Fear - Percy Jackson at Hogwarts Three

Hunger

Thalia

I have no idea how long we had been walking, yet still no building was to be found. 

I can do this. I am strong. Just a step further, and we'll be there. Somewhere that is better than here. I could imagine it. The smell of a nice cooked meal, a campfire surrounded by tents, a nice warm bed to sleep on.

Yet all we could do was make a fire and watch the embers fly into the night sky. Then wake up the next day, bones aching from the hard floor, and march on listening to the screams of our stomachs. I almost miss the horrors of captivity. Almost. 

I heard a gasp. Not again. I turned around and faced the hunter that had fallen, her knees were shaking as she laid on the ground. I could barely recognise her face underneath the layers of dirt and blood. Her friend kneeled down by her side. Trying to hold onto the fallen girl. 

"Get up," she pleaded. Yet the body remained motionless. I was useless. I couldn't do anything. There was no water to give to her, no food, nothing.

I walked over to her, kneeling down beside her distraught friend, placing my hand against her neck. Feeling her pulse slowly fade away. She was going to a better place. She would not starve any longer.

"No! Please don't go!" Her friend shock her body, tears streaming down her face.

"Amelia...she's gone," I told the young girl.

"No she can't be. Bring her back." I don't know whether she was yelling at me or the gods but I got my answer when she stared into my eyes. "Use your powers, start her heart, bring her back."

"Amelia ...even if I could somehow do that ... her body has given up. She would be dead again soon anyway."

"Don't say that," she said in denial.

"It's the truth, we'll collect some wood, burn her like the others instead of leaving her to rot. She deserved bet-"

"Shut up!" Amelia shouted at me, interrupting me, shocking me. 

"What do you want me to say?! She's gone Amelia and we can't do anything about it, soon enough we will all join her unless we keep moving," I replied. I can't cry now, I take a deep breath instead.

"You could have stopped this, Artemis choose you as her lieutenant, you're a child of Zeus!"

"So? I can't summon animals to come to us, I can't somehow know what plants are good to eat in this place, I can't know where fresh water is."

"No but you can fly, you can look around from above and see where everything is but you can't because your too afraid. Now your fear is killing my friends!"

"They're my friends too," my voice cracked slightly. "Besides...I can't fly."

"Yes you can. Your brother could so then-"

A wave of emotions flooded through me. "Don't talk about my brother," I growled. 

"Or what? You can barely walk. This is all your fault, just like your brother's death," she said pointing down towards the lifeless body. I looked down at the fallen girl but all I could see were my little brother's eyes staring back at me. I tried to remember the exact shade of his hair, but I couldn't. I was angry at her, I was angry at the war, and I was angry at time for taking away the memories that I had of him. 

"Don't-"

"Water!" Another shout interrupted me, snapping me out of my trance. I turn towards a girl that was standing on a small hill in the distance.

"There's water over here!" She shouted. With whatever strength I had left I stumbled over towards her.

I stared down at the water hitting against the the rocky beach. We may not be able to drink it, but there might be animals, fish we could eat.

"Is that a boat?" One girl pointed towards the horizon. I squinted my eyes and saw a small eyes object in the water.

I watched as it moved closer and closer to us. Maybe It would come towards us. Maybe we could be rescued. A glimmer of hope fell through my bones. We might survive. 

We all sat along the water's edge, staring towards the distant boat. Hours may have passed and we did not move, but the boat did. Soon we could see so many details. We could see the people on board.

We watched as the boat came even closer. We watched a person get onto the deck of the ship. We watched as they drew their sword.