The Mighty Ones' Fall

Chapter 16: Just a Thought

"Now what?" Layna questioned in a small voice. She blinked, still staring at the spot in the bushes where Alec, Lady Athena, and Lady Artemis had disappeared.

I shrugged and suggested, "Go back to Pan's hideout?"

No one seemed to notice me start to walk forward. "Where do you think they're going?" Hannah wondered aloud.

I turned around. "Isn't it obvious? They're going to hunt for the search party. Lady Artemis is the goddess of the Hunt, after all. Why do you think Alec and Lady Athena waited for her?"

Brady's mouth hung wide open. "Do you mean they're going to kill the search party? I thought they said they were going to kill monsters."

"In their point of view, do you honestly think there is much of a difference between the two?" I responded with a shrug. "If they don't kill the search party themselves, I'm sure they'll send some real monsters to finish the job."

Brady and my friends exchanged horrified glances. "Can the gods do that?" Darius questioned, scratching his head. "The search party hasn't actually attacked anyone here that we know of, so would killing its members be justified? Or would it be murder?"

"The gods can't really be that ruthless, can they?" Layna whimpered. Looking scared, she covered her mouth with her hands. "I thought they were supposed to be the good guys."

I scoffed. "You should have seen how ruthless they were during the war. And have you been watching Alec at all? Being the 'good guy' is a lot more complicated than it looks - especially in our world. People like Jason definitely don't make being a hero easy." 

At this, Layna only threw her head back and moaned. "Oh my gods...I still can't believe Jason is my father. Do you think he knows?"

"He certainly acted like he didn't know," Damien began, frowning in thought.

"But we all know he's lied before,"' Darius finished for his twin, whose voice had trailed off a bit. "Take last summer, for example. I can't imagine how Alec must feel about him now."

They went on talking, but I stopped listening. Hadn't we talked about Alec enough? I certainly thought so. That was why I just trotted ahed of the rest of the group, kicking at dead leaves as I walked along the narrow path. There was nowhere else for me to go, to get away from the rest of them for a little while. Nowhere safe, anyway. And I was sick and tired of it.

Two hours later we were hopelessly lost. Brady, of course, was blaming it on me. Actually, so was everyone else, since I had been leading. I will spare you the details of the argument that follwed because truthfully, it was mostly just a bunch of curse words strung together in a disorderly fashion. I didn't exactly want to relive that.

I shot Brady a glare as he gladly pushed me aside and took the point position in our single file line. I fell alll the way to the back, behind Hannah, who just shot me a slightly annoyed glance as she brushed past. I only sighed to myself, wishing we had food to eat other than the occasional berry from a bush. It wasn't even berry season, so they didn't even taste very good. How on Earth Alec managed to live off of only those and deer meat for most of the year was a mystery to me. 

"Ugh," Layna suddenly groaned, and she plopped onto the forest floor behind Brady, clutching her stomach.

Everyone stopped. We just stared at the blonde in silence, grimaces on all our faces. We knew Layna wasn't really hurt - only tired and hungry and probably angry, too. So I sat down cross-legged next to her to rest my feet. I motioned for the twins to follow, and they did. Exchanging an indifferent shrug, Hannah and Brady joined our circle. "What now?" Darius asked, drawing pictures in the dirt with his finger.