~ An Ancient Feud ~

SAPHIRA

She was only fifteen when she joined the Hunt over one thousand years ago. The rejected daughter of a Hesperides, cast out into the cruel, harsh world of gods and monsters. Alone, terrified, and with an expectancy of a very short life. Saphira often tries not to dwell on her past, but every once in a while, it would creep up on her. She was so relieved and excited when the moon goddess had discovered her and offered her a place amongst her hunters, and she eagerly accepted.

Her decision was at first, met with immediate regret upon discovering the identity of the lieutenant of the Hunt and her relations to Saphira. However, as she got to know her lieutenant, they became fast friends, and she once again felt like she was not alone... until the lieutenant fell in battle, on a quest to save Lady Artemis from a Titan's grasp. Saphira didn't take the loss well, still affected even four years later. She became closed-off, reserved, and once again, alone. She tried to distract herself from the pain in many ways, some that were sure to be seen as unhealthy, while others were more optimal.

Saphira rose to be unmatched in knife-combat, as well as proving herself to be one of the finer trackers of the Hunt. She has fought hundreds of battles and slain thousands of monsters in her thousand years of life, and like many of the other girls, has adopted a shoot-first-ask-later mentality when it comes to dealing with the otherworldly beasts. It is because of the danger they pose to monsters that the Hunt has become especially hated by most vile creatures, but there is one group in particular who has become one of the Hunt's most significant rivals.

The Wolves of Lycaon.

For millennia, the wolves and the hunters have held a blood feud that has carried on into the modern era. The embers of hate that had burned between them only ignited into a blaze due to the events of the Third Great War against the Earth Mother and her forces. Saphira and her sisters had spent much of that war hunting down Lycaon and his pack. The first of the cursed wolves had retaliated after the war ceased by leading a full-frontal assault on the Hunt's camp. Many fell on both sides, and the wolves only retreated when Lady Artemis herself appeared and joined the fight. This attack led to another all-out war between the Hunt and the Pack, resulting in raids on both sides.

Right now, Saphira is about to participate in another.

"What does it look like, Saph?"

Saphira's eyes flick briefly to the punk-haired girl at her side, crouching with her behind a large fallen log. Their position is shrouded by ferns and shrubs, along with the darkness of the night. Saphira returns her focus to the enemy camp ahead of them, within a clearing of the forest.

"There must be at least fifty strong, Thalia. Most are wolves, but I do see some telkhines amongst them. A couple laistrygonians, and an empousa," Saphira replies, keeping her voice low.

"Do you see Lycaon anywhere in there?" Thalia asks.

"I do not," she says. She regards Thalia with inquisitiveness. "Was he not killed by the child of Hades in the war?"

Thalia briskly nods. "He was, but the war ended months ago. That is plenty of time for him to have reformed and returned."

Saphira hums in acknowledgment, beginning to unsling her bow from her shoulders. "What are your orders?"

Thalia gestures for her to follow her lead as she turns around to face the other forty girls that have been waiting patiently behind them.

"We are going to surround the camp to ensure that as few monsters escape as possible. We will open up with a volley to down as many as we can before they can start fighting back," she begins. "Laura, take your squad to get a bead on them from the right flank. Get in the trees if you must. Ari, your squad will cover the left. Xenia, your squad and mine will be advancing from our current position. Saphira will be with us as well."

"Understood," Xenia growls. One of the older girls, she is one of the most warlike, always ready for a fight.

"What of the rear flank, Thalia?" Saphira asks.

"We have no choice but to leave that open," Thalia replies. "They outnumber us and we're already stretching thin by covering three sides. I don't want to risk us getting picked off. Now, everyone move."

Saphira returns to their original position, alongside Thalia and Xenia. Laura and Ari are both already slipping away to their assigned positions, taking their companies of ten along with them. Thalia is right. This is nearly the full force of the Hunt, and they still don't have the numbers on their side. Their surprise attack, opening with a volley, should help even the odds. There is the faint call that sounds like that of an owl, but every hunter knows it was no bird. It is their secret signal to each other that they are all ready to attack. Thalia responds with a soft birdlike chirp as she and the rest of their forces load their bows. Saphira can hear the strings being drawn back as they all take their aim.

