The Forest Gods' Reign [Published]

Chapter 12: The Little Hero Emerges

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All the rest of the gods' jaws dropped as they stared at the hyperventilating Alec, and Zeus demanded instantly, "Tell me what happened."

Alec put both of his hands on top of his dark hair, taking deep breaths and trying to slow his heart rate down again. "Persephone went out to collect some berries about half an hour ago, and she hasn't come back," Alec managed to gasp between breaths, his eyebrows knit together with worry. "She was only supposed to be gone for a couple minutes to collect some berries. There aren't any signs of her anywhere."

"I'm going to kill Hades," Demeter growled, anger clouding her normally cheerful mind.

"We don't even know if it was him-" Hestia began calmly, placing her hand lightly on Demeter's tan arm.

"Well, who else would it be?!" Demeter exclaimed, exasperated, shaking off Hestia's comforting touch. "All of the signs point to him. Hermes, get down to the Underworld right now," Demeter ordered, even though she didn't have the authority to do so.

But Hermes knew this well, so he didn't move a muscle and simply looked Demeter squarely in the eyes. Demeter let out a frustrated yelp and yanked at her long, blonde ponytail, but Zeus just frowned and told her to calm down while he thought. Meanwhile, the other gods whispered worriedly amongst themselves, discussing what should be done next.

After a few minutes or so, Zeus agreed to let Hermes go down into the Underworld to try to reason with Hades. So, Hermes immediately shot off like a rocket towards the east, into the cover of the trees, heading to one of the tiny cave entrances to the Underworld, but the rest of us stayed right where we were to wait for our leader's next orders. Most of the gods restlessly paced around in circles and exchanged some stressed shouts as Alec collapsed on the grass guiltily; tension was obviously running very high.

Eventually, we all came to a decision. Zeus sighed forlornly, then said, "Split into patrols. Kill any monsters you see, and warn all nymphs and satyrs of what has happened today. We don't need anyone to be killed."

Then we all nodded in agreement and immediately split up. Zeus, Hera and Hestia headed north, while my A Team, minus Apollo, trudged south. Apollo had agreed to protect Pan and the baby Felix back at the river hideout, as it would be much easier for him because he was armed with a bow instead of a sword like Alec. Lastly, Poseidon and Demeter went east, and Ares, Aphrodite and Dionysus took off west.

Artemis, Alec and I walked slowly through the forest on high alert. We didn't dare to speak; we only listened for the tiniest rustle of brush. We were ready for whatever monster wanted to attack us that day, even though we all had a few unhealed, deep cuts from fighting the Nemean Lion the night before. We had almost reached the loud, rushing river when I spotted something glint in a rare spot of sunlight shining down through the thick tree cover. I then pointed it out wordlessly to the others, who only nodded in acknowledgement. So, in a single file line led by me, we silently made our way towards whatever it was.

I frowned and sighed when I got close enough to see what the shining object was. Carefully, I grabbed a thin branch and pulled it closer to me, shaking my head solemnly when my suspicions were confirmed. A golden substance was slowly sliding down the rough branch in tiny beads of liquid, leaving a thin trail behind. I hesitantly dabbed my index finger in the gold substance and held it up to my nose, sniffing it. Blood. And it didn't have the greenish tinge that monster blood had, so I knew it had to be from a god, satyr or nymph. Unfortunately, I had to guess the blood was from a god. Persephone, to be exact.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I whispered behind me to Alec and Artemis.

"Persephone," they replied together in unison. I nodded, and we all turned around to look for any more blood or another sign of Persephone having been there. Suddenly Artemis snapped her fingers, and I looked up to see her pointing a few feet in front of us, where another tiny pool of golden blood laid on the ground, slowly being absorbed by the soft soil. Needless to say, this was definitely not a good sign.