Third chapter: 2753 years later after exile

Percy Pov

I woke up to bright, sunny morning the birds were chirping, there was a nice breeze and different animals of different sizes were in sight every few miles resulting in an abundance of food for me to hunt. Yeah, I hope that's what really happened too.

Actually in truth I woke up to heavy rain and a loud and possibly dangerous thunderstorm seeing as I and Mr. Storm (aka Zeus) don't see eye to eye in things (seriously I have no freaking idea!).

But that's not the worst part, the worst part was figuring out how I could get even a little amount of food seeing as most animals are in their caves and nests, whichever, I really need to get some meat, I couldn't just pick up some edible herbs and plants here and there.

Because that's exactly what I've been doing these past few days and I'm losing valuable energy fast and I feel like I could eat a Pegasus.

Eventually, I finally stood up albeit with a lot of moaning and groaning and whispered excuses to imaginary people. (Sometimes I wonder if I finally lost it, I mean excuses to cave walls!?).

I finally stood up and went to my makeshift display of weapons, where there is a bow with a grayish green shade that is a perfect camouflage for the forest, it was a gift from my mother, the sea goddess Pleione, and the only thing I managed to pack when I was exiled.

It also turns into a necklace that has a cross with a silver shade, ironic since we Greeks(and Romans), ancient and modern don't believe anything that comes from Christianity, but it also helped me when I make my very rare trips to the mortal world since it makes me blend in as Greek orthodox.

There is also a collection of knives both celestial bronze and mortal steel, the latter is for gutting animals and dealing with troublemaking, mortal strays in the forest. The former is obviously used for killing monsters and the like; I usually use those knives as throwing knives though since I've already armed myself with two hunting knives I've forged during my time as a blacksmith(very long story, I'll tell it to you sometime).

The last weapon or a spoil of war really, is a Minotaur horn, I used it already as a weapon against the Minotaur and some hellhounds but mostly I just keep it as some sort of medal honoring my very first kill as an exile.

Since I would be hunting today, I only armed myself with my bow and my hunting knives, next on the list I put on my grey, waist-length parka and put up my hood placed in such a way as to cover my eyes with a shadow.

I then wore my grey-matching pants that reaches to my heels and wore my brown boots. Lastly, I wore my mask that covers the upper bridge of my nose downwards. I use it because I don't want to have the risk of getting recognized by anyone mortal or immortal, human, demigod or monster, I do this since I sometimes go to cities or villages to find out what's going on in the world or to get supplies not found in the forest.

I go out of the cave and into the drenching rain, mere seconds after I'm outside, already I am wet to the bone but the rain refreshes me and also reenergizes me. A skill I learned months after exile and mastered in the course of four years, I learned how to manipulate water and use it to my advantage.

But it also has its cons, including right now where there is barely an animal in sight; I walk aimlessly for hours straining my ears for the light pounding of hooves or trying to sight a rabbit burrowing.

After another half-hour of walking, I hear a faint grunt of panic and run to its direction I see a deer presumably a stag because of the horns. Its hooves were stuck in a wedge in a rock and it was trying to get out although with no observable progress.

I draw my bow and nock an arrow aiming at its eye; always aim for the eye, a clean kill is always the best.

I let the arrow take flight and watched as it pierced the eye dead-on, a clean kill and a painless death dead before it hits the ground too. I went out from my position fifty-five feet from my prey and walked closer and I instantly noticed some...unusual attributes about my prey.

It had golden antlers, not the fake golden shade but the real metallic gold, I could tell by the dull gleam it had even in this rain. It also had brass hooves which I'm a hundred and one percent sure normal deer don't have.

I quickly pieced together the puzzle albeit with a feeling of dread deep in my gut. If I'm right I have only little chance and time to run, and let's see...this isn't a stag at all, it's a hind a female deer but why does it have antlers?

The answer: It's a Ceryneian hind, the sacred deer of Artemis the one that she uses for her chariot and also for errands of some kind. This means I am now a primary target for her and her hunters.

