Chapter 7

This chapter was inspired by 'Of Mice and Men'.

Artemis' POV

It had only been a day since I'd managed to track down my hunters, who'd been under the command of Thalia since the emergency council. Although I didn't like to leave them for any significant period of time it was definitely true that it helped their independence and maturity because they had to be able to operate without my help. Generally, I used it as a gauge to measure how good they were at whatever they did and how grown up they were. Take Thalia, for example. I was particularly happy with her because it was obvious that she'd taken command with impeccable efficiency - the girls seemed happy, they'd managed to keep on moving fast enough that it had taken me a few days to track them down and the location that they'd chosen to pitch camp was near perfect.

It was a not far south of Yellowstone National Park, a deep and green river dropping in close to the steep hillside. The water was warm too, for it seemed to bask in the middle of the sunlight from dawn to dusk. On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curved boldly up to the strong and rocky mountains, but on the opposite side the water was lined with trees— willows as fresh and green as any I'd ever seen. There were sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent branches which arched over the pool. On the sandy bank, where there was ample shade from the trees, there was a perfect spot for solitary reflection and thought. Rabbits came out of their bushes, bold enough to sit on the sand in the evening even when somebody was sitting there. On my first night back, I'd been privileged enough to see a lonely deer come to drink in the dark. I've been told since that I was extremely lucky because so few of such beautiful creatures live in these beautiful parts. There was an ancient path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path which had been historically beaten hard by people coming down from the nearby villages to swim in the deep pool, but we hadn't been bothered by any unwelcome intruders yet.

In my spaciously comfortable white tent, my faithful lieutenant talked to me about the girls; who had reacted well to my absence, but also who had taken the opportunity to be giddy like children.

"Celestina was a great asset," Thalia explained modestly. "We wouldn't have got this far without her bearings."

I nodded appreciatively with a yawn as I sat down on my mattress. In an attempt to catch up with my girls, I'd kept sleeping to a bare minimum. Even goddesses got tired. "Do you think she'd ready for promotion? I could make her a sergeant."

"Defo!" Thalia agreed with a wide smile spreading across her face.

I looked at her sternly, having mildly rebuked her a few times for using too much colloquial language. "Was there anybody who did not work well?"

Thalia noticeably hesitated, the starts of a frown appearing at the edges of her lips. "Hanna wanted to stay up late, but nothing else happened."

The lieutenant's body language betrayed her lie, the eyes darting around to look anywhere except mine and the fingers nervously drumming on the side of her white shirt suggesting dishonesty. Wondering whether I should question her about it, I decided that maybe it could wait until the next day.

"Go and get some rest, Thalia." I told my lieutenant softly. "You've done a great job."

She thanked me, relieved that I hadn't pushed her about the lie, and said goodnight before leaving, knowing that I wanted to relax. She was a top class hunter, truly one of the finest to have ever graced my ranks. Throwing off my bow and quiver full of shining silver arrows, I ungracefully slumped down onto my back, appreciative of the softness of my feathery bed. My eyes closed as my chest began to softly move in and out and thoughts flooded my head. On the other side of the thin tent wall, I could hear a rabbit gently bounding around in little hops.

"My lady!" A hunter burst through the tent flaps bristling with anger. "Another man has arrived in the camp. He insists that he is here to see you."

My first thought was that it must have been a certain raven-haired, green eyed, twenty two year old son of Poseidon, but soon it occurred to me that the girl had said 'another'. Probably some creep, I persuaded myself. And I am not disappointed that it's not going to be Percy. No way.

"Threaten him with arrows, attack him with knives, punch him in the face. I really don't care as long as he is out of my camp in two minutes and I don't have to get up."

The hunter hesitated, probably wondering if she should continue to pester me when I was in such an obviously bad mood. "My lady, we tried to shoot him. But the arrows, well, they kind of bounced off."

I sat up wearily. "What?"

She repeated herself, nervously checking behind her back every few seconds as if she thought that the man was creeping up on us. With a tired roll of my eyes, I threw off my cosy blankets and slung the quiver and bow back round my shoulder. In most cases I wouldn't have hesitated to be up and fighting, but walking almost continuously had affected even me badly. The girl, I was pretty sure that her name was Rebecca, gestured for me to follow her with a new confident expression on her face. She was one of the newer recruits and definitely one of those who weren't independent yet, only reassured once I had joined the fight. At a light jog, we snuck between the rows of white tents and I peered round the corner to the massive bonfire which sat in the camp's centre.

I let out an animalistic growl. "Girl, have you really dragged me out of my bed to see my uncle?"

Poor Rebecca looked confused, embarrassed, scared along with a whole host of other emotions and to be fair, I could've hardly expected her to recognise the God of the Sea when she'd never seen him before. But still, that night I hadn't been in the mood to get out of bed.

He spotted us from the camp fire where he was chatting seriously with the girls, especially Thalia. "Ah! My dear niece! How do you fare?" He called, gesticulating for me to approach.