She silently counts for five seconds, and then, the arrows begin to fly.

Streaks of silver slice through the air, and suddenly, the enemy camp is thrown into chaos as monsters begin to dissolve into shadow and dust. Bellows, howls, and screeches fill the air as the beasts begin to surge. Saphira quickly reloads her bow, certain that they have just kicked a hornet's nest. Blurs start streaking out from the camp's huts, revealing that there are even more than what they initially calculated for. Wolves, telkhines, and even some dracaenae charge across the clearing field. Many are dropped by the second shower of silver arrows that rain down from three sides, but the horde is still plentiful enough.

"Close quarters!" Thalia roars. Many of the hunters swap their bows for their hunting knives. Xenia draws a pair of short swords from her back, spinning them once before striking them together to create a small shower of sparks. Thalia's fearsome shield, Aegis, snaps into full-size on her left arm, while her spear appears in her right hand. Saphira retains her bow for the moment, firing one last shot of three arrows at once, downing two wolves and a telkhine.

The instant that the enemy horde is a dozen meters away, Thalia leaps onto the log and points the tip of her spear to the sky with a powerful cry. A bolt of lightning crackles down from the dark sky to connect with her spear, the intense, brilliant flash blinding the incoming monsters. From the spear-tip, the lightning radiates outward with multiple arcs that instantly vaporize almost a dozen of the enemy.

"RAAAAH!"

The battle cry of the hunters rings out into the night as they hurtle over the fallen log, sprinting silently and gracefully like panthers. Saphira springs forward, reaching over her shoulders for her hunting knives. The first beast that confronts her is a wolf, standing at just over four feet at the shoulder, built with the size and power that is more akin to a lion than a wolf. Nightmare black fur, four-inch fangs, and claws that would tear a bison to pieces with ease. Fiery, blood-red eyes that burn with hatred and raw bestial fury.

The wolf charges with open jaws, saliva trailing from its teeth. Saphira flips high over the wolf's head, narrowly avoiding the snap of its fangs mere inches from her body. While in the air, she snaps a knife into the wolf's back, drawing a snarling yelp of pain. She lands and twists to run at it again with the wolf distracted by spinning around and attempting to get at the knife in its back. Turned away from her, it doesn't realize she's on it again until she's on its shoulders with her legs locked around its neck. Saphira flips her remaining knife into a reverse grip and hammers it down into the wolf's neck. The wolf doesn't even have a chance to cry out before it drops and melts into shadow.

Dropping forward in a roll, Saphira snatches up her other knife and brings both up in a crossing block to catch the falling sword of a telkhine. She twists her knives to turn the blade out of the telkhine's grasp, rendering it defenseless before she stabs both knives forward, plunging them deep into its chest. Her instincts taking over, she rips her knives out and drops herself backward just as another wolf bursts through the dissolving telkhine. As the wolf sails over her, Saphira thrusts her knives up into its belly, ripping through all the way down.

A snarl behind her has her spinning around to meet the wolf that lunges with gaping jaws. With a swift, light backstep, Saphira dances just out of the range of the wolf's teeth and retaliates with two quick slashes to its muzzle. The wolf recoils but only for a second before it attacks again, snarling ferociously with its claws tearing up the soft earth beneath it. Saphira manages to get one of her knives in between her and the wolf's teeth, but it still plows her onto her back. Keeping her knife in its jaws, the wolf pushes forward, inching closer towards her face. She brings her legs up to lock around its head and hoist her body up and get her other knife higher to stab it in the back of its skull.

Before she can get back on her feet, a dracaena is looming over her with a bloodied javelin ready to impale her. The dracaena hisses, but doesn't get any closer before an arrow suddenly materializes going through her skull.

"On your feet, Saphira!" says the shooter who had saved her, a former mortal named Ria.

