Hey yo! You guys, I'm back! Isn't that great? I know, I'm so famous. Anyway, I'm thanking TheAvidReader for the millionth time in a row! Thanks for being faithful to me. Well, here you go!

The light shone through my shut eyelids as I woke up. I know, as a child of Apollo I should like the morning, but really, I'm just thinking why anyone would like such an early time that is known as morning. I tried to sit up, but something was restraining me. I realized that I was bound by ropes and started to panic. Where was Gausses? Or was it Gauzes? Oh right, it was Gavisus. So was he the one to tie us down? I glanced around the room and realized we were still in Gavisus' place. I reckon he was working for Gaea, but then why didn't he send us to Gaea yet? I looked out the window and saw that it was nighttime, though I could have sworn there was sunlight before. So he was planning to take us to Gaea but hasn't done it yet. Now I need to get out of here. I looked beside me and saw Percy drooling.

"Percy, wake up!" I whispered.

He just shifted and mumbled something about blue waffles.

"Perseus Jackson you wake up right now!" I hissed.

He still kept on dreaming. I went to my last resort.

"Blue pancakes, get your blue pancakes!" I said as loud as I dared.

Percy bolted up, or would have if he wasn't tied down.

"Pancakes?" He asked like an idiot.

I rolled my eyes.

"Can't you see we're a bit stuck? This isn't the time to be daydreaming about pancakes," I scolded.

He blushed and nodded. I scanned my surroundings. As far as I could tell, there wasn't anything remotely sharp in this room. Gavisus is smart, I'll give him that. I reached for my dagger but all I felt was an empty pocket. I saw Percy checking his pockets for his sword. Luckily we both had long enough arms to reach our pockets.

"He took Riptide! I swear, when I get my hands on him…"

He cursed with a very colorful vocabulary in Ancient Greek.

"Who took Riptide? Is that even possible? It always returns to your pocket, right?"

My heart jumped and I turned my head to see Clara. Percy just continued the conversation.

"I don't know… Wait, he cut out my pockets!" Percy exclaimed.

Gavisus is more intelligent than I thought, which is bad.

"Clara! Got any sharp things?" I asked.

She looked around and glanced at her pockets.

"Nope. There's not even water around here! Can you imagine…"

Uh oh. No way to get out of this one. I could try to use my powers… I scrunched up my face and imagined a bright light cutting the ropes. Nothing. Oh gods, what do we do?

"Wait, I got it!" Percy yelled triumphantly.

I was getting excited until I saw him gnawing the ropes.

"Um… got any other plans?" Clara asked uneasily.

He glared at us before continuing gnawing the ropes. I silently cursed in my head for the fifth time that day. Why can't my life ever be easy? Then I heard muffled footsteps.

"Clara, sing!" I hissed.

She looked startled until she heard the footsteps too. She launched into a song and I heard two dull thuds. At least she bought us some time.

"Come on, there's got to be a way out!" I muttered.

I was just about to despair when-

"I got it! Ha! Told you it would work!"

We looked at Percy as he held up his bitten ropes.

"Eww, Percy put that away!" I exclaimed, disgusted.

He put on an expression of mock hurt.

"Don't you want to get out?"

We grudgingly agreed as he bit on our ropes. Clara had to sing a few more times but all was well.

I rubbed my wrists as I said, "Come on guys, we gotta go!"

We opened the window and was about to jump through when I heard,

"Ah, there you are."

It's not every day that you find yourself face to face with a goddess. Then again, how many things have we done that we didn't experience every day? I turned around to see a 12 year old girl dressed in silver. She had a bow strapped to her back and her face showed maturity beyond her years. She looked like a normal demigod but her aura was what made me realize that we were talking to a goddess.

"Lady Artemis, what brings you here?" Asked Clara.

She glanced at her approvingly.

"I could always use another Hunter. Perhaps you and Halley would like to join?"

"Um… What's a hunter?" I asked.

She explained, "A Hunter is a girl who has sworn off men. Any type of girl, like a demigod or a mortal. You would be immortal, but you can die in battle. A Hunter of Artemis will help me hunt for evil creatures. Would you like to become a Hunter?"

Hm.. That does seem like a pretty good deal. But to swear off men… Do I really want to give up love?

"Sorry, but no…" I began, but Clara cut me off.

"That isn't the reason you came here, is it Lady Artemis?" She asked politely.

Artemis shook her head.

"No, I need a job to be done."

Percy groaned and I shot him a glare. You can't refuse an offer from a goddess! Especially one that seems to hate men. I was surprised when I saw a smile appear on Artemis' face, but it quickly disappeared.

"You will get a prize, demigods. Something to help you on your quest. You have been wandering aimlessly for quite some time now. I have a map to lead you to your destination."

