Child of Artemis

Chapter 1

Prologue (Sort of)

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It always began with a bleak and foreboding stone hallway. Before the ceiling started sloping to the ground there was a piece of stone jutting up from the ground , breaking through the smooth grey floor like a finger of the earth mother, Gaea, clawing her way out of the depths of the earth. Thick, enchanted black chains swarmed around it, winding around their prisoner.

She looked about 20, with thick, dark hair that cascaded around her shoulders like a waterfall. A torn and dirty white gown fell over her shoulders and swept the cold floor. When she looked up, her eyes shimmered different colors, going from green to blue to purple to gold to green again. No matter how hard she struggled, the enchantment on the chains ensured that she wouldn't be able to break free.

A demigod sat in a cage a few feet away from her. He had light brown hair with streaks of blond, and between his fingers small arcs of lighting bounced.

'Wake up, Ivan' she sent her thoughts to him.

'Wake up! IVAN! WAKE UP!'

When he still didn't wake, she focused on the lighting between his fingers and imagined it floating upwards and gathering into a ball. The lightning quickly followed suit, until it became a small cloud of fog sizzling with yellow streaks. She willed it to enter him. Being a son of Zeus, he wouldn't be harmed. Ivan immediately jumped up and reached for a sword that wasn't there as soon as the shock entered his body.

'The giant's gone, Ivan' he heard in his mind. Taking a step to the door of the cage, he grabbed two of the bars, and slowly pulled them apart till the opening was big enough, and then stepped out.

Walking over to the stone finger, he tried without success to break the chains. "Come on, Hecate, help me out here." A gold sword appeared and clattered to the ground next to him, making a giant-sized clanging noise. Wincing, he waited for a minute to make sure nobody had heard.

He picked it up, raised the sword above his head, and brought it down upon the chain. It broke cleanly two like a piece of cheddar. Ivan then helped Hecate to stand.

"Come on, we have to move." They ran to the open exit and stopped at the last second, almost falling down the steep slope of a mountain. A few pebbles fell down and slowed to a stop at the base.

Considering her options, Hecate carefully skidded over to a giant boulder and used her magic to carve out a giant rock sled. Ivan pushed it an inch down the hill, then climbed in with Hecate before it could gain speed.

They had just started to skid down the mountainside when the giant planted his legs in front of them.He placed his hands on the sled, and Ivan and Hecate bolted off of it into the trees that dotted the side of the mountain. The giant threw the sled to the side, and watched it crash down and break into splinters. Then, he whistled, a sharp shrill sound that could be heard from miles away. A pack of hellhounds broke out of the hall from which they had come, chasing after the demigod and the goddess.

They easily caught up with them, and tried dragging them back to their prison, though they had a hard time when Ivan started up a miniature lightning storm.

Streaks of lighting and thunder sparked around him as Ivan closed his eyes and concentrated. Storm clouds appeared out of nowhere and gathered around him. The hellhounds tried charging him, but they turned to dust as soon as they touched the miniature storm.

The monsters finally seemed to understand that they were getting turned into dust when they attacked, so they waited for an opening.

Ivan's eyes flew open. He raised his hand, and summoned a bolt of lightning that disintegrated the whole pack of monsters. The giant gave two whistles, though, and two more packs came barking and growling.