"You think they'd accept?" C asks fidgety.
L thought of the question before answering. He honestly didn't know, but the fact Lady Hestia forced Lord Mars to write a letter…hmm. "I think so," L finally answers. He zooms around the camp one more time before saying, "Maia!" and then lands on the ground.
"B, you are soooo unfair, how come only L has the flying shoes. Why can't you like, make all of us a pair!" M says as they walk towards where L landed.
"One, Percy and Nico hates flying. Two, if thirty boys suddenly had a copy of Hermes' flying shoes, wouldn't you think that's suspicious, and three, you have a flying skate board, M, that glows like the sun and is on fire like your father's chariot" B reasoned. M groaned. L was chuckling.
"Plus, Perce is quite traumatized by flying shoes. Something about it almost getting him killed when he was twelve," L says chuckling.
"You really think talking to the hunters is a good idea?" B asked. L just shrugged. "Who cares, its Lord Mars's orders"
Artemis was looking at her hunters one by one in the eye. Most of them had pleading looks that said, dinner with boys, mistress? Why? Why have you forsaken us? Her newest recruit, Annabeth, had her eyes shining with curiosity. Phoebe was growling. And Thalia…Artemis didn't know what to make of Thalia. She looked like she was still arguing on what to feel about spending a night with boys.
"Alright girls, time to get this over with" Artemis said and they went over to the Pack's campsite.
Not a single hair of a boy was found roaming around their campsite. All they saw was the huge igloo. They must've been there.
Two hooded boys guard the entrance. As soon as they saw Artemis, the knelt until Artemis allowed them to rise.
"Your leader does know that we are leaving our campsites virtually defenseless?" Artemis asked the two. Meanwhile the two boys just looked at each other and shrugs. "It'll take tens of fire breathing drakons to melt the igloo. It's safe" one of them said and they entered the igloo.
"THE HUNTERS ARE HERE IDIOTS, STOP PLAYING AROUND!" Someone announced and all of the Pack members scrambled to greet them.
To say that the Hunt was dumfounded was understating an understatement. They did not expect what they found inside the igloo.
On the outside, it looked like…well, an igloo made of ice and snow. On the inside, it looked like a logged cabin.
There were long sofas upfront and further were five wooden tables. Each of the tables could probably hold about fifteen people
And then there was the fireplace.
Instead of it being attached to the wall, there was a pillar in the middle of the living room. The pillar was that of faint yellow and red energy and inside the pillar was a camp fire and little flames dancing and floating around the pillar.
"The Architecture's amazing!" Annabeth says. B, C, L, and M couldn't help but smile at what she said. The other hunters were wide eyed because when you go inside an igloo, surely what you'd expect is a snow and not a place that oozed the essence of….home.
"Thalia isn't this amazing?" Annabeth whispered. For a heartbeat, Thalia was about to say, 'meh' but then, she made herself act all awed and oohs for the place. She almost forgot that supposedly, this is the 'first' time he went inside the igloo, but truthfully she'd been coming in and out of this place.
"Hestia's kind of generous when it comes with us," L said shifting out of the crowd. "Good evening, Lady Artemis" L bowed and was followed by every pack member.
Artemis nodded. "Why have you invited us here, boy" Artemis asked. L paled for a moment and shook it off. "How 'bout we have dinner first." L asked but he really didn't wait for the answer, gestured towards the wooden table and walked towards it wanting to delay the inevitable. Artemis nodded.
The Hunters did not like the set up.
In the third table at the opposite ends of the table sat L and Artemis. To their right sat 15 Pack members and to the left sat 15 Hunters to the right. That is the format they followed. Not all hunters in this table and all Pack in that.
There was one thing the hunters were confused about, no food was laid in front of them. "Lady Artemis, you and the hunters are our guests tonight, what would you like to have for a feast?" L asked
Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Anything?" she asks as if a challenge. "Well, yeah, mostly," L said and Artemis said a list of names of food that came from other countries and had complicated names, trying to confuse the so called leader of the Pack, no doubt.
