I do not know how to take the statistics for this story, but I will be the ever optimistic and decide that I am overjoyed by the response! Not too many reviews, but I love the fact that this story is attracting satisfyingly full and useful reviews, not the ones simply asking for longer chapters or consisting of simple expressions of like or dislike.

You need to know this: I publish after I have the next chapter ready. The next chapter was difficult for me, hence the delay in publishing this one.

As for the reviews, God, you people cannot in forever guess where I am gonna go with the Civilization domain. Emotions is a minor domain, like Kronos' Agriculture, and thus has not much role to play. When writing the outline, I decided that he needed to have some 'elite' Domains id est Domains relating to forces of nature and inherent properties of the world, and not just Demigods.

Further, if anyone wishes to inform any person having any stories that resemble mine, feel free to do so. I can prove my story is original and dashes off quicker than Quicksilver away from those stories (and most others on this site). Apollo is, and always will be, a wild card in this tale. And whenever something seems not like godly behaviour, remember Rhea's preachings.

Post Scriptum: I challenge you all to find out the persona in whose view this tale is being told. There will be a hint in the next chapter, but till then, think probable immortals. Reviewer with correct guess gets a spoiler!

2. The Siblings Old-ing Up.

Leto, after conferring with her aunt, decided that her children would stay with her for a year before they went to meet their father, uncles, aunts and half siblings at Olympus. She wanted them to grow fond of and remember their mother so they may vouch for her (if need arise) and visit her often after they ascend to godhood.

Yes, she was selfish, but she also knew the gods of Olympus were, more often than not, worse than many Titans. She also knew that Zeus could very well turn out worse than his father. She knew Percy wouldn't be seduced by the power Olympus held, he was the best Titan's congregation after all, but the same couldn't be said for Apollo or his sister. She hoped that Perseus would keep them grounded, but she knew that was too dire to hope for. It all, in the end, would come down to the Domains they would receive.

Thus Leto, finally in her healthiest Form, took to teaching and preaching the young gods, now all in their late teens. She first taught them to control their manifestated Forms and their auras. She instructed them in weaponry and made them love it, demonstrated cookery and healing, told them how a god was supposed to act, and tried to plant the true pictures of the Olympians in their young and restless minds.

Artemis was, by far, the most receptive, Perseus was a close second, but his willingness to please his mother made him the best learner. Apollo... well, Apollo had to be held down by his brother for any sitting that would exceed a quarter-hour. Apollo practically hero-worshipped his eldest sibling, though secretly, but unlike your usual hero-worship, he did not care to imbibe his idol's qualities. So the brothers remained polar opposite, except when it came to annoy or protect their sister. Not even Zeus would escape their rage if ever he hurt Artemis.

Currently, the three gods were hunting a bear that Leto had summoned for them. It was a long mission, for she had not given them directions and prohibited the nymlhs from doing the same. Thus the island, now 4.2 miles across, courtesy of Gaia, was divided into three equivalent parts for the children to scout. Apollo had the area of scarce vegetation, Artemis, the region with plains and deep jungles while all the rocky terrains with the non-dryad trees fell to Perseus. They started at first light and decided to meet at their home at high noon.

As soon as they could glimpse Helios, Artemis leapt into one of the trees and rushed towards her sector, while the boys sprinted towards theirs.

Apollo's strategy was simple: since none of the trees in his region were close enough or large enough to hide a bear for any non-zero period of time, he would simply go to the largest and most central tree-top and surveil, rotating between parts of his kingdom every time he got bored enough to contemplate getting down and going back to mom. And surveil he did, and that was all he would do.

Artemis was proud of her speed. She firmly believed that no bear could escape her area if she was fast enough to trap it. She first sprinted around the perimeter of her area, then spiraled inwards, sometimes running, sometimes swinging on the dryads' branches, eliminating large swaths of land in minutes. Once she had completed her spiral, she began again.

Perseus first thought of a bear's necessities: sustenance and shelter. He could find out animals' corpses and track it down, but that wouldn't work because, bear-eatten animals weren't quite distinctive. There was also the chance that it could be resting for the while. But the cave the bear resided in (since there was no other probable type of shelter for a bear in his allotted sector, for he knew bears were prudent animals and thus it would choose a a shelter that protected him all seasons.) would have either him or proofs of his residence. Percy could simply choose to stand guard on a tree near such a cave which allowed him to watch both the cave entrance and the rest of the woods.

That, he decided, was the best he could come up with without wasting further time. He spirinted through the region and surveyed north-south running stretches of the land for caves, whilst also searching the banks or shores of the water bodies for a bear catching fishes or lapping water.

