The Hunt

Doctor who?

The wind whipped my long blonde hair into my face as I swung my backpack off of my shoulder and set it on the floor. It was late afternoon and Katherine had parked just outside a large forest so that we could set up a camp for the night. We grouped together in a circle, shielding ourselves from the freezing air. 

Kaylen took the lead and began issuing instructions, "Eva Robyn, you two go find us something decent to eat. be back by sunset at the latest, understood?" they nodded and sprinted off into the forest with their bows. "Katherine, you try to set up a fire large enough for the eight of us, I'll come and join you in a moment." Katherine nodded and left the group. "Lyra, you show Charlie, and the two males how to set up the tents, okay?"

"Sure, sure, dump the stupid boys on me, I'll take care of them..." I grumbled, but Kaylen had already shot off to join Katherine. 

Jasper stepped forward, "The 'stupid boys' have names you know!" he protested. I raised an eyebrow and walked forward a few paces, beckoning for them to follow. 

"Right. First thing you need to know about hunter tents, is that when we say stand back, you better stand back cuz-" 

I was cut off by Theo, "Why?"

"If you had noticed, I was about to tell you, so maybe next time pay attention before you start butting in." I answered, rolling my eyes. I had spent like 30 seconds with them and I already wanted to punch them in the gut. Gods, they're annoying. 

"Jeez, lady! take a chill pill, I was just asking!" he held his hands up in a mock surrender. I sighed and continued.

"Anyway, as I was saying, when you open a hunter tent, its not like those dumb pop-up ones you buy in camping stores, it will litterally spring out of the bag, fully formed."

"So, you don't even have to peg it down?!" I shook my head. "Awesome!" Jasper exclaimed,

"What sort of mechanics does it use?!" added Theo. I was a little confused until I remembered they were Hephaestus kids. That explained it.

"Whatever." I waved their amazement away and chucked them a small, silvery bag. "Here's your tent. Inside there will also be sleeping bags, bedrolls and anything else you need, unfortunately, these aren't magic and you will have to set them up yourself. Can you handle that?" I put on the most patronizing tone I could, left them to it and turned to Charlie.

"All the girls share one tent." I explained, she looked skeptical,

"How the Hades does that work?"

"It's a big tent." I shrugged and set the remaining bag on the floor by our feet.

"Stand back." Charlie quickly shuffled away and I unzipped the bag. The tent formed before us, from the outside it looked like it could only fit about 2 people in it, but really it could fit at least 8.

"Wait, so is it bigger on the inside or something?" she asked,

I nodded, "Yeah, can fit eight people comfortably, maximum ten."

"That's so cool!" she said, "Like the Tardis, right?"

"Like the what?"  

"You know, Doctor Who, the Tardis, bigger on the inside...?" she trailed off, clearly in shock that I didn't know what this Doctor-thingy was.

"What's that? some kind of TV show?" I asked,

"Well, yeah! seriously, what are you? 150 years old?!" she laughed, clearly thinking I was joking or something.

"Actually, I'm 100 this Friday." I said cheerfully and began to open the tent. Then I saw the look of confusement on her face. "Hunters are immortal, we can only be killed in battle." I offered as explanation, "I joined when I was 14 so, I've looked that age since then, but really I'm 99." I smiled and stepped in to the tent. Charlie followed.

"So you're all like really old?" she asked, I nodded,

"Well, Kaylen is the oldest."

"How old is she?"

"Oh, Zeus knows, she stopped keeping track years ago." I began to unroll a sleeping mat and gestured that Charlie do the same, she did. We set up the rest of the tent in silence, I thought it would be a good idea to let the whole 'hey, I'm immortal' thing sink in.