Thalia:

The first hunt and the quarry

Hi, my name is Thalia and I am a demigod daughter of Zeus the ruler of Olympus and the current Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis. Today, my quarry is an interesting case because like Chiron, Poseidon, and Hades, he's my uncle through the Titan Kronos. But he is barely any older than I am (I'm sixteen and he's been somehow revealed to be seventeen going on eighteen) and perhaps a bit more rash. Thanks to my cousin Nico (son of Hades), I was able to track him and find out his age and physical characteristics but it was thanks to Chiron that I knew his godly connection.

We have been on his trail since Chiron first heard about the demigod son of Kronos two weeks ago but we didn't find anything. Then my cousin (by Poseidon) Percy told us of a dream he had where he saw a man in golden armor with the same golden flash in his eyes as Kronos. We knew we had our objective when Nico confirmed it by using his powers to seek out the demigod from below the ground. We tracked him down to a part of a mountain range we had never seen before: the La Sal Mountains near Moab, Utah.

The mountain we tracked him to was called Haystack according to the locals and seemed more like a pile of rocks than a mountain. As for its height, well, let's just say I was not eager to try and scale this mountain. Do not walk in a straight line up the mountain, zigzag it until you're at the actual top rather than the false top you'll see a voice whispered to me. For some reason, I usually took this voice's advice even though it usually defied my good sense but this time it didn't.

Tell you the truth, this is where I think I should have gone to the Rockies more often. Scaling this mountain was not only difficult but frightening as well since I was comparatively uncoordinated and everyone around me was moderately skilled if not way better than me. By the time I reached the false top, I knew I wanted to turn back but at the same time I knew I had to keep going. According to one of my subordinates, I could get a good view of my target by following his aura from the summit of Mount Haystack if I made it.

The truth was that that subordinate named Katherine was right about that. I did get a good view and even located the son of Kronos in an area at town level called Ken's Lake. Using the powers of my father and bringing my hunters with me, I flew down to the lake and ordered my hunters to divide into groups and search for our target. Since there were twenty-six of us, I ordered my group to divide into two groups of thirteen and encircle the demigod from all angles.

I made sure that my Hunters had all of their bows ready to shoot just in case but had a good talk with the more impulsive ones before I led them to action. We arrived at a camping spot where the aura was strongest and closed in on our man in golden armor. Let me tell you, I wasn't feeling love at first sight when I saw this man but I came under severe temptation to order my hunters to stand down. All of that for the sake of knowing the name of the man who stirred these feelings within me.

But I had to mentally slap those out since I was a Hunter of Artemis and I could not be allowed to fall in love with another man. Least of all, my own prey too and that would have been dangerous. But Phoebe, my second, was the first to make a move and asked if the man was the son of Kronos that we were looking for. "About time you losers found me, I was beginning to wonder if I would be having Artemis on my toes too," the man bluntly replied.

"Phoebe, back down; I am Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus and Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis. You knew we were coming and that we were on the search for you?" I asked, inquisitive to know my target a bit better. "Well I'm Gabriel A. Johnson, son of Kronos and servant of who I call the 'Special Five'. By the way I did know you were coming and I knew you had been searching for me almost from the moment you started," he said, something that surprised me.

"First, who are the 'Special Five' and secondly, how were you informed of our coming?" I inquired. As a hunter of Artemis it was my job to know my quarry as best as possible and being a daughter of Zeus, there was no way this man would lie to me. Unless he could very easily have done so and chose not to or chose to lie and was hiding all the signs of deception very well. "That I cannot tell you with twenty bows armed and ready to shoot their arrows at me, back down and maybe I will reveal who they are," Gabriel answered.

Phoebe said nothing but released her arrow, hitting the shoulder plate of Gabriel's golden armor. To my surprise and the regret of Phoebe, the arrow literally bounced off the demigod's armor! "Do that again Hunter of Artemis and everyone here, including you and your lieutenant, shall suffer my personal wrath," Gabriel hissed. In spite of my attempts to stop my Hunters from doing so, one of them fired another arrow that hit the upper thigh piece of his armor.

Quicker than the fastest striking snake, Gabriel drew out two Grecian short swords and immediately cut down ten of the Hunters who happened to be behind him. As for the rest of us, we charged all at once and even I knew we were all committed to bringing down this demigod if it was the last thing we did. Eventually we worked him into a tight spot but then he surprised us with something I had never seen before. With at least half the speed of light, he twirled the blades all over his body at all different directions and hacked three of my Hunters down before we could do anything.

Then I summoned a lightning bolt from the heavens to destroy this demigod immediately. However, the bolt was only good for putting a hole in the ground when I saw the son of Kronos dodge the lightning bolt quicker than it could have hit him. He flew so far and turned around gracefully to place his feet on the trunk of a tree. Then just as gracefully and quickly, he bounced off the tree and created a gust of wind so strong that eight more of my Hunters were swept to different directions.

Dust higher than seven or nine feet blocked our view temporarily but when it distorted, I saw him bring down another Hunter. That left only four out of the original twenty-six that had come to fight him remaining. Not only that, but it had also been done in barely four minutes although it felt longer to me and everyone else. Apparently, this demigod did not have his father's ability to control time but that had me wonder what his powers were like.

For a moment, Gabriel sheathed his swords and grabbed two of my Hunters. Then he bashed their heads together and threw them aside, leaving just me and Phoebe. He unsheathed his swords as quickly as he had unsheathed them and sheathed them the first time before we were even in striking distance. He deflected most of our attacks but caught us off guard again when he twirled his blades across his body with at least half the speed of light.

