Who: Tess Phillips & Zoë Katsaros What: Hunting monsters Where: Appleton, WI When: Tuesday, June 16th 2015 Warnings: Violence maybe?
It was so quiet you could probably hear the stillness in the air.
The newest members of the Hunt had all been diligent and quick to learn with their training. There weren't that many hunters now, not like there had been back in Artemis and Thalia's time, but the ones that they did have, they were fast learners, and they were dedicated. Tess had grown genuinely fond of them during her time as Zoë's lieutenant in the last year, which if you knew Tess, was pretty unheard of. She didn't get fond of people, that implied that she liked people at all. Okay, so maybe she was friends with Xander and actually acknowledged it on occasion, so what? The Seaweed Brain would be completely lost if it wasn't for her. She was more or less sure of that.
Whatever. The point was, she was fond of her hunters. They were like her sisters, and she'd never expected to gain so many after losing her own. That only made her more determined to protect them at all costs, even if they were hunters themselves and didn't exactly need to be protected. She was their lieutenant, it was her responsibility to look out for them, for the goddess Artemis who they served. It would officially be a year ago next month that Tess had decided to join the Hunt, after losing her sister and Jason. Before that, she never would have imagined following in Thalia's footsteps this way, but now it was hard for her to imagine ever not making this choice.
No two hunts were the same. It was always a different monster they were hunting, for one, and usually a whole new terrain. Now that winter was done and the snow had long since melted, they didn't have the added benefit of snow imprinted tracks, but that hardly mattered. They were the Hunt, they didn't need easier tracks in order to hunt down any kind of beast. Tess was wearing her lieutenant's silver circlet on her head like a princess's tiara, which looked as out of place on her as it had on Thalia, with her usual grunge clothes and leather jacket. Tess didn't mind the clashing look so much. She actually enjoyed the irony.
They were hunting in one of Washington's national forests, with the new bows that Zoë had gotten them. Tess had already taken a sincere liking to hers, though sometimes she still missed using Thalia's spear. Perhaps she could if she really wanted to, but when it came to the Hunts, the bow and arrow was all a hunter of Artemis really needed to get the job done. Crouching low behind brush, Tess signaled to the other hunters to stop and inspected an imprint in the ground that looked like a paw, or maybe a hoof. Or both, considering some of the Greek hybrid monsters out there. "My lady - I think I've found the trail."