Although Kateo seemed to be keeping a good head, he was secretly terrified. When he saw the highway, there had been a lot of people, more than the amount in the village. According to Maggie, that was only a small percentage or not even a percentage at all. If there are that many people in the world and they were hunting them both, they were doomed. He knew humans could be good hunters and it sounded like the odds weren't favoring him.
Maggie was even more afraid, she was a little shy, plus she knew what they were dealing with. Kateo actually was glad he didn't have any clue what was going on, he wanted to learn this human/demigod stuff slowly. Mostly so he didn't faint from all of the dangerous information. He still didn't have any idea what a demigod was, all he knew was they were children of the gods, some had special powers (from Maggie's stories), and look like regular humans. He would have to find out himself. He always thought that you can never understand something unless you feel it yourself.
That night was a beautiful one. The moon was bright and big, casting a silver light along everything that was exposed to its touch. The mountains became dark and the snow gleamed in the moon's light. The stars twinkled like small diamonds embedded in black neverending black glass. A vast plain of trees and rocks spread for miles in a never ending blanket. Nocturnal animals barking and chirping in the darkness, singing to the moon and all its glory. And Kateo's favorite part, no humans or signs that they have ever touched the land.
Maggie sighed, "I love protected areas like this. They hold history and take you away from modern things and electronics that explode in your face". "What was this place called again"? Kateo asked. "It is called the Brendon park, bought by a guy named Guy Brendon, a rich man from this state. From what I heard, he bought lots of land and restored it to its proper state. This might have been another loud, ugly city. The truth is that he is a faun, trying to do good deeds for their god Pan who died years ago. Some say he stole money, but a friend of mine told me that he made money himself by running a business that sells recycled products. Taking care of the earth is a very important thing today so it completely boomed and now he uses his money on stuff like this. That is also why he earns a lot of money, the humans know they are giving money to a good cause". Kateo admired her knowledge. "You know a lot, I am glad I trust you". Maggie blushed and pushed a piece of loose hair behind her ear. "I know a few facts, but I am terrible at getting out of situations or being cleaver. I just know things because of my favorite teacher, Percy Jackson".
Kateo frowned, he swore he heard that name before. A voice, no, multiple voices, whispering in his memory. He could only make out a few words "Little… Cute… Lucky… dead… Please… Percy… Annabeth… Gods" and a lot more, but the rest was lost in the chaos of sound.
"Kateo, KATEO". "Huh? What"? Maggie was looking at him in concern. "Is everything alright"? Kateo shook off the remaining feeling of the memory. "Nothing. I'm fine, it's just I think I heard that name before". The worry melted off Maggie's face and she reached over to played with his hair. Kateo didn't flinch away or do anything, letting her delicate hand do what it wanted with his hair. "You know, you kind of remind me of Percy",and she began scratching the top of his head. All of Kateo's worries instantly washed away. Maggie giggled, "Especially when you make that face". What face, Kateo felt completely clue-... Oh. He smiled and laughed, the first real laugh he had in a long time. Maggie began cracking up. You even sound like him", she gasped and began rolling on the ground in a silent fit.
When the two finally stopped, something caught Kateo's eye, something silver. Jet must've seen it or heard it too because he was alert, ears swiveling to try and catch any sound. Kateo glared at where the bow had been, but when he did, he spotted a foot from behind the tree. "What's wrong Kateo"? Maggie asked, following his gaze to try and pinpoint what he was looking at. Kateo sent a telepathic message through Jet's mind and the wolf passed it on to Maggie. The message was, "someone's following us".
Quick as lightning, Kateo covered his face, took out his bow, nocked an arrow, and shot it at his target. For a regular person it would be impossible to hit accurately from that distance, but the arrow hit the target in the right spot. A scream of agony blared throughout the park as the arrow pierced a spot on the foot called the Achilles heal. The spy fell to the ground, it looked like a girl in a silver dress. Dark blonde hair fell out of her bun and all over the grass as she clutched her heel.
"NOW"! someone yelled from behind a tree and a bunch of girls under eighteen appeared from behind trees, brushes, and stones. They all wore something silver and pointed silver arrows at the group. Kateo nocked another arrow as the entire group backed into a circle, trapped.
A ten year old looking girl with auburn hair stepped forward followed by white wolves. "I thought the hunt for this wolf wouldn't be easy, but thanks to my tracker, we could catch you". Kateo didn't speak or move. "Y-you're Artemis. I have heard of you before. Percy…" "Ah yes! The son of Poseidon. I remember him. He was nice. I haven't seen him in years though and he is a boy so I do not care about what he is up to, but how is Annabeth? I hope she got over 'losing her son thing'. What was his name? Something with a C or a K, but like I said, a boy, not my problem". Maggie looked furious, something told Kateo that she did not like this 'Artemis' person. "If you don't mind, this wolf is with me and my friend here so back off or one of you will have an even worse fate than the girl over there", Maggie yelled at Artemis, but it was meant to be for all the girls. The threat worked a little because he could sense hesitation in a few. One girl even whimpered and pointed her arrow downward in surrender. "You and what army, have you noticed that there is no one but you here. So unless your friend is some super archer and can take my entire hunter group in one shot, that wolf doesn't stand a chance, plus I have never killed a son of Moro. Very rare wolves".
