Daylight Hunting

Cassandra walked up to a tree and waited for Dylan to arrive, there were various ways to get to the Northern Woods of the Dark Forest but area she was standing in was the quickest and most obvious. She had just returned from the forge and refilled her arrow charms; she had a full set of 15 reuseable arrows. The forge was one of the only places where she started to feel warm in, though upon leaving she felt cooler and zipped up her jacket; regardless of the fact it was around one thirty in the afternoon and the sun was blazing.

Her jacket was her only defence, she didn't wear armor; it slowed her down. Though her thick black jacket was almost a give away in the daylight, it was beneficial incase it grew dark. Her dark jeans pressed against her skin and had a fitted feel to her while not constraining her movements. Kicking around some leaves on the ground as she waited she took advantage of the time and rose her bracelet to her face, as if she was checkin the time. Pulling off the quiver charm, Cassandra extended her arm away from her face so it wouldn't hit her head as it transformed into it's functional form. Taking four arrow charms off they elongated into useful arrows she put them in the quiver for later use; their celestial bronze tips sparking in the rays of the sun as they went in leaving only the carbon fiber fletchings and some of the carbon fiber shaft poking out.

Lastly, Cass looked down and debated on her compound bow or her recurve bow. After a moments pause she took off her recurve charm and settled for the less mechanical feeling bow, it was her favorite anyway; she had bought it with her own money and modified it with her own skills. Taking the sleek black frame in her hands she gently tugged on the bowstring and let it vibrate for a moment before letting her left arm lower as she leaned on a nearby tree. Behind her was a dense void of trees and darkness speckled with rays of light. While the trees in the northern forest are much thinner than in the southern forest, the branches collided often and left little sunlight to peep in at some areas. Taking in a simple sigh Cassandra glanced up and looked around, a few campers passed her by and gave her a smile and nod; none of them Dylan. He's not late or anything, I did say fifteen minutes and it's only been ten, but I wanna get going while we have daylight on our side.

Dylan came with his sword. Only his sword. Apparently, his siblings thought it would be funny if they booby-trapped the cabin, made Dylan go through it, have his hair and face coated in eggs, and hide his armor. After he washed up, he met up with Cass. Sorry I'm late. My siblings... They took my armor. He felt really embarrassed and scared. He knew he shouldn't go, but that didn't stop him.I'm not turning back. I'll go in without armor and live. It was like he said. He wanted to be famous around camp, and this was an opportunity that he wasn't going to pass up. Well, I see you're rockin' it without armor to.

Cass finally saw the black haired boy appear from direction of the cabins, a little bit of discouragement on his face but he seemed to be shaking it off so Cass didn't make a comment on it. "Nah, you're not really late, don't worry about your cabin mates, they can't pick on you for long." Cass frowned a bit at Dylan, he wasn't wearing the least bit of armor and was surely going to get hurt."it's not the same Dylan, I have a thick leather jacket and I have speed, to make up for my lack of strength." Toying with her bow for a second she figured they didn't have enough time to get him some from the armoury without wasting too much daylight.

The sun shone down on the canopy of the forest, she nodded her head over towards the forest and spoke. "Come on we don't have as much time as we think, stay close, but not too close, I shoot quickly and don't want to turn around and hit you with my bow." Cass had to look up as she spoke, Dylan was a bit taller than she was but she was far more agile. Gripping her bow she took an arrow out of the quiver and set it in place with her weak right hand pulling it back every so often, though never letting it launch.

"How well are you with a sword Dylan? Or a bow?" She questioned quietly, trying not to make noises. I want to sneak up on the beasts not be snuck up on. Side stepping to make less noise on the forest debris she figured Dylan would follow her lead as they walked in slowly, deeper, into the forest. Being careful not to get too close to the river, she knew that just past the river and a few feet away was the area where she lost control with the acid haired girl last night and didn't want to have to relive the whole thing over again.

Hearing soft rustles to her left she pressed forward, whatever it was it was small, maybe a rabbit; I'm not here for rabbits, I'm here for hounds.

She, like the rest of the camp, didn't know what Dylan could do. Honestly, Dylan didn't even know all the way what he could do. He could call on his father to give him a boost of everything physical without any visual distinction, minus his hair turning a reddish color. Everything was boosted three-fold. His endurance, his strength, his natural healing factor, they were all boosted by three. Although this is fine and dandy, there's a downside. The boost only lasts for ten minutes, after that, he passes out. What goes up must come down.

