Rostris: The Hunting Demigod

A New Direction

     "Crius. Crius wake up." I try to lean over and shake him awake, but I don't want him to know that I've improved a lot because I want it to be a surprise. He's been sleeping next to me on the floor beside the couch, incase I needed him for something.
     "Ok, I'm up."
     "Good. By the way it's 8 in the morning." The sun's rays are shining through the windows curtains, letting me know the time. In the past, Amposa had taught me how to tell the time by looking at the sky and shadows. But I didn't need it to wake up. I've been up for a few hours, trying to come up with a plan to locate Ekho. I only came up with checking the news for forest fires, but I don't think that it will be beneficial. The news will show where and when the forest fires happen, but Ekho is too smart to leave behind a pattern. "Wait! That's it." Oops.
     "What's 'that's it'?"
     "I didn't mean to say it aloud but I might as well now. I was up since 5:00 am planning on how we could locate Ekho. And I found out how. I didn't want to tell you that I did, because then you would have asked how long I was thinking about it for. Then you'd yell at me telling me that I should have been sleeping and that I was obsessed with this."
     "Well you're right. You are obsessed with this! And yes, you should have been sleeping! But I guess it's too late now anyways. What did you figure out?"
     "So you know how the news would show the forests fires and where they are?"
     "Yea... but Ekho wouldn't leave a specific trail around."
     "Exactly. So we need to pinpoint all the locations she's been to and see what would be the most crazy area to go to next but within the same distance as all the other ones."
     "That actually... doesn't make any sense at all. Which is why it would make sense!"
     "Yes! Can you go in the kitchen, and there should be a big drawer on top of a cabinet. In the drawer is a whole much of standard survivalist items. There should be a road map in there. There should also be thumbtacks in the drawer next to it. Bring those over and place it on the table in front of me. I'm going to take my phone out and look at all the places she's set on fire. The two places that I was told already was the island of Salamis island and the island of Skyros. Pin point point those two locations on the map, please." I open the news on my phone and find five other places that were set on fire: the island of Zakynthos, Forest Hills Park, Pennsylvania, Ontario's Happy Valley Forest, Canada, Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, Indonesia, and Kalalau Valley, Hawaii. There is definitely no connection through all these places. "Crius pinpoint these also," I tell Crius the locations I found and tacks them. "All these places surround one area; Turkey. But the way I know that it does, is because they all have around the same distance to Turkey."
     "So all we'd have to do is run all over Turkey till we find her."
     "Yup. Tomorrow we'll get all of our stuff together and the day after we'll leave."
     "But how are you going to be able to run, let alone walk properly?"
     "I don't know. Who knows? Maybe i'll be able to walk and run when the time comes. For now, let's just figure out all the possibilities of Hera and Lynx being in the mix and how to deal with them. Once we do that, we need to figure out how to take down Ekho."
     "If we encounter Lynx first, I can distract her as Laelap runs up to her from behind. How familiar are you with your uncle Apollo?"
     "Um. I think we met once when I was younger like four years old. I have like a vague memory of him."
     "Well, we obviously can't contact your mom. What if we contact Apollo? Like when we finish up on Lynx and Hera, we could call upon him and he can take them back to Mount Olympus and have them locked up."
     "That actually sounds like a good idea. Let's do a trial run.
     I call upon Apollo;
     God of music,
     Truth and prophecy,
     Healing,
     The sun and light,
     Plague,
     And poetry." We wait a minute and nothing happens.
          Swoosh
     "Rostris. Look at you. You've grown."
     "Uncle... I can't believe you came."
     "I only allow myself to appear to people I trust. Of course, I trust you. You are my niece after all. I've seen you grow up. I know what kind of person you grew up to be. And might I say, you're extraordinary."
     "Thank you, Uncle." He has blue eyes and a blonde locks, completely different from my mother's. She has a silvery yellow eye color and auburn hair. He's wearing a green t-shirt and black jeans, similar to the style of my mother's; a black blouse and green pants. "I'm sorry to have called upon you, especially for needing something."
     "I completely understand. I've heard about your run ins with Hera and hunting Ekho. Anything you need, I'm here for it."
     "I'm glad to hear that. Oh by the way, this is Crius. He's been helping me the whole time with the mission. He's never left my side."
     "Nice to meet you, Crius." Apollo reaches over to shake Crius' hand. "Thank you for taking care of her."
     "It was no problem at all, sir."
     "Alright, so here's what we need from you: whenever me and Crius take down one of the three; Lynx, Hera, and Ekho, we need you to bring them back to Mount Olympus and lock them up. Can you do that?"
     "Yes, and I'd be happy to. Those three have caused enough trouble. I'll take them back and secure them, and then I'll try to start up a trial with the help of your mother."
     "Wait. I don't want her to know anything until all of them are locked up. If she gets involved, she's going to try to stop me before I've finished.
    "Are you sure?"
    "Yes, I'm sure."
    "Okay. So, I'll head out. Just call upon me when you have someone."
     "Alright. Thank you again, Uncle."
