The First Son of Artemis Book Two: A Mother Trapped.
Jay's POV (1st person)
You'd think being the son of the moon, I'd be able to stay up all night long. Nope. I had to sleep to, I only needed like two or three hours of sleep, but I still needed it. I said goodnight to Zoe, and switched shifts with Thalia. Thalia and Zoe weren't exactly best-friends, so I probably should've kept one eye open. I didn't however, I slumped down in my sleeping bag next to Percy, who was snoring away. I lay back on my bed roll, trying to close my eyes and drift off to sleep. I couldn't however, no matter how hard I tried.
If you had all the things I have on my mind, on yours, I guarantee you wouldn't have an easy time falling asleep either. We had to make it all the way to San Francisco, and capture Nereus, my Uncle managed to get us a train further west in the morning. I had no idea how we were supposed to capture that guy, I had no idea how I was supposed to save Annabeth, I had no idea how I was supposed to save my mother form under the sky, I had no idea how I was supposed to defeat a Titan, a lot of "I don't knows", and not a lot of I can do that's.
I may have acted all confident in front of the others; however, I was worried. I was supposed to be one of the most powerful heroes in history. Yeah, one of the perks of being the first ever demi-god/Egyptian magician. It wasn't a perk to me at all. I had a hard time doing even the simplest of magic, and I couldn't stack up to the likes of Percy or Thalia with my demi-god abilities. I rummaged through my pack and pulled out the picture I stole from my grandparent's house.
It was a picture of my parents, grandparents, and my former best-friends, Carter and Sadie Kane, and their parents. I still couldn't believe that those magicians took my memory of them. My mind felt violated, they messed with my memories, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't remember what the two of them were like, or things we did. All I had was this picture of them.
I guess I should be thankful I didn't have more memories taken away. I can't even imagine how terrible that would be, having all your memories taken away? I hope me or anyone I cared about ever had that. I put the picture away and forced my eyes closed, hopefully I would have a decent one hour of sleep.
Jay's dream.
My dream was weird, it was like I was seeing from someone else's eyes. I tried to control my arms, but couldn't. I looked around and I was in some sort of garden. A small, crystal blue stream ran next to me, with gorgeous trees, and a wonderful fresh, forest smell in the air. A slope led up, where I could see a giant tree with golden fruit hanging from it.
I recognized that tree from the myths I studied with Annabeth. The golden fruit were the apples of immortality, the ones that grew in the garden of the Hesperides. I also remembered it was guarded by a 100 headed dragon, and whoever's body I was in, was walking towards it. I tried to stop myself, but it was still completely useless. He looked down and I gasped myself, even though the body I was in didn't.
I would recognize the face anywhere. The dark obsidian eyes, the long, silky, mid-night black hair. The perfectly sculpted cheekbones, the perfect figure, and body.
It was the girl who's saved my life millions of times, Zoe Nightshade.
However it didn't like the Zoe I knew today. She didn't have that gritty toughness you saw on her nowadays. Her few little faded scars from thousands of years of fighting at my mother's side. Also, her signature scowl was replaced with an innocent looking face that had a look of massive worry in her eyes, as she looked up at me, or whosever body I was seeing through.
"Please, you can't go up there and face Landon alone!" Zoe pleaded.
I had never seen Zoe like this, it was like she was worried sick for whoever's body I was in. I was used to her pretending to be super serious and hard willed, which she was, but every now and then with me she dropped the act.
"I have killed monsters by the thousands, fear not, I am not afraid of Landon." The persons whose body I was in said confidently.
I looked down and saw the arms, rough, large and rippling. The arms themselves were as big around as my head. He certainly looked like he could take down tons of monsters.
"Please! Landon will kill you, he has 100 heads, which will see you wherever you hide! It will be the hardest of all your labors, please let me help you!" She begged grabbing his hand.
My breathing completely stopped. I knew whose eyes I was looking through now. It was the same man that almost killed me when I was 12, I was looking through the eyes of Hercules. Or as they called him in Greek times, Heracles.
I had no idea Zoe knew him, I mean I never liked to talk about my fight with him. Spoiler alert, he almost killed me and my mom had to save my life.
"How can you help me slay Landon pretty one?" He asked her.
