Xenomorphic

Chapter 38: The Abyss and Death Princess

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It was going about just like any other day. The Hunt was breaking camp for the day, taking down their tents, packing their gear, eating breakfast, Asteria's girls crowded around her as they inhaled their scrambled eggs. And then Asteria seized up, eyes locking onto a spot deep in the trees, her dancing tail going rigid.

The Hunters noticed, Amelia, Annabeth, and Ariel noticed, and the whole of nature noticed. Birds and insects went quiet, the wind stilled, the temperature went from its comfortable warmth to a breath-revealing chilly, and the sun became hidden by a blanket of light grey clouds.

"Asteria," Zoё said tensely, "what's out there?"

The telepath's eyes narrowed. 'Something dark...something dangerous...' she tilted her head, eyes narrowing even further. 'Something familiar. None of you follow me.'

"Mommy?" Amelia asked.

Asteria gave her oldest a reassuring smile. 'I won't be gone long. Behave and keep an eye on your sisters.'

"Okay, Mommy, you can me!"

'That's my girl.'

Asteria moved her daughters from her lap and rose to her feet. This time, she spoke only to her sisters. 'None of you leave this camp. None of you let anyone in this camp. I'll be back soon.'

She blurred into the forest, leaving behind several apprehensive near-immortals.

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She found the source of these feelings ten miles away from the camp, in a dead part of the forest. The trees here were barren and lifeless, the ground covered in dead grasses and leaves. A boulder was emerging from the ground, covered in dark moss, cracked and radiating a dark aura, but not as dark as the person sitting on top of it.

Blue sandals, white legwarmers, blue pants tucked into the legwarmers, and the rest of their body covered by a high-collared black cloak, with long sleeves, a red interior, and was decorated by a few red clouds with a white outline. Long, well-kept, clean, and arranged into several strands, the bangs of which cascaded over their eyes, and the rest spilled under the cloak's collar.

They were sitting in with their right leg pulled to their chest, their right arm draped across the knee, and Asteria saw a ring on the ring finger, one with a silver band and a red stone, a Japanese kanji on the stone, the one for "Lord." The left hand was resting on a black staff, five feet long, which itself was placed on the boulder.

Asteria's lips slowly curled back, her black gums and pearly teeth revealed in a threatening manner. Whoever was before her incited feelings of being threatened, a danger, something that was to be killed on the spot and shown not an ounce of mercy or leniency...but something held her back. The person on the boulder also felt familiar, like she had met them in a distant time so long ago.

Asteria supposed this feeling was more closely related to the feeling someone had when they went to the kitchen for something, and then forgot what it was they were getting. The burning feeling in their head as they tried to get electricity back to the cells that contained the appropriate memory.

She hissed in frustration, and warning, at the figure on the boulder, and the problems they were causing simply by sitting there.

"Hello, Asteria. It's been a while."

The deepness of the voice confirmed a male gender, but the knowing of her name set off enough warning bells in the hybrid's head that she attacked. She sprinted forward with nary a sound, and leapt up, closing the two dozen foot gap at four hundred miles an hour. She didn't what happened next, but suddenly she was crashing through trees, her head swimming as if she had just taken a mighty blow upside her skull.