Hello, everyone !

I'm back with the third chapter !

Hope you enjoy :)

Disclaimer : Rick Riordan owns most of the characters, while I own the OCs and the plot


Hey boss.

"Hey, buddy." Percy smiled while patting Blackjack's back. "How are you?"

I'm fine. Do you have any doughnuts with you, boss? I haven't had any breakfast yet.

"Let's stop at somewhere after this, and I'll buy you your doughnuts."

You're cool as always, boss! Let's stop at Donut 4everz! Do you know that they have this amazing green tea flavored doughnut topped with vanilla icing and almond? And you have to try their newest—

"I'll buy you the cheapest one," Percy cut. "my wallet is running thin right now."

Oh! Is it on a diet?

"Yeah. It's so slim right now." Percy nodded.

Annabeth slapped his arm playfully and hopped on Blackjack. "Let's go. The sooner we leave, the sooner we'll get the doughnuts."

Oh yes, cheer! Your girl is so awesome, boss!

Percy laughed and hopped on also. Behind him, Jason and Piper hopped on Porkpie. Nico hopped on Quiella while Alex hopped on Shrena. Blakcjack brought Porkpie with him when Percy called him, while Shrena and Quiella were two of the pegasi in the camp.

Why do I get to bring the heavy loads? Quiella protested.

"Sorry, Qui," Nico patted the white horse's mane, tried to soothe the upset Pegasus, though he couldn't communicate with horses. "it'll be lighter after lunch, I promise."

Well, okay then. Quiella agreed.

"I didn't know you can communicate with horses." Percy said.

Nico shook his head. "I can't."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "So? How do you know she hates the heavy loads?"

"Did she say that?" Nico asked back. "Well, if I were in her position, I'll hate the heavy loads too."

Percy took a moment to watch Nico closely and then he grinned. "You've matured really well, huh?"

Nico shrugged. "Can't stay kid forever."

Percy choked. He realized just how old he was now. Two more years, and he would reach twenty. Percy gawked. The time sure flies quickly.

"Let's go already." Jason said. "Stop mourning over the fact we're growing older, Percy. Annabeth, did Chiron say anything when you visited him earlier?"

Annabeth shook her head. "But Chiron said it will be really good if we could meet with your sister, Jason. Maybe Artemis's hunters knew something about the daughter."

Jason tapped his chin. Thalia Grace, his older sister—which was conceived when Zeus dated their mother—was Artemis's lieutenant, the leader of the hunters. If Artemis didn't join their hunting, then the command fell to his sister.

"It has been awhile since the last time I contacted her." Jason sighed. "I'll see what I can do."

"Good!" Piper chimed. "Now, can we please go? Now I can't wait to see Artemis's daughter!"


"Say, Blackjack, do you know something about Artemis's daughter?" Percy asked to his Pegasus while the pure black winged horse munched his wheat doughnut.

Ain't a clue, boss. Isn't the goddess supposed to be a virgin?

"Well, that's the idea." Percy said.

Did she break her vow?

Percy was tempted to reply 'most likely', but considering right now they were resting quite close to the Empire State Building, Percy fought the urge. "I don't know." he said. "But I don't think she did."

Then how come she has a daughter?

Percy snorted. "How come I know? And to think I came back here to just spend my summer holiday in peace."

Wow, boss. You sounded hateful.

"No, I don't hate the quest." Percy said. "I just hate the timing."

Can't blame the prophecy, boss.

Percy sighed. "I know that."

"You know Percy, if I didn't know you have this cool ability to communicate with horses, I'd think you're a crazy demigod. You literally talk by yourself in my opinion." Piper grinned.

"Thanks, Pipes." Percy grinned back. "It's hard not to understand horses' language when you're a son of Poseidon."

"As hard as not to use your charmspeak every time you speak, when you're a daughter of Aphrodite." Piper rolled her eyes. "Sometimes, I hate my charmspeak."

"It's cool if you asked me," Annabeth said. "you can just tell your opponent to run away, instead of facing it with a lot of attitude."

"It only works well against monsters, Annabeth," Piper complained. "but not when I'm in a play!"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"The Aphrodite cabin was in a play few days ago. Piper accidentally used her charmspeak and it went chaotic." Jason answered.

"What happened?" Annabeth asked.

