The Hidden Child
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters nor plot, all rights belong to Rick Riordan.
San Francisco.
The location of Mount Othrys and the Gardens of the Hesperides.
Zoë Nightshade absolutely loathed being here. It caused too many memories to resurface, both good and bad. It always caused her to remember the certain son of Zeus who caused her to lose her home.
No. Her home is with the Hunters of Artemis, loyally serving alongside their mistress. She has nothing to remind her of her past mistakes. She's surrounded by her sisters whom make her happy, so why is she still reminiscing about events that occurred two millennia ago?
Clearing her mind of past thoughts, she focused on the task at hand.
There were reports of monster gatherings in the San Francisco area, which is unusual as monsters aren't known for their strategic power. Clearly, someone was leading them.
Her mistress was away on Olympus for a meeting, something about Zeus' infidelity. As the Goddess of the Hunt's lieutenant, she was currently leading the two dozen huntresses through the woods.
Earlier today, before Artemis left for the meeting on Olympus, she sensed divine activity in these parts of the woods. Zoë's task was to find out what was happening.
Monster gatherings and divine activity in the same city? Something big was clearly going on here, she knew it.
She suddenly halted, seeing something unnatural laying on the ground. Putting her hand up, she ordered the huntresses to stop. She pulled out her bow and notched an arrow, and action mirrored by the rest, pointed it at the bundle of white and black.
Moving closer, her aim still on the object, she soon realized that the object wasn't an object but in fact, a boy.
He was laying down, face on the ground, appearing to be unconscious. He was wearing a dirty white chiton, one too large for his small body. He had messed up dark hair with sticks and leaves sticking out and tanned skin.
Suddenly, the boy began to stir, putting all the huntresses on alert.
The boy sat up, raising his arms into the air and stifling a loud yawn. Once over, he allowed his arms to drop back down and opened his eyes, taking note of all the armed girls in silver surrounding him.
Now that Zoë could see his eyes, they felt oddly familiar. They were onyx colored orbs.
"Where am I?" He asked tiredly, his voice was quite high, he was clearly a child.
"Who art thou?" Zoë demanded, not one to let her guard down, especially near a boy, even as young as he was.
"I'm Percy," the boy frowned, "I think."
Zoë narrowed her eyes at the boy, her bow still drawn, she looked quite intimidating, yet the boy wasn't intimidated in the slightest. "What do thou mean?"
Instead of answering the boy, Percy, dashed the fifteen foot distance between him and the lieutenant. His speed was so great that if Zoë had blinked right before, she would've thought he teleported in front of her. What he did next surprised her even more than his unnatural speed.
"So shiny..." He said in awe, stroking her silver parka as if it were a pet.
The huntresses would've opened fire, had it not been for their temporary moment of stunned shock. A little boy, no older than six, just completely disregarded the two dozen arrows pointed straight at him and ran towards one of those arrows, all because of shiny clothing. Clearly this child was not in the right state of mind.
Coming over her temporary shock, she took a step back, away from the odd child. Then, she kicked him with her booted foot across the face, sending him skidding across the dirt covered ground.
Once he came to a stop, he slowly sat up, his hands clutched onto his nose which were leaking blood. "What was that for?" He asked, his eyes beginning to water.
Usually, Zoë wouldn't feel remorseful in causing a male pain. In fact, she would typically be quite elevated, even if they were children. But for whatever odd reason, seeing this child on the ground on the verge of tears because of her, she felt guilt.
Ignoring the foreign feeling, she asked again, "What do thou mean, boy?"
"I'm not telling you, you're a meanie!" He pointed his index finger towards the lieutenant, his other hand still covering his bloody nose.
Zoë frowned at the boy's incompliance. "Fine. Phoebe restrain thee."
"What does restrain mean—Hey what are you doing?" He asked as Phoebe began wrapping his wrists together using a thick rope.
"Be silent." Phoebe said, not even bothering to look up at the child. Truthfully, it had been a long day for her. That and add this strange meeting in, she was too tired to enforce her typical man-hating ways, so she settled with just telling him to be silent.
Percy pouted, but made no move to object. He wasn't necessarily afraid of these armed girls, but he still knew if they were all to attack him, he would be in danger.
Having finished tying the rope around the boy, she pulled him up and off the ground before shoving him towards Zoë, which was quite easy as he didn't weigh much. The huntresses began trekking back to camp along with the restrained boy. Percy decided to follow, though he didn't have much of a choice seeing how Zoë was holding onto his rope with a tight grip.
It was awkwardly silent for a few minutes. The huntresses didn't feel comfortable making casual talk with a boy among them, and said boy didn't know anyone in the group. Add to the fact he was basically being held prisoner by them.
"So," Percy attempted to break the silence, "You know my name, what's yours?"
Zoë ignored him, choosing to continue her hike.
"You're so booooring," Percy groaned, drawing out the 'o'.
Atalanta, a daughter of Apollo, began to laugh. It was a quiet laugh, but it was noticed by the silent huntresses.
"What is so funny?" Zoë asked, irked by the recent events.
"It's just, you two remind of how me and my little brother interacted," her laughter died down, remembering her deceased brother. "Now that I think of it, you two could probably pass as siblings."
Zoë shot her a confused look before looking back at the trailing boy. Now that she thought about it, they sort of did resemble the other. They had the same colored dark hair, sun kissed skin, and the same onyx colored eyes. No wonder his eyes seemed so familiar when she first saw them, they were the same ones that stared back at her whenever she gazed at a mirror.
Zoë chalked it up to a coincidence. Percy, however, had no such intentions.