The solution: Run as far as I can and don't look back, it'll be better if I can find a deep body of water that I can concentrate in hiding my essence or whatever gods use to track people.

Good thing I solved that faster than you can say 'I'm dead' because I'm beginning to hear the faint sounds of bowstrings being released, I can even hear the arrows soar in the air. I begin to sprint to the nearest lake where I can hide, which is about eleven miles from here.

I'm going to do a lot of running, wait no the right word is sprinting since I'm running away from certain doom, and what's worse? That certain doom comes from a band of seemingly innocent girls from ages six to sixteen.

Although in truth those girls can be centuries or even millennia old, and they're as deadly as an apartment full of Ares girls all having their time of the month, only about ten times worse . . . hmm what about a camp full of huntresses all having their time of the month, now that's something I don't want to see.

Okay, now pushing away my disturbing and probably death inducing thoughts because of the distractions that it caused. I tune in my surroundings once more to notice the occasional arrow streaking past, under and over me, good thing my dodging autopilot function (DAF) didn't disappoint me (has it ever?).

If we happen to pass any mortals here we would appear only as blurs streaking by, that's what hunters all have in common mortal or otherwise, we all have large amounts of agility, stamina and dexterity.

But the difference between mortal hunters and us is that mortals don't have godly blood (or Titan blood in my case) so they have a lower limit of traits than 'us'. In terms of speed if mortals were arrows in flight, we were bullets streaking in mid-air.

After fifty minutes of running I was only a mile away from the lake, normally it would take twenty-thirty minutes tops but I had to take detours to confuse the hunters but they still are only a few feet from me. I would need a distraction that can prolong their catching up on me, good thing there's rain.

I concentrated on the raindrops falling from the sky and those that are already under my feet and combined them and stored them inside me slowly building up with all the continuous rain, and abruptly I stopped running and turn back around.

After a few seconds they finally appeared through the strong haze of the rain, the rain was strong at this point you could barely see your arms when you raise them, good thing I have better vision in this heavy rain (although this rain is still caused by Zeus) than the hunters.

"You better surrender boy, you have done enough running and the hunt has more important business than chasing the likes of you!"Artemis shouted through the noise of the rain, better play along right now, I still need power for my tidal wave.

"If you have better business than chasing me for the whole day then why don't you just go and leave me with my own business?"I shouted back, of course she'll probably say something about me killing the hind and that she couldn't let me get away with it.

"You have killed an animal sacred to me and my hunt; you didn't think we would let you escape your punishment for killing my pet and errander?"She said more about the hind and other things but I tuned her out and concentrated on my tidal wave.

I had collected so much water that the resulting tidal wave could disorient and even knockout the ones that take the full force of it, but those who don't get hit by the wave? I figured out that the distraction caused by Artemis and the other hunters getting disoriented and/or knocked out will give me enough time to run away and hide under the lake.

I suddenly released my tidal wave relieving me of the intense pressure of holding that much amount of water, it hit Artemis and a girl beside her I presume her lieutenant full on along with about a dozen hunters.

Artemis fell on her back all the while spluttering while the other hunters were sprawled on the ground groaning and half conscious. I ran the remaining distance to the lake and my last image of the hunters were the remaining standing ones looking at me and Artemis as if thinking whether to chase me or help their patron.

I dived in the lake and immediately sank in the bottom all the while trying to remain as inactive as I can to avoid alerting the pissed of goddess above me. I let my thoughts wonder to my growling stomach, I couldn't just hunt food with peace, and I just had to kill a sacred animal and get a man-hating goddess to hunt me until the end of time itself.

I contemplated staying there when I hear the very faint sounds of screams and moments later I see the distorted and blurry images of people from beneath the lake, it was hard to see with the constant ripples caused by the heavy rain but they were certainly there, oh well I just have to stay here in the lake then and as soon as I thought that, my eyes closed almost instantaneously.