He spotted three large-enough-for-a-bear caves in his trip and two of them had bear fur in them. But only one had a piece of golden fur, which was the indicator for the summoned bear. He wandered deeper into the narrow-mouthed cave and wondered, his mind quite off task, whether Rhea lived in her cave in Crete, on Olympus or somewhere in the mortal world. He found evidences of a rabid animal- perhaps an extra challenge for the siblings. Finishing his search for hints, he ran towards the entrance.

Only to bounce back as a large black snout underneath a pair of reddish-brown orbs bumped into him. He used his momentum to roll back further into the cave and scrambled to his feet. He checked for the glint of patches of metallic yellow in the dark and summoned his sword, a simple iron blade he forged, using the knowledge about the subject his grandaunt had passed on to him. It had a handle made up mostly of the metallic tang, with a thin leather grip to provide variance in his hold and comfort.

The bear growled, foaming at the mouth as a poisoned person should die with, but no such luck as it charged. Perseus had no night vision, nor a source of illuination, so he approximately ducked out of the bear's tragectory. He slammed into the cave wall but didn't let the pain register and dived for the exit.

As the bright sunlight (Curse you, Helios) burned his retina, he heard heavy footsteps (pawsteps?) reverberating from within.

He blinked to let his eyes adapt to the light and saw the beast barreling in his direction. He let it approach, and, once it was at arm's length, sidestepped, spun to face away from it, and brought his sword upwards from behind him, to prevent any blood splashing his front: he figured having a spoil of a soul hunt would make Apollo sulk more than a ignored satyr kid.

The blade was crude, but it did its work: the head was cleanly cleaved from the torso- there wasn't crimson on him at all! He picked it by an ear and tossed it to the top of the hillock into which the cave led, to feed the air-borne scavengers, and looked to Ouranos to see that a third of the time was left!

Thus he took to skinning and butchering the body, since he couldn't transport that heavy a load without losing a significant amount of energy, magical or physical, and since his mom would appreciate it.

As he sliced the meat into need slabs and several cuts unique for bears, he thought about his siblings' reactions. They'll be furious! They'll throw a tantrum about not getting the honor of killing it. But maybe I can use my worry for them to teach them about compassion and self versus team too. Yes, that'll be perfect.

And so he bundled up thirds of the meat in bear skin bags, teleported one to home and carried the other two into dryad territory. There he gave one of the packs to the dryads to pass to in the direction of the Clearing. He lugged the final third with him and walked back to the Clearing.

The dryads were nice enough to let him keep pace with the meat they were transporting, to ensure he could fend off any animal that challenged the tree nymphs for its possession. He reached ground zero in five quarters of an hour and kept the two bundles with their remainder near Leeto's kitchen, informed the Titan in question of his arrival, and crashed into his bed, not literally, though: 'Made in Delos' marked goods were now of a better quality due to a larger work force and better supervisors.

He woke up to someone trying to shake the life out of him and a voice, "Get up, Perseus, get up!"

He swatted the person's hands away and turned away from them, into the cot, though he knew it was futile, "Go away, Arty: too early."

"Don't call me that!" She cried, though without much force to it, and he had no need to look at her to confirm her blush, "And it's high noon! Get up!" And with that, she hauled him off the bed, or at least tried to do so. Her nimble body structure made for stealth coupled with his older and thus more, albeit slightly, bulky body meant that she was just able to drag him such that his head was hanging off the edge of his sleeping vessel.

But that was enough for the goddess. She pushed his head down so that his neck was vertical, and climbed on the bad and sat on his chest, pinning his arms to his sides using her thighs and pressing him down in such a way that the blood would rush to his head and stay there.

The result was immediate: his light tan gave way to purple skin and he kept fidgeting. He could no longer pretend he was asleep and soon he'd have to go with her to discuss the hunt. Artemis kept checking and rechecking that his hands were unable to escape to throw her off, but there wasn't any major activity.

After a minute of struggling lightly, he suddenly went limp. Artemis panicked: she knew her brother could be stubborn when he wished to be, and it had often led to many situations.

Once, he had refused to move their home away to get out of a lion's territory. He had faced the lion in a fight that left both with almost fatal injuries. It could have led to more but Artemis had prayed to her grandmother, whose sacred animal was the lion, to calm the fighters down. She couldn't bear to see Percy in such a state.

Another time, he had sparked a bloodlust for monsters' ichor. He went around hunting monsters and tying them to non-nymph trees or rocks and torture them into unconsciousness repeatedly. He would tear their guts out, drain their ichor dropwise. He would crack bones and burn limbs and sprain muscles and make their cries and wails resound in the forests for days until they burst into golden dust.

