Hey everyone, this is my first attempt at a story with more chapters. I hope you all enjoy it. English is not my first language so if there are any mistakes let me know and I will try to fix it.
Frustrating, irritating, disturbing. All three words described her family to the notch. She should have been out in the woods aiding her hunters in taking care of the increasing amount of monsters. But no, here she was, attending the council meeting her father had called into being. They were on the brink of a war that needed them united and the action of her father left the whole of Olympus divided. Kronos was rising along with other titans and during the solstice a few weeks ago, they had managed to sneak a thief into Olympus. Their plan had been efficient and even Athena grudgingly admitted that it had been a well-executed plan. As a result, her father's lightning bolt had been taken from right underneath the councils nose. The moment her father noticed his missing item of power, he closed down Olympus for three days straight. Every inch had been searched and every lose pebble had been checked for a sign of the potential perpetrator. At first, her father had been highly suspicious of Poseidon and Hades being the thief but they had quickly sworn to their innocence on the Styx. When no punishment came for them he had ordered the thorough search of Olympus. When that did not produce any lead he had ordered every god and goddess to cease any actions outside those explicitly needed for tending to their domains to find the bolt.
All actions apparently had included that she was now only allowed to accompany her hunters on hunts that included the more ancient and powerful monsters. Groups of Hellhounds, dracaena or lone monster where to be left alone until further notice. It went against all her instincts and while she had support from a majority on the council, her father could not be swayed by the danger that leaving these monsters to roam would create for demigods. "The sooner you find the bolt, the sooner you can hunt them down. Chiron has trained the demigods so they should be fine for a little while against the lesser monsters" had been his response. Knowing that it was futile to argue any further she had resolved to find that bolt as soon as possible. She was a huntress and that thief would become her prey.
To her growing frustration, the thief was more difficult to find than she had expected as he had been given some form of protection mechanism from Kronos. It turned out that it was a demigod son of Hermes, Josh, who was angry at his father for abandoning him and his brothers and sisters. When they caught him, however, he had already passed the bolt to someone else. They couldn't get him to release the name of the person or the type of monster he had handed the bold to as he did not know the identity either. It was a failsafe to prevent the gods from finding the bolt before it reached its destination at Kronos' side. Josh had been thrown into the Olympian holding cells where he would await further, more detailed questioning from Athena and Ares the following day but when they had arrived for questioning they had found him murdered in his cell. The only clue they had found was a messaged scribbled in Josh's blood stating that "he would have talked, it was necessary".
This left them back at scratch with little to no leads. Her sister Athena had been one of her biggest allies in finding the bolt. The looming war was making everyone tense and agitated but Athena experienced it most of all. She now had to prepare Olympus for the war without help from others as other gods and goddess were restricted or not even allowed to spare her some time due to her father's orders. No action outside those needed for the domains also included that war-preparations where pushed back for later concerns. They found Josh three weeks ago, but had so far not yet found a single clue to the location of the bolt or the identity of Josh's partner. They had led her wolves loose on the trail of Josh's partner, used multiple of Hecate's potions and several spells, questioned all senior campers but nothing gave a result or even an indication to the bolt.
A telepathic nudge from Apollo drew her out of her musings. She sat up straight quickly when she saw the majority of the council looking at her quite expectantly. "Now that we have your attention" her father began "where you able to find anything?". "No, we set the wolves loose again but they were confused as the trail went into five different directions. Each direction eventually splitting up again and again. It is an classical decoy trail, the third one we have found so far". It was true, each trail they found led them to a decoy trail that ended out of nowhere in the middle of the woods. "Then I shall end this meeting to led you return to the search. Again, as a reminder, all actions except those explicitly need for the domains are to be ceased until my bolt has returned to me". The discontent could be heard all through the room as he left in a bright flash. "As if we need a reminder for that, he has been checking up on me every day" Poseidon grumbled. "I sure hope that we find that damn thing soon, I have way too many messages and packages piling up. It will take me ages to get back on schedule". It was the normal complained from Hermes, but expected, he was one of Olympus busies gods after all. A quick glare from Athena shut him up. "We need to prepare ourselves or has everyone forgotten that we have a war hanging over our head. Kronos is counting on the delay that Zeus's actions are causing us. The state we are in now, we could just as well hand over the keys to Olympus. I urge you all to think on how you can contribute to the preparations the greatest so that when I will be able to meet up with each of you individually we have more time to figure out the details and fine tune our plans". After that everyone quickly flashed out, the longer we stayed the more father could yell at us all for not searching.
