Chapter 5
hey! just a note im not gonna reply any reviews cuz the email I use for fan fic is my skool email and I think their renovating the skool webpage so… I cant get into it so I cant reply, I can still check my reviews the same way I check someone elses tho and ill send u a pm reply if u ask a cool question but other wise… im 2 lazy to send a pm to every one.
By the time the reached the lake the passengers of the freak minivan had already climbed out and were standing on the edge of the lake. They had somehow managed to stay dry, it might have had something to do with the fact that they arrived in a minivan looking like a ball of fire. Ingrid studied the newcomers curiously.
There were around Fifteen of them: there was a dark haired guy with green eyes, a boy with curly brown hair like Orlando, a girl wearing black with punk hair and blue eyes, and a younger boy with black hair and olive skin, he was bouncing around like he was about to pee his pants… but with joy. Then there was about ten or eleven girls wearing silver parkas. They all had bows. A strange feeling came over Ingrid, as if she knew them; as if was one of them once… as if she was meant to become one again. She wondered who they were, but she shook of the feeling for a while. The large group started to talk almost themselves, and then slit up, the curly haired kid and the sliver girls towards the cabins and the others towards the big house.
Ingrid turned to the others "Does any one know who those guys are?"
Connor shrugged "They looked really familiar but we're to far and I can't really see their faces"
Orlando was starting to get a strange look on his face; he was starting to look like that little kid on the minivan.
"Um… Lando? Are you OK"
"I don't know… I think I just saw… but it couldn't be… but it is" he murmured.
"What are you going on about?"
Orlando's face lost it's cloudily look all of a sudden and it was replace with one of complete certainty. "C'mon you guys theirs someone I want you to meet." and he started to run towards the cabins.
"You think he recognized one of those kids?" asked Travis, sarcastically.
They started to sprint after Orlando.
When they finally caught up to him he was approaching the Artemis cabin just as the curly haired guy from the lake walked out.
"GROVER!" Orlando yelled charging towards him. Grover looked surprised at first but then, seeing Orlando, he looked just as excited. He pulled Orlando into a bear hug. They talked excitedly for a while, laughing hysterically. Ingrid, Travis and Connor stood awkwardly on the side lines, unsure whether or not they would interrupt. Orlando noticed them and gestured for them to join him.
"Grover, this is Ingrid, she's the half-blood I've been working with for the last three years, and you probably met Connor and Travis."
There was a chorus of 'hey's, 'nice to meet you' 'it's been a while' ect.
"Guys," said Orlando "I'd like you to meet my older brother, Grover, he practically raised me. He's the best searcher in the world and he's helped saved the camp tones of times, he'll be the one who finds Pan!" he announced proudly. Grover blushed. "I'm not so great, but thanks, I can't believe we got back to camp the same day! But…"
"What?"
"I might not be able to stay long… I can feel some sort of calling out there, like I'm needed…" His voice trailed of, but then seeing Orlando's face fall he brightened "Well, its better then nothing, I haven't seen you in at least a year, not counting pictures in emails, so let's make the best of what we have, eh? I have to go to the big house to see Chiron, walk with me?"
Orlando brightened "Sure! But…" he glanced at the others.
"go on" said Ingrid "I'm sure I won't die in the next half in hour, and you two seem to have a lot to catch up on."
Orlando grinned thankfully at her and started to walk of with Grover.
"Wow, their real tight aren't they…" said Ingrid after a while.
"Ya, I can't believe I didn't recognize him before. I don't really talk to him much but he's got a bit of a rep here, and his best friend is extremely powerful, nice guy though." Travis replied.
"Ah" There was a short silence. Ingrid was debating on whether or not to ask what was nagging on her mind. "Umm… guys?"
"Ya?"
"Who were those girls…? The ones in sliver?"
"So this is what's been bugging you!" Said Travis.
"What?"
"Come on Ingrid, ever since the lake you've been distant!" Connor said, laughing.
Ingrid smiled absently, she had been distant, the girls had triggered something in her mind but it wasn't just that. It felt weird seeing Orlando's brother. It just reminded her that, even though they had been best friend for the last three years, there was still so much about him she knew nothing about; there was still so much about her she knew nothing about.
"So… who are they?"
"The girls? Their huntresses of Artemis."
"Tell me about them!"
Connor sat down on the grass, Ingrid and Travis followed the suit. "Well, you know who Artemis is, right?"
