The Wolf of Mars

Conquer or Die

         Cole awoke in darkness, feeling something strange in the cold air. It wasn't wrong or right for that matter, but he felt like something had happened. Unfortunately, that something turned out to be a soft trembling beneath his fingertips. It was so minuscule that it would have went unnoticed by anyone else, but when one was being chased by monsters for hours on end, there was very little that he could afford to miss.

Biting back a groan, Cole slowly turned over on his stomach and painfully crawled to the edge of the bramble bush. It was a crappy place to sleep in with thorns sticking in every uncomfortable place imaginable. No one in the right mind would sleep there. Thankfully that worked both ways since it would be the last place any monster would look since no one in the right mind would sleep there.

Moving painfully slow so not to disturb the bush, Cole grimaced as the thorns pulled at his black hair and scratched his skin, but he bit his lip to keep himself from making noise of any kind and rested at the entrance of his hiding spot to see what had woke him up.

Unfortunately, his hunter was being surprisingly persistent since the giant boar as big as a minivan continued to stalk close by, snuffling close to the ground like some kind of bloodhound. Who knew pigs had a good sense of smell? It also probably didn't help that demigods like Cole had a natural scent like a five course buffet for monsters all around.

Honestly this was just pissing Cole off. Unarmed and unarmored, Cole wasn't stupid enough to try and fight these mythological architype rejects. Besides, his only objective was to get back to Camp Jupiter and New Rome so there was no reason to fight in the first place.

Which was why he was hiding in a bramble bush, but it was actually better than ducking into a dumpster behind the roadside diner. Well it at least smelled better. Another cold gust of wind blew through, making Cole suppress a shudder as it tugged at his torn purple camp shirt and jeans.

It was the middle of June at probably Fifty degrees tonight. Wasn't exactly shorts and tank top weather, but it was still summer weather. Sadly, the blowing wind, whipping through his crappy shelter of thorns, was making it feel like Thirty. What he would give for a jacket right about now.

It was taking all of his self-control to minimize his shuddering as he quietly breathed into his cupped hands for any kind of warmth. But he didn't take his eyes off the monster boar as it continued to snuffle around, unaffected by the weather thanks to its tufts of fur that bristled like tiny silver spears.

As gross as it was, Cole was seriously thinking about shaving it and making a boar fur coat, jacket, scarf, or whatever just to keep himself warm, but he settled to snack on the bramble berries hanging near by. They were sour and parched his lips, but it eased the rumbling his stomach was giving.

Gritting his chattering teeth, Cole wished it would just give up and move on already like the other monsters. Why did this one have to be so damn persistent? For the longest time, the damn thing hadn't even left, just continuing to search around for him. Never going too far or too close to his hiding spot.

At this point he was going to freeze to death. No. Cole dispelled such depressing thoughts from his mind with a shake of his head and focused on his goal. Getting back home in one piece and joining the esteemed 1st cohort.

"Y-y-yeah," he stuttered under his shuddering breath, trying to control his shivers, "F-first C-c-cohort." With letters of recommendation and Big Sis Chen backing him, there was no way he could be rejected. Cole knew he was the best of the best and he was going to show them how much of the best he was. As soon as he gets his hot chocolate and warm pig blanket.