"You heard her guys!" L said to the other tables and they grinned and as one, clapped their hands and the food appeared, along with plates, linen cloth, everything.
Show off, Thalia said rolling her eyes. "Another perk of having Lady Hestia as a patron: we can pretty much conjure up food as we want" L said when Artemis raised her eyebrow. "So that's why you guys don't even bother hunting" Annabeth says.
The Pack members blushed ashamed. "We would've given you guys food from the start," L started explaining. "But apparently P—" L almost slipped and said Percy but cover this up with a believable cough. "Excuse me, sorry about that. But apparently our Ace thought you would not er, appreciate it if we treat your hunters to, er dinner" L said rather awkwardly.
"Or treat you guys to breakfast, or lunch, as a matter of fact. I'm B by the way" B said.
"Plus, we kind of noticed, that all of you looked pretty happy when you're hunting. Call me M" M said.
Artemis nodded her approval but what she was really thinking was, They're awfully talkative. Thalia on the other hand was thinking, stupid boys! What are they doing being so casual? Ugh.
"I have a question" Annabeth said. "Er, we kind of want to answer questions after we eat, if that's alright" L said. Annabeth noticed something familiar at the leader's voice and accent.
"No, it's kind of a simple question. How are you guys going to eat with cloths over your mouths?" Annabeth asked. It really was legit. Does that mean that they were going to show their faces to them? Although, they still would be covered with the goggles and hood. But still, they've been very careful not to show anything to the hunters so the hunters are really bemused why they would start being careless now.
You could see a line on the cloth slant—L smiled in a friendly nature. "Watch this," he said and put the spoon in his mouth. It passed through his cloth. The hunters' eyes widened.
"The cloak is a gift from Mars, so it has some special properties. Lady Hestia's not the only one who wants to spoil" L said and some of the Pack members snicker at the thought. The hunters—well, except Thalia—groaned. When will these guys ever let their guard down?
"Shall we eat?" L asked, and they ate.
After they have finished eating, silence slowly enveloped them. There was tension for what was about to happen. The Pack was tense because of what their offer would do….and with Artemis's decision deciding their future. The Hunters were tensed at what they would discover of the mysterious pack.
Someone coughed awkwardly. "Okaaaay, I think I've stalled long enough. Brothers?" L said and they clapped as one and all food disappeared.
"Okay, so what is your real objective for asking us to come here, L?" Artemis asked her voice rung loud in the house for every hunter or brother to here.
"We have been ordered by our patrons…"
Thalia held her breath. She didn't like being in the dark, but she didn't blame them. They would've told her if they had the chance
"To?" Artemis asked.
The Hunters were now leaning forward.
"To treat you like family"
And that, mi amigos, caught every single of the hunter off guard, including Thalia (who had her jaw dropped) and Artemis who looked like she was a twelve year old girl who's eyes are about to pop (…well technically, she is in a form of a 12 year old girl)
"Excuse me?" Artemis asked.
The hunters started to scowl. Thalia was scowling for a different reason. She was thinking, what the hell are you thinking dragging me sisters to our dark secrets?! I do not want them involved in this! Her eyes were glowing a dangerous glint of blue and black. Annabeth noticed this and did a retake to look at Thalia's eyes. What?! She thought. Did she just see her best friend's eyes turn black and to a different hint of blue? But thankfully for Thalia, the change of color was gone before Annabeth could look at it more clearly.
"My patrons, before we finished our missions, asked us, 'would you die for your brothers?'" L started
"We said yes of course, then they said 'then if you had sisters, shall you die for them too?'" M continued
"'Without a second thought' I answered. I was the first to do so and my brothers quickly nodded in agreement" B said
"And then Mars said, then go back to your family—the pack and the hunters. From now, they shall be your sisters. Tell them the beginning and you shall always care for them. They shall shun you, but you shall not care. If they swear what we ask them too, you shall not care about anything other than their well being like you care nothing but the safety of your brothers." C said.