     "It's nice to hear the name "uncle". Hopefully when this mess is over, we can hang out. Get to know each other more."
     "I'd like that very much."
              Swoosh
     I turn to Crius, overjoyed with what just happened. "We might actually have a chance of winning! I can't believe it."
     "Ok. Let's talk strategy now."
     "Right. So, Lynx needs a few seconds to recite spells. We could use that to our advantage. While she reciting a spell, Laelap can creep up behind her, with speed of course, and start to claw her. While she's doing that, I'll shoot Lynx with an arrow and you can run up to her, tackle her down, and bind her with the enchanted rope that I had used on you."
     "Ya, there's no getting out of that rope. Ok so what about Hera?"
     "By the time we reach Ekho, Hera should already be there. We can use that to our advantage too. Hera will be so busy trying to kill Ekho, that she won't notice us coming. Plus, she probably thinks I'm dead anyway. I'll be a surprise to her. When she's distracted by me, Ekho will try to escape. This is where you and Laelap come in. You can try to talk to Ekho, telling her that we've already taken down Lynx. She'll be shocked at this and then, at the right moment, Laelap will run to her as well, quietly. Right when Laelap jumps on Ekho, use that second to quickly bind her. I'm dealing with Hera. When she sees me "alive", I can use that second to shoot two hundred arrows at her. While she's in pain, I'll run over to her and detain her as well."
     "Well, this sounds like a plan that can't go wrong."
     "Tomorrow we'll need to gather up: water, food, bandages, ointment, an emergency map, the rope, and anything else you can think of. We're finishing this mission in one day."
     "Ok. I'll cook us some meals tomorrow to pack so that we don't waste any time hunting, and I'll put all your arrows together."
     "Ok. Well, we should get some rest. We can sleep late into the day tomorrow so that once we get everything ready, when can go back to sleep and leave in the morning."
     We lay back down and drift into sleep. Hopefully everything goes well and this mess can be done with once and for all.
     I wake up and see that the sun is starting to set. It must be sunset of the next day. I look over and see that Crius isn't on the floor anymore. He must've gotten up to get all of our stuff together. I look around and see that he's nowhere to be found. I get up, ecstatic that I had no problem with it. Now I know I'm ready. I hear footsteps and quickly lay back down. I open one eye and see Crius holding backpacks.
     "I know you're awake, Rostris." He laughs and puts the bags down. "Good morning. Or I should say, evening."
     "Hey. When did you wake up?"
     "I got up about an hour ago getting things together. I fed Laelap and she's resting now. Since she can understand us, I told her the plan also. Then I gave her a treat. She really loves me."
I look down at my bandages and see that they're new. "You changed my bandages too?"
      "Yeah. Your wounds are starting to heal almost completely now. A few more days and they should be gone."
     "Thank you."
     "It was no problem. I'm gonna go back to sleep. Do you need anything before I do?"
     "Um... maybe some toast. Ya, some buttered toast sounds good."
             The next day
     "Wake up, Crius. It's time to go." Last night Crius had handed me some clothes to change into, so I'm already dressed. While he was sleeping, I had gone up to go to the bathroom. Our bags are set up by the door. I see Laelap just sitting on the livingroom floor, waiting patiently. Crius gets up and rolls up the covers.
     "Let me just change and use the bathroom, then we can go."
     Perfect. I can show him my progress when he walks out the bathroom. I get up and stand and put my hair in a high ponytail. I have on a black t-shirt and tan skinny khaki pants. I walk over to the hallway so that when he gets out, he can see me standing and walking with no problem, hopefully it can give him some more motivation. I hear the sink run and then stop. I see the doorknob turn and brace myself. He starts to walk out and turns my way.
     "Rostris?"
     "Yeah. I can walk without pain now. I've been practising over the past few days when you weren't here. What do you think?"
     "I... I'm surprised, happy, a little worried, but I guess I should've figured. But, I'm happy for you. I'm really, really happy. This is a great surprise. He walks over to me and gives me a big, bear hug.
     "Great. Ok, let's go." We head out with Laelap and our next destination: Turkey.
     We agreed that we were going to run the whole time with our speed and should reach Turkey by the end of the day. So the whole time we'll just be running. Running. Running. We converse the whole time, going over the plan. With the issues with the ocean, since we're running, we had to buy a jetski. We couldn't rent because well, we wouldn't be going back the same way we came when we're done. We finally have reached Turkey. Me and Crius split up, Laelap with me, and decide to run around till we find one of the three. Whoever finds someone first has to call the other. We depart and run off. There's a forest a mile from where we were first at and another one seven miles away. Since I have Laelap with me I choose the seven mile one and Crius goes to the one mile one. I go searching through the forest when my phone starts to ring. It's Crius. "Hello?"
     "Rostris." He's whispering. "I found Lynx. I'm hidden behind a group of trees. She's reading from some kind of book. I think it's a spellbook."