"Duh!" All the times they had studied mythology at school, the only gods she took any interest to was Artemis and Athena, the chaste goddesses. She knew basically every thing about them, and she knew about the huntresses in the legends, but, it couldn't be exactly the same after so many years!
"Well, their chaste, they hate boys, and once they join Artemis their given eternal youth… I don't know too much about them, but I'm pretty sure they go around the country getting rid of monsters, saving random people, trying to recruit girls and stuff. their sort of cold and stiff, but that's probably cause' we're boys" Travis's eyes twinkled "you could probably join them you know"
"What?"
Connor rolled his eyes "you're so obvious; don't even pretend that's not what you've been dreaming about all day."
As if on cue, the huntresses emerged from the cabin. "Here's your chance now Ingrid!" Connor winked
"See ya 'round sis" said Travis, getting up
"What?! Where are you going?" but they were gone. Ingrid took a deep breath
Come on you wimp, it's now or never…
She walked up to them and said brightly"Hey, you're the huntresses of Artemis right? The ones who were in the car that trashed the lake?"
They laughed except for one girl in a circlet, she just smiled faintly. One of them, a girl about her age with curly red hair and green eyes spoke to her "Yep, that's us! I'm Alisara; you must be a half blood! Who's your parent?"
"I'm Ingrid, today's my first day at camp half blood, I just got here like an hour ago, so I don't really know who my mom is."
"Cool, were going down to the archery range" she threw a questioning look to the girl with the circlet, who seemed to be the leader; she nodded "You want to come with?"
Ingrid grinned "I'd love to! But I've never used a bow and arrow before…"
"No problem, I'll teach you!" They all seemed pretty friendly despite Travis's warning of them being "cold" and "stiff", except maybe circlet girl. They started walking towards the archery range.
"So" said Alisara "if you're going to hang with us you should know, this is Lyra" she pointed to a girl with long blond hair grey blue eyes, who smiled at her "and this is Eva" she poked a petite girl with wavy brown hair and bluish green eyes, she grinned.
"So, what do hunters do exactly? Do you just run around the country fighting monsters and recruiting half bloods?"
"Not just half bloods" said Eva, brightly "Lady Artemis doesn't discriminate by birth, we have half bloods, Nymphs, Mortals, whoever wants to join can join. I'm a Naiad, I use to have my own little creak, but then it got so polluted and some people dammed it up. Eventually it sort of… died I guess, they blocked me off from the river I come off of and it dried up." She was starting to get a little teary.
"I'm sorry" said Ingrid awkwardly
"It's fine…" Eva angrily wiped her eyes "It was a long time ago, but I'm fairly new to the party actually, only about fifty years. Stupid hippies act all 'save the whales' but I know, first hand, they're all evil polluting jerks" there was a bit of an awkward silence until Eva burst out laughing "I'm joking you guys! I'm over it and I have a way more exciting life now, besides the hippies were pretty nice, they had a protest on my bank before the creek dried up, it was the government, as always, it doesn't matter, I'm one of like a gazillion, and I ended up better then a lot."
"So what's you guy's story? More evil, polluting, humans?"
Lyra laughed "Nope! I was a Nephelae"
"A whatelae?"
"A cloud Nymph, but I got bored. I was sick of watching other people have fun, having adventures, making a difference instead of just sitting daintily on top of my misty domain being bored. One night I was randomly shooting at some stars, none of them hit the stars of course, they were to far away, but there's nothing else to do. Back to the point I was shooting randomly, when I saw a shooting star, and I thought it would be a funner target then stationary. But it was closer then I thought, and I hit it. The thing was, it turned out it wasn't a shooting star, it was Artemis's chariot."
"… Ouch"
"Ya, so I was, like pleading for mercy, but she just said she that she was impressed with my archery skills and made me an offer, and well here I am!"
"What about you" Ingrid asked turning to Alisara.
She shrugged "I am--was a mortal with the sight, some of us are just like that, we can see through the mist, better then half bloods and nymphs too. Any way it sort of captured the Lady's attention and she asked me to join, after explaining every thing of course."
The crowd of girls stopped walking.
"We're here!" said Eva "RUN"
They ran, following Eva, until she jerked to a sudden halt in an empty archery aisle.
"What happened? What's wrong? Why are we stopping? Why is no one else running?" a flood of panicked questions escaped Ingrid.
