ARTEMIS AWOKE TO A BABY WAILING. It was odd, considering her hunt set up camp more than fifty miles from any form of civilization, and the baby's cries seemed to originate from right outside her tent. She stood, drowsiness rolling off her body in waves until she felt like she had chugged half a dozen caffeinated drinks. She lifted the animal skin tent flap, and gazed upon the mewling infant, who ceased its—her—noise making immediately as the Lady of the Hunt's eyes landed upon her.
There. In a golden weaved cradle, lay the most magnificent babe she had ever laid her eyes on. Faintly doused in a shower of gold light that dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, the girl glittered and glowed, nearly lost in a sea of simple crème linen. It was dawn, almost, and the goddess stepped out on the damp, newly dewed blue-green grass. The child had dark fuzz growing on the top of her head, and startling wide pale blue orbs pooled with tears contrasting with her porcelain skin.
Artemis immediately recognized the voice of her lieutenant calling for her. "My Lady! To whom does this child belong?"
Artemis raised her chin and changed her stance so she faced Zoe Nightshade, who sauntered over. Zoe was tall and graceful, with coppery colored skin and braided into silver circlet her long dark hair. "I'm not sure, Zoe." Then the goddess' confused expression melted into a sterner one. "Who was on night watch duty? Perhaps she may have an answer of how this child came to be here."
"Olivia, I believe," Zoe spoke. She then paused, stuttering in step. "The child is extraordinarily beautiful, is she not?"
Beautiful. Innocent. Artemis noticed the curling wisps of hair on the mere babe's head. The baby was more beautiful than Aphrodite, even if the goddess would not speak it.
"Yes," Artemis agreed. "Go fetch Olivia."
Suddenly a note wafted toward her in the wind, she lay out her palm, and it gently rest there, as Zoe shouted, "Olivia, Artemis summons thee!"
A few moans came from the other tents, the huntresses all waking up at Zoe's cries. Why had they not awoken when the babe was making such a racket? Artemis wondered as she unfolded the note. She felt magic at work.
It read:
Lady Artemis,
This child will one day either bring about the fall of Olympus or be its savior. Your choice's will influence her. You have no children, so you have one chance to experience it. Hera was an option, but if the babe was gifted to her, we'd be practically condemning Olympus. Just look how her godly children turned out. You must shelter this child from the Olympians, they must not know of her. BUT, you have a choice of telling one Olympian, any of them, of this child's existence. Choose wisely and raise her well, because on her sixteenth birthday, she becomes immortal.