章節 36: The sun rises with the new champion

When Leo opened his eyes the first thing he did was look out of the window. Seeing the imminent sunrise, he quickly them off his blankets and ran to check on Iris. Everyone was shocked at his sudden movements, and before they could react he grabbed a knife. Leo quickly ripped off iris's bandages after seeing she was still alive, and after exposing the wounds, ran the knife across his own hand. Due to his own anxiety he cut down to the bone, but barely registered the pain as he held his hand over Iris, and allowed the blood to flow into her wounds.

"Come on, come on." Leo was impatient due to the fact that he didn't know when Artemis would stop providing her aid. After several minutes the blood stopped flowing due to the wound closing up, when Leo was about to open it up again, elder grandma grabbed his arm and shook her head. When Leo was about to protest he noticed that Iris was starting to change.

The wounds she had received were quickly healing, and the bruising was starting to fade as well. There was even a sickening grinding noise as her bones started to repair themselves at a noticeable rate. After another minute, every wound on Iris disappeared as if it never existed. Then Iris opened her eyes only to reveal that they had become a very distinct orange.

Leo started crying with happiness as he saw that Iris was ok again, but he also felt horrible as he forced the change onto her without checking with her in the first place. Iris didn't have any blame in her eyes though, and she reached out to Leo as if to embrace him. And she whispered in his ear as if she knew his thoughts,

"I was going to ask you for the change eventually, but now I don't have to. Thank you." She then pressed her lips to his as the two started to kiss.

"Ahem!" A voice startled the two of them and Leo turned around to see elder grandma, Natalie and Austin staring at him as elder grandma asked him,

"While I am glad Iris is ok, how long are you going to blind us boy?" It was then that Leo looked down and noticed that once again, he was naked. While he was getting used to being seen without clothes on, it was still usually an awkward situation. Leo quickly dug around for some pants as everyone started to check on iris's condition. As the minutes went by her eyes turned back from orange to gold, and she seemed to have recovered all of her strength.

Now that he was assured that Iris was going to be ok, Leo felt the accumulation of his exhaustion catch up to him. Even though he was technically sleeping, the fact was that he was still talking to Artemis in his sleep so mentally he was exhausted. Before he could say anything though,

"I know that there's quite a few questions everyone wasn't to ask about, bit seeing as Iris and Leo are both ok now, let's all get some sleep. We've been up all night looking after everyone and could use the rest. Let's talk tomorrow and we'll clarify what's going on then shall we?" No one could find an argument to Austin's words so they all decided to turn in even though it was just now sunrise.

Leo took his place in front of the stove again, and started dozing off. After a few minutes though he heard some rustling and felt someone lay on the ground next to him. He didn't have to open his eyes to see it was Iris, and he didn't say anything. She silently took his hand in hers and said,

"Thank you Leo." Leo smiled and replied,

"Just make me a promise, you'll never make me worry like that again." Iris smiled and didn't say anything else. The two then fell asleep like that on the floor together, Iris knew Leo wouldn't join her in her bed and Leo knew that nothing would happen. So the two slept peacefully, hand in hand.

***

The next day after they all got some rest, a meeting was held in elder grandmas hut. There was Austin and Lucy, Natalie and Jack, and Leo and Iris. After they all sat down, elder grandma was the first to speak.

"I'll be frank Leo, I'm pretty sure I already know what it is but I'll ask anyways. What is the mark on your arm?" Leo was startled from that being the first question asked, but he slowly lifted his sleeve and showed the mark that appeared when Artemis grabbed his arm. It looked like a brand, two inches across. It was a full circle with a wolfs paw print inside. He figured the circle was the full moon for Artemis, and the paw print was for Fenrir.

"I figure it's the brand marking me as Artemis's and Fenrir's champion." Leo answered honestly. He felt he didn't have a reason to hide his new purpose from them. And while he saw several people widen their eyes in surprise, elder grandma simply closed hers and nodded her head like he just confirmed her fears. Without saying anything, she slowly lifted her sleeve as well and showed the brand on her arm.

Everyone's eyes went even bigger if that was even possible, and Iris looked as if she understood something as well.

"That mark, I remember seeing it occasionally when I was young, but you usually have it covered so I forgot about it. It marks you as a champion as well right?" Elder grandma sigh and with a resigned look on her face nodded. She then explained her past and how she became a champion. While she wasn't really trusting to hide it, she didn't want to publicize the information. As they heard the story Leo's face got darker and darker. Before he finally said,

"I understand almost exactly what you're going through. Artemis pretty much declared that she was holding anyone I care about hostage for me to become her champion. If I refused then she would force me to go wild like during the full moon and kill everyone I care about." When they heard Leo's words everyone could t believe it. While they knew the gods didn't place very high importance on their lives, they didn't think that one of them would randomly trigger the mindless slaughter of them all just because she felt like it. Iris and Natalie especially were impacted due to the fact that they both were quite devoted to Artemis as fellow hunters. Suddenly elder grandma stood up and said,

"So the question is, what are you going to do now?"