I told Rebecca to return to her tent before moving towards him as he had asked. Poseidon, what on earth was he doing there? I rarely, if ever, spoke to him and yet there he was in the middle of the strictly female hunter camp.

"I need to talk to you, Artemis." He told me gravely, once I had reached the fire. "I don't suppose that there is any water around here? Being solely on land makes me feel kind of edgy."

All of us gods had our domains and I could understand that he felt vulnerable without his water but I still made a big show of rolling my eyes and beckoning for him to follow me. Silently, he walked behind me as I took him out of the camp and next to the glistening green river that I'd been admiring earlier.

Now to find out why he was there in the first place.. "Uncle, why have you come to talk to me?"

Poseidon was tall and broad, dark of face, with kind eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him was defined: strong, welcoming hands, thick arms, a carefree and stubbled face. He took off his fishing hat and wiped a sweat-band from his forehand with his finger.

"I would like to see my son, he does not know how concerned I am about him." Poseidon told me wearily. I guessed that he had worked hard to find me.

Expecting for him to develop, I didn't answer immediately. "So... why have you come to me?"

"He's here, with you, isn't he?" His eyes pierced mine, trying to read me to see if I was lying.

I shook my head honestly. "No, I haven't heard from him since he left."

Poseidon's forehead wrinkled into a concerned frown. "That is... worrying. He's being concealed by one of the gods, I recognise that much, so naturally I assumed that you were helping him to hide from me."

His search of me seemed to have concluded that I wasn't the guilty Olympian, however quick it was. Of course I knew exactly who was responsible, it didn't take Athena to work it out, but the real question was, should I tell him? It was obvious that if I told him that I knew then he would want to know how, and then I'd have to tell him that it was Percy who'd been attacked before. He'd probably have a conflict with Ares and Zeus and then there would be another Olympian war. But if I didn't tell him, he wouldn't be able to help the boy. I could barely imagine what Ares would be doing if it was true, that he really had captured the boy.

"A god! Surely not, there must have been some kind of mistake." I faked surprise, my mind automatically making the decision– sacrificing the boy was the only option because in the interests of just about everyone on the planet an Olympian War had to be prevented. . There was still one thing that I could try, though. "Where did you see him last?"

My uncle seemed convinced at my feign of surprise. "The cursed city," He told me grimly. "The one place on the surface that even us gods never approach."

I nodded affirmation. "I'll take my hunters to search there."

The cursed city was the last place I wanted to go, it would almost certainly be the last place that my hunters wanted and if what Poseidon said was true, that a god was hiding Perseus, then we would never find him regardless. So why was I risking everything to go and look for him there anyway?

Percy's POV

I still had no idea where I was, but the city still amazed me. Everything about it oozed intrigue, mystery and beauty. The occupants were almost suspiciously friendly, there was not a single bit of dirt or grime in sight, every single plant was healthy and lush. I just felt like it was impossible to put a foot wrong. I could almost forget the task that I'd been given by the War God, the metaphorical crossfires placed on the heads of all of my friends.

Something wasn't quite right, though. I didn't know quite what it was but there was definitely something, something that I was seeing but not observing. A demigod, especially one as experienced as me, could generally feel when there was trouble afoot and however much I was enjoying walking down the shining, tiled boulevards, I had already decided that I wanted to leave as soon as possible. To do that, I needed to complete my first assignment – fighting Zeus' favourite demigod son, the best bare-fist fighter ever, within the next 24 hours.

"I'd better get something to eat," I told myself. Over the last few years, talking to myself had become a bit of a habit and it was somewhat difficult to drop.

From my backpack, I brought out some of the cooked rabbit that I'd brought with me from my supplies at the hut It was strange that the meat had become my staple food considering that before my exile I would never have touched rabbit. What desperation does to you, eh? The moment that my food was out in the open, the eyes of everybody in the street suddenly turned to stare at it intently. Their expressions got noticeably more wild and deranged as quickly, they started the charge at me. Tens of people who just minutes before had been jovially waving 'good morning' and 'nice day, isn't it?'. It suddenly occurred to me what was so weird – I'd never seen any of them eat, not even at the restaurants in the main square. The food in my hand had changed them to a desperate, almost bloodthirsty state. I did the only thing that I could think of, dropping the food and running for my life. When I looked over my shoulder a couple of minutes later, all I could see was a massive pile of suddenly animalistic people, fighting like dogs for the smallest of scraps. This city was quite obviously cursed.

