Bloodied Water

•Chapter 26• Travel

3rd Person POV

Moving to Yosemite requires 3 things:

1. A long trek
2. Patience
3. Some poor guy to pull the storage wagon

Number 3 was Percy at the moment. His new found godly strength helped a lot, but it didn't help that the wolves were hitching a ride, some of the girls hopped, Goofus took the easy route with the girls, and if they found a 'pretty rock', he would have to start carrying that to.

The small bird, that had tagged along, was running on one of the wheels in a vain effort to help pull the cart. Some of the 'pretty rocks' were thrown at him when Artemis wasn't looking and more and more hunters started to climb aboard.

Percy never complained.

It was expected really. A guy dating their maiden leader and trying to fit in with a bunch of feminists was a recipe made in Tartarus. At some point, Artemis had doused Percy in river water to keep him moving and even offered to take his place.

"How could I milady? That would be just rude." He mock bowed which she laughed to. The rocks then thought the back of his head could use a hug.

It was around 8:00 PM when the hunt decided to stop and set up the make-shift camp for the night. They were in the outskirts of a town in Utah and Percy, tired and breathing heavily, was obviously put on watch duty by majority vote. The guard falcons and wolves were mainly watching, Percy was just the next guy in line.

After a while, exhaustion took over as became drowsy. The long day of beatings and pulling did a number on the new god and after about 10 minutes of slumping in exhaustion, Lily came to the rescue and took his place as he wondered off to bed. Artemis just was glad he was in bed as she snuggled closer to him. Needless to say, he was out like a light.

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Percy POV

I think the worst part about being a nature god is the fact that even if you're tired as Hades, nature keeps you awake. Instead of hearing the distant cries of the animals. I know could hear full conversations in English that went on forever! Sure, some were about me in a positive manner, but I was still really fucking tired!

Artemis was at my side holding on to my waist. She was wearing this bear skin hoodie she made a couple years back and was showing it to me for the first time. Apparently, no one but her knows about it since she always wore her uniform around the hunters. I thought it was adorable on her, but she said it was a size and a half to big for her. Though, if she put on the hood, instead of cutsie bear ears, there was a dead bear head muzzle, teeth, eyes and all.....ears to.

Artemis had actually set up our tent close to the fire so she could be close to me when I was on guard duty. So close to the fire that you could kind of feel the heat. So close that you could hear Lily...So I thought.

At first it sounded like one of the Falcons. Then it got loud, like quieter helicopter blades. The sound increase was fast, so fast that I was still trying to figure out what it was when it got closest. Then, Lily let out a yelp before she went quiet as the sound got quieter.

It was too fast. I wasn't quick but it was. At first there was the sound of a tent unzipping before Thalia started yelling. That got everyone up. Including me and Artemis. We both dashed out of the tent to find the entire hunt around the campfire in frantic speech, each asking one another if they knew what happened. Thalia then ran to us to report the incident as part of her duties of Lieutenant.

"Milady! Lily has gone missing! There were wing beats of some sort before she disappeared! No one saw it or which way it went with her. Either way, we have a missing hunter! Milady, what should we—is that a hoodie?" Thalia reported with frantic movements all the while my brain tuned it out. I was focused on the spot where Lily was.