Eva laughed "Well I wanted to get an aisle before everyone else got one!"
Alisara rolled her eyes and Lyra punched her Eva's arm, But Ingrid burst out laughing
"So are you guys going to keep you're promise and teach me?"
"Have your feet parallel to each other, toes facing left me" Said Alisara, she studied Ingrid's feet "No, legs closer together… good, now stand normally." Ingrid followed her directions
"Ok now go back into that position, I want to see if you'll do it right this time… good but make sure you're not putting your weight on your back leg, have it evenly spread out, try again." she corrected
Jeeze, she's a pretty tough teacher! Ingrid thought as she went back into normal standing then into the archery stance, making sure her weight was evenly spread out.
"Perfect, you got it really quickly! What you just learnt was the 'square stance' there are other ones, but I like this one best. I'll go get her a bow, someone else take over now."
"Now stand up strait" said Eva, her voice had gone from mischievous to strict and commanding, but her eyes still sparkled jokingly.
"Balance your shoulders so they are the same height… good but relax you're neck"
At this point, Alisara ran back with a bow in her hand, and held it up to Ingrid's body, "Oh my gods, it's the perfect size!" she exclaimed.
"My turn!" said Lyra "I'll help you find your grip." she offered, but it wasn't a question. "Put the arm closest to the target, which should be your dominate arm, strait out, without moving your shoulders… good, now here" she said, handing her the bow. "Grip the leather bit, make sure your grip is gentle but firm, don't squeeze or twist it. The pressure should be on the palm...that's it. Now take your other and grip the string with your middle, index and ring finger holding the arrow right at the end between your index and middle finger. Good! Wow that normally takes a while to get!" she shrugged "Maybe I'm just an awesome teacher!" she said grinning.
"Or maybe the girl has a natural talent." said a stiff voice behind her, Ingrid was about to spin around to look, but again, the voice came "Don't change thy posture" The owner of the voice walked in front of her, it was circlet girl. Alisara, Eva, and Lyra jumped to attention and saluted her "Lieutenant Zoë! This is a …surprise"
"Yes. Now—"she turned to Ingrid "—Pull your string arm back slowly in so thy hand is right under thy jaw" Ingrid followed her directions carefully, she hadn't been nervous before but now she felt a great desire to impress the lieutenant. She was obviously an important person and she had taken interest in her…her!
"Have thy elbow pulled up a little… Now look at the target, focus, take a deep breath and… release!"
There was a sharp Twok! and the arrow flew towards the target, embedding itself in the orange area, right next to the bull's-eye. No one spoke.
"Did I do something wrong?" Ingrid asked, hesitantly.
"Quite the opposite. I am I correct to say that thou has never shot a bow and arrow before?"
"…yes"
"It is very unusual for a beginner to get so close to a bull's-eye, or even hit the target."
"Maybe it was a fluke?" Ingrid suggested
"Try again. Without anyone correcting thy mistakes"
Ingrid tried again, this time it landed on the bull's-eye.
Zoë's eyes gleamed "That is very… interesting, when we are reunited with our goddess, I will have to bring you up." she walked back to her aisle.
"Wow you seriously are good" said Eva in awe.
"You mean for a beginner" Ingrid replied
"No, we mean for any one!" Lyra exclaimed
"And, what's more Zoë was impressed, and that doesn't happen often." said Alisara.
"Oook, lets get back to practicing, Eva, you want to be next?" said Ingrid, but every one could see she was glowing with happiness, they could also see she was a bit embarrassed, so they practiced.
About an hour later a loud horn sounded, and the huntresses started to pack up their stuff.
"Um… what was that?" asked Ingrid
Eva looked surprised then laughed "Sorry, I keep forgetting I actually know more about the camp then you, even though I've only been here once before. It's the dinner bell, C'mon, let's go"
OOOOOOOK… that was a long chapter (for me) I did about 1000 more words then I normally do. I need to apologize to meiscool2 I got the name rong and called her meisawsome… sryyyyyyyyy. next time she will be claimed … I think. it doesn't matter cuz u all no who her mom is. anyways in a couple chapters the story will start to kick of properly and stuff. Im gonna change the rating to T so I can swear a little. I'm not big on swearing (I don't do it) but a book is different, it just needs a little to bring up the characters. o and all the archery stuff is from a website, but I dunno how good that web is so… ya