Sarah Lesley

I saw the same vision over and over. It was pure torture. I saw the manticore tossing me around, but I never saw what made the silver light and what the dust was. I felt my ribs crack every time it repeated. The same burning and excruciating pain.

When I woke up all I saw was a silver tent and bright light shining through the hole in the top of the tent. I took deep breath, relishing the fact that I could breath. I tried to sit up but ended up screaming and laying back down. I could feel bone moving in my stomach and it made me nauseous. I closed my eyes.

I heard the tent flap open. "Get the nectar and ambrosia. Grab some pain killers too." I hear a silvery voice call out. "Now, breath. It's gonna be alright." She softly said to me.

I felt a warmth spread throughout my body, killing some of the pain in my ribs. I took deep breaths, trying not to panic as she poured a cold liquid down my throat. It tasted like double Dutch chocolate brownies from a local bakery near the orphanage.

More warmth, and less pain. I tasted the ambrosia, and started to panic and started sweating. "Hey, hey. It's okay. Calm down. This ambrosia isn't gonna hurt you." I wanted to believe her, but I couldn't.

I didn't feel like I could trust anyone. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't. I shook my head in distress. "No. No. No. I can't."

She put her hands in my shoulders as I try and sit up. "If you want to get better and not die, you need to stay laying down. Your ribs are still broken. Just take deep breaths, and calm down. I promise this stuff will not hurt you. It's made for mortals."

I still shook my head. "I can't." I gasped.

"Calm down. Relax." She whispered. I felt my body almost sigh, and I couldn't open my eyes even if I wanted to. They felt like bricks. I tried to shake off the feeling, but I was so tired. I fell back asleep, and didn't wake up for quite a while.



I sat up with a start. I was still in the silver tent. I threw back the blanket covering me, and stood up unsteadily. I caught my balance and walked out of the tent, into the bright sunshine.

It looked like a campsite. There were at least ten other silver tents, all in a circle, and a giant fire pit in the middle. Logs surrounded the stone brick pit, and girls in silver parkas sat on them with hotdogs on sticks, roasting them in the fire. They were laughing and talking.

When I looked down at my own clothes I realized I was wearing the same clothes. A girl with spiky black hair and a silver circlet walked up to me with a huge smile. "I'm Thalia." It was the girl with the silvery voice. She had a faint silver glow around her a if she was radiating something.

"I'm Sarah. Nice to meet you." I replied holding out my hand. She shook it and dragged me over to a log and made me sit down next to her.

"Before you ask, your friends went back to Camp already. They left about a week ago."

I spit out the hot chocolate one of the girls had handed me. "What?! A week? How long was I out?"

"About two weeks." She said sheepishly.

"What? Oh gods." I muttered.

"Hey it's okay."

"Where am I?" I asked.

"You are in Maine right now. If you don't know, I'm a Hunter of Artemis, and everyone else here is too." She motioned.

"Wait. Maine? Hunters? What?"

"The goddess Artemis has hunters instead of children. We gain immorality in turn we have to pledge ourselves to Artemis and turn our back on the company of men. Basically, no dating. And we can die in combat but other than that we basically can't die, and we don't age from the time we take the pledge." She explained.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Hang on. Why am I in Maine?" I asked, bewildered.

"Oops. We travel a lot, you know, hunting, and right now were on the outskirts of Maine."

I take a deep breath. "Okay, so I'm still trying to process all this, but what are you hunting.

Her face goes dark. "The last time I saw this beast, I almost lost a dear friend of mine. The manticore."

I inhaled sharply. "Wait. A manticore? No. No no no. Your not hunting it, it's hunting you."

"What?" She asked.

"When I was kidnapped, long story, I was taken to see this guy who offered me a deal. When I said no, he turned into a manticore and Lizzie Jazz and Vahl helped me escape. That stupid beast was tracking me down and that's how I broke my ribs. He tossed me into a tree."

"Normally a monster doesn't reform for a while, but no such luck with this guy. He reformed unnaturally fast."

I stood up and grabbed a hotdog and followed Thalia into the tent I had been in. I munched on the hot dog as she quickly straightened things up. Once I finished the delicious meal, she has already a et out chairs and a table.

"I know this is fast, but if you don't want to go to Camp, you can become a hunter."

"Uh, I don't know." I said hesitantly.

"All you have to do is repeat a paragraph after me and like I said earlier, no dating and you basically give your life to Artemis, which means you serve as one of her hunters for as long as you live. Which can be for quite a long time. Just know, if you leave the hunters for a boy, Artemis will normal turn you into an animal."