Flashing just at the edge of camp she stole a quick glance at the upcoming moon revealing that it was already around 6 in the afternoon. The meeting had taken up most of her day and she would have to start her duties soon. Knowing that she had the biggest chance at finding her hunters dining at this time, she turned to walk in the direction of the dining tent. Her suspicions were confirmed when she could hear the loud noise of her hunters together with a strong smell of cooked meat flowing from the tent.
Her hunters tensed up when she came in, hands on their weapons, ready for the unexpected person that dared to enter their camp without permission but quickly relaxed when they recognized her. "Milady, it is good to have you back. Come join us, we saved some beef for you in case you came back in time. Was the meeting interesting?" It was Zoe, her lieutenant, that stood up and addressed her. She picked up a bowl with food and gave it to her. As a goddess, Artemis did not really require substance in the form of food but when Zoe set the bowl in from of her, she could hear her stomach growling and quickly dug in. "No, nobody has any leads for us so we shall remain here for the time being". Her hunters looked down, knowing the consequences of leaving the monsters roaming free in favor of the search for the bolt. She noticed several of her senior hunters looking at each other. It was a tell-tale sign that they wanted to address something but were unsure on how to bring it up to her. She couldn't fault them for it, the last few weeks had been stressing and it was noticeable on everyone, her as well. Deciding to take the initiative for them she asked what was on their minds.
"Milady, eh, we uhm" Alison began. She had been with the hunt for over 800 years now and was a daughter of Athena, so when she started hesitating Artemis knew that what was coming would be very serious. The entire tent had fallen still and a quick glance from Alison had Zoe taking a deep breath. "We know that you and Athena have been discussing everything you have learned from Josh, his actions and the other leads that were found. And uhm, we know that what I will be saying will most likely not be received the best. But taking into account that Kronos is rising and that we are not even close to matching Kronos the way things are now. Have you thought about calling in Percy? I know that he wishes to remain secret but he could really help out, we cannot let this situation go on forever as there will not be a forever". Preparing for the worst, her hunters kept their heads down making themselves as small as possible.
Artemis led out a deep breath. Calling in Percy, it would definitely help to find the bolt and definitely with the war, but he had been hidden for so long. He had been taken away the moment he was born, raised in a dark and dangerous place where his godly energy was his greatest enemy. It was no surprise that when she found him he had made her promise to keep his identity and story a secret. She had reluctantly promised to do so, he was a male after all. However, she had listened to his story and knowing the importance of the secrecy surrounding him, she had told him that she would only make the promise if he checked in with her every once in a while and promised to answer when she contacted him. It had been against her nature to form even the slightest connection with a male but over time both her and her hunters had managed to establish an amicable relationship with him.
"You are right" she said. Immediately, all of her hunters heads went up, disbelief visible in their eyes. "He will not like it and we can expect heavy protest, but the time has come for him to reveal himself. We will not survive if we do not find the lightning bolt soon". "But for now, let us prepare for night. I need to attend to the moon and shall think on how to get Percy to agree with us. Alicia, Emma, Isa, Atlanta and Avery I want you on the first shift. Zoe, Eleanor, Mila, Nikita and Brooklyn will take the second". Leaving Zoe to give further instructions she walked outside the dining tent and flashed to her chariot. Looking out over the chariot she knew that she had a long night ahead of her. Percy would not be convinced easily.