Saphira is about to thank her when a blur of darkness suddenly slams into Ria with such force that her scream comes out as no more than a gasp.

"No!" Saphira cries, scrambling to her feet, but she's too late already. Ria's thrashing limbs fall limp as the wolf that stands over her ravaged body snaps its head up to Saphira, with blood dripping from its fangs. Two of its brethren flank up behind it, each them prowling towards her with vicious growls rumbling from their throats.

"Hyah!"

Thalia and Xenia come to her rescue, with Thalia leading the charge by bashing the first of the three wolves in the skull with her shield. Stunned by the blow, the wolf allows itself to be skewered by her spear. Xenia brings both her swords down hard on the second wolf's neck, removing its head. The last wolf, caught in between both girls, has no way to defend itself, taking a spear to its flank, and a sword to its throat, dissolving into shadows.

"Come on, Saph!" Thalia yells, shielding herself from a telkhine's sword before bashing its skull in with Aegis.

Saphira heeds the lieutenant's call and hurries to join her and Xenia. The three are the best current fighters in the Hunt, and they let their enemies know it. She spins, parries, and slices with her knives. Thalia twists, bashes, and skewers her enemies. Xenia hacks, slashes, and stabs her way through the hordes. The enemy is beginning to lose ground, their numbers dropping quickly under the continued support of Thalia's snipers in the trees. The monsters attempt to regroup and attack again, but they are not the only ones with reinforcements on standby. Over the roar of battle, Saphira can hear the long, one-note horn of the Hunt. Seconds later, a series of yips and howls follow. From where the Hunt launched their attack, charges a large pack of wolves. Not the monstrous beasts that they are currently fighting, but a special breed of timber wolf that accompanies the hunters.

The timbers surge into the clearing to join their masters in battle. One of the enemy wolves finds itself getting mobbed, and while it greatly outsizes the wolves of the Hunt, it is dragged down under the weight of the pack and beset by their fangs. Overwhelmed by the arrival of even more enemies, the monstrous horde once again loses nerve and begins to break, allowing themselves to easily get picked off by the hunters and their canine companions.

Saphira is just about to pursue one fleeing wolf when she notices another stalking around the edge of battle, as if trying not to be seen. She realizes that the beast intends on making a run for it and acts quickly, holstering her knives and unslinging her bow from her shoulders. Thalia's orders were to kill as many as possible and ensure that few, if any, escape. Nocking an arrow to her string, Saphira takes aim, confident that Thalia and Xenia will not let any of the remaining monsters attack and interfere with her shot. The wolf is almost to the edge of the woods when Saphira releases the breath she had been holding, and her arrow along with it.

The wolf yelps and stumbles when its struck by the arrow, tumbling to the ground. For a split second, Saphira believes she killed it, until the wolf scrambles back to its paws and bounds into the forest, quickly disappearing in the darkness. Saphira curses, certain that she had made a lethal shot. She considers giving chase until she realizes that this battle is only seconds from being over. Other wolves are now fleeing as well, only a dozen or so alive. They hurtle towards the forest, spreading out in all directions. Three are dropped before they can make it, going down with silver arrows sticking in their backs or flanks. They melt into darkness while the rest manage to escape.

The girls of the Hunt pump their fists and weapons into the air, releasing a mighty cry of victory, joined by a chorus of howls from the timber wolves. The noise goes on for a few seconds until they are silenced by a blow of the horn from Xenia, who stands by the lieutenant. Once the hunters have settled, Thalia begins to speak.

"No time to celebrate just yet! Healers, hurry up and tend to the wounded! Everyone else, gather our fallen and supplies! We move out in ten minutes!" Thalia declares.

The Hunt heeds her commands. The healers immediately seek out and begin to tend to their injured sisters while others search the battlefield for any retrievable supplies. Saphira slips her bow over her torso and heads to join Thalia and Xenia, who seem to be deep in conversation.

"I would estimate that at least nine wolves escaped," Xenia says.

"Maybe ten," Saphira pipes up. "I struck one that was attempting to sneak away, but as far as I could see, I only injured it."

