All Right Belong to Rick Riordan
We Have A Overdue Conversation
(Percy)
I was having the most surreal morning, and I didn't know what to think of it.
Harmony and I had returned to the island just before dawn and found the camp comparatively spotless.
The only things out of place were the two enormous monsters resting opposite one another. Nemea curled up yet keeping one eye on the Lamia even as she too needed to rest occasionally. One thing I was happy to see however at least, was that someone had managed to shoehorn the previously topless monster into a t-shirt at least.
Almost obscured against the scaled mass behind her was the smaller figure of Delia who had clearly fallen asleep out here, though at least someone had placed a blanket over her. Surrounding her though was veritable field of life as easily a hundred square feet around her was the very antithesis of the rest of this dead island.
Still to compare what she had looked like just over a day ago and now was a stark contrast. Centuries of suffering, both physical and mental were gone. Well maybe not gone per se, she had still unfortunately endured those horrendous things. But it was at least possible for her to have a future of her own choosing, no matter what that may be.
After talking to Harmony, I understood that it was not possible for her to truly become a Hunter again in the same way as the others. But that was not to say, that she did not have other options available to her.
Speaking of whom, Harmony had silently made her way over to the sleeping figure and readjusted the blanket without disturbing either of the pair before beckoning for me to join her inside the main camp area. Taking the long way around because there was zero chance of me moving as quietly as she could, I found myself likewise being followed by the weary and likely very hungry lioness.
"You know if everything would stay this calm and tidy in my absence, I should have gotten two Lieutenants a long time ago." Harmony mused quietly.
"Or perhaps just gotten rid of Tania?" I countered whilst sitting down on a folding chair that seemed to strain a little under my weight.
"I thought you two were playing nice now?"
"She is still a pain in the ass. She just understands a bit better that she is the majority of the problem and not me." I retorted honestly. The two of us were certainly never going to like one another, but we at least understood how far we could take our animosity for one another.
"Eh. Good enough." The goddess said after a short moment's consideration. Before walking inside the small nearby tent that was used for storage of generic camp items. I could just about see her moving about inside for twenty seconds before coming back out holding a pair of empty bronze plates and another chair.
Walking back over she set the chair up right in front of me and took a seat before offering the other plate.
"Ok why are you acting so... normal?" I asked nervously even as I took the tableware from her.
"Remember when we said that we were going to give it a go, being 'normal' that is? For the first time in what feels like forever. There is no reason that we cannot. We are on a remote island, no one can disturb us, Delia has been found. Things SHOULD be nice and calm for a while. So why not?" The beautiful goddess in front of me explained as if this sort of behaviour was completely rational for her.
"Ok as interesting as that sounds, you don't act 'normal' under any circumstances. And that is dysfunctional old me saying that." I responded even as the goddess filled her plate with various cuts of cooked and fried meat topped with a pair of pieces toast. Completely absent was anything that could even be thought of as healthy.
"I was normal until you came along remember, if anything I was unenthusiastic and boring. I am a product of living with you." She countered even as she used her fingers to stuff a whole rasher of greasy bacon into her mouth.
"Hold up, I am not to blame for all your 'quirks'. Sure, maybe some of them certainly, a few more I accept at least partial responsibility. Your recklessness though is most certainly not due to me. You just got a lot more powerful and were able to bullshit yourself to the correct desired outcome."
"Not having a predestined fate anymore probably helps with that." Harmony mused after swallowing her mouthful and causing me to subconsciously look at the silver band on my own finger.
"Anyway, hurry up and eat before Thalia and Zoe turn up, you are going to need your energy later." She said almost enthusiastically.
"I thought we were acting normal?" I asked even as I did summon a mixture of food onto my own plate. The lack of provided cutlery was however honestly kind of annoying. Though I suspected that my chair would not survive me getting up to go get some.
"We will be, obviously mortals like to have sex too." She said with a grin as I let out a deep sigh watching as she followed it by eating a large sausage... whole. Her lack of a gag reflex was something I was well acquainted with by now.
To go back to my earlier point. I didn't make Harmony a nymphomaniac, I merely enabled it.
However, before I could do or say anything further, I became aware of the third individual in this discussion. Nemea's enormous head now so close to my face that her whiskers were tickling my cheek. Her actions almost telling me that if I considered eating before feeding her, I was going to be her food.
"I notice you don't bother Harmony for food?" I asked turning towards the lioness who herself turned and looked at the goddess before looking back and pulling her head back a little as if to say, 'I am not as crazy as you'.
"Fine, go have fun." I said rolling my eyes as a dozen juvenile boars suddenly appeared away from the tents where they would stand in surprise for a few seconds unsure of what was happening.
Then all hell broke loose as screaming pigs were tossed around like bacon ragdolls.
"Wow. Way to go keeping everything quiet. It is not like we have several OTHER square miles you could have released them on." Harmony said sarcastically.
"It's fine. The hunters won't hear a thing." I told her as hypocritically my own eyes glowed golden, everyone else in the camp frozen in time until the last swine was dead or chased off out of earshot.
"I thought I was the one with difficulty acting normal."
"Let's officially start now then." I mumbled before finally beginning to eat my food.
(Thalia)
It was with great reluctance that I climbed off my/our bed and began to stumble around the dark tent. From under the covers came several protestations from Reyna about me being noisy but there was little I could do about it.
Though she now had her own unique responsibility among the Hunter's, no one knew when she would have to use her newfound authority. Me, I had to act as a direct link between a hormonally emotional and erratic goddess and a bunch of eternally pubescent girls. Which meant meeting the goddess first thing every morning upon her return, even when I really wanted to stay in bed with my gorgeous Hispanic girlfriend.
The worst bit however was that there was no guarantee the goddess would even be back in the morning nowadays, so suffering through this could all be for nothing.
Stumbling out into the slowly breaking dawn, I looked around only to find the two immortals staring right at me, seemingly already in the middle of eating breakfast.
"Err. Thals." Percy said nervously quickly averting his eyes.
"Try again dumbass." Harmony shouted bluntly as I squinted back at them before looking down at myself and immediately running back inside the tent to put my skirt on.
As I hurriedly and embarrassingly remedied that I also realised that the reason I had to fight to put my top on so much and reason that it had felt so snug was because it was not mine at all.
Two minutes later and one complaining Reyna later, I stepped back outside to find Harmony still eating. Percy having since replaced his plate that was now beside him on the floor with a steaming mug of what I assumed was coffee.
"Had a rough night?" Harmony teased knowingly, showing far to my enthusiasm for this time of the morning.
"Probably not as rough as yours was, but not all of us get the benefits of looking like you at all times."
