The New Demigods

Chapter 22: Allies

A searing pain on my shoulder woke me with a start and I screamed, unable to see, as my eyes filled with tears from the pain. I could smell burning and hear chanting, before the pain was too much and I blacked out.

I woke up again, this time without as much pain. I struggled to open my eyes, as a blurry figure stood over me.

"Piper?" I strained to get the words out of my mouth.

"He's awake!" Announced the blurry figure, calling over her shoulder. "Somebody get Piper!"

I closed my eyes again, trying to regain strength.

"Gemini!" Piper rushed into the room and I opened my eyes to her blurry figure. I blinked a few times to get her in focus. "You're okay." She gently hugged me as I laid on what almost felt like a proper bed.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Unfortunately, we're still at the base of the mountain." Piper answered, with a residual smile. "After you saved Scarlet, you passed out, thanks to that cut you said was no big deal." Her smile faded into a disapproving frown.

"Oh yeah." I reached my good arm to my shoulder, and felt my wound was covered in unfamiliar leaves. "What is this?"

"We tried our best, with what we had available... I used fire and my sword to cauterize your wound, hoping it would stop the bleeding."

I winced remembering the pain I felt when she had burned my skin.

"Then, we showed up." Peyton stepped forward and I realized she was the blur I had first thought was Piper. She handed me a wooden cup filled with water and I quickly drank from it, realizing how dehydrated I was. "Luckily, Demeter taught Dakotah a lot about natural healing in her training, so using ingredients we found in the forest, she was able to patch you up. We thought you would be out for another day, but it seems like your body is responding really well."

"Another day? How long have I been unconscious for?"

"It's been 2 days since we went into the labyrinth."

"And you happened to wake up during the first 15 minutes that Piper stepped away from your side in those 2 days." Peyton's comment made Piper turn bright red.

"Yeah well, you wouldn't have left me - you wouldn't have left any of us." Piper shrugged off the comment. "I was just outside grabbing dinner, I'll grab you some."

"And I'll get Dakotah in here to check on your wound." Peyton left the makeshift tent and I noticed its craftsmanship for the first time.

The tent's walls were made of woven grain stalks that came up from the ground and met at a point in the ceiling 12-feet in the air. Peyton left through a portion of the wall with less dense stalks, parting them as she slipped out. I was laying on a bed made from a base of logs, topped with a woven pad also made from grain stalks. It reminded me of Gaia.

"How did you make all this?" I asked Piper.

"It was all Dakotah, she's pretty incredible." Piper admired the tent for a moment and I felt a pang of jealousy in my chest as she left.

A few moments later Dakotah entered the tent, smiling when she saw me.

"Peyton said you were awake, but I had a hard time believing it after seeing how much blood you had lost." She stood by my bedside. "May I?" She asked, gesturing towards my bandages.

I nodded and repositioned my back towards her.

Dakotah slowly removed the plant-based bandage. "Incredible. Your body responded even better than David's, and I had only patched him up for a few scrapes he got stumbling through the woods."