Demigod Twin Chapter 16: Lunar Lotus.

Chapter 16: Lunar Lotus.

(Iphicles P.O.V)

The moment we land, the world spins. Atalanta’s scream pierces through the haze in my mind.

“Master! Say something! Please, Master Chiron!” she cries, her voice cracking with desperation as she kneels beside Chiron’s broken form. He doesn’t respond. Blood pools beneath him, staining the grass red.

I stumble forward, limping on one leg that barely supports me.

“There’s so much blood,” Atalanta says, her hands trembling as she presses down on one of his many wounds. “He’s going to die!”

Tearing a strip from her tunic, I press it to Chiron’s chest, trying to stem the worst of the bleeding.

“Keep pressure on his wounds,” I bark, my voice steadier than I feel.

“Which one?” she whispers, panic overtaking her. “There’s too many…”

She's right. The left side of his chest is caved in, his forearms, one leg and both Pegasus wings are bent the wrong way with pieces of bone sticking out, lacerations across his abdomen and the worst of it is the broken spine and fractured skull.

I glance around. The royal medallion seems to have dropped us in the center of a village. The buildings are a mix of straw huts and the sparse stone houses.

The villagers, peasants by their attire, gather around us, their faces a mix of fear and curiosity.

My gaze locks onto a young girl near the edge of the crowd.

“You! Little girl!” I call out, my voice unintentionally sharp. “Get the village healer or anyone who can help. Hurry!”

The girl hesitates for a moment before darting off, her small figure disappearing into the village.

Conscious of the attention on us, I dismiss my wings with a grunt of pain, the strain of the battle and escape finally catching up to me.

I close my eyes and Heracles' sadistic face appears in my mind. If Chiron hadn't arrived in the nick of time...

Heracles would have killed us effortlessly, remorselessly and enjoyed it.

We only got away by the skin of our teeth.

Atalanta glares hatefully at Chiron’s injuries, tears streaming down her face. “I swear on the River Styx,” she growls, “on my very life, Heracles will pay for this.”

I clench my jaw to keep from vomiting due to the atrocious pain I'm in. Physical, mental and emotional.

Moments later, the girl returns, leading an elderly woman dressed in a gray robe with a strong medicinal scent around her.

The old healer wastes no time, kneeling beside Chiron and examining him with a critical eye.

Relief floods through me, but my body can’t take any more. My knees buckle, and I collapse onto the blood soaked ground next to my Master.

Atalanta’s voice is the last thing I hear before darkness claims me.

“Iphicles! Stay with me!”

---

When I wake, I’m lying on a reed bed inside a smokey and dimly lit room.

The air is thick with the scent of herbs and burning wood, and pain pulses through my battered body, though not as intensely as before.

Above me, a carving of a snake coiled around a rod catches my eye.

“Asclepius,” I mutter under my breath. God of Medicine and Healing.

A grating smokey voice startles me. “Not even he will help you if you open those wounds by moving around, boy.”

Turning my head, I spot the old Woman stirring a cauldron. Her wiry frame is hunched, her gnarled hands steady as she works.

“You’re the healer,” I say, trying to sit up.

"Thank y-gah!" Pain shoots through my side, and I groan, falling back onto the bed.

She glares at me. “Are you deaf? Your shin’s broken, ribs fractured, and your shoulder blade needs resetting. If you don’t listen, you’ll be a cripple… assuming you don’t die from your stubbornness first.”

“I couldn't care less about me,” I snap. “How’s Chiron? Where's he?”

Her expression softens, but her voice is grim. “The centaur’s life hangs by a thread. I’ve done all I can, but it’s up to the gods now.”

I force myself up despite my bandaged injuries' loud protests,

“Take me to him. Now.”

---

With the her help, I limp into the next room and stop at the doorway, stiffening.

Chiron lies on a wooden cot, his once-mighty form now frail and diminished.

His centaur body and the wings are gone, replaced by the shape of a man.

Atalanta sits by his side, dabbing his feverish brow with a wet cloth.

The young girl from before holds a bowl of water, her wide eyes filled with fear. Chiron’s great bow, StarEnder, rests across Atalanta’s lap.

“Did you know he could shift forms?” Atalanta asks, her voice strained.

I shake my head. “He said it was magic when I asked. That’s all.”

She lets out a bitter laugh. “Sounds like him, doesn’t it? Always so vague. I hate this. He’s always been so strong, so unshakable… and now…”

Her voice breaks. I grip the wall for support, rage and helplessness swirling inside me. I can feel the weight of every failure crushing down on my chest. My teacher, my master, my father, the unshakable Chiron… reduced to this.

“There has to be something we can do,” I say through gritted teeth. My voice is desperate, but I can’t help it. “I won’t let him die.”

The healer shakes her head. “I’ve done all I can. The village is too poor for effective medicine, and it would take too long for a priest of Asclepius to arrive. He doesn’t have long.”

Atalanta doesn’t speak. Her jaw is clenched so tightly that I hear her teeth grinding, her hands trembling as they grip StarEnder.

Her expression flickers between rage and despair, a mirror to the turmoil in my own heart.

“Hades be damned,” I growl, gripping the medallion around my neck. The Royal Seal’s faint glow teases at possibilities, but I don’t know where it might take us if activated again. It’s too dangerous—a risk I can’t take with Chiron's life on the line.

The young girl’s voice breaks the tense silence. “What about the Lunar Lotus?”

I turn to her sharply, hope igniting in my chest like a spark. “What’s that?”

The old healer sighs heavily, as if the mere mention of the name exhausts her. “A rare herb that blooms only at the peak of a nearby mountain during a full moon. Its petals can be brewed into a panacea, a cure-all. A single petal could save your Centaur friend.”

“Then we’ll get it,” I say immediately, the words spilling from my lips like a vow.

The healer’s frown deepens, her expression grim. “The Lunar Lotus is guarded by nature spirits. Vicious creatures. No one who’s sought it has ever returned.”

Atalanta rises slowly, her face hard as stone. “If they won’t bargain,” she says, gripping StarEnder so tightly that her knuckles turn white, “then we’ll take it. Even if we have to kill every last one of them.”

I meet her gaze, my own resolve solidifying like iron. The fear of failure is there, gnawing at the edges of my mind, but I bury it beneath my determination. “Anything for Chiron.”

Atalanta glances down at Chiron’s pale face, her fingers brushing against his damp hair.

I see the flicker of guilt in her eyes, the same guilt that churns inside me. If only we had been stronger, faster, better… if only I had been enough.

But now, we have a chance to make it right. No matter what it costs us, we’ll save him.

And Heracles will pay.

"Everything for Chiron." Atalanta finally says.