Zoe's face completely blushed, I had never seen her blush that much. As a matter of fact I don't think I've ever seen her blush at all. She was always so strong looking, and like royalty. From this point of view, she looked like a love struck girl. Which was one the most surprising things I've ever seen.
She pulled a bronze hairpin from her hair. She handed it to Heracles, and he examined it. "How will this help me slay Landon pretty one?" He asked.
Zoe blushed again and explained. "It changed into a sword, go on press the clip." She told him.
He pressed the center of the pin and a long celestial bronze celestial bronze sword emerged from it. It took a minute but I recognized the sword, it was riptide, Percy's sword. Heracles was the previous owner of it, he got it from Zoe.
"This sword has perfect balance." Heracles said waving it around.
"It is called Anaklasmus. Use it to slay Landon, in exchange… I must ask a favor of you." She pleaded.
"Of course pretty one; in return for your help, I will do this favor for you." He told her.
"Helping you take an apple… my sisters and father will be angry. They'll cast me out, and I will no longer be able to call this place home… will you take me with you when you leave?" She asked.
The "great hero" nodded his head. "Of course I will agree to this! You are risking your family to help me, I will honor your request after I defeat Landon." He told her.
As I watched the battle between Heracles and Landon, my mind was racing. I never knew Zoe had history with Heracles, I couldn't help but feel semi jealous. No, she couldn't have. She would've told me something about being on journeys with him if she had. After Landon laid slain, Heracles triumphantly plucked an apple from the tree, and walked down the hill straight past Zoe, without even a passing glance.
Her look of admiration, turned to one of horror and sadness. She clung to the heroes arm, and pleaded with him. "You… you promised to take me with you! My family will outcast me after this!" She begged.
He pulled his arm away from her and just snickered. "Ha, I have no room on my journeys for you. I just needed your help to slay Landon. I have more important things to do then worry about you." He said to her shoving her off his arm.
Before I could scream in my mind and try to choke the "great hero" Zoe looked at me. Not at Heracles, but her eyes met mine exactly.
"Jay! Jay, Percy, come on!-."
End of Jay's dream.
"JAY, PERCY! WAKE UP!"
I jumped so high I hit the top of my head on the roof of the tent! I landed on-top of Percy, who bolted awake, with half his hair sticking up and drool down his cheek. Come on Percy, Annabeth is gone for a few days and you already start drooling again?
Zoe was in the door of the tent, the bright sun shining down on her back. "Zoe, what time is it?" I asked rubbing my head and putting on my pack.
"You said Lord Apollo got our train tickets for noon, its 9 am now, we need to get moving. Also, Bianca is in an iris message she said she needs to speak with you and Percy, and Thalia right away." She told me, as Percy and I followed her out of the tent.
Nikki, and Phoebe were up organizing our supplies, while Thalia was waiting for us near the iris message where Bianca's face was. It was beat up with scratches and burn marks. Bits of her black hair was singed off, and she looked like she had just ran a marathon. Nico was right near her in a similar state.
"Bianca, Nico, what in the gods name happened to you guys?" Percy asked them.
After taking a few deep breaths Bianca explained. "We were attacked, a group of five men attacked the camp! Nobody was seriously hurt, but we're pretty banged up, and we finally managed to put out the fires!" She said in-between breathes.
"What!? Who attacked, what did they want?" Thalia asked them.
"Some crazy dudes dressed like Gandhi! They were crazy, they demanded we give them Jay, and when we said you weren't there, they started shooting fire and lightning everywhere from these weird long stick things." Nico pipped up from behind her.
A tingle crept down my spine, guys in Gandhi clothes that shot lightning and fire from long weird stick things. That sounded like a magician. I dropped my bag and fumbled through it, until I found my long white oak-wood staff. I spoke the incantation and it grew to three feet long.
"B, Nico, did it look like this? The weird stick things that they were carrying." I said showing them my staff.
Bianca nodded her head. "Yeah that's what they had. I guessed they were magicians, but they said they came from some place called The House of Life. I wanted to call and tell you, there after you, I told them to leave you alone when Nico and I drove them off, but I don't think they'll listen, be careful while you're on the quest." Bianca said before dispelling the iris message.
My legs almost collapsed on themselves. The House of Life was after me, how in the world did they even remembered me!? Amos told me that they weren't my biggest fans since I was half-god. However I didn't have any idea how they would figure out where I was. I felt angry, they attacked camp half-blood! As soon as I saved my mother, I was gonna find them and give them an arrow to the head.
