The Shadow Archer Twins

Seeing Tox and Emily set my priorities straight. Survival first, emotions second. I felt like a machine, a war machine. And no, not like one of those machines that you see in videogames that steps on the tiny soldiers and makes stuff explode. I felt like one of those machines that are sent out to defuse a bomb, and if it’s destroyed, no one cares.

As Tox finally got Emily to calm down, I dropped my bow, quiver and dagger down by a pine tree and leaned against it, breathing hard. When the battle had broken into single combat, I had been forced to fight a Roman hand-to-hand, which isn’t my specialty. I knocked his sword away, but he punched me hard in the ribs, and I still was breathing with difficulty.

As the battle had only taken up about 3 hours, the sun still hadn’t gone over the horizon in the west. I took a moment and stared at the sun, trying to see the face of my father. The sunset was extra late this time of year, as if my father wanted to watch every moment of the battle.

I was so exhausted, I rested my eyes, and when I woke up, I was back in the Apollo cabin, my armor, bow and quiver of arrow stacked at the base of my bed. I smiled. I loved my brother. I could smell barbecue in the distance, and I realized that dinner wasn’t over yet. I quickly pulled on a clean pair of jeans and a clean Camp shirt, running down to the dining pavilion.

I quickly scraped a few slices of brisket into the eternal fire and ate. No one wanted to talk at the Apollo table. Nobody had been seriously injured in the fight, but we all had saw Emily start crying. They told me Tox had left early.

He must be at the range, I thought, Shooting always calms him.

After dinner, Chiron told everyone to go to sleep early, and to rest for the next day of battles. That was good, because I really didn’t feel like leading a sing-along.

Sleep was blissfully dreamless, and when I awoke, at the crack of dawn, everyone else in my cabin was getting their armor on, checking their bowstrings, medical kits, or making sure they had no broken arrows in their quivers. The second day of battle was here.

The Romans were waiting for us. It was only 8:30, just after breakfast, but both sides felt ready to fight. The Romans looked strong, not hurt or impaired in any way. But, as I looked around the ranks of Camp soldiers, I saw multiple bandages, one cast, and the Hermes kid who had been knocked down yesterday had his entire midsection taped with gauze, which was concealed, barely, by his chest plate of armor.

The Romans had seen that their turtle formation had worked, until they broke against our shields. So, they advanced quicker than yesterday, and the Apollo cabin archers had to fire at will to catch up with their speed. That strategy had worked in their favor, because we didn’t hit a single target as they advanced. Their shields crashed against the Ares cabin, and for about a minute, it was nothing but a pushing fight. Nobody could draw weapons to stab or slash.

Then, the Romans used the trick up their sleeves. All of a sudden, with the Roman front line still pushing against the Ares cabin, about 50 soldiers broke off from their back line and charged the smaller-numbered Hephaestus cabin. Then, 25 other soldiers broke off and stormed the Hermes cabin on the other side. Jake Mason and his cabin mates tried valiantly to slow them down, and Izzy cabin tried on their side, but there were too many of them. Fighting broke again into single combat, and the nature spirits from the back line had to move to the front to help.

It was now a fight on all fronts. The Romans had basically surrounded, using their numbers to press the fight hard everywhere. Campers were being knocked down hard all around me, and all I could do was stare. Then, Tox’s voice, only 25 feet from me, shouted,

“Don’t gape, Katie, shoot!”

Like a commanded robot, my arms moved for me, drawing arrows and releasing them, hitting Romans in their chest, legs, anywhere to take them down. My muscles didn’t care if I killed them, but my brain did. The only problem was, instincts are subconscious, meaning that I was shooting so fast, I didn’t have time to care about the people I was shooting at. But it didn’t even matter. Our numbers were dwindling fast. We had dropped to about 65 soldiers against about 130 Romans. We were completely surrounded, fighting just to keep them away from us. They were closing in on us, suffocating us for the final blow. We were finished.

Then, from about 200 yards away in the woods, I heard a hunting horn, clear, loud, and silky smooth. It sounded like the sound the moon would make if it could sing. It was beautiful. The entire battlefield was paralyzed by the sound. Nobody moved a muscle or blade.

Tox, stupefied, exclaimed, “I know that sound!”

Then, the arrows landed. Thirty pure silver arrows, like rays of moonlight in the late morning, crashed into the Roman line, bringing down soldiers all around us. The Roman instantly retreated, pulling back into one line, releasing their choking grip. They no longer surrounded us. From the woods suddenly materialized exactly 30 teenage girls with silver-grey armor on, wielding bows and followed by about 15 pure white wolves. The wolves led the charge, and Malcolm screamed,

“The Hunters of Artemis! Follow them into battle!”

And so we did. I had no idea who these girls were, but they must have been a household name at Camp, because a cheer went up, mixed with war cries, as the remaining campers charged behind the wolves. I looked back at Tox, and I could see he was staring at one girl in particular.

She was tall, with black hair and blue eyes just like him. They could have been twins. Heh, that’s funny. Tox and I are twins, and even we don’t look as alike as Tox and this girl did. She had a thin silver band in her hair, like a tiara. She must have been the leader, because she blew her horn again, and the archer fired again. All thirty arrows hit targets, and Tox’s jaw dropped. The girl was miles faster than Tox. His face had a mixture of astonishment, disbelief, attraction, and admiration on it. If he wasn’t so crazy about Emily, I’d say that he’d just gotten a new crush.

Then, as one, we closed the distance between us and the Romans. The Hunters were on the front line, and the tall girl was fighting a full sword, not a bow and arrow. Tox had somehow made it to the front with her, and they were fighting back to back, dagger and sword against trained Romans.

They could have been mirror images of the same person, except for one difference. The girl’s face had no trace of guilt or remorse. She was killing the Romans at a rate that was so quick, it was if she was a goddess, and they were mere mortals. Tox, on the other hand, was painstakingly trying to bring the Romans down without killing them. His face was pained, as if he felt bad for the things he was doing.

Suddenly, a soldier charged through the ring of Romans that had surrounded the Hunters, all still fine, and Tox. The tall girl didn’t seem to notice the fully-armed Roman charging at her, ready to stab her through the stomach. But Tox saw him. The Roman was only five feet away from the tall girl, but he had time to look at her, look at the Roman, look at the Roman’s sword, and make a decision. He leaped in front of the girl, and, as the Roman’s sword thrust forward at the tall girl, it passed through Tox’s chest, straight through his chest.

The blade made a sickening sound as it broke through Tox’s front plate of armor, and then through his back plate. The tall girl whipped her head around, and instantly comprehended what had happened. Her face momentarily took on a look of horror, but she drew her bow and an arrow from nowhere and fired it through the Roman’s neck, killing him instantly. Tox was on his knees, blood gushing from his black armor. The girl screamed for one of her comrades, and two girls dragged him away.

The rest of the silver archers fired one volley, and killed about 25 more Romans. At that point, I heard Octavian’s voice, shrill and scared, shout,

“Romans, fall back! We are over-extended! Retreat to Rome!”

And so they did. But I didn’t care. I was already at Tox’s bedside, the tall girl, her assistants, and I trying desperately to rip his chest armor off. His eyes were already closed, almost peacefully. I realized what had happened. I realized where his body already was. I started to cry.

Notes

Oh my Gods, Tox is likely to be dead. Enjoy! XD