Child of Artemis

Chapter 4

The words that greeted Avalon when she stumbled back to camp at midday with Selene and told her story were, "You fought a hydra for a blanket?" Avalon said wearily, "It wasn't my fault there was a hydra there. Now let me sleep, I'm tired."

She was exhausted from her fight with the monster, so she hung her bow and quiver on a tree branch and laid her crumpled sword in the fork between two branches. Then she grabbed the blanket and climbed into the tree. Curling up between three branches, she put her arm under her head and covered herself with the blanket. Within minutes she was asleep.

It was evening when Avalon opened her eyes. Aurora was skinning something with a dagger. "Oh, hey. I got dinner." she said to her. Aurora started roasting it on a spit above a fire. Avalon stood up and saw that their dinner was a rabbit. She walked over to her pack and got out her nectar and ambrosia.

Nova was breathing evenly, but he couldn't move without aggravating his wound. Avalon put some drops of nectar on his tongue and made him swallow. Then she did the same with the ambrosia crumbs.

Avalon wandered around the campsite till she found a rock the size of a small saucer with a dent in the middle. She also found a rock that would serve as a pestle. She went over to the branches she had cut to size that morning.

Stretching the blanket between them, she looked for something to pin the blanket to the branches. Avalon went to her pack and dug out a container of nails that she had taken from a hardware shop a week ago. Poking a hole through the blanket with her dagger, she inserted the nail and then hammered it into the wood with the hilt of her knife.

When the blanket was firmly strung between the branches, she rolled it up like a scroll and laid it next to her crumpled sword in the fork of the tree.

Avalon found some herbs to put on the rabbit, and she found some onions and scallions to help flavor it. She then washed them and chopped them up with her dagger. Placing the herbs in a bowl shaped leaf, she put it on her blanket where she slept.

She then took the mortar and pestle she had found and brought it to the rabbit, which was finished cooking. She tore off two legs and pulled the meat off the bone, and began mashing it up. When it was mashed up, she fed it to Nova along with some stream water.

Aurora had given Selene a rabbit haunch to gnaw on. Avalon picked up her herbs and onion pieces and scattered some on a rabbit haunch before offering it to Aurora. Then she ate her own dinner.

Avalon and Aurora then cleaned up the area and wrapped the rest of the rabbit in leaves for breakfast. Avalon offered to keep first watch. "Sure, but don't sneak off again." Aurora prepared for sleep and lay down on her blanket.

While Aurora was sleeping, Avalon grabbed her bow and quiver and climbed a high tree so she could easily spot danger.

The night passed uneventfully, and soon it was midnight and the moon was high. Avalon gazed upwards at it. It was a waxing gibbous moon, approximately 2 days and 5 hours until it was full. She didn't know how she could tell that, she just knew. She had always been able to sense it.

Slipping down the side of a tree trunk, her feet touched the ground and she made her way to Nova. Raising her hands to the sky, she summoned a trail of moon dust down to earth. It slithered down from the sky, forming a cloud above Nova. The silver cloud settled upon him, making his fur gleam in the moonlight.

Selene came up behind her, laying down beside Nova. The dust was absorbed through Nova's pelt and started healing him. Peering at the gash in his side, Avalon could see a thin layer of tissue covering the bone that used to be visible. Another layer covered that, and then the glow from the moon dust faded. She would have to wait till a full moon to fully heal him.