A guest in the Hunters’ Camp

“Not again?!” Amelia entered her bedroom after taking a much-needed relaxing bath and heard the warning beeps coming from her glasses that she had left on her desk. She left them there because she didn’t want to be bothered and also believed John would stay safe at home. She was too pent up by the day’s earlier events; she needed some very much deserved release.

Now the all the tension was back, and she now feared what she would discover had happened while she relaxed. She put on her glasses, praying. “Please... what is it this time? What the?” She was surprised to see how many messages there were, and their time span was also something unusual. She had expected John to have faced his usual bullies. She thought that maybe they were getting **** for what happened at the academy, but what she saw was something completely different. For whatever reason, John had gone to the forest near his house, where he faced some creatures both weak and strong and he also ran into… “A hunter? Was it Cynthia? What the hell?! Why is he **** at the Hunters’ Camp? How long have I been in that bloody bath?”

At the Hunters of Artemis Camp

SYSTEM RESTART

John slowly woke up. He found himself lying on a bed with both his hands tied together at his front, his legs were also tied up. At least I still have my clothes on. A weird thought to have in his current situation, but since he had no idea of where he was, it was one less thing for him to worry about. He heard voices at the entrance of the place he was being held in; he quickly decided to fake being asleep and concentrated on using his proximity sense to assess any possible danger to him.

“So, who is this, Cynthia? Is he a poacher or a nature lover?” said a female voice whose tone changed from angry to annoyed as she asked wanting to ascertain his identity.

“I don’t know, Mom. I don’t think he’s either one of them though. He wasn’t equipped or dressed like them,” said the girl whose voice John believed belonged to the one he had identified as Cynthia just before she shot him with a second arrow.

“You attacked some boy and brought him to the camp, are you crazy?” From her tone of voice, John felt that the girl’s mother went back to angry, most likely at her.

“Hey, he attacked Mimi first. I thought he was a poacher hunting her.” Cynthia stopped talking and then asked a question of her own. “How did you know I attacked him?”

“You shot him with a sleeping arrow, didn’t you? That’s why he’s here on your bed with his hands tied,” answered her mother. “Since he still has his clothes on, I believe it also to be the most logical reason for his current predicament.”

“Well, he knew my name also, and I am quite sure I’ve never met him before.” As Cynthia was explaining to her mom, he felt someone get close to him; whoever it was seemed to be examining him. “After Mimi came crying to me, I got so angry. I guess I didn’t think before I acted. I am sor…”

Before Cynthia finished speaking, a voice that John believed came from a child spoke up. “But he was mean to me! He hit my snecko for wanting to lick this fluff ball. Look at it, so tiny and fluffy!”

Tiny and fluffy? Oh shit, does she mean Mico? John guessed the child was talking about his pet.

“Well, he is awake now, why don’t we ask him who he is and what happened?” John felt the person who was examining him move closer as she spoke. Realizing that she somehow had found out he was faking being ****, he decided it was time to confront whoever was with him.

John opened his eyes and what he saw was quite unexpected: directly above him was the face of a woman that, though he didn’t recognize, made him feel warm and secure; there simply were no words to describe her beauty. But his lost, expressionless face seemed to have told her enough of what he felt by the sight of her. She smiled down at him and went to sit down next to a man John also didn’t recognize. Arriving somewhat back down on Earth, he finally found his words. “You can tell I am awake? I am John by the way, John Newman.” Still too mesmerized by her beauty, he ended up blurting out more than he wanted to say.

“Hello John Newman, nice to meet you!” She smiled at him. “Cynthia, will you please untie our guest?”

“Yes, Mom.” Cynthia took a knife and cut the ropes that were binding him.

“Thank you,” John said while sitting up without the need of any help.

“Well, John, since you have so freely introduced yourself, it’s only fair that I reciprocate. I am Miranda Doukas, leader of the camp you’re currently at; the yet to speak handsome fella over here is my partner Arnold Mathews; you somehow already know my daughter. By the way, this is one of the issues we would like to have answers to.” She paused the introduction to assess John’s reaction to her request; getting nothing from him, she continued, “Hmm, at least you didn’t go into the defensive. The infant gorgon over there is a valued member of our family, Mimi.” To that, John went white, which seemed to please Miranda. “And being held by her is what I guess is your pet tamarin.”

