Name: Miss Hourigan

Cabin and Team: Poseidon, Blue Team

Title/Link: The Life Of A Hunter

Card: Judgement - Reversed: Doubt

Prompts Used: [Emotion] Calm, [Word] Fortune, [Quote] 'Do you think the chosen want to be chosen?' - The Magicians (Pronouns changed to accommodate for Elizabethan English)

Summary: Bianca has been rescued from Westover Hall, and is settling in with the Hunters. But how can she, when she doubts she made the right choice? When she must help those she doesn't think she can? Giving advice she gives, may be the advice she needs to hear.

Wordcount: 1376

Bianca knew her life would be dangerous once she found out her true parentage, but she didn't think it would be this dangerous. No, she had had no idea this game of capture the flag would be so dangerous. She had no idea it could be this dangerous; Bianca had doubted Capture the Flag could be dangerous at all, really. But now, as she stood guarding the flag with Josephine, she was learning everything she could about the Hunters. Their habits, the monsters they hunted - which was everything, really - and the things they did to wind down after a hunt.

The boy who had introduced himself as Percy tried to sneak up on them, and just managed to get past Josephine before he was shot by an arrow. Josephine turned around to see Bianca putting her bow away, and the muscles in her face pulled up into a smile. Using the distraction, Percy slipped away, taking care not to move his arm too much. Bianca only just spotted him and gave chase, stopping when Thalia started fighting Percy. Smirking at her good fortune, Bianca grabbed the flag and ran back to Zeus' Fist.

When the conch horn sounded, signalling the end of the game, Bianca sprinted to the creek and stood next to Zoe; but she could see Percy and Thalia fight against each other. The creek surged up around Percy, protecting him from the lightning Thalia sent. As the electricity was distributed through the water, more lightning made Percy's hair stand on end. Then everyone - other than the two fighting children of the Big Three - spotted the Oracle, bound in the mummy's body, making its way toward the group. When the mummy sat down on a rock, the two campers stopped fighting and turned to the mummy.

It looked between Percy and Zoe, but settled on the Hunter, just as green mist started flowing out of the body's mouth.

"Approach, speaker, and ask."

Zoe tentatively stopped forward, and hesitated before asking, "What must I do to save my goddess?"

"Five shall go west to the goddess in chains, one shall be lost in the land without rain. The bane of Olympus shows the trail, Campers and Hunters combine prevail. The Titan's curse must one withstand, and one shall perish by a parent's hand."

Murmurs spread throughout the crowd of demigods, and Chiron quickly got everyone to calm down, before he walked - trotted? - over to the Lieutenant.

"Zoe, choose two other hunters to come to the war council with you. I will get the counselors to the Big House." Chiron turned around to head to the cabins while Zoe led the hunters back to cabin eight.

"Alright, who of thee will be coming with me to the war council?"

The Hunters looked at each other, and some wandered out into the grass clearing inside the cabin, all of them hesitant to be in a small room with multiple boys. Most of the wolves ran around the forest they were in, with the eagles flying around above them, but Bianca, Phoebe and Zoe's wolves stayed near them. Diana, Bianca's wolf, lay next to her while Phoebe stepped forward to speak with Zoe. The two went on a walk throughout the forest and Bianca went outside to the beach.

Outside, down on the beach, Bianca simply lay down and gazed up at the stars. It was a habit she had made when she was rescued from the Lotus Hotel; plus, she had always loved the stars. There was something peaceful about them, something she couldn't quite understand; maybe that was why she loved them, maybe it wasn't the reason. Before compasses and navigation equipment, humans had used the same stars she was seeing to navigate during the night. There were the Greek myths - ones she now knew to be true - that had been immortalized in the night sky.

She could be seeing new stars as they're born, she could be seeing stars that no longer exist. Bianca always found that oddly calming, though she didn't know why. When she sensed another presence beside her, she turned her head to see that it was Zoe, who was sitting down on the sand. She was silent for a minute before she opened her mouth to speak.

"Bianca, does thou think the chosen want to be chosen?"

A minute passed. Then another.

"No, Zoe, I don't think they do. They would have to go through so much suffering, and lose so many people, just to fulfill what they were chosen for. They are forced into it, and they're expected to be leaders, to be strong; but that wouldn't necessarily be them. They could be extremely different to the strong, brave leader they need to be for others. They could doubt their abilities, the importance of their roles, their importance. The leaders could need someone to follow; the followers could need someone to lead.

"But people get forced into roles, and aren't asked what they want. They aren't asked what they need. So they learn to rely on themselves, they learn to be independent. They don't choose to be leaders, or part of a prophecy, but they are. And so they take up the mantle because it is what's right. They take up the mantle of the hero because they have to."

The silence was suffocating, yet oddly calming to Bianca; maybe because she had spoken the truth she needed to hear. The love Bianca had for her brother was large, and she wasn't sure she made the right choice, joining the Hunters; she had had to leave her little brother behind. How would he cope? For years it had been just the two of them, now they were learning to trust and depend on others.

Waiting for Zoe to return from the war council, Bianca started weaving together some blades of grass, catching the attention of some of the Hunters. By the time the eight strand braid was complete, almost every Hunter was in the clearing, watching the way her fingers expertly wove the long grass together to form a braid none of the others could get right. When she was finished, Bianca finally felt the stares of the rest of the Hunters, and looked up to see almost everyone's mouths hanging open.

"Why - why are you looking at me like that?"

"You can do an eight strand braid?" Celyn, a red-haired girl queried.

"I mean, yeah, but only through lots of practice."

"None of us can do it, and some of us have had decades, centuries even, to practice! How do you do it?"

"I can show you, if you like?" Nods came from every Hunter. "Alright, alright, pair up and take a seat in front of each other."

As the girls paired up, Bianca shook her fingers out; they were sore after working with the delicate grass. Taking the girls through the steps twice, once for each member of the pairs, Bianca worked on two different girls' hair while the other looked over her shoulder. The bubble of serenity that formed around the group was almost indestructible, only broken when Zoe, Phoebe and Parthenos entered the cabin.

The war council had progressed well, and the quest group had been decided. Now, as they were sitting in cabin eight, Bianca petted Diana and gazed around the forest she was sitting in. The trees stretched toward the sky, and the moon sank in the west. Phoebe was resting in the Healing Tent, the centaur blood having burnt her skin beyond overnight repair. Naomi was one of their best healers, as a daughter of Apollo, yet couldn't heal the second degree burns that covered Phoebe's skin.

Zoe and Bianca had already packed their bags, so they went to the circle of tents to enjoy the last meal they would spend with the Hunters, at least until they got back. While waiting for Thalia and Grover to show up, Bianca braided Zoe's hair into a dutch braid before doing her own hair in a rope braid on the left side. The hairstyles would hold for longer than others, and looked decent enough to be acceptable in public.

Doubt filled Bianca's body; how would they pull this off? Artemis, a goddess, was in danger. Would they truly be able to help?