Hunters of The Stars

Twenty Three: ☽ Apollo finally mans up ☾ [UNEDITED]

Twenty Three: ☽ Apollo finally mans up ☾

  . . . 

I'm going to be simple with you. When I was thinking about my death, I thought I might die peacefully or at least fighting with Artemis and the Hunters. I did not think I would be holding onto Apollo as Gwen, Marissa, Apollo and I plummeted to our deaths because of angry giant hawks.

I squeezed my eyes shut, praying silently to the gods for something to happen. Anything. I just wanted to live. 

Despite falling to the ground, Gwen was screaming at the top of her lungs and, honestly, that was probably the most I had heard her the entire time I've known her. Which wasn't long, but, wait. I'm getting off the point.

We were practically dying. We had nothing. It was like skydiving gone wrong and all I could think of doing was laughing at this. This was how we were going to die? Because some hawks were sent to attack us. 

All I could do was think this sucks. It really sucked. Not because of the situation but because we were being sucked away from the ground. Practically being pulled upward and then dropping slowly, toward the ground until my feet touched the cracked dirt in the middle of a field. I felt myself gasp and look around. My eyes met Gwen, who looked as though she might faint. Then it hit me: she used her powers. The powers she was gifted from Zeus. 

There hadn't been a child of Zeus since Jason Grace, but he was a roman. To my knowledge, no children of Zeus had been able to use wind for centuries. 

And now I saw why.

Gwen looked deathly pale and immediately she collapsed, falling into the tall grass. I knew Marissa and Apollo were yelling, asking each other what to do. I rushed over to Gwen and bent down, feeling her pulse. 

I exhaled the breath I was holding in as I felt a steady pulse. She was drained. It was her first time using a power like that, and believe me, it was a pretty strong one to be able to control wind current. 

Marissa and Apollo bent down beside me, both of them yelling at me and asking way too many questions. I couldn't handle it.

"Will you both shut up?" I exclaimed, snapping my head to look at the both of them. Marissa's black jacket was gone, probably gone with the rest of Apollo's car. And Apollo? He looked like he just got out of a tornado. His normally perfect hair was all over the place, sticking out in different directions. His polo shirt was another matter. It was torn in a few places and was stained with the dusty Arizona dirt that seemed to get everywhere. One could say he looked ratchet, but that's just me.

Marissa glared at me. "How can you say that? She just saved us! Without Gwen we would've went," and then she proceeded to slap her hands together. "Splat! We would've died! After all the years we've known each other, Clara, I didn't want to die! Not now. So, yes, I am a little concerned about her because of her we won't be here right now. So is she okay? Or is that a little to much to ask of you right now?"

"I second whatever she just said," Apollo spoke up. I glared at him before saying, "Yes. She's fine."

I reached over to open my pack before realizing it was gone. We had no ambrosia or nectar. Gwen had to heal normally like a mortal. That meant it would take longer to get moving and that meant time we didn't have. Artemis was in trouble and we didn't have time.

Despite all of these worries, the first thing I noticed was again Apollo's hair. And then it struck me. "Apollo, just wondering, but um... Did you purposely ruin your hair?" Even though gods look like normal people in their chosen forms most of the time, it didn't mean that they would be normal. Gods could choose how they wanted to look and that's why it struck me that Apollo must've chosen to look so... interesting.