"The vile beast was likely headed to warn others of our presence here," Xenia growls, flicking the blood from her swords.

"Probably. We have traps set all over this region for miles around. We'll send a search party out in the morning to see if we snag anything else," Thalia says. "Saphira, care to participate in that?"

"Of course, Thalia. I will start here and see if I can track down the one I shot. If it was trying to run away and call for reinforcements, then it's best that I make sure my arrow was lethal," Saphira agrees.

The punk-haired lieutenant nods in agreement. Another girl, a nymph named Amaris, approaches with a solemn expression.

"Five lost on our side," Amaris reports, her voice saddened. Thalia's expression turns grim, clenching her jaw with a tight, sucked breath before exhaling.

"Who are they?" she asks with a tone that tells Saphira she's focusing on maintaining her cool.

"Lea, Tiffany, Madelyn, Lisa, and Ria."

Saphira's gut twists uncomfortably at the mention of the last girl's name. Her life taken only seconds after saving Saphira's…

"Damn it," Thalia murmurs. "Prepare them for transport. We will not leave our sisters here."

Amaris dips her head and turns away to begin her task. The daughter of Zeus raises a hand to her forehead, rubbing it in slow circles.

"Another five gone," she sighs.

"It is the ugly reality of war, sister," Xenia says, placing a hand on Thalia's shoulder. "They fell as warriors, and they will be remembered as such."

"I know, Xenia. But this war is starting to become too costly on us. It may be time we call some allies for help," Thalia says, and continues before Xenia can reply. "I know what you're going to say, but for the sake of the Hunt itself, we have to consider it as a option."

"Those male campers are insufferable, Thalia. What if they attempt to prey on us?" Xenia growls.

"Don't worry. My two best friends are the leaders of the camp. If any camper steps out of line, they'll slap them back into shape." Thalia taps her shield and it shrinks back into a bracelet. "Besides, we may need the assistance. We're losing hunters almost faster than we can recruit them. I don't want to bring girls into this life just for them to die."

Xenia still doesn't seem pleased about the optional plan, but looks accepting of it nonetheless. "You are right. If Zoe could learn to trust them, then perhaps I should as well."

Saphira's heart skips a beat at the mention of the previous lieutenant. Zoe Nightshade… the daughter of Atlas and the right hand of Artemis for millennia. That's who she was to everyone else, but to Saphira, Zoe was something else, something… more.

"Lieutenant!"

The trio turns to see Amaris returning to them. "The fallen have been secured and our wounded are tended to. Mostly minor injuries to report, but Sylvia and Violeta will have to be carried."

"Alright. Xenia, get everyone moving," Thalia says. Xenia nods once and raises the horn to her lips. The call of the Hunt rings out, the girls respond to it immediately. In under a minute, the raiding party is on the move. The timber wolves stalk the flanks and rear, ensuring that they do not fall under a surprise attack as they trek through the woods.

The Hunt is currently based in the woods of the northern region of the continent, somewhere between Canada and the northeastern U.S. They have been both pursuing, and getting pursued, waging war with the Wolves of Lycaon for months. To keep up with the war effort, Artemis and Thalia assembled a special team of scouts that would go out into the world to recruit girls, however this is now proving to be ineffective, as the wolves have a much more potent and faster method of increasing their numbers. They pass their curse onto mortals and demigods alike, and the fact that they can reform after death does not help matters at all.

The hike from the scene of the raid back to base camp takes two hours, due to the burden of the wounded and the fallen. However, once they make their return, they are welcomed back with open arms and immediate assistance. Around twenty other hunters were assigned to remain at camp, the relief they bring when they begin to help their returning sisters can be felt by everyone.

"Welcome back, lieutenant!"

One voice calls more powerfully than the others, and the girls part to allow their beloved leader to pass through. Lady Artemis appears no older than most of them, but the respect she commands is greater than any other. She greets Thalia with a smile.

"Thank you, milady," Thalia replies, dipping her head. Saphira and Xenia follow her lead.

