Jace Irons: The Shard of Chaos

Chapter Twelve: Wow, We Turn Out to be Pretty Good at Talking

"Who are you?" demanded one of the girls.

She stood directly in front of us, about ten feet away. She looked a little bit older than the rest, about seventeen or so. She had long red hair tied in a single braid down her back. Her face, although pretty, was contorted into a scowl of innate disdain.

David and I glanced at each other uneasily.

"You first," I growled.

I tried to put on a mean face to try and tell them that we'd put up a fight if it came to it. It must've worked because the dozen or so girls all pulled their bowstrings even tighter.

The red-haired hunter spoke again. "We are the Hunters of Artemis, and you have just killed the elder serpent of the god Ascelpius. If you do not tell us who you are in three seconds, you will die."

I had read about the hunters of Artemis. They were all teenage girls who chose to follow Artemis, a maiden goddess, on her hunts. They followed her, gaining immortality in exchange for forsaking the company of males, whom they generally hated. I read that Artemis preferred to turn males they came across into animals, but it looked like the hunters themselves wanted to just off us right then and there. To say I was on high alert would be an understatement. I looked at the redheaded girl again, bow drawn taught, an arrow aimed right for my head. Curiously enough, David had his eyes on her, despite being in the sights of at least four other girls.

"Stand down, Abbey!" called another female voice from somewhere behind the hunters.

A girl who looked about my age stepped out from the woods behind the group of girls. She had short black hair with a silver circlet of metal wrapped around it, like a tiara, and wore a black leather jacket with short silver spikes on the shoulders. She too had a silver bow and a quiver full of silver arrows. A white timber wolf walked by her side. The new girl with black hair stopped next to the redheaded girl, who I assumed was named Abbey.

The new girl pointed to us. "Look at their shirts, Abbey. They're campers. You can relax." she said calmly. She turned around to the other Hunters. "Stand down!" she commanded. The other Hunters lowered their bows obediently, looking disappointed that they didn't get to skewer us. David and I slowly lowered our hands, glancing at each other nervously.

The girl with black hair turned back towards us and stepped forward with an apologetic look on her face.

"Hi, I'm Thalia Grace, lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis." she stepped forward and held out her hand. I shook it.

"Damn, dude." she exclaimed. "That's one hell of a grip!" I quickly let go. I hadn't realized how hard I was squeezing her hand because, and I had just realized this, I couldn't feel anything with my metal hand at all. I immediately thought back to when I plunged my hand into the furnace of the train. All the conductive oil that made me able to feel must've burned off.

"Sorry," I said quickly. "It's new and still a little clunky."

Thalia nodded. "Well it looks pretty badass," she acknowledged. "When'd you get it?"

"A few weeks ago," I muttered.

"Gotcha, she said. "Cool."

She turned to David and shook his hand, too. "Thalia Grace," she said. "And you are?"

"David, David Vorhees." he replied uneasily.

She turned back to me, and asked "Sorry, I didn't catch your name either."

"Jace Irons." I said defensively. I was nervous, very nervous. The girls had showed up out of nowhere and caught us off guard, right after killing a giant mechanical snake, and threatened to kill us on sight. I was glad that Thalia had called them off, but I was still on high alert, ready to fight or run at the drop of a hat.