Chapter Nineteen - C.G.D.C.T.

The good mood surrounding our group lasted until we reached the creek-side clearing and met back up with the other girls. Then, the good mood quickly turned into a celebration as Hunter, Phoebe and Celyn gave a detailed play by play of the action from their perspectives with the other girls speaking up in between breaths. The girls gasped appropriately when the group talked about me throwing around fireballs like some R.P.G. Wizard. When they spoke of Zoë's one on one fight with the Necromancer, the girls swarmed the lieutenant practically demanding a play by play of the fight.

Indulging the festive atmosphere, Artemis permitted a small group of the girls that had stayed behind to hunt some larger game than the squirrels we'd had for lunch. Unfortunately, she couldn't stick around as she had to report the success to that minor goddess who had asked for her help.

The hunting party soon returned with a bounty of fresh game and quickly set to work skinning and butchering their kills. Soon, a huge bonfire pit was dug out and surrounded with several large rocks, and on request, I demonstrated how I set the house ablaze using the firewood as my target. The group cheered as the flames easily caught and starting burning.

While the meat was prepared, some of the girls started dancing around the bonfire while others quickly stripped down and jumped into the creek to cool off. I tried to focus on the dancers, but found my gaze drifting back toward the water for some reason. Hunter, noticing, nudged me with her elbow - saying nothing, but her eyes looked amused. I huffed and turned my back to the creek. It's not like I could swim anyway. And I wasn't blushing, either. The bonfire was just really hot!

I wasn't allowed to sulk for long, though, as I was very quickly dragged over to join the dancing. Getting into the spirit of things, I darted into the flames - to the shock of everyone. Shock rapidly gave way to disbelief which became amusement as instead of screaming in pain I started giggling at the ticklish sensation of the flames against my skin. The dance resumed with me remaining in the fire, swaying in place as the girls twirled around in a looping circle. Once the meat was ready, I was chased out of the fire so they could cook, and the dancers broke away breathless to sit and talk.

"Alright girls," Zoë called out nearly an hour after dinner. "'tis time we start winding down." This announcement was met with a chorus of good natured groans. However, as the celebration had long since devolved into individual conversations, most of the girls seemed fine with breaking things up - though a few of the closer friends decided to continue their discussions in the privacy one or the others' tent. Seeing this, the Lieutenant issued a final warning; "We shall break camp in the afternoon, so thou wilt have no excuse for having not received enough rest."

I grinned to myself as I climbed into my own tent. It would be nice to sleep in again - even just a little bit.

Dear Uncle Joe,

How are you? Did you go to Italy already? How is your sister? Do you miss New York? I am doing good. The hunt are fun to be around with. Zoe sed... said i could WritE you a letter if I wanted to, so I am. We spent our first couple days trava... trav... moving north almost to Canada. There was a monster the hunters were trying to find. It turned out to be a where wolf! She was killing peep... people and making them vampyres but the vampyres dont liek fire. Which really sucks for them becuz... cause I can throw fire from my hands!

After we beat the where wolf, we had a party. There was dancing and swiming but I cant swim so i didnt, and some of the girls caught a big deer witch had horns almost as big as me! It was really good but it made me miss cooking in the kitchen with you.

Now we are going to a place called Indian City i think. It will be nice to be back in a city again even though i like how clean the air smells i do miss the city a lot. I hope you get this letter.

Sincerely,

Penny the Kitchen Witch

PS: Luna which is one of the wolfs is really cuddly and sometimes sneaks into my tent at night to sleep.

"Okay, stand like this," Hunter said, moving me into position. "Widen your stance a littl- no, too much. There."

"I feel ridiculous," I grumbled.

"You look ridiculous," Hunter agreed. "But this is the way to practice. Now, this part here is the arrow shelf - it's where you rest the arrow when you draw it back." She handed me the bow, "Now, relax your grip on the handle. Great, now test the draw strength." I gave her a blank look. "Pull back on the string, but don't release the tension."

"Why not?" I asked. Wasn't releasing the tension the entire point of drawing the bowstring?

"It can seriously damage the weapon," Hunter said. "Best case scenario, you weaken the structural integrity of the bow, making it more likely to break, warp or have other functional problems in the future. More likely, it will actually damage the bow right away, causing it to warp, fracture or straight up explode.

Also, keep in mind that by design you have to hold the bow pretty close to your face. If something snaps off or splinters, pieces could fly into your eyes. Even if it's just the string that snaps, it could whip your face or another part of your body causing injury. And of course there's also the danger to those around you. I'm not joking about explosive force here."

"Ah," I gulped. I had enough experiences with explosions thanks to my flame powers, no need to add kindling to the mix. It took me several tries to pull the string back without her having to correct my form again.

"Alright, looking good. Now, let's try it with an arrow and see if you can come close to the target."

The arrow she handed me was heavier than I had expected, but I managed to nock it with minimal difficulty. Finally satisfied with everything from my stance to my finger position, I drew back until the arrow and string were touching my nose. I took a steadying breath and let it go slowly, then repeated - just like Artemis had shown me before. I took aim, closing one eye for focus.

"Keep your eyes open, Skipper," Hunter said, and I jolted, snapping my eyes wide open as the arrow slipped from the shelf. There was a loud TWANG and Hunter cursed as I accidentally released the string, sending it snapping into my wrist and making me drop the bow.

"Ouch..." I said, wincing and inspecting the growing welt on my forearm. It would absolutely bruise if not for the healing properties of nectar and ambrosia.

"Well," Hunter said, examining the bow for damages. "Some good news. First, the bow isn't damaged. I guess your arm took the most of the force. Second, we can probably cross Apollo off your list of potential godly parents."

I popped a small square of ambrosia in my mouth and pouted as she laughed at her own joke, though the effect was ruined by my cheeks puffing out. Hunter just laughed harder.

