The man at the emporium had instructed her to travel to the nearby countryside where a cave lay that would bring her to a man (assuming the reincarnation of Odysseus or some other man revived for this day) who would give her the things she needed to complete her first task. Not being able to afford any other bus rides and smart enough not to hitchhike in a foreign country, Kartería took a grueling walk for at least four miles to a huge cave that spread out in all kinds of directions and had small pools of water. Kartería looked around only to see and empty mansion of stone. She called out to whoever might be there, but she only heard the goddess echo mocking her. Thinking she was in the wrong place she turned around. "Over here," Kartería turned around to see a man who was most obviously from ancient Greece standing away from her. "Who are you?" Kartería asked. "Nobody. Don't worry about it." it was Odysseus. Persephone was very keen on bringing people back to life for Kartería's quests. "Really?" Kartería scoffed. "What?"
"You referenced something you said that thousands of people have heard about, and you still want me to think I don't know you?" Odysseus rolled his eyes before pulling out an iron sword with pink, blue, red, and purple ribbons wrapped around the handle. "Just listen," he said. "We were going to give you something less practical, but a friendly little war God refused."
"It seems like he and three other gods are the only ones helping me,"
"Don't be snarky," Odysseus did understand her frustration, but it wasn't his job to be supportive. "Anyways, it's strong and will do good against her." Kartería furrowed her eyebrows. "Who?" suddenly, something hit Kartería so hard she flew back snd landed on her chest. "Her." that was the last time she heard Odysseus' voice or saw his face. When her vision came back to her, Kartería saw a mermaid-looking creature with six serpent heads on the end of the tail, three hounds on the front of it, and a face whose skin was completely ripped off. Scylla. The creature that Odysseus fled from and her father finally finished. Well, it wasn't quite Scylla. But it suffered the same fate as her. For what felt like the first time in her life, Kartería experienced fear. She could barely breathe and she could barely move. She didn't even know if she was still holding on to her sword, but she could hardly focus on that. Hit after hit made her lungs tighter and tighter. She was going to die.
*~...~*
When Ares was told what was going on, he didn't feel ashamed or bad at all, but he knew that Herakles would kill him if he let his daughter die, whether he admitted she existed or not. "Brother," telling him about it was the hard part. "What's wrong with you?" Herakles asked, skeptical. "Oh, nothing, I'm just here to admit my mistakes." Herakles furrowed his brows but didn't turn to see the dumb expression on Ares' face. "What did you do?" he asked. "I didn't do anything, but I may have told Diyonisus to not let anyone go on Kartería's quests with her and now she might be dying," suddenly, Herakles froze. "Herakles?" his fists clenched and his eyes turned into something furious, something Ares hadn't seen in a long time. Herakles threw his brother so far that he only landed after crashing through a wall. In a state of rage, Herakles grabbed Ares by his jacket. "Where is she!?" he screamed.
*~...~*
Kartería didn't know what to do, she didn't know how to fight. Nor did she know how to endure things like this. She turned her head to see her sword stuck in the stone ground of the cave. Nothing in her even wanted to try to fight back. She wanted everything to be over with, the gods she trusted, were never there to protect her, and the gods she didn't, we're responsible for all of this. They set her up for failure, they left her to die. One of the heads bit down on her foot and Kartería screamed until her voice was completely gone. With a rush of adrenaline suddenly hitting her from the pain she was experiencing, Kartería grabbed the sword and stabbed the head in its temple causing it to squirm away. Tears fell down her face when she had to bear the pain and blood of a serpent bite once more.
Getting such a horrible injury reminded her that she didn't want to die. She still had to finish the quests, she still had to tell Percy and Grover goodbye, she still had to find her father. Kartería staggered up and groaned in pain before holding the swore tight. She was not going to die.
How was she going to kill it? She wasn't big enough to kill it with one stab and she wasn't brave enough to let it grab her. Or maybe she was. While the beast was raging, Kartería climbed on top of the weak head behind it and tried her best to scale it without notice. Luckily, she succeeded and landed near the beast's shoulders. Desperate to live, she used the strength, cunning, and skill she didn't know she had and stabbed the beast in its neck causing it to war in pain, making Kartería's ear bleed from the volume of the sound.
Suddenly, Ares appeared with a man she didn't recognize. The monster fell to its death, tripping Kartería before she fell 50 feet from the air. Like clockwork, the man caught her. "Are you hurt!?" he exclaimed, concern and fear rising in him. Not able to speak after what disaster she encountered, Kartería nodded tearfully and pointed to her foot. While taking her shoe and putting gauze on the injury, the man turned towards Ares angrily. "You said she was dying!"
"She was when I last heard of her!"
"Who are you?" Kartería said weakly. The man's head shot toward her. "Herakles," he said reluctantly. Kartería felt like the wind had been knocked out of her a second time. That was her father. The gods had lied. They made it seem like the quests were the only way and now, there he was, her biological father right in front of her. She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to. But, even through all of the negative emotions she was going through, she managed to smile.