"Hehe sounds like a personal problem." The goddess mocked chuckling to herself.
"Anyway, are you not going to tease her for her choice." Harmony said gleefully turning on her fiancé.
"I was there when she brought them, I know more about what is in that tent than I want to know." Seaweed Brain muttered into his coffee as I began to feel even more embarrassed. Then again, I guess I should consider myself lucky that Harmony had never commented about me kissing him back then either.
It was at this point thankfully my counterpart came around the edge of a tent and into view and eyed up the strange situation in front of her. Annoyingly the other girl looked almost as immaculate as the goddess herself, not even a hair out of place. Then again, she also did not have to share a tent with anyone either.
"Morning Lady Harmony, Percy. Evening Thalia." The demi-Titan teased with a smirk.
"Very funny, I am going for a bath after this... Oh no." I added panicking instinctively cringing knowing that I had basically just served up an opportunity for the goddess to give me the water bomb surprise, yet it never came. Instead, I found myself looking back at the evilly smiling goddess.
"Ok what gives, something is wrong here." I asked bluntly and crossed my arms looking between the pair of them. Harmony just sat there looking back before sticking some bacon in her mouth and chewing it still with a smile.
"We are acting normal, which means not abusing our powers all willy-nilly. This was meant to be a vacation of sorts afterall." Percy said finally causing me to laugh as even Zoe looked shocked.
"You two are going to act normal?" I asked taken aback by the absurdity of that statement
"Hey, it was her idea not mine." Percy explained before raising the steaming cup up to his lips.
"Do you not think I can do it sister?" Harmony asked placing the plate upon her knees and crossing her hands in front of her.
"Hades no. You have enough issues acting like a normal goddess as of late."
"Such slanderous accusations." She said feigning offence and turning to her lover.
"And all completely justified considering recent actions." Percy remarked swivelling his head to look into his Fiancée's eyes.
"Anyway, seeing as I can already guess how your evening went Milady, would you like a report on what happened here?" Zoe asked bluntly, her eyes narrowing before receiving a sharp glare from the goddess.
"Et tu Zoe?" Harmony said seemingly joking but her cold metallic eyes were telling a vastly different story.
"You were not exactly subtle before your sudden departure remember. Besides I know more about your sex life than I ever wanted to know." Zoe scolded staring back at the goddess. Were it not for the plate on her lap I was almost certain she would have stood up.
How bad was it though that in contrast, I wanted to know more?
Still to see the normally goody two shoes Zoe arguing with the goddess was almost unimaginable. I wasn't one to talk on that matter, but I at least tried to set a good example with the other hunters. Sure, we were no longer forbidden from relationships but that didn't mean I had to shout about me and Reyna from the rooftops.
"Girls-" Percy interrupted only to be shot withering gazes by the pair of them. Sighing to himself he shrugged and went back to his coffee. Even so his golden eyes had focused on the goddess and not in his usual affectionate way.
"So anyway, as you can see, we didn't burn the island down while you were gone. Though it would probably improve it all things considered." I interjected hoping to calm the situation down, it was really much too early for this shit.
Thankfully the saviour of the situation arrived in the form of a diminutive redheaded girl and her contrastingly massive daughter entering the fray. Suddenly any hostility on the other two girls vanished.
"Good Morning Lady Harmony." Delia said while politely bowing to the goddess behind her the monster silently did the same.
"To you too Delia and you as well Aika. How was your evening?" Harmony said cheerfully in complete contrast to how she had been less than a minute before.
"Calm all things considered." Delia responded smiling.
"That's good to hear. I noticed you did not choose to use a tent like the other?"
"With respect Milady, I have spent far too long beneath the ground and unable to see the stars. Besides, I would be a terrible nymph if I could not stand the climate of my own homeland." Delia said laughing to herself.
"What of you Aika?"
"The lioness kept staring at me... I think she is hungry." She said almost nervously.
"She should be fine now. I think." Percy answered and I couldn't help but notice a nearby patch of disturbed soil that had a not so small splatter of red liquid splattered around it.
"Anyway, we were just going to discuss the status of the camp, you may as well listen in while you are here." Harmony told us.
(Percy)
Throughout the following discussion I chose to stay quiet and observe. As I stated before, the Hunt and its internal affairs were not my problem. Besides these meetings normally fell under the category of things that I generally didn't need to know about, but occasionally there might be something of interest brought up by the goddess and her Lieutenant. But that was rarely the case, so at this point I used to go and sleep and if something was of interest, Artemis would no doubt tell me later.
That something in this case clearly being that Zoe was bothered by Harmony's behaviour and to be honest I could not exactly blame her. Sure, some of the fault also lay with me for facilitating it but it was not like I could do a lot about it. She was living a power trip that would make her father jealous and loving every moment of it or so it seemed. So, if she was willing to act 'normal' it would at least be interest to watch.
Besides it was also clear that when it came to Delia, Harmony became full on Bipolar.
Sure, she was obviously trying to get on the lost hunter's good side, but it was almost creepy to watch and several times I had locked eyes with Thalia who was clearly thinking something similar.
Still there were only so many mundane things that could be discussed before this 'meeting' was finally over. Low and behold the two Lieutenants were capable of doing their jobs when left to it. It wasn't like they plenty of practice between them.
Still hearing that they were going to return to normal training again now that the Delia situation was 'resolved' was good to hear.
With everything discussed the parties went their separate ways. Zoe seemingly not keen to hang around Harmony after their earlier argument had elected to continue taking the lead with Delia and Aika. What with the fact that some of the others were beginning to wake up, she took them over to where Atlanta and Phoebe were now sitting getting their own breakfast.
Thalia though less involved in that dispute, took her leave too returning to her nearby tent before reappearing with an almost equally dishevelled Reyna two minutes later and some toiletries before heading towards the coast.
The lack of fresh running water on this island was a major pain in the ass. Then again it was to be expect when a certain aunt of mine had killed the river nymph, and the forest nymph... and almost the plains one.
I was ok of course. There was a shower at Harmony's palace. The issue there was actually being given a chance to use it for its intended purpose.
Still with them all gone it just left the two of us together.
Unbelievably throughout everything Harmony was still eating. The plate having refilled no fewer than three times over the course of that one short meeting.
"You don't need to tell me." Harmony said suddenly as she finally put the empty plate down.
"I am not saying nothing."
"Your expression over that entire meeting told me enough. I went too far with Zoe, and I should not have snapped at you-." She said apologising before I cut her off, tensions had been rising around here for a while and after actually speaking to Tania and watching what had played out a short while ago.
