Ch. 4

Sweat rolled down Perseus's forehead. He was walking at the top of the group consisting of him, Artemis and the Hunters over a road that led to the north. It was now summer and it was really hot in Hellas. He and the hunters had been walking for hours upon hours. Perseus really started to get pain in his legs from all this walking: every day it was like this. Wake up at seven and walk until eight in the evening, with only one break in the afternoon.

Artemis had insisted that they kept this high tempo. It really began to take it's toll on Perseus and he suspected also on the Hunters. That's why Perseus kept looking out over the horizon: if his sense of direction was right they were now near Pella, the capital of the Greek region called Macedonia. Perseus had been there a few times already on his search of Echidna; it was a pretty big city, but small compared to the other cities in Hellas.

Perseus suddenly shouted in relief. 'Yes!'

The Hunters looked at Perseus like he was a crazy person. 'What is so special?' Zoë asked him.

'Look, over the horizon!' Perseus said. He pointed his finger.

In the distance an outline of a city began to show.

Perseus smiled. 'We have reached Pella.'

Not soon after that the Hunters were setting up their camp, relieved that they would finally have a break from the vigorous marching. Perseus was already done with setting up his own small little camp, about a hundred meters away from the main camp. Perseus didn't dare sleep any closer to the main camp; in fact he only went there for reports or business and when they were about to leave again.

Perseus left his own camp soon after he was done with setting it up, heading for the main camp. He still had his armor on, and he also took all his weapons with him. With the life he was living you could never not be ready for a fight. Perseus went over to Artemis's tent. He knocked on the tent door.

'Come in,' Artemis said.

Perseus entered the tent. Her tent was way bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside. Perseus suspected it was some sort of god trick or something like that. It was almost entirely filled with pelts and other hunting trophies. Artemis was sitting on a pelt on the ground doing some sort of meditating, her eyes closed.

'Hello Artemis,' Perseus began.

Artemis opened her eyes. 'What are you doing here, Perseus?'

'I came to say that I will be entering the city now,' Perseus said.

'Why?' Artemis asked.

'To ask around for information or clues: if there was a huge migration of monsters some people in the city must have felt or noticed it.' Perseus explained.

Artemis raised an eyebrow. 'I don't think mortals are going to be helpful.'

Perseus shrugged. 'You'd be surprised. It was partly because of normal mortals that helped me found how I found the Dracaena. Anyway, I will be leaving now.'

Perseus turned around and walked to the exit of the tent.

'Wait,' Perseus suddenly heard behind him.

He turned around. 'What's up?'

Artemis had stood up. 'I am coming with you.'

It was Perseus's turn to raise an eyebrow. 'Why?'

'I want to see how you work,' Artemis said.

Perseus grinned. 'A goddess learning from a mortal. Kind of funny.'

'Don't let it get to your head,' Artemis said rolling her eyes.

Perseus bowed sarcastic and left the tent with Artemis just behind him.

It was around one in the afternoon when Perseus and Artemis went through the city gates. It wasn't too busy: everyone was eating now, so they maneuvered pretty easily through the small crowd.

'For a capital, it's pretty small,' Perseus commented.

'Of course it is: Macedonia isn't the biggest region,' Artemis said.

Perseus shrugged. 'It has great potential though: it's strategic position is amazing and it's surrounding lands rich: I see this land becoming really great someday.'

They walked farther in relative silence. Perseus looked at all the people on the streets. He saw traders, civilians but also a lot of travelers. Pella lay on the road to the Persian Empire and thus got a lot of traveling folk. But the thing that really surprised Perseus was the amount of soldiers everywhere. The last time Perseus had been here, about a year ago, there were barely any guards. It seemed the security of the city had been improved, for some reason.

'Where are we even going?' Artemis asked after a while.

'We are going to an inn: the innkeepers tend to know everything in and around the city,' Perseus said.

A few minutes later they arrived at the said inn. Inside a there were a lot of people eating, talking and drinking. Perseus and Artemis stood out a little bit with all their weapons but most people probably assumed that they were mercenaries. Perseus sat down at a bar stool and Artemis did the same next to him. He ordered two diluted wines.

While the innkeeper grabbed the drinks Perseus started to ask a question. 'So, has anything happened interesting happened lately?' he asked.

The innkeeper sniffed. 'Yeah, sure did: A few months ago a massive ripple of murders came through the city. Especially young adult males and children were targeted. Eventually it became so bad that the king had to send out patrols of soldiers in the city, but the ripple of murders had by then already stopped. Now, the soldiers are just on the streets to give everyone a sense of safety.

