Sons of Olympus

The Hunt

Before exiting the building Alec pauses and puts his hand on the wall and begins to heat it up. The wall responds by producing an audible beeping tone signifying that the alarm system had been armed. “Can’t forget to lock up. I would hate for your precious candles to get stolen.” Alec says and begins to chuckle to himself.

“Oh yes, that’s hmm, that’s humorous. Are you quite done? We need to begin hunting for our next meal, if we don’t soon, I cannot promise your safety.” Damian says a hint of cold annoyance in his voice.

“Umm, yea let’s go get that food. I am really not in any sort of mood to see you try and cook me up. Or just lose your mind from hunger in any sort of way that could harm me.” He says and takes a step away from his friend. “Honestly, how can you move in all of that clothing? It makes absolutely no sense to me.” Wordlessly, Damian responds by jumping from the knee high snow to the nearest tree and sitting on a sturdy branch. “Show off.”

“Well, you asked. I just thought a visual demonstration would be a more fitting response than a verbal one. My question for you is how can a black man comfortably walk into below freezing temperatures? Not to mention the knee high snow you are wading in at the moment. I am getting my information from common stereotypes that I have heard.”

“You know why. I am raising my body temperature as we speak and… you were being sarcastic just now weren’t you?”

“Quite.” He gets up from his position on his branch and charges forward, hopping from branch to branch “Alec, it would be wise of you to keep up.”

“I am knee deep in snow! How am I supposed to keep up?!”

“Figure it out. You’re a walking inferno, make the best of it.”

“I knew that. I knew that! Don’t snicker at me!” With that last outburst, Alec raises his body temperature at a rapid rate and runs after Damian, the snow melting completely three feet in front of him giving him a clear passage to run through.

“Was that so hard?” Damian says mockingly from his standing position on a branch.

“I don’t need any lip from you bub. And another thing.” “Shhh.” Damian cuts him off.

“Do you hear that? Listen.” He jumps down from his branch and lands silently next to Alec and pulls him to the tree and covers his mouth, preventing him from making noise. He pokes his head around a tree. “There!” he whispers “We have our first prey.” He brings Alec around enough to see and uncovers his mouth.

“This one’s mine.” He breaks form the grasp containing him and rolls around the tree; simultaneously forming his flames into the shape of a pistol. But surprisingly the flames dissipate and what is left is an actual pistol. He takes aim as the deer is realizing that he is not alone and fires. A bullet of flame erupts from the barrel of the black pistol and hits the unsuspecting deer right between the eyes. It crumbles to the ground in a heap. “Score of for Alec King!” he celebrates to himself and walks over to his prize and drags it off. “It’s your turn to kill something buddy.”

“I would have had you not stolen my prey.”

“Aww, this one’s small. It wouldn’t have been any fun for you.”

“Fine, but the next one belongs solely to me.” And he leaps back into the tree leaving Alec to follow on foot.

They search for something close to twenty minutes and finally stumble upon another potential meal. “Alec, go wait behind those thick bushes to your right; I am going to have some fun.” He looks at his prey, a female deer looking somewhat distressed and frantic. ‘This must be the other deer’s mother.’ He thinks to himself, ‘I will have to use its fear and uncertainty to my advantage.’ With that thought a wicked twisted smile forms on his face revealing perfectly straight and blindingly white teeth. ‘We are in the middle of a clearing so my cover is limited, but I wasn’t planning on keeping it unaware of my presence for much longer anyway,’ he closes his eyes, and when he opens them, his usually white eyes accented with a small red pupil reveal that the colors have altered. They are now black with a red dot as a pupil. He reaches to his belt and retrieves the two small sickles that he keeps on his person at all times. He takes one and silently throws it at the deer’s right front leg, slicing clean through it; the lack of a leg and the sudden intense pain brings the screaming deer down with a crash. The blood flows from its leg like water from a fallen bottle, its warmth slightly melting the snow underneath it; the once perfectly white, reflective surface now dull and crimson.