"I've always wanted a big brother," he joked, causing Atalanta to return to her previous mirth-filled laughter, though louder. Even some huntresses began smiling a bit. Zoë scowled and continued, but not before pulling at the rope, almost causing the grinning boy to lose balance.
"Not nice." Percy pouted.
The rest of the trip was mostly spent in silence. It took about half an hour, as they had to walk so the child could keep up. Whenever Zoë looked back at Percy, she would see him closely observing the surrounding woods and small creeks they by passed with curiosity. It almost seemed as if this was his first time seeing such a thing.
Once the group entered the camp's perimeters, the others scattered to go about on their own. Zoë, with a firm hand still on the rope, led a hyper six year old towards her mistress' tent. She knocked on the wooden pole near the entrance. As expected, the silver eyed goddess opened the covers, probably having returned from Olympus and decided to wait for them.
Artemis smiled at seeing Zoë before frowning in confusion at the sight of her holding a restrained child. She gestured for her to enter, which she promptly did. Once inside, Artemis sat at her desk while Zoe took a seat on the extra chair, Percy standing beside her, observing the animal pelt filled room with wide eyes.
"How did the mission go, Zoë?" Artemis asked, elbows on the desk with her chin resting upon her knuckles.
"So your name is Zoë!" The boy observed.
"We didn't find who the traces of divine energy belonged to," Zoë admitted, ignoring his comment, "But we found this... thing." She turned her gaze towards the excited boy. Upon being called a 'thing', Percy pouted.
"And who may you be?" Artemis asked, curious as to why he was in the woods.
"I'm Percy, I think," he smiled, then held out his hand towards the seated goddess across the desk, "What's your name?"
It took Artemis a moment to realize the boy wanted a handshake. After all, it's not every day a male offered a handshake to the supposed 'man-hating goddess'. Artemis reached her right hand out in a gentle handshake.
"Artemis."
"Woah, like the moon goddess?" Percy asked, letting his hand drop from the handshake.
Artemis smiled slightly. "Indeed, very much like the moon goddess."
"How did thee escape thy restraint?" Zoë asked, bewildered.
"That's so cool!" Percy exclaimed, ignoring Zoë.
"Yes, it is," Artemis agreed. "Now Percy, what did you mean when you said you think? Do you not know your name?"
Percy's expression turned into a frown. "Well I think that's my name. I don't really remember much, other than the name Percy. I also remember a big man holding something that looked reaaaaally heavy over his head."
"Could you elaborate the part about the man?"
Percy's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "What's an elaborate?"
"It means to explain," Artemis explained.
"Oh. Well he had this really big ball over his head," Percy widened his arms, in an attempt to show how large it was, which only served to entertain the goddess. "It looked really heavy because he had both his arms holding it and he was still struggling, like it was trying to crush him! I'm not sure why but I felt the need to help him."
Artemis shot a worried glance towards Zoë who had a disbelieving look. "Percy, could you come here so I can see if I can find anything else?"
Percy nodded his head before walking around the desk and doing something which caused Zoë to do a double take. The boy jumped up and sat right onto Artemis' lap. Had it not been for the importance of the situation, Artemis would've probably thrown him off.
"You're a lot nicer than Zoë!"
Artemis nodded, absently, before placing her hand on Percy's forehead and closing her eyes. Soon, she gained an exasperated look. Her silver eyes fluttered open, filled with irritation.
"What's wrong, milady?" Zoë asked.
"He has a powerful barrier protecting his mind," Artemis frowned. "I can't tell whether he's telling the truth or not. He'll have to swear on the Styx that he's being truthful."
Percy tapped on Artemis' arms to get her attention. "Why would I need to swear on some sticks?"
"River Styx," Zoë said, as if it explained everything.
"The River Styx is a sacred oath. Breaking this oath causes severe punishment," Artemis clarified.
"Oh," Percy deadpanned. "I swear on the Styx that I was being truthful."
Thunder rumbled loudly outside, sealing the oath. Percy let out an indignant shriek at the sound of the thunder, causing Artemis to laugh.
"Thee is scared of thunder," Zoë smirked.
Percy crossed his arms with a pout but didn't remark.
Artemis touched a finger to Percy's forehead, causing the boy to close his eyes and slump into the goddess' arms. "Going by how he wasn't punished, I believe it is safe to say he was being truthful."
Zoë nodded. "But what shall we do with him?"
Artemis thought about it for a moment before deciding. "We should keep him around for a bit. The mental barrier was rushed meaning it'll slowly degrade, giving him his memories back with time. I believe he may have an important role to play."
"Milady, do thee believe he is talking about him when he speaks of the man holding a ball?" Zoë asked, worry lacing her voice.
"It is highly possible," Artemis sighed. "But, no point in pondering the possibility, time will tell. For now, inform the others of the recent events. I'd rather not have our source of information turned into a pin cushion."
"Yes milady," Zoë bowed, before exiting the tent, leaving Artemis with the unconscious child.
With another sigh, Artemis set Percy down onto her bed, before leaving to do her nightly duties.
Author's Note: Hey guys, another new story lol. I actually planned this one more than my other stories though. I usually just go along with the flow in my other stories, but I have a basic idea of what I want to happen and Percy's background is set.
I would be updating Son of Time but I only got like 4 reviews last chapter and I'm super demotivated to update right now. So instead, I decided to write this.
Anyways make sure to review, really keeps me motivated. Tell me anything, you could say something like 'It was good' or 'It sucked' but if it is negative, please tell me what I can do to fix it.