"Why should we be following your lead?" Eumelia sneered as she pointed her dagger at Perseus.
"If you have a better plan, I'd gladly follow you," Perseus replied with as calm of a tone as he could muster. Eutropia looked at her two questmates and smiled bitterly, unsure how to defuse the situation.
"The description Lady Artemis gave us of the monster we were supposed to hunt is not sufficient for us to track it down," Perseus continued. "I wish she had given us more information to work with."
"Then we find someone who has that information. Or did you expect everything to be handed to you on a silver spoon, malaka?" Eumelia stomped towards Perseus, shoving her face up into his and placing the edge of her blade against Perseus' neck.
Perseus narrowed his eyes, his hand reaching for his own blade sheathed on his belt.
"Shall we seek out the Oracle then?" Eutropia cut in, shooting Perseus a look as she pushed her sister backwards. Eumelia let herself be displaced but not before shooting Perseus one last withering glare.
Eutropia then walked up to Perseus. "She has some deep issues with men, so please bear with her for now."
Eutropia dragged Eutropia behind her without waiting for a response. Perseus sighed, letting his hand drop to his side before staring at the shrinking backs of the two girls.
"This will be a very long journey."
To get to Delphi, the three quest takers boarded a boat headed for Lokris with a stop at Eubea. The boat trip itself would take a few days, depending on the weather, and Perseus quickly found his premonition to be true.
Not wanting to cause a commotion on the vessel, Perseus found himself forced to skirt around as stealthily as he could as Eumelia was more than happy to draw her blade and greet him with aggression whenever she saw him. While Eutropia was much friendlier, she was often with her sister, so Perseus avoided her as well.
Perseus awoke to the sound of cheers and laughter. Peeking down from the crow's nest that he had claimed as his hiding spot of the day, he saw the men of the ship laughing and dancing while they drank from their cups. The stench of alcohol and vomit penetrated the salty air of the sea and Perseus wrinkled his nose in disgust.
That said, considering that they were docked at Eubea after three full days of sailing, Perseus wasn't surprised to see the men trying to cut loose for a night. In fact, he was expecting this to happen.
Now awake, he decided to watch the festivities from his spot in the nest and noticed a few men walking below deck. Thinking it was unimportant, he returned his attention to the rest of the men until the men reappeared with some of the female passengers in tow, Eumelia and Eutropia amongst them.
As good as his hearing was, the wind and the noise of the other men made it very hard for Perseus to hear what they were saying, but the females split into two groups after the man was finished, some heading for the alcohol, presumably intending to get a few drinks for themselves while others remained in place. His two questmates turned around to leave, but a wobbling man that Perseus recognized to be the captain walked up to them and grabbed Eumelia by her shoulder.
All Perseus saw was a quick flash of silver, and the captain fell down to his knees, clutching his neck as he tried to stop the blood from pouring out of his neck. The ship went silent and Perseus cursed his bad luck as he quickly made his way down to the deck.
All hell broke loose after Eumelia's attack, as most of the sailors drew their blades and tried to avenge their captain. However, while some were relatively more sober than the others, none of them were capable of putting up any resemblance of a good fight, so Perseus knew he had to do something before this turned into a massacre.
As much as I did not want to do this…
A quick tugging feeling on his gut told Perseus his powers had not failed him and in a split second a small wave splashed over everyone on the deck, stopping them in their tracks.
After deftly making his way down to the deck, Perseus drew his blade and faced Eumelia.
"What do you think you're doing?" The girl growled as she brandished her blade.
"That should be my question," Perseus said as he stepped up to Eumelia. "This night could have ended without any blood being spilt."
"Perseus." Eutropia stepped in the middle of the two and raised her hands as if to appease the male demigod. "Please."
Perseus gritted his teeth and reluctantly sheathed his blade. Eutropia nodded to him in gratitude, but Perseus stopped her before she could return to Eumelia's side.
"If her response to every single one of these situations is to take a life," Perseus whispered in Eutropia's ear. "Then the journey will be much harder to complete than it should be."
Eutropia stiffened, but she nodded in response, understanding where Perseus was coming from.
"Besides," Perseus continued. "She is not the only one here that has had complications with men in the past."
Eutropia nodded once again, and Perseus sighed before turning to the crew, cursing his luck as he tried to fix the situation.
Artemis appeared in the throne room of Olympus, where most of her family members were already seated in their thrones, with the only absentee being her war-loving half-brother.
"Where is Ares?" Zeus' voice echoed throughout the chamber.
"The Persians are looking to invade Greece, brother," Hestia replied from her throne, her voice alone bringing a sense of comfort to Artemis as she sat on her own throne. "War is brewing on the horizon."
"The battle of mortals is insignificant next to the threat of the Ophiotaurus," Zeus replied before he turned to Artemis. "I trust you have sent a team to locate the beast?"
"Yes father," Artemis responded. "They left Chios almost two weeks ago."
Zeus grunted. "It is strange how we were unable to find the beast ourselves this time. Apollo, have you seen any visions?"
Apollo shook his head. "The Fates have been strangely silent."
Perhaps it was because she was his twin, but Artemis had a feeling he was lying.
"Why should we be concerned?" Hephaestus asked. "The mortals know not the power they can gain from slaying the beast."
"I will take no risks. Any mortal can be persuaded, be it by usurpers," Zeus sent a glare to his wife and brother. "Or titans, it is best to get rid of the beast as soon as possible. Olympus shall stand eternal."
The throne room fell silent, with the only sound being Zeus' finger tapping against the armrest of his throne.
"How goes the search for the beast?"
Artemis fought back the urge to sigh.
"They are on their way to Apollo's oracle to ask for guidance."
The tapping noise grew more frequent.
"His vision is clouded. They will find no guidance in Delphi."
"With all due respect father, we are just as lost as them. Just rest assured that I have already sent a search party to locate the beast."
The smell of ozone permeated the air and everyone knew Zeus was growing irritated.
"Be at ease, Zeus." Hestia walked over to Zeus and placed a hand on his back. "Artemis has done what you have asked of her, and she is right. We cannot expect them to succeed where we could not."
Zeus seemed to calm down a bit after that.
"Inform me the moment they locate the beast."
WIthout another word, the king of gods disappeared in a flash of lightning.
"He was very irritated today." Hermes commented. "Though to be fair he was bound and threatened to give up his throne just a few days ago."
Poseidon and Hera both glared at the messenger god who smiled cheekily in response. Hera had caught wind of one of Zeus' demigod children who made a name for himself in Athens and decided to spearhead a coup with the support of some other members on the council, mainly her uncle. WIth that said, she was not involved, and had no intention to try to improve her father's mood.
Glancing at her twin who immediately nodded back, the twin archers disappeared from the throne room and reappeared on Delphos, a place they both called home.
"Were you being untruthful when you told father that the Fates have been silent?"
Apollo cracked a wry smile. "I guess we are twins after all."
Artemis crossed her arms and waited for her brother to reply.
The sun god sighed and looked up, as if expecting Zeus to smite him from the heavens.
"It is quite hard to describe," Apollo trailed off, taking a deep breath before continuing. "Usually the Fates send me glimpses of the future, but this time was different."
Artemis raised an eyebrow.
Sighing, the usually cheerful sun god looked at his twin sister with a somber expression on his face.
"They spoke to me directly."
"Spare me the theatrics, Apollo." Artemis said sternly. "What did they say?"
"Kill Perseus."
Welp. Guess I lied about being excited lmao. It is summer break so I'll try to update more often.