Shattered

Piper

"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!" Piper chanted as the three of them slid behind an overturned wagon.

Reyna slugged her in the shoulder and screamed, "Pull yourself together Mclean!" just as an arrow embedded itself less than inch to the left of the Latina's head.

"I'm sorry Reyna!" she snapped, as she covered her head with her arms. "I'm just not used to being in a fucking warzone!"

Because that was what they found themselves in when Thalia sprang them from their cell: a warzone. The great gathering place of the deer women and other members of the Nation, composed of a mix of manmade cabins and magical growth was on fire. Thick, billowing black smoke obscured line of sight to less than twenty feet, while the great orange and red flames cast what they did see in a hellish glow. The great trees swung their blazing branches in a futile attempt to extinguish themselves, only to make the flames grow. The mushroom walkways were rapidly being reduced to ash, even as new mushrooms would try to spring up and take their fallen brethren's place. People and creatures of all shapes and sizes were fleeing from their homes, only to fall to arrows from an unseen hunter, or to drop from smoke inhalation, or worse being crushed under burning debris.

Their screams would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Every few seconds or so she would see a brilliant volley of the moonlight arrows pierce through the fog of battle, often accompanied by more ear piercing screams. But for every volley fired, a volley of arrows released by whom she presumed were the hunters were returned with pinpoint accuracy. With every passing moment it seemed the battle was growing more and more one-sided.

"Would you two shut up?!" Thalia grunted through clenched teeth as she fired off two arrows into the smoke covered battlefield. The raven haired (which Piper suspected was dyed) daughter of Zeus removed another arrow from her quiver and readied her bow again. "It's kind of hard to sneak you out with you two keep snapping at each other!"

"She started it!" She and Reyna snapped back simultaneously. She glared at the annoying praetor and wanted to poke the dagger Thalia gave her into the Latina's thigh. Nothing fatal, just enough to show her that she was still pissed as well.

"Jason so owes me for saving your asses," the huntress sighed as she released another arrow into the air, which was met with a scream followed by one of the hunters falling from a tree. "Piper are you ready to move again?"

She looked down at her bandaged right leg and cringed as she saw the wrapping was soaked with her own blood. "I don't think it really matters if I am or not, we got to get out of here before the smoke gets to us." She used the overturned wagon to pull herself up and Reyna wrapped her arm around her.

"We just got to make it to the others," Thalia cried, jumping out from the cover of the wagon. "Now move!"

She and Reyna wasted no time following the huntress's order, running out from behind the wagon with their heads low, and Piper keeping her blade at the ready. She had no idea what was happening as Thalia was expertly dropping both hunters and armed deer women as they ran, but from what she was gathering was that Thalia and a group of hunters were breaking away from Artemis and the others. It also apparently wasn't an easy decision on Thalia's part, as with each arrow released, Jason's sister looked paler and paler.

"We just got to meet up with the others by the big tree!" Thalia cried as she leapt over a fallen branch. "I have them on guarding Atlas, which what is that all about?" the daughter of Zeus asked as she retrieved an arrow from the corpse of a fallen deer woman.

"We'll tell you if you tell us what the fuck is going on," Piper huffed, as she straddled herself over the obstruction, carefully swinging her bloody leg over. She turned and offered Reyna a hand up, but the praetor slapped her hand away and pulled herself up. She frowned at Reyna and was really tempted to push her off the log. "Because last time I checked, you, Artemis, and the rest of the hunters were one great big happy, borderline incestuous, family."