I had to finally make something of an intervention, unfortunately for me there was literally no one else who could do it.
"Not here." I told her before carefully rising to my feet and leading her away through the encampment until we were about two hundred yards away.
"How you choose to interact with your hunters is your decision. I respect that. However, there is not any need to be an intolerable bitch to them though. Remember that they have given up or lost everything to become part of this group. Almost all of them did so having an impression of what you as Artemis represented. The oaths, the future that they would never have, they accepted it all. When we revealed our relationship, they even accepted that and chose to stick by you... by us. They want to support you in your time of need. Was that not the original founding purpose of the Hunt? They were meant to be your supporters, your priestesses, surrogate daughters even, yet often you seem to abuse that fact." I told her sincerely looking directly at her before she silently nodded, genuine guilt and shame on her face.
"What you need to do is stop throwing everything in their faces like a spoilt toddler. You may be powerful and feel like you can do anything by yourself. We have all seen what happens when you can't. You turn into a mental trainwreck worse than you ever used to do and even worse you begin to lose control of your own power. Yet even so still they stick around even though you could kill them all by merely existing nearby. However, the worst thing about any of this by far is us..." I told her with a sigh as eyes suddenly became panicked and her nostrils flared.
"What-what do you mean?" She demanded frantically, sure enough in just a few seconds, her aura was rising sharply. Taking her away from the camp was clearly the correct decision.
"We must be utterly insufferable to be nearby, sure they may be 'allowed' to get into relationship and all that fun stuff now. But realistically what chance do they have of doing so? With the exception for a pair of certain individuals, two people I am still not entirely convinced that they do not want to drag me somehow into a threesome that I want no part of. The rest have seemingly zero interest or zero chance of ever being able to act on that newfound freedom. But for those who are at least interested in the possibility, they might as well be someone dying of thirst looking at us two throwing a damn pool party. Then when they politely ask us to at least turn the volume down, to discuss it. You go crazy and turn the volume up to eleven." I explained bluntly albeit not as well as I would have liked.
"I-I..." Harmony stuttered before ultimately shamed silence took over. The aura around her collapsing suddenly. Walking over to her I pulled her into a hug.
"As I said they and I will always be there for you. You just need to learn to read the room a little better. We came to this island for everyone to calm down after all the recent excitement. A month ago, they were battling a deranged primordial for my sake, then the war game. Morganna is still who knows where. These times have not exactly been easy on any of them either. So, when the two of us inadvertently create more stress every day and then do a disappearing act leaving them to pick up the pieces, we are not helping things." I told her honestly explaining the brutal truth of the matter and fully accepting my own fault in it.
As I had explained the full realisation seemed to hit and she buried her face into my chest. Her breathing ragged as she quietly began to sob. Ever so slightly I lowered the pair of us to the floor, the goddess not fighting this as she continued to hide her face.
Cupping the back of her head softly, I would let her have as much time as she needed to recompose herself.
(Zoe)
It was by complete coincidence that I was able to observe the couple. I just so happened to be sitting in just the right position that allowed me to narrowly see between two tents to where they had wandered off.
For obvious reasons I could not hear a word that was being said, and after our argument this morning. I would have almost been happy for that to be the case, perhaps my new heritage did have some effect on my attitude as well as my abilities. But despite my recently reacquired authority I could not just accept the goddess's childish attitude for much longer. She had almost zero concern for the repercussions of her actions. Combined with her outright dereliction yesterday when she just left me with having to deal with a very confused Delia to go frolic with her lover. The whole scenario had left me feeling somewhat uncharacteristically angry and resentful. Two feelings I had never experienced with the goddess before.
Still, not being able to hear what they were saying seemed irrelevant as it turned out. The body language of the two clearly showed that the Titan Lord too had finally chosen to confront Harmony on the issues that were plaguing us all.
To see the goddess slumped on the floor, didn't bring me any satisfaction at all, no matter how much she had annoyed me of late. However, that was not to say that it didn't need to happen. It didn't matter who spoke to her whether it was me, Thalia, any of the other hunters, Lady Leto. None of us were able to talk directly to Harmony in the same way as he could. From a relationship, emotional, and even power standpoint it had to be him, and I was happy to see that he had recognised that fact before it was too late.
"Zoe! You're spacing out." Atlanta shouted snapping my attention away from the couple sitting on the dusty earthen floor and back to my fellow hunters around me.
"Sorry, I was just thinking about some things that I want to get sorted now." I lied noticing for the first time now that Phoebe was getting Delia to sample all sorts of sweet baked breakfast treats. The delighted look on the nymph's face clearly showing that she was enjoying every one of them.
Aika though did not seem to have the sweet tooth of her mother, seemingly only reluctantly eating whatever her mother offered her.
Until the most shocking thing I had witnessed since my 'resurrection' occurred.
Nemea suddenly appeared out of shadows in the middle of our small group, only narrowly avoiding squashing poor Atlanta who was forced to dive out of the way. Jumping up myself I was surprised to see her drop a boar carcass in front of the Lamia.
Sure, it'd had its throat torn out by a razor-sharp claw and the back of its neck was a little chewed up from where she had carried it. But other than that, the beast was basically intact, and Nemea seemed to be offering it a peace token to the other monster.
For her part Aika seemed a mixed of terrified and confused as she stared back into the eyes of the massive golden feline before Nemea dipped her head and nudged the dead swine towards her assertively. Making her intentions extremely clear despite her seeming inability to communicate normally. We had asked Satyrs and Fauns if they could understand the Sacred Beast but they had just as much joy as the two resident immortals around here. She was basically a mute yet able to convey her will by pure body language alone.
"T-thank you?" Aika said nervously before the now satisfied Lioness suddenly shrunk down to cub size and jumped onto Phoebe's lap and promptly curled up watching the proceeds unfolding.
For the next minute everyone looked silently between the snake-girl, the dead animal and the lion cub. Worse though was looking at Aika and seeing the almost longing look on her face as she looked down at the offered 'meal'. I had no doubts if we were not here, she would have already began consuming it.
"I don't want to watch this, but I am so curious..." Atlanta protested in English, so as to not upset either the monster or her mother.
"I am just going to stretch my legs, would any one like to join me?" Delia asked suddenly rising to her feet and immediately beginning to walk away from the scene.
"Oh, thank the gods... Ouch Nemea!" Phoebe exclaimed thankfully before she exclaimed as a small golden claw dug into her lap. The sacred beast lifting her head up to look at the French girl, the silent gesture being given that no, you stay here.
"On second thought I am no longer curious at all, let me know." Atlanta said laughing as she sprinted after Delia.
