Chapter 3:

There were many benefits to being the Goddess of the hunt. One of those was that she rarely had to split herself to carry out her duties as she was not needed on Olympus unless for meetings and the solstice. This meant that she was altogether one of the stronger Olympians as she did not have to separate her powers from her body as much as the others. As well as this her huntresses were able to drive her moon chariot when she was occupied and therefore her duties as Goddess of the moon could also be carried out whilst she caught up on much needed sleep and watched over her new child.

It felt like mere minutes had passed when she was awoken by the cries of her son announcing that he was unhappy so she grudgingly removed herself from the warmth of her bed and headed towards the sound. She knew to cherish the first few years of her son's life, now that she had blessed him and he was as much her son as Poseidon's his scent would be even more overpowering, she remained thankful though that her huntresses would be able to handle any monsters until her son was able to protect himself.

As she approached the crib she had created, the cries turned into quiet whimpers as he watched her approach curiously. Carefully picking the child up from the crib she realised that he must be hungry and therefore willed a bottle of milk already at the correct temperature into existence and began to feed him. As she was watched in fascination both Zoe and Phoebe had appeared in her tent with their bows drawn and arrows notched in preparation before belatedly realising that the cries they had heard had come from the new addition to the hunt and not a monster. Artemis chuckled as she watched her huntresses hurriedly apologise before approaching her slowly so as not to scare the child.

It took her by complete shock when she heard Phoebe's (her most vocal man hating huntress) quiet request to hold her son as he fed, but as she could see no malice in Phoebe's eyes she handed the child over but kept a watchful eye over the pair as she turned to conversations with her lieutenant.

"Uncle Poseidon has been given permission to enter the hunt so he can spend time with his son as he grows and will hopefully send trainers to help Perseus with his powers over water when he is older. Also as much as the huntresses dislike him, Apollo will also be stopping by as to train Perseus in certain aspects of his domain. I know he has not been blessed by my brother and I am sure he will not be blessed by him due to the amount of power his demi-god body already holds. Plus I do not want him to hold the blessings of two Olympians with him being a child of my uncle already; I am unsure what the others would do if he possessed that much power." Artemis informed her huntress and ensured she knew to inform the other huntresses so they would not be surprised to see the two Gods and somehow manage to offend Poseidon especially by shooting at him. She held no qualms about them shooting her brother as they mostly did it in jest. Many had spent decades with him popping in and out of the hunt and thus were used to his comments so knew not to take him seriously as he would never act on them due to the love and respect he held for his sister.

"I will inform them during training today. Many of the huntresses would like to see your son today as you have not officially introduced him and I think that would be a good start in securing him as a member of the hunt. As well as this I have arranged for some of the hunters to purchase the materials needed to care for a child of his age, and for the foreseeable future. They were going to depart after breakfast." Zoe stated calmly as ever the practical one and Artemis knew she was correct, despite the fact that she was a Goddess and could will anything they needed into existence bar a few items when she would be summoned to Olympus or gods forbid a solo hunt whilst Perseus was still young her huntresses would need the necessities to care for him. It surprised her how well Zoe had taken this but she knew not to question it and just accept the fact that Zoe would follow her decisions unquestionably.

"Thank you Zoe, I believe the others will be up and having breakfast now so let us go and introduce young Perseus to them." She approached Phoebe who had become enraptured with the young child and had missed the entire conversation between her sister and mistress and thus was shocked to see the child taken out of her grasp. It took all of her restraint not to pull a weapon out to confront the would be attacker as she realised that it was her mistress and sister, who were looking at her amused.

As an amused Artemis left the tent chuckling to herself, Zoe turned towards her sister "It looks as though you have become attached to the child, after yesterdays comments I thought you would be the most difficult to persuade". She appraised the daughter of Ares as she spoke but was only awarded with a small smile as they both departed the tent. Zoe knew what this meant, in the span of half an hour the child had managed to thaw out Phoebe's heart therefore it was only a matter of time before he did the same with the other huntresses.

They quickly approached the centre of camp where the huntresses were gathered and eating breakfast, an unusual silence amidst them as many were still overcoming the shock of seeing their mistress with a child, a male child none the less. They were even more shocked to see Artemis hand her child over to Phoebe once both girls had reached her. Both Zoe and Phoebe knew what she was doing, she was making a statement and showing her other huntresses that even the most cold hearted of them had accepted her child. Her son.

It was after this she began to speak, "Good morning girls, I hope you slept well." She didn't wait for an answer but continued to speak, "It was pointed out to me that I never officially introduced you to my son, Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon and adopted son of Artemis."

She would have loved to place her symbol over his head as she had seen many of the other Olympians do during claiming however it would alert her fellow Gods to his presence before she was ready and so she would wait until the time is right. She had much to discuss with Poseidon regarding his claiming when he finally reached the age to go to camp, she knew her son would have an important role to play in the future and therefore would need allies within camp no matter how much she wanted to keep him in the hunt, but now was not the time for such thoughts she would worry closer to the time.

As her huntresses looked over to Phoebe they were rewarded with the gurgling sounds of a happy child as he looked at his surroundings in curiosity however none of them missed the smile that graced their mistresses' face at hearing the sound. It was then they realised the aura surrounding their mistress had changed, she seemed more relaxed and much happier since she had returned to camp with the child. Despite the fact that they did not like males they would come to accept him within the hunt, never had they seen their mistress like this in their years of service. A quick glance between them occurred as they all silently vowed to protect Perseus with their lives, he meant a lot to their mistress and they would ensure no harm came to him.

Artemis watched her son where he was carefully sat in the arms of Phoebe completely oblivious to the exchanges going on between her huntresses or the silent vow they had made, but she could sense the shift in atmosphere of the hunt. No longer did it feel as though a heavy cloud loomed over them but a warm light cascading over the hunt. The hunt had returned to normal and she was thankful, she did not care what had caused this, just thankful.

She was broken out of her thoughts by Phoebe handing a sleeping Perseus back to her and informing that the huntresses would be leaving her alone to spend some time with her son, as they carried out their daily routines. Thanking her with a smile Artemis headed to the nearby lake so both herself and Perseus could relax, although her plan was thwarted by the appearance of both Poseidon and Apollo, each wearing grim expressions on their faces as they looked towards the slumbering child in her arms.

A.N. After the next chapter I've decided to skip until he is around 4 or 5ish so that we can get into the training etc. As I think the story would be too boring otherwise. Tell me what you think about this because if enough of you want chapters for the missing years then I will include it.

Thanks again to everyone who has read the story and a special thank you to those who have favourited, followed and reviewed :)