AN:I OWN NONE OF PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS AND ANY OTHER BOOK SERIES OR MOVIE
Interesting chapter here, rewrote it several times. This was meant to be the chapter combined with the previous but for the one before i just wanted to get it out of my brain space. Several odd things I had to research to not get this chapter out but also the ones before. Didn't know that writing fanfic was this research heavy. Including but not limited to
Signs of Insanity
Points of a Bucks antlers
Which neck veins were visible
Does blood fly or bubble out at beheadings
Voice lines of several things(Take a guess!)
Whether kukri knives were viable
Any one handed demigods were in PJO(wasn't viable)
Sacrifices to Artemis in Sparta
You get the point. I found several interesting things. Was also surprised that several of my searches for insanity brought up mental help pages with symptoms of things I do on the daily. Not a fun time. Overall happy with some ideas that I thought up.
Thanks again to Sinabaetor, Truly you would be my plus one to the gates of Elysium
Here we are again, only ten days after the last chapter!
To the Readers, my one true Muse
There was no easy wake up with a talk for a mentor for Dominic. He woke up full of pain and strapped to his hospital bed, no mentor in sight with only a large blue man covered with eyes as his only companion. Yet again Dominic didn't know what to do, going from trapped against a tree to being trapped in a hospital bed, at least this time he wasn't in any immediate danger he supposed.
With a loud bang a young girl slammed open the door to the medical bay, not even startling the blue man, only a few of his eyes swiveling over to her. She seemed to be about twelve Dominic guessed, clad in the silver parka typically of the hunters. It was her eyes that caught Dominic's attention as they were a decided starry silver that were filled with anger. One could even call her a goddess of anger based upon the amount of fury she was giving off in her walk toward Dominic. She stalked toward Dominic's bed in furious anger, energy literally dissipating off her form.
"So this is the boy who oh so mysteriously disappeared with two girls during the game with only him coming back?" She rhetorically asked the giant blue man. The slightest of head nods directed the fury onto him as she grabbed his collar pulling him against his restraints with seemingly godly strength. "Where are they! What have you done with those maidens?"
Dominic could only stare, what was with this, sassy, lost child? He wasn't that much older than her, sure but that was no reason to be aggravating an injured person's injuries. With that thought in his head Dominic, with great effort, turned his head away from the little girl to face the wall away from her. Sadly for him, it was not a good idea.
"So help me Zeus if you don't tell me now I will turn you into an antelope and hunt you down and castrate you with your own silly little knife!" The aforementioned, now very scary, child continued "There will be no salvation for you!"
"Now now Artemis, there's no need for that, I'm sure Dominic here has a perfectly good explanation for what happened." Said Chiron appearing out of nowhere. Dominic in the meantime was trying his hardest to not show his shock at the now revealed god. He only recently got kidnapped only to now piss off a god, oh why him? He slowly turned his head back from looking at the wall and was now set upon by three very expectant gazes. One wise beyond their years, another calm indifference, and a third with indistinguishable anger. All waiting upon a response from him. Dominic began his tale of woe with no interruptions until when he got to the part where the mysterious figure took his friend.
"Where is she? Where did she go? Do you know?" Dominic asked frantically, this time being pushing against his restraints under his own power. The next reply sadly shattered his hope.
"That is no care of mine boy" Artemis stated, staring coldly at Dominic "It causes me no pain to know that your little mortal friend was kidnapped. I only needed to know that you didn't try to help my hunter and she died because of it."
"She tried to kill me! Even if I did want to try to help that maniac she still had me tied to a tree. Nevermind the fact that you aren't getting it, she tried to kill me! A random guy!" protested Dominic, trying to clear his innocence.
"I hold the very notion that you did nothing in contempt as she told me in her own sound mind what you did to her on that day and I swear you will have punishment!" Artemis said before leaving the room in a righteous storm of slightly sated fury. Her fury would never truly dissipate, but it will instead add to her already overflowing cauldron of anger. This anger would overflow into a crystal drop of a beautiful idea to get revenge upon that boy. The fact that it was aided from whispers from outside of her mind was quickly forgotten.
A quest would be given. A solo quest. So cursed that it would be doomed to fail and therefore would cause that boy to die. Why that boy's godly parent hadn't claimed him made no sense to Artemis but she easily ignored it in favor of scheming about the quest and convincing(read:Forcing) Apollo to give it to his oracle. Artemis quickly became a swirl of silver mist and teleported to her temple atop mount Olympus.
Back with Dominic little had changed, he was still in his restraints while being talked to by Chiron about the current situation. It was bleak with almost no hope of getting better. Everyone in camp either didn't believe him on what happened or actively blamed him for the disappearance of a camper. They all knew that Dominic didn't like Lily, contributed by their usual very loud arguments, and therefore drew the conclusion that there was an 'accident' that was covered up.
"I'm sorry my boy, but we will see what Artemis has in store for you. I shall try to talk her down from anything she has decided as best I can" Said Chiron, trying to help his new student.
Dominic didn't say anything in return, not even hoping for something better. A god angry at you was always the cause of misery in any demigod's life, from the ancient myths and seemingly today. Dominic only hoped that it wouldn't be too painful to bear. He was only a spark in the world but already his meager flame was looking to be extinguished by the hands of Artemis. With that thought Dominic lay in bed and tried to rest for the inevitable horrors that were about to be wrought upon him.