"Zoe!" She pleaded futilely as I walked past her and looked across at the Lamia...Wait, was her mouth always that wide? Reaching down she bent her human torso down and picked up the boar with a hand under each of its forelegs. I wasn't one to comment on a person's strength but the ease of which she picked up a two-hundred-pound boar clearly showed I at least had some competition. Still, I watched though as she lifted the lifeless creatures face level with her own.
' . I am not watching that' I suddenly thought frantically as I could have sworn, I saw the top of Aika's head tilt back on her neck like it was on a gods damned hinge.
Grabbing Nemea by the scruff of her neck, I lifted the protesting golden fur ball off Phoebe and took off running, the scratched up other girl scrambling to her feet not far behind me.
(Thalia)
"What the hell did I miss!" I demanded looking at the eclectic group of girls in front of me.
"Breakfast." Zoe said with a shudder. It took me a few seconds to notice the ball of golden fur still clutched in her hand. Despite her circumstances Nemea seemed to be completely unperturbed and if anything seemed quite content with slowly swinging back and forth in Zoe's grasp.
"What the hell... wait if Delia is here where is Aika...Oh I get it." I said quickly putting two and two together.
"I have seen enough of the inside of a Lamia; I try to avoid that memory as much as possible." Delia said responding despite the fact I had spoken in English.
"You understood me?" I asked her after switching back to speaking Greek.
"No. I heard both our names and guessed what you were talking about." She admitted.
"At least I understand how Nemea eats people, that is so much more terrifying." A white-faced shivering Phoebe. Come to think of it her tights were not to shreds on her thighs and long red scratches could be seen.
"Oh, damn I missed it." I complained before realising everyone was looking at me.
"Yeah, that curiosity doesn't last long when you watch her head tilt back at the jaw." Phoebe explained doing nothing to quell my curiosity or if anything making it worse.
"That sounds awesome."
"That's because Thalia, you're really weird." Reyna said from beside me, her wet hair still wrapped up in a towel. I didn't even comment, compared to most of the others here, my tastes were unique.
"I need a drink and a lie down." Phoebe said shaking her head and turning to leave.
"What as in drink alcohol? It's six-thirty in the morning!" I shouted towards her in surprise.
"I'll be fine, I'm French." Came back her simple reply as she waved me off. So much for my authority in this case.
"Hold on, you have alcohol in your tent?" I asked turning on Atlanta.
"Yeah so? Since when did that become forbidden for us? I am pretty sure both of us are older than your country. In case you haven't noticed, our goddess is not exactly teetotal herself and we don't blow holes in countries. Besides I am sure you have stuff you hide in your tent too." Atlanta queried and I realised very quickly I needed to drop this conversation right now. I was not going to be winning any 'I will show you mine, if you show me your games'. One look through that tent door currently and the two of us would be instantly busted.
Crap was this what those two had felt like all that time?
"Hey, I wasn't saying you couldn't, I just never knew about it." I told her apologising and seemingly looking at her face, managing to change the subject.
"How on Olympus did I never know?" Zoe asked seemingly surprised by this development herself.
"Because you would have ratted us out to Artemis." Atlanta said bluntly.
"That's fair." The demi-Titan conceded quickly.
"Besides do you know how hard it was to get that sometimes?"
"I can only imagine how the FASTEST human on the planet would have managed it." I told her as she winked and smiled back at me.
"I was always back in time though." She said proudly.
"So, any interest in sharing?" I asked curiously.
"No... not after how you made a fool of yourself in New Rome." Atlanta answered bluntly causing Reyna to chuckle. Atlanta only knew the half of it.
"In fairness she made a fool of herself before she got drunk, which is what lead to that wargame in the first place." Reyna countered causing me to glare at her.
"You were not much better either, the only person worse than you two was Hylla. Who somehow thought no one would notice her pleasuring Hermes in the backroom."
"Hehe." Reyna said laughing in embarrassment at her sister's expense.
"I think we should be good to go back now." Delia interrupted getting back on to the reason we had ran into the group in the first place.
"Oh right." Atlanta said before turning back towards the camp on her own.
"Thalia, can I have a quick word with you alone?" Zoe asked as the others looked between the pair of us.
"Reyna, can you take Delia back with you while we talk?" I told her as she looked down uncomfortably at Delia. The fact the two couldn't communicate directly being a major pain in the ass. Fortunately, with Zoe asking me in Greek, Delia herself seemed to understand what was happening as the two nodded and began to walk back in silence. At this point Zoe seemed to finally remember that she was still holding onto a quietly unbothered Nemea and finally let her to the floor.
Taking one final look at us the small cub loped up the path on her stubby legs to catch up with the others.
"So, what's the matter?" I asked turning back to Zoe.
"For thousands of years, I have served Lady Artemis and not once in that time up until my death did, I ever argue with her. I may have not necessarily liked her orders, but they were always absolute. I put her word in front of my beliefs because I believed that I owed it to her. Since my 'resurrection' however I have become conflicted. Whilst it has long been obvious to me that the Hunt I left and the one I returned to, were two very different things. I can understand and work within the group as I have long done. Rather than a dozen new recruits over say, two decades. Instead, I have had the same number over a month, which while chaotic was fine because I was able to rely on you to lead them whilst I merely observed. The problem is-"
"Lady Harmony." I said simply cutting her off as she quietly nodded.
"Out of curiosity, what was the lowest number of Hunters you ever had under you?"
"I am not sure low twenties after the fall of Rome, recruitment basically stopped for a century as the Olympians were scattered across western and central Europe."
"At this exact time last year, there were only seven of us left. We had almost no hope, Artemis was in such a bad state that she was rarely ever around. When she was here, she basically did nothing all day. Only sleeping before once again returning to the chariot. I truly thought I was going to be remembered as the Lieutenant that destroyed the Hunt. I had to plead and beg before finally choosing to scream and shout at her to finally ask the other Olympians for any form of help at all. If I had not, she would not have done a damned thing, chances are we would have all been killed by now. Thankfully we would eventually gain a few more members from Camp Half-Blood like Morganna and Erika. Unsurprisingly not many people are willing to volunteer to join a group where every time you look at them there is less and less of them. At long last though we stopped losing any more until finally Percy arrived. She may be our patron, our goddess, my sister, she has never been infallible, and she will always do dumb senseless shit. There is no point in beating yourself up over pointing it out." I told her openly while looking out over the calm ocean.
"I am sorry to hear that things had gotten so bad here."
"As chaotic as the last seven months have been since Percy arrived, I have not had to hold the hand of a dead or dying sister in all that time. If you were to ask myself from a year ago if they wanted all that stress or to carry on as things were going. She would ask how soon he could start?"