Silence.
"We…we want to tell you the story of the Pack…from the beginning. How it started" L concluded.
Thalia's jaw dropped. Shit, is this really what Lady Hestia and Lord Mars ordered?
"What's the catch? And why would we care?" Phoebe growled
"We want you to swear…er, swear secrecy of whatever info you are going to learn from us…and as for the importance of this to you….Lord Mars explained it in the letter, or at least that's what he said" L say looking at Artemis
Artemis's mind went to the letter…. You have to understand that we are working with bigger things here...This is more than just a squabble to assure more power is with us. Much more than that...
"Okay, we shall swear" Lady Artemis says and the Hunters gasps
"But m'Lady!"
"No! No! Wait, please, don't decide rashly, Lady Artemis" and to everyone's surprise, it was L who said.
"You do not want us to swear?" Artemis asked the leader who was the one offering the deal in the first place
L took a deep breath.
"Listen, please, we do not want to….look…This is the oath Lady Hestia wanted you to make 'I swear on the River Styx to never tell or inform anything that I shall learn from and about the Pack to anyone or anything in any form or in anyway. I shall not use this knowledge against or betray the Pack in, again, any form or anyway'"
"It sounds fair enough," Annabeth says curiously
"No! You do not understand. We…we shall tell you some secrets that can create another war"—gasps here—"but you should understand that look, we know you hate boys, but even if you hate us, if you swear, we will always, always protect you. Think of us as a non-annoying or at least not-as-annoying Apollo protective brother. But with that said, we don't want you to swear. We can't let any of you get dragged into our secrecy. We can't be selfish enough to do that to you"—some snorts here—"Heck! If it were up to me, I wouldn't want to be having this conversation at all! Please, you do understand that if you swear that, you cannot use any knowledge, do you get it?" L said
Annabeth's eyes widen
"So you mean…?" Annabeth trailed off
"Yes, if you swear, let's say that for some reason Zeus wanted us dead—may we be deserving or not—and wants the entire council to hunt us down. None of you can ever suggest anything that is based off knowledge about us. For example, you know what our weakness is, then you cannot make a suggestion to tell them or use that knowledge for the King. You may only suggest something that you said not because of the knowledge you know. Meaning, it's like you're being a traitor…and…honestly..we do not want to do that to anyone" L said. But as he said the last part, he was discreetly looking at Thalia. Thalia wanted to tell L, It's okay. The Pack is worth it. I chose the Pack but she remained silent because she cannot deny the guilt of feeling like a traitor to Artemis
The Hunters started shouting and insulting the Pack. Artemis was deep in thought….But if you swear and push comes to shove, you cannot remain on father's side without telling yourself you are a traitor...
Artemis shouted, "Silence!"
The hunters gulped… "M'lady?" they asked
…BUT, bigger things are at risk here, Artemis. I'm serious...
"M'lady, it is still your choice. Please, I swear on the River Styx we are sincere" L said in an almost pleading way. The Pack never saw L like this. He always had such pride to even sound 'almost pleading' Thunder boomed in the background
…That is your hard choice: swear, not swear...
"I swear on the River Styx to never tell or inform anything that I shall learn from and about the Pack to anyone or anything in any form or in anyway. I shall not use this knowledge against or betray the Pack in, again, any form or anyway" Artemis said in one breath
The Hunters gasped at what their mistress just said and thunder clapped loud in the background.
"I swear on the River Styx to never tell or inform anything that I shall learn from and about the Pack to anyone or anything in any form or in anyway. I shall not use this knowledge against or betray the Pack in, again, any form or anyway" Thalia followed—more gasps and the Hunters eyes widened
Quickly, one by one, they swore…though a bit hesitantly.
L nodded. The plan was now set. It was done.
"And now, we shall tell you what we know of the beginning of the Pack"