Just as quickly, I was kicked into the abdomen and sent flying several yards across the campgrounds of the Lake until I was wedged into the dumpster. Literally, the momentum of my flight would have killed any ordinary mortal but just cause serious injury to me when I hit the dumpster hard enough to almost bend it in half. By the time I had pulled myself out from the squeeze, Gabriel had already dealt with Phoebe and avenged the offense she had committed to him. If he wasn't satisfied I wouldn't know what would considering that Phoebe had been thrown right into the wall of a campground bathroom and that was partly cement.

Gabriel turned his attention back to me knowing that I would squeeze myself out of that bent dumpster. His swords immediately turned in my direction and boy was it hard deflecting and dodging all of his strokes. He moved with the speed of a god and the ferocity of a Minotaur; his skills as a warrior catching totally off guard. When we finally crossed blades and held them in position for longer than a few seconds, we had a conversation I'll never forget.

"What do you want, to destroy Olympus or my father?" I asked. "No, I don't want Olympus and I most definitely do not want to challenge your father's rule. For goodness sake, I'm a servant of four Olympian goddesses and one god," he answered. That stopped me in my tracks and made me wonder if this was his 'Special Five' that had been speaking of earlier.

"If you don't want Olympus then what do you want?" I asked, hoping I'd get some answers. "You're attacking a servant of Olympus why should that be any concern to you?" he replied. Now I had to admit that he was right about what his reply to my question. And that made me wonder even more things than I had already begun to wonder about.

First off, who were the 'Special Five' that he served? Second, how did he come to the service of the Olympians? Third, what did he want if it was not to destroy Olympus or rule the world? Last, why was I fighting him if he wasn't even my enemy in the first place?

As I was thinking about all these things, I was suddenly pushed to the ground by a lunge on his end. My sword flew right out of my hand and landed in the soil between two boulders of equal size. "Don't make me go around and finish off all of your comrades Thalia, I'm in no mood for taking the lives of any demigods today," Gabriel said. "You mean you've killed demigods before?" I asked.

"Not many and mainly out of self-defense whenever I've been attacked. I was most particularly in need of killing demigods when I was escaping Mount Orthys," Gabriel answered. "You had to escape from Mount Orthys, why?" I asked. "When I was on a diplomatic mission for the Special Five, Kronos captured me.

"Since Kronos was my father, I felt his dark aura scatter when Luke Castellan killed himself to destroy the Titan. I knew it was only a matter of time before Mount Orthys fell so I made my escape while I could," Gabriel explained. "Well if you had to escape the Titans and you're not an enemy of Olympus, then what purpose to you have?" I asked him.

"If you really must know I seek revenge against a particular Titan for the destruction of my mortal family. Every single one of my family members had been killed by this Titan; now I only live to see my father's kind suffer unless they are under the protection of Olympus," Gabriel explained. "Let me get my sword so I can put it away, please," I requested. Although I was a daughter of Zeus and seldom afraid of anything, the way he looked at me sent a slight chill down my spine.

Not because he looked at me with the intent to kill me but because his eyes confirmed everything he had said to me. That and the fact that a warm feeling toward him was stirring in me. I was not sure if it was love or sadness for his loss, maybe it might have even been pity for him. At any rate, something brewed in me that I had not even felt with Luke before he betrayed Camp Half-Blood and before I was transformed into a pine tree.

I slowly grabbed my sword and moved it to my scabbard to assure him that I was not up to anything bad. Then I did something that I would never be sure of and I don't even know why I did it. I fell to my knees and offered myself to him as his servant for everything he would need me for. "I don't need a slave, I'm already a servant myself to the gods of Olympus," he replied.

At first, I meant to protest but he stopped me by saying that my Hunters were all alive. As proof, many of them began stirring from where they had lied unconscious just a few minutes ago. They were all in pain as a result of their injuries, some couldn't even get up without aid. My eyes had to be deceiving me at this point; there was no way in all the heavens that my Hunters could have indeed survived the blows they sustained from Gabriel.

"I was using about four percent of my power at very most so imagine what would have happened if I had gone halfway," Gabriel said. Then he asked for name of the Hunter who struck him first. "She's the last one you defeated before you fought me and her name is Phoebe," I answered. He looked at the wall of the bathroom he had sent her into and saw not only a huge hole in the wall but that she had also landed near perfectly on the toilet in a sitting position.

If Gabriel was not surprised at the damage, he was certainly surprised when he saw her sitting almost perfectly on the toilet. "My god, that's almost like something out of a cartoon," he said. I just had to release a giggle since I knew exactly what he was talking about. Besides, who couldn't look Phoebe without practically having a heart attack from laughter?

I was the only one who even gave that positive reaction since everyone else was too injured to notice anything besides their pain. "Will you come with us quietly to Camp Half-Blood? I'll make up what I've done to you and that's something you can count on," I begged. There was no way I was going to leave this campground without having at least obtained the demigod.

"If I go there, I go my own way because at the moment I am delivering something important to one of the members of the Special Five. I just hope no one got to the bag I had during the fight and gotten to the contents of it," Gabriel answered. He looked relieved when he found the sack, which was reddish-brown and had a long shoulder strap. But before he could go, he and I both sensed a tremble in the ground but only I knew what that meant.

I knew what that meant but he didn't so he mistook it for me trying to kill him. I had never been so frightened in my life and hoped that my death was merciful.