Piper

Unlike the boys, I notice that Calypso has grabbed her bow and my own hand drifts casually to grip my dagger. That's when I see the flashes of silver around us. I may be new to this whole demigod thing, but even Leo can figure out that this is the Hunters of Artemis.

In a casual, friendly gesture, I grab Jason's arm, ignoring my quickening heartbeat. I dig my fingernails into the inside of his arm, he cringes for a millisecond before clearing his face. That's one of the things I like about Jason, he catches on quickly.

I let go of his arm and he stuffs his hands in his pockets, I know that he is gripping his coin tightly.

As oppose to Jason, Leo has no subtlety so I won't even attempt to alert him. But before I can stop him, Jason whispers something in Leo's ear.

Leo's reactions are quick, I'll give him that, but in this case it nearly kills us. Leo's head snaps up and his eyes scan the area, immediately noticing the silver uniforms.

It happens very fast after that. Arrows come flying towards us from all sides, but just as quickly, Calypso throws a shield over us all. The arrows collide with her shield and she grunts, her arms thrown out to hold the shield placed over us.

The arrows continue and with every group of arrows, Calypso sinks further and further down to her knees. I don't know what to do but thankfully Leo breaks off a piece of ambrosia and pops it in her mouth. Calypso's face turns regains some of its colour and I sigh in relief.

"Stop!" I hear a voice from outside yell. Calypso lets down the shield and stands back up, taking the rest of the ambrosia but she looks ready to throw another shield up should she need to.

A girl pushes to the front of the gathered huntresses. "Calypso?"

Calypso

As soon as Phoebe pushes to the front, I let my bow disappear and run to hug her. "Phoebe!"

I let go of her and turn to another familier huntress. I embrace her quickly. "Atalanta!"

I step back, smiling. "It's been so long."

"Where's Artemis?"

Phoebe's face falls slightly. "She has been called back to Olympus against her will. Zeus demanded it."

Thunder rumbles in the distance but we both ignore it. "It's probably because Hera was kidnapped. We're actually on a quest to save her now. I believe her to be in the Wolf House, the sacred place of the Romans."

Phoebe frowns. "That's bad news. I suppose Zeus would like to keep an eye on the goddesses after that."

"I never knew you were the lieutenant!" I exclaim, referring to the fact that she is acting like the Hunters' leader.

Phoebe's face completely falls now. "I'm not, Thalia Grace is."

There can only be two answers to my question but I ask it anyway. "Where is she?"

A new voice answers, a male one. "Thalia Grace is currently in the hands of Enceladus."

Lycan smiles at me from in front of his pack, "Hello there, Calypso."

I keep my eyes on Lycan as I shuffle through my backpack. I grab my spare silver dagger and drop my bag to the ground. I back up to my friends and send a clear message to Phoebe with my eyes. Keep him distracted.

I give my dagger to Leo and Jason and Piper each get one of my knives, leaving me with only my bow. "They can only be harmed by silver," I remind them when they look at me in surprise.

Lycan is on our right and the hunters' left. He definitely saw me move but he's engaged in a conversation with Phoebe. I only manage to catch Phoebe's final word. "Charge!"

I immediately peg Lycan in the eye with an arrow as he goes for Phoebe before I find some other targets.

A medium sized wolf lunges at my head and I neatly spin, grabbing an arrow from a hunter's quiver and I jam it into the wolf's eye. It disintegrates and I send a short burst of fire at it's pile of dust.

"Leo!" I yell, over the battle. "Make sure you set fire to the remains of any wolves that you see!"

"On it!" Leo yells back.

Leo is very hot at the moment. Wait! Not in that way! His hair and hands are on fire, as well as my silver dagger. It's a good thing I fireproofed all of my weapons, then.

My moment of distraction nearly gets me killed. Thank the gods Leo sees it happening. His- no my dagger goes flying through the air and digs into a wolf that had been sneaking up on me. I grab the dagger and send it hurtling back towards Leo, hitting his own wolf that is trying to sneak up on him.

Leo and I exchange a quick grateful smile before returning to the fight. It seems that Leo's flaming dagger is keeping his monsters from reforming so I will all of my arrows to be set aflame when I let go of my bowstring.

The battle dies down soon and Leo and I set fire to any piles of monster dust we see. "What happened to Lycan?" I ask Phoebe.

Phoebe grimaces. "He ran away when the battle turned in our favour. About a dozen of his wolves escaped with him."

"Any injuries?" I inquire.

"A few scratches here and there. No one was bitten, though."

Sounds good to me. I walk over to Leo, Piper and Jason. "How about you three? Any wounds?"

They shake their heads, no. "Here," Leo says, offering me the silver dagger.

I shake my head. "It's yours now. You're the idiot that didn't bring a weapon on the quest. I've got plenty in my room on the Argo."

"However," I say, turning to Piper and Jason. "I want my knives back from you two. You have your own weapons."

They both give me back my knives and I put them back on my necklace.

"Thanks," Jason says.

"You're welcome," I reply. "Hey Jason? Isn't your last name Grace?" He nods. "That's the surname of the missing lieutenant. Thalia Grace. Do you know her?"

Jason grips his head as if remembering. "I had a sister called Thalia. I thought she died when I was three. Apparently not, though."

Leo claps Jason on the back, cheerily. "Well, you've just gained some not-so-new family! Thank the gods I'm not the only one that has to be related to you!"

This both brightens and confuses Jason. He raises an eyebrow at Leo. "You realise that the gods don't have DNA, right?"

Leo bumps Jason in a friendly manner. "I've adopted you as my brother. I got your back."

Phoebe approaches us warily, sending glares at the boys. She directs her words to Piper and I. "We have narrowed down where Thalia is to Mount Diablo in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area. As the gods cannot help heroes that are not on a quest, we were hoping that you could go after her."

Phoebe clearly doesn't like the idea of leaving their lieutenant's fate to a group containing boys. But that's the way she was raised. One bad experience has lead her to believe that all boys are bad, that's why I didn't join the hunters like Zoé. I have gone with them in many of their hunts though, that's how I met Atalanta and Phoebe.

"We would gladly help Thalia. Do not worry about the boys, Thalia is Jason's sister and he would love to help save her," I say generously. I don't offer any reassurance about Leo because who honestly can?

"Thank you, Calypso." Phoebe hands me two small pieces of fabric. "Here are some supplies to help you. We will travel to the Wolf House ourselves and we will send you an Iris message when we are attacking. Good luck."

The hunters see us off before nightfall, trying to get rid of us as soon as possible. We are a good twenty metres away before we start talking.

"Well, they were friendly," Leo grumbles. "I didn't even get to ask them for the blueprints for their tents."

I show him a piece of fabric the size of my fingernail. "You don't need the blueprints. Phoebe gave us two tents. One for Piper and I and one for Jason. You can sleep outside."

Leo glares at me playfully. "Dude. I'm fireproof, but that doesn't mean I'm always warm!" He sighs dramatically. "I guess the best people really do die young."

Jason nudges him. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll let you look inside my tent."

We all laugh at Leo expense. That's another thing I really like about Leo, he can take a joke. And we're going to need to keep our spirits up if we're heading off on a suicide mission.

-SAW