"I owe you an apology."
"No, you don't. Nothing will change the past, not even Harmony can rewrite the story of life. Just remember you are the main character in your own story, not my sister. You did that once already, don't waste this miracle of a second chance only doing the same thing again. If you see an opportunity to try something new, do it. She is not in any position to judge believe me." I told her honestly.
"Once upon a time I would have considered that Heresy." She said calmly standing beside me and looking out over the Aegean.
"So, what changed then?"
"Me I guess."
"In that case welcome back to the real world. Sometimes it is more than a little shit. But all you need to do is pick yourself up, grab a shovel and throw it at some other poor bastard."
"You ruined it." Zoe said laughing.
"Nah I think it was good enough, now come on I want to see what is going on with Aika." I told her before patting her on the back and running back towards the camp.
She caught up with and overtook me within forty feet.
'Harmony, couldn't I have possibly got some longer legs to go along with the boobs?' I thought playfully, then again I guess only the goddess herself got the complete package of desirable traits.
"I have so many questions, yet I don't think I really want the answers." I said after looking at the scene in front of me for a full minute. Around me most of the other Hunters were now awake and were either looking at the scene with curiosity or looking away in disgust.
The Lamia was lying on the floor almost completely extended out lengthways. Yet about four feet below where her 'human' torso ended there was a notable bulge in her scaly mass, where her meal was now lodged.
'How did it get down there? Her organs should have been in the way, right? What would happen if I poked the bulge. How long would she be like this?'
Even as I watched a muscular spasm descended her body from her torso to the obstruction and sure enough it moved down a few inches, worse though was the sound of cracking bones clearly coming from inside her as the boar's carcass was compressed a little more.
And with that I suddenly found my curiosity sated, that was disturbing to watch. If she was a normal Lamia, that could have very well been a person. That almost was the case with Delia.
Turning my attention away from that scene I narrowly caught sight of Harmony and Percy, sitting in the middle of a field a good way away. The goddess sitting in front of him leaning against his chest as his arms wrapped around her stomach.
Almost like she knew I was watching I noticed Harmony's head lift up and stare right back at me. The look on her face as far from the usual smug superiority she normally exhibited as could be. Her face was pale and there was more than enough evidence of her having been crying.
Feeling like I was intruding in their personal business I quickly averted my eyes and returned to the assembled hunters around me. Raising my fingers to my mouth I whistled loudly for everyone's attention. Even the otherwise prone Aika seemed to raise her head up to look at my disturbance.
"Alright everyone, as I am sure everyone has probably noticed with everything going on. Training around her has gotten a little lax recently. The good news is as of now, we are going back to normal. You have two minutes to get back here with your full combat kit... now go. Last one back gets to run around the island twice rather than once." I ordered causing a cacophony of groans and complaints as Hunters and Huntresses scattered into different directions.
Strangely even Zoe ran off, despite the fact that she A) still didn't have a suitable bow, B) already had her knives strapped behind her back.
Sure, enough within a few minutes almost everyone was back and already complaining.
"I feel like I have a disadvantage here." Reyna complained sarcastically, sporting a full-size cavalry shield and golden gladius on top of her other Hunter weapons unlike everyone else.
Come to think of it, with Tania missing I was the only Greek hunter with more than the usual allowance of weaponry.
The last two back were Atlanta who had intentionally slow walked the entire time, trying to be the last one and yet she still had beaten Zoe. Who came almost a full two minutes later, and the reason why was evident as she could be heard before being seen.
The demi-Titan had chosen to wear the full set of Orthrytic Silver armour that she had worn during the War game.
She was supposed to have given it back to Atlas after the game, but between our own issues and unbeknownst to me his relationship with a certain goddess of storms. That had not happened yet. Personally, I wished she would keep it, it looked awesome. Sure, it might need some alterations here or there to better suit a girl rather than a male but that was only minor.
"You didn't need to go that far Zoe." I told her pinching my nose.
"Do you think I can't keep up?" The armoured girl challenged locking gauntlets together and cracking her fingers.
"No, I am more worried that you are going to finish both laps before the rest of us finish our first." I told her laughing as some of the other girls looked nervous.
"That's alright if she does, we go again. And tomorrow we will do it again, until it doesn't happen." I told them noticing that Atlanta was whispering to Delia, clearly translating what I was saying. Afterall, if I spoke in Greek Reyna and Suzie wouldn't understand.
Suddenly from behind me I heard a commotion as the Lamia pulled herself up and began to curl up her snake section. All sign of the bulge in it now gone. Whether that meant she had really digested it already or simply crushed it thin enough inside her was anyone's guess.
"Whatever you are doing, I will take part." She said simply whilst stretching her arms above her head.
"Well, I guess that will make things interesting. How good are you at running?" I asked as around me several girls laughed as the monster pulled a face.
"You just volunteered daughter. Here is your chance." Delia called out and with that simple sentence sure enough the Lamia seemed to sigh with grim reluctance.
"Right then on your marks, set, go!" I shouted as everyone followed the silver blur that was Atlanta towards the coastline.
I realised something very quickly once we hit the beach. I never made any restrictions. I just said we had to go around the island. I didn't say that Marina couldn't just swim around the damned thing, which while not exactly the correct thing to do she was at least still exercising doing it.
Jacqueline... She had just hopped on the back of a suddenly supersized Nemea and was riding the Sacred Beast about a hundred yards in front of the rest of the main group.
Of course, Nemea could quite happily overtake even the daughter of Apollo who was already a half mile ahead and already about to turn around the corner into the northern bay area of the island. Still with the two youngest and generally slowest Hunters, playing the system the rest of us were pretty evenly matched.
Of course, Zoe was about half as far between us and Atlanta currently, outpacing almost everyone despite her armour, then again that was hardly surprising with her heritage. Only the otherwise hyper competitive Phoebe remaining level with her, something she could probably maintain for an entire lap or even two at that pace before the daughter of Nike would be exhausted too.
Surprisingly the shocking one was Aika, despite her initial grumbling, she was quite agile. She appeared to be quite capable of keeping up with the main group, albeit she trailed behind us a little so as to avoid anyone else colliding with her trailing tail that slithered from side to side aggressively. However, to keep up that sort of pace, she was certainly not as stealthy as the rest of us. I had seen her move at a normal 'walking' pace, and she was indeed capable of remaining relatively quiet, but clearly her physique did not allow her to scale that upwards.
As it was, I found myself lagging near the back of our group, along with Reyna and the twins. For once this was not intentional, we both had a lot more kit to carry and unlike Zoe, we felt it. Besides with the twins here, it gave me an opportunity to shout at the pair to move their asses.