During the introduction, John regarded each member of Miranda’s family. When it came to Cynthia’s turn, he couldn’t help but stare and pay better attention to how beautiful she was. He only stopped doing so when he remembered his pet was in Mimi’s hands. John almost made an attempt to go and take him back, but reconsidered; Mico didn’t seem to be in any danger. For now, he was satisfied with the introduction Miranda had given him, so he held his want to learn more and not cast observe on them. Probably for the best, he wasn’t sure if they could detect him casting it.

“Where did you find him, John?” Arnold finally spoke. “Tamarins are not native to this region; they are from Brazil. And since we are very far away from his home country, I am quite curious. You don’t look like a poacher to me either. You’re certainly under equipped for someone wandering alone in the forest.”

The Gamer decided to tell them the truth about his afternoon’s encounters with the coyotes and the ogres, how he found Mico and finally his encounter with Mimi and Cynthia. He did leave out information about his skills, not because he didn’t trust them, but he just merely forgot to mention them, he’d only had them for about twelve hours.

“You really are offering information too freely, kid. It’s a good thing that you show some kind of trust in us, but you shouldn’t trust people too quickly.” Arnold looked at him still quite curious. “So, if you are telling us the truth, you saved the baby tamarin and now it is bonded to you. You called it Mico, right?” John nodded. “This is quite funny, did you know that mico is a Portuguese word for a species of tamarin? If you hadn’t told me your reason for giving it this name, I would have thought less of your creativity.”

John didn’t know how to reply to all that was said to him. Arnold smiled at him, and due to this, the Gamer wasn’t sure if he was being serious or if he was twisting his leg. “Do you know how to take care of him?”

“Unfortunately, no. I have no idea how to. I was lucky because I…” John was about to tell them about the achievement reward that gave him the baby bottles, but since they told him twice that he was being too eager to share information, he stopped, not knowing for sure how rare his abilities were. He quickly diverted from his almost slip-up and said, “I could have hurt him during the fight; he really concealed himself too well under a pile of leaves.”

“I see. Well, I can help you with that.” Arnold stood up, went over to Mimi and took the tamarin from her. While examining Mico, he said. “He seems to be healthy.” He took a treat from his pouch and gave it to the pet, who slowly ate it. “Interesting, he doesn’t seem to be too hungry. I wonder why?” He looked at John suspiciously, but getting no answer from him, he just shrugged and gave his pet back to him.

John gladly held Mico on his hands and patted him trying not to interfere with his eating. “Since I gave you my story, why don’t you tell me more about you? Which camp is this?”

Miranda smiled at his request. “We are the Hunters of Artemis, as I said before, I am the leader of this camp...”

On this first statement, John felt the need to interrupt Miranda, “Wait a moment, Artemis? You mean the goddess Artemis is real?”

“Yes John, she is very real, and so are many other gods. May I continue?” John apologetically nodded to the camp leader. “We mainly hunt and pay tribute to our goddess for our living. We are very carefree people when it comes to our way of living, John, but as I guess you have noticed by now, if you mess with one of us and, to some extent, our allies, we will hunt you down. That’s all I’ll tell you for now; unfortunately, we don’t have enough time for more.”

Finishing her explanations, Miranda for an instant regarded him once more. She couldn’t help but feel that there was more to the boy than what it seemed. Then she saw something within John that she failed to realize before. “Ah, so you’re protected. This is quite interesting.” She turned to her daughter. “Cynthia, we will probably have company here later on. You are responsible for defusing whatever arises from this.”

Before Cynthia answered, John jumped in and asked “By whom? That is the second time I’ve been told this.” He wondered in his thoughts, Who is it that has so much interest in me?

“If you don’t know, then you’re probably not meant to know. I won’t tell, neither will anyone here,” the camp leader shot down his request.

“But…” John stood up but was quickly stopped from doing anything else when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Let it go, lad, once she’s made up her mind, she won’t go back. Trust me, I know,” Arnold told the Gamer, making him realize he won’t get any answers from any of them.

To kill the subject, Miranda faced him and said, “You are free to go, John, but before you go, I do believe you owe Mimi an apology, even if you didn’t hurt her, you still scared her.”

