Charlie opened his eyes. His head was pounding and his vision swam. When he tried to get up, it only got worse.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out Chiemaros and the small square of ambrosia he brought. He took a small bite out of the square and immediately began to feel better. The throbbing in his head lessened and his vision cleared a bit.
He shakily got up and looked around. He was in a small clearing, no bigger than the room the group had gotten when they landed. Then, he heard rustling behind him.
He turned around just in time to see six dolphin men climb out of the bushes with two hellhounds. They saw him and gave what Charlie assumed was a smile.
They started walking towards him, so he uncapped Chiemaros and waved it around. He slipped the rest of the ambrosia into his pocket. He would probably need it later.
The dolphin men were wary of his sword now, but they wouldn't for long. Eventually, they would charge him. And he would be ready.
Sophia was not having a good day. It had started out okay enough. She had to wake up her brother, but that was fine. Then, things took a turn for the worse.
Charlie had the brilliant idea of going to the mountain where their parents were being held and "scouting it out". That had turned out well.
They got spotted, and she was pretty sure one of the two giants had thrown something at them because she heard a thunk before they started running. Now, she was being chased on all sides by dolphin men and hellhounds.
She was using her power over water to feel the vapor in the air and find out where the monsters were. She did not want to get into a fight right now.
She suddenly stopped. There were now monsters in front of her too. She was surrounded by patrolling monsters. She couldn't slip past, there were too many.
She climbed a tree and readied Vrochopoiós. She leaped from tree to tree before landing above one patrol. She nocked an arrow and aimed. She fired one arrow after another, each hitting their target.
She almost never missed a target. She hadn't had as much training as Charlie, but she used her powers over water to compensate.
Once all the monsters in the patrol were down, she dropped down and retrieved her arrows. When she was done, she started running again. She heard a familiar scream off in the distance. She altered her course and continued running.
A few minutes later, she emerged into a small clearing. The ground was covered in blood and monster dust. Charlie was lying motionless on the ground.
"Charlie!" she cried out in alarm. She ran over and checked his pulse. It was there, but it wasn't strong. He had several wounds. Several claw marks, a bite, and a few sword cuts. The worst though was the stab wound. She checked his pockets and pulled out his ambrosia.
"Dammit," she swore. he had eaten too much already. She couldn't feed him anymore.
She ripped off a part of his shirt and used it to staunch the worst of the bleeding.
Then, she picked him up carefully and slung him over her shoulder, careful to avoid his injuries.
About an hour later, she arrived back at their room. She quickly set him down and went to work. She dug around in her stuff until she found her canteen of nectar.
She poured some into his wounds and they immediately started to close. It had been a while, so she mashed up a small amount of ambrosia and carefully fed it to him.
After a few minutes, most of his smaller wounds were gone, leaving only the bite mark, the stab wound, and an extra-deep cut. She poured a little more nectar on and waited.
Soon, his breathing normalized and he was sleeping. Prescilla showed up a little later. She opened the door with a bang and stumbled inside. She looked exhausted.
"I… think I…. finally… lost them," she said in between breaths. She put her hands on her knees and panted. When she looked up she saw Charlie. "Oh, gods. What happened?"
Sophia shook her head. "I don't know. I found him in a clearing surrounded by monster dust. He must have been attacked."
Prescilla looked at his wounds. "At least he's healing."
Sophia nodded. "At least."
No Demon of Tartarus this week. I'm trying to figure out where I want to go with that next.