Hunters

I Meet a Mysterious Stranger (and Set the Scene for an Adventure)

     Everyone believed that Reyna Avila Ramírez Arellano was the richest, most terrifying pirate on the seven seas. She was said to have killed more than a hundred men, women, and children in her first year of piracy. She spared no ship and took no survivors, except for one. During her years of pillaging and plundering, she had picked up an equally petrifying first mate; an academically gifted girl named Annabeth Chase. Annabeth was well taught in strategy and stealth, and she had an uncanny memory of every rich harbor in the United Kingdom. Reyna's leadership and daring combined with Annabeth's knowledge of wealthy ports made them unstoppable.

     I, Thalia Grace, had assigned myself to the mission of finding and returning them to the Queen, dead or alive. I was not a general or a soldier, I was a broke eighteen year-old allied with The Hunters; a notorious gang of lady freedom fighters with a significant lack of interest in men. Reyna and Annabeth each had a hundred pound bounty on their head, along with a pardon for any criminal daring enough to retrieve them. Naturally, as a broke unmarried woman in a gang of outlaws, I decided to throw my hat into the ring and begin my quest to find them. After around two months of dead ends and red herrings, I found a promising lead by the name of Percy.

     I found him in a bar, drunk off his arse singing bittersweet songs about "dearest Annabeth, how I miss thee so..." I dragged him to my ramshackle home for interrogation, where he fell asleep in a nest of blankets on my bed. I sighed and fell asleep on the floor; visions of money and fame in my head. About three hours later, I woke up to the sound of him vomiting into my chamber pot. After he had finished clearing his stomach, he groaned and stumbled back to my bed; unaware of my presence (or of the fact that he was in my house, for that matter). I slowly lifted myself off of the floor, as to not startle him. I glanced towards him. He wasn't a bad looking fellow, if he washed his hair and gave it a quick brush through, he would look quite handsome. 'Of course,' I thought, 'not that I would date him!' I chuckled to myself, a bit too loudly perhaps, as the man started to turn over to face me.

"Could you keep it... Keep it down? I'm trying to sleep." He sleepily mumbled.
"I'm sorry sir, I was just trying to—"
"Sir?... Please don't call me sir." The man started to sit upright. "Sir is too formal. My name is Perseus, but you can call me Percy."
"Percy? Alright, Percy," I said disdainfully, "my name is Thalia Grace. Would you mind explaining a few things to me? Like why you were so drunk last night? Or who the 'dearest Annabeth' you were singing about was?"
Percy looked befuddled. "Singing? I was singing last night?" He turned to face me. "Well, that must've been a fun time. But you want to know about Annabeth?" he guffawed. "If I'm to tell you about how I met Annabeth Chase, I'll need some food." Percy rummaged through his pockets and handed me a pound. "Here, could you run to the market and fetch some breakfast for the both of us? I'll stay here and attempt to compose my story."
"How do I know that you're not a thief, set on stealing what few belongings I have while I buy us breakfast?" I raised my eyebrow in an attempt to look more sarcastic and less cynical.
He met my uncertainty with equal humor, "Well, it's simple really, you've got nothing of worth to steal." His retort was punctuated by him raising his eyebrows and shrugging at me, causing a small laugh to arise from my throat. I promptly left, praying to God that I had made a good decision on letting him stay.

A/N: Hello, reader! I'm sorry if this chapter is a little slow, but I promise that there's good stuff coming soon! I plan on updating once a week on Wednesday nights, but I've got midterms coming up so who knows if I'll stick to it? Anyways, I hope you're enjoying the story, and that you'll stick around to read the rest! Bye for now!
~ Nicole