Nobody could stop him: whenever somebody would try to approach him, he would sprint away into another part of the forest. When she asked what happened to him to make this out of him, the dryads told Leto that he had heard that the monsters were dragging dryads and naiads away from their sources to either indiscriminately kill them, or, for the humanoid ones, force themselves onto them.

He had only calmed downed once he had run out of demons to kill. The ones he sent to Tartarus were in so bad a shape that they'd take decades to reform.

Artemis shivered from the memory and placed her fingertips on one of his carotids to find that he had a steady pulse. She noticed her seat hadn't moved since quite a while. Why isn't his chest rising and falling?! she inhaled deeply to calm down, It's all right. He must be breathing quite shallow. I'll just feel whether he breathes out or not.

So she reached out and let her palm hover over his nose and mouth so that she may feel the air escaping him. When she did not feel any bodily breeze, she became worried and leaned over to check his eyes.

And this was when, unfortunately, Percy decided to make his move. He pushed at her thighs and rose up, fully intending to toss her in the air and roar to freak her out, and get himself a slap or two.

But what did not intend was to get smothered by her breasts. His shout was cut short. He hadn't felt her lean over him for (I) he was planning, (II) he was concentrating on holding his breath and (III) she was bent at her waist, which did not notify him of a shift in weight.

Artemis freaked out as intended. She had leaned further due to him pushing her and now she was essentially lying on top of him, her head extending beyond his and her pelvis resting on his abdomen. She could feel his face pressing into her chest. She knew it wasn't intended: she had learned the fact that Percy would never do anything to hurt or even discomfort her over the last six months. But that did not make it any less shameful. And the fact that it aroused her! She also finally noticed that the way she had positioned her legs was extremely wrong!

His head dropped to as far as it could go without breaking his neck, as if touching her there had burnt him and his hands went limp around her legs. She quickly scrambled off him and the bed. He soon followed her to a standing position, both with faces gold as Helios in the summer and about as hot.

"Meet you outside in five?" He breathed, as soon as he could.

Artemis just nodded and left.

He went through the back door to the rivulet about fifty five paces away from the house to wash his ichor filled face in its ever cold water, and hopefully get the ichor vessels to contract to preserve heat, thus removing the blush from his race.

As the freezing liquid hit his face, he realised that he had felt weird when he had (unintensionally) done it, not the Why am I doing this again? weird, nor the Eccentric and I realise it. weird, but instead the kind of weird Rhea had told him to associate with Eros or Aphrodite.

His shame couldn't be expressed. But neither could his grief. He knew what he was thinking was against what his grandaunt taught him, but he also knew it would go unrequited. And that realisation pulled a Kronos (or Zeus) and chopped his heart, which should actually be addressed as the limbic system in this aspect of the 'heart', into quarks.

The cold January air dried his face hastily as he left his thoughts at the stream and headed towards the Clearing. He found Apollo inquiring Artemis about her blush, which grew brighter with every question.

Perseus rescued her from her predicament by simply clearing his throat as he stepped out of the woods. Apollo wasted no time in asking him the question.

"Why," he demanded while glaring with all he had in him, which was comical, with him standing a foot shorter, "didn't you call us?"

"Yes, I should have called you, but I did not, for I was busy fighting the bear."

"You could have escaped and brought us to his location, don't say that you weren't able, I know how fast you run, faster than Arty even."

"Don't," Artemis said in a cold fury, "you dare call me that."

"But he does that too! You always overlook him calling you that!"

"That's different!"

"How?!"

"Because," Perseus saved her from answering, "I am the eldest. Now, as for why I did not entertain the idea of bringing you two to it, that is because I saw it. It was a rabid bear. If I had brought you there, you might have sustained injuries from such a beast, and I'll damn myself if I let that happen."

"But it was just a bear!" The youngest triplet protested.

"It was large, and strong. A real, adult bear. Not a monster you could just kill in a stab. Besides, both of you are mostly ranged fighters, a beast can be unpredictable and rush you and snatch you up.

"Besides, even I, who is primarily a close quarters fighter, did not get out unscathed." Perseus was blatantly lying now, though he knew the forests' spirits would relay the true story back home, "The fight was a long and hard one. You cannot find any injuries because of my immortal healing, but I was hurt." He finished, hoping to teach his brother anti-boasting.

"But you said yourself that we're good at range, so we could have provided support."