Damian gracefully hops down from his perch and lands silently. He walks over to his helpless prey and whispers to it “Hello, sorry to disturb you, but I am in need of nourishment and you just seemed like the perfect candidate. Don’t worry; you won’t be dying just yet. No, you will still be allowed to live, at least for a few more minutes. I am going to make you suffer for a while, and then I will give you permission to die. Until that time comes, be a dear and let out as many agonized screams and blood chilling groans as you like.” He pats its head and takes a step back to consider his options. He begins by taking his sickle and dragging it along the animal’s back, going only about a centimeter in, but going as slowly as possible. After that, he kneels down to its other leg and slowly begins to carve through it. The animal begins to flail its back legs around and gets close to hitting Damian. He uses his other sickle to pierce through both of the legs and the ground, holding them together.

While this is going on, Alec is transfixed on the terrible sight, too shocked to look away. He is speechless and starts to very slightly shake. The motion is barely noticeable, and it is not happening because of the freezing temperatures.

            Damian goes back to sawing through its leg, the blood hopping onto his clothes and his pale face. Once he gets close to half way through the bone, he gets up and stomps on the leg until it snaps off. He has the genius idea of beating the animal with its leg ‘Oh, the irony,’ he thinks and begins mercilessly beating it. Its screams of pain fill the night air and make Alec’s shaking to get more violent.

            After good three or so minutes of beating the beast, he pauses to look at his fine work and with the same sick and twisted smile says “Yes, this is looking very good so far.” He takes a deep breath and raises shadow tendrils all around him and aims them at the bloody, bruised, tired, and barely alive animal before him. The shadows shoot out at lightning speed wrapping the animal up in a vice like grip and begin to lift it from the ground. Its back legs are still tethered to the ground by the sickle and stretch out until they can’t anymore and the beast tries to groan in agony, but it can’t quite produce the sound because of the blood in its throat. The most it can do is gargle. With one swift motion upwards, the tendrils pull the animal from the ground, its legs still mostly intact. Once elevated from the ground, the tendrils start to squeeze, slowly cutting off its breathing. But before it can pass out, the tendrils loosen up, but begin to slam the deer into the ground several times, the sounds of bones breaking is enough make any sane person sick. He lifts it back up and begins to squeeze it again, and before it passes out, he slams it to the ground. He repeats this process several times until finally he squeezes the animal to its death.

            After gently placing it on the ground and dragging it back over to Alec he cheerily speaks “That was fun, I’m ready to go Alec.” He looks at his companion “Alec, are you alright?” concern evident in his voice. Alec is still transfixed on the pool of dull crimson amongst the reflective surface of the snow, shimmering in the moonlight. He is shaking violently by this point tears streaming down his face “Alec?! Alec, say something!” but he doesn’t move, all he does is shake. Damian grabs his shoulders and tries to snap him out of his trace “What’s wrong? Tell me. Look at me!” Alec seems to snap out of it as he looks to his friend, but instead of realizing where he is or what’s going on; a look of horror spreads onto his face “Don’t touch me!” he slaps Damian’s hands away.

            “What’s wrong with you? Why are you acting so strange,”   he tries to walk towards Alec.

            “Stay back! You aren’t about to do that to me!” he gets up and runs away, melting the snow in his path.

            “Hey!” Damian shoots out a shadow tendril and wraps it around Alec’s wrist. “Talk to me. What has gotten into you?”

            “You did! You got into my head!” He breaks down on the ground, shaking because he is crying again. “You didn’t have to torture it. You could’ve just killed it, plain and simple.”

            Damian rushes to his side “So, it was just for fun. What’s the problem? I’ve never seen you like this before.”

            “Torture… it was the torture… that… that’s my biggest fear. I can’t handle torture. It… it is too much for me… I can’t…” he stops.

            Damian gazes upon his once strong ally “Come, I will help you home.” He creates a shadow in the shape of a hand and lifts Alec gently, along with the other deer. Damian himself begins to levitate only a foot from the ground. He gently begins to take them back to their home.