A New Goddess (Sequel to The Child Of The Dead Sea)

21. Thanksgiving

CAUTION: this chapter was originally two parts so it will be long and I will mark where the second part would have been to make a sort of midway stopping point.
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Jason

I crossed the border with Hazel and Frank to find the entire camp empty. From the looks of everything they had left in a hurry. Most of the campers items were still in their cabins, including most of the Aphrodite campers makeup. Which was odd.

"Where are they?" Frank asked.

"You don't think anything happened do you?" Hazel asked taking Frank's hand and moving closer to him.

I shook my head and pushed up my glasses. The silence that engulfed the once loud and exciting camp was giving me chills.

Those chills strengthened when loud, deafening, howls filled the air around us. I drew my coin and flipped it into a sword, Frank notched an arrow in his bow, and Hazel drew her sword.

Wolves walked out from behind buildings and trees. They circled us and growled, keeping just out of range for a full attack. Frank fired an arrow at the largest wolf, a huge solid black wolf with a scar down his side and smaller paw prints that were burned into his skin and fur. It knocked the arrow aside and growled.

He stepped forward and howled one longer howl that was much deeper than the rest. After he ended he looked towards the forest and leaned his ear towards the trees. After a moment he was answered by a higher pitched howl that lasted half the time.

Satisfied he turned back to us and just watched silent. A minute passed and seven more wolves, of various colors, launched out of the trees. Six of them joined the others while the smallest, a wolf with a rusty pelt, moved next to the large black wolf.

The larger wolf growled at the smaller and the smaller tackled him, pinning him to the ground and lite its paws on fire, making more burn marks on his pelt. When he howled in pain, the smaller wolf stepped off and chased the larger wolf away, the rest of the original wolves following.

"Are you guys okay?" The wolf asked.

Wait, did that wolf just talk? "Kate?" Hazel asked.

"Yes, come and hurry. We must get back before they catch a sign of us." She answered and walked back towards the forest.

I exchanged a look with Frank and Hazel and followed wolf-Kate. I was curious about where Kate was taking us but all I could focus on was if Piper was okay.

"Where are we going?" Frank asked.

"You will have to see, we can't trust the forest." She answered.

"Um, why can't we trust the forest?" I asked, nervous.

Kate turned around to face us and looked up at me. "We are hiding to avoid our destruction. I will explain later but right now we have to get back." She told us and turned back, resuming her walk towards the beach. "You better watch it when you get there Jason." She smirked and flashed her wolf eyes at me.

"Why?" I trotted to catch up with her.

"Piper had been worried sick. No Iris messages have been able to get out so she hasn't been able to hear from you." Kate answered.

My face flushed. A child of Aphrodite was bad enough when she was worried. A daughter of Aphrodite with Charmspeak and a knife was an even more frightening thought.

Kate lead us to the secluded beach that I had only heard of. Without hesitation she waded into the water, bending it in a circle around her paws. We had no choice but to follow. Once we were under the surface, a bubble of air had surrounded us and we were walking on the bottom of the ocean. That is until we reached a drop off.