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WARNING: Graphic death scene
Summary: Artemis and her hunters were tracking down a giant mechanic griffin that had showed up. While on the hunt the griffin attacks a car. Artemis and the hunters save the baby in the back seat, the mother had died when the car impacted a tree. The baby's name is Amarantha, she is a demigod and she has broken a two hundred year old curse. One-shot that may be connected several one-shots and a story.
"To Break a Curse"
Mónica Muñoz was a young woman from Spain. She was born and raised on a winery and orchard. She had spent most of her young life mending fruit and making wine. She was a culinary student that couldn't be bothered with raising a child. She was giving the newborn baby girl to her father and letting her parents pay for the baby's education when she got older. She wanted nothing to do with the child. She had been drunk and stupid.
Mónica was a beautiful young woman but her looks were deceiving. She had fair olive skin with blue-green eyes, like the shallow coast of the Mediterranean. Her hair was long and curly, the red hair the color of champagne. She was taller than average but not truly tall. She had womanly curves. She was not one of the woman's that were model size thin. She was a normal sized woman. She always was completely confident of herself. But she was arrogant and only cared for herself. She didn't have a maternal bone on her body. But she did have a lot of ambition and passion running through her veins. If she wanted something she got it one way or another. She would never do something she didn't love or want to do.
Truth was that Mónica's parents, Francisca and Juan, were disappointed their daughter. But not for having a child out of marriage but for being so selfish. Francisca couldn't understand how her daughter could be so blind, she is able to see that her granddaughter is a demigod. Francisca knows and believes in the Greek Gods because her mother had been a daughter of Demeter, while her father is of a different kind. Juan had taken a large sum of the money that had been going to Mónica and set up an education fund in America for his granddaughter. He wasn't sure he could ever quite forgive his daughter for what she was doing, he had raised her better. They only had once child and she was given up what is probably the only chance they'll have for a grandchild to the child's father.
It was a late night in April, Mónica was driving from Boston to Manhattan in a tiny red rental car. She had force herself to stay on the opposite side of the road than she was used to. It was hard but not impossible. She was determined to rid herself of the little brat.
The baby girl was in the backseat in a car seat staring up a toy dangling on the handle of her car seat. She had curly jet black hair and violet eyes. She had her mother's fair olive skin, but other than that she looked nothing like her mother. Her name was Amarantha. Named after a flower from Greek legend, a flower that never fades or dies. Her middle name Amunet. Ancient Egyptian for hidden one, a name is a powerful thing. Her name itself was combine to very different sides. A name like that is enough to start a war.
As the road took a turn a horrible metallic screech filled the air. Amarantha whimpers in the backseat. It sent chills down Mónica's spine, she just changed the radio station putting it off as something on the radio. The car taking a sudden jerk one way. Mónica's shrill screams echo in the car. Amarantha starts to cry. BANG! The car is knocked sideways. It tumbles down a valley with a creek. THUMP! The car hits a tree. Glass shatters. Mónica flies out the windshield, she had not used a seatbelt. Her head cracks against the tree. Blood splatters the car. The roof of the car ripped off. The passenger's side completely caved in.
Amarantha starts to wail from the backseat. Her baby car seat kept her damage to her brain. But something much more powerful had protected her from being killed, something magically. Glass littered all-round the edges of the baby car seat but not a single shard of glass touched the baby. Vines were growing from her car seat, slowly engulf the car. The tiny little baby wailed on the top of lungs. She was scared and even has a two week old baby had an inborn sense of had happened and what was happening.
Meanwhile, a certain goddess of the hunt and her hunters was coming across the creek. Murmurs between the hunters looking for the metallic griffin they were hunting. It was a strange creature no one had seen before. Zeus, the king of the gods, had ordered Artemis and her hunters to find the creature to destroy it. No explanation.
"Milady, there sounds like there is a child inside," says Zoë Nightingale. Artemis's Lieutenant. She had long black hair and a silver circlet around her head.
"Yes, Zoë, I believe a young maiden," says Artemis.
"How do we free her without anyone getting hurt?" asks Zoë.
"I will. I don't want anyone to get injured," says the younger female.
Artemis reaches threw the thorny vines and pulled out Amarantha. Her auburn hair draped into the baby's face after falling out of the braid, the baby grabbed her hair and she had to free it. Her silver eyes glitter in the moonlight. The silver aura around her glowed brighter.
"Hunters check thy mother," says Artemis.
"Milady, is it really necssitary to do so. She is threw the what-do-you-call-it. When straight threw and hit a tree. If she isn't a demigod she has to be deceased," says Zoë.
"Check," replies Artemis. Amarantha bottom lip curled and started quivering. Artemis bounced the baby.
A few hunters approached. They all came to same conclusion that she was dead. The hunters that had ridden in cars before understood seatbelts in a new light. They looked over from the dead mother to her child. It was enough to bring anyone to tears let alone a band of females directly at keeping the innocent of young maidens.
"Milady, what do we do with the child? She is too young to join," says Zoë.
"We take her to Camp Half-Blood," says Artemis.
"Is she a half-blood?" asks Zoë.
"Yes, first off that was a monster and secondly I'm pretty sure mortals don't grow vines up people's legs," says Artemis.
"Demeter?" asks Zoë.
"I don't think so Zoë," says Artemis.
"Milady, you don't think, the curse," says Zoë.
"Well, it is vines and the curse was for two hundred which has recently passed," says Artemis.
"Zoe I must travel to camp. You and the others shall continue the search for the griffin," ordered Artemis.
