AN: Sorry I didn't update sooner, but the only time I have to type is lunar.

I squinted into the distance, trying to see what was stalking towards me. It looked like a smaller version of a cat I had had when I was little. And it looked angry.

So, I took my usual escape route and fled like the devil (no offense Hades) was coming after me.

Sprinting my heart out, I dashed towards the line of whatever was interrupting the white emptiness.

For a couple of seconds, I was convinced that I had gotten away, positive that no puny feline could keep up with someone as athletic and agile (heh.) as I was.

And then I felt claws dig into my back. Crop.

The lynx (I know it was a lynx because of my extensive study in lynxol- okay fine! I saw a picture of one once) sat on my stomach, AND THEN RUBBED AGAINST MY FACE AND PURRED!

Now, I was always a cat person. Cute little kittens prancing around, causing mischief are, unarguably, the cutest thing in the whole universe. But when a 30 lb. lynx jumps on your stomach, it's a slightly different story.

"Good kitty," I whispered, positive that this was going to end in my dismemberment. "Good kitty want to let me live?"

The lynx purred, and it struck me that this was a very pretty animal. Beautiful gray fur, cute little ears, claws that could easily rip me to shreds...

The lynx (which I shall call "Chester" for some reason unknown even to me) finished our little cuddle session, and he jumped off me, grabbing my hand in his teeth, gently.

When a vicious (yet, oddly cuddly) wild animal tries to lead you in a certain direction, you follow.

Chester started loping gracefully off towards the trees, and I followed.

I quickly fell behind, but I think that's to be expected when I don't have four feet, or even shoes.

Chester kept stopping to wait for me, and then quickly bounding ahead with what seemed like endless energy. Finally, just when I was hoping the cat would just turn around and eat me so I could stop running, he disappeared.

Normally, this would have been my chance to dash away, but my weather protection was wearing off, and I needed to get warm. Fast.

I stumbled around...and tripped head first into a hole that I hadn't seen before.

Looking around, I saw that I was in a pit of lynxes.

Now everything made sense. Chester was probably the leader of the pack, and he didn't want to hog all the food, so he brought it back to share with all the baby lynxes.

My night vision has become rather excellent since I've been hanging out with Artemis, so I could see that I had fallen more than five feet, AKA too high to jump back out. I probably should have been more concerned, but the hole was much, much warmer than the icy tundra above.

I looked in the little cavern, and I saw about 12 lynxes, in various states of shock. A couple of them, the mean-looking ones naturally, started flicking their tails, and the smaller lynxes scurried to the back of the herd (Pride? Plethora? Gaggle?).

Chester, who had not joined the rest of them, tensed and crouched down in front of me, hurting my theory significantly.

The lynxes started arguing, but since they are cats and I am not, it just looked like a bunch of tail twitching and ear flicking.

I knew what was happening was crucial, but when you can't understand what the people (or technically, lynxes) are saying, your mind tends to wander.

If I stay in this hole, how will Artemis find me? Then again, how will Aphrodite find me? What if the lynxes elect me as their leader and I rule them from my underground fortress?

Or, more likely, what if they eat me?

Finally, something seemed to happen. Chester growled, and two of the other lynxes approached, snarling fiercely and backed Chester into a corner.

Then, a much bigger, intelligent looking lynx that I hadn't noticed before approached me. This lynx was at least twice as big as the other lynxes, and it's eyes shone with intelligence.

"Nice lynx?" I said, using the soft voice that I normally use with...ummm...huh. I guess I never use a respectful tone. What do you know?

I swear, the lynx smirked at me, and casually unsheathed it's claws.

"Well that's vaguely threatening. And now I'm talking to an animal. Great." I muttered, rolling my eyes.

Kitten growled, and the fur on it's shoulders rose and bristled.

"You understand me, don't you?" I asked, crouching down so I was eye to eye with the creature.

The lynx (hereby referred to as Kitten because it's heavy in sarcasm and typing lynx over and over again is getting dull) winked and made a noise low in it's throat. Simultaneously, all the lynxi got to their feet and moved towards me.

I read somewhere that you were supposed to act bigger than attacking animals, so I stood and started flapping my arms and growling.

Then, all the lynxi jumped up and out of the cavern, leaving me alone with Chester and

Kitten, who was doing the lynx version of laughing, sat down and started licking his paws.

"So, you can understand me? What about Chester over there?" I asked, nodded at him. Yes, I realize how ridiculous I sound, but if the Greek gods are real, it's possible that animals can talk.

Kitten shook his/her head, still with a weird shining in her/his eyes.

I frowned, aware that this system isn't going to work. "So, any chance you can talk?"

