There's this really big idea that flying on the back of a Pegasus is supposed to be like really invigorating and exciting. Like, riding a horse except in the air and at light speeds. What a disappointment it was. After we took off, it took a little bit of getting used to. There were a couple of fairly harrowing near-death moments, but I survived. Epona and I grew closer and bonded out of it.

"I don't think I've ever seen a Pegasus look angry." Walker said, looking over at Epona. Jillian flew up next to me on the other side.

"Yeah…I have to agree. I'm not sure how expressive a horse's face can be, but I'm getting an angry vibe from this one." She said with a nod. I looked at the two of them and then shook my head.

"This isn't going to work, guys. Epona and I have a truly deep bond." I say with a nod. "The kind only formed between a steed and his rider."

I could have guessed it wasn't true. Epona freaking hated me. Though, our first meeting was pretty awful, so it made sense. I wasn't sure why the pegasi had such a dislike for me, but I was sure that it was something that I was going to figure out. Maybe they didn't like my cologne or something. We rode for what seemed like a long time. I found out later that it really wasn't a long time, comparatively, but I think my mind had this warp speed idea of Pegasi and when that turned out to be a bust, I was ready to be done flying. It had only been a couple hours when we decided to land.

Walker was the kind of person who was paranoid of being spotted by mortals with our flying horses, so we ended up setting down in the middle of Armpit, West Virginia or something. The mountains had been rough a little rough on the Pegasi and so we set down in the woods, hoping to rest for a little while.

"We're going to be getting into Mammoth Cave within the next two hours probably, so we'll need to rest up and be ready for whatever could happen." Jillian said, taking a toothpick out of her pocket and tapping it on her palm a couple times to produce a spear that she jabbed into the ground.

"And being the greenest, you're going to get us some food." Walker said, clapping me on the back as I stepped away from Epona, rubbing my sore back.

"Me? Get food? Am I supposed to fly to the nearest Wendy's or something?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"No, no. This is actually not a bad idea." Jillian said, walking up next to me. "It'll give you practice with your slingshot and we brought some extra swords just in case." She finished, elbowing me hard in the side.

"Oh, ha. Ha ha. Hilarious. I didn't know that Children of Ares were known for their quick wit and hilarity." I said, grabbing my slingshot out of my pocket. "Well, I'm going to go slaughter some innocent squirrels and hope that I don't get attacked by a bear or a mountain lion."

"Okay. We'll see you." Jillian said with a wave.

"Hurry back. I'm starving." Walker said with a thumbs up in my direction. I'd like to say that I stuck my thumb up back at him, but sadly it was a different finger. He just laughed and I just walked into the woods.

There was something interesting about the woods. It was tranquil and calm. It was quiet, but somewhat active at the same time, like a thousand things all happening at once, but on such a small scale that it was barely any noise at all. He had heard stories about this Hunter guy and how he felt at home in the woods and could spend days in the woods by camp, never getting lost and always feeling at peace.

I don't know what the hell that guy's problem was, but it sucked out there. It was hard to breathe and everything smelled like deer urine and dead animal. Whoever came up with the idea of clean mountain air was either a liar or wrong.

I had been out there for 20 minutes when I saw my first animal. It was a squirrel. A big squirrel that was an easy target for my slingshot. So I killed and picked it up before continuing on down the hill.

"That was a good shot." I heard it coming from somewhere nearby. It wasn't loud and it wasn't a voice that I recognized, but it was definitely there. I looked around. I know that disembodied voices were sure to be part of the whole demigod business, but it was still something I was getting used to.

"Thanks…All the Legend of Zelda really paid off…" I said quietly.

"Legend of Zelda? Never heard of her." The voice said. It sounded closer, but it sounded like it was all around me. From the trees. From the ground. I looked around again, looking up in the trees. I heard some rustling and frantically fired a shot from my slingshot into a nearby bush. I heard a small squeak and when I walked over, all I saw was a dead rabbit. I felt a sense of relief. I wasn't sure why, because there's no way that this rabbit was talking to me, but I was kind of just glad it wasn't a coyote or a bear or a dragon. "Now, that was just luck."

I whipped around, pretty freaked out at this point. I didn't see a person, but I saw a leaf. Not a person in a leaf suit and not a giant leaf. It was just a leaf. Which wasn't strange except for the fact that it was floating about a foot and a half away from my face. More leaves started to gather with it and then in a flash there was a person standing in front of me. She was a younger woman, her features comforting and her eyes looking adventurous. She was shorter than me, but not by a lot. Honestly, if she hadn't appeared out of nowhere and not been dressed in a toga with sandals then I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it.

"You're a goddess." I said, finally catching on. She smiled and nodded proudly. "You must be like…Artemis?" Her smile fell and she let out a long sigh.