Perseus nodded. 'Thank you,' he said after they had received their drinks. Perseus gave him a drachma as payment. The innkeeper nodded and walked over to someone who had been calling him.

Perseus turned to Artemis. 'I think you know what this means,' he said sipping from his drink.

She nodded. 'The Dracaenae passed through here.'

'Now we just need to know in what direction they went,' Perseus stated.

He looked around the inn. His eyes slowly fell to a hooded figure: kind of weird, seeing that it was really hot outside. He or she had been constantly sneaking glances at them constantly and to Perseus's suspicion, nervously. After a minute or so more the figure stood up and walked to the exit.

Perseus also stood up. 'Time to go,' he mumbled before quickly walking to the exit.

Perseus didn't even wait for Artemis and followed the figure, who was walking very quickly. Perseus did his best to keep his eyes on the figure but with people being done with their lunch the streets got busier again and soon enough Perseus could barely see the figure. So Perseus ran over to a cart of someone that was selling meat and used it as launching platform to climb up unto the building of Pella.

Now he had a big oversight of everyone, and soon enough Perseus spotted the hooded figure heading for a small alley. Perseus began running over the roofs towards the alley where the figure had disappeared. When he reached the alley Perseus looked down to see if he could pick out the figure. And at the end of the alley Perseus saw him, now running to a house. Perseus also began sprinting over the rooftops. At the end he jumped down and used a roll to break his fall. He grabbed Riptide and flicked the sword out.

The figure didn't see him coming: Perseus roughly grabbed him or her and dragged him or her into a side alley. The hooded figure fell down and the hood rolled off. Perseus immediatley noticed that the figure only had one eye. His suspicions were confirmed: the figure had been a monster, and a Cyclops at that.

Perseus walked over to it with his sword drawn. 'Why were you looking at us?' He asked threatingly pointing his sword at the Cyclops's throat.

It looked down at the celestial bronze sword fearful. 'I... I sensed a great power aura and I had to look at it. That's also why I fled.'

Perseus narrowed his eyes. 'Do you know anything about a group of Dracaenae that passed through here.'

A flash of recognition flashed over the monster's face before he quickly tried to hide it. 'No, I don't know what you are talking about.'

Perseus had spotted it though. He pushed the tip of Riptide into the Cyclops's neck. It's flesh started sizzling and it screamed in pain. 'Don't lie to me,' Perseus whispered slowly.

'Okay, okay!' the Cyclops exclaimed. Perseus retracted the tip of his sword. 'Yes, I do know about this group: a few months ago a massive group of Dracaenae passed through the city. I approached them and asked what they were doing. They said they were going to look for their mother in the Far East or something like that. That's all I know.'

Perseus nodded thoughtful. That meant that the Dracaenae had probably gone to the Persian Empire, just as Perseus had considered earlier. But where was a big mystery: the Persian empire stretched from Anatolia to the Indus. He looked back at the Cyclops and prepared to kill it but he stopped himself mid-swing, to the relief of the cowering Cyclops under him. He shouldn't hurt this son of Poseidon: the Hunters and he needed a calm sea to cross the Bosporus and angering Poseidon was a good way to make sure that wouldn't happen.

Perseus spun his sword around and turned it into a hair pin again. 'You can go, at least this time.'

Relief showed on the Cyclops's face. It disappeared though when Perseus stared at him viciously. 'But don't forget me,' he said pointing at the scar of the Cyclops that he had just made. 'If you do anything bad again I will kill you.'

Perseus left the Cyclops with that thought and began walking to the main square thinking all of this over. He suddenly noticed that Artemis wasn't here. In all the action he had not noticed. Perseus shrugged in himself as he arrived on the main forum. There he sat at the foot of the temple of Aphrodite to think over where Echidna could be in the Persian Empire.

An hour later Perseus still couldn't decide on a location. Slowly the sun began setting. He decided to just head back to camp before the city gates would close and he would have to sneak out.

Perseus walked back over the streets of Pella which now really started becoming empty. Eventually Perseus only saw a few travelers who were looking for a place to sleep and the patrols of guards.

He reached the gates when the sun was almost going under behind the high mountains of Macedonia. Perseus saw that the the gatekeepers were about to close the gates.

Perseus quickly ran to the doors. 'Wait! I need to get out,' he exclaimed.

The gatekeepers looked back at him and stopped closing the door. 'Are you sure?' one of the gatekeepers asked him. 'There are rumors of beasts roaming the countryside and the forest; in the city you will be safe.'

Perseus nodded. 'Thank you for the warning, but I am sure.'

The gatekeeper shrugged. 'It is your decision.'

Perseus walked out of the city and started the journey back to the camp.