Thalia's POV

It's undeniable that I felt a strange kind of feeling of prestige upon finding out that I was the only hunter to have been briefed on the mission, the only one. Just me. It made everything feel very covert, like one of those spy movies which everyone raves about. For your eyes only, etcetera. On the other hand, it really wasn't a privilege to find out that our destination was the 'Cursed City'. Now I had no idea what said city was, but my educated guess was that it wasn't exactly a popular holiday destination in the Bahamas. It's not a well known story, but basically the tale says that once upon a time, thousands of years ago, the occupants of the city boasted that they had the finest city in the world. Finer than Olympus, Athens, Rome and all of the great cities in history. The ever merciful Olympians decided that they wouldn't kill all of the citizens, but let them live in the city for eternity always hungry as a punishment for their greed and arrogance. Nice, I know. So yeah, as I was saying, I knew where we were going, when we were going (straight away) but I still didn't have any idea why. My lady hadn't indulged that amount of detail on me yet, and one of the first rules of the hunt was that you didn't question her decisions.

We set off very soon after Artemis had come back from her meeting with Poseidon, which told me that it must have been important because I knew that she was absolutely shattered. Although I knew that she was as fatigued as she'd been in a long time, she was good enough at hiding it that nobody else could tell. The march was no different than usual, a pace of a quick job with a rearguard slightly lagging behind and the scouts fifty metres ahead. We were two abreast but chatting, as ever, was limited to improve stamina and speed. Silently, I hoped that Lady Artemis would be able to make it with enough energy to complete what was obviously such an important task. As much as we liked to pretend otherwise, we hunters were severely weakened when our leader wasn't present or in condition to fight. I glanced across at her, noting the steely and determined look on that crafty face. Whatever it was that we were doing, she was obviously pretty resolute to get it done.

Back to Percy's POV (It is a Percy Jackson story, after all).

There was a girl who I kept seeing in the streets, a girl who I could have sworn that I recognised. The first time I'd seen the her I'd assumed that I was just hallucinating, the sun was hot, my mind was addled and I hadn't eaten very much since leaving my hut on the beach. The second time, I'd persuaded myself that it was just a coincidence that she looked like the girl who I'd once known. But after seeing her again, this time she'd been walking down the main road with a look of astonishment on her face at the ancient buildings, I knew that my memory was correct. Everything about her blonde hair, pulled back into an untidy ponytail, was clearly familiar. But not only this, I'd seen that wise, knowing and maybe slightly condescending face so many times before. Once I'd got close enough to her face to see her eyes, the deal was sealed. You simply didn't get two demigods with eyes as grey and defined as hers. By definition they were unique. It posed an obvious question: what was Annabeth Chase doing in the Cursed City?

It disturbed me, upset me, shook me. This hadn't been how I'd been expecting to see her again, this certainly wasn't where I wanted to meet her again and it was a little disconcerting that she didn't even recognise me. When I'd approached her to take a peek at her eyes, I'd been sure that she was going to see me and remember me as the guy who'd been her boyfriend for a few years and best friend for the years before that. I'd had this little dream scenario playing on repeat in my head whereby I'd 'accidentally' bump into her and then she'd recognise me and we'd talk and catch up and generally do all of the things that I'd missed for five years. Well, in the end I didn't have the guts to do it. Yes, they call me the 'Saviour of Olympus'.

"What on Earth are you playing at, Jackson?" I heard a biker's voice behind me before feeling the full force of the War God's speciality punch into my spine. Managing to keep myself upright, I quickly turned round to face him. None of the mortals around us had cottoned onto what was happening yet, leading me to wonder if he was cloaking me from them as well as the Olympians now.

"What do you mean?" I wheezed, unsuccessfully trying to hide my pain.

He punched me again, this time with a full blow to my stomach. It took a whole lot of control not to wretch and puke. "You've been in contact with the hunters, haven't you?"

Oh, how I wished that I had Riptide. "No!"

His fingers played with the hilt of his massive, black sword - it was obvious how much he wanted to run it through me. "Don't lie to me, Jackson. They're on their way now and I sure as hell didn't call them. But only we know about our little agreement, so it must have been you who alerted them."

I coughed crimson blood onto my hand with a grimace. However grateful I was that they were presumably coming to help, it wasn't really doing me any favours at that point. For the first time I cursed Artemis' quick thinking which had obviously allowed her to connect the dots.

"Well." Ares continued malevolently. "I promise that they are going to have a little surprise waiting for them as soon as they enter, but they won't be here for a couple of days yet. We need somebody to pass the time, don't we Percy?"

As soon as I said it, I knew that he meant the blonde-haired daughter of Athena who I'd been staring at for the last twenty minutes and it occurred to me that she probably wasn't there by coincidence.

He noticed that I'd worked it out. "I'll call her over, shall I?"

Again, not the longest of chapters but still took my fair share of effort. I think that the second half of the chapter is rubbish, but I had to write this all out and proofread it in only one evening because I was at the theatre yesterday, so it was difficult to get this one up on time. So yeah, reviews would be nice. We're on 90 at the moment so the obvious target would be 100, but I want to aim high. So I am going to aim for 110-15 reviews by the end of this chapter. Maybe a little ambitious, I know, but it will show how much you guys value the story.

Thanks for reading, even bigger thanks to those of you who will review. Remember, I make sure that I answer your reviews by submitting one of my own every chapter so you can check that out too.

Bysie!