As I watched Atlanta disappear out of view, I already realised that I did not want to run around this island again today.
(Percy)
The two of us had been largely silent for the last hour or so, apart from when the goddess would occasionally whisper that she was sorry. Instead of responding every time I just continued to hug her close to me.
It was good to see that the hunters had seemingly decided to return to training and were last seen leaving as a group towards the beach on the opposite side of the camp with all their combat gear. This meant that we did not have to worry about them staring at the two of us thankfully.
"Was I really that blind to it all?" She asked, her voice tinged with sadness.
"I think it is better to say, you just were not looking. This has been quietly simmering for quite some time now. Strange as it is, I spend more time with the hunters than you do. They can see that you play favourites and worse you wouldn't explain your decisions. Obvious now they know about us, some of those make a bit more sense. But since you became Harmony, you haven't really cared about anything that didn't bring you satisfaction."
"But how am I supposed to fix this!" She snapped bitterly trying to rise up but stopped by my arms still wrapped around her.
"Easy, go and spend time with them. HELP them. LISTEN to them. You may even learn something from them." I told her sincerely.
"I'm still such an idiot." Came her eventual response.
"Maybe so, but you are my incredibly beautiful idiot." I whispered into her ear causing her to grind backwards against me.
"Later, now come on then, let me teach you how to be normal." I told her backing away before rising to my feet. Holding out a hand to the disappointed goddess and helping her up. It may have been the light but in that moment, I could have sworn that both of her eyes were silver before with a blink they were back to normal again.
Not letting go of her hand, I lead her back to the empty camp. From up here you could see the nearest beach section and make out the lithe figure of Atlanta alone looking around, to see if anyone else was nearby. That being the case she seemed to shrug and take off running again, seemingly happy to do another lap.
Finally letting go of her hand, I pulled my jacket off and tossed it to one side as the confused goddess now looked at me.
"You want to see if we can catch up with them? Should be fun." I told her grinning before turning and running towards the beach.
I could feel the distance between me and the goddess widening, and I was not sure If the goddess was willing to play. However, it was not even ten seconds before it suddenly began to shrink rapidly and suddenly as I looked over my shoulder, I saw a flash of silver and a trailing comet of auburn hair pass me as the goddess smirked.
As much as I wanted to stand in awe, I realised that if I wanted to keep staring at the goddess's pert backside as motivation, I would need to keep up. Pushing myself harder I endeavoured to do so for as long as possible. Fortunately, even though I had mostly focused on strength whilst alone at Orthrys, I had gotten more than enough Cardio practice done in the last few weeks.
After a while it was quite clear that Harmony was not going a fraction of her full speed as I had no doubt that she could catch the daughter of Apollo if she tried, but from the occasional time she would turn around to make sure I was still near to her, I could see a radiant smile upon her face.
See despite her thoughts, she could enjoy herself in mundane ways. She just needed a push to try these things out.
Ten minutes later as we were coming south along the western side of the island we had caught up with the main body of the Hunt. The massive figure of Aika the first to be seen, but it was clear that she was only just trailing the others. Atlanta however it seemed to have clearly lapped them as she was not amongst them now.
However, I think they were all shocked to see the pair of us pass them on outside of the beach.
Come to think of it, they were all wearing their full battle gear whereas the two of us were technically unburdened by our weapons, though strictly speaking that was not true for either of us. We just didn't need to always carry ours as weapons all the time.
"Last one back gets to eat Harmony's cooking." I shouted over my shoulder as I passed Thalia and the others. That threat being sure to push them harder.
"I will have you know; MY cooking has never poisoned anyone." The offended goddess called back to me, now running backwards yet still being as fast as I was normally. Amusingly in doing so, her hair was now having an existential crisis and was all over the place.
"Only on the technicality that you haven't cooked anything." I shouted playfully as a tongue was stuck out simply in response before, she turned around and took off on her own.
Sure enough, I had stood no chance as the distance between us widened by the second. Before long she was around the southern tip of the island.
Slowing off my own pace significantly I allowed the group of Hunters to catch up with me.
"Now you see, that is why you don't challenge a goddess, Seaweed Brain." Thalia said laughing.
"Yeah, yeah laugh all you want. We will see who is laughing later." I told her playfully as I matched their speed and chose to stray with them for the rest of the lap of the island. Upon getting to the starting point at the slope back to the camp that I realised that neither Atlanta nor the goddess were here.
It was only a minute or two later that a pair of figures could be seen coming around the beach, one of them being fully armoured in silver armour. Arriving only a minute later with Phoebe not far behind the demi-Titan seemed to be the only one that was upset that she had not managed to lap the rest of them.
So, waiting with everyone else as they caught their breath or in Jacquelines case. Handed out drinks to everyone else, the young girl having ridden Nemea back to camp and retrieved canteens of water for the others.
Looking south every so often, we eventually caught sight of the two silver figures now sprinting full speed up the beach. Each of them seemed a blur as they kicked up sand behind them trying to stay in front of the other. Atlanta having clearly discarded her bow and knives at some point as she was now lacking them.
Sure, enough though eventually they ran out of race as the pair passed the others. The Argonaut barely able to maintain a slight distance over the goddess, though judging by the heavy breathing she was now struggling with, any longer and the goddess would have caught up with her.
Harmony whilst not struggling in the same way as the hunter still looked clearly winded by the exertion. Atlanta had enjoyed a significant head start over the goddess after all and she had managed to shorten it down to a few yards at most.
Still, it was good to see the other Hunters cheering on one of their own, beating Harmony at anything even in an informal and stacked way was still a feat almost no one could claim. Hell, I could barely claim to beat her at anything that could be considered family friendly.
"Girls!" The goddess called out getting the attention of everyone gathered here.
"It has come to my attention recently that I have been a pretty terrible goddess as of late. Or more accurately I have been like every other goddess, self-absorbed and narcissistic and I would like to apologise to all of you for my conduct over the last few weeks. I will try to be better, for all of us." She explained apologetically before bowing her head a little towards them.
"Who are you and what did you do with Harmony? Seaweed Brain!" Thalia shouted at me, albeit clearly in jest as shown by her smile.
"She is still the real deal I swear."
"If you want to check. You are more than welcome to challenge me to anything you want my Lieutenant, if it so please you." Harmony told her and between the slow pant she still had and the almost sadistic smile on her face. Thalia decided to firmly keep her mouth shut.
"How about a friendly bit of arm wrestling. I too am your Lieutenant Milady." The armoured girl called out almost eager.
