hopeless it is, young heroes? Yield!" Thorn yelled over the noise of the chopper. I wrapped my hammer against my shield three times, a challenge and an act of defiance.
"Victory or Elysium!" was my reply before I started to advance on him. At that moment, a horn sounded from somewhere deep in the forest. Everyone froze.
Thing is, if you're around the old fashioned horns enough, you start to develop the ability to tell them apart. For example, the conch horn used at Camp is a deep bellowing thing that can be heard no matter where you are within the boundaries of the valley. This one was a crisp, clear, hunting horn, and one that I had most defiantly heard once before.
A silver arrow struck Thorn in the shoulder. The monster howled in pain before firing a volley of spikes back in the direction of where the arrow had come from. But more arrows flew, meeting the spikes in the air and splitting them in half. It was the kind of accuracy the Apollo Cabin had wet dreams over.
Several preteen and young girls immerged from the tree line as Thorn tore the arrow out of his shoulder. All of them were wearing silver parkas like it was some kind of uniform. One of the girls, a tall, dark haired, olive skinned beauty wearing a silver circle seemed a little older than the others. She raised her bow and took aim at Thorn.
"Permission to kill, milady?" she asked.
"This is not fair!" Thorn wailed like he was a four year old, "Direct interference is against the Ancient Laws!"
"Not so," another girl of thirteen or so said. She had auburn hair and a beauty that almost seemed unnatural.
"All wild beasts are within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast. Zoe, permission granted," she said. Thorn let out a bellow of anger.
"If I can't have them alive, I'll take them dead!" he screamed before charging me. I just so happened to be the closest one, so he met me as I was already closing the distance. His tail shot out, intent on running me thru. But I brought my shield up just in the nick of time. The pointed tip punched through the bronze and immerged about three inches from my face.
I wasted no time, immediately rotating the shield slightly so as to twist on the tail, before I slammed the whole thing into the ground trapping it beneath both myself and the metal disk. Thorn let out another cry of agony as I heard a bone or two crunch beneath me. Fire filled his eyes, and he came after me now that I was exposed, intent on eviscerating me.
But I was quicker with my hammer. I swung my trusty tool as hard as a could, and was sprayed with a warm, sticky substance. Thorn reeled back and spun on the spot, roaring in blind pain. The stump where his tail use to be was leaving behind a blood trail of sorts. At that moment, Annabeth jumped on his back and began to stab him in the neck several times with her dagger. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it did force his head up and back enough so that his midsection was fully exposed.
"Fire!" came the order.
"Wait!" was Percy's desperate cry, but it was too late. Several arrows were loosed, and they found their mark in Thorn's underside. Then, with Annabeth still clinging to his back, the monster turned and hurled himself off the cliff. Percy went to go after them, but the chain gun on the gunship opened up. Everyone scattered and went for cover. Well, everyone but me and the girl with the auburn hair.
I lay there on my shield with the amputated section of tail beneath me, watching as the trail of bullets made a beeline for me in the snow. There was no way I could move in time. No way I could get my shield up or roll out of the way. I was going to die, here and now, shot to bits on the Maine coast. Well, I would have anyway. But I had a goddess on my side that night.
"Mortals, are not allowed to witness my Hunt," her voice echoed outward, even drowning out the noise of the chopper. It was as if nature itself had come alive and given a command. With that, the helicopter turned into a flock of ravens, and they scattered to the four winds. The silence that followed was almost deafening.
I slowly got to my feet. My cheek burned, and my body felt like I'd been flattened by a one ton truck. The auburn haired girl made her way over to me as I tapped the retract button on my shield. It made a creaking noise as it returned to it's watch form and I limped toward the cliff's edge. Percy was already there, trying to see something in the darkness.
"Is she dead?" I asked, looking back at the girl.
"No. But there is some other kind of magic at play here. I do not know where your friend has gone," she answered.
"We have to go after her!" Percy said, and his legs tensed as he prepared to jump. My hands on his shoulders stopped him.
"No, Percy! That won't solve anything. You heard it yourself; she's alive, but she's not down there," I said.
"How do you know?!" he asked angrily, shoving my hands off.
"Think, for once. That's Poseidon's domain down there, which means if she was in the water, you could sense her. Do you sense her?" Thalia asked as she came over to us. Percy was a great friend in that he would literally throw himself off a cliff without a second thought if it meant helping someone he cared about. It also turned his usual thick headedness up a few notches. My argument finally got through to him, and he slowly stepped back from the edge.