     "Alright I'm on my way." I run back towards the one mile forest taking me eight miles to get to it and five minutes. I find Crius and quietly walk to him, Laelap by my side. "Ok, you know the plan. I'll send Laelap to go around, behind her. She'll creep up behind Lynx. You'll walk out and she'll see you. Laelap will jump Lynx and I'll move to the side where she can't see me and shoot arrows at her. Then, you'll run up to her and tie her. I'll then call upon Apollo."
     "Ok."
     "Go, Laelap. I see her run so fast, you wouldn't have even known that something was there. Lynx is still looking at her book and she surprisingly looks healthy. Laelap starts to creep up behind, a sign for Crius to walk out. He goes around from the tree and Lynx looks up.
     "You're the guy that was with Rostris. I heard she's dead. Just like you'll be."
     "Funny you should say that." Crius tilts his head to the side, discreetly motioning Laelap it's time.
She jumps onto Lynx, clawing and biting her. I move to get a good shot at Lynx and pull out two arrows. I shoot them both at the same time, one shooting into her hand making her drop her spellbook, the other in her calf so that she can't run. I walk out as Crius takes out the rope and starts to tie her while she screams in pain, "You thought I was dead? Please, nothing is going to stop me from getting you and your mother. I call upon Apollo, twin of Artemis and my uncle."
              Swoosh
     "She's right over there." I point my hand finger to Lynx, motioning Apollo to take her.
     "Well, well, well. What do we have here? You should be dead, Rostris." I turn my head to see Hera, walking up behind me.
     "Well, there goes my element of surprise. That's ok. I can still finish you."
     "You're so adorable Rostris. You couldn't do it before, what makes you think you can now?"
     "Maybe it's because I have backup." Laelap was smart enough to sense Hera before me and had his in the trees. She came running out now and plunged her teeth into Hera. Like I said, all I needed was those two seconds. With speed I've never had to use before, I use all my might to shoot arrow after arrow, getting seventy arrows into Hera. "Crius! Now!" While Hera is in a state of shock and pain, Crius runs up with his speed and ties her, motioning Apollo over with Lynx to take Hera too.
     "Well... I guess I overestimated you, offspring."
     "Well, I guess you did Hera."
               Swoosh
     "Now all we have to do is find Ekho."
     "Except, I'm right here."
     We turn to find Ekho, standing one hundred feet away from us. "Didn't expect for you to come to us, Ekho."
     "Well, I got bored and wanted to do something other than set things on fire. So I thought, why not just end this hunt by killing them off and can then go and do anything I want? You even ended up getting rid of Hera for me so I will thank you for that."
She starts to conjure up a spell and a wind starts to pick up. The leave sin the trees start to fly off, forming into a creature made from them. I nod towards Crius to fight it off which his long spike and axe, while me and Laelap deal with Ekho. As she starts another spell, I shoot ten arrows at her, grateful that she doesn't have the same amount of pain tolerance as Hera. She screams out and starts to pick up the pace of her spell. Laelap runs up towards her and claws at her legs. Ekho kicks her away and that just angered me more. I grab my arrow that's enhanced with temporary paralysis (another gift from Mother for hunting), and shoot it into Ekho's left thigh. She drops down and tries to get up, but she can't. I had grabbed the rope from Crius before he went to fight off the leafed creature and run run to Ekho in a second. Since she was in no condition to move her lips to control the leaf creature, it drops down into a pile of leaves. Crius goes to tend to Laelap as I secure Ekho. "You really thought you would win?" Ekho tries to move her eyes to glare at me but of course, she can't.
              Swoosh
     I turn to see Apollo but instead, an unexpected visitor. "Mom."
     "What did I tell you, Rostris! You could have been injured badly. Maybe worse!"
     "But I'm not. And I successfully took down Ekho without your help with not even a scratch on me!"
     "I'm sorry. I should have trusted you. I was just worried about your health."
     "I'm sorry I lashed out at you. I mean, you were just being my mom. Do you think you could take Ekho back to Mount Olympus? I had contacted your brother and he helped with the others."
     "Sure. You do loom very healthy though, by the way. Zeus will be very pleased that you all took them down. I don't know what he's going to do about Hera, but in this kind of situation, the council will have to decide, not him. I will do my best to make sure that she is exiled in a place where she can't teleport and is locked up indefinitely."
     "Thank you, mom."
              Swoosh
     "Wow, I can't believe we took them all down!"
     I turn to see Crius walking up towards me, Laelap trotting by his side.
     "I know! You both did so good. When we get back to the cabin, I swear Laelap, I'm going to give you a whole bowl of treats, including mice."
     Woof! Woof! Woof!
     "Haha. As for you, Crius, I have something to tell you that I think will suffice."
     "I'm listening..."
     I grab his hands and hold them, "I love you. These past two and a half weeks have been great with you and I can't imagine not continuing without you. What do you say? Will you continue this new journey with me?"
     "I'd very much like that, yeah. Now, I have something to say to you; I love you too."
     He pulls me in and as I close my eyes, I can see the dream that I had a few days ago. This time though, I can see Crius on the side of me, hunting with Laelap and I.