"No. You two haven't mastered telepathy, so you can't communicate clearly in battle. You'd end up hitting me or at least interfering in my strategy, which, mind you, was all formed in the fight itself. It's better to lose while hurting yourself than hurt your comrades to win." He stately solemnly, then added, "Of course, that does not apply if you are betrayed... or a spy or a traitor."

Apollo grinned, "I am still not okay with this, but you seem to taking father's place, Percy."

He was able change the topic so quickly for they were all younglings who couldn't easily concentrate on conversations so grave.

"Has he got a place?" Perseus stated without emotion, "Zeus, I mean, in our lives?"

"Of course," Artemis spoke up, "He sired us, Perseus."

"And a million others. You haven't been listening to mom's stories, have you?"

"I have been. Just that... we need to listen to both sides, don't you think?"

"Would you rather listen to a person who could just as easily have a thousand other children than one who spent her body to birth you. Would you prefer a person who abandoned you to a person who is at this moment caring more about the three of us than we could ever care about anyone?

"I've heard you, Artemis and Apollo, and listened to your thoughts. I may regret invading your privacy but I also regret that the two of you care more about a person who you never knew than about a person who is-", he paused, then paled, "Styx!" And took off running towards the shore.

Apollo faced Artemis, "You know, I've got a suspicion this not going to be good..."

Artemis whirled towards her brother, "Mother is in trouble. Let's go," she took him by his arm and bolted.

Apollo was right. Percy was faster than Artemis and, she suspected, faster than most creatures of the wild. Till the time they had caught up with him, he was sitting their mother down and checking her for wounds, which in fact, were no worse than his, which were non-existent. Behind them was a battlefield covered by golden dust and a golden mask wearing person pinned to the ground by Perseus' sword.

It had been a real army. Artemis could see arrows embedded in the tree trunks, clubs and swords littering the ground, even axes and a morning star lay in the dust. Even vials of potions, abandoned by their owners on the way to Tartarus, surrounded the centrally placed figure forced on his back.

The two children were by their mother in a flash. Apollo found his voice first, "Should I run back home for herbs?"

"No, little brother, no one needs healing." Seeing the fallen face, he added, "Don't worry, you can always try out your fabulous healing on our guest: I suspect he's going to need it-"

Artemis knew that wasn't true, she saw the ichor on the armor and knew that the person was immortal, and their kind healed quickly.

"-if he doesn't cooperate, that is." Perseus finished, and that was when all the other immortals knew to get ready for screaming from the person to wake them for nights.

"Perseus," Artemis pleaded, "don't."

Said god turned to fix her with an incredulous look, "You want me to leave the person who invaded our home, attacked our mother unscathed?"

"Yes, I do. And you must honor your oath."

Perseus sighed, but relented, "Fine, but expect to see him around for quite a while."

"Who is he?" Apollo inquired.

"Your cousin, and the brother of Pegasus," Leto stated, standing up, "Chrysaor."

"Medusa's child?" Artemis asked. Leto nodded, "Why would he attack us?"

Perseus shook his head, "He was apparently sent to retrieve our heads to appease the ever-competitive Athena and have her pull off his mother's curse. He said she owned the antidote to it. I hope she won't further curse her for her son's failure."

"But Medusa is a monster!" Cried Apollo.

"Doesn't mean we have to be one, do we?" Percy's eyes shone with disappointment and rage, the later not at his brother, though, "Medusa was scorned by two Olympians for the crime of being beautiful and mortal, respectively. I don't care if Athena is high on hubris or plain jealous, she had no right to ruin lives." His voiced dropped an octave and in volume, "And yet they puzzle about why they've been getting weaker..."

Artemis changed the topic quickly, "Do you mean Athena wants us dead so we don't compete with her for the Olympian seats?"

"Yes. And probably so you don't become Zeus' favorite daughter. She's had no competition in that area before."

"Percy," Apollo said, "you told me that we don't have to be a monster to a monster, but you were- are- willing to torture him. How is that justifiable?"

"You are not completely wrong, Apollo," Leto answered in Perseus' stead, "But understand that Percy's anger was due to him trying to hurt his family. It is fine to judge someone by their deeds instead of their birth or any parameter which they had no choice in."

"Beyond that, I realise that I can't help but unlease my anger on a person who has tried to hurt innocents. I just want to try as hard as I can to prevent you from falling to my flaws."

"Sorry dad," Apollo smiled.

"Can you stop doing that?! It sounds so gross!" Artemis shrieked. Perseus and Leto simply grinned at their antics.

"As you say, lil' sis."

"I AM OLDER!"

The god simply shook his head calmly, "I was born older. So I am older. Besides, shouldn't both your brothers call you by the same nickname?"

