Okay look, I know I have other Stories going on but I've had this Idea for like a year and a half now and I've only been a member of this sight for six months and now here it goes, Special thanks to: 1-Artemis-Hunter-1 my wonderful Betamy best friends Sapphire for listening to me read and reread this to her, and Iris for giving me a huge plot arching idea!
I only own any original characters and the plot structure the rest belong to Rick Riordan.
One
I'll Be the Son of a Virgin
A mind stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions – Oliver Windell Holmes
Shamrock
Keep going you are almost upon your pray! A little voice screamed at me to keep going but, I wasn't after the hellhound that I had been chasing. I was just happy to be free. The moon was full and glowing brilliant silver, the forest was dark and there was a beauty unbeknown to those who had never been in the forest at night. I was free. I listened to my instincts and kept going but soon another sound took over, music. Music in the forest it sound like an old Greek tune Apollo had made me listen to on the lunar eclipse. It was happy and I could hear laughter distantly perhaps 500 yards into the brush. NO! Not that way! What? I hesitated for a moment, I thought about listening then I decided to do something I had never done before, go against what my instinct wanted, after all it was just my gut .
I made off for the source of the noise but stopped about 100 meters from it. I bent down in the underbrush and slowly began to stalk the noise like a Hunter stalks it's pray. I hoped my black clothes kept me well hidden. When I got visual on the group I saw about two dozen girls dancing in sliver tunics, their hair was braided and all of them were small but strong looking and seemed like people you wouldn't want to mess with. One was playing a silver lyre on the side lines. One had a silver tiara on her head, a pageant queen in the middle of the forest? The music ended and they stopped dancing. One of them went up to the lyre player.
"My lady," She said but after that I stopped listening it had hit me, the silver tiara, the dancing under the full moon, and the music of the festival of Artemis.
"Crap." I said I had run head on to the Huntresses of Artemis and needless to say I wish I hadn't. The red head who had spoken to the Lyre player's head snapped up she looked in my direction, her eyes narrowed and she walked right over to where I was hiding and stood me up. Her bright green eyes full of distaste and hate.
"It's a boy!" She said the word boy like it was a horrible disease; then again she was a huntress a fiery one at that, she also had a faint accent I couldn't quite place. English? No not cocky enough. Scottish? No not harsh enough. Irish? Possibly, it was like a soft melody. She dragged me into the clearing and tossed me onto the ground in front of the lyre player.
-3rd-
Quickly Lady Artemis analyzed the boy. 5'4" Auburn hair and silvery green eyes, holding a sliver bow almost identical to hers but with one difference it had Shamrock carved onto it. Grace threw him to the ground with surprising force.
"Spying on the hunt." She said "Shall we kill him my lady?" She drew her bow and aimed it at him.
"No, Grace, let me have… fun with him first." Artemis said smirking.
-Shamrock-
The lyre player had decided to have fun with me? I got the feeling that I wouldn't like it one bit. I stood up, dusted myself off and faced the girl who had tossed me to the ground.
"You are annoying." I said then I turned to face the tiara girl. "I see you have won the beauty pageant." She growled at me. I turned to the lyre player. "Fun you want to have fun with me what on earth does that mean?"
"Do you know who you're talking to boy?" The red head snarled.
"Nope." I said popping the P.
"You are speaking to Lady Artemis." She said.
"Ah, goddess of the hunt, virginity, fertility, and child birth. What do virginity and fertility have to do with each other?" I asked sarcastically as I already knew.
"They are different stages of the girl's life." The way she said was like I was three and a half and too you to understand that.
"Really? I had no Idea." I said extremely sarcastically.
"You didn't?" She asked raising an eyebrow. Okay so sarcasm goes in one ear and out the other I thought to myself.
"Never mind, but didn't man conquer the moon and name the missions Apollo?" I asked. If I were you I would shut up NOW! My instinct screamed at me.
"They named those missions wrongly in fact one person tried to correct them but they disregarded the young Demi god." She said
"They're naming the missions to Mars Orion. Didn't you kill him?" I taunted.
"Be, quiet." She said in a dangerously low voice. I would shut up now! My instinct screamed.
