"So where are we going?" Ryker asked as the Hunters made the last preparations to leave.

Thalia looked up from checking to make sure that her bag was ready and her shield was correctly strapped to it and answered, "We're going to get a demigod who we have just been made aware of. With so many demigods being taken we want to get as many as we possibly can to a place of relative safety."

"Doesn't seem all that safe to me." Ryker observed, leaning against a tree.

"It's better than being out there all alone without anyone at all to look out for you and monsters trying to kill and eat you." Thalia snapped, standing up and swinging her backpack onto her shoulder. "You might think that is better, but no one else does."

"Whatever you say." Ryker said with deliberate calmness.

"And while I am yelling at you, are you going to remain shirtless or did you plan on changing sometime soon?" Thalia demanded.

Ryker glanced down to his bare chest and ripped up cargo pants and shrugged. "I'm fine like this." He said honestly.

"Be that as it may, it might cause some trouble amongst the humans." Thalia sighed. She turned around and called for one of her hunters. "They seem to take it badly whenever a demigod shows up with signs of battle wear and tear on them."

"I'll get something the next time that we pass by a store or something." Ryker told her, completely unconcerned with what humans thought of him. He was considering hunting down a deer to make another deer hide jerkin when something silver hit him on the chest. He grabbed it reflexively and stared down at it uncomprehendingly. It was made out of some odd material and it took him a moment to realize that it was the same material that the other Hunter's shirts were made out of. He glanced over to Thalia with a raised eyebrow and she gestured for him to put it on. He pulled off his bag and pulled on the shirt, shivering at the material's touch. It reminded him of water for some reason, and it was almost as fluid. He stretched this way and that, testing the limits of the shirt's maneuverability. "Not bad." He admitted.

"Starting to look like a Hunter now." Thalia observed. "Now you just need a bow."

"I'm making my own." Ryker answered back dismissively. "None of yours are up to my…" His eyes widened when one of the Hunters appeared with a massive silver longbow and a quiver full of silver arrows.

"You were saying?" Thalia asked as Ryker moved forward to grab the bow, one hand extended.

When he was a few paces away the girl who had brought the weapon dropped both it and the quiver onto the ground and strode away with her chin raised defiantly at Thalia's disapproving scowl. Ryker snatched up the bow and brushed off the dirt, examining the weapon closely. He tested the draw weight with two fingers and nodded approvingly. He pulled on his backpack and then the quiver so that the arrow's fletching was sticking out over his right shoulder. He slung his bow over his left shoulder and smiled happily. He had missed having a bow, more than he had realized. He had always preferred fighting from a distance rather than being right on his prey. "Thank you." Ryker said grudgingly.

"Don't thank me, Lady Artemis was the one who had it made for you." Thalia told him. "Hephaestus makes a lot of our weapons. She asked him last night and he agreed, although he did make sure that she owed him a favor."

"Guess that I owe her one now." Ryker sighed at the thought.

"Guess so." Thalia said, striding to the center of the camp. "Alright! Everyone ready?"

The Hunters shouted their enthusiasm for their departure and Thalia nodded. "Alright! We're going to find a demigod who might be in trouble. Remember, she doesn't know about the gods or anything like that. Once we find her our job is to get her to Camp Half-Blood. Everyone clear?"

Ryker melted into the forest as the Hunters moved out, keeping just close enough for his keen hearing to make out the sound of the hunter's movement. They moved at a fast pace just as before, and they quickly ate up the miles between them and their destination. Ryker's separation seemed to displease the wolves, and he was quickly joined by the pack. He smiled at them and rolled his eyes when the she-wolf from the night before bit playfully at his hand. He snarled back at her quietly, but she seemed to understand that he was not serious. He lost track of time as he ran, enjoying the simplicity of the forest and the companionship of the wolves. It was not until Thalia called for a halt did Ryker pull himself out of his reverie. He quickly slowed to a walk and then returned to the outskirts of where the Hunters were gathering. Thalia spied him when he emerged from the trees and beckoned him over. Ryker warily moved forward a few more feet and Thalia rolled her eyes at his reluctance. "Alright, up ahead is the town with the demigod." Thalia announced. "We don't know what we are walking into, so I'm only taking one other besides me."

"I'll go." One girl said eagerly, stepping forward.

"Ryker." Thalia announced, surprising all of them. Ryker included. "You ready?"

"You want me to go help you get the demigod out of the town?" He asked incredulously, ignoring the looks of jealousy that the other Hunters were sending him. "Probably not the best idea."

"If I run into Orion, I want the only person who has gone up against him alone and come out alive." Thalia told him, dropping her bag and pulling off her shield. "Besides, it will be good for you to see how getting a demigod needs to be done in case we send you out for any more in the future."

"Fine," Ryker shrugged and set his bag down. He held his bow in his left hand, readying it for any use he might call upon it for. "When do we leave?"

