The morning of Ryker's departure came far too soon for the wild demigod's preference. It was the day after the meeting in the Big House and true to Mr. D's word, several other minor gods had already shown up at the camp. Without exception each time that a god or goddess arrived they were immediately swarmed by their children if they had some. Nike's arrival had been particularly interesting as her children immediately challenged her to a wide variety of games. Nike had, without exception, accepted every challenge with great enthusiasm. Thus far only a few of her children had actually succeeded in beating her. The various challenges that the ultra-competitive goddess and her children were a nuisance to the other campers at best. A chariot race through the camp had nearly killed several other campers, though they were given apologies later and a medal for "Excellent dodging skills" by Nike. Perhaps even more annoying that Nike's constant competitions was when Hermes arrived by camp. The messenger of the gods had also issued a challenge to his children, although that challenge had been far from as well publicized as Nike's. In fact, the challenge was only evident when items started to go missing. Ryker had been arguing with a daughter of Demeter about the pros and cons of hunting when he suddenly realized that the bow he had been given by Artemis was nowhere to be found. It was especially disconcerting since it had been in his hand at the time. He had searched high and low for the weapon before noticing that other demigods, and even a couple gods, seemed to be searching as well. Dionysus seemed especially livid as someone has evidently stolen his favorite glass from him. It was only after several campers staged a raid against the Hermes cabin that they found a massive hoard of stolen items hidden in a secret room that the children of Hermes had evidently built to hide their prizes. Everyone had gotten their items back, but that had not been the end of it. In fact it seemed like that only reset the game for the light-fingered demigods. Items once again went missing, much faster this time and in addition to that the items seemed to be bigger as well. Someone had even managed to steal the entire Athena table from the chow hall without a single person being the wiser. The daughters of Athena had been, understandably, furious when they discovered the theft. To Ryker's knowledge the table had yet to be discovered or returned. The last he had heard on the issue was that the daughters of Athena had teamed up with the Ares cabin and were now doing their best to capture one of the children of Hermes to get information from them. This would have been much easier had Hermes not supplied all of his children with winged sneakers, allowing them to simply take flight into the air at whim.
These thefts had led Ryker to his current situation. His bow had been stolen yet again, but this time the thief had not managed to slip quietly away. She had taken to the air and was now staring down at him, smirking. "Missing something?" She called down, flipping his bow casually and catching it.
Ryker's eyes narrowed and he looked around for something to throw at her. He had grown rather fond of the silver bow, and he did not like having things taken from him. He lighted on a barrel full of spears only a few meters away and walked over, keeping an eye on the thief the entire time, grabbing a handful of spears. The daughter of Hermes had just enough time to yelp and dodge out of the way before the first spear went zipping by her. She looked at Ryker in shock and anger, not believing that he had actually tried to hit her. "What's going on over here?" Hermes demanded, striding over to the two as Ryker aimed another spear at his daughter. He was wearing a postal worker's uniform, though the metal fasteners were made out of imperial gold. Hermes waved his arm and the spears in Ryker's arms turned into boxes.
"I was throwing spears at her." Ryker answered back coldly, glaring at Hermes for interfering. "She stole my bow. I want it back."
Hermes glanced up at his daughter and, rather than hide the bow behind her back, she held it in front of her like a trophy. She did assume somewhat of a guilty expression and gently flew down to the ground. "Now you know the rules." Hermes said sternly, wagging a finger at her. The snakes on his staff seemed to be wagging their heads in mimicry. "For a steal to count you have to get away without being caught."
"But it's going to be so hard to catch up!" She whined even as she tossed the bow back to Ryker. He snatched it out of the air and glared at her some more. "Travis is so far ahead! How am I going to catch up after-?"
"Just try your hardest." Hermes said, cutting her off before she could reveal potential information. "Not going to catch up by standing here and arguing." Hermes added meaningfully.
She sighed and took to the skies, presumably to find a better, less aware target. When she was gone Hermes turned his attention back on Ryker and raised an eyebrow. "Did you really have to throw spears at her?" He asked. "What if you had hit her?"
"I was trying to hit her." Ryker said, unconcerned with the idea. "If I had hit her I would have gotten my bow back."
"And I would have had to take revenge on you." Hermes told him gravely.
"Hermes, is my son causing you trouble?" Cybele asked cheerfully, striding up to them with a very large lion at her side. She put her arm around Ryker's shoulder, and shot the messenger of the gods an apologetic smile. "I am sorry if he did. Kids these days, what are we to do?"
"Well, no harm no foul." Hermes said, smiling back at her. "Now, if you excuse me, I think that I will go see how my other children go about my little contest."
"Yes, now that you mention it I believe that Athena was looking for you." Cybele told him. "Something about a missing table?"
