She bounded through the trees, Sigma keeping pace until they got to a cluster of silver tents. "This is my territory." The she-wolf explained, trying to use things he actually understood. Technically her territory was the entire sky from about 5 pm to 7 am in the fall and winter.

"Where is your pack?" He asked, sniffing around at things. Suddenly his eyes widened. "Were they taken by humans?!"

She shook her head. "The humans you smell are my pack."

"Oh." Sigma said after a moment. He tilted his head to the side. "Who are you? A goddess obviously, but of what? Human packs?"

"I am Artemis, goddess of the moon and the hunt and girls. And unofficially, wolves. My 'human pack' is a group girls called Hunters."

"Um. Okay." He said, trying to process all this. "But how are they all girls? And where's your mate?"

"I don't have one." Artemis said quickly, then realized that was ultra-confusing.

"But if you don't have a mate then how do you have a pack at all?"

"This isn't a normal wolf pack. They're not wolves and they definitely not my kids. I don't have any kids."

"But- Then how- What?"

The goddess sighed. "I know this is confusing. Don't think of it as a pack. That's a bad example." Artemis looked up into the sky. "It's getting late. You should go to bed. I'm sorry I confused you, but you can come back here tomorrow and meet the Hunters. It would be better if they explained it."

"Oh. Okay." Sigma said, nodding. "When should I come back?"

"Sunrise."

"What's that?"

"When the sun is-"

"What's the sun?"

"You don't know what- Okay, fine." Artemis said. Does this kid live under a rock? "Do you know what fire is?"

Sigma nodded.

"The sun is like a big fireball in the sky. It's really bright so try not to stare directly at it. But anyway, when it's still touching the ground, over there," She gestured east. "that's called sunrise. Apollo could tell you more."

"Who's that?" Sigma vaguely remembered the name from when his mother would secretly try to teach them about Earth. Hades didn't like it when she did that.

"My twin. I'm older, but he refuses to admit that. I can show you what he looks like, if you want." As soon as she said it, Artemis mentally slapped herself. 'I hate doing this, why did I even ask?' And of course, Sigma wanted her to show him.

The goddess took a deep breath she tried not turn into a sigh. She turned into a woman. "Because we're twins, we can kind of shift into each other. Simply put, Apollo can look like me and I can look like him. But I can't control the sun or anything. I'm pretty much Artemis in Apollo's body. Which is why I don't like doing this. But here it goes, anyway." Artemis closed her eyes and pressed her hands together. Golden light swirled around her as she hovered a few inches off the ground. When Artemis landed, she was her brother. Long, extremely straight, blonde hair had replaced brunette locks and formerly brown eyes had turned bright blue. Artemis-turned-Apollo wore an expression of almost bored impatience. "You don't look anything alike." Sigma remarked.

"No, no we don't." Said a voice that most definitely wasn't Artemis, but it was nice to listen to. "We're, quite obviously, fraternal twins. Which means not identical. Which means we don't look the same."

With the same ritual as before, except the light was silver, Artemis turned back into Artemis. "As I said before, it's late. Come back tomorrow at sunrise." Sigma turned and trotted back out of the forest to where his brothers were sleeping. He curled up as the first dog he thought of, which was a Labrador, and fell fast asleep.

I woke up the next day after a very weird dream. I was Artemis' mate and we had a weird human pack. They were half dog, but not like I am. They had tails and they barked all the time. I didn't like it because they weren't even saying anything. Just "Hey!" over and over again. And then Artemis kept turning into her brother, which was freaky. I woke up confused. I looked up, expecting to see the dark sky and the moon. But the sky was blue. And it was on fire! There was a big fireball in the sky! It hurt my eyes to look at it. Artemis said something about a fireball. Something about coming back? I don't remember.

Omicron and Epsilon had gone into the building we slept next to. So I followed them. I have never seen so much blonde hair in one place. Omicron fit in nicely, while Epsilon stood out. He does not like to do that. I avoided the blondies as much as I could. Their not quite human scent was suspicious. When I got to him, Omicron looked at me. Relief, and a little curiosity mixed with his normal scent. "There you are." He said. "Epsilon said you had a rough night. Are you okay?"

I nodded. What did he mean a rough night? I don't remember that. Someone came up to us. I think he is called Will. "Breakfast starts in 10 minutes, be ready."

I walked into the bathroom. Someone was standing at the sink. "What are you doing?" I asked him.

He spit something white out of his mouth and turned to me. "Brushing my teeth." The boy said awkwardly.

"How do you do that?" I asked.

He gave me a weird look. "You never brushed your teeth before? And you're what? Eleven?"