Kateo looked around at the group of girls surrounding him. In some cases, they were doomed, but with him around they had one slim chance. He pointed his arrow downwards, then flipped it back into the quiver on his back. For a second, Artemis smiled, then Kateo pulled out a new arrow with a rounded head and aimed it at the first tree. He only had one shot so he wanted to make it count. He calculated his surroundings and slanted the arrow to the side. He let go of the feathered end and the arrow ricocheted off of the tree and began hitting girls as it flew toward the next tree. Some screamed and fired their arrows in attempt to hit them, but Kateo fired his own arrow at the only silver one that would have been able to hit them. When the two collided, his arrow shattered, but the force of the shot caused the silver one to fall to the ground. The rounded arrow ricocheted off of a bunch of trees and rocks until every girl that was in its way, lay moaning on the ground, clutching the spots where the rock had hit them. Darn, only three remained, a dark skinned girl, a tiny blonde one, and a tall one with jeans, chains and spiky hair with a circlet. Artemis looked impressed and looked at him with curios silver eyes.
"That was a good shot I must say, but you are still outnumbered. You are looking at my finest hunters right here. I will chose one to challenge the one with the mask in a fair fight. There will be no killing". Maggie glanced over at Kateo for an answer to the challenge. He didn't answer, but he hung up his bow and stepped forward, ready to fight. "Alright. Thalia, will you do the honors"? The girl with the spiky hair smiled wickedly and stepped forward, fixing Kateo with her piercing blue eyes, "I would love to".
The others cleared the area and made room for the battle. Thalia pulled out a spear and her bracelet turned into a shield with the head of a screaming lady with snake hair. It was creepy, but Kateo didn't realize what it was so he ignored it and fixed her with his deadly stare. Jet could do the stare better, especially because when he did it his eyes seemed to glow, but it always got villagers to bow down and beg for mercy. He could tell that was making her nervous because of the way she shifted and moved.
They both circled each other for a while, seeing who will attack first. Finally Kateo got bored and went for the kill, taking out his knife and running at the girl full speed with silent feet. When he got close enough, she swiped her speer toward his feet, a clean swipe that would have either cut his feet off or put a nasty cut in his leg. Instead of getting hit, he jumped ten feet in the air. Kateo was glad for the mountain climbing and carrying heavy boar bodies at that moment because all of that made him feel as light as a feather. Thalia looked up at him in shock and put her shield over her head as he came down on top of her. Unfortunately, with great leaping abilities came light landings. If some other person landed on Thalia, she would have gotten an injury or gotten crushed, but she had no problem with Kateo landing on her shield at all. With a surprised grunt, he landed on her shield giving her no problem at all. When she tried to hit him with her spear, he jumped off and landed a few feet away.
This time Thalia came at him, spear sparking with what looked like lightning. He dodged to the left right in time for her to barrel past him and attempt to stab him. When she turned around, she smiled in triumph. Then Kateo realized the pain and felt warm blood trickling down his shoulder. Looking over, he had a little scratch, but blood was trickling out at a fast pace, wonderful.
While he was distracted, Thalia raised her spear and to his surprise, a thin line of lightning burst out and he had to jump in the air to escape it. She did it again and again, till he finally lost his patience. If she wanted to use super powers, he could play that game too. When he was able to stay on the ground long enough, he felt for any signs of water. Lucky for him, there was a natural aqueduct right underneath him and an idea sprang into his mind. Not needing to use his hands, he summoned the water full force. Immediately he began seeing results, water burst out of newly formed cracks in the earth and the water began spiraling around him. It grew bigger, thicker and faster until he was in a funnel of water. When the wall was twenty feet high and Kateo felt like he was going to fall to one knee, he pushed his arms out and the fullel blasted in all directions in one huge tidal wave. Thalia and anyone in the way of the water was washed away down the hill.
Feeling absolutely exhausted, Kateo looked around to find Jet and Maggie. He spotted them poking their heads out from behind a rock, soaking wet. "Sorry", Kateo said lifting his mask up to show his tired, but apologizing expression. "SORRY? Are you kidding me that was awesome. I had no idea you could do that". Jet spoke in her mind, "He always does that, that is usually how he cleans up the messes we make. I usually like it, but this water is colder". Jet walked out from behind the rock and shook water absolutely everywhere. "Revenge", the wolf said happily, Kateo now the one that was soaked. He particularly liked it because it healed the cut
"Hurry, they are still up there. Get them before they get away", yelled a voice from the bottom of the mountain. Maggie looked at Kateo with terrified eyes. "Follow me. I can get us out of here".
Before Kateo could answer, Maggie grabbed his hand and lead over to a place not covered by the moon. Immediately they disappeared into darkness. Little did they know, where Kateo's blood touched the earth, green sprouts began growing out of the ground, along with a new tree sapling.
Wasn't that exiting? I really hope it was. Thank you for reading so far and keep dreaming my friends