Hermes sighed and bade the mother and son farewell. "So, when were you planning on leaving?" Cybele asked curiously. "I would imagine you would want to leave sometime soon."
"Probably tonight." Ryker agreed, examining his bow and stepping out from under his mother's arm. "Right after the sun sets. Should be easier to avoid the monsters then. Besides, the map that Artemis gave me is only readable at night."
"How were you planning on making it there?" Cybele asked, stroking the top of the lion's head fondly. "Running?"
"Probably." Ryker nodded. "Not sure how long it will take me to get there."
"You know, Thalia wants you to leave right now." Cybele remarked. "She was discussing it with Artemis earlier. Wanted Artemis to have you leave as soon as possible."
Ryker was unimpressed and unsurprised by this. "Jason is her brother." Ryker shrugged. "I'm sure that if she had it her way she would be the one going to get him."
"I heard that you turned down several demigods' offers to go along with you." Cybele said, looking at him with some degree of concern. "I had thought that you would have welcomed some company, if only for the sake of your own safety."
"To what end?" Ryker shook his head. "I don't know or trust any of them. If it came down to a fight like it undoubtedly will, I don't want to have to worry about anyone else."
"Because you have faith in your own strength." Cybele noted. "Some might say that trusting others is a strength in of itself."
Ryker processed that for a moment and shrugged. "Perhaps, but strength has many different definitions. I will keep my own."
"You do remember what I told you?" His mother asked sternly. "This dependency you have on no one but yourself will lead you to your downfall. You must begin to place your trust in others as well otherwise you will not survive this."
"It's worked well enough for me in the past." Ryker's lip twitched into a snarl and the lion at Cybele's side growled low in a warning. "When I was forced to fend for myself. It worked for me for years, and now you simply want me to throw aside what kept me alive?"
Cybele looked at her son for a long while and Ryker stared back at her. Eventually she shook her head and walked away, sadness written all over her face. The lion that accompanied her sent Ryker a look of disdain before trotting back to her side. Ryker watched her go, a strange mixture of feelings that he could not identify swirling around inside of him like a maelstrom. He snarled and pushed the emotions back down before turning around and walking away opposite the direction from his mother.
"Um, excuse me?" A very tiny voice chirped as Ryker passed by the Pegasus pen. "Ryker?"
He glanced to the side and a small smile formed on his face before he could control the action. Cloe was there along with a daughter of Ares by the name of Clarisse, feeding the winged horses. Clarissa glanced up and nodded at Ryker in greeting before turning her attention back on the beast before her. "How are you doing Cloe?" Ryker asked warmly, walking over to the pen.
"Good." She said happily, skipping over to Ryker and climbing up the pen with apparent ease. She blew her dark hair out of her eyes and beamed at Ryker. "I missed you, where'd you go?"
"Oh, here and there." Ryker said airily. He glanced over as a pegasus with a light brown coat and startling silver wings clopped over and began to nuzzle at Cloe's pockets for treats. "I see you have a friend."
She giggled madly and pulled an apple shaped treat out of her hand and laughed even more as the horse eagerly ate it out of her hand. Ryker smiled despite himself and reached forward to pet the pegasus. The horse looked at his hand for a moment before allowing Ryker to run his hand across his neck. "His name is Mario." She told Ryker, petting the horse fondly. "You should come help Clarisse and me take care of them!"
"Think I will pass this time, young one." Ryker told her regretfully. "I need to do a few things before I leave."
"You're leaving?" Cloe's already pale complexion became almost ghostly. "You can't leave! You're my friend!"
"Sorry, kid." Ryker ruffled her hair. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon."
Cloe looked at him with wide eyes, but it wasn't like she was just looking at him. Ryker's eyes narrowed. It looked as though she was seeing something almost entirely different than just Ryker. "But… if you go you might not come back." She whispered, terror evident in her voice. "You could get hurt real bad."
"What do you mean?" Ryker asked slowly, his hand tightening around his bow.
But Cloe evidently did not want to tell him what she meant. "I don't want you to go away." She said, her eyes filling with tears. "Please don't go away."
The concern in her voice actually gave Ryker pause. He sighed and smiled at her with genuine kindness and warmth. "Don't worry about me." He told her confidently, placing his hand on her head and laughing softly. "I'll come back and then we can feed the horses all you want."
"Pinky promise?" She asked, extending her little finger and looked at Ryker expectantly.
Uncertainly, Ryker glanced to Clarisse for guidance. He was not familiar with what a 'pinky promise' might be, nor what such an oath could entail in the future. Clarisse rolled her eyes and held up her own little finger before pointing to Cloe's. The little demigod was still looking at Ryker expectantly, her finger extended. Warily, Ryker extended his own pinky and Cloe wrapped her finger in his. "I promise." Ryker told her again.