"In one of her lines, it went 'Now, please kiss me, my handsome prince..'. Because of her charmspeak, almost all of the boys who watched wanted to kiss her." Jason broke out in laugh.

"And he laughed at me!" Piper pointed at her boyfriend. "Honestly!"

"It was so funny, Pipes, I couldn't help it!" Jason defended.

"Well scare them off with your lightning or anything! You're my boyfriend, you're supposed to be protective!"

"Possessive, you mean." Nico mumbled.

Piper sent the child of Hades a glare and Nico looked elsewhere.

"Aw, that was somehow so cute!" Annabeth squealed. "You're so popular!"

"Shut it." Piper growled and accidentally used her charmspeak. She growled again. "See? This ability is somehow handful sometimes. Sorry about that. I didn't mean to."

Annabeth laughed. "Nah, don't mind about it."

"Stop growling, Pipes, you sounded like a hungry horse." Jason grinned and Piper punched his arm.

"Ow." Jason winced and rubbed his arm.

"Which reminds me," Annabeth turned her attention to Alex Rebel, who was feeding Shrena some wheat cookies. "you haven't told us about yourself, Alex."

Alex turned his head and looked at Annabeth. He shrugged and turned his head back to his winged horse. "What do you want to know anyway?"

"Anything," Piper huffed. "you didn't talk much at the camp. I hardly know you."

Alex shrugged again. "I'm a child of Zeus."

"I'm aware of that," Annabeth said. "Jason said you're the new head of Zeus's cabin, right?"

Alex nodded.

"What else?" Piper asked.

"What what else?" Alex asked back. "Do you need to know anything else?"

"You're one cold jerk, aren't you?" Piper huffed.

Alex shrugged. "I don't think being warm hearted can help us in this quest."

"And full of attitude." Piper replied.

"Say, can you summon lightning?" Jason asked.

Alex glanced at him. But he didn't answer and kept feeding his winged horse.

"I can!" Jason grinned. "Wanna see? Oh and I can even control the wind! Pretty cool, huh?"

"I know." Alex simply said. "Everyone knows about the Seven Heroes."

Upon saying that, awkward silence fell upon the six demigods. Neither said anything.

Which was unnecessary, because suddenly they heard a squeaking sound.

"What's that?" Percy stared at the blank sky.

"Something's squeaked." Annabeth glanced up.

This time, the squeaking returned, more clearly and loudly.

"Sounds like an.. eagle." Piper said.

Another squeak, and this time the sound sent chills on their spine.

"Uh.. I take that as a bad news?" Percy mumbled.

"Something's coming at us." Nico said.

"Get your swords." Jason said. "Whatever it is, it isn't good."

Aw man, Blackjack whined. I haven't eaten the green tea flavored yet!

Percy drew his favorite sword from his pockets, Riptide. Even after all this time, the pen was still so loyal to him. This was the first time he used it as a sword, after a year became a pen. He uncapped it, and he held the celestial bronze sword. Annabeth fished out her dagger and Piper drew her Katoptris. Jason fished out his imperial gold sword, while Nico held his Stygian sword. Alex drew his own celestial bronze sword.

A minute later, their eyes widened when they stared at the blank sky. A super size of eagle appeared, with big wings and angry eyes. To their horror, half of the bird's body was the body of a lion.

"What's that?!" Percy yelped.

"A griffin," Annabeth answered. "great."

"I guess it smelled two sons of Zeus." Alex said.

Yikes! It's the natural enemy of horses! Blackjack said.

"Get the horses out of here!" Annabeth hopped on Blackjack. "Let's run!"

"Shouldn't we fight it?" Jason asked.

"It's too strong for us!" Annabeth yelled. "And I think it brought some friends!"

Sure enough, another two griffins appeared. Percy gulped down.

"If we wanted to bring them down, what should we do?" Percy asked.

"We shoot 'em, of course!"

Percy and his friends froze on their winged horses. Only Jason who broke into a wide grin.

"Hey, sister!"

Thalia Grace grinned back and raised her bow. "Hunters, attack!"

At her command, a dozen of hunters released their arrows toward the three griffins. The arrows stabbed their bodies, and the Hunters of Artemis wasted no time to shoot another dozen of arrows. The creatures squeaked in pain, and used their claws to deflect the arrows.