“Ok. I am sorry, Mimi. What can I do to make it up to you?” he asked the small gorgon.

“You can apologize by giving me pats... hum…” Mimi stopped to think, then whispered to her snakes, then thought some more. But she didn’t seem to think of something that could satisfy her or how much she could get out of this.

“Let me help you, Mimi.” Cynthia said. “How about he should pat you for two hours every week for the next two months?”

“Sure, no problem, I guess. Will I at least be welcomed back here?” He turned to Miranda who nodded her consent.

“Promise?” John could literally see the sparkles in Mimi’s eyes showing just how satisfied she was with Cynthia's suggestion and John’s agreement. She put out her hand, extended her pinky, and waited for John to do the same and hook their pinkies. When he did, John felt a surge of energy coming from her.

What did she just do to me? John asked himself and quickly got an answer in form of an achievement.

Achievement Unlocked - A Derpy Pact
You made a pinky pact with a derpy gorgon, you’re advised not to break it.
Reward: + 50 Relationship score with Mimi
+1 stat point

“Yayyyyy! I love pats. Can we start now?” Mimi asked both cheerful and hopeful.

Cynthia laughed and told John, “Oh boy, you have no idea what you got yourself into.”

“Something tells me you’re right,” he said with just a bit of worry.

“Maybe he should start that some other time, it is late now. Arnold, take him home please. We will take care of Mico for you until you’re ready to do so, John. Just leave him with Cynthia.” Miranda left without saying another word.

John said goodbye to his pet, handed him over to Cynthia and stepped outside with Arnold. He looked around to take in as much as possible of the camp and then noticed it was starting to get dark. Worried he looked at his phone and saw the number of missed calls from his mother. Well, I guess I’ll also have some defusing of my own to do at home. Taking his mind off it for now, he looked around the camp some more and wondered if he really would get an opportunity to explore it later on. He got inside Arnold’s car and finally headed for home.

Not long after John left, Amelia arrived at the camp. She headed straight towards Cynthia’s tent and went inside without a care for the huntress’ privacy. “Ok, where is he?” she asked as soon as she saw her.

“Calm down, Amelia, you just missed him; my dad took him home,” Cynthia answered, after her mother explained to her who John’s protector was, she had expected a not so courteous visit from the Scot, even though her clan and the Hunters were allies since before she was born. She then began to explain to Amelia what happened to him.

Soon after, Mimi arrived and, spotting Amelia sitting on the couch talking to Cynthia, she quickly leaped to her lap while exclaiming: “Meliaaaa... I haven’t seen you for so long... How’s Nessie?” After landing the gorgon gave her a big hug while her snakes kissed her face.

“Hi Mimi, I’ve missed you too! Nessie is fine, I am good too by the way.” She couldn’t control her happiness while answering Mimi, even though she was still in distress by the account of what happened to John that Cynthia had told her. “My brother says she misses you. She’s grounded again for leaving her barrier and scaring the mundane tourists.” She turned her voice to a more serious tone and said, “It seems she is not the only one who likes to venture outside. You could have gotten hurt.”

“I know, I am sorry,” said an apologetic Mimi. “I was just playing in the forest when I heard two uglos arguing about losing a defenseless creature; I tried looking for it, but then puppers started chasing me, and you know I am very good at playing tag, that’s when I saw John and hid behind him, and… and…” she started to sob.

“It’s ok, Mimi, I am glad you are ok.” Amelia then turned to Cynthia and asked her while eyeing her intently as if trying to find out if she would lie, “Did you do anything else to him? Or with him?”

“Trust me, I didn’t. The only one who got poked was him.” Cynthia laughed, but quickly held it when she saw Amelia’s angry reaction to her joke. “Anyway, he is a bit of a wimp, even Mimi conned him into making him pat her for an hour every week for the next two months.”

“Two hours!” Mimi promptly corrected her.

“I know, but he is my wimp,” declared Amelia just a bit too seriously. Cynthia blinked to that, not knowing how to respond, neither did she know how it came to be that a member of a strong Scottish clan would feel this way towards such a guy. “Anyway, gotta head back home now. I’ve got to be there before…”

“Hey, don’t leave yet...”