The Gathering

Chapter Twelve

We walked for several days, as we were now all without our horses, without any disturbances. It seemed empty, dead, without Danny, but we could hopefully turn that around soon.
Not much happened in between New York and North Carolina. The same gray buildings. The same overgrown vines. The same burnt fields. It wasn't very pleasing to look at, but there was a certain freeing beauty to it, that all this was growing without the toxicity so common before.

Right outside of North Carolina, though, was a very welcome and happy surprise. The hunters were here!
"Naomi! Zoe! It's us!" Ava yelled as we saw them off in the distance, as silhouettes on the horizon. We all ran, shamelessly. Ava's long blonde hair flowed back furiously as she sprinted to the front to be the first there. Not too far behind, though, was Adrian who had the same idea, but was lucky enough to already have her glowing red hair tied back. I guess I never really thought about any other camps relationship with the hunters.

As soon as we met, we embraced and welcomed each other. Naomi came to me first and squeezed me in a death grip. In that tight hug, though, I could feel all her stress ebb down through her body through me and out. We made it one more time, at the very least.

"If you're here in North Carolina, that means you've visited Ares and Poseidon. But..." Zoe began, realizing what the situation before her meant.

"The sea demigods are in a dictatorship. The sole heir of Poseidon cruelly governs them and killed Danny" I explained, knowing I should be the one to do it, being the unspoken leader.
A dead silence fell over the hunters. They all knew Danny well and loved seeing the enjoyment he got from his abilities. Death was so common now, but that didn't make any less impactful, especially because these girls see all sorts of death.

"I gave him a proper burial. He's at the Empire State Building" I said, hoping that would help some cope, that he could be with the gods when they returned.

Finally, one hunter spoke up, "May his journey to Elysium be smooth and he enjoys the fruits of his life's labor"

"On a lighter note, how would you feel about camping with us here tonight?" Zoe asked.

We all agreed that we all needed a little break so we pitched camp. Soon the entire field was full with purple tents uniform across, each filled with chattery demigods.

Adrian had found her way to a hunter, named Eliza I think, and they seemed to be in a deep discussion of pyrotechnics, complete with hand motions and sound effects. Chris seemed to have an entire fanclub and was surrounded by four or five hunters, with all of them obviously smitten.

As for myself, I sat with James, Ava, and Naomi and caught her up on what had happened. And she did the same for us.

"There's been rumors of a new mercenary band around in the South. Their leader has the most peculiar thing. Six fingers. What are the chances of that?" Naomi informed us.
I immediately thought of Chris. His mom. This mercenary was the one that killed his mom, I'm sure of it.

"Also, we got some new horses I think your Ares friends will be interested to see" Naomi teased.

"Naomi you know us better. Now you HAVE to show us" James said.

With a huge grin, Naomi got up, her face, freckles and all, was bright as day and she began to hop down the path to the stables.

Naomi reached the stables far before us and stood in anticipation at the doors, ready to let us in. "You're lucky it's just about dark. At midday, these things are a mess. Still, try not to wake them up" Naomi whispered.

She gingerly grabbed the brass handle and creaked the door open so that we could all barely slip in. Once in, I immediately knew why Naomi was so excited and it definitely lived up to expectations.

At our feet were four horses. Not just any horses, though. These horses were magnificent. Their bodies were like a rusty red, chiseled to the equivalent of a body builder. The real prize, though, was the mane. It was literal fire. With them sleeping it was a low fire without much heat but it was definitely there.
Only then did I figure out what these were. These were Ares four immortal horses that pulls his chariot into battle. And the hunters had them sleeping in their stables.

I looked over to Ava and James and they seemed to be going through the same process I was. All at once, we turned to Naomi and asked, "How?"

"Us hunters have to some sort of exclusive skills thank you very much" Naomi said teasingly.

"On that note, we better turn in, before any more tricks are revealed" James said.

And that's what we did.