The sound of a throat being cleared from behind us turned our attention back to the girl with the auburn hair. By now, she'd been joined by the girl wearing the silver circlet. My face went hot as I realized that we'd just turned our backs on a goddess.
"Sorry about that. Thank you, for saving us," I said, giving a quick bow of the head. Percy, on the other hand, had a really hard time reading the situation sometimes.
"Who are you suppose to be?" he asked. Thalia and I cast glances at each other, wondering if this was going to be how we'd die. The girl with the circlet stepped forward as if to throw Percy off the cliff.
"Peace, Zoe. I sense no disrespect. He is distraught and does not understand," said the girl with the auburn hair. Instantly, Zoe stood down and returned to the side of her mistress. Now that she was up close, I could see that her eyes were the same color as a bright, full moon.
"I am Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt."
It'd been years since the last time I had encountered the Hunters of Artemis. The first time I was lucky enough to get away without being turned into a deer or gender bent, probably cause I was traveling with Thalia, Luke and Annabeth at the time. This time around, well the jury was still out on the final verdict. Percy took the reaction of meeting the goddess pretty well.
"Um…Okay."
Considering how his interactions with Ares went, I'd say he was doing pretty good. Thalia on the other hand, was so livid that she practically had sparks flying off of her. Her history with the Hunt, and Zoe in particular, was a little more volatile. So much so that my worry shifted from Percy to Thalia on which one would get us killed.
They briefly explained the concept of a half blood to the siblings before everyone finally split up. Grover took Nico on a walk to try and explain more about what was going on, while Artemis and Zoe took Bianca to discuss things in private. That just left Thalia, Percy, and me.
"The nerve of those Hunters, they think they're so…" Thalia trailed off, stewing in her own anger.
"I'm with you, I don't trust…" Percy started.
"Oh, you're with me?" Thalia asked, whipping around on him, "what were you thinking, back in the gym, Percy? You knew Thorn was a monster, and you were gonna take him on all by yourself?" Percy looked taken aback.
"I-"
"If we'd stuck together, we could have taken him down without the Hunters getting involved, and Annabeth would still be here. Did you think of that?" Thalia continued. Now I saw Percy's jaw clench, and his eyes churned like the sea in a storm. He was getting mad, and for a brief instant I was worried a full on fight would erupt between the two. But then, he looked down, and all that vanished.
There, trampled in the snow, was Annabeth's navy blue Yankees cap. Without another word and wiping her eyes, Thalia stormed off while Percy picked up the ball cap with his good hand.
"I've been an idiot, haven't I?" he asked.
"I'm not entirely sure you want me answering that question," I answered.
"We need to find her, Jack. If we don't, I'm not sure…" he trailed off, almost looking beside himself.
"Give Annabeth a little credit. She can take care of herself. And besides, we have the personification of hunting on our side. That's got to count for something," I said. He nodded stiffly.
"I suppose you're right," he said before he made his way over to where the Hunters were setting up camp. I kicked the snow some before I went to where Thalia was pacing. She was on the edge of the camp, occasionally looking up at the darkened school. There was also the fact that she was muttering to herself, which had me a little on edge.
"Uh, you gonna blow a fuse?" I asked.
"I'm fine," she hissed without stopping her pacing, although I could have sworn I saw a few sparks fly.
"Right. Now, you wanna try telling that lie to someone who hasn't known you for as long as I have?" I asked. Thalia finally stopped and let out a big sigh.
"Does he glory hunt? What goes on inside that coral encrusted skull of his?" she asked. I frowned, realizing that she was still talking about Percy.
"Percy's not the glory hunting type. He's primary concern is getting everyone home in one piece, even if that means he goes into most situations blind," I answered.
"But running off like that was so…"
"Dumb? Yeah, I know, and now so does he. But at that moment all he was a couple of kids being threatened by a monster. Can you blame him for that?" I asked. Thalia got a far away look in her eyes, and I could almost see the flashback to the days with Luke playout.
"No, I don't think I can," she whispered.
"Good. Now, can we go back to the fire before we turn to ice out here?" I asked, rubbing my hands together. I was cold, and my head was throbbing. Thalia smiled at me before turning my head slightly so she could get a better look at the gash.
"Yeah, I suppose we'd better. At the rate that thing's bleeding, it'll be a problem in a few minutes," she said. With that, we walked back into the Hunter's encampment, not quite knowing what awaited us.
And cut, that's all for this chapter. Had a little taste of action for you all this time around. Please feel free to read, review, let me know what you liked or didn't like, and I'll see you all next time.