Chapter 4 ~ Let the Hunt begin

"So Percy, what are you going to do with your newfound information now?" asked Hecate to him.

Percy and Hecate had returned to the cave after Demeter's departure. It was almost midnight and Percy rubbed his eyes. He shrugged his shoulders at Hecate's question. He sighed.

"I just don't know. How could I ask for an audience with Artemis? I'm not even sure I want to meet her. She's known to have a temper. She might kill me. You said that seeing a true divine form would still turn me to ash."

Hecate shook her head and put a hand on Percy's shoulder.

"She's still your mother. A mother doesn't kill her own son," she said. "What if she loves you? Wouldn't that be worth it? To at least try?"

"Ha," Percy snorted.

Hecate raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Love me? Not kill me? That mother disowned me after I was born! She took one look at me and realized she didn't want me. I bet it could have been different if I had been a girl, but no, because I was born with a dick of course that automatically means I must be an evil bastard!" spat Percy sarcastically.

"I'm sure it wasn't anything like that," Hecate tried, but Percy interrupted her, something one shouldn't normally do with a goddess, but Percy was too engrossed in his tirade to realize it.
He ignored how Hecate irritatedly raised both eyebrows and grabbed him a little tighter by the shoulder.

Instead he said "In a forest she abandoned me. Not even an hour after I was born. Selene told me so. She found me in under a tree, in the dark forest on a rainy night. This goddess has tried to kill me before, I will not run into her arms just so she can try a second time. Selene is my mother, not Artemis."

"What about your father?" asked Hecate.

"Didn't really have one. Uncle Helios visited me a lot, but he was still more of a cool uncle than a real father. Chiron also taught me a lot of things, but he's also more of a teacher and mentor to me than a father."

"No, I mean your biological father. Lycaon."

"What about him? I highly doubt her undying love for him would stop Artemis from harming me. Please, how could there