After a quiet walk Perseus finally arrived back at the camp of the Hunters. It had already turned dark and Perseus could see the campfires of the Hunters through all the tents. Perseus walked between to the tents to the middle of the camp: he needed to report what he had heard to Artemis. She wasn't in her tent though, so Perseus decided to seek out Zoë to see if she knew where her leader was.

Zoë was sitting, along with most of the Hunters, around one big campfire where they were cooking food. She looked up when she saw Perseus coming, just as every other Hunter. They all stared at him coldly, a stare that clearly said: you aren't supposed to be here. Only Zoë seemed to be neutral about his presence here.

Not deterred by the stares Perseus continued on to Zoë, who stood up to face Perseus. 'What are you doing here Perseus?'

'I was looking for Lady Artemis,' Perseus told her. 'I found out where the Dracaenae are.'

'And where may that be then?' Zoë asked.

'In the Persian Empire,' Perseus said.

'Okay, where in the Persian Empire?' Zoe asked impatient.

'Yeahhh, I don't know where exactly.' Perseus said rubbing the back of his head.

'Great. That really isn't too helpful,' Zoe said rolling her eyes.

'Well, we know they need to eat people; so, they won't be in the desert or any other place where no-one lives, which makes up about 50 percent of the Persian Empire,' Perseus said 'And at least we know a direction to go now.'

Zoë nodded. 'That is true. Although this isn't much, it is still something; more than we found.'

'So, where is Lady Artemis?' Perseus asked coming back to his original question.

'She had a council meeting. When she came back to the camp, Lady Artemis was pretty mad. Said something about losing you,' Zoë explained.

'Okayyy, could you send her over to my camp if she comes back?' Perseus said.

'Sure, just be ready,' Zoë said with a slight mischievous look on her face.

Perseus nodded and left the Hunters' camp for his own. He threw down his weapons next to him and got to work: firstly, he made a small campfire. Then he grabbed a piece of meat out of his bag from a deer he had caught earlier. He also grabbed an arrow and plunged it into the meat, and Perseus started roasting his meal.

After ten minutes of roasting his meal it was done. Perseus lay back and slowly chewed on it, thinking about everything that had transpired today. He certainly wasn't looking forward to his confrontation with Artemis later. Perseus shuddered. That wouldn't be pretty. Still, with what he had found out Artemis would forgive him. Hopefully. In the month that Perseus had now traveled with the Hunt he had found that she was incredibly unpredictable.

Perseus finished his meal and got comfortable. He was tired from the day; the crackling of the fire soothing him and reminding him of home. Soon Perseus fell asleep, luckily one without nightmares.

He was suddenly awoken by a sound. Immediately he jumped up, grabbed his bow and notched an arrow on it. He spotted a figure in the trees.

Perseus quickly pointed his bow at it. 'Show yourself!' Perseus shouted.

The figure jumped down from the tree and came into the light of the smoldering campfire. Perseus sighed a sigh of relief; it was Artemis.

He lowered his bow. 'You have got to stop sneaking up on me.'

Artemis narrowed her eyes at him. 'You left me in the city, Perseus.'

Perseus almost squeaked. Artemis' eyes were glowing dangerously silver;

He instead just tried to shrug it off. 'I needed to follow that figure. And I did, and found out where we need to go.'

Artemis' anger temporarily left her eyes and was replaced by curiousity. 'Where?'

'We need to go to the Persian Empire, and look for clues there and go to all the big cities. I heard from a Cyclop, who was the figure by the way, that they passed Pella a few months ago,' Perseus explained.

Artemis sighed. 'That is going to take a long time, a very long time.'

Perseus nodded. 'It is, but it's the only thing we have now. And I am sorry, I shouldn't just have left you in that inn.'

'All is forgiven Perseus. I get that you had to get that information,' she said.

Perseus sighed relieved.

'But don't do it again, or you will regret it,' Artemis said threatingly.

Perseus silently gulped and nodded.

Artemis looked at his arrow, where some meat from Perseus's meal remained. 'I see you are still roasting your food on arrows,' she remarked.

'It just works,' Perseus said.

Artemis smiled slightly at this. Perseus was amazed by her mood swings; just a minute ago she was ready to kill him, and now she was smiling. Perseus chuckled in himself; it was kind of hypocritical to say that over her. He, after all, also had a lot of mood swings.

Suddenly a shout could be heard ripping through the quiet night. It wasn't that loud actually, but Perseus and Artemis both picked it up.

'Did you hear that too?' Perseus said grabbing his bow and sword again.

'Yes, I think it came from the main camp,' Artemis said.

