Across The Ages (On Hold)

II

The wind whipped at the face of the cloaked man as he stood outside a school. He'd sensed some very powerful demigods here and with the newer presence of another powerful demigod and two other Olympian demigods, something must have been afoot.

He could only deduce that the two the newly arrived group had come for must have been children of the Big Three, and one of the added bunch was definitely one of their children as well.

From the feel of it, he'd have hazarded a guess at two children of Hades and a child of Zeus. The other two he couldn't ascertain due to the distance between him and them. They just didn't give off the aura like Big Three did, so were harder for him to detect at such distances.

There were other presences he was picking up on as well, and he'd have to hurry if he was to get anything done. He could feel the Hunters and their Lady approaching, as well as a powerful monster in the area, probably already disguised.

There. His eyes locked onto a man pulling two young children, roughly thirteen and twelve years of age if he was accurate, out of the school. Quickly following them were three girls and an oddly running boy...not boy, satyr.

The man quickly stood and un shouldered his bow before realizing he'd never kill the man, monster, before it took the boy and girl down.

He frowned before dissolving into mist. Seconds later, he started reforming behind the monster. It had a tail that was flinging spikes at the demigods that had come for the two children of Hades. A manticore.

The girl's eyes, the daughter of Zeus, widened when she saw him appear behind the monster. It caught sight and thought her afraid of him. "Yes child, you have guessed it. I'm a manticore. These spikes are highly poisonous and I can hit you and your friends with several each before you can call down that lightening of yours, Thalia Grace."

I unsheathed my dagger and grabbed the monster from behind. "I think your time threatening children would be better served fighting someone a lot closer to your age."

With that, the man plunged the dagger to the hilt in the manticore's throat, just as a bunch of girls in silver parkas emerged from the forest.

The man turned to look at the goddess, Artemis, in her twelve-year-old form when he saw a girl with a silver tiara on her head, the signature of the Lieutenant of the Hunt. He froze while looking at her.

Luckily, with his hood up, none of them could tell he was staring at her. Yet he had a distinct feeling that she was trying to figure out if she knew him or not.

"You, boy, what are you doing here? Who exactly are you? And what do you want with these demigods?"

"I'm going to stop you right there. Goddess or no, woman or no, I bow before no one...well, except one that I lost long ago...to you. I know your ways all too well. I respect you for the fact that you are not like most Olympians, but you will not shove the feministic shit in my face.

"I've lived far longer than most of your Huntress' and experienced enough brutality and deceit from both men and women. Just so thats clear.

"As for who I am, that is of no concern as of yet. You Olympians feel the need to use demigods as pawns in your wars. I'm not too sure I want to fight in this one, seeing as the first one I fought in, was something so trivial as a beauty contest."

Artemis was stunned by his words and was almost stuttering when the Lieutenant stepped forward and yelled, "Who do you think you are talking to mi'lady like that, boy? Men are nothing but vile pigs that use women to their own devices. You think you are so high and mighty because you can overpower some pitiful female." Her bow was off her back in an instant and an arrow quickly found its way into the air in the direction of the hooded figure's head.

The man just tilted his head to the side and plucked the arrow out of the air between two fingers. "Well, that's funny. I don't always remember you being so hateful of men. Albeit yes, you did generally despise most of them, but I do recall someone telling me that you respected at least two of them. Something about saving you during some fight or something or other," he said, nonchalantly. He acted like it didn't matter, but his eyes were glued to her face in wait for her reaction.

Now she too was flustered. Neither her, nor Artemis knew what to do. So, the daughter of Zeus, Thalia, stepped forward. "Uh, not really sure whats going on here, but, I just want to say, this spike is kinda hurting and it feels like I'm going to pass out. So if you could help me, that'd be great."

The man strode towards her, pulling a vial from his belt. Artemis stepped forward to intercept him, but her feet froze to the ground. The whole of the Hunt seemed to growl and reach for their weapons, but mist settled over them, so thick and heavy they couldn't see, while their feet, too, froze to the ground.

The man uncorked the bottle and water floated out. He directed to the wound on Thalia's shoulder as he slowly extracted the manticore spike from her shoulder. He placed a hand over the water covered injury and it seemed to glow a soft blue color, before fading. He lifted his hand and Thalia's eyes widened. The only trace that she had been hit was the tear in her shirt where the spike had gone through to hit her. The skin was unblemished, not even a scar left behind.

"T-thank you. Uhm, what's your name?"

"Names hold far more meaning in them than you realize, young one. Do remember that. As for what you can call me, just call me...Riptide.