"Your only lover killed by you." I said her face was as unreadable as mine but her eyes showed years of pain and sadness. I knew I should avoid this topic as Apollo had told me, it was a touchy subject, but I couldn't resist. "He loved you dearly, was your best friend and how do you repay him? You kill him kind of like Romeo and Juliet but you get live." This was too much for her as she leapt into the air and kicked me hard in the chest I was thrown about five feet into the brush and landed with a dull thud! I got up and lunged at her. You deserved it for not listening to me. My instinct scolded me as we fought. I kicked her with the same force as she had kicked me but she went only two feet. I leapt up and soon we were locked in a fierce hand-to-hand combat. Thinking won't work. I have to let instinct take over I thought. Then I completely lost control I handed the controls to my instinct which for some reason always gets me in trouble. Artemis fought like she was from Sparta. Then I realized her brother had probably trained in Sparta and she had learned from watching him. I also realized I was going to lose this match and, when I did, it wouldn't be pretty. With a start I realized I had spent too much time thinking and didn't realize I had been knocked to the ground, her knees in my chest and was sure she was going to kill me when, Apollo ran into the clearing.
"Sis! Stop! Don't kill him!" He yelled. Artemis froze, her blade poised for the strike. Apollo's hair was messy and his shirt covered in dirt, I guessed her had been looking for me for some time.
"Apollo?" Artemis and I said at the same time. He came to a halt and met two dozen arrow points. "Stand down." Artemis told the hunters they lowered their bows and backed up. Apollo walked over to where I was, pulled me up and handed me some ambrosia, which I ate quickly. "Why can't I kill him?" Artemis pouted, I guess she had wanted to kill me more than I had thought.
"Because you'll regret it, trust me." Apollo said.
"Why will I regret it Apollo?" She asked and from the look on her face and the tone of her voice, if I was Apollo I would have told her. But he didn't he just pulled me to my feet and looked at Artemis.
"Just trust me on this one." Apollo said. "Come on Shamrock." He led me out of the clearing and to the sun chariot. He pointed to the passenger side pointed in a silent command to get in and I got in he took to the skies and we were off. "Why did you go hunting? I thought I told you to stay at home tonight."
"Why did you tell me to stay out of the forest? The forest is my home; nothing you say will ever change that. Why were you so eager to keep me in the house?" I asked. He gripped the wheel hard.
"I knew they were out there, I didn't want to risk it." He said after a long uncomfortable silence.
"Why? You weren't worried about my death, it was just about who killed me." I spat.
"Shamrock, it's complicated." He sighed.
"I'm smart." I argued
"It's a long story"
"We got time."
"Okay then. I'll give you the short version. You are her son, and she doesn't know. You were the godly equivalent of a test tube baby." Apollo said.
"WHAT! That 12 year old brat and her followers are my FAMILY?" I said rather exasperated.
"Actually only three of them are your cousins and aunt." He said obviously trying to make me feel better.
"Oh and you only thought to mention this now!" I yelled as we pulled into the driveway.
"Look I'll talk to you tomorrow evening until then, stay in the house." He said repeating his earlier command
-3rd-
As soon as Grace's head hit the pillow she was engulfed in a dream. She was back on the boat that had brought her to America in 1910; the ocean was tossing beneath them. She remembered this day well.
They had been out at sea for weeks and the last week had been spent in a storm being tossed around like potatoes in a sack. They were all seasick, children were crying, babies screaming, it was a horrible place to spend six weeks in.
The scene changed and she was in the line to go into America on Elis Island. The doctor looked at her, she blinked, and her eye was a bright red, not a good color. There had been a sickness on the ship and already three children had been sent away from their families, screaming in other languages. The doctor shook his head and wrote an E on the back of her jacket in blue chalk and pushes her through a door. A nurse picked her baby sister up and dragged Grace away from her twin siblings who, and she starts screaming she is dragged into the hospital. The doors slam, the dream ends.
Needing to let out her anger. Grace crawled out of the tent and took an old piece of blue chalk out of her bag and wrote a large E on the trunk of a tree and began to fire arrow in the shape of and E.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Each arrow hit its mark and started to take the shape of an E. In her white nightgown, Grace was freezing, she didn't care though. Soon tears were streaming down her face.
"Grace?" A voice from behind her said. Grace turned and there was Lady Artemis she bowed.
"Yes my lady?" Grace asked.