"Get your horses out of here!" Thalia yelled from the top of a building. "We'll hold them back!"

Boss, save my life, please!

Percy nodded and the four winged horses flew away.

"Keep shooting them!" Thalia commanded.

The griffins roared this time. They flapped their wings, sending the arrows away before turned their bodies around, flying away. They were badly injured, but they could still fly quite fast.

The six demigods quickly came to the Hunters' side and Jason hopped down from his winged horse to give Thalia a bear hug.

"Sis!" Jason grinned. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Good to see you too, brother," Thalia grinned and hugged her little brother back. "glad you're safe."

"Hey, Thalia," Percy greeted while Annabeth ran to give her friend another bear hug. "what brings you here?"

Thalia hugged Annabeth back. "Chiron sent me the news through Iris message." she said and raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about this? The other Hunters were quite offended with this news."

"Don't blame me," Percy raised his hands. "but the prophecy said so."

"A CHILD OF ARTEMIS?" One of the Hunters asked in a great annoyance. "Are you insulting our lady?"

"Ariana, chill down." Thalia said. "You can tell us what you knew, Percy."

"Apart from the child is a girl? Nothing." Percy said.

"A girl?" Thalia asked. "Do you mean Artemis has a daughter?"

Percy nodded.

"But we are our lady's daughters!" Ariana, the hunter with short black hair said.

"Ariana, I said, chill down." Thalia commanded and kept her eyes on Percy's. "Are you sure about this?"

"Persephone told me in a dream," Percy said. "she said that after Zeus kept pestering Artemis about her child, she said one word: daughter."

"It has got to be one of us, Thalia! We are our lady's adopted daughters! We are the closest as her children!" Ariana said.

"But Lady Artemis didn't say a word about this," Thalia drew her eyebrows together in confusion. "and as far as I know, we didn't have any new hunters for the past year."

"So you don't know anything about this?" Jason asked.

"No." Thalia sighed. "But whoever she is, if the prophecy told you guys to find her, then I think she's in danger."

"We think so too." Annabeth nodded. "But without any leads, we're pretty much in a dead end."

"Can you tell me the lines of the prophecy?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth nodded.

"Six will go to find the seventh,

The journey guided by the gods' voices.

Uniting the Big Three for all she's worth,

Hail, The Child of Artemis."

"Now that's interesting," Thalia mused. "clearly, the seventh means Artemis's daughter. And to think that seven is Artemis's sacred number." The lieutenant looked at the demigods one by one. Then she stopped at Alex. "Who are you?"

"A child of Zeus." Jason answered. "He's Alex Rebel."

"Oh, hello," Thalia offered her hand. "I'm Thalia Grace."

Alex took Thalia's hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Okay, so the six of you will go to find Artemis's daughter." Thalia said. "But what about the journey guided by the gods' voices? And what about the uniting Big Three?"

"We're still stuck at that." Annabeth sighed.

"And about the last line.." Thalia trailed off. "I can see why the prophecy chose the word 'hail' if a child of Zeus was in business."

"I think, whoever she is, she's important." Piper said.

"Why hello, my sister-in-law-soon-to-be," Thalia grinned and Piper blushed. "yes, yes, I think so too."

"But how do we find her?" Annabeth asked.

Thalia took a moment to think. She looked at Annabeth and smiled. "I have an idea how." Thalia's smile widened a bit. "Through the demigods' dreams. If your journey was guided by the gods' voices, then I think it would be wise to assume that they would guide you through the dreams. Or they would just show up in front of you."

"But what does it mean by guided?" Annabeth asked.

"In my opinion, the gods are paying a very big attention to this matter." Thalia said. "I don't think Lady Artemis will tell us anything regarding this. And I don't think Lady Artemis is willing to tell the gods anything. So I think, the gods will find the clues by themselves and pass it down to you."

"I wonder why our lady didn't tell us anything." Ariana said in a betrayed tone.

"She must have her own reasons," Thalia answered. "Lady Artemis cares for her Hunters deeply. Whatever the reasons are, I'm sure Lady Artemis doesn't want us to get involved."

"But why?" Ariana asked.

Thalia let out a small smile. "Because it might endanger our own safety."

Or because our lady didn't trust us.


Done !

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