Chapter Text
Quitnus inspected the celestial bronze sword carefully, the question of where his beloved hellhound, Mrs O'leary had gotten to distracting him from his work. He looked up, smiling slightly, seeing his pet, Mrs O'Leary, running towards him.
"Hey girl." He said, patting her leg, noting that she seemed worried. "What's wrong, girl?"
She jumped around, walking backwards slightly, digging the ground up with her huge paws.
"Want me to follow?" He asked, slightly confused at why she was so anxious. She seemed to nod, shifting about. Quintus looked over to his centaur friend, Chiron, who was stood with a group of teens, with bows and arrows, before shouting over, "Chiron! I think there's something wrong!"
The centaur nodded, turning to speak to his trainee archers. One of them nodded slightly, before running over towards the cabins.
"Take me there, girl." Quintus said.
Mrs O'Leary turned and ran off fairly quickly, making sure that Quintus could at least see her. Quintus floowed behind as quick as he could, his sword out ready in case he needed to attack. He saw a small, orange bundle on the floor in the distance, hearing also the faint sound of screaming. He ran over it, eyes widening at the sight of a young teen boy, clothes torn, blood gushing out of his wounds. He bent down, tilting the boy's head backwards, so that he could breathe.
The boy was obviously a son of Apollo, the carved bow and arrows littered on the ground being the most obvious sign. Blood was being spluttered out of his mouth, as he managed to form two words, "Boy... Dog..."
"What?" Quintus asked the boy, looking up briefly to see Chiron and a small group of campers, mostly children of Ares rushing over to them. He looked up at Mrs O'Leary, who seemed to be urging him to follow.
Quintus sighed, signalling to the others to come over. He then stood up, nodding to his pet. She rushed away, stopping to whine furiously, staring at something. Quintus followed behind quickly, struggling to keep up with the hellhound. He noticed a faint trail of a red, blood-like liquid, leading in the direction they were going.
"Good girl." He panted, finally catching up to her. He looked up in the direction that she was barking in. He looked up to see a huge, white, brown and grey patchy hellhound dragging a body away, both with it's paws, and teeth. Although it looked terrifying, the hellhound didn't seem to be hurting the person, whether that was because it was being gentle, or if the person was dead, Quintus couldn't work out. Mrs O'Leary snapped at the hellhound, and it returned the gesture, growling. It then whined, lying down onto the ground by the person, licking his short, black hair.
"Hey boy..." Quintus said, slowly edging forward, "You gonna let me take a look?" He asked the hellhound cautiously. "Let me help him? ...or her?"
The dog growled, but rolled over onto it's side, pushing the, now obviously male, person forward slightly.
"Okay boy..." Quintus bent down by the person, rolling their head to the side. He sighed in relief, feeling a faint pulse when he pressed his fingers to the boy's neck. He then turned his attention to the boy's wounds, frowning as he saw two fairly long arrows sticking out of his body. "Di immortales.." He grumbled, turning around to see the centaur and a couple of the campers still following them. He looked at the male hellhound, who was nervously licking the boy's head, before sighing, "Do you know if he's a demigod?"
The dog nudged the boy slightly,before him and Mrs O'Leary snapped at each other . It huffed slightly, before nodding. "Okay." He looked up to see Chiron stood over the boy too.
"What happened?" Chiron asked, looking down at the boy and the hellhound
Quintus shook his head. "I have no idea. But we have to help him." He stared at the boy for a second, wondering if it would be possible to move him, he turned to Chiron, "Do you have an nectar?" He asked
Chrion nodded, pulling a small vial out of his jacket pocket. "You sure he won't burn up if he drinks this?"
Quintus nodded, "His hound told me so."
"Okay." Chiron said, passing the vial to Quintus. "Let's just hope it was telling the truth."