Rosetta Dagotto and the Fight for the Underworld

Chapter Six: The Faun

Chapter 6: The Faun

The following day, Rosetta leaves early, ready to get on the road again. She decides against taking a cab or a bus to Denali, as she'd rather not risk getting a mortal too close to Mount Olympus. So, instead, she looks up to the nearest car rental place she can find.

Thankfully, she finds a quaint place called the Dollar Car Rental. She takes an Uber to it and starts filling out the forms and the red tape needed to rent a car. Since she's not twenty-five, and she's not even an adult, technically, it takes a call to her aunt and uncle, who have to do an electronic signature from hundreds of miles away before she's able to choose a car.

Fortunately, her Uncle Jeremy is the one who answers her call, and he doesn't ask any questions. Thank Apollo for his laziness. He doesn't seem to notice that the car rental is in Anchorage, nor that the registration requires a U.S. license instead of a passport.

After two hours of jumping through hoops, Rosetta finally manages to drive off with a red Toyota Corolla. Red wouldn't have been her first choice, but there weren't a lot of options to choose from.

Including rest and gas stops, It takes about five hours for Rosetta to drive from Anchorage to Denali. The entire time, Rosetta sips on cups of coffee and munches on chips, slim Jims, and protein bars. She knows that once she's arrived, she'll use every ounce of energy she has.

Rosetta is relieved when she passes the sign that says, "You Have Entered Denali, Alaska!"

Using her GPS, she manages to drive reasonably close to the mountain. Yet she knows her walk up the rest of the mountain will be arduous, to say the least.

She parks the car, grabs her backpack, bow, and quiver out of the back, and locks it securely. Even out here, in the middle of nowhere, she's not willing to risk it getting stolen. This isn't her car after all. And her aunt would kill her if something happened to it.

She walks and climbs for a few hours before sitting down and resting. She eats a few more protein bars and takes a few swigs of water.

Midway through her fifth protein bar, an idea hits her.

She takes out her bow, picks a tree to aim at, and haphazardly releases her arrow. She is stunned as she watches the arrow spin in the air in what seems like a natural curve and land squarely into the trunk with a satisfying thud. Others may have told her the arrow she shot was a scientific abnormality but well within physical science. Nonetheless, Rosetta can't deny the hand of Artemis guiding her arrow. She looks behind her and is pleased to find that the quiver has unlimited arrows. And the draw of this bow is much smoother compared to her old one. Her arm naturally pulls the bow back without any resistance.

Thank you, Aunt Artemis, she thinks, smirking when she retrieves her arrow.

After a few dozen shots, she decides it's time to set up camp. She gathers some branches and lights a fire using a lighter from the gas station. It starts rather quickly despite how cold it is and the fact that there is snow all around. She looks up and smiles. Her father had to have helped.

The fire roars, and it seems magical how fast the campground warms. The snow melts magically, allowing Rosette to dig stakes into the ground. She sets up her small one-person tent and places her blue sleeping bag inside.

She's about to lie down when a snap of a twig resounds through the night. Rosetta leaps out of the tent, instinctively readying her bow.

"Is someone there?" She calls into the night, crouching low while circling her bow around.

A figure steps out from behind a tree. A mythical someone; It's a creature with the upper body of a man and the lower half of a goat, complete with hairy goat legs, hooves, horns, and pointed ears. The satyr has an Alaska Aces hockey jersey and scratches its goaty beard nervously.