Well, that seemed like a fair deal. Although what could we do for a goddess?

"Lady Artemis, what is it we exactly have to do?" I asked.

"You must chase a monster that had been bothering me for a long time now. It is one of Gaea's creations. I am unfortunately not allowed to interfere, so you must kill it."

Whoa, kill a monster that has been bothering a goddess? How the Hades are we gonna do that?

Percy looked confused (as usual) and asked, "What type of monster can bother a goddess?"

Artemis' eye twitched and for a moment I was afraid she was going to blast Percy into pieces.

"It is a monster Gaea has created," she explained, "and it has power that we have yet to learn. Zeus has ordered me to hunt it down 2 months ago, yet I have lost half my hunters chasing it. We call it Το κακό Νύχτα.'

"Evil Night," I breathed.

So we were going against a monster that's called Evil Night by the gods. How could this get any worse?

"It prowls at night, and looks like a hellhound, except it's eyes are pure white. He lives in the Temple of Nyx, the primordial of the night. But beware, her temple is heavily guarded by legendary night monsters," Artemis said gravely.

Okay, it just got a whole lot worse.

"You will go east. Take this silver arrow; it will point to the direction of the Temple. I bid you farewell, and good luck."

She disappeared in a flash of light, and I turned away just in time before I disintegrated into ashes.

"Weelll, on that happy note let's get going!" Percy said sarcastically.

I took the silver arrow and it pointed to what I think was east. It's time to start our quest.

We had been trekking through a dense forest for hours, seeing nothing but trees and mud for so long I was going insane. The sunlight filtered through the canopy, but I could barely see in front of me.

"Is it just me, or are we walking in circles?" Percy asked.

We were sitting on an old moly log, overgrown with fungus, and it wasn't very comfortable but it was the only sitting place we could find (except for the floor).

"Uh, is this arrow leading us anywhere?!" Clara exclaimed.

The silver arrow kept pointing towards one direction, into a large oak tree. We tried cutting it down, walking through it (which hurt), and walking around it lots of times. Nothing worked, unfortunately.

"There must be some kind of trigger, or a button," I reasoned.

I furrowed my eyebrows and walked slowly around the tree, tracing my palm against the bark of the oak tree. I felt the coarse bark touch my hand gently, until suddenly my hand went through a soft spot.

"Whoa!" I cried as I fell through the tree.

The darkness engulfed me as I crashed through the bark, the cries I heard from Clara and Percy fading as I fell. I braced myself for the impact that didn't come.

"It's like Alice in Wonderland," I thought aloud.

I fell for what seemed like an eternity. On the way down, I saw some weird things fall with me. The arrow was clutched tightly in my hand, gleaming and casting some light around the pit. I saw a couple of plants fall, along with a pot and a clay vase. I didn't figure out what that meant. I thought back to the beginning of my day, when Gavisus strapped us down to our beds. I doubted his real name was Gavisus. I remember faintly that he said a word before I fell asleep. Ergo. That's it! He's Procrustes (Is that how you spell it?), the guy who tried to kill Theseus by being way too nice. Kindness can overlap into insanity sometimes. This fall helped clear my thoughts a bit, but now I was worrying about hitting the bottom. How many people could survive a fall this big? I couldn't, that's for sure. I really hoped this was like Alice's rabbit hole; I would at least come out alive. I saw the ground drawing closer and shielded my head. I hoped with all my heart I could make it out alive. At least Clara and Percy are still up there. Wait; what if they came after me? As if to answer my worst fears, someone- or something- grabbed onto me.

"Hey, it's us, Percy and Clara!" Clara exclaimed.

I felt elated and worried at the same time. On one hand, I was touched that they would go at such lengths to save me. On the other hand, their heroic and bold actions would probably get us all killed.

"Guys, you shouldn't be here! This is a really long drop, you're going to die!" I yelled over the howling winds.

I turned to face them, my face set. Unfortunately, they were just as stubborn. It's a demigod habit, I suppose, to never give up even to your friends.

"It was foretold in the prophecy that you had to defeat Gaea," Percy said, "If you died we would rather die with you than die at the hands of Gaea."

I was contemplating on whether I should go under them to spare them the impact; but when I looked down, I realized there was barely enough time to yell at them to watch out. Time slowed down as I stared at our doom; we were going closer to it every second. Thoughts whirled in my head, and there were voices screaming. I think that was us, but I wasn't sure.

"Hold on to something!" Someone screamed.

I faintly remembered someone linking arms with me, as we pummeled through the darkness. My hands clawed at the wall trying to make a dent, but nothing worked; we were heading at supersonic speed towards the ground, then-

CHRASH!