Thalia: Artemis has a new mission for the recovered Hunters and me
For the past two or three weeks, my Hunters had been nursing their pride from that fateful match with Gabriel. I had already recovered three times over but they had not been as quick until now. Now, Artemis was appearing to me in a vision during the darkest hours of the night and she looked hurried. "My lady, what is it that you request of us in these late hours and in our sleep?" I asked.
"I have a new assignment for you, one that will benefit Camp Half-Blood in this fight against Prometheus' regime. It will be dangerous but the rewards will be more than enough for the other Hunters to recover their pride from the fight against Gabriel," she explained. "I'm listening," I said. Yes, I was listening because there was nothing else to do in my sleep besides that right at that minute.
"I wish for you all to fan out and see if you can find the hideout of Prometheus. It will be a great thing for Gabriel to know and any additional information will be most useful in your fight against him," Artemis explained. "But how can we do something like that when everybody else has failed?" I asked. "You're Hunters of Artemis, you're trained to do these things and besides, it will probably have some glory in it for you all," Artemis answered.
"Yeah, glory in slaying who knows how many skeleton soldiers and maybe a few really powerful monsters here or there," I replied. "I assure you there will be enough action for the Hunters of Artemis to redeem themselves. Phoebe would be quick to pounce on this opportunity if she were in your place," Artemis said. That was cold, I knew it and to explain briefly Artemis and I were not exactly on the best of terms right now considering that her desire was only to have me be a Hunter until the time of the prophecy passed.
I had wanted to stay in service longer and Artemis agreed until I saw Gabriel defeat the Hunters with ease. That day gave Artemis a sense of mistrust in my leadership when it was Phoebe who had made the first shot. I even told Artemis that in my report and now I have gotten the firm suspicion that she suspected I was bad for not preventing Phoebe from starting a confrontation. Either that or it was because in spite of my efforts, I let a man beat down our group and I was a bad example of Artemis' idea of female superiority.
Oh well, I thought about all that and I began to wonder if in different ways women and men were equal and Artemis was just being a bitch. I'm sorry but I guess I am kind of a maverick to the ways of the goddess. One of my things about her ways was that men weren't all bad, just that some were and I have evidence to back that up. But when you're dealing with a goddess that's thousands of years old, you might as be talking to a steel wall for I could help it.
At any rate, I kept her word in mind and talked to Annabeth the following morning about her mission in case there was anything useful. "For one thing, Hyperion was the one behind all while trapped in the form of a cobra (the gods let him escape with some of his power in exchange for his freedom from the tree then Gabriel took the rest to reduce him to such a small form). Epimetheus helped him so I guess that Prometheus knew about it too, which seemed reasonable even to Gabriel," she began. "What's happened to Epimetheus if Hyperion is dead and this Saturn's Land has been destroyed?" I asked.
"That's not the only thing we found when we got there," Annabeth answered. She went into every last detail about the mission except for a few she said Gabriel wanted confidential, between her and him. When I found out about Brian containing the essence of Saturn in exchange for a regenerated arm, I kind of felt sorry for the boy. She even told me that before leaving, Epimetheus had been killed by Saturn for them to see and Hyperion had used his power to regenerate back into the god of light that he had once been.
This all took place after she returned from her mission with Gabriel and I had to wait another two days before I could take off for the mission. Overall, I got that Hyperion and Epimetheus were both dead in their attempt to assassinate Saturn, Saturn himself was confined to the regenerated arm of one of his own children, and we had scored a decisive victory in spite of Allie's treacherous part in it. When I told Phoebe about the new mission, she was overjoyed just as Artemis had predicted to me during the dead of night. "Why don't we go now?" she asked.
"Because I need as much information from Annabeth and/or form Gabriel about their mission as I can get. Better for us to have a start on the hunt for Prometheus than just to blunder on and miss what could be a potential clue," I answered. "You are always so nervous to start these hunts, why is that?" she inquired. "I'm not nervous, I'm alert for something to come that will lead to a more decisive conclusion in the hunting of the subject in question," I told her.
Most of the Hunters overhearing the conversation agreed on that matter and it was brought to a swift conclusion. "See what I mean? You blundered and it cost you the argument whereas I carefully researched my facts and used them to verbally cut you down," I told her. Hey, just because I'm a daughter of Zeus doesn't mean I know everything and am wiser than Athena for crying out loud!
I was glad that Chiron approved of us leaving and he had somewhat of an idea where Prometheus may be. "The Rocky Mountains have been an epicenter for the powers of both the Olympians and the Titans. Continue forward from here and you go into the domain of the Titans and vice versa. The mountains that Prometheus had been chained to were once that same way so I believe that the Caucasus mountains he was contained in have probably moved with the rest of us," Chiron explained.
"That will be a good starting place even if he isn't there, it will be best to try that. My only worry is if the Rockies would be big enough to support an army that could assault Camp Half-Blood," I said. "If he spread them over the entire mountain range that is more than likely but he will probably want his soldiers closer to him rather than spread thinly across an entire mountain range," Chiron agreed. "Then why search for the Rocky Mountains with that being said?" Phoebe asked.
"Because with Prometheus you never know, it's impossible to predict someone who already knows what's destined to happen up to centuries before it does. He probably foresaw this very conversation if his power to see the future extends to cover many people," I answered. Chiron nodded in agreement and suggested that I move with the information that Annabeth provided when she returned the next day. After that we were off and I never realized how soon we would be returning to camp for the battle against the Titan Prometheus. We would be back very soon indeed and we would be ready for it all or so I told myself when our expedition began.