The Male Hunter | Olympus' Traitor #1

Chapter 17: Alive, but at a Price

Hannah's eyes flickered open, and for a moment the past few years felt like a dream. It was too ridiculous to not be. No one would betray Percy like that, Annabeth would never act that way, Leo is dead, and she still had her hand. As her gaze drifted down Hannah's face dropped and she let out a soft sigh when she saw her hand, well, where it used to be anyways. It hadn't been a dream, it had all happened. Suddenly, Hannah started panicking and she bolted upwards into a sitting position. Her thoughts raced, she didn't know where she was, or where Jacob was. Before she could spiral any further she looked to her right, and saw him lying on a cot. In between them, slightly snoring in a chair, sat Percy.

A girl, maybe about 13 or 14 with curly blonde hair was changing a bandage that clung to the left side of Jacob's face. She looked like a Hunter, and now that Hannah thought about it, Percy did too. Hannah couldn't help but stare as the girl unwrapped the last of the last of the bandages. She gasped at the sight that she was greeted with. From just above his left ear and down across his face to the right side of his chin ran four scratches. They were an ugly red and inflamed, and Hannah could see that they had been stitched closed. It looked like he had been mauled by a bear, or worse. The scratches weren't even the worst part though. Where his left eye had once sat, there was a gaping hole.

"Oh, you're awake," the girl changing Jacob's dressing said in response to Hannah's gasp. "I'll be with you in just a moment, I'm Gracey by the way."

"How long was I out?" Hannah asked while Gracey rinsed out Jacob's eye socket with a mixture of water and nectar.

"We just found you last night, so not long consider how much blood you lost," Gracey replied. "Don't worry, he'll be alright," she reassured when she saw Hannah's worried look. "He just needs rest, he expended a lot of energy in the fight. I saw all the monster dust around him, looks like he protected you from quite a lot of monsters after you went down."

The two girls turned as a new voice spoke from the entrance of the tent. "Oh, you're awake," said a surprised Thalia. "How are you feeling?"

Hannah then realized that her stomach was rumbling, and was still aching all over. "Like I haven't eaten for eight months and have just been through a huge battle."

Thalia walked over and sat down on the edge of Hannah's cot. "Where were you guys anyway? Percy was worried sick."

Hannah's face hardened into a mixture of anger, pain, and sadness. "I don't want to talk about it," she said curtly.

Awkward silence followed. "You know, he hasn't left you guys since you came in," Gracey said as she started unwrapping Hannah's bandage, referring to Percy.

"That sounds like Percy," Hannah laughed. By this point Gracey had unwrapped what was left of her wrist, and she instinctively brought it up to examine it. Skin had been stitched over the stump to close it off, but there was still blood and fluid leaking. It really felt like her hand was still there, but it obviously wasn't.

"Hey, it'll be okay," Thalia reassured, wiping a tear from Hannah's cheek with her thumb. She hadn't realized that she had started crying. "You are strong, you can get through this. Besides, I'm sure we can work something out to replace the hand,"

Hannah nodded and gave her friend a small smile. Lowering her arm, she let Gracey start rinsing it and reapply bandages. "What's up with Percy being dressed like one of you guys?" Hannah suddenly blurted out.

"I think it's best that he explains to both of you together. Besides, he's busy drooling right now," Thalia replied. Looking over, Hannah could see that he was indeed drooling in his sleep. "You should get some rest, I'll be back to check on you later," Thalia said as she walked out.