<strong><em>Island of Crete, Antheia attempting to escape her home due to a pirate invasion.</em></strong><br/><hr/><hr/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_M3vSUeszLWY/RtRuB6jcJaI/AAAAAAAAAL8/jF9DSrD8C-A/nm_greece_fire1_070828_ssh.jpg)</div>She was so close to the boat that her heart was hurting her ribcage at the moment. Antheia was heading to the nearest boat that had no people when a group of pirates rushed out of the nowhere, apparently in the direction of something that angered them judging by the swords they were waving and curses they were spewing in anger and retaliation. She didn't care to turn her head, knowing that it wasn't her matter for the time being. Whatever it was, it didn't involve her and she shouldn't be involving herself in it.<br/><br/>The sudden appearance of them made her stop in her tracks and she cursed under her breathe for the misfortune. That was a close call, Antheia mused to herself as she resumed walking in her slow but brisk pace. She had hardly gotten four steps forward when she finally let her curiosity get the better of her, damn it!, and make her look to see what those pirates were chasing after.<br/><br/>knew she shouldn't, it could be a woman or person of her island in distress, but she had to know why they were suddenly forming into a group and attacking as one.<br/><br/>They were all over the place at the moment, chasing or killing in ones or twos, so it didn't make sense. Why suddenly join together now? It simply didn't make sense and her mind refused to leave that as it was. She just had to know.<br/><br/>Antheia turned. What she saw made her blood run cold.<br/><br/>A man. It was a man. He certainly wasn't from Crete but he didn't wear what the pirates were wearing. Close to him was the body of a dead pirate, a trident sticking out of his chest as blood bubbled over from the chest wounds and his mouth, and she realized that he had killed him. No wonder the other pirates were chasing after him. Their weapons were raised and Antheia closed her eyes, not wanting to see the massacre, and she heard the pirates cry out... in pain and surprise. Her eyes and flew open and just in time to see the stranger kill them with both precision and strength. The pirates, used to using brute force and nothing more, were not ready for the man's speed and grace and intelligence. They were dead in a manner of seconds and the cloaked invisible Antheia had to register in her mind.<br/><br/>Information, she told herself. She needed to gather information first before she did anything reckless. She looked at the score of dead pirates around the man, noting that he was obviously not from Crete or anywhere near the island. The trident was the second thing she noticed. You couldn't blame here. It was sticking out of a dead name's now bloody chest. It looked familiar and the statues in the school came into her mind.<br/><br/><em>A follower of Poseidon?</em>She realized that question was rather dumb because, really, what other God of the Oceans had a symbol that was a trident? No one else. The more important question was,<em>Is he really helping us or simply trying to gain the destruction for himself? But he was defending something... but what? Someone from the island?</em><br/><br/>Was he a friend or foe? His eyes said he was a friend, someone who did not enjoy the slaughter here but was disgusted, sickened even, by it. But one could be fooled. She touched her hammer and frowned. Only one way to find out. She pulled out her hammer, her Gift from Hephaestus, and quietly walked to where he was. The sounds of the battles and screams drowned out her footsteps and even her clumsy fumbling as she pulled the hammer out. She pressed the hammer's head against the man's back, putting pressure on it to let him know that, no, this was not an illusion.<br/><br/>"You! Don't make a sound!" Antheia warned, not really wanting to harm the person but just in case. She sounded stern but not dangerous, the Crete accent coming into her words. "Who are you, good sir? Are you a follower of the pirates or someone attempting to help the people here?"