MOONLIT [Discontinued]

Perseverance and Acceptance: "Brother"

Persues POV (Finally)

I woke up in the middle of the night with severe pain in my abdomen. As my head cleared, the memories of the last few days crashed on me. Within a span of 3 days, I lost the only family I had, I got recruited by the Hunt, fought Gration and almost died even before my duty as a Protector started, was transferred to the Hunt's infirmary by Lady Artemis herself, protected the Hunt from a monster invasion, got involved in a war, fought for my new family and almost died again and finally ended up in the Infirmary again. The fact that hit me the hardest was the loss of my sister. As I thought about her, tears built up in my eyes. She was my everything. After mother had died, she became a mother figure too. 

I swung my legs across the bed and sat up. The pain in my stomach was excruciating but I was able to stand up. I looked at my bedside and saw the twin swords and Moonlit lying there. Deciding that sleep would not come anymore, I made up my mind to walk a little to clear my thought.  I sheathed the 2 swords and willed Moonlit to disappear and went out of the tent.

The night air felt cool on my skin. It was a beautiful night. The Moon was partially hidden behind the clouds creating a gorgeous silhouette. I noticed that the campfire was still burning, so I went there and sat beside it. I started thinking about my fight with Gration as I stared into the fire.

FLASHBACK

As Lady Artemis and Zoe told me to find shelter for the night, I bowed and started looking out for a good place. Finally, I found a clearing just next to the path that led to the Hunt's camp. As I climbed up a tree to rest, my stomach rumbled like a thunderstorm. I realized that it was 2 days ago when I last ate something...with my sister. My sister. As I thought about her, tears started streaming down my face. Gone. I would never be able to see her, ever again. The feeling of being hollow overpowered my hunger as I cried myself to sleep.

Somewhere around midnight, I work up to the sound of someone heavy walking up the path leading to the camp. I crept to the edge of the path and saw what I was not at all expecting. Gration was standing there, standing at 7 foot which was his reduced height. In his hands was a 6-foot long spear and sheathed at his waist were 2 pure black hunting knives. He had a malicious grin on his face. My mind was consumed with horror as I realized he was here to ambush the huntresses in the middle of the night. With the blessing, I could see very clearly at night and decided to use this to my advantage and defend the hunters, even if it meant losing my life. I would not be able to kill him since it needs a god's intervention but if I did enough harm, he would have to wait a long time before being able to attack again.

Hidden behind the bushes, I drew Moonlit, notched a lunar arrow, and shot him in his stomach. As my arrow hit, Gration started bleeding profusely. He screamed in agony but pulled out the arrow and turned towards the bush I was hiding in. Being an immortal giant, he did not die but was injured much. He nevertheless threw his spear with such speed I had almost no time to react. The spear went right through my left lung and missed my artery by an inch. I almost blacked out because of the overwhelming pain. I looked around and saw that I was covered in a pool of my own blood. Gration had found me and was advancing towards me. Seeing I had his attention, I led him away from the path and towards the clearing.

As I crawled back into the clearing, I sensed Gration draw ever closer. He had followed the drops of blood that had leaked out of my wound. I propped myself against the rock in the clearing and called out to the water around me. Within a second, I was surrounded by a water column. I quickly pulled the spear out of me causing another wave of intense pain and blood gushed from it. I willed the water to heal me as I cut the spear with my swords to prevent further use. The water was able to stop the heavy bleeding and returned some blood to my body, but it was not able to close the wound and it was still bleeding, albeit lightly.