"Oh that's, nice. Look Thalia. I don't know if I'm ready for that yet. Just give me time to think it through first okay?" I asked.

"Ya! Sure. I understand. I'm not always the best at explaining this stuff. Especially to mortals. Demigods get it. But mortals, not all the time."

"Wait. So mortals AND demigods can become hunters?"

"Yep!" She nodded.

As I pondered that she brought out a map. "This, is where we last spotted him. Do you have any idea where he may be?" She asked as she pointed to a small area next to the camp.

"I'm not completely sure. I remember him liking big open areas. Not small confined spaces. Maybe he's Ina clearing. But one things for sure. There's no way you can hint him down. He's hunting you. Or he sends his baddies after you."

She gave me a questioning look. "How do you know?"

I shifted my weight back and forth. "Well, I do, and I don't. I kinda got this feeling while he was in human form. The feeling that he was a monster, an evil one, and another one I've never felt before, and all my instincts told me to run. It was weird." I said with a shrug.

Thalia mumbled something, as blue sparks started shooting off her shoulders and arms. I didn't know if it was just me, or she was literally shooting sparks.

The air smelled like ozone, as she rubbed her chin and dotted the map. "I need to know where he's hiding, and why he's hunting us."

I squirmed in my seat. "Uh, Thalia? He's not hunting the Hunters. He's hunting me."

Her spiky head shot up. "Wait. You? Your the reason that beast has been following us?"

I slowly nodded, not sure where she was going with this. Now I knew it wasn't me. Lightning started shooting off her arms and legs and shoulders, blowing up the table, but the map flitted to the floor, unharmed.

She clenched her fists, yelling. "Ugh! What? You? Why? Phoebe!!!!" She screamed, as the top of the tent burst into flames.

I wasn't afraid. The lighting never came near me, the fire stayed away. The tent was blazing now. All the wood that was in there, was now in flames, or ash.

Like I said, the feelings that I was feeling, (ironic huh?) weren't fear. It was confusion, hurt, and pain. My sight turned a light blue, dotted with Greek symbols. Fear, panic, fire. Those symbols flashed before my eyes like lightning.

A girl in a white parka, and brown hair came running in, took one look at the tent, and pulled Thalia out. Oh, don't mind me. I'm perfectly fine in here. I felt a hand on my arm. It closed tightly and started pulling. Even though I couldn't see, I had trained myself to hear really well, so I could act like I could see, and not run into anything, and I could tell that whoever had a grip on my arm was not a hunter.

I grabbed the neatly part of the hand a twisted it, kicking whatever or whoever was holding me in the groin, and running out.

I ran. I ran through the tents, grabbing my sack as I ran by it, snatching it up and kept going. I made a clicking sound with my tongue, as I ran through the forest.

"Sarah! Sarah!" I hear voices calling me. They sounded like they were coming from the sky. I looked up, but seeing nothing, dismissed it, and turned left, dodging branches as the reached out to grab me. I heard a rustling behind me and dove into the bushes next to me and knelt down, not making a noise. My vision cleared and I saw the hunters run down the path I had been taking.

Thalia stopped, making the rest of the hunters come to a halt behind her. I saw her head turn in my direction and I ducked down, my heart beating like a drum, and breathing softly.

"Phoebe, track her. We need to get her back. They want to talk to her, and we had her. If They find out we lost her, it's not going to be good for us." She said, turning away from me. I slowly crept backwards, looking at the hunters, and praying to Zeus I wouldn't step on a twig or a pile of leaves. About ten yards away, I hear a stifled gasp. "Thalia! She's right there!" I saw a girl pointing in my direction.

I turned around and sprinted like a deer into the forest, ignoring the shouts of protest. The night sky was bright with the moon and stars, helping to guide my way. One particular star was brighter than the rest. I looked up at it as I ran, seeing a pattern. The stars connected, and when I saw the image, I gasped and stumbled on a root. I landed face first in the dirt, rocks scratching my face.

I scrambled back up and ran, again tripping, but this time on a rope. My head hit a rock and my vision danced. I turned over on my back, my head throbbing like a maraca. My head felt like a ballon being blown up, and popped by a knife.

As I struggled to keep my eyes open, I felt a trickle of blood go down my forehead, and faintly saw a black net thrown over me, and I get myself being dragged across the rough dirt. As I faded out, I thought to myself, 'Really? Again?'

Notes