"Was your mission a success?" Artemis inquires.

"It was. Another enemy encampment eradicated," Thalia declares, then adds with a less excited tone. "Five lives lost from our own."

Artemis looks saddened by this, but seems determined to retain her focus and authority. "Oh… Take an hour to yourselves. We will hold the ceremony for our fallen sisters later."

"As you wish, milady," Thalia replies. She and Xenia turn to leave, with Saphira about to follow, but Artemis' hand on Saphira's shoulder stops her.

"Before you go, Saphira," Artemis begins with a look of concern. "Are you doing alright?"

"I am, milady," Saphira replies. "Why do you ask?"

"You know why. I still don't see you talking to many of the other girls aside from Thalia, Xenia, and Chloe," Artemis says.

"I just don't have much to say, but I am getting better every day, milady," Saphira tries to assure her, not wanting to dwell on the subject.

The moon goddess sighs. "I just hope you know that you are not alone here."

Saphira dips her head once. "I do know."

Artemis offers her a small smile and gestures for her to go on her way.

The rest of the night goes by in peace. The fallen hunters are cremated on pyres made of fresh chopped pine, the embers of their souls allowed to pass up into the night sky. Seeing them travel up to the stars makes Saphira feel another pang of anguish within her. Searching the skies for a certain constellation, she spots the one she's looking for: the Huntress. With a shaky breath, she gazes up at the familiar assortment of stars and allows a single tear to crawl down her cheek. Hastily, she wipes it away before anyone can notice.

Dinner is had in somewhat high spirits. Despite losing some sisters, a victory is always seen as a cause for celebration, though they would never go as crazy as the Camp or the Legion might. Only Saphira keeps to herself until the antics of the other hunters become too much for her. Without a word to anyone else, she quietly leaves the gathering around the fire and heads to her tent, desiring rest. She stoops to step through the flap and finds that she is not the only one here.

"Chloe?"

"Oh!" Her tent-mate greets her with a happy smile. "Hi, Saph!"

"I didn't realize you weren't at the fire," Saphira says, though she returns Chloe's smile.

One of the newer girls to the Hunt, Chloe is a former demigoddess; a fourteen year old daughter of Apollo. Golden blonde hair and warm blue eyes, Chloe is quite beautiful. She ended up tagging along with the Hunt when they had passed by Camp Half-Blood about eight years ago. She didn't have a reason other than she thought it would be an exciting adventure for her. As a daughter of Apollo, she has natural gifts for being a healer and is one of the finest in the Hunt. She also serves as an excellent cook and is often admired for her delicious meals.

She is also one of the only people who know Saphira's secret history. She found out when they first began sharing a tent, when Saphira was having some unpleasant dreams. Concerned, she had pestered Saphira until she finally gave in and told Chloe everything, begging her afterwards to never bring it up to anyone else. To Saphira's gratitude, the blonde had agreed and the pair forged a rather close friendship because of it.

"Yeah, I was there for a little while, but I got tuckered out and decided that I'll just turn in for the night," Chloe admits with a yawn. "How was the raid?"

A bit of an odd thing to ask, but Saphira decides to humor Chloe, as the healer girl does not often come on missions with her.

"It went well, despite our losses. We must have killed at least fifty monsters," Saphira replies. "Since we have traps set everywhere, Thalia is going to lead a hunting party to see if we snag any stragglers."

Chloe nods, her eyes full of wonder. "Sounds exciting. Would you like me to come with you?"

Saphira smiles as she changes into her sleeping tunic. "No, Chloe. I'd rather you stay out of danger. Besides, I'm looking forward to a delicious meal when I return."

"Ha! Good to know you only like me for my food," Chloe teases, then adds, "I'm thinking quail eggs, fresh berries, and cheese tomorrow."

"Sounds lovely," Saphira says, climbing into her sleeping bag. "I hope it'll be ready by the time I get back."

"For you, it will," Chloe assures her before laying back down. "Goodnight, Saph."

"Goodnight, Chloe."