Perseus began running with Artemis following him. 'I heard a gatekeeper say that there were beasts loose in this region. Maybe they have attacked us.'

Artemis nodded. 'We need to hurry.'

They sprinted the last part to the camp. Out of the trees they jumped into the main camp's middle. A huge fight was going on; the Hunters had probably been surprised at the sudden attack by the monsters. There were all sorts of monsters: from Hellhounds to Harpies. Perseus even saw a Minotaur.

He and Artemis charged into battle to help the Hunters who were being overwhelmed by the attack.

Perseus targeted the Minotaur that was fighting with Zoë. He knew that the thing was pretty stupid, but really strong. The best way to defeat it was to trick it, but Perseus unfortunately didn't have the time for that. So he just charged the thing.

At the end of his charge he jumped and aimed to hack the Minotaur's head off. But it turned at the last second making Perseus sword scamp off of it's horn. Perseus's arm rang painfully from the hit. He had to quickly jump back though because the Minotaur was now targeting him. It charged with it's horns aimed for Perseus's chest.

Perseus quickly dodged out of the way and landed painfully on his side. The Minotaur charged on into and hit a massive tree, getting one of his horn stuck in the process. Perseus jumped up and ran to the Minotaur to kill it, now it was immobilized. But he didn't account for the club that the Minotaur was still holding in his hand and Perseus was smacked to the side.

The Minotaur ripped his head loose. It roared out in pain; one of his horns had been left in the tree. Zoë now charged the thing shooting arrows along the way. The Minotaur flinched away from the arrows, giving Zoë the chanche to slide under him to the tree. With great effort she ripped the horn stuck in the tree loose. The Minotaur saw what she was doing and roared angrily. It saw that someone was stealing his just lost horn. It charged at Zoë with his one horn.

Zoë expertly dodged his charge though and plunged the horn into it's side when it passed her. The Minotaur again roared in pain and came to a dead stop. It struggled for its life before he eventually fell down besides her. Zoë slowly let out her breath. She was suddenly picked up by the Minotaur; it was using his last minutes to drag the Hunter that had killed him along with him to Hades. The Minotaur held her by her throat, slowly crushing it. Zoë struggled but she couldn't get loose.

But then she saw a flash of celestial bronze; Perseus was standing there with his sword. He had saved her by cutting the Minotaur's head off. Zoë fell down out of the dead Minotaur's hand and slowly massaged her neck. Zoë then looked up at her savior. He was clutching his side. In his hands he held his sword, the sword that had saved Zoë. She suddenly gasped; she recognized the sword. She had made it, after all.

Perseus didn't notice Zoë shock. He looked around the battlefield. With Artemis's help the battle was turning in the favour of the Hunters. And with their biggest monster, the Minotaur, killed, morale slowly dropped in the monsters' ranks. Perseus helped some other Hunters defeat monsters. Soon all the monsters were either dust or fleeing into the darkness.

Perseus sheated his sword and dropped down to his knee panting. He clutched his side again; it had been badly bruised by the club of the Minotaur. Perseus looked up at the others. Luckily no-one had died but everyone had minor injuries and a few even major ones. Perseus ignored the screaming pain in his side and instead helped the wounded, all the while thinking about why they had been attacked: monsters normally weren't this coordinated.

'Are you okay?' Perseus heard.

He looked up at Artemis. He was laying on a bed in the infirmary along with some more Hunters. For safetey reasons he had slept in the infirmary in the Hunters' camp. His side was still hurting but it had gotten a little better after some rest.

'Yeah, I am fine: just have some bruised ribs,' Perseus said.

Artemis sat down at the side of his bed. 'I interrogated one of the monsters. It said that a Cyclops from the city had sent them.'

Perseus eyes flamed. 'That damn Cyclops. I am going to kill him.'

Artemis grabbed his arm and forced him to look at him. 'No, we don't have time for that. By now he should have already heard of his failure and probably fled far from here.'

'Fine. But I will someday,' Perseus said.

Artemis nodded. 'I have no doubt of that.'

Perseus looked down at his arm, which Artemis was still holding. She followed his gaze and retracted her arm blushing a tiny bit. Perseus didn't notice.

Artemis stood up. 'We need to go soon. It is another three weeks to Byzantion, where we are going to cross the Bosporus and enter the Persian Empire.'

Perseus also slowly stood up. 'Yes. Then we will be one step closer to catching Echidna.'

Author's Note: Firstly, sorry for the long break: just had a lot to do. Anyway, for anyone wondering, this story will eventually shift to the events of the books. This will of course take some time, but look forward to that. It also won't be in a cliche way, as always. Follow, Favorite and Review if you like =)