Hey! So this is a story request from sketchywolf. If you have any reviews or comments please review the story!
I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or Artemis, or anything like that.
Ben's POV:
"Hail, Ben and Cassandra Snow, son and daughter of Artemis, goddess of the moon." The only thing I felt was, instead of happiness, confusion and, maybe some anger. How could my mother be Artemis? She was a virgin goddess. Chiron, too, didn't look happy.
"Artemis? She's virgin."
"The sign is still above their heads." I looked up and there it was. A silver bow and quiver, awash in moonlight at the campfire. Cassandra was gripping my hand and her nails dug into my skin, and suddenly, both of us were running.
"How can it be Artemis?" I exploded. "I thought it would be a guy…" Artemis was not supposed to be my mom. I already had a mom. Amanda Snow. There was never a father figure in the picture though- Mom is ex-army, she's now a lawyer. When she sent us to Camp Half-Blood with a satyr Cassandra and I assumed it was probably Ares or something. Hephaestus? Hermes? Just never Artemis, virgin goddess of the hunt who swore off men.
Cassandra is my twin sister. She has auburn hair but she dyed her bangs yellow so they matched Mom's. She always loved Mom's blond hair, over her own. She's got gray, silvery eyes, which make sense now because of Artemis, because Mom's eyes are blue. My eyes are silver too, and hair is also auburn, though I style it like Newt Scamander from Fantastic Beasts, it's pretty short and curls sometimes and is a bit fluffy in the front. We've both got a kind of different style, we're kind of competitive but we love each other in the end of it.
Cassandra wears Mom's worn-out army jacket, she loves to sketch. She's really good with a bow and isn't the greatest as sword-fighting. I on the other hand am pretty good but she's better with archery. I like to wear my blue hoodie from mom. Cassandra can talk to animals, but I can't. I just assumed she was kind of weird. I guess it's an Artemis thing now.
"I don't know. But she must have had a good reason," Cassandra says. She isn't holding my hand anymore, but I'm still mad.
"No! She was, is, apparently our mother. If she fell in love deeply enough to have kids, not one but two, she should've at least stuck around to care for us. I want to go back home. Maybe Mom will know- I bet she knows she didn't give birth to us." I started to walk away but Cassandra grabbed my hand.
"No, Ben! We're safer here, Mom is safer when we're away. Artemis had her reasons, and guess what? We don't have to sleep in the Hermes cabin anymore. At least she cared to claim us." Cassandra is always a peacemaker, but sometimes I don't want to make peace. Artemis should have claimed us. We are her children.
"Yeah, right. Luke says gods only claim us to clean up their messes." Cassandra's eyes darkened.
"I don't trust Luke." I looked at her sideway.
"Why not? He's a great guy. He went on a quest and even though he got that scar he isn't bitter or anything." Cassandra stared at me skeptically.
"Well, I just…get a bad feeling about him. I'm not wrong, Ben," she insisted, "there's something off about him." Cassandra is almost never wrong. If I had chosen the goddess that would've been her parent, I would've thought Athena. Never Artemis.
"Maybe there is, but Luke seems like a good guy to me. Should we, um, go?" the prospect of sleeping in the dusty, abandoned Artemis cabin wasn't a very exciting one, but I would probably have to if I didn't want to sleep in a cabin crowded with a bunch of the unclaimed. It was better that I was away from all the stares.
In the morning, we got news that Chiron and a daughter of Athena named Annabeth Chase had found a demigod in the woods, names Percy Jackson. He'd been with a satyr named Grover Underwood. Next to them had been the horn of the Minotaur. He was the talk of the whole camp, everyone wishing they had been the ones to slay the beast. I supposed I should've wanted to as well, being son of Artemis, but all I thought about was that if she'd kept us, we might've actually done that same thing.
Percy was claimed in Capture the Flag, a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three. Apparently more than one god had made a mistake in their vows. Poseidon, now, and Zeus had fathered a demigoddess named Thalia Grace a few years ago, but she was dead. She was a tree at camp now, that's what everyone said at least.
Cassandra and I got to pick all our own activities, say lights out whenever we wanted, and basically do anything we wanted to do as the cabin leaders of the Artemis cabin. Apparently, we might have a chance to meet the goddess if the Hunters of Artemis came through camp, but I wasn't sure I wanted to. Was it worth meeting your blood mother if she'd abandoned you when you were just a baby for a life without men, hunting monsters with a bunch of teenage girls?
Teenage girls are scary to me. Even Cassandra, and she's just a pre-teen, we're eleven. But when you wake her up in the morning? It's a scary sight.
"Percy," Chiron told him. "Normally in a quest, we take only three, enough for protection but not so many monster attacks. However, this quest is so important, we're trying to prevent a war, and so I want you to take two extra people who I have already chosen for you. Cassandra and Ben Snow are twin children of Artemis, and they have her hunting expertise at hand. I want them to go with you, that's why they are here in this meeting, along with Grover.
I realized why I'd been called to the Big House. Cassandra, listening next to me, looked at me shocked. "We're going on a quest? That's why he wants us here?" I nodded and put a finger to my lips. Cassandra was my sister but I needed to hear more.
"There is another volunteer. She's been waiting her whole life. Annabeth?" the blond child of the wisdom goddess materialized from the air, and just like that, I was part of a quest. A big quest, apparently. Quests had been banned ever since Luke had come back from one with the scar on his face. I didn't get why Cassandra didn't like him.
"Come on," Annabeth said. She was kind of annoying sometimes, but she, and all the other campers, was like family. "Luke said he had something for us."
"Cool." I saw Cassandra frowning, but seriously, what was her problem with Luke? Sure, he could be a little weird sometimes, but we were all on edge with the whole 'Zeus and Poseidon are fighting and there's going to be a war' thing.
We sat through while Luke gifted Percy a pair of boots that flew and some other things to Annabeth and so on. I was pretty sure the daughter of Athena had a crush on him. It was pretty easy to see- she'd blush and stammer when he talked to her. Cassandra watched in half-disgust, half-irritation.
Soon enough, the next day, we were on the road, driving, using the bus, to get to Persephone's pearl. We stopped for food (Grover smelled it first) at a place called Auntie Em's Garden Gnome Emporium.
What did you think of the first chapter?