"Nope. Hundreds of years and I'm STILL NOT ARTEMIS!" She shouted. The woods seemed to rustle with her voice. "Just because a girl likes to hunt doesn't make her Artemis." She said before turning away from me. "I spend a few centuries in the underworld…" She mumbled before taking a deep breath. "I expected better from you." She said as she turned around to me again. I raised an eyebrow, curious as to why I, the guy who had been officially declared a demigod for less than a month, was supposed to know who this random goddess was. "Since you seem to remain clueless, I will tell you. I am Britomartis."

"I'm Peter."

"I know."

"Right. You're a goddess." I said, rolling my eyes. "Well, it was great meeting you. I need to go get this—"

"You're done? A rabbit and a squirrel and you're done?" She asked. "I had figured you for a Cretan, but—"

"Hey, that's not deserved."

"No, Cretan. A person from Crete." She said, taking a step away from me. "I was a goddess there. I was adored. Then my damn father and those other Olympians came into power. Then Artemis came to Crete and everyone just LOVED her. Forgot all about me." She said, her eyes darkening. "Then Minos…" She sighed. I raised an eyebrow as she seemed to recompose herself. I wasn't surprised that people didn't like the gods, but I didn't anticipate another god to say that. This whole meeting seemed a little strange, but to me everything about this seemed a little strange. "I guess, you would know about not being a fan of the gods, huh?" She said, nudging my arm. I nodded, rubbing my chest a little bit, thinking about being struck by lightning again.

"I'm not sure the gods like me much either." I said with nervous chuckle. "I guess, I should get going. I've got to go prepare these and—"

"Oh, please allow me. It's the least I can do for you." She snapped her fingers and the two animals changed into two pouches, of their pelts, filled with the perfectly butchered meat. I looked up at her in surprise.

"Thanks! That's really nice of you." I said with a laugh. "Would you like to join us? We're camped not that far from here." She shook her head before I was even finished.

"No, that's very kind of you, Peter, but I need to go. I must check on my mother. I haven't seen her for so long." She said with a sigh. I nodded.

"Thank you, Britomartis" I said and she smiled at me before she dissolved to leaves and blew away in the wind.

It was a fairly short walk back to camp. I did get lost a little bit, but once I got close enough, I could hear Walker and Jillian discussing how I must have died. They stopped when they saw me walking in from the trees.

"We were certain a group of squirrels had run off with your remains." Walker said, sitting around the fire they had made. I rolled my eyes and produced the two pouches.

"Killed them myself." I said before tossing them two him. He looked at them and then looked up at me.

"Did you skin them, debone them and butcher them too?"

"What?" Jillian said, looking up in surprise. She walked over and sat next to Walker. I walked over and sat down across from them by the fire. "Wow. Where'd you learn that?"

"Actually, I didn't. Britomartis did." I said with a nod.

"Who? Brita what now?" Walker questioned, looking at me through the fire. Jillian took the meat and started getting ready to be cooked.

"Britomartis. She's a goddess." I said with a shrug. "I'm not sure of what, but I mean…she did this for us. And she was really polite to me. Didn't hit me with lightning or anything which makes her one of the nicest gods I've met so far."

"I'm not familiar with her." Jillian said, sitting back to let the meat cook. "Did she say anything else? I doubt she just popped up butchered the meat and then left."

"She talked about being in the underworld for a long time. Umm…She talked about Crete. She hates Artemis and the Olympians." I shrugged. I assumed that she wasn't the only god that didn't really like the Olympians.

"…Really?" she asked, leaning forward. "This is…This is odd…" Her face became concerned. Not panicked, but just concerned.

"It's not like she attacked me or anything. If she were really going against us then she would have, right?" I shook my head. "Honestly, she seemed more concerned with her mother than she did with me."

"We should tell Chiron." Walker said quietly.

"We'll tell him once we get back." Jillian said with a nod. "We'll need to get going as soon as we eat. If in fact, Britomartis was actually going to get reinforcements then I don't want to be here to meet them." I opened my mouth to defend her again, but then stopped. Jillian was right. Of course she was right.

I'd like to say that we enjoyed the meal, but in reality, it was pretty gross. Not that the rabbit or the squirrel were disgusting to eat or anything, but with nothing to hide the flavor of squirrel that's all we got. It was very in-your-face and not in a good way. In a this-is-awful way. In a next-time-we-go-on-a-quest-we're-going-to-Taco-Bell way. We ate quickly and got back into the sky. There was no sign of Britomartis, but I kept thinking about her.

And before you start, not that kind of thinking about her. What little I knew about my situation and the even less I knew about hers, none of it lead me to believe that this was normal—Well, as normal as being a demigod could be. A god usually doesn't just pop up for house calls. It's not like Zeus is going to pop down and fix someone's wiring or that Hermes is going to deliver a letter. Despite that, I'm not sure how common it is for a person to just bump into a god. I have a strong feeling that Greek gods and coincidences don't really go hand in hand.

Whatever it was that was going on, I was curious what was going to happen next.