1997
Trust. It's such a simple word yet it means so much. It's part of the foundation to any good relationship – romantic, platonic, or otherwise.
That's why Artemis relies so heavily on it. She has to be able to trust her right hand and every other hunter she has. She has to be able to trust that she trained the new recruits properly and that they'll make smart decisions. She has to trust all of her hunters with each others lives and her own – she may be immortal but that doesn't mean she wants to get her ass kicked all the time. So she trusts them.
She trusts them when she and Zoë disappear for the summer and winter Solstices, when she leaves to deal with her brother, or when their best tracker – Phoebe – suggests that they should head northeast instead of north. She trusts them.
But she will never trust them alone at Camp Half-Blood ever again.
She knew that they didn't want to go. Every single hunter was vocal about never going back to the camp. But what was she to do? Morale was low after loosing Brittany and Mary was way too new of a hunter to be entrusted with such a responsibility after losing a hunter.
So she sent all of her hunters – Zoë included – to the camp while she dealt with her brother. After existing for several thousand years, leaving those girls at this camp was probably on her list of Top Ten Regrets.
When she arrived nearly a week later she was amazed – amazed at herself for ever holding her hunters and campers at such a high regard. She thought both of sides would be mature enough to deal with each other for a mere seven days.
At first she thought that someone or something had attacked the camp; eight of the cabins were ablaze, one of them including her own, with a ninth one starting to catch fire. The scene around the cabins was fairly quiet. There was no yelling, no crying,nothing.
She then saw Naomi quickly run from behind Artemis' cabin to a flipped over table near the woods, diving over the top. She calmly walked over to the table and heard three girls whispering.
"We need to flank to the right and get back with the others. Once we do that, we regroup and take the Big House, letting the campers destroy their own camp while we are left untouched. Naomi, you'll run first to that tree, then you Mary, and I'll comefrom
behind. On three; one, two–"
"Ladies?" Artemis asked when she approached.
"Artemis!" Naomi and Mary squeaked. She glanced around at all three and noticed that Mary had somehow managed to get war paint on her face.
"My lady," Zoë straightened.
"Zoë, what happened?"
"The campers started it," Naomi began.
"Yeah they've been upset all week that we beat them – again – at capture the flag," said Mary, before yelling over the table, "because they're poor sports and even worse fighters!"
"Zoë, what happened?" Artemis asked again.
"They're telling the truth, my lady. They became hostile after we won capture the flag. Anything could've set them off," she paused, listening to a distant scream and after determining it wasn't a hunter, she continued. "So when Mary threatened to take down one of the Hermes kids if he didn't stand down, they all decided to attack us," Zoë explained.
"Yeah Ricky Anderson said that we were hunters because we couldn't handle being in Camp Half-Blood and being an actual half-blood. Which is ridiculous since I AM ONE. So I told him to back off or I would make him. And instead, he does the exact opposite! This is on the campers one-hundred percent."
"Mary," Artemis warned. "Zoë, who started the fire?"
The three girls looked at each other.
"Some kid from Are's cabin. Or Celyn. It's hard to tell, my lady," Zoë replied.
"Do you have any idea how long will take to clean this up?"
"With how many campers they have I wouldn't imagine terribly too long."
"Oh, all of the hunters are staying and helping. This doesn't look good for me or for any of you. I can only imagine how furious they will be. Who knows if the hunters will even be allowed to stay here again!"
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Mary chimed in.
"Yeah if they do, it'll only be worse next time around," Naomi said. "A blood bath would be likely! It's probably just best that we don't ever come back here."
Artemis heard someone – probably Alice – scream near a burning cabin for someone to call wolves to the fight.
No. She was never going to trust them at Camp Half-Blood ever again.