Dec 24

Dear Diary,

It's Christmas Eve today. It's cold, here in Indiana. You might be wondering how I have you with me right now. The answer is simple. They can't and didn't take my pack off of me. You might remember that it disappears when I don't need it. And my diary was in it.

I woke up this morning tied to a chair, ropes tying me down at the wrists and ankles. My arm throbbed. Curse them, my captors hadn't even bothered to bandage my arm. I opened my eyes slowly, letting my eyes adjust to the light. The room was blindingly white, with a small cabinet in one corner. I did not want to see what was in there.

In the middle of the room, right in front of me was a desk, a dark brown. This bothered me, not just because the color coordination was horrendous, but also because, on closer inspection, there were dark stains on it, which was more than mildly disconcerting. A door creaked behind my back. I forced myself to stay calm. I muttered a curse under my breath when I saw who it was.

Lityerses regarded me coldly. I glared right back at him. He was wearing a shirt with the word Cornhusker, with, for some reason, I found amusing.

"Cornhusker?" I asked, without thinking.

Immediately, the side of my face exploded with pain. "Shut up, you filthy girl," Lit snarled. "Do not speak to your superiors unless spoken to."

I wanted so bad to tell him that he wasn't my superior and that he was rather old-fashioned, but for the sake of my face, I kept my mouth shut.

Lityerses smirked. "Glad you've caught on so quickly. So answer my question. Where is the Waystation?"

I blinked. "Waystation?"

"Answer the question, girl! Where is the Waystation?"

"I told you, I don't know where the effing Waystation is!"

For a split second, I saw Lit's fist coming for my face. Before I could curse, or even flinch, I heard a nasty pop and blood was streaming out of my nose, staining my shirt. A moment later, I felt another blow to my jaw, then to the side of my head, both immediately bruising and starting to swell. My head throbbed. My vision blurred and turned a slight shade of yellow.

"Stop." the order came, and for a moment, I didn't quite comprehend what that meant. It was a new voice, a female one. "We need her alive, you know. You can leave now. I'll take her to her cell," the voice continued as the speaker stepped into view. She was small, petite, with long, wavy auburn hair and hypnotizing sapphire-green eyes.

"I'll take it from here," she said authoritatively.

"Are you sure you can handle her, Audrey?" Lit asked. "She's dangerous and a Hunter of Artemis."

Audrey rolled her eyes. "I'm armed. She's not. Plus, she's like, half-conscious and about as dangerous as a bunny."

Lit snorted. "Bunnies kick. But take her if you want. Nothing in for you in her." Oh boy. I so wanted to smash him with a wave or something, but I probably couldn't even summon a drop of water right then.

Lit left to who-knows-where, and the moment they left Audrey slashed through the ropes binding my hands, arms, and legs. I tried to stand and promptly collapsed, my vision shifting from yellow to a sickly shade of green.

"Whoa there. Come on. If we're going to get you out of here you need to be able to stand." Audrey muttered, as much as to herself as to me.

"Sorry, but I just got beat up by that… that..." for once, I couldn't think of a heavy enough insult to use on someone.

"Oh my gods, I'm trying to get us out of here, okay? Now unless you have any other plans, shut up," she sighed.

I shut up. Audrey reached into her pocket and pulled out a flask of nectar. "This is going to hurt." without waiting for me to answer, she dumped the nectar over my head. It stung. A lot. But it was worth it, because in a few seconds, I could see clearly, and my head seemed to be returning to normal proportions.

"Here. Eat this." she handed me a chunk of ambrosia, which I accepted and ate. It tasted like the barbeque from Camp Half-Blood, sweet and spicy. It reminded me of when I had first arrived at Camp, the first place that felt truly like home. My mom had tried her best, but between her stretched relationship between her and my mortal dad, constant and increased monster attacks, due to my being a demigod, and finances, it had never felt right. I sighed at my nose made a small cracking noise and set itself.

"Good? Let's go," Audrey helped me up and handed me a dagger.

"Er, I know this is weird, but why are you doing this?" I asked. For all I knew, this was a trap to get more info.

"Fine. I swear on the River Styx that I am not attempting to deceive you or lead you into a trap. And if anything of the above happens, it is without my approval," she said, not missing a beat. Thunder rumbled in the distance "I just want to get out of this place. It's awful. Happy?"

I nodded and gripped my dagger. "Let's go."

Audrey grabbed a length of rope. "I'm going to tie your hands. They'll be easy to break. There's a water channel behind the throne room that's the easiest and quickest way out. It's not ideal, but it's the best chance we've got." she wrapped the rope loosely around my wrists. "And this." she snapped her fingers, causing a cold feeling to drip down my face.

"Just some disguise," she explained. "Daughter of Trivia."

I nodded. "Let's go."

The first part of the plan without a hitch. Whenever we met someone or something and asked what we were doing, Audrey would tell them that she was transporting me to the cells. The more difficult part came when we neared a fork in the path.