'Oh fuck.' The goddess said simply in my mind as the others began to smile around us. As it was, I let her off for technically breaking the rules, speaking psychically was not 'normal' but she had bigger things to worry about.
"Owwww. I said be gentle." Harmony complained despite the fact I was doing exactly that.
As it turns out Harmony whilst capable of brute forcing chronomancy on anything else, me included. Could not do so to herself. So, despite already consuming a copious quantity of Nectar and Ambrosia, she had no easy instant way of healing her thoroughly crushed hand. Which is why I was trying my best to hold an ice pack against it despite her protestations.
As it turns out, Zoe was not only strong enough to easily win an arm-wrestling contest, but she can also quite happily stop someone from trying to throw said contest, despite the flailing going on from the goddess opposite her.
Of course, there was no direct need for her to be as rough as she had been, but hopefully with this out of the way. Zoe having gotten some form of payback and the goddess being introduced to the concept of humility. The two could reconcile and work together properly again.
"It is only a bit of swelling; it will be good as new before you know it." Zoe said from across the tent leaning against one of the poles.
"Are you quite done?" The goddess asked glaring. To date this was the only time the goddess had been physically injured by anything and she was clearly not happy about it.
"Are you done sharing your personal life?" Zoe countered smugly.
"Both of you behave. You are both more than old enough and supposedly mature enough to let this die now and move on." I told them both sternly.
"Very well. Is there anything I can do for you Milady?" Zoe asked sweetly as the goddess gritted her teeth before locking eyes with me and finally with a roll of her eyes, she lifted her good hand and gestured for the Hunter to leave.
Waiting until I had heard the tent door to flap closed, I leaned forward and gently kissed her.
"As much as you might hate this, it is not a bad thing in the long run. It humanises you to them, it shows that even you are not completely perfect."
"No. It bloody hurts is what it does." Harmony said bitterly.
"I got my hand cut off; so, I think you will be fine. It is only a bit of bruising. I remember that you sure as hell were not gentle with me afterwards. But here let me kiss it better." I told her playfully lowering my hand and kissing her hand. The following light slap around the back of my head fully within my expectations.
"I don't remember you complaining at the time smartass." She said rolling her eyes and beginning to smile a little.
"That may be the first time someone has called me smart to my face." I said proudly.
"I also called you an ass."
"Nah you must have been confusing me with Perseus on that one. Now come on, we are still on the clock and those girls are not going to babysit themselves. And because someone must babysit you, I guess I need to go too."
"I am so going to make you pay for this later."
"Not with that hand you're not." I teased making an obscene hand gesture that caused her to glare at me again.
The rest of the morning and early afternoon went by with a relative calmness. Despite Harmony's vocal complaints earlier her hand was once again completely fine within an hour or so.
Thus allowing her to get revenge for losing the race to Atlanta by utterly trouncing her in an archery match. Just to remind her niece who was at the top of the summit when it came to firing thin pointy sticks at things far away. Thankfully she was using a borrowed bow to do so, as to avoid rearranging the archaeologically significant terrain at least.
The surprising thing was that Aika and Delia both freely took part in this contest. The pair firmly rounding out the top five of the girls who competed. With only Atlanta, Thalia and shockingly Amy beating the two of them. Bearing in mind, Delia was using a borrowed bow she had never used before and no way of practising for thousands of years due to her injuries.
In contrast Aika was using her own self-made bow which while crude and of ancient style was clearly very effective. As a further reminder the Lamia did not have any divine blessing to help her, she just had a whole lot of practise and very clearly a good instructor.
Still having reminded the other girls who was top of the food chain, Harmony had mellowed out and was seemingly happy just to lounge around and enjoy the sunshine that was bathing the island.
Around four in the afternoon the two of us, who had in all honesty been napping lying against the side of the Lioness. (Which despite most logical rationale, an armour-plated lioness provided a surprising comfy cushion.) However, I found myself being awoken by a sound of a young girl laughing with amusement, to my right the goddess snapped upright and stared forward at the floating Iris message image in front of her.
"Aunt Hestia." Harmony said quickly and politely even as I needed to blink a few times and slowly pulled myself up to recognise her. Even Nemea too pulled herself into a crouched position behind me, her large head looming over mine and looking down at the contrasting image of the oldest Olympian. (She probably thought that if Hestia were here, there would be sandwiches.)
"I don't know what your father is so worried about, you looked so cute and harmless. The pair of you that is." Hestia teased as the 'younger' goddess next to me began to blush.
"I thought it was agreed that no one could contact us?" I asked only curiously only for the little girl to look at me and click her tongue as she rolled her flaming eyes.
"Do you really think I care about my little brother's agreements? Besides this is not a social call, I was just letting you know that the daughter of Hecate will be returning soon."
"Morganna is ok then?" I asked surprised at the announcement.
"Mostly I guess... she is not exactly as she was when you last saw her."
"I certainly hope not, the last thing I want to do is teach a massive black dragon archery." Harmony joked as I had to chuckle at the sudden mental image. I was imagining her standing on her hind legs, using her tail for support as she fired telegraph pole sized arrows, drawing the bow with her teeth.
She would still be better than me no doubt.
"I know what is running through your head and I have no doubt she would be." Harmony said looking at me knowingly as I could but simply grin.
"From the way Zeus explains the pair of you, I was expecting to come across a relationship similar to Typhon and Echidna. This is almost amusingly mundane and heartwarming."
"Oh, believe me, there is a very different side that you are not going to get to see." I said as the goddess beside me giggled childishly.
"Please do keep it that way. I am quite proud of being the last true virgin goddess, Athena honestly cheats the system." She said frowning at that last statement.
"I have a strong suspicion that there will be another soon." Harmony retorted.
"And she can take your place in the club in around four and half thousand years." The little girl in front of me said smugly, crossing her arms and for once sounding like her looks.
"What about the seven?" I asked only for both women to start laughing.
"I suppose we could petition my brother to allow a virgin god title for Valdez." Hestia said as the younger goddess nodded in agreement.
Holy shit, I didn't know the god of fire could get burned that badly. Hestia was spitting pure fire at his expense.
"But seriously Mclean is already well off the table, Hazel I would not imagine is far behind and as for Annabeth... Well, that remains to be seen, young Nico will have to deal with Athena's wrath if he so much as holds her hand after dark for too long. So perhaps there is a chance. But we are getting off topic..." The now flustered goddess said snapping back to the point of her visit and not gossiping at the expense of others, thankfully. I too was happy to be off the subject of Annabeth and my other cousin's newly revealed relationship.