"Yep. Normally I just take a bath."

"Okay, whatever. I can show you if you want." I nodded. He handed me a short stick with some white stuff on the end. "Now rub it around in your mouth."

I did so and then looked in the mirror. I stared in horror. Stinging white bubbles popped at the corners of my mouth as it hung open. A bit of drool spilled into the sink. "What's wrong?" the boy asked, a strong scent of concern rolling off him. I shook my head and sprinted past him and out of the building. I shifted into a wolf and ran into the woods. Maybe Artemis could cure me. I ran all the way to where her strange pack was without stopping, following my own scent from last night.

But she was not there. Instead, there were a bunch of girls walking around. When one of them saw me, she jumped back. A strong scent of fear rushed toward me. I hate that smell. It seemed to infect the others and it grew stronger, which made me uneasy. A tall girl came and slowly walked toward me. She was trying to hide her fear, but it wasn't working. I growled at her, scared. Why was everyone afraid?

Some white foam dropped to the ground. What was this stuff?! The girl pulled a stick off her back. A stick? If we were going to play fetch why was she so nervous? She put the stick in some contraption and pointed it at me. What was going on? I'm so confused. Another girl said something to the girl with the stick. Stick-Girl sighed and frowned. There was a strong sense of sadness coming from her, as if Stick-Girl was going to regret something. She pointed her stick at me again and let it go.

I gave a long, loud yelp as pain rocketed through my hip. Stick-Girl had stabbed me! Through my tears, I saw the girl who had talked to Stick-Girl. She was yelling at her, but Stick-Girl said something sternly and Other-Girl looked down. Stick-Girl must be the beta of this pack. I hate her. She stabbed me and hurt a lot. Where was Artemis? I hope Stick-Girl is not Artemis. I don't think so because Stick-Girl has a strange scent. It's not quite human, but I don't what else she is. I hate Stick-Girl. I tried to get up but it hurt too much. I need help. I howled, high-pitched at first but it got steadily lower. Translation: Attacked! Help! Stick-Girl came up to me and I couldn't really move away. She talked to me in that high-pitched, dog-voice. Why do humans do this? Don't they know it hurts our ears? I snapped at her and she jumped back. I have soap disease and an injury and Stick-Girl has the audacity to invade my personal space with her stupid high-pitched voice? I hate her.

A strong scent of sadness came from Stick-Girl as she touched my head. She was sad for some reason so I was supposed to comfort her. That was part of the Dog-Code. I slowly licked her hand. Apparently Stick-Girl is my Master now. Does this mean that Hades is not my Master? Stick-Girl moved her hand back and forth on my head. Whatever she was doing, it felt good. My tail swished against the rock I was laying on. Stick-Girl smiled. I closed my eyes as she scratched behind my ears. My tail wagged harder. Her hand moved to my stomach. My eyes flew open. Slow down, Stick-Girl! Who does she think she is? I bit her wrist and she pulled away. I sensed anger as she said something to me loudly. Suddenly her arms curled around me, not touching my hip. Other-Girl came up and grabbed my muzzle. I bit her and she let go. I twisted and turned, not caring about my injury. They were taking me away! Suddenly I heard a howl. Stick-Girl stopped, and I painfully fell out of her grasp. But I was happy. Omicron and Epsilon were going to save me!

Omicron and Epsilon came rushing through the forest, surrounded by fifty jet black wolves. That was the most shadow magic Epsilon had ever used, I think. Omicron came running over and cast a large shield over me. He saw the blood. "Sigma! You went rushing off after you went into the bathroom. What happened?"

I frowned. "I got soap disease. And Stick-Girl stabbed me. She is confusing."

"Who's Stick-Girl?" he asked, concerned.

I pointed to her. She was stabbing Epsilon's illusions with her contraption. The shadow wolves were disappearing as soon as they touched something. I guess such a large illusion was hard to keep up. I saw Epsilon near some trees. His eyes were closed and he looked tired.

Omicron raced over to Stick-Girl. He jumped off the rock and pushed off another one, landing right on Stick-Girl's back with her sticks. Just as his teeth were going to sink into her neck, something blue hit him and he fell over. "Omicron!" I cried. He didn't move. I stared in shock. My brother was dead, killed by some mysterious blue thing. Tears rolled down my cheeks. Where was Epsilon? Did he know? He was fighting some girl on his hind legs. She was pressed against a tree. Just as he clawed at her face, a blue thing hit him. He fell and tumbled down a small hill and I couldn't see him anymore. But I knew he was dead. Why else would all of his illusions disappear at the same time? I cried and sobbed. The battle seemed to freeze.