"From here, we need to move fast. Take down anyone or anything. Left is the cells. Right is the throne room. The emperor is out at the gladiator's ring," Audrey hissed quickly and quietly in my ear. She quickly unwound the rope from around my wrists and motioned for me to put it in my pack. I did so, at the same time summoning my bow and quiver of arrows.

Audrey started off quickly at a light jog. The first demigod we met didn't even have time to start before Audrey slammed the hilt of her sword into his face, knocking him unconscious. The next time, we weren't so lucky. A chest-faced man managed to push a red alarm button before I shot it through the eye. Sirens sounded around us, and shouts were heard coming toward us.

"Run!" Audrey yelped, which was rather unnecessary seeing that we were already at an all-out sprint toward a set of large, ornate doors covered in gold.

"Total overkill," I muttered, eyeing the doors distastefully. Audrey nodded but didn't answer. She placed her hand on the doors, muttering words which I assumed were spells and incantations. A bead of sweat ran down her face, despite the cool temperatures. The voices were getting closer. I could see the first of the guards approaching, a demigod. I hesitated for a moment, then shot an arrow at him, into his helmet. He dropped like a stone. I prayed to Artemis that I hadn't killed him.

Finally, Audrey managed to get the door open. "Over there," she gasped, her face shining with sweat and an unhealthy shade of yellow. I helped her up, shouldering my bow and ran as fast as I could toward the back of the throne room with Audrey hobbling next to me. Another demigod came toward us. My strength was fading fast, and Audrey wasn't getting any lighter.

She sagged against me, ragged breaths escaping her lips. Leaning her against one of the pillars, I grabbed the dagger she had given me earlier and threw it as hard as I could at the approaching demigod, going right through the eyehole of his helmet. I choked back a sob. I hated taking any human life, anytime, under any circumstance.

Heaving Audrey back to her feet, we continued down the length of the room. Five feet. Four. More shouts behind us. I felt a spear pierce my leg, but I barely registered the pain through my fatigue. Audrey didn't look any better. In fact, she looked worse. Two more feet. I turned my head to glance at our pursuers. Too many. Audrey collapsed, her legs giving out, bringing me down with her.

"Go. Leave me," she rasped. I shook my head. "No. Not happening." I held out my hands and with the last of my strength, summoned a wall of water, and froze it, several feet thick, on which several demigods crashed into, making the ice shake and start to crack.

"Come on," I muttered, shaking Audrey's shoulder. I dug out a flask of nectar and poured some down her throat. Her eyes fluttered open. "Thanks." I nodded and took a sip of the nectar myself. Feeling a bit more energized, I saw that my ice wall was starting to fracture as the various monsters and demigods pounded on it. We struggled to our feet and hobbled over to the water channel. The ice splintered and broke, ice flying everywhere like glass. But it was too late. I had gotten in the channel and the water was like caffeine to my tired body. I felt awake, aware. I started to bombard the guards with waves of water, forcing the demigods to retreat and the monsters to dissolve.

Audrey clambered into the water channel, shivering from the cold water. I surrounded her with a layer of air, which would hopefully keep her a bit warmer. We hurried further into the tunnel, leaving the guards behind. Just to be safe though, I made another wall of ice behind us.

"That was some serious butt-kicking you did back there," Audrey commented. I shrugged. "Thanks."

"Huh. I thought I was going to be getting you out when in reality, you were saving my sorry ass."

I gave her a wry grin. "That's what friends do, right?"

She shrugged. "I never had any friends. Feels weird to be having one."

I sighed. "Well, we should get to Camp Jupiter first, then… yeah."

"Yeah what?"

"Yeah-I-don't-really-know-what-I-should-do-after-that, yeah."

Audrey sighed. "Well, one step at a time, yes?" I nodded the affirmative.

"You know what?" I said after five minutes of wading through the water. "This is stupid." I grabbed Audrey's arm and used the water to propel us through the tunnel, out into the canal, and on dry land in a matter of seconds.

"Sweet," Audrey said as I dried her off. "Now let's get out of here. If the guards aren't securing a perimeter of one thousand feet right now, I'm a faun."

I nodded, trusting Audrey to know what she was doing. Unfortunately, my hopes were instantly crushed.

"Hey, you do know where the Waystation is, right?"

"Why does everyone think I know where this Waystation is?" I sighed. "No, I don't, so if you were planning on going there, then we're going to go to plan B."

One look at Audrey told me that that had been her original plan and that she did not, in fact, have a plan B.

Suddenly, a familiar voice shouted behind us, "Put your weapons down and place your hands on your head! You are under arrest by order of the emperor Commodus."

Yay! Finally got a chappie done! I must have re-written this chapter four times! Well, school starts tomorrow (for me), but I will try to get some writing done. As always, reviews and criticism are welcome.

Good hunting!

~ Hunter of Artemis