Perseus scowled, "You do know that makes no sense."

Leto spoke up for her son, "It doesn't have to make sense for it to be true."

Artemis, in response, just turned and walked back to their home. Apollo followed her, to make further unwelcome comments, probably.

Perseus told his mother to leave to break up their upcoming fight while he tamed Chrysaor. She did leave and he turned to their guest.

"No sounds of protest or rage from the proud coward?"

"I have no regrets, nor do I fear death."

"No, my dear gold-encrusted good man, you are not going to die. You are going to be our slave. In return, or due to shame resulting from my half-sister's actions, I vow to free your mother from her curse's compulsion. I doubt that someone who has probably become accustomed to the life of a surface Erebus will be able to fit back into the mortal world."

"I suppose that would be good enough for me. Do I hope you could allow me back to the sea sometimes."

"Do not worry: you'll be as free as Pontus allows you to be once my family- the Delos one- is no longer in danger from other Chrysaors... after, of course, you swear to only plunder, not kill or let innocents be killed."

"But that's not your decision to make!"

"Is that so?" The god taunted, "I do believe once I cut your vocal chords off by one of your weapons and you manage to stab me, me torturing you won't be a problem for Artemis.

"I know you, Chrysaor. You may pretend to be ruthless, but deep inside, you are insecure, weak, afraid and tired of your facade. You cannot fool me by your bad acting skills. You are in no way as calm and cunning inside as your image is.

"So I, for the last time, offer you a chance to voluntarily swear on the Fates."

"I swear on the Fates to serve your family on Delos until you deem it fit to release me."

Perseus nodded as the ground rumbled, "Now, your first orders are that you are to breathe no word of this conversation to anyone except me."

Medusa's son simply nodded- as much as he could while being pinned to the ground. Perseus knelt next to him and slowly pulled the sword out of his shoulder. It had full cut through the shoulder blade and hence would take a while to recover, since injuries to the bone were the most disastrous.

"Can you stand?"

"Yes. But my body isn't quite healed enough for you to order me to chores. The blow to my back displaced many ribs and at least one vertebra."

"In that case, go visit the beach and regain your health. Come to the Clearing right after that: ask the dryads for directions."

And the son of Poseidon scrambled to his feet and left the son of Zeus alone. Perseus left for his home after informing a dryad to tell the others to help him while keeping an eye out for any tricks or methods of communication.

'Now, how to convince Apollo to not test his herbs on me?'

That turned out to be the least of his problems. Leto had read his sister's thoughts when she was pondering the incident before the attack. and now insisted on giving the three the talk. She knew that even though their bodies seemed juvenile, their minds were far beyond PG. She wanted them to get the nicer version before they (read Apollo) could discover up their own.

Perseus kept protesting throughout that it was awkward to listen to that in front of his younger sister and brother. Especially because one was completely golden in the face while the other was stoically listening, as if he did not care about the things she was explaining, nor was he in requirement of such a explanation.

Leto was shocked at how conservative Artemis was, but didn't let it show. She thought of the thoughts Artemis had had regarding the incident, which was a bit too funny for Leto to not tease at least her eldest about, and shook her head: The goddess had still to get accustomed to the godly world, Rhea had said so, and Leto firmly believed her aunt, for she knew the males on Olympus (and Othrys for that matter) were, more often than not, the worst Chaos had to offer women, probably because she was jealous that they would get a real partner, while she would suffer in loneliness of being at the top.

Artemis will come around, she thought, never knowing that at the same moment her son was thinking of how Artemis would never come around. At least not before his immortal heart dies at her (soft, pale-golden) hands a million times, more than the one heart wrenching time that he had already felt. And he wondered whether it (his heart, or hippocampus) would make it, or whether he'd end up as an object of only her brotherly affection, forever bound to her by his oath but still another Lucian of unreturned love, except with a life lacking a end having any resemblance to a joyous one.

Please review. I would like to know how my writing feels like at the reading end.

Summary:

The siblings bonding.

Leto has decided to make her children stay for a year. The chapter begins with the three hunting a bear that Leto has summoned for them. Perseus finds it and kills it with ease. Once home, He and Artemis have a pretty uncomfortable incident before he faces off against Apollo's complaints of not being given the chance to kill. Off topic, Apollo mentions Perseus is acting like their father and sparks a debate that turns into Perseus berating his siblings about caring more for Zeus. Mid-sentence, Perseus senses that Leto is in danger and rushes off to save her. The chapter ends with Perseus imprisoning Chrysaor on the Fates as their servant.