NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5: Phoebe
A/N: Sorry bout posting the chapter later in the day, was stuck with a shit ton of classwork for the majority of the day.
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Returning from my game of hide and seek with Shalom that had taken a lot longer than I had expected, I quickly moved to Lady Artemis' tent.
Shalom was an interesting little girl indeed.
Yes, we had played other games before, but no, we had never played hide and seek before.
Yet, to have been able to give even myself difficulties in tracking her...
'A true genius... or something else.'
I was worried about her, about lingering trauma she might have acquired from her childhood.
Thus, the reason for my urgency in heading to Lady Artemis' tent.
"Where are you going, Big Sis Phee?" Asked the little scoundrel, inquisitively.
"I just need to ask Lady Artemis some questions. Now go quickly, or Zoe will be mad at you for being late to archery practice." I answered, though a pang of... some feeling had wrung itself around my heart.
'Ah... that was the first time I've been dishonest to the little one...'
Quickly shaking off the feeling, I soon found myself in front of Lady Artemis' tent, only to realize that she was gone once more.
Although it wasn't my place to say this, but I really was a little bit miffed off by the fact that she had barely been a part of the youngest's life.
Sure, she wasn't a full on hunter yet, having not received the blessing of partial immortality yet, but wasn't she a part of the family still?
Fuuu
Sighing to myself, I figured that I knew that my gripes were uncalled for. The patron was a god and had godly duties after all.
'I'm worried about her though.'
Little Shalom was growing too fast in too short of an amount of time.
Yes, I was proud of her genius, having taught her most of what she knew, but she was merely a mortal.
I worried that her accelerated growth rate now would stunt her growth later in the future.
"Phoebe!" Screamed someone from far away, breaking me out of my thoughts.
Not needing any more clarification, I rushed to grab my boys, along with the majority of the hunters.
'Wait, where's Shalom?'
Considering that it usually took 15 minutes for us to walk to the archery practice fields, the little girl had definitely not been able to make it to Zoe before whatever was attacking us, well, launched their attack.
Yet, I couldn't do anything.
With Zoe probably already at the shooting range, waiting for Shalom, I, the second eldest, had to command the rest of the hunters who were currently at camp.
I just prayed that nothing would befall the little girl that I had grown to love so so dearly.
~~~
Immediately after dispatching the final hellhound that had been attacking camp, I quickly grabbed a few more arrows before dashing off in the direction of the trail to the shooting range.
"Can you deal with the aftermath for me Claire?! I need to go check on the youngest!"
Claire figured out everything just from hearing the urgency in my voice, moving to take stock of the casualties of the battle.
'Please... Gods, please... let her be okay...'
As much as I hated to admit it, aside from Zoe, Shalom was probably the closest sister I had in the camp.
Heck, the little girl had basically been by my side for two years straight at this point, only leaving it when important matters came up or when she had archery practice with Zoe.
"Please..." I beseeched the gloomy, unmoving forest around me, it's darkness swallowing up my muttered pleas.
My legs had never moved so fast before in my life, and somehow, I had turned a 15 minute trip into a flash, stopping resoundingly once I saw the first glimpse of silver from between the trees.
Walking slowly from that point forward, I dreaded the image that would slowly reveal itself to me.
Bringing each foot forward became more and more of a pain, whilst an indescribably ache gnawed at my heart.
And then, I saw it.
The moon had already completely risen once the battle had finished, and thus it was shining down on all of us, as bright as ever.
It's silver rays pierced the canopy of trees from above, dotting the forest floor with puddles of sterling ichor.
Herein, an... inconceivable scene presented itself before me.
Littered on the gray floor of the forest were bodies... tens of bodies.
Hellhounds, empousas, echidnas, and so many more, all slowly decaying away into dust...
Yet, the gentle moonlight blanketed each and every one of their wounds, reprieving me of the guttural human emotion of disgust that any would feel in witnessing the scene before me.
And there, in the middle of it all, without a single speck of dust on her clothes, stood shalom, hands holding two daggers in a back-handed grip, encased in a halo of light from an opening in the trees above us.
I lost my breath for a second here, my heart refusing to beat as the seconds drawled slowly forward.
Then, the little girl- no...
As she turned to look at me, I unconsciously gasped.
'Her eyes...'
They held a clarity I had never seen before in a child.
...no, rather than clarity, it was something more akin to a certain amount of ruthlessness or cruelty.
Apathetic, inhuman malice-
'A certain... aspect of unkindness...'
I could only watch as she cocked her head back, brought up a hand to her face, and wiped off a single drop of sweat with the back of her tightly clenched hand.
She spent a good minute, just staring at the moon, as I continued to stand there in the shadow of the woods, frozen in place, my mind racing so quickly, yea at such a standstill at the same time.
If there was one thing I regretted, it was my inability to view her eyes anymore.
Because soon after, she tilted her head to the side from that same cocked back position, looking me straight in the eyes.
"Ah! You're here, Big Sis Phee!"
Haaaa...
Releasing an audible sigh of relief, I quickly found my soul refilling with a warmth again as I drank in the beaming smile that graced her ethereal face, it having appeared as soon as she had seen me.
Even then, as we walked back to camp together, hand in hand, my mind couldn't help but think, ponder... postulate.
After all, although we had given her daggers to hold on to, we had never taught her how to use them before.
And then there were those eyes...
Where...
No, how had she obtained those eyes?