"Are you alright?" She asked, concerned.
Grace sighed..."They took me from my family and when I got them back I went to work in a factory no one cared." Grace sunk to her knees at the memory. Artemis sat next to her and hugged her.
"Often times no one does care, I only had Zeus and Apollo growing up and frankly, while I loved Apollo, he often thought of me as an annoying little sister even though I was older. Zeus wasn't the best father, he could barely remember my name, but who we are is made through our experiences; I became an eternal virgin when I saw Hera yelling at Zeus about baby Perseus. I decided I didn't want that kind of heart break so I became and eternal virgin." She said, Grace had stopped crying and looked up at Lady Artemis.
"I know, but they are sometimes so cruel." Grace said.
"Exactly, but sometimes they are what we need." Artemis said, by now Apollo was just rising over the horizon and the camp was waking up.
"Grace are you alright?" Thalia asked, she was standing in her silver huntress pajamas were not that different from Grace's own
"I'm fine." She reassured, standing up.
"Okay everyone get dressed we are going to show that boy that he can't mess with Artemis and get away with it." Artemis said giving an evil grin that practically screamed Ares
Shamrock
"SHAMROCK!" Apollo yelled from down stairs, effectively waking me up from my nonexistent sleep.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"I'm leaving, remember, stay in the house." Apollo said reminding me to stay inside like a good boy for the hundredth time. I ran down the stairs in my pajamas.
"Okay." I said.
"I put breakfast on the table." He said and ran out the door. After I showered quickly and dressed, I was sitting down to breakfast when I heard the leaves rustle outside. I looked out the window and saw a flash of red.
"Crap." I muttered to myself, they had found me. I ran into the garage where Apollo had left his back up sun chariot. I realized that it was the one that drove on manual; he took the one on auto pilot. I jumped in and tried to turn it on. When it wouldn't start I looked at the gas gage and realized it was on empty. "Thanks' Apollo." I jumped out and saw that standing in front of me, it was the red haired huntress.
"I see the girl scouts have found me." I said looking at the red head one, Grace. She was wearing a sliver huntress shirt and jean and her eyes were red and puffy. "What's wrong with your eyes?" I had clearly touched a nerve because she punched me hard in the face. "Gods I just wanted to know if you were okay. You didn't have to hurt me."
"Don't even think about it, I am fine, and what does it matter to you?" She said and began to fight me. She kicked, I ducked. She only landed one kick square in my chest but she sent me flying back two meters into the cans of paint. She had a graceful beauty to the way she fought, I guess that why they called her Grace.
"Grace! Let him be. Thalia, tie him up and take him inside." Artemis ordered. They tied me up and went inside. Thalia pushed me into a chair in the dining room and tied my hands and fee to it.
"I have to credit you that was quite impressive, Grace." I said Grace narrowed her green eyes and sat on the counter. "So why are you here?"
"I want answers." Artemis demanded. "Why wouldn't my brother let me kill you?"
"I don't know, why don't you ask him." I said and she turned around, standing in the door way was Apollo.
"What are you doing here?" Artemis asked.
"It got cloudy." Apollo shrugged. "Now what do you want to know?"
"Who is he?" She asked.
"Your son." Apollo said simply.
"B-but I haven't broken my virgin oath." Artemis stuttered in surprise.
"I know, it was an experiment. We called it the Artemis experiment; it was essentially to make a test tube baby to see if it would work for the gods, so you could have a baby. Athena donated her egg because she had brain children and no one would suspect it if she had another child. It was top secret, so only three people knew about it, me, Athena, and Aphrodite. Aphrodite chose who the father would be. Well time passed and when he came along looking nothing like Athena I asked 'Aphrodite who's the mother?' her response was 'Well I couldn't find and egg sample of Athena so I choose Artemis' Athena and I gaped at her we knew she had chosen Artemis because she hated her. 'Apollo you have to kill the child.' Athena said but I couldn't do it so I raised him myself." Apollo finished.
"Why didn't Athena mention this?" Artemis asked, untying me and giving me a hug while I stood there like an idiot.
"She thought I had killed the child and so did Aphrodite." Apollo said.
"I'm sorry about the black eye." Grace said not sounding sorry at all.
