The Sacred Thievery

Chapter VII: Hunting.

The Fox was beyond scary. Before I could determine how long I had before it attacked, an arrow flew, its silver point glinting in the hallway lights. The Fox got an arrowhead to the heel, and stumbled over the stairs, landing with a grunt.

A grunt? The grunt sounded incredibly human. The Fox turned and bit on the arrowhead shaft. It deftly yanked it out, and threw it, somehow managing to get it to fly right through the opening in the door that I was mostly covering. I turned to see it get stuck in the bookshelf. How a fox could throw like that was beyond me.

"Ha-ha! You'll never catch me, young muse."

I was stunned. That was the Fox, speaking in a cold, shrill, yet confident voice. So it could talk after all. Unfortunately, that didn't make me like the creature any more than I already did, and it was in negative numbers. I heard Thalia shout, "I'm not a muse, you wretched little son of a-"

Before she could finish the very profane sentence, the Fox dashed behind her, rushing down the stairs as she got to the stairs, running through the opening in her legs, which caused Laelaps to bark incredibly. He turned after him, and lunged for the Fox. He would've gotten it if the Fox didn't redirect and go up the stairs.

When Thalia went to chase it, she glanced at me with her intimidating electric blue eyes. But then she turned, more intent on catching the Fox than finding out who and why a mortal was in the Big House, awake in the middle of the night. You couldn't blame her.

The Fox turned towards my room, and Thalia ran forward, holding a spear I didn't see her with before. It's bronze point shined as she stabbed down repetitively, missing every strike. When the Fox got to my room, I was so stunned by the situation, I had frozen in a mixture of fear and shock. The sight of a Fox the size of a motorcycle jolted me back to reality. I jumped over it, probably because of an adrenaline rush I hadn't had before. I landed behind it, and ran.

Cowardly move, I know, but I was unarmed, and had absolutely no powers than being able to actually see the Fox in the first place. I ran to the nearest place I could hide, and dashed to the closet on the end of the hall, which I saw when I first came to the Big House. I yanked the door, got inside, and slammed it. Inside, I caught my breath, and thought of a plan.

In the end, I figured the best move was to wait it out. Thalia and Laelaps had it trapped in a room, and they had been hunting it since. They seemed to be able to accomplish this. But a loud bark from Laelaps told me otherwise. It also jolted me so much I hit my head on a leather sack full of sticks.

Sack? I couldn't see anything, because the room was unlit, and the door was shut. I felt for a string, and when I got one, I pulled, and a light flickered on in the closet. The room was full of quivers, with them being what was hanging on hooks on the walls of the small room. They were all similar, cylinder-like sacks made of leather with different straps. Some small, probably to fit around a belt, and some long and tight, probably for strapping on the back. There were bows hanging by the strings above them. Then, realization hit me with the weak force of a truck. This must be for Chiron. He is an archer, and probably needs multiple quivers of arrows and multiple bows.

Thinking of the situation, I considered myself lucky. I figured that because Chiron had so many bows and arrows, I might as well take something. I grabbed the closest quiver, which was oversized, but didn't care.

I also snagged the first bow I saw: a simple curved one of white wood, and fit between my quiver and my back. It wasn't too heavy in all, and I could still run just fine in it. All I had to do was remember my archery lessons from my normal summer camp. So I pushed open the door-

To see the Teumessian Fox running about, a Red Sox jersey in its teeth for some reason. It was dashing for the stairs. Laelaps and Thalia were close behind, Thalia missing a shoe, and with a few rips in her pants. Her electric eyes had grown brighter, and she had a snarl on her lips, which was even scarier than the Fox's. She stabbed down with her bronze spear, and the point caught the Fox's tail, pinning it. A grin briefly broke out on her face. The Fox leapt, but was yanked back, wincing. I heard it mutter something in Greek, probably a curse.

"Yes! I've got you now, Fox!" Thalia boasted. She reached down, but the Fox jumped backwards, producing a back-flip, and twisted, using its momentum to yank itself free of spear's grip, ridding itself a couple strands of fur and a Red Sox jersey, and dashing towards the stairs.

So, remembering how to nock an arrow, I took an arrow from my quiver, un-slung my bow from my back, and nocked the arrow. I pulled back, pressing the small section of the bottom of the arrow not covered by fletching against the bowstring, and pointed the tip towards the stairs. The arrow flew through the air, and I noticed that the arrow's point was made of gold, much more like the Reyna girl's sword than the bronze I've seen most people here use.

It hit the ground just in front of the stairs, and the Fox riled up, shouting a swear in shock. As it turned towards me, Laelaps leapt forward, Thalia behind him. Based on the gleam in her eyes, I figured Thalia knew what I knew; the Fox had only one way to go. It redirected in a blur of orange, and shot back to the hallway. Then it tensed in a pouncing position that made everyone stop moving. It turned its glowing glare to me.

I froze, my bow down. Thalia's eyes stopped gleaming and Laelaps stopped barking. Time seemed to slow, and nothing moved. Well, unless you count the large fox that had leapt towards me.

Wow, I thought. Not only is he the size of one, but he leaps like a stunt man on a motorcycle who's jumping a chasm. And then it barreled into me, knocking me to the ground and forcefully digging its claws into my chest. So much for me and my archery. I may have shrieked at the top of my lungs.

"Such a young boy," it snarled. "So easy to break, don't you think?" He seemed to be talking to Thalia, despite him only subtly turning his head, and digging its claws further into my chest as it spoke. Somehow they didn't pierce my skin. I yelped again. Thalia wasn't moving, her eyes frozen on me, as if she was as scared as I was.

A drop of saliva sizzled on my neck and evaporated. Probably like I would, I was thinking. I would be murdered by a large fox the day after my birthday and no one would remember I exis-

"Stop right there!"

Time seemed to speed up again. I turned to see Reyna, her sword in her hand and a cape flowing on her back. When the Fox looked at her, he growled and cursed again, releasing me to scurry away as I began praying to every god I knew.

Thalia seemed to un-petrify at Reyna's arrival. She and Reyna both sped for the Fox, spear and sword in hand. She and Reyna moved in sync, both charging at the exact same time. It didn't take level sixteen math to know that they would both hit the same spot at the same time.

In the split second it had before it was hit, the Fox grinned a sly grin. Like it had already seen this happen, and knew just what he had to do.

He ducked to the left, towards Reyna, just as Thalia stabbed down so hard she pierced the floor and Laelaps-having leapt over her-pounced on the same spot. Reyna hesitated, which was probably the only reason the Fox wasn't in captivity. It bulleted through her legs, and bit on her purple cape, its fangs ripping through the fabric. I knew exactly what was coming, but couldn't do a thing as the Fox yanked down and sent Reyna crashing to the ground.

Taking its chance, the Fox raced for the stairs. With a curse, Thalia followed, Laelaps at her heels, bounding down the stairs, leaving me and Reyna both flat on the floor. Reyna, having turned red from embarrassment, got up and dusted herself off, straightening her cape, fingering the holes in it and muttering "Unbreakable one wouldn't have done that." She turned to me, and said, "You're welcome." And then she too, went down the stairs.

I groaned. Wincing, I get to my feet. I had to do multiple things. I had to get back to bed and sleep. I had to rinse my eyes out and pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I had to take care of my room, which must have been a mess. And, most importantly, I had to burn the Red Sox jersey to make sure that no one thought I was betraying the home team.

Instead, I promptly proceeded to collapse on the floor and black out.