Kitten snorted and rolled it's eyes. It started scratching something into the ground, and I tried to move my arm again. Yep, searing pain still there.

Kitten growled and I looked to see what it had carved.

"Artemis? You met her?" I asked, wondering if my mom was the goddess of hunting, why was Kitten still alive?

Kitten nodded, and things started to make a little more sense.

"You know I'm her daughter?" A nod. "You are aware of her war with Aphrodite?" Another nod. "You are keeping me here until she gets here?" A third nod. "Do you have a way of communicating with her?" Sadly, Kitten shook her head, and I groaned in frustration. "So I am pretty much in the same situation I was before?" Kitten nodded her head again. "Gah! Can you at least get my bow? I left it somewhere out there." I said, gesturing in the general area I had come from. Kitten twitched her/his tail and flicked his/her ears.

Chester immediately jumped up and out of the hole.

"Well, unless you have anything else to tell me, I'll be taking a nap. If you could send me a little baby lynx to cuddle with, I would be very grateful."

Kitten raised one side of it's mouth like a smile and shook it's head, so I laid down and fell asleep.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

I awoke to something sitting on my chest, suffocating me, which is a pretty unpleasant way to wake up, if you ask me, which you didn't, and man, this is a run-on sentence.

I rolled over, and Chester leapt off me.

"Morning Chester." I mumbled, wiping the sleep out of my eyes and getting to my feet.

My bow was lying on the ground next to me, and, without thinking, I reached for it.

Of course, my injury hadn't magically healed, and I couldn't hold onto it. Plus, I involuntarily mewed like a baby kitten.

Chester made a low noise in his throat, and looked at me quizzically (I'm guessing. Cat-emotions are hard to understand.)

"Yeah, my arms kinda jacked up. Hey, is there any food around here?" I hadn't eaten since my snack of pudding and pretzels the day before this one.

Chester meowed, and I remembered he couldn't understand me. Tired, I laid back down and put my arm back over my eyes.

I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, someone was shaking me awake.

"Wake up Emily." the voice said, not sounding urgent enough for me to listen. "I'll electrocute you if you don't, Emily."

"Thalia?" I mumbled, sitting up and yawning. "What're you doing here?"

She had been standing, but she sat down next to me. "Looking for you of course. Lady

Artemis has every hunter combing the world for you. It's lucky I saw your footsteps, or you could have been here much longer. How did you find the clan?"

I was still pretty tired, so I only heard the last part, but I was excited to talk to someone who could actually talk back. "Funny story. So, Artemis teleported me out of my house to get me away from Ares and Aphrodite, and I guess she forgot where she sent me. So, I was just trudging along, minding my own business, and BAM! Lynx attack!" I said, really getting into my story now. Thalia frowned, like she couldn't picture an animal attacking someone related to Artemis. "Okay, well it wasn't technically an attack. Anyways, Chester led me back here and I sat around while they had a little lynx debate. And then they all left except for the big one, who, I'm pretty sure, understands English. Just saying. And then, after they refused to snuggle with me, I went to sleep. Then I woke up, and here you are. What about you?"

Thalia sighed, and laid her head back against the wall. Now that I was seeing her up close, she looked even more tired than I did.

"Well, after that fight, Ares and Aphrodite fled, knowing that my Lady and lord Apollo were getting ready to tear them to shreds. Then, Artemis teleported to our camp and told us to find you. She didn't even know what continent you were on! But I IM'ed her and she said she's on her way. She's just rounding up all the other Hunters, who are in various chilly climates across the world. She said she'll meet us up there. Man, you get all the fun adventures."

"Well, I went blind, and had my house torn apart, but if you consider that fun, then, yeah. I guess. How am I going to get out of here?" I wondered, standing up and stretching.

Thalia stood up next to me, and just jumped, easily making it, which isn't humanly possible. "Your turn."

"No. No." I insisted, shaking my head. "I'll just wait until Artemis gets here and she can teleport me out of here. I can't jump that high."

"Come on, you're the daughter of Artemis. You could probably fly if you wanted to. Just focus all your energy and jump."

"I'm good." I said, sitting down.

Thalia sighed. "I warned you." and then she raised her arm and shot electricity at me.

"Fah! Fah on you and your kin!" I growled, then I got an idea.

I stood up and glared threateningly at her. "You dare harm a child of Artemis? I shall smite you!"

It didn't work.

Thalia jumped down, knees bend to lessen impact. She walked up to me, and I noticed that she was several inches taller than I was.

"You want to fight me, oh mighty daughter of Artemis? I've been lieutenant since before you were born." she bragged, calling my bluff.

