Lost and Found {Private}

The monstress suddenly howled in rage, grasping at her back and pulling out an arrow.

"Who…?" she growled but Lillie sent another one her way.

"The next one's for your eyeball. I'd piss off if I were you." She stepped out from behind her tree, taking careful aim. As a daughter of Mars, arrows were not her favourite long range weapon but she wasn't going to sacrifice her pilum.

The monstress gave a horrible, gurgling cry and exploded into a column of flames. Lillie quickly covered her eyes, her bow changing back into a leather bracelet. Once the scaly demon was nothing more than a pile of vaguely smoking ashes, she looked at the girl. About one or two years younger than her, she had long dark hair and looked very pretty. A quick glance to her arm told her she was not a Roman demigod.

"Are you a camper or a nymph?"

Lillie frowned. What was she on? Clearly she was lost. Maybe she was a mortal who'd accidentally crossed into camp and somehow made it this far? If so Lillie had to get her to the Chiron asap … or maybe Mr. D…. wait, what was the correct procedure here? She had no clue, stuff like this never happened in Camp Jupiter. (Greek degeneracy. Typical.)
But then her  eyes fell on her knife. As a child of Mars, she knew immediately that that wasn't a normal weapon.

"Celestial bronze. You are a camper." Lillie sighed, unsheathing her gladius. "Right, let's get you back. D'you get a heat stroke or something?"

"He? Who is he?" Lillie inquired. There was no way she was just a clear-sighted mortal, the aura she had, and the knife... she must be an unclaimed demigod. Lillie extended a hand. "Sorry, gotta introduce myself. I'm Lillie. I'm here to help you. But we need to get out of these woods asap cause they're about as safe as a shark tank around lunchtime."

Walking ahead of Keeley, Lillie stepped through the winding paths carefully but swiftly. She knew that they changed direction randomly and didn't fancy getting stuck in a loop forever. With a glance over her shoulder every three yards to check Keeley was still alive, she motioned forward with a hand to her lips. "We're close to the myrmeke's hill." She doesn't know what myrmeke are, stupid. "Big ants. Like, car-sized. Not very friendly. Come on, this way." She carried on through the undergrowth, hand on the hilt of her sword.

"Shhhh!" Lillie flapped her hands downwards, trying to make her stop. "Do you want all the monsters in this forest to come after us or what? Shut it, let's go!" Shee grabbed her arm and pulled her along. "You can't go screaming in here, everyone will hear you and...." She stopped in her tracks. "And something like this happens." In front of them, armoured black body glistening with patches of sunlight, stood an ant the size of a cab.

"The queen ant never leaves the hill," Lillie said, pulling her golden pilum from thin air. "This is a soldier. Stay back and be ready to climb into a tree." Her spear whooshed through the air, bouncing off the armour harmlessly. A few moments later it rematerialized in her hand, just as the ant charged at her, snapping its pincers threateningly. "Run. Run!"

Good girl, she thought as Keeley made a run for it. The soldier ant came closer, chittering, some gooey liquid dripping from its pincers. Lillie had never encountered myrmeke before, but she had studied them a lot in class - hopefully that would be worth something. That and, yknow, being the daughter of the actual god of war.
The ant suddenly snapped and ran straight at her with all the power of a miniature tank. Lillie forced herself to wait until the last second before throwing herself to one side, her armour clanking. The myrmex was fast though and wheeled around to face her in 0.5 seconds. Lillie barely had time to catch her breath before its side connected with her, sending her into a tree. "Oof!" she wheezed, the air knocked straight out of her lungs. She ducked just in time to not be decapitated by the pincers and rolled away.
Coming back to her feet, she clenched her fists. One around her gladius, one around the pilum which had reappeared at his side. Without waiting she jumped at the giant ant, letting her mind go blank so that her reflexes had full control. Slashing parrying and stabbing, she moved around the ant swiftly, attacking from every angle possible. The ant was fast but not that fast. In a split second, she sliced her gladius through the small unarmoured bit of her leg, cutting it clean off. It shrieked loudly, trying to regain its balance, but tripped over a knotty root. Lillie didn't hesitate. The moment the underbelly was exposed, she went straight in for the kill.

"Keeley!" Lillie dashed forward, covered in monster dust. Her newfound demigod was sandwiched between a tree and another ant's hungry pincers. That knife was not long range enough to do any damage, she'd get her hand bitten off before getting a hit in. Or she'd have to get extremely lucky, … like now, she thought as Keeley managed to stab a weak point of the ant's armour, judging by the way the monster shrieked.
"Pilum!" she called and the air shimmered, solidifying into her golden spear. She tossed it at the ant, knowing full well it would bounce off, but that was enough to distract the monster for a split second. Before it knew what was going on, Lillie had rolled underneath its body and plunged her gladius to the guard into its stomach. The ant lifted its ugly flat head into the air with a shrill sound of agony before slumping to the ground. Lillie yelled in pain as its body crushed her legs and back under its weight. That's at least one broken leg, she thought, desperately clawing at the roots to get out. "Help me!"

Is she the daughter of Potestas or something? Lillie wondered as Keeley hit the ant with more force than any normal person should, let alone any normal teenager. She scrambled gratefully from the dirt and started half-jogging, half-limping away from the scene, holding on to Keeley. The adrenaline was numbing her senses right now but she knew there was something wrong with her body, something deeply wrong. She didn't even dare look down at her leg.

As they ran, lovely young girls in modern clothes poked their heads out of bushes and tree trunks. All of them looked vaguely unreal, like the aurae at Camp Jupiter. Help us, dammit, Lillie thought but couldn't say anything. She was clenching her teeth so hard she felt they'd been welded together.
However, under her eyes, one of the nymphs turned into a cloud of oak leaves and blew away between the trees, out of sight. She thought she'd just left them there but a few moments later, two satyrs with clubs and bats burst from the undergrowth.

"What happened? Who's dying?"

Lillie came to a stop, still clinging on to Keeley. If she let go, she wasn't sure she would be able to get up again.

"Ants… the ants… They got us… well, me," she panted heavily. Her face was damp and glossy, streaks of wet hair sticking to her skin.

"Are they behind you?"

Lillie nodded, "Pretty sure there are more coming. That one ant was rather loud, wasn't it?"

"Forrest, help her up, I'll cover you," the satyr said. He was taller than her, with russet-brown fur and a commanding sort of look. Despite the size of his horns and biceps, Lillie was too accustomed to the fauns in Camp Jupiter to take him seriously.

"You know how to wield that?" she asked, pointing at his club.

"I'll wield it into your face if you don't get a move on." He ushered them forwards. "Come on, let's go!"

"A satyr." He frowned, pushing some branches out of the way. "What, you've never seen one?"

"They're like, the Greek equivalent of fauns," Lillie winced as pain shot through her leg.

"Somehow is a good way to put it," one of them said. He didn't look particularly pleased with the wine god.
The other one looked outraged. "Forrest! Don't talk like that, do you want to be turned into a grape?"
Lillie gasped. Out of pain or laughter, or both. "You're a nature spirit and your name is Forrest?"
"I'm Dennis. He's Forrest. But you shouldn't talk so loudly unless you want more monsters to find us."
Lillie shook her head, Unbelievable she thought.
"How many do you guys keep in here?"