Chapter 23: Sarah, Huntress

We were stationed in the shadows, maybe twenty or thirty of us, dressed in glowing silver robes. I sat down next to Artemis and her lieutenant, Thalia.

"Artemis, my lady?" I asked the goddess, cautiously sidestepping a patch of brambles. "Should we help them?"

"Perhaps. Hunting the Dracohydrae is more important right now," she replied with a whisper, staring at the dancing flames, then focusing her gaze into the forest. Suddenly, Artemis's eyes widened, and she uttered a low hiss. "It's her. I told her to never show her face to me again." Signalling for us to follow, she unsheathed her hunting knives and bounded toward the forest.

We had to hack our way through the scissors who were surrounding the forest. Finally the group of huntresses hacked into a small clearing, where two people lay unconscious on the ground. They were only defended by two ravens who were pecking furiously at anyone who advanced.

"We have to save them." Thalia, the Lieutenant, said worriedly, and began rushing toward them.

"Wait." Artemis said, holding her back. "Look. They're boys."

"They're campers." Thalia retorted.

Artemis frowned. "But they're-"

Thalia threw up her hands. "My lady, not to be disrespectful but the Council of the Gods isn't going to be happy with you if you let some cat monster kill them." she said, pointing to the scissors.

Artemis nodded. "You have a point there." Turning around, she signalled for us to begin our attack.

I smiled as my crossbow appeared at my side. I nocked three arrows onto my bow, holding it sideways, and shot three scissors smack in the eyes. I smiled again. This was going to be a very good day.

Ruidi

I awoke to find a girl kneeled by my side, performing a healing spell. I sat up with a jolt, then I recognized the girl. It was the crazy lunatic who was convinced that she was Artemis. Behind her were some more crazies who believed themselves to be the huntresses of Artemis.

I opened my mouth to speak, but got interrupted by Neesik popping up and shouting, "The Huntresses have come!" Huh. I thought. Neesik's convinced that these girls are the huntresses? Suddenly a large, obnoxious honking sound cut through my thoughts. Neesik had pulled a conch horn out of nowhere, blown it, and the entire camp (or at least it seemed to be) had ran over and began reducing scissors to scrap metal.

I shook Caiyi until he woke up and pointed to everyone fighting. "Come on, you're going to miss all of the fun!" He groggily stood up, shaking his head to clear it, and in a split-second he had his sword out and ready.

We lept into action, somewhat recovered, and began slicing scissors to half.

Sarah

In the middle of the fighting, I met Pranu. "Long time no see!" I said, high-fiving her as we took down an annoyingly persistent scissor who refused to die.

"Same!" she nodded, summoning a big wave and short-circuiting a few nearby scissors.

"So, like, what's happening?" I asked Pranu, barely focusing on shooting my next round of arrows toward the scissors because I knew I'd hit them no matter what.

Pranu shrugged, casually skewering a scissor with her trident. "Monsters, new campers, weapons training, normal stuff like that." she replied. "What brings the Huntresses here?"

"Well, you know the dracohydrae?" I asked. She nodded. I continued, "We're hunting them. The ones you saw were probably just mechanical prototypes; they may get a lot stronger." I heard a satisfying thok-thok-thok, followed by a few thumps, as all three of my arrows found its mark. I lowered my voice. "I've heard that the scientists are going to make them flesh-and-blood soon."

Pranu's eyes widened. "Hurray." she said sarcastically. "Flesh and blood dragon-hydra hybrids."

I dodged a slash from a scissor's arm-blade, then shot an arrow into its face. We were winning, I could tell that. What was really important was how much we would lose.