"It's okay." I said sarcastically. "But what are we going to do? Now that the secrets out I'll be killed." I said;
"No, you won't. Go to camp half blood and become a huntress, um, hunter." Artemis said.
"Um mom?" I said. "Can you please let me breathe?" She let me go.
"Oh um, Grace, Thalia and Emily will escort you to camp. Now go!" Artemis said.
"Yes Lady Artemis." They said but I could tell they weren't happy about it. Thalia glared at me and Grace merely cocked her head as if studying me, her eyes full of hate. When we finally decided to stop for the night, they told me we were half way there. Apparently Grace and I had to go get firewood so we separated from the group.
"So, Grace I'm wondering, you have a soft accent, where do you hail from?" I asked, she tossed her long red hair over her shoulder and turned to me, her arms folded across her chest.
"Look, I don't know why I'm here, but I need to warn you now, my past is a touchy subject." She said I looked at her.
"How?" He eyes turned a darker shade of green.
"It just is." She snapped and ran back to camp, leaving me to find my way back with the fire wood.
Finding my way aback was easy, but getting the firewood there wasn't. I kept dropping it on my foot, luckily I didn't trip, I just never had been that kind of person. Anyway I got back to camp and Thalia and Emily were sitting in the clearing, four sleeping bags had been set up. Grace was nowhere in sight.
"Where is Grace?" Thalia asked, Emily fingered her dagger.
"She was mad at me and ran off, I thought she came here." I said.
"No she didn't, why was she mad at you?" Thalia asked.
"I don't know, I was just trying to be mister nice guy and get to know her." I said, shrugging and set down the firewood.
"What did you ask her?" Thalia pushed.
"Is this twenty Questions?" I asked annoyed, Thalia looked at me, electricity running through her eyes and over her body. "Okay don't make me look like I touched a power line. I only asked her where she hailed from."
"You did WHAT?" Emily yelled her brown eyes widening. "Her past is not a subject she likes to talk about, only Zoë Nightshade knew what happened."
"Which one is Zoë?" I asked, they got a sad look on their faces.
"She was the Lieutenant of Artemis before me," Thalia said. "She was killed by her father, the Titan Atlas."
"I'm sorry, she must have been wonderful." I said. Thalia nodded and put her head down I thought I saw a tear roll down her cheek but I shrugged it off.
"We have to find Grace, she does rash things when she's angry." Thalia asked.
"Like what?" I asked and we heard a roar of anger and something snap. Then Grace ran into the clearing, directly at me. I stepped out of her way but that didn't seem to faze her she leapt at me and Thalia grabbed the back of her tunic.
"Grace, Lady Artemis said not to hurt him. Go sit down" She ordered Grace nodded and went to sit on her sleeping bag her eyes glistening with unshed tears. I would have felt bad for her if she wasn't so annoying. Thalia took the fire wood from me and got the fire going and Emily brought dinner and I was instructed to find a sleeping bag and stay there so I choose the one next to Grace, hoping to apologize for prying. That's just the kind of guy I am, but she was asleep in seconds.
I fell asleep but was woken at about midnight to a shuffling noise. I looked over and Emily who was on one side of me, she was sound asleep but Grace, who was on the other side of me was wriggling about quite a bit. I sighed, seeing as I wasn't going to get any sleep with her there, I decided to take a walk.
While walking, I had time to think things over. I remembered what my life had been like before I found the hunt.
For six years, Apollo kept me cooped up inside and never let me more than a hundred feet from the house, When I was seven I had enough and went into Apollo's closet (Something he had told me I could never do) and found a long thin box in it. I opened it and inside was a silver bow with a pattern of leaves on it. I picked it up and saw it had my name on it; literally Shamrock was carved into the side. I sighed, it was beautiful, that night I found arrows and went hunting for the first time. I hadn't needed any practice.
For the first time in my short little meaningless life, I was free. This was the first time I hadn't felt so much hate for myself. I had never been able to do anything right before and I hated myself for it. Out here I still hated myself but I could take my mind of the problems at home.
Until then I had hated everything about me. The way I looked just didn't seem right, my metallic green eyes weren't the right color or an eye color at all really. My hair was too much like a girls, I was too short for my age I was only three feet nine inches at the time. I couldn't do anything right, everything I tried to do ended in disaster.
