The Child of Artemis

Chapter 9

"LEOOOOO." Percy shouted as the three of them made their way through the woods. "LEO ARE YOU THERE?"

"Percy," Jason hissed. "Quit shouting. We're trying to find Leo, not wake up every monster within six miles!"

Percy frowned. "Jason, I'm pretty sure if there were any monsters, they would have found us by now. Or vice versa." The bush next to his rustled, and he jabbed at it with Riptide. A wayward squirrel scurried out and up a nearby tree.

"What makes you say that?" Frank asked as he bent down to inspect some possible tracks. Jason didn't know how he could see at all, barely a mark in the dirt. Whatever moonlight they could have had was blocked by the thick tangle of branches above.

"Well, I've been told that demigods smell strongly of fresh, buttered bread. But I wouldn't know so..."

"We smell like what?" Frank turned to look at Percy, who just shrugged. "Hey, Bob's words, not mine." Frank shrugged and went back to inspecting the imprints.

He stood up. "I think Leo went this way." He pointed to a ghost of a path that cut through the woods. Broken and bent branches suggested someone had realized through the wood earlier.  "Come on."

Jason went to follow him, but a glimmer at Frank's feet caught his eye. He squinted, and just barely made out a thin wire. "Frank, don't..." He started. But it was too late.

Frank stepped right on the trip wire, snapping it. There was a whish, and a net dropped out of the trees and onto Frank.

"FRANK!" Jason and Percy started for him, but something whistled past Jason's head and embedded itself into a tree. Percy rushed forward and yanked it out, staring at it with amazement. "It's an arrow."

"Cool. Now help me out of here!" Frank struggled against the weighted net. "I can't transform. I think the net is Imperial gold or something." Percy and Jason both bent down to lift it, but four more arrows appeared in the corners of the net, nailing it down into the ground.

"Actually," a voice floated down from above, soft and dangerous. "It's Delosian silver."

Jason looked up, just as another net of the same material dropped on top of Percy. He struggled, but the net held. "Jason, run!"

"But you guys are-."

"Don't worry about us. Just go. Protect the girls." The two trapped demigods squirmed under the glimmering lines.

"But-."

"JASON! GO NOW!" Percy shouted. Jason sighed, then turned and sprinted back the way they had come. He had hardly made it a few feet, before something dropped down on top of him. But it wasn't a net. It was a person.

Jason struggled before flipping over, so that his attacker was under him. The assailant grunted, then kneed him in the back. He groaned and rolled, before jumping to his feet and pointing his sword.

"Who in the name of Hades are you?" He asked as the attacker pushed himself onto his knees. "Did you do something to Leo? I demand you answer me!"

The attacker peered up at Jason through layers of black fabric. A pair of silvery eyes bore into his own. There was something familiar in them, some spark that flowed in his memory.

"No male will demand anything of me." The voice was sharp, menacing, and, surprisingly, female.

Jason gasped. "You... you're a girl?!"

The girl said nothing, but instead thrust out her hand. A silver flash of a dagger appeared in her grasp, and she hurled it at Jason. He dodged it easily.