Despite my initial infamous reaction, I was genuinely happy for them both. However, I sure as hell did not want to know any details about it. My following trip to the Underworld if that was the case would make Zoe and Harmony's earlier argument look like friendly banter.
As a rule of thumb, I didn't talk intimate details about our relationship, that was all the goddesses.
"So back to the subject of my errant hunter then. You said she would be back soon. Then where is she?" Harmony asked getting back to the matter at hand.
"Camp Half-Blood currently. Apparently, according to Hecate she very adamantly wanted to meet Ares's daughter."
"But we only just finished rebuilding the camp!" I shouted playfully as the small goddess looked around herself.
"Fortunately, everything is still intact for the moment, the pair of them have wandered off somewhere to be private." Hestia explained as Harmony seemed to be concentrating on something.
"Oh, turns out Clarisse is pregnant." Harmony said completely randomly throwing both me and the goddess on the other end of the call off kilter.
"Wait what..." I said flabbergasted as I stared at her.
"Clarisse?" Hestia said simply in disbelief.
"How the hades?"
"Well, you see when two demigods... does it matter. Morganna is literally talking to her now about it." The goddess said her face now stern and concentrating again. Something else she was more than happy to violate was privacy even when it technically had nothing to do with the Hunt it seemed. That was not even going into the grievous misuse of her hunter monitoring powers when it came to Thalia and Reyna. In much the same way as Zoe didn't want to hear about us two, I wasn't in a rush to hear about what they got up to in the evenings.
"I am going to have to speak to Chiron and Athena about this aren't I." Hestia groaned to herself before taking a deep breath and smiling once again.
"Anyway, I will send Morganna your way once she is done here, you are still on Delos, correct?" Hestia asked her voice suddenly sounding much more mature and closer to her actual age as I nodded smiling. A few seconds later the image disappeared into a brief rainbow before being gone completely.
I mean sure Clarisse was two years older than me and Chris had to be at least a year older. I had never really had a chance to speak to the guy to be honest, but seeing as his being incapacitated in the war game was the cause of her going all 'berserker'. It stood to reason that he was likely the father and considering the fact that she looked like she could snap him in two, it must have been consensual between the pair.
"Oh gods, please for all that is holy do not try and recruit that child. That goes for the pair of you." I told Harmony who looked at me puzzled for a few seconds before she looked down at her own stomach and smiled, her right hand instinctively caressing it as I took hold of her left.
"Anyway, do you know where all the girls have gone?" I asked noticing at last that the two of us and the lioness were now very much alone on the north-eastern corner of the island.
"I can't believe they all went to get something to eat and left us here." Harmony said sounding genuinely upset by the fact. Even though she had already eaten at least six plates of food today as well as a whole load of Nectar and Ambrosia.
"Well in fairness, if I didn't have proper immortality I wouldn't want to wake you up either." I told her playfully getting to my feet without letting go of her hand and then using it to pull her up and into a hug with one motion.
The following very aggressive kiss though was very much instigated by her. Out of the corner of my eye I watched as the lioness stared at the pair of us for a few seconds before averting her gaze and then just giving up and disappearing into shadows altogether.
Across from me a silver eye looked towards where Nemea had been causing the goddess to laugh breaking our kiss.
"I guess it must be pretty bad when even Nemea has had enough of watching us." She conceded still chuckling before reluctantly but at least willingly letting go of me.
"I suppose we have to go back now and welcome her home. I don't think I can get away with disappearing two days in a row, Zoe might shout at me again." She said playfully with a sly grin.
"Thinking of responsibility AND consequences, who are you and what have you done with my Fiancée?"
"Ask me again in a few hours once this is all dealt with, I am sure I will be able to prove it is still me." She said sultrily as silver wings unfolded out from behind her.
"Hey, I thought we were being normal?" I asked even as I was staring at the radiant figure in front of me.
"You see normally I should have wings; you were there when I first became like this after all. I just have to hide them most of the time. Therefore, I am not breaking any rules, if anything I am complying even better."
"Can't you just admit it is because you don't want to run anymore today?"
"I am merely saving my energy."
"For what? You have probably eaten more calories today than the New York Giants entire team." I joked playfully as the beautiful woman feigned hurt feelings.
Leaning in towards me she whispered. "You see mother is not in the chariot tonight, so there is nothing stopping me fucking you all the way around the world."
How was I ever supposed to stay mad at this woman, when she said stuff like that. That was the divine equivalent of the horny teenagers 'Hey come round my house, my parents aren't home tonight.'
"I guess there is going to be a higher-than-average chance then of an astronomer seeing an unscheduled full moon tonight." I joked groaning even as I said it.
"That's the spirit." By contrast she said cheerfully as I summoned my own wings. Taking hold of her hand again, we both took to the air and slowly began to fly south back towards the camp.
Not even halfway back and we saw a small burst of flames and saw a figure step out from them.
It was only a few seconds before the camp too became aware of the newcomer. Nemea immediately rising to her feet again and taking off in her direction.
Even from this far away, the extra scaly appendage poking out of the back of the lost hunter was impossible to miss.
Still, I am sure she would explain everything in due time. Not that her fellow hunters would likely give Morganna a chance as they all ran towards her behind their great golden guardian... the other one that is.
"Well, that is the last lost sheep returned to the fold." I remarked to the goddess beside me.
"If we are calling a dragon a sheep, then what does that make me?"
'Horny.' I wanted to say as the two of us descended towards the group of girls below.
AN. Wasn't quite twice in a week, but close enough I hope. Reminds me of the good old days of let me check... 2013 back when I used to update every other day almost. Then again chapters were about 3k words not 8k+ and I had this thing called Lore to keep track of.
But we are all caught up now, well not quite with SHOI yet but one day maybe. It has only been 9 years since I updated that (Sorry).
Harmony is learning this strange concept called restraint, Zoe is becoming more Human, Aika is still a Monster, Atlanta is still fast as fuck and Thalia always wants more.
I suppose I better get back to sorting out the rest of the casts issues now.
Also I guess I have never explained Arianna's full powers before asking about her sacred animal. Goddess of Moonlight, Spears, Virginity and some more spoiler stuff. Eternal eight year old and the most terrifying being to walk the planet according to her own family. She gives about as many fucks as a small family of notorious mammals that don't care about nothing. So as most of my readers are American and I am not. What would you prefer Honey Badger or Wolverine?
Honesty time though, I am not sure on the time frame of the next chapter. I will start it ASAP but between Elden Ring and Fallout 76 dropping new stuff in the imminent future I will probably be playing those for a while. But if anyone has any questions or opinions the box is below or PM and I will answer straight away.