"So, what is the Waystation?" I asked. We had arrived in Indianapolis after three days of travel on foot. I'm pretty sure that had to have been some kind of record. Apparently some former hunters had set up base in the city and had some news that absolutely couldn't be shared over an Iris Message.

"It's a safe place for us to go in between hunts," Celyn answered. "One of... three places Lady Artemis has set aside for our use, though don't go telling people about it, okay?"

"Three places?"

"Well, there's this place, obviously. Then of course Camp Half Blood, though we don't really like going there. They say all demigods are welcome, but there's a lot of bad blood between the campers and the hunt," Hunter said, chiming in. I frowned, and she laughed. "Nothing like what you're thinking. They're just sore because we always beat them at their capture the flag game when we show up. It's kind of a tradition in a way."

"So what's the third place?" I asked.

"A cozy lodge in the mountains of Colorado," Celyn grinned. "We usually go around the start of Winter. There's skiing if you're into that sort of thing, plenty of trails to hike - as if we don't get enough of that normally. It's also where we go to restock the material for our knives and arrowheads. But really it's just a nice place off the beaten path with nobody around for miles. Cozy and quiet unlike the city. Oh, we're here!"

I looked around. Aside from a couple buildings and the fountain surrounded by empty flower beds, the place was pretty nondescript. I followed with the group as we approached an old, redbrick and granite building that looked like it might have been a train station at one point a long time ago. A clock tower on one side of the building rose nearly two hundred feet into the sky. Okay, maybe not so nondescript.

Above the main entrance of the building, under a marble archway, gleamed an enormous rose window like stained glass in a green copper frame. Carved in granite under the window were the words Onion Station. No, that wasn't right. Union Station!

Ignoring the main entrance, however, Zoë approached the wall to the right. She ran her finger through between the bricks, tracing the rough shape of a rectangular doorway, and the mortar seemed to dissolve as she drew. The newly cut door swung inward revealing a narrow chimney-like chute with metal rungs like a ladder leading upward.

"Welcome to the Waystation," Hunter nudged me with a grin.

For wardrobe reasons, I was the last one up the ladder. The rest of the group had already gone ahead, but thankfully Hunter stayed behind to wait for me. I was in such a hurry to catch up, that I wasn't paying attention where I was going and ran face first into someone coming the other way.

Tamping down my initial response honed by years on the streets of Manhattan, I instead opted for the words Uncle Joe had insisted I use; "Oh, I'm sorr...Wow." My voice trailed off.

The first thing I noticed about the woman was her lack of a top. Don't mistake me for some pervert, though. I mean, okay, she wasn't wearing a shirt. But I meant she didn't have a head! Her shoulders were broad and very hairy, and distinctly lacking a neck or head. Instead, her face seemed to grow out of the front of her chest. She had two large, bulging brown eyes where her breasts might have been, a large nose with a septum piercing protruding from her sternum, and a wide mouth filled with huge teeth in her abdomen.

"You know, it's considered very rude to stare," She said.

"Almost as rude as eating people," Hunter chimed in.

"That is a hurtful stereotype!"

"Hurtful for who? The person you're eating?"

"Is there a problem?" An older woman asked, cocking an eyebrow. She looked to be in her late forties with long greying hair kept in a tight braid reminiscent of the hunt. One look at her was enough to know she wasn't about to take anybody's attitude.

"Not at all," the headless monster woman said, plastering a sickeningly sweet smile that stretched her ribs.

"Just having a polite philosophical discussion," Hunter said.

"Hm," The older woman looked unconvinced, but seeing as nothing had come to blows, decided not to argue. "Just be sure to keep it polite. I'd hate to have to chase someone off. Doesn't mean I won't do it, mind. Just that I wouldn't like it much."

"I was just on my way out," the headless woman said, casting a withering look at Hunter as she left, pulling on a shirt and balancing what looked like a solid bronze helmet on her hairy shoulders.

"What was that?" I asked when I was sure she was out of earshot.

"That was a Blemmyae," The woman replied with a shake of her head. Moments ago, she looked frightening and able to inflict violence. Now she seemed super friendly and welcoming. It was like someone flipped a switch. "On their own, they're fairly harmless as long as you're polite to them. Not very smart, utterly incapable of an original thought, if I'm being honest. But polite to a fault."

"Thanks for that Em," Hunter said, grinning.

"Em?" I asked.

"Oh, who's this? New girl?" Em asked, sizing me up.

"Not quite," Hunter said. "She's temporary."

"Hi, my name is Penny," I said, introducing myself.

"Well, okay then. Good to meet you, Penny. My name's Hemithea." She said, reaching out a hand to shake mine and raising an eyebrow at how warm my hand was. "Or Emmie for short."

"Nice to meet you Emmie," I said. "Thanks for helping out with that."

"No problem," she replied. "The Waystation is a neutral place, and that takes some effort. Now, come on. Jo will probably be fit to burst with the news if we keep her waiting much longer.

We followed Emmie through the Waystation until we reached the rest of the group, at which point she was suddenly embraced by a dark skinned woman. Like Emmie, the other woman looked to be in her late forties - but that was where the similarities ended. She had short cropped dark hair that was greying slightly, and wore a sleeveless shirt that showed off the well toned muscles in her arms.

"So, what's this big news? Zoë asked, once everyone had settled in.

Emmie and Jo shared a glance before saying; "We've decided to have a baby!"

"Agamethus kind of made the decision for us, if we're being honest," Emmie said. "Just turned up with her in his arms."

"Not like we'd choose any different," Jo defended.

There was a beat of stunned silence and then everyone was suddenly on their feet, yelling excitedly or hugging the two women. It seemed like there would be another celebration happening.