I don't own Class of the Titans. It's sad, but it's true.

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The Quiet Jungle

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It was like everything was holding its breath, she decided. If she stopped walking and just listened, there was nothing. No birds, no rustle of wind, just heavy silence. Where were the sounds of nature? She would even take the generic buzz of crickets over the quiet, although she was pretty sure crickets were not a common bug in Mediterranean forests. The soft tread of her own footsteps was her only company.

Her shout of surprise broke the quiet nearly an hour later as she pushed past a particularly thick clump of stumpy trees and stumbled upon a doe that seemed to appear from thin air. It stared at her with headlight eyes before springing away in a graceful leap to disappear with little more than a whisper of leaves into a clump of bushes. She remained there for a few minutes, half to catch her breath and half to try and fathom if the deer had even been there. It took a close examination of the ground to find evidence that the experience was real.

As she continued hiking, the silence became oppressive. Her thoughts began to mimic the nothingness all around her. She stopped wondering where all the animals had gone, or why there were no other people besides her. It was just a matter of wandering past branches and down paths that were little more than spaces between trees where the undergrowth was not quite as tall, all in the hopes that she would find some semblance of civilization, or something that would explain the silent forest and her drifting. Her thoughts cycled backward as she walked, replaying the moment that had brought her here.

Everything had been cast in blue before her eyes without warning. She felt the familiar sensation of being almost outside her body, a hovering, unseen observer touching briefly on the flow of future time before being sucked back to the present again. The future she witnessed was not so far ahead as other visions had shown her. This time, she saw seconds in advance and even as she watched she could sense events taking place around her. She could even see herself, standing frozen and sightless in the throes of her vision, as reality continued on without her.

She saw the body fall in two pieces and barely an instant later heard the distant thud of it hitting the ground. Reflexively, she winced when the light of an unnatural dawn streamed brightly through the windows, flooding the gym with white. But even as she saw herself tumble to the ground in pain and confusion, watched everyone swallowed in the glare, her vision eyes could see through it.

Chronus surveyed the downed heroes with smug satisfaction. She waited for him to summon his scythe and try to do away with them once and for all, but he never did. Instead he summoned a portal and stepped through, saying something without sound over his shoulder as he disappeared. A faint chime answered him and the light began to fade. One by one, Jay, Archie, Neil, everyone vanished, including her, as the gym grew dark. Just as the vision, too, began to fade, one body was returned. She strained to see who it was when everything went black.

Theresa shook her head. She was beginning to think that she'd had the vision just so someone knew what had happened. What had happened, anyway? Chronus hardly seemed his dramatic self, and there had been no fight or struggle, just simple surprise. And they had all disappeared… to where, exactly? The fighter hadn't seen any of the other heroes when she woke up neck deep in silence and greenery. She wasn't sure if that meant they had been whisked off to another part of the same forest or to another place entirely.

She pushed her way through a patch of tall shrubs and stumbled out into a sudden clearing. After being hemmed in by trees the openness made Theresa feel almost exposed, naked, but pressed on. A few minutes of walking through high grass passed by and she felt comfortable again. The fighter even went so far as to venture a tune to drive away the eerie silence. She whistled a breathy rendition of "Pop Goes the Weasel."

Just as she reached the notes that gave the song its title, a flock of slender white birds spooked a few meters in front of her, wheeling wildly through the air with little sound beyond the drum of their wings. Theresa, on the other hand, cut the air with a second shout of surprise, ducking down to avoid the panicking flock. As her voice died, the cry was taken up by a chorus of other voices and the air was suddenly full of moving blurs other than the birds. Arrows whistled overhead.

"Stop shooting!" she yelled, throwing her hands up to cover her head.

If anyone heard her, there was no indication. Theresa hunched down and sprinted for the tree line as feathers rained around her. She tried to ignore the thwip-ing sound of arrows narrowly flashing past her nose or ghosting through her long, trailing hair. The harsh voices, alien sounds after her silent hike, continued to shout savagely around her. The fighter hit the trees running, chanting serpentine, serpentine, in her mind to match her racing heart. Arrows sunk into bark with loud thumps.

As she ran, pushing past clinging leaves and barely keeping her feet high enough to miss twisted roots that seemed to snake from shadows to snatch at her sneakers, Theresa caught glimpses of movement at the edge of her vision. Birds hopped nervously on tree branches, a buck sprang gracefully into a patch of undergrowth, and several shapes distinctly more human kept pace with her no matter how hard she ducked and changed direction through the forest. Everything remained soundless, except the chasing voices.

The fighter pressed on, ignoring her lungs as they started to protest. She broke through the forest into another clearing and almost stopped in surprise and dismay. How would she avoid being hit out in the open? But she had to try and she pushed herself even harder. Flowers flew up behind her as she sprinted, instead of birds. Little clouds of pollen bloomed in her wake.