"What's the house of life Jay?" Percy asked.
Thalia and Zoe had walked off to help Nikki, Phoebe, and Grover. "Don't worry about it now Perce, right now we need to save Annabeth and my mom. Did you have that dream last night?" I asked him, since we often had the same dreams.
"The one with Zoe in it? And Heracles using riptide?" He asked quietly.
I nodded my head. "Yeah, I didn't know anything about Zoe's past." I told him.
"Well that's probably how she became a hunter." Percy explained,
Nikki walked over as she was fiddling with her blonde hair in an attempt to put it into a ponytail. "You two ready? We should get to the train station now. The tickets will get us to New Mexico, Artemis and Annabeth can only hold out for so long." Nikki said.
She was correct about that. I put thoughts of Zoe's past and The House of Life in the back of my mind for now. I focused on the task at hand, and that was rescuing Annabeth and my mom.
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Zoe's POV (1st person)
The train ride was oddly silent. I had almost gotten used to Jay, and the other males jumping around acting like complete idiots. However while we were on the train, I couldn't help but notice Perseus and Jay staring at me oddly, like they had just discovered something old and hidden away on my face. I checked the mirror, eternal youth kept my face pretty smooth, I didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
Our train ride finished in a small town in New Mexico, and right now we were taking a small break to resupply. Between Grover, Perseus, and Jay the food we had was gone relatively quickly.
"How much longer do you think before we make it to San Francisco?" Jay asked tossing a rock in the air.
"Should be another two or three days if we can find a bus to get us that far-. Grover, are you alright?" Nikki started, before she noticed the Satyr fidgeting around.
He looked like he was going to burst out of his skin. His eyes were bolding and his legs were shaking. Jay and Percy went over, and held him still, but soon before Jay started acting the same way! His body shook and he began to look around franticly.
"G…Grover do you feel it!?" He asked his head bobbling back side to side.
The Satyr bleated. "Bahhhh, yes! It's Pan I can feel him!"
"Um guys, we have more problems to worry about!" Nikki exclaimed pointing towards the woods.
Before I could worry about what Jay said about feeling the presence of the missing nature god, I saw brush of the tree-line begin to shake. Out of them emerged the skeletal warriors that had started chasing us at back in D.C! I pulled out my bow and fired an arrow, which harmlessly bounced off it.
The group closed in on us, and everything went to Hades. I was side-by-side with Phoebe, stabbing and slashing with my knives, while we tried to fend them off. Nikki, had caught on quite well to sword-play. She parried strikes, and stabbed, even though whenever she got a hit it merely knocked the warrior back for a few moments.
Jay of course was back to back with Percy, while Thalia charged with her spear, while Grover played his reed-pipes. Jay and Perseus fought like a well-oiled machine, moving off each-other's movements perfectly. If these warriors were killable, we'd have been done in a minute.
However it was not like that. We we're corralled into a circle, and each warrior had handguns aimed at us. I looked to my left and saw a warrior pull the trigger, it was aimed straight at Nikki.
"No!" I yelled running over to her.
The bullet harmlessly deflected off her. What in the…. It was the Neman Lion pelt of course! It was impenetrable!
"We need a plan!" Thalia yelled hiding behind her shield.
Jay straightened and almost keeled over! Percy reached down and helped him to his feet. Jay deflected a bullet with his knife, before standing up with a goofy grin on his face. "Oh I think we'll get the help we need!" He yelled pointing to the forest.
Out of the brush the largest boar I had ever seen came bursting out! Its tusks knocked all the warriors aside, and stomped them out! Which I knew of course wouldn't kill them, however it crippled them for a time. I recognized the animal. It was the Erymanthian Boar. It was one of the sacred animals of Lady Artemis, which explains why it came to Jay's aid! The idiot flashed that annoyingly cute goofy grin of his and petted the giant animal.
"Well great timing buddy." He said.
The Boar made a giant snorting sound and Jay nodded. "Yeah, we're on our way to save Mom and our friend. Can you give us a hand?" He asked, clearly understanding him.
The Boar nodded enthusiastically. Jay smirked and leaped onto its back. He turned to the rest of us who just looked at him with our mouth agape. "Wow… he truly must be Lady Artemis's son." Phoebe muttered next to me.
"Well!? Are you guys coming? Artemis and Annabeth are waiting for us to save them!" He yelled from atop the animal.
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Jay's POV (1st person)
Okay, I know I'm in the middle of a very important mission, to save my mother, and one of my best-friends; but, riding the Erymanthian Boar, was possibly one of the most fun things I'd ever done. It moved so fast for its size! Whenever we thought we were going to ram into a tree, he side-stepped around it at the last possible second! The trees and brush rushing past me, looking up at the beautiful half-moon. It gave me such a great rush!
Everyone else looked like they were about to puke their lunch up. Percy, who usually had a strong stomach, it almost seemed like his face was turning as blue as the food he ate. Thalia was did lean over the side and throw up once, I remembered she wasn't a very big fan at moving at top speeds like this. Hard to believe the two demi-gods who could save or destroy Olympus on their 16th birthday, were getting sick riding a pig. Phoebe and Zoe were doing slightly better, even though their heads seemed to be spinning. Grover and Nikki seemed to be completely calm, like I was.
I had to say again, Nikki really impressed me so far. She found out she was a demi-god, two days ago, it was insane the level of skill she was showing now. She was almost as good an archer as I was.
Almost.
After the ride was finally over, while almost everyone else jumped off at the first possible second, I was slightly bummed. It was nice having some fun for a change. The only place I really had fun was at camp, that's was when I didn't have to go on a life-threatening quests. I patted the giant animal's side and smiled.
"Thanks for the lift buddy. Don't you worry, we're gonna go save mom." I told it.
It let out a giant snort, "No problem Jay! If you ever need my help again just call, good luck saving Lady Artemis!" He squealed before jetting off into the forest.
I turned to my friends who were all on the ground trying not to regurgitate their lunch. I stood in the middle of them, and I couldn't help but laugh. If you were in my position you would've laughed the same way.
"Haha so did you guys enjoy the ride?" I asked them trying to keep the smile off my face.
"Jay, you are so dead if we survive this quest." Thalia muttered as she got onto her feet.
I laughed and helped Percy off the ground. He brushed himself off and turned to where we were at. It was a humongous junkyard, large heaps of scrap metal and busted machines lay in huge piles everywhere. It was a harsh unforgiving desert, and I couldn't feel any trees or greenery for a few miles. That would certainly be news for me.
"It's Hephaestus junkyard." Zoe said in amazement.
"Um care to elaborate?" I asked her.
She punched me in the arm. "You idiot! It's in the name. They call it the junkyard of the gods. All of Hephaestus's failed creations come here, or his defective ones." She explained.
I rubbed where she hit me. "No need to punch me though…" I muttered.
Nikki came up between us, and looked up in amazement. "Yeah Zoe's right, we need to be careful though. The legend says if you take anything from the junkyard, it awakens a defective Talos, an automaton that guards the place." She explained to us all.
"Okay easy then. Nobody take anything, and let's get through it." Percy said.
Nikki shook her head, she faced the whole group of us. "Not just that. Do you guys remember the line of the prophecy? "One will be lost in the land without rain", the junkyard is a desert, what do they not have a lot of in the desert…?" She asked.
We all let her words set in. It was obviously clear, the prophecy was clear. We know they often have double meanings, but you can never discount the meaning you initially think it is. What Nikki was saying scared all of us, even me.
One of us was supposed to die in this junkyard.
A/N :) Helloooo and happy new year to all of you guys! I hope you guys had a safe and happy new year! Also give all of yourselves a round of applause, "The First Son of Artemis" has over 110+ follows and favorites! And this story is on pace to smash that number! I can't explain again how thankful I am to you guys.
I'll admit it again, I thought this story was going to completely bomb, and have 0 of everything. I never expected I would be in the middle of writing a sequel, and in no life-time expected the sequel to be getting just as popular as the original! So again thank you amazing people all so much!
I'm sorry these updates are taking longer its because….. I've been working on my own original story!:D I've had the idea for such a long time, and I finally put it to paper, and am currently updating and refreshing the first chapter!
If you have any interest in reading it, go to and search for the writer domgk115, the same exact name I have here, and let me know what you think of it!
So as usual guys thank you soooo much! Please leave a review! Thank you all for reading! Have a lovely day! Goodbyeeeeeee!:)