Come on,let's go hunt... Uh, what are we looking for exactly?

Cassandra kept her attention up, waiting for small signs. "Shh, whisper Dylan, we're looking for signs of hell hounds. It's day time but there are shadows, since they shadow travel they leave a small circle or area where a puff of wind blows leaves off of the ground. Maybe a few small dead animals here and there" Cassandra whispered as she glanced around the base of the forest; searching. The sun was peeping through some of the trees and Cass made extra care to stay in the light. She saw something sprint not too far ahead of them, then again to her right side, and once more to left.

That's the fastest hell hound I've ever seen. Cassandra started to worry for a moment, unsure if she was going to be able to take on something as fast as that; she was used to speedy hounds, but none had ever been this quick. "Dylan, stay close" Cassandra remembered how she hated being told what to do and figured her partner needed to know why. "Look to your left and in a few seconds you'll catch a glimpse of a black figure." Suddenly, it hit her. It was circling them. Before she could tell Dylan to duck, she saw a hellhound at least as big as she was pounce out of the shadows of a bush. Getting out of it's way she kept her eyes locked on the beast before realizing that something was still circling the area Dylan was at. Panicked Cass realized a little too late. "AMBUSH!" There hadn't been one immensely fast hound, there had been three equally terrifying hounds.

The black creature jumped on it's hind legs at Cassandra, unable to see Dylan she focused her attention onto the beast and whack it on the side of the head with her bow after releasing her first arrow at it's chest. Her arrow missed and hit the dark animal's hind leg. It let out an intimidating snarl at Cassandra. She rose her bow, taking the risk and waiting for her arrow to reappear on her bracelet before taking one out of the quiver and aiming at the beast. That was when she heard a deep evil growl come from behind her, and an equally frightening howl from her right. "Dylan are you alright?" Without taking her eyes off the creature in front of her she could only assume Dylan was back to back with her and pushed back the third hound. She couldn't spare him a glance just yet, she knew she had to take out at least one hound to make it a fair fight. Really guys? Three against two? Hardly a fair fight.

Yea, I'm fine. How about you? Dylan said. If only he were a son of Hades, or even Phobos, but no. He had to be the son of a god nobody knew about. Having no armor gave Dylan a burst of adrenaline. Sure, all demigods are adhd, but everyone feels that fight or flight response. Demigods, however, seemed to feel theirs a bit stronger than others.

Seconds after he dropped the question, a hound jumped from the forest ground. It bounded onto Dylan and knocked him over. The hound kept on trying to get at Dylan's face, but he put one hand on the hound's throat. He reached for his sword, and stabbed the beast in the chest. The beast howled and exploded into golden dust. Dylan got up as quickly as he could to meet up with Cass. They stood back to back, alert and ready for the next hound. Like you said, stay close. Now, how many more you think there are? he asked

The afternoon sun was on their side; the light gave them a slight advantage when it came to the visuals of fighting. With the hellhounds closing in on the two campers, Cass could see the grim forest get slowly dimmer as the time dragged on behind the creatures; whatever we do we need to do now while we have daylight. All around them the thin trees would provide no cover if they ran; if they wanted to survive they had to fight. Condensing the small circle Dylan and Cassandra made she began to circle slowly, her feet making soft crunching noises on the forest debris; no point in being quiet now.

Cassandra pressed her lips tightly before answering Dylans question. "No more than three now." She swallowed tightly and exhaled before speaking softly again; not losing sight of the two hounds on her front and side. Cassandra's eyes were narrowed to keep focus on the evil spawn in front of her, so much so that you could hardly see the chocolatey brown of her eyes. "I can disable the one before me and while it's getting back up I'll take the one to my right and you take the one to my left" Using her elbows to emphasize and dictate her directions, Cass didn't want to have any misunderstandings before she shot at the black mass ahead.

She pulled back on her bow and released an arrow at the left shoulder of the leader hound and without wasting a second, a second arrow at it's right shoulder; causing the beast to topple down long enough for Cass to swing her bow straight down on the head of the charging hound from her right side. The recoil of the swing pushed her back a good foot and the leader hound seemed to be quick to recover because she hadn't caught her breath before it was on top of her body.