Her vision clouded with blue just as the first heady suggestion reached her, smelling almost sickly sweet. She saw herself struck on the shoulder with an arrow, stumbling and falling into a cloud of pollen with a shout of pain and surprise. Shapes bristling with spears and what could only be swords surrounded her, crowding out her vision-shape until everything went dark. Theresa snapped back to reality in time to dive, rolling, to the side to avoid being hit. The fighter banked hard toward the dark line of trees to her left.

Theresa slowed as she re-entered the forest, straining to hear some sound of her pursuit. Only the rustle of her own pursuit filled her ears. She stopped completely, panting, and looked around sharply. I'm a hero, she thought. I can't keep running. I have to defend myself. Unconsciously, Theresa dropped into a ready stance familiar to her martial arts-proficient mind. The silence pressed in around her.

With only a faint, dry hiss as warning, an arrow pierced the air, lancing toward her chest. She threw herself sideways, managing to turn what could have been a fatal hit into a smarting, glancing blow. The fighter sucked in a sharp breath of pain, gasping as she wrapped a hand around her upper arm. A warm smear of blood trickled through her fingers. As the small sound of discomfort left her lips, dark shapes immediately swarmed her. A wall of nocked arrows and leering spears barred any thoughts of running.

Theresa suffered a grim flash of realization: the forest was so quiet because any sound meant death. She had given herself away in her careless crashing through bushes and past trees, in shouting as the birds fell like stones around her, and in her small exclamation of pain. She envied the startled doe that had been almost a ghost, in spite of its fear.

Throwing a grimace at the assorted collection of pointy things aimer her way, Theresa took the chance to see who exactly had been hounding her. Amazons she thought instantly, taking in their collective scantily armored appearances. At least, the appearances of the ones in front. As she continued scanning impassive female faces, Theresa found others in dresses and skirts made of cotton instead of leather. Some of them, remarkably, carried no weapons at all. With a wince, she raised her hands in the classic surrendering position.

"I give up," she said.

A murmur ran through the group. A bow in front of the fighter wavered and lowered, slowly. "A woman?" The Amazon seemed confused. She blinked owlishly at Theresa and took a step closer, stumbling over a patch of clear ground. Several of her companions giggled quietly, also dropping their weapons down. "You're a woman?" The Amazon asked. Her voice seemed strangely thick.

The red-head nodded carefully. "My name is Theresa."

The woman nodded in a distracted manner. "I am Nona. We thought you were game." She waved a hand sharply at her followers and all remaining weapons were withdrawn, almost vanishing into the crowd. Nona reached out a hand to touch Theresa's injured shoulder, just above the cut. She seemed to sway on her feet. "You're hurt."

"It looks worse than it is, I think," Theresa said, quick to brush it off. Something told her that blaming the crowd of women for the injury would not end well.

"We'll take care of it." Nona stepped close to inspect the wound with an unfocused intensity. Theresa caught a whiff of something sour, but it was gone again as the apparent leader turned away to wave at the group. "Back to camp. Theresa is my guest." She laughed. "She's not game anymore."

The mass of women fell in around the fighter and normal conversation started up. Theresa was so grateful for the sound of voices, now that they were friendly, that she took the strangeness of her company in stride. A few commented on her long hair and its color while others found her clothes quite interesting. Fingers poked and tugged at her. Whispers flitted back and forth behind her.

"So," she said, interrupting another round of fascinated comments on her appearance. "Are you all Amazons?"

A chorus of laughter was her first answer but was quickly muffled behind hands or in the shoulders of others as they realized she expected a serious answer. "Not really," one girl said. "We're not that serious. But some of us came from them in the beginning, I think." She flashed a wide smile. "We're not into the Artemis thing."

"Artemis thing?"

"You know," her voice dropped into a conspiratorial whisper, "chastity."

Her friends shared another round of giggling. One of them went as far as to hiss, "Leuci," in a tone that suggested some big secret had been revealed, perhaps to shake the very foundations of the universe. Theresa hid a smile of her own.

"I see," was all she said.

Leuci blushed slightly but was determined to continue. "We all have," she giggled, "guys, you know? And they're awful fun to dance with, and stuff." She bent closer to Theresa, grinning. The fighter caught another whiff of the same sour smell she had caught off Nona earlier. "Do you have a guy?" Leuci asked.

Jay's face instantly came to mind but she shook her head. "No. At least, not like yours." For a moment, Theresa wondered if the descendent of Jason would ever become her 'guy.' Probably not while Chronus is around, she thought.

"Oh, well, you'll definitely get one," Leuci reassured her. "Maybe even two."

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Someone asked for one of the girls, and so my plans for Theresa worked perfectly. I admit, though, that this chapter was tough to write. There's just something about her that makes things difficult when she's the focus and alone. As soon as you add other people, no problem. Well, hopefully future Theresa chapters will be smoother, and this one isn't too bad.

Neil is coming, and I'm thinking even next chapter. It's about time some suggestion of what's going on is hinted at, and where better than with the one who seems to have caused it? I'm looking forward to it already.

Thanks once again for the reviews. I'm quite happy that you're enjoying my story. And just in case anyone was wondering, I imagine 'Leuci' being pronounced as 'Lucy.'