"Maybe later. I haven't had breakfast yet," I said, knowing I would stand no chance with my hurt arm. Plus, Thalia is kind of scary.

She smirked and jumped to the surface again.

I crouched down and focused all my energy. Using my long-dormant leg muscles, I leapt high into the air...and didn't even come close to the opening.

"Just..try..again.." Thalia breathed through her laughter.

I mumbled something that sounded like "hatred" and backed up to get a running start.

Again, I leapt, using every shred of my energy. This time I got my arms to the opening.

Thalia grabbed my right arm, and pain exploded in my shoulder.

"Down! Down!" I roared, grabbing my shoulder with my left hand.

She dropped me and I landed heavily on the ground. I had tried to bend my knees in mid-fall, but it only resulted in me landing harder than I would have otherwise. Groaning, I sat up, my arm still throbbing.

Thalia landed beside me, and I scooted back a little bit.

"What happened to your arm?" she asked, crouching down.

"Nothing, I just jolted it funny." I lied, not quite sure why.

Thalia didn't buy it. "Liar. That's why you didn't want to fight me? Just tell me what happened."

"Artemis accidentally shot me, and then healed the surface so I wouldn't bleed to death."

"She 'accidentally' shot you? Artemis doesn't 'accidentally' do anything."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, she did. Maybe I know her better than you do."

Thalia jumped up without a word, and she stomped off, leaving me alone in the hole. Maybe I should stop making my friends mad.

Sighing, I sat down, still holding my shoulder.

"Oh Emily?" I heard the voice from one of my worst nightmares. "What are you doing down in that hole? It's dirty!"

Aphrodite crouched down from above, wearing an expression that looked exactly like mine when I knew something that others didn't. Weirdly, I felt a new emotion invade my mind other than horror, one that felt like...humor?

"Hey Artemis. What's up?" To my utter relief, Aphrodite's sickeningly pretty face morphed into the one I didn't hate quite as much. Light brown hair darkened, eyes changed from brown to steely blue, and build changed from delicate to lean.

"Nothing much. Just going to take you to Apollo so my arm stops exploding with pain." she said, jumping down and landing without the slightest thump. "Come on. Teleporting while sitting can jumble you up."

I stood, and she grabbed my elbow.

I experienced the usual sensation, and we landed in the same room I had been in before. Yay for variety.

She shoved me into a chair, and Apollo walked in, listening to his iPod.

"Apollo? Apollo!" Artemis tried to get his attention, getting angry.

"Baby, I like it..." Apollo sang, ruining my image of him permanently.

Artemis rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. Apollo's headphones turned into worms, to his utter horror.

He threw them onto the floor and glared at Artemis. "Not nice, sis. After all I do for you? Maybe I shouldn't help you guys." he said, beginning to walk away.

Artemis groaned. "Sorry Apollo. Please, just heal her."

Apollo grinned and walked over to me. "Hold still, niece. Man, why do we only hang out when you are critically wounded? We should grab a movie sometime."

I smiled. "Sounds fun. You can be my cool older uncle who lets me dr-"

"Don't even think about it." Artemis snapped, glaring at me.

"I was going to say 'draw'."

Apollo laughed and shot a burst of energy into my shoulder.

Artemis and I howled as the muscles reknit themselves and moved to their original positions.

"All done. Have a good day. Your bill will come in the mail shortly." Apollo said, snapping and turning the worms back into headphones and scooped them up as he strolled out the door.

"So..." I said, thinking of a new topic of conversation after his sudden departure. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know. You manage to get into trouble no matter where I put you. I'm half-convinced to set you on some distant island somewhere, but you'd probably get into a fight with a shark or something. And we both know what would happen if you died." she said, sitting down on the room's other chair.

"No, actually I don't." I said, wondering what could happen.

She frowned. "Well, I know that if I were to 'die', you would die too. But if you died, hmmm I wonder... It would be an interesting experiment.."

"Bad!" I scolded, relishing my turn to reprimand her instead of the other way around.

She grinned cheekily. "Just a joke. But, I really don't know what to do with you."

We sat in silence for several moments, until a crazy thought struck me.

"Hey, Artemis, can I join the Hunters?"

AN2: I know, I know. Cliff hangers are the bane of your existences. I know this chapter isn't the best, but the well of ideas is draining out faster than I can dream up new ones. I'm sorry it took me so long to update, but you guys were too ninja for me. Reviews are my favorite presents, so...there's that. My brother is coming into town, so I won't update for a couple days, but merry Christmas everyone. PS: 175. Thanks, and to all a good night (or morning or evening, depending on your location)!