After the hunters left Artemis approached the car. Amarantha clung to Artemis's white peplos. Artemis had one arm supporting the infant. She knelt down where Mónica lay. She frowned. Pity, such a young maiden to die such a tragic death. Then she noticed something around Mónica neck. She looked closer pushing away debris and brushed Mónica's hair to the side. Around her neck were two amulets. One amulet had ankh and the other the knot of Iris. One thing came to Artemis's mind, what has Dionysius done.
"You poor thing. The Fates have lost their minds," whispered Artemis. Artemis collected the amulets. She put them around Amarantha's neck. She was going to need them.
In a bright flash of light Artemis arrived at the Big House. The campers were asleep. Artemis knocked on the Big House door as loud as possible. She could hear both Chiron and Dionysus moving inside. Dionysus doing wore swearing than anything.
"Artemis, what brings you here?" says Chiron opening the door. Dionysus groans fearing she is going to ask for her hunters to stay for a while. He didn't want to deal with the other Olympian's angry when their male children get maimed by the hunters.
"A young maiden," says Artemis gesture to the child in her arms.
"Oh my," says Chiron. It has been many years, several centuries in fact. It hadn't been since ancient times he had received a demigod so young. Even at that they were around two or three, this child was no more than a few weeks old.
"Before I get anywhere else. We have a bigger issue," says Artemis. Artemis taking the amulets off Amarantha making the baby cry. Dionysus flinches. Artemis holds on the amulets.
"Are those? Oh my. This is a big issue," says Chiron, he didn't have to look closely to know what it is.
"What do we do? Father will kill her if he finds out," says Artemis "if she's older she might be powerful enough for him to keep around."
"I take those," says Dionysius snatching the amulets. He quickly takes them into his office, unlocks his layered safe and puts them inside.
"The Fates have made an interesting choice," sighs Chiron as he takes Amarantha from Artemis. Amarantha's lower lip quivers, mostly from the loss of heat. She didn't have proper clothes for spring in New York.
Chiron knew from the second of looking down at the baby who her godly parent was. The purple eyes, curly black hair and olive skin. She was clearly Dionysus. Claiming her now would do her no good, there was no in her cabin. And Chiron would never put such responsibility in the hands of a teenage camper anyways. Especially not with what had come with her.
"I must leave. I have to hunt," says Artemis.
Dionysus returns with a grim expression. If Amarantha was brought by Artemis something has happened to Mónica. He will admit Mónica was not his best choice in lovers but she was different. She had a light to her, a spark. The power around her also attracted him to her, like a bee to a flower. She was selfish and proud. At least, she was bringing Amarantha here that much he assumed.
"Mónica?" asks Dionysus when Chiron is off trying to find a blanket for Amarantha.
"Dead, car accident caused by the mechanical griffin that father has me going after," says Artemis "young maidens like her always die young. Too wild and free."
"Thank you," says Dionysus. Artemis stares at her half-brother in shock. She has never heard him say thank you. She can see the pain hidden behind his violet eyes. She can actually see the love in his eyes, she knows what love looks like. She had once been in love, despite how much she denies it.
"Don't give me that look. She's my first daughter in two hundred years. I'm allowed to thank the person that brought her to me," snaps Dionysus. Artemis shakes her head. Still the same Dionysus.
"I'd always help a young maiden. Don't make me regret bringing her here. And brother teach her well, be better than the rest of the family. You are the only one that has this chance, make it worth it. Show father what happens when we can have physical contact with your children. She's going to need you to protect her. She will be important, I don't need to tell you that," says Artemis.
"I'm not going to waste it. Father will regret even threatening to harm her. No one is going to hurt her," replies Dionysus firmly. He would never let anyone hurt her. Demigod or god. He'd start a war over her if he had to. No one was going to take his baby girl away.
Chiron made a make-shift cot for a crib for the baby and wrapped her in a purple blanket. He laid her in the cot. Tomorrow, He would ask the Hephaestus cabin to make a crib for her, have Apollo healers make sure she is of good health, and have the rest of the cabins pitch in for different things.
Late that night, Dionysus approached the cot. Amarantha starred up at her father her violet eyes wide awake. He picks her up supporting her head. She is so tiny in his arms. There wasn't a god that hadn't held their demigod child at least once. He put a finger in palm, she grasped his finger tightly. He swore he was going to protect her and actually help raise her. That would be more than another Olympian has ever done. He has always deeply cared for children and did everything he could for them. He had even gone to the Underworld a few times and dragged them back to the land of living after they committed suicide. Suicide was not an option for his children. He brought them into the world to serve a purpose. Gods need demigods. He didn't cheat, given he didn't considering it cheating because she gave her constant to it, on his wife just to have his kids kill themselves.
"Κοιμηθείτε λίγο ελληνικής μάγος μου," whispers Dionysus. Amarantha passes out in his arms. He would teach her everything he knows. Chiron only knew so much about that type of magic. All of the gods knew of the other gods. They all pieced together the universe. They all existed in the same world. They ignore each other for countless years, Dionysus stopped counting after the first thousand years. Dionysus also knew change was coming and in the center of change was his daughter. He thought back to when the curse was told and a prophecy was made.
Barren lands of vine,
No daughter of vine,
Shall be born,
Until the day of forlorn.
Unite the world she shall,
The bringer of moral.
She will rise,
As the world falls.
She guides the touch lit path,
Gives the world a cleansing bath.
With destruction,
Comes salivation.
With powers unmatched,
She shall reattach,
The world with latch.
Dionysus lays his daughter down. Tomorrow he speaks with the different gods. He will learn what he must to protect her and teach her what she needs to know. He didn't care how far or what he would have to do help her. He'd easily trade his life for hers if he had to.
Thanks for reading. I really enjoyed writing it. Please review. I'm not sure if I'll continue this or not but I might make another one shot and later a story. I'm not sure if I have it in me to continue with Percy Jackson.