The Unclaimed

Chapter 45: The sixth day

   When Thalia and I exited out tent, we were greeted with hellos and good mornings from all of the other hunters and from Lady Artemis. Lady Artemis's facial expression automatically dropped when she saw me; she could tell that something was wrong with me.
   "Jessica, are you ok," she asked me cautiously. All of the talking amongst the hunters stopped. They all looked at me.
   "I've been better but I've also been worse." I answered honestly. "I had a rough night sleep last night that consisted of horrible dreams and then not being able to fall back asleep after the awful dreams. But I'm all good now." I told her casually. Artemis looked at me doubtfully but didn't say anything else on the subject.
   "Can you believe that it's almost over?" Sophia asked me out of nowhere. I looked at her confused. "Today is the sixth day of your quest. All that's left of it is today and tomorrow. Then you'll finally find out the truth about your father." I had actually forgotten how close the quest was to being over. So much had gone on that there was a lot that I had forgotten about.
   "And isn't tomorrow when Michael gets his memory back?" McKenna questioned. I nodded at her. Guilt ran through my body as I thought about it; tomorrow was likely to be one of the roughest emotional days that Michael ever experiences and I wouldn't be there for him. My mood must have noticeably dropped because Thalia put a comforting hand on my back.
   "You'll get to see him soon," she whispered softly.
   "It won't be soon enough," I responded. Looks of sadness flashed onto all the hunters faces. "But that's beyond the point. We should get breakfast and then leave. The prophecy may not have been specific about how far West I need to travel but it's better to overshoot than undershoot the needed distance." My voice didn't waver as I spoke, which shocked me. Not being with Michael was affecting me more than I cared to admit. So for my voice not to give my feelings away surprised me. Everyone was still staring at me."Guys I promise that I'm alright. Can we please drop the issue." All of them muttered its alright, don't worry about it, and other agreement phrases like that. Breakfast was a relatively silent ordeal today. I guess it was obvious to everyone that I wasn't in the mood to talk. Once we finished eating, we packed up our tents and other belongings. We gathered around Artemis.
   "Today is the sixth day of Jessica's quest," Artemis reminded everyone. "During our daily journey we must always be alert. Today is a day where our opponents are likely to strike with everything they have. We must be ready." A murmur of recognition rang through the group. With that, we started running. We were off on our travels into the unknown where we likely to meet enemies who would stop at nothing to destroy me.