_-TMK-_
For your stupid quest
You shall hunt without rest
You pathetic pest
AN: Haiku Funny :)
Dominic didn't even know what to make of that. It made no sense. There wasn't a clue. Stupid oracle with a stupid god and a stupid quest to nowhere. All that Dominic had on his back was his clothes, a shoddy map to somewhere in Texas that Chiron had given him and his trusty knife at his side. Trudging through the wilderness to find some deer called the Ceryneian Hind. Dominic wasn't looking forward to finding it, nevermind killing the thing.
Dominic stumbled into a large clearing and atop a hill there it was. The deer, but calling it a deer was an understatement. It certainly was the Hind that it was called. A set of golden antlers that reached towards the sky as if trying to grasp the sky itself. A majestic deep brown speckled with white hide combined with the large bronze hooves cemented this buck as an alpha of any deer herd. Upon further observation Dominic noticed that the tips of the buck's golden 12 point antlers there was dried blood. Whether it was other hunters or other animals in the area Dominic did not know and did not particularly want to find out.
The other thing that Dominic had noticed while observing the deer was that it was looking directly at him. There was no fear in its eyes and it was staring into Dominic's soul as if judging him. Minutes passed looking into the beady eyes of the Hind but Dominic didn't dare look away, and with a chuff of air it turned and bounded away crashing through the brush back into the woods. Dominic sighed and started running toward where the Hind had left an opening. Normally there would be no chance for Dominic. Even for normal deer the minute they were spooked they were gone, no amount of coercing or hiding would bring them back until they were sure nothing was there. The Hind differed in its actions, it waited for Dominic, taunting him until bounding away once more. It had reached nighttime that Dominic had gotten to the Hind once more. This time Dominic decided to set up camp and sleep. It was not to be though. Tearing through the earth the hind leveled its horns and charged at Dominic. Sacrificing his camping gear to save himself, Dominic could only watch as it destroyed his bedding and camping supplies he had gotten from Chiron. It seemed that the Hind had liked the game they were playing and didn't like interruptions. After chuffing at Dominic once more it left through the trees once more.
On the way to begin the hunt once again Dominic foraged for food. Berries, plants and other mushrooms Dominic picked up in hopes that his surviving foraging guide could accurately predict what they were. Autumn sage, puffball mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and others were prime examples of what Dominic grabbed in his hunt for the Hind. It was arduous work concentrating on not tripping through the multitude of sticks and weeds in the forest coupled with the fact that it was night and he was exhausted, but it seemed to be getting close to morning and he hadn't seen the Hind for a while. Dominic decided to try to rest a little before the hound found him once again. Sitting against a tree Dominic ate a couple of puffball mushrooms before falling asleep against the tree.
Images of grapes and dolphins haunted Dominic's sleep. Yelling surrounded him but when he turned he couldn't find the source. Images of Lily, the hunter and the mysterious killer flashed across Dominic's vision but when he tried to get close they would only fade into mist. Anger followed by sadness followed by elation were all emotions Dominic felt in the span of milliseconds. Hours, minutes, days passed and Dominic had no idea when we was, no matter where. Ravenous hunger enveloped Dominic and he tried to struggle to his feet but he couldn't. Ropes strapped his body to the ground that turned into snakes, that turned into intestines, that hissed and then bubbled into many bugs that scattered across his chest. Failure, Friend Killer, Boy, in massive jumbo words jumped at him throwing Dominic on a cliff that wasn't there moments before. Falling, falling, falling before SPLAT! Dominic was smashed into blood upon the ground that morphed into many mini Dominic's all yelling about their woes. Complaining, grumbling, moaning, whining, all raising to a din that attracted the Hind once more raking its antlers through the ground, the Dominic's fell into the rivets and were covered up by a giant blue man with eyes covering his body. They soon grew and merged into Dominic once more.
Screaming and shivering into reality Dominic raced to his feet and started running. It didn't matter where. He wanted to escape this place. With its insane things and ideas that Dominic couldn't understand. Strong arms caught Dominic and held him in place. Panicking more Dominic struggled and flailed with all of his might being rewarded when his elbow hit something with a squish and the arms that were once holding Dominic let go. Dominic ran and ran. His vision slowly returned from the inky blackness that had covered them showing the forest yet again. It was everywhere. Antlers flashed across his vision making Dominic stagger and fail until he caught himself and continued running.
Until he hit a virtual brick wall of muscle. Dominic fell to the ground on his back and looked up. It was the Hind back once more to taunt him. The Hind looked at him curiously, its black beady eye sparkling in what Dominic thought was amusement before cuffing once again and bounding off. This time speeding away without leaving a clue for Dominic. Seeing his prize leave him right as it was next to him left Dominic to feel hopeless. Then angry and finally back to wallow in his sadness.
"Howdy there buddy, you okay now? Cuz, you ain't right earlier" a strong Texan accent cut through Dominic's sadness. "I know some mushrooms that can do that to ya, and you betcha this ain't my first rodeo out here."
