The Silver Stag
-Jenna-All of these big people hugging me was scaring me. I wasn't used to being loved so much because I only had one parent. My mom had gone away when I was a baby. My dad said that she didn't want me and hated that I was alive, so she left. I didn't want to believe him, so I ran away. I found this place by following a constellation that appeared in the sky when I was younger. I watched it go into the sky, so I use it as a good luck charm. It is a hunter, so I follow it's arrow. It always helps me when I'm lost, like it cares for me. If I told my dad that he would think I was crazy.
All the Apollo kids, my brothers and sisters, cheered for me, happy to have 'the youngest demigod to survive the travel here alone'. They put me to bed early, even though I'm not a baby anymore. I've done things that grown ups would dream about.
After midnight I got bored of laying in bed; I can never sleep when the moon is up. I wandered outside, following the constellation that always protects me. Tonight, it was pointing to a forest that looked surprisingly welcoming in the darkness. It was a full moon, so I could see well enough not to get hit in the face with branches or trip on a twig. I rounded a large pine tree and hopped over a fallen spruce to find myself face-to-face with a huge mahogany trunk. I sighed and ducked around it, only to find a sliver stag staring at me.
I didn't have time to think about anything before it ran away. I had the strange feeling it wanted me to follow it. It led me to a clearing where it disappeared into a swirl of shimmering dust, and I had the feeling I wasn't supposed to be here. I ducked behind a small birch with leaves full enough to cover me, because the trunk and branches were small looking and frail.
There were two people in the clearing, a boy and a girl, who looked like brother and sister. They were fighting about something, and I could barely make it out. I turned my head sideways and focused on something, anything, everything other than them, then I could hear them perfectly. It took a lot of practice to focus in on the one thing you weren't focusing on, but luckily I had had that. I could understand every word with amazing clarity.
"She shouldn't have come here!" The boy whisper-yelled at the girl. He looked about seventeen. "I shouldn't have done that for you. You need to take responsibility for her." He chided her. I had a feeling they were talking about me.
"But I'm not allowed! Besides, you agreed to claim her eight years ago!" The girl argued back. She looked about twelve or thirteen.
"She's illegal! It's like I'm hiding a hostage for you!" He hissed.
"Yes, but she could pass as yours. No one will ever find out." She tried to reason, even though I could tell she was loosing.
Who? How do you know that?" He raged at her.
"Because we're twins, stupid!" She protested. I knew enough about life to know that wasn't possible.
"Says the twelve year old." The boy said. The girl looked mad. She gritted her teeth, then, she started to glow so bright I screamed. It was only for a second until she stopped, but it seemed like it had started a fire inside me, and blinded me. I heard two sets of footsteps run towards me and I realized I was on the floor. I couldn't move at all, but I knew the boy and the girl were here now. I recognized them, only now, as Artemis and Apollo.
Join Qfeast to read the entire story!
Sign In. It is absolutely free!
