The Gathering

Chaper Seventeen

Chris POV

After two days of vigorous riding and training, we had fianlly made it to Dallas. From looking at the more precise location of the camp on the map, it was located on a large ranch about 30 miles outside of Dallas. After stopping to get a drink for both us and our horses, Adrian and I saddled back up and prepared ourselves for the upcoming meeting. As we moved along i couldnt shake the feeling that we were being watched, but at every sideways glance, I missed whatever was suppposedly following us. 

"We got this Adrian. Just be confident" I encouraged, as their large complex came into view. I looked to Adrian and she truly was deepy afraid. Her back was rigid, afraid to slump and show some sort of weakness, and her eyes stared straight ahead unwaveringly, like she was trying to focus in on the buildding and only that building, blocking all else out. The complex itself was massive. It reached 40 feet high and was pristinely white, someone keepimg all the surrounding dirt and sand off of it.

Suddenly, both Adrian and I were swept off our feet though and fell very ungracefully down off Aithon and Phlogios. We turned quickly to face to two chuckling demigods, assumingly Hermes' kids as thry raced past us with a long taut rope that had knocked us off. Soon they turned back around and headed back towards us, thundering ahead. Adrian was still a little frazzled and angry, but I was calm and focused. These guys pranked for a living, I was going to have to come up with something good to stop them, and soon.

With the short time I had, I made a fairly plausible plan and went with it. When their thundering hooves got close enough that I could feel the ground tremble beneath me, I jumped forward in a roll, and shot my hand up to grip the rope,quickly followed by my entire arm. This didnt faze the two riders though, if anything it amused them. They kept riding away from Adrian and from the complex, which seemed weird.

I tried to push myself up, and thats when I realized why they were so amused at me being on the rope: I was stuck down, there was some sort of glueing agent that kept me from moving my arm where it was, that must hav been released when the ropes threads were disturbed.I turned to yell to Adrian to not follow me, but there was no sign of her. The ever shrinking camp was empty of both Adrian and our horses? Where could she have gone? "As long as she's okay, thats what matters" I muttered to myself.

Sometime shortly after, several hundred miles away from my camp, we began to slow down and stopped at an outcrop of stones, and I noticed a brass door parallel to the gound, where I was likely to now go. They both hopped off the sides of their horses and cut thtough the rope so that they could make cuffs at the small of my back. Gruffly, they pushed me forward into the open space that now filled the open door. I thought of fighting back, but without knowing where Adrian was, this never would be a success. Slowly, I walked down the long stone steps. Each step was careful and deliberate, as i did not know anything that they had in store for me. Occasionally, one of them shoved me forward and grabbed my ropes, so I was barely hanging on and extremely close to falling. I ignored them, as I knew it would only incite a rise out of them, but they continued anyway. 

Finally we came to the bottom of the stairs and yet another brass door stood in my way. Yet this one felt vastly different. Whereas the one at the surface felt like they were leading me into some sort of safety for the time being, only out of fear, this door gave off the feeling like they truly did just want to keep me prisoner and lock me away forever. The deep gashes in the brass didnt help either, and only contributed to the deep, primal fear that the door gave off. Together, with a swift kick to the ass, the two sent me sprawling into my new prison.

Getting up slowly I began to inspect what I now found myself inside. It was a fairly large round rooom, from what I could tell, as many stalactites hung in the way of my seeing the full room. All by myself now. No Adrian, no Vande, not even Aithon. Or so I thought. From behind the stalactites i suddenly heard the beating of hooves and jumped to the side just as a large mass ran right in my direction, slamming into the door, likely impaling me with its golden antlers if I had stayed put. Wait, golden antlers?

I turned sharply to examine my new companion. I was now joined by quite a majestic, beautiful hind. It did really have golden antlers and they were inly made greater in stark contrast to that of its jet black coat. Upon closer inspection of it long, toned body I noticed something peculiar about its hooves: they were bronze. "Youre the Ceryneian Hind" I gasped in realization. This was one of Artemis' sacred animals that Hercules had to chase for an entire year before he caught it. How had these people gotten it? 

With extreme caution, I approached the hind and reached a hand up grip its antlers, a technique I had read shows friendship to her. Slowly, as I gripped the horn, her neck got lower and lower until her chin touched the stone floor. Taking this as a wish to ride it, I cautiously moved to its back and climbed on top. I would have thought that it would only allow one of Artemis' children ride it, but it must have sensed our similar plight and decided to trust me. From atop the hind, though, I didnt move. "Whats wrong buddy?" I asked.

Slowly, she cantered over to the other end of our cave to where I saw a body sitting aganist the wall. And thats all it was. A rotted body now long dead, probably her previous rider. If he was here long enough to rot away that badly and couldnt get out how was I supposed to. Defeated, I slipped off her back and sat against the wall. "What am I to do dad? Help me"