Silver Arrows - A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

4 - Artemis Sends Us to a Familliar Place

I knew what was coming. I shoved the possessed Lexi to the ground and covered her eyes, shutting my own as well.
'WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?' shouted Eris through Lexi.

Artemis was changing into her divine form. One look and any mortal would die... but it would also cast a blinding light. Enough to scare Eris, a creature of darkness, away. Artemis had outsmarted her.

Eris screamed in pain, but the Hunters were dead silent. Eventually, Eris was silent, too.
'You can open your eyes now,' Artemis declared.
I did, and surveyed the damage to the camp. The fire was burning brightly, but fortunately all the Hunters and guard-wolves seemed to be alive.

I stood up. Lexi stood up too, and seemed to split down the middle into two Lexis. The first fell down backwards and lay on the ground in a daze. The second fell forwards and, as we watched, transformed into a woman in a shiny black dress. She looked quite young, but her face was horribly dirty and scarred, like she'd been left to rot. I could almost imagine cobwebs covering her.
The woman - who must've been Eris - glared at me. 'Insolence! The Darkness shall get our revenge on you. You will be the first to...'

With lightning speed, Artemis shot an arrow at Eris. It struck her in the neck, and she yelled in outrage. Then she faded into the shadows.
Artemis nodded to the rest of us. 'I do not think she will return in a hurry.'
'What... who was that?' Jamie choked out.
Lina's expression was grave. 'Eris, goddess of strife and discord. She is never good to have around, but the circumstances seem worse than usual...'
Artemis grimaced. 'She mentioned Nyx, her mother, the protegenos of night. The Keres are Nyx's daughters, too. So by the sounds of things, Nyx is leading a revolt - and the Darkness must be her allies. I think we can safely assume that most of Nyx's children will be part of the Darkness.'

"Night will face silver arrows in snow."
That must have meant Nyx.
"The odds shall be evened by the Proclaimer's foe."
I hoped that the "foe" wasn't who I thought it was...
"Hunters and campers divided by strife."
Strife was Eris. I could be certain of that.
"And the truth will precede the first loss of life."
Oh gods... was Lexi dead?

The real Lexi was still lying on the ground next to me. Rita shone her torch on her, and I could see that she was still breathing. Her eyes were open, but I didn't know whether or not she could see. Slowly, Lexi blinked, then stood up. She looked half-asleep.
'What... happened?'
Rowena winced. 'Can we tell you tomorrow? It's kind of late, and I don't want you feeling overwhelmed.'
'No, she needs to know,' Artemis commanded, then sighed. 'The rest of you, to your tents - now. We can discuss this in the morning. Thalia, you're sharing a tent with Sierra. Millie, you're with Erasmia...'

Millie, who still looked shaken up, linked arms with me and pulled me towards a tent. She unzipped it and crawled inside, and I followed. Even after taking off my night vision Ray-Bans and sliding down into my sleeping bag, it was still hard to fall asleep, what with Rowena retelling the encounter with Eris and Lexi gasping in horror at regular intervals.

But I managed.

In the morning, everyone was grim. Every single Hunter had their weapons drawn, and the wolves were all growling or whimpering. Ivory kept sniffing the extinguished fire suspiciously, as though it might suddenly light up again.
Artemis was sitting at the top of a tree fiddling with an arrow. She wasn't watching us, just staring at the horizon as though she was waiting for something. We glanced at each other nervously as Naomi passed out damper and leftover marshmallows. Someone would have to ask her what was going on, but none of us wanted to.

It was Thalia who finally broke the silence. 'Lady Artemis, we would like to know what we must do next.'
Artemis glanced down nervously.
'You are not safe here. You must journey to Camp Half-Blood.'
Lina gasped. 'No! We are safe... we're with you!'
'Camp Half-Blood has Dionysus - and magical borders, too. A friendly game of capture-the-flag will stop you worrying so much.'
I was pretty sure that she glared at me then.

But... I didn't want to go back there! Last time I hated it.
I went when I was twelve, because I was at my wit's end with Kyle and his cronies. One of them had stolen money from me when he was invited over, and I begged Dad and Amelia to get me away from them.
Dad had frowned, concerned. 'Well, Erasmia, there's always the option of homeschooling... but one of us would have to quit our job.'
That didn't seem like a problem to me. Dad's scriptwriting career was on and off by then, and he'd become a bookkeeper to make sure we had enough money - but he downright hated it, and wasn't great at hiding it.

'Oh no, what a shame!' I grinned, and Amelia put her hand on my shoulder. 'And for during the holidays, there's somewhere else you could go. Somewhere for demigods.'
My jaw dropped. It was the first time I'd ever heard Amelia mention the fact that I was a demigod, but I guess she must have known all along. Later, Dad had told me that she had studied Greek mythology plays before, and took the news surprisingly well.

So it was settled. Camp Half-Blood for the holidays, and homeschooling during the year.
I was claimed the night that I arrived, although no one knew what the scroll floating above my head and violin music was all about. Eventually, some Athena kid worked out that it referred to Clio.
It was awkward. There was no cabin for any of the Muses, because their children tend to blend in with everyone else, unlike the children of major gods. The Apollo cabin and Hephaestus cabin worked together and made a sky-blue building containing a massive chime that could play twelve different lullabies depending on how you started it. I never told them that the thing I liked most was the bookcase.

I had few friends. Three Hermes kids, a daughter of Tyche, a son of Athena - they talked to me, but we weren't close. Only the Apollo cabin kept at it - Will and Kayla and Melody. I was always invited to sit with them and take archery lessons, which I was appalling at. I surprised myself by being good at fencing, however, so I'd often show them that instead.
They were being so ridiculously nice, I began to suspect that they were faking. They all joked around and teased one another, but I was holy - the only person who had anything bad to say about me was Daisy, who criticized my every move, but grinned enough to make me feel like she was a teacher or parent, not a bully. Which was what annoyed me the most.

In my second summer there, after a lousy session of canoeing, all of them walked over to me. Melody was holding a little box.
'Erasmia? We got you a present.'
She put it down next to me, and I opened it. Red sunglasses.
I tried my best to look enthusiastic, but I guess it was pretty terrible acting, because they laughed.
'We know you hate fashion, but they give you night vision - like two-way sunglasses. They both shield your eyes from the bright sun and help them to see when the sun is no longer there.'
'You can read with them, if you want,' one of the boys pointed out.

I sighed. 'Why are you doing this?'