But when I was hunting it seemed like Here I am from Spirit Stallion of The Cimarron (a favorite movie of mine) was playing all around me. I was free out in the world of perfection. For the first time, I saw beauty.
But then after getting outside for the first time, I sat down and cried for hours until Apollo found me. I hadn't been sure why, Apollo thought it was because I was lost, but I knew exactly where I was. But now I knew that was the only time I had cried for something many other children my age cried for. My mother.
That night I had felt her, she was so close, I could hear the music in my head. I realized now that the hunters had been only mere miles away and Apollo had felt it too so he came for me.
After that I had been instructed never to go into the woods again, but I had tasted that freedom once and I wanted it again. So every chance I got (Which sadly wasn't that often), I snuck out to hunt.
When I returned to camp, Grace was sitting up stoking the fire, which was the exact color of her hair.
"Are you okay?" I asked. She sighed and looked up at me.
"Yes, I'm sorry about earlier, but my past is hard for me to speak about." She apologized. I sat next to her and she flinched, reflexes I guess.
"That's okay, I shouldn't have pried into your business." I said.
"It's alright, I'm not used to anyone other than Lady Artemis caring about me." She said sadly.
"The other hunters care about you a lot. Thalia and Emily were worried about you." I offered. She gave a sad laugh.
"I know but I mean in a motherly, or sibling like way. I'm just not used to it, most people know I don't like to talk about my past and leave it. I just don't like to open up." She said I nodded.
"That I understand, I have never had anyone I could talk to, no mother, no father, no siblings. Just Apollo." I said sadly.
"You sound like you hate him as much as we do." She laughed.
"Not really, I am on the same terms with him as my mother is and possibly a bit closer, but I am just not used to it. He never pried into my business unless I was somewhere I shouldn't be and he found out (Which wasn't often) or am hurt." I explained.
"How do you do it? I sometimes cry out the pain when no one's around, but I always talk to Lady Artemis." She asked. I looked at her.
"I don't know I only remember crying once. I am angry mostly. I hate myself, and the world. My very existence makes me angry." I said.
"I could never do that. Why does your existence make you angry?" She asked and looked away. "I'm sorry; you don't have to answer that. I shouldn't have pried into your business."
"No it's okay. I guess I hate myself because I know I am not part of the natural world. Well I am, but I wasn't supposed to be here." I said.
"That makes about as much sense as a potato farmer hating potatoes." Grace said.
"Okay well it's like this. Everything in this forest has been born naturally, by the will of Artemis herself. But a skyscraper wasn't, it was put there in the middle of nowhere by man to start a city. I am much the same way, I was not in the will of Artemis herself and in a way, I always knew I wasn't put here the normal way. I can tell with things like that, I was put here because of anger, and hate, and as a result, I feel all of these things about myself." I said.
"Oh I get it. Since you weren't Lady Artemis' choice, you feel like you should just disappear, go away and never come back but you hate yourself because you can't." She said I nodded.
"Now I've answered your question just answer one of mine. Where do you come from?" I asked.
"Galway, Ireland." She said.
"Wow, I guess you must come from around either the potato famine or the mass Irish immigration in the early nineteen hundreds." I said.
"Yes, mass immigration." She said and she got this far away look in her eyes, I had to wave my hand in front of her face to get her to look at me again.
"Have you ever seen the movie Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron?" I asked completely at random she shook her head. "I'll show it to you some time, it's my all-time favorite movie, because of what he did for his family. He went through all that to get back to his mom, and he was so free. It was something I never had." I said.
"You've got it now. Shall we get back to bed?" She asked. I nodded and we climbed in our sleeping bags, soon I was asleep.
I was awoken the next day by Thalia, telling me that there was some cold venison waiting for me and to hurry up because we needed to get a move on.
Once we were on the move again, Grace told me that we had only a few miles until we reached camp so I decided to enjoy the rest of my freedom while I could. I watched the world pass by; it was all so beautiful and natural. The exact opposite of what I was.
I felt Grace's green eyes watching me and looked over at her, she pointed and I saw a sign that said plain as day Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, keeping hero's safe (mostly) since 400 B.C.! I sighed.
"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Shamrock, where we're going to lock you up and keep you from hurting yourself." I grumbled and crossed the border with Thalia.