"Now." Thalia said, striding away from the Hunters.

Ryker followed after her, quickly matching her pace as he came alongside her. "So how do we find her?" He asked as they walked.

"Usually it isn't all that hard." Thalia admitted as they came upon a street. She looked up and down the road warily as though she expected to be attacked at any moment. "If we know where a demigod is, it's because monsters have taken an interest in them."

"So we can expect to find monsters here?" Ryker asked hopefully, squeezing his new bow in anticipation. He was very eager to test the limits of a god-forged weapon.

"Probably." Thalia said slowly, hearing the eagerness in his voice. "But our goal is to get the demigod out of here safely. If we run into any monsters we need to get the demigod as far away from them as possible."

"Speaking of monsters, how are we supposed to fight them in broad daylight?" They passed by an old playground that was devoid of all signs of life and Ryker's instincts began to make themselves known. He inhaled deeply through the air, focusing on the scents that mixed together in the small town. Among the typical ones that humans were associated with, soap, sweat, smoke, and a few others, Ryker detected the unmistakable scent of a monster. "Because I can already smell them."

"Really?" Thalia asked worriedly. "Well, that might not be a bad thing. Where monsters are, demigods usually can't be far."

Ryker frowned, considering the scent. It was familiar. Too familiar. He was almost certain that he had encountered this sort of monster before at one point which, when he considered the dragons, was not at all a happy thought. If he was forced to fight out of the forest in the small confines of a small town and not get any of the humans killed he would be hard-pressed. Thalia would undoubtedly be focused on rescuing the demigod which meant that Ryker would be forced to deal with the beast himself. "As for fighting the monsters, don't worry, the Mist will cover us." Thalia assured him. "Right now to the humans we probably look like we are carrying some sort of toy or something rather than our bows."

They rounded the corner and Ryker breathed out an annoyed sigh. He hated when he was proven right. Thalia's sharp intake of breath informed him that she was thinking along the same lines that he was. The monster was indeed familiar to Ryker, he had a fang from one on his necklace after all. The hydra was just as big as the last one he had faced, the beast took up nearly the entire seat as it stalked back and forth in front of a small gray house. "I bet you five drachma that's where the demigod is." Thalia whispered to him.

Ryker nodded in agreement, pulling an arrow from his quiver and sighting at the hydra. "Go get her." He told her, releasing the arrow. The bow was just as good as Ryker hoped it was, the arrow striking the arrow directly in one of its three heads. The beast hissed and turned its attention on Ryker. Thalia looked at him in shock and disapproval and he rolled his eyes. "Did you want to have her fight a hydra?" He asked pointedly, firing another three arrows in rapid succession at the quickly approaching hydra.

"You could have warned me." Thalia told him sternly.

"I'm shooting the hydra." Ryker answered, firing another arrow at the beast.

"Just don't die." She said in a hiss that the hydra would have been proud of.

"No promises." Ryker answered back, dancing backwards as the hydra sent a stream of acid at the place where he had been standing. Thalia disappeared among the houses and Ryker smiled at the hydra fondly. "Well then, looks like it's just you and me."

"Demigod." The hydra hissed in a terribly hard to discern voice. "Food. We shall devour you."

Ryker sent another arrow smacking through the eye of the head that had spoken in response. The hydra roared and the head that he had shot split into two. "Oh yeah," He muttered, "Head shots aren't effective against you."

"Die!" The hydra hissed at him, as three of the heads sent acid flying at him.

Ryker grinned back at the hydra, his eyes filling with a reckless bloodlust as he tossed his bow aside and summoned his claws. "This is going to be so much fun." He howled, charging the beast.

Thalia stepped outside with a young girl who couldn't have been more than six years old clinging tightly to her side. Her gaze fell upon the figure of Ryker as he lounged casually against the side of a car, his arms coated in golden ichor. His claws were still on his hands, dripping golden liquid onto the hood of the car. He smiled at Thalia in triumph, his eyes alive with a wicked light. "One less hydra." He noted, pushing off of the car and striding over to the daughter of Zeus. The young girl's eyes widened and she hid behind Thalia as Ryker drew closer. His smile grew wider as he saw the reaction.

"It's alright Cloe." Thalia told her consolingly, frowning pointedly at Ryker's claws. "He's a good guy. He's the one who killed the monster."

Ryker sighed and banished the claws to their wrist band form and crouched down next to the girls' height. "Do I scare you?" He asked conversationally.

She peeked out from behind Thalia's legs and nodded once before disappearing again. "Good." Ryker said happily. "Because if I scare you, just imagine what those monsters must feel like."

She poked her head out again, her hands clutching tightly to Thalia's shirt and looked at Ryker again, studying him. "You aren't a monster?" She whispered.

"No." He smiled at her with no malice this time. "I hunt monsters."

Alright my readers, question time yet again. Whose POV would you like to see the next chapter written from? Please, let me know.

Cheers, Hallowed