The Son of Artemis

The Black Road

Two weeks. It took them two weeks to get out of the meadow. Emris didn't remember much of the journey, just that he was starving the whole time and that Thalia was annoying him. The little group had to share the very limited supplies they had, so there was always someone who didn't eat. Thalia and Luke had taken watches, allowing for the younger kids to sleep during the night.

They had seen the exit quite clearly. They had been looking at millions of different colors on a daily basis so that they could have not missed the black road ahead. When they reached the road and finally stepped on something that wasn't grass and flowers, their feet appreciated it. Emris looked up and down the road that seemed to go on forever.

"Well, there are two ways we could choose to go, right or left?" Thalia asked.

"We could do Eenie Meenie Miney mo?" Emris answered.

"You're going to rely on a kid's rhyme to determine our fate?" Annabeth questioned.

"Yes, I am."

He stood in the middle of the road and started to point back and forth to each side of the road singing the rhyme. His finger pointed to the right.

"Well right it is!" Luke said and started down the road, the rest of them trailing behind him.

Thirty minutes later all you could hear was their shoes scraping on the black asphalt. Emris was walking on the yellow lines pretending that he was on a tightrope. Annabeth was behind him twisting a dagger in her hand. Thalia was trailing behind her twirling her spear like a baton. Luke was behind her holding two daggers in both hands and t-posing. They looked like they were performing.

"Are we there yet?" Emris asked.

"No," Thalia answered.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Are you super su-"

"Guys, who is that?" Annabeth interrupted him, pointing towards a figure heading towards their way.

"I don't know..." Luke replied. "Thalia and Annabeth get into position, Emris stand behind me."

"Why do I hav-''

"Stand behind me."

He did so. The figure was close enough that Emris could see their features. They had fair brown skin and curly brown hair but the most concerning thing was that the bottom half of their body were there were supposed to be human legs there were goat legs instead.

Emris remembered that Thais called these beings Satyrs. They were harmless for the most part and were sent to demigods to protect them.

"That's a Satyr," He told the rest. "They're not supposed to be harmful."

"We know that," Annabeth told him.

"So why do you have your weapons out?"

"Luke told us too."

He turned to Luke and asked, "Why do we have our weapons out?"

"Precautions."

"Oh."

As far as Emris knew that wasn't a reasonable answer but he went with it. Now the Satyr was feet away from the group. They seemed nervous to approach them.

They spoke up, "Hello! My name is Grover Underwood. I am a Satyr as you can see." He motioned towards his legs. "I was assigned to bring you all to a place called Camp Half-Blood! It's a place where monsters won't hurt you anymore and you would be provided with food, shelter, and training. Also, you would be with people who are like you, demigods."

The group stared at him with wide eyes. They couldn't believe a place like that could exist.

"You have to be lying! Nowhere is safe from monsters!" Thaila shouted.

"I promise I'm not!"

"You have no proof!"

"Fine, I swear on the River Styx that Camp Half-Blood exists!"

Thunder could be heard around them.

"Oh."

Thais told him about the Styx. She told him to never promise anything on it though. So Emris never had, but it had to be something serious.

"So you would take us there for like free?" Luke asked.

"Yes of course!" Grover said.

"Won't traveling with 4 demigods and a satyr attract monsters?" Annabeth spoke.

"Yes it would but you guys can handle it right?"

Timeskip 2 hours later-------Narrator Pov:

They could in fact not handle it. As of now, they were running through the woods trying to get caught by multiple cyclopes. Apparently, they weren't far from this so-called Camp Half-Blood because it's located in New York, specifically Long Island. They walked with Grover for another half hour until they got to a bus station.

They didn't have money and they all looked terrible so they weren't allowed onto the bus. So they had to steal money to get tickets and by the time they were sitting in their seats thirty minutes passed. Then they lasted 30 minutes on the bus until they were attacked by multiple monsters that took at least fifteen minutes to get rid of. Then their bus blew up.

So now they're running through the woods trying to keep up with Grover and not get killed by the monsters. And they are not doing very well. Annabeth fell over multiple times and now Luke is carrying her on his back. Grover was so far ahead that they had to listen to his yells to find out where he was. Emris was tired but he didn't think it was the time to complain. They all were scared out of their minds but they all knew one thing. They weren't going to make it.

So Thalia decided to hold them off. Emris turned around to tell her it was a dumb idea but she was already running towards the monsters. He could see her fighting them. He could see how much she was struggling. He could see the look of realization on her face. He could see how she turned towards him and smiled. Mouthing words only Emris could see "Go".

So he did.

He ran. He ran until he could see the others. He ran until Luke held him in his arms and asked him where Thalia was. He stopped running. He looked up at Luke. He said two words.

"She's gone."

He could hear a broken scream. But he couldn't pinpoint who it belonged to. His vision was blurry and he realized he was crying. He could feel someone holding him. His head resting on their shoulder. He was so tired. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.