Recalling that her right hand was already injured she figured if she had to lose anything it should be that. Cassandra rose her hand to cover her face from the creatine and felt a sharp and familiar pang run though her hand and arm. Letting out a sharp yelp Cassandra took advantage of the hound being busy with her gloved hand to swing her right leg from underneath and hook the hind leg of the animal while kneeing it with her left leg; pushing it off her body. Cassandra realized the hound had let go of her and was chewing on the glove that protected her hand. She felt a bit of warm liquid trickle once more from her palm and ignored the pain; she took her bow from the ground quickly and swiftly pulled a charm of her bracelet and shot at the hound. Within moments it puffed into smoke and left a fang in its place.

Not wanting to think about her hand, which wasn't really too bad when compared to last night, Cassandra turned over and took a good shot the second hound, hoping Dylan was holding his own with the hound he was in charge of. The hound howled but Cassandra knew it wasn't a fatal shot and she had used that particular arrow charm once before meaning it would never return to her. Before Cass could fire another arrow the hound snarled viciously and jumped into the shadows; stunned, Cassandra aimed her bow violently, while dripping dark red blood from her hand and the grip of her recurve bow, she pointed it at any shadow she could see before hearing the sound rustled leaves make when runned upon further away from them. Assuming that the second in command hound had run off she wasted no time in turning her attention to Dylan as she panted softly as she pushed back her tangled chestnut hair from her face. Yea you better run.

OOC: If you want to practice good paragraph formation when RP'ing, I suggest using the acronym TIPTOP. It's an order of information within the first few paragraphs of a post. TIme. Place. TOpic. Person. After that it's mostly story progression and actions or main dialogues that your partner can respond to. I try to use it all the time :) Just a friendly suggestion because you're doing fine now as is.

Dylan was occupied with his second hound while Cassandra was having her hand used as a chew toy. The hound bounded from the shadows, but Dylan knew this time what to do. He rolled to his right and landed in a squatting position. The hound then landed and turned to face Dylan. The beast and boy had a stand off, circling each other. Come on puppy. Whatcha gonna do? Dylan said. The dog snarled back as if in his own threatening tone. Then, as if on que, they both jumped for each other. They met in the air and slashed each other. In one good cut, the dog exploded into dust. But before that happened, he caught Dylan on the outer left thigh. Dylan dropped and struggled to get up. He used a nearby tree branch to pull himself up to his feet. He looked down at his cut and hissed in pain. It was a deep gash, about 7 inches. It reached from the back of his thigh, around the outside, to the front of his leg. He turned and saw that Cass was fine. He then shouted back to her Hey, you got some ambrosia? If you do, I might need it.

Ooc: I'm just trying to write it like Rick Riordan would.

Cassandra looked down to see Dylans leg chewed up. Geeze that looks bad. Cassandra lost track of time and while it was clearly still the afternoon the light was less intense and gave the blood spewing out of Dylans leg, a soft shimmer. Her instinct was to get him to lay down and treat him quickly on the forest floor but she knew there was one other hound out there and couldn't risk putting her guard down. Cassandra had spent many years training in her woods at the Marrick's estate and was a very good survivalist when it came to the land but it didn't mean she was arrogant enough to leave ambrosia at her cabin.

She hadn't learned about ambrosia until this morning, a cabin mate had given her some and she took a nibble at it and her wounds healed up, minus her hand, although it was further along in the healing process then it would have been without the little god cube. "Yea, I have a bit left, give me moment." She circled Dylan for a good round making sure that other hound wouldn't come back and spring at them before tending to Dylan's needs. Stepping carefully on the debris of the forest floor her dark boots made little sound as she closed in on Dylan. Putting her recurve bow to hang on a heavy branch she reached her hand into her back pocket and pulled out a small clear plastic bag. "Oh, sorry I got thrown on my back and it must have squished" Cass closed her mouth gently and looked at the crumpled cube bits in the bag. "Here it's only a small amount, you can take what you need." The young lady tossed over the bag to Dylan and nodded.

She looked down at her right hand for a moment, she knew the ambrosia would heal her but she had already had some today and it would be unwise to take in more; besides it should only be a day or two and I'll be fine, if it's not healed up by Friday then I'll take some more. As she contemplated her plans for her hand she turned a full 180 to face Dylan, her back to the poorly lighted forest, the canopies of the trees meshed to block out a lot of the sunlight, thankfully they were in a patch of deep forest where there were just enough trees to allow a healthy amount of light in; They don't call it the Dark Forest for nothing.

"I think we should head back for the day, we can come back tomorrow and hunt that last-" Cass dropped mid sentence when she heard a low rumble come from her side. She turned to grab her bow from the branch but as soon as she reached out the hellspawn was upon her. The branch had broken off in Cassandra's hand though her bow had slid off the other end and as soon as she crashed to the ground she realized her quiver will arrows had fallen off her and slid off to the side; out of reach. Grunting in struggle Cass held the dead tree branch against the nape of the hellhounds neck.

The branch was the only thing holding the beast back from chewing on Cass's face. She let out a shrill as the black mass bared it's teeth at her face; she could smell the rotting flesh and blood of it's prior victims in it's breath and could see the yellow crooked fangs come closer with each snap and the branch started to bend. Clear drool covered it's mouth and flung around Cass's face, the branch wasn't going to last long and if she didn't get out of being under the heavy animal soon, neither would she. The Hellhound was clearly heavier than the other one, it's hind paws digging into Cass's thighs, and it's front legs pinning her shoulder and chest to the ground; she could feel the pressure of it's heavy weight on her rib cage. There was no way she could push this beast off of her without breaking the branch and having her face chewed off; he was far too heavy and strong.

Before she could figure out what to do the monster leaned back and chomped on the branch in half; without thinking Cass took a hard swing with the half of the branch that was still in her weak right hand. The hound didn't even flinch as it foamed and snarled at her face before pulling it's head back. She felt herself emitting small gusts of wind around her; this happened often when she was in emotional distress; No no if I go down I'm going down as myself, not as a monster. In the few moments that the creature snarled at her face all Cassandra could think about was not losing control of her powers the way she did last night, a replica of it so soon after would surely kill her. Knowing that she put her remaining focus on stopping her uncontrollable power from peering through and the gusts of wind died down. Just then, Cassandra screamed out loudly as she saw the evil canine lunge it's teeth forward at her face; she turned her head and slammed her eyes shut bracing herself for the pain.

Dylan caught the bag of ambrosia and took in about half. He could see the cut heal itself already, at a rate that was much faster than usual. He didn't know why, but it felt relieving. He heard Cass say I think we should head back for the day, we can come back tomorrow and hunt that last- then heard the hound pounce on her. He heard her screams as the dog stood on top of her, and at that moment, action came before thought. He lunged himself into the dog and launched it off Cass. Cass, ate you okay? he screamed back. Just after, the dog lunged onto him and knocked him on his left side. Searing pain shot up his leg and Dylan couldn't get up. The dog then jumped on him the same way it did for Cass. It looked like the end for Dylan. Cass was still trying to get up, Dylan's leg was completely covered in blood, and this hound was about to kill him. Although it looked like there was no way out of this, Dylan knew one way: He would have to use his powers.

He gripped his sword tight, pointed it to the sky, and called on his father. Cratus, give me strength! he screamed. His sword glowed a bright red, then the light flowed through his entire body. The hound backed up, blinded by Dylan, and tripped on its hind legs. The light then went out, and left Dylan; standing, completely healed, and with dark red hair. He had ten minutes before he would pass out, so he had to act fast. The hound tried to tackle Dylan, but he evaded the attack with blinding speed. The dog then turned on its heels and charged at Dylan again. This time Dylan didn't dodge the hound. Instead,, he squatted low and grabbed its ear. He then grabbed its hind leg and threw it into a tree. The hound didn't die, but it was severely injured. Nine minutes left.

Dylan cut the hound's head clean off and watched it turn to dust leaving just a fang. He then turned to Cass and said Hey, how are you holding up back there?

Still in shock Cass found herself blinded by, what at first she thought was a ray of 2 pm sunlight, was actually Dylan. His hair now a dark shade of auburn with a few hints of normal black pigment in them; he seemed slightly larger as if he was flexing all his muscles but he wasn't even trying. Cass looked around quickly at the thin forest trees and saw speckles of light rays within the darker void, they had wandered in deep; at least a fifteen minute run back to safer campgrounds. Getting up she realized the hellhound had left three not too deep cuts on her cheek just as Dylan peeled it off her.

Her ribs still sore from the pressure, Cass found it a little difficult to take a deep breath, though she managed. Quickly regaining her senses she lunged for her bow and took an arrow that had scattered from the quiver on the ground and kept it up in the case more of the pack came along. "I'm alright, thanks, you? What was that? You go super saiyan? Is that your thing?" Chuckling at her own joke Cass figured it was a useful power, though she didn't know the aspects of it, she knew if it saved her rear end, it was useful in her book. Normally she would be cautious when it came to powers though this time she wasn't too worried, his powers seemed to be controllable unlike hers, which would turn on her if she wasn't careful.

Grateful for the help she picked up the remainder crumbles of ambrosia in the bag and gave them once more to Dylan, his reddish sheened hair was somehow flowing gently even though there was no wind about; similar to the way her hair flows about when she gets angry or emotionally distressed, its a small sign that her powers would peck out and she often calmed herself down when she notices. "We need to at the very least move out of this area, the rest of the hound pack will realize their members are long gone and I would much rather not be here when they come looking. We walked a while so we should settle at the next big clearing before making a run for camp." Looking up and assuming the time she figured they had a good two hours left before it grew into late afternoon light; not very helpful in the woods.

Hearing more rustles approaching, she didn't want to waste time gathering all the arrows she dropped, leaving them all for dead, minus her bow and the remaining 10 arrows on her bracelet, Cass took initiative and reminded Dylan to stay close. "Ha, really I guess it should be me staying close to you at this point"Ignoring the slight pain in her still bleeding hand, Cass gave a friendly yet hushed laugh, not wanting to alert anything else of their presence.  Her smile faded as she recalled the next clearing is near the river; across it a few paces ahead would be the destroyed area she was at last night. "Come on, we don't have that much time I think I know where to stop and rest"

Stop and rest? Dylan knew he couldn't do that. He had to get back to camp or else she would be dragging his unconscious butt out of there. Ah... Cass, maybe we should go back to camp now. I mean, there's more to my 'super saiyan' than you know. After it starts, I get around ten minutes, sometimes more, then I pass out. I never get more than fifteen minutes. Typical. Whenever Dylan got something cool, there was a downsideto it.

Your dad is a god, but monsters are hunting your blood.
You can get a boost of strength all over your body, but you pass out after ten minutes.
You have brothers and sisters you never knew about, but they are total idiots.

Those were just minor examples. He never got to be or feel normal. He was always different. How far is camp from here? Can you make it?

Cass kept walking in the direction out of camp, there were two clearings we can pass before the exit; running we can make it to the first clearing in under five minutes for sure, even if we flew we wouldn't make it to the second clearing just before the camp exit in under fifteen minutes. Time wasn't on their sides. Sighing Cass spoke grimmly; "We can't make it out in fifteen minutes, how long do you pass out for Dylan?" Cassandra realized, like most campers every power had a downside to it.

"Can you atleast make it to a clearing? We can make a makeshift camp there until you regain consciousness. This was probably a bad idea Dylan, I'm awfully sorry for getting you into this." Putting her hand on a tree as she walked for balance she figured they had better start running; get as close to the exit as we can and wait for Dylan to wake up, if anything she figured she could just make it rain on him for a while and it might wake him up after a while of rest. Letting go she looked back at the tree and saw her hand's bloody print resisting the urge to get rid of her trial she pressed forward with Dylan.

Her shoes make some ruckus, not caring about what hears them, if they both ran together it would sound like a large animal to the monsters in the forest and they might leave them alone until they stopped. Watching trees blur past her she knew she couldn't run for too long, five minutes was just enough to reach the first clearing. "How much time do you have Dylan? If we run to the second clearing in five minutes we'd be another five away from camp, we might even see some campers walk past who can help get you to your bunk. What do you think" Panting slightly with her bow still aimed around loosely with her weak hand, Cass figured it was a good idea but it wouldn't be wise to just dictate and not ask others opinions, she was raised to be a good leader not an authoritarian.


OOC: Sorry it's taking me a while to reply; I've been working on a code for posts and it's taking me forever to figure out what went wrong.

Dylan had six minutes left until he passed out. If normally sprinting would take him ten minutes, then he'd be able to make it to the camp in three. But Cass was hurt. He couldn't just leave her in the woods. He would have to carry her. He knew that his max with the boost was 300 lbs, so carrying Cass would be like lifting 5 pounds, she would be virtually nothing to him now. The only thing was that he didn't want it to be awkward. Cass, you're in pain. Let me carry you. I can get us to the camp in three minutes tops. He said. It was either watch her struggle to walk, or carry her to camp. Besides, she saved his life. Getting her to safety was the least he could do. Listen, I have five minutes, I think. I can get us both there, but you have got to work with me. Please, he held out his hand to grab her, so we both aren't left out here. He felt like she and him had something between them. It wasn't anything like star crossed lovers or anything like that. It was more like a 'younger brother, older sister' type of connection. With that feeling in his gut, he knew that he had to help her when he could. He felt like it was his choice, no, it was his duty to keep her alive.