Chapter 43
Percy POV
"Hey I'm still here aren't I?" I asked, facing the young goddess.
"If it were six inches to the right then you wouldn't be," Artemis replied before her expression softened. "Come, let's fine Tia to patch you up." She said leading the way into the camp.
I followed behind Artemis slowly, the battle having drained my strength considerably leaving me to tiredly shuffle behind the goddess. It was early in the morning as I had left late the night before, due to Nico and Mrs. O'Leary's disturbance in the night most of the hunters were still in bed so we arrived at Tia's tent.
"Tia, are you up?" Artemis asked knocking on one of the tent poles. "Percy's managed to get himself shot." The way she said it made it sound like I was an idiot.
"Coming, milady," a tired voice called out from the tent. A moment later a dishevelled looking Tia emerged from the tent still in her nightwear, she took a second to look at my wound. "Come on," she yawned before leading the way towards the nearby medical tent.
"Lie," she commanded as we entered the medical tent, clearly not over the moon at being woken up to patch me up. I did as she said and lay on the single bed that ran along one of the walls while Tia rummaged in some draws looking for the correct supplies, a minute later she turned around.
"This'll hurt," Tia warned me. Before I could reply she had grasped the shaft of the arrow and begun pulling it free from my flesh. She was right, it hurt like a bitch. "Drink," she said handing me a glass of nectar which I gulped down relishing in its taste of my mom's cookies.
Thunder rumbled overhead and Artemis looked to the sky even though we were inside.
"Father is calling a meeting," she said looking back down at Tia and I. "Percy you should come as well, Apollo will finish the rest."
"Can I go back to bed milady?" Tia asked before yawning again.
"Fine," Artemis relented. "But I expect you girls to be up by the time we're back." Tia nodded before leaving me alone with Artemis. She put her hand on my uninjured shoulder and flashed us to the throne room.
The throne room looked the same as it did the last time I was here with 14 various thrones arranged in a U shape The sky above was strikingly blue with not a cloud in sight allowing sunlight to flood the vast room. Various gods were flashing in and taking their places in their personalized thrones, Hades, Zeus, Hera and Apollo were already seated.
"Apollo!" Artemis called out to her twin when we arrived who looked up from his i-pod. "Percy needs healing."
Apollo stood from his throne and shrunk down to mortal size before inspecting me.
"Looks like an arrow wound," he observed.
"It is, Tia was halfway through treating me," I told him. Apollo put his hand over the wound causing me to flinch. His hand glowed golden and the pain in my shoulder ceased. "Thank you, Lord Apollo," I said respectfully. Apollo nodded to me and returned to his throne, Artemis followed his lead and grew to her godly height and seated herself on her silver throne and I was left to stand awkwardly in the middle of the giant room.
"Percy," Artemis said gaining my attention, she waved her hand and a simple wooden chair appeared at the base of her throne.
"Thanks," I said sitting myself down as the final gods flashed into the room.
"Now we're are all gathered, we are here to discuss the recent attack on the underworld," Zeus called out silencing the small conversations that had broken out between a few of the gods. "Hades, would you please inform us of what happened."
"Well Nico was visiting when Alecto informed me that monsters were climbing out of the pit," Hades started. "Nico and I as well as an army of mine managed to push back the initial assault although Nico begun to tire so I sent him, as well as Percy's hellhound to fetch Percy."
"Dude, Percy has a hellhound?" Apollo asked in awe. "Sweet!" He shrunk down in his throne slightly after receiving a number of glares for interrupting. "Sorry," he muttered under his breath.
"As I was saying, Nico went to retrieve Percy who arrived shortly after alone, I found out later that Nico passed out." Hades continued after the interruption. "Moments after Percy arrived the titans Perses and Iapetus joined the battle. Percy fought Iapetus while I fought Perses, Percy will be better able to tell you about his battle," he said and all eyes in the room turned to me, catching me off guard.
"Well like, Hades said Iapetus and I fought. It was a stalemate until I used the water in the Styx to overwhelm him and took the advantage and was able to kill him. I was going to help Hades fight Perses but I was shot in the shoulder before I could get to them." I informed the council of gods who looked impressed at me being able to fight Iapetus alone whereas last time it took Nico, Thalia and I to subdue the titan.
"While Percy fought Iapetus, Perses and I battled," Hades continued from where I left off. "I managed to kill Perses and then my army finished off the rest of the monsters." He finished.
"Do we know why Tartarus attacked the underworld?" Athena asked thoughtfully from her throne, Hades shrugged.
"My best guess would be to try and use the souls of the dead in his army, but that's just a guess," Hades theorized.
"Should he attack again, do you have the forces to defend yourself?" Zeus asked his elder brother.
"With the help of my son and if needed my nephew I believe so," Hades answered.
"Very well," Zeus said. "Does anyone else have any information pertaining to Tartarus and his plans?" he asked the room, receiving only shakes of the head in response. "Artemis, what are the hunters currently doing?"
"We haven't moved since the attack by Pallas a few days ago," Artemis answered her father, leaving out any mentation of Zoe. "I hope we'll be on the move again soon."
"Good, you and your hunters are vital in weakening his forces before they can amass," Zeus told his daughter. "Does anyone have anything else to address?" Zeus asked the room full of gods, no one spoke up. "Alright then, meeting dismissed," he said before disappearing in a flash of lightning.
The other gods followed Zeus's lead and began flashing out of the throne room until only Artemis and I remained.
"Let's go back to the hunt," Artemis said shrinking down to her usual 12 year old height and putting a hand on my arm, in a flash we were standing by the campfire back at the hunt.
"Hello milady," Thalia said noticing our return. "How was the meeting?"
"Hello Thalia, the meeting was uneventful, as usual," Artemis replied to her half-sister.
"By the way, Nico woke up and has gone back to the underworld," Thalia informed us. I was a little sad that my cousin hadn't hung around to say hi but I couldn't blame him, the hunters weren't the most welcoming people to hang out with.
"Speaking of waking up," Thalia said. "Zoe's been asleep all morning and no one has been able to wake her."
"Don't worry about that," Artemis said with a wave of her hand. "I'll explain later." I forgot that Thalia and the rest of the girls didn't know I made a deal with Nyx and still thought that Zoe was possessed, I wasn't sure why Artemis didn't just explain then but I'm not one to question a goddess.
"Percy, come with me," Artemis said walking away from where we had been stood, leaving me to follow behind.
"Why haven't you told them about Zoe yet?" I asked her as we stepped into Artemis's tent.
"Because we haven't finished our little conversation yet," she said emotionlessly making me sweat in nervousness about the conversation that was about to occur. "Now, what did you mean by 'you like me'?" Artemis asked.
I had to swallow my nerves down before replying.
"I… err… well," I started off weakly. "It's what it sounds like I guess," I said nervous that I was about to become a furry woodland creature. "I like you."
Artemis just looked at me, her face devoid of emotion.
"That doesn't clear anything up," Artemis told me and I realized that I'd just repeated what she already knew.
"I like you Artemis," I repeated. "Like a lot."
"And when you say like, you mean-"
"I have a crush on you," I muttered quietly looking down at my shoes which were suddenly the most interesting things in the universe. Artemis was silent, leaving me sitting there with my heart pounding in my ears. "Please don't turn me into a jackalope," I said a little more audibly.
There was a flash of light, at first I thought she was unleashing her true form to smite me where I sat. I remained looking at my shoes until Artemis put two fingers under my chin and lifted it up making me look at her, she was older, around nineteen or twenty. We looked at each other for a moment before Artemis brought her face close to mine and closed her eyes and kissed me.
It was only for a couple seconds, our lips met, barely brushing against each other as my heart continued to pound. I felt like a weight was just lifted off my shoulders, not just that I wouldn't become a woodland creature but also that Artemis liked me back. The kiss was short but sweet (literally), it was perfect. Artemis opened her eyes and pulled back.
"I like you too." She said quietly, her face remaining close to mine, her breath tickling my skin. Artemis stood up straight and smiled at me. "Now, let's go tell the hunters about Zoe."
We left Artemis's tent and I however my mind stayed behind, still thinking of our brief kiss. Does this mean that we're a couple? I thought to myself I was about to ask Artemis but we'd arrived at the campfire that had all the girls gathered around.
"Are you all here?" Artemis asked quickly counting heads as she stood in front of the group of girls, "Good."
"What is it milady?" Phoebe asked her mistress.
"We have some news about Zoe," Artemis said, piquing the interest of all the girls even the newer hunters who never met the former lieutenant. "Percy somehow got in contact with Nyx."
"The primordial of night?" Thalia interrupted.
"Yes," answered Artemis answered giving a slight glare towards Thalia for interrupting. "He then made a deal with her and in return she cured Zoe. She's asleep right now but when she wakes she should be herself again."
Smiles broke out amongst all the elder hunters at hearing the news that the old Zoe would be returning. Phoebe stood from the log she was sitting on and to the surprise of everybody (none more than me) pulled me into a light hug.
"Thank you for returning my sister to us," she said in my ear before pulling back.
"Did our Phoebe just hug a male?" Lola asked shocked and received snickers in reply.
"If any of you mention it ever again I'll beat the crap out of you," Phoebe warned while sitting back down but the girls just giggled again.
"How did you manage to convince Nyx to help? Actually, how'd you even get in contact with her?" Maddy asked me.
"That's a good question," my girlfriend(?) agreed.
"I asked Thanatos to arrange a meeting as he's her son," I told them.
"Who's Thanatos?" asked Heather, still being new to the Greek world she didn't know all the minor gods.
"The god of death," I answered.
"I thought Hades was the god of death?"
"No he's the god of the souls, Thanatos is death himself, like the grim reaper that's Thanatos," I clarified to the daughter of Iris.
"You asked the grim reaper for help?" Heather asked, shocked at how causally I said it.
"Yeah, he kind of owed me for saving him in Alaska," I said confusing those who hadn't heard of my quest with the romans further.
"But how'd you get Nyx to agree to help, surely she wanted something in return?" asked the daughter of Athena, always looking for answers.
"I just said I'd do her a favor," I explained to them.
"And that's it? She just agreed?"
"Basically," I shrugged my shoulders. "She's a primordial who knows why she does anything."
The rest of the day was spent with the hunters asking me questions about my deal with Nyx. It was currently dinner time and the hunt and I were seated at the table all just finishing off our meals when we heard a rustle from behind.
"Hello milady, and Percy is that thee?"
AN/: I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review, it really helps me with motivation to write, the more reviews the sooner I'm likely to upload.
I'm going to try and keep Zoe's old English because I feel like that's part of her character but there might be some mistakes with my use of thee/thy/thine sorry.