Child of Artemis

Chapter 15

The Hunters disappeared swiftly into the trees. Ivan broke the silence. "Well," he said. "Let's get back to camp and help."

He led Avalon and Aurora back to camp. Campers were hard at work searching the remains of the cabins for injured or dead.

Ivan took off towards one of the cabins. Aurora headed to the infirmary. Avalon went to the Big House, where Chiron and some satyrs were clearing away the wreck.

She went around the back to where nobody had cleared away any rubble yet. Avalon heard a groan coming from under the remains of the Big House. She picked away some of the broken wooden boards until she saw the tip of someone's foot.

Avalon dug away at the rubble surrounding the camper until she could pull him out. It was Will Solace. 'Help! I found Will!' She realized that she hadn't actually used words.

But Chiron and some satyrs came trotting around the side of the rubble, and a nymph melted out of the trees.

The nymph and the satyrs tended to Will. Chiron turned to Avalon and leaned on his staff. "You speak with your mind," he said simply. "Um...... Yeah. Don't a lot of demigods do that?" She didn't want the secret of her lineage to be leaked out because of one of her powers so that she would be treated like a freak when other people saw her.

"No," Chiron replied. Seeing that Avalon wasn't going to answer, he picked up Will and cantered off to the forest.

Avalon searched the ruins of the cabins for the next few hours, then went to the makeshift infirmary and helped the nymphs and the Apollo campers heal the injured.

Finally, as the sun went down, Avalon got up from her position besides one of the injured campers. Some campers were setting up tents around the injured, so as to protect them from monsters.

Avalon went to the Argo II. When she got to her cabin belowdeck, she saw that everything of hers in the white cabinet of Auorra's coin had been transferred to her room. She slung her two bows and two quivers over her shoulders.

She was about to pick up her pack when she saw something on the floor. It was a golden, glowing night rock. Avalon picked it up. It felt strangely warm.

She pocketed the night rock and traveled to the infirmary in the forest. Avalon climbed a tree and was laying down her bows when a nymph popped up and yelled at her to get out of the tree. She climbed back down and pulled a sweater out of her pack.

She spread it over her as a blanket and used the pack as a pillow. The satyrs were passing out small tablets that seemed to be putting campers to sleep. A satyr came by with a tray of them and gave one to her.

Avalon put it in her mouth. It tasted horribly bitter at first, then the flavor changed to a sweet, tangy strawberry smoothie.

She felt her eyelids getting heavy and then she fell asleep.

Avalon woke up with a familiar orange pelt in her face. She sat up and saw Nova curled up next to Selene. The rest of Lupa's pack were either sleeping or just starting to wake. The alpha herself was sitting up. Lupa yawned and gazed at her fellow packmates.

Selene got up and looked around. She prodded Nova with a paw until he raised his head and gave a huge yawn.

Gazing past the line of trees, Avalon saw that the sun was only just starting to rise. Birdsong filled the previously quiet air, and far away she heard a monster roar.

Some early rising campers exited the tent and immediately checked on the wounded, lying on blankets inside the ring of tents. Soon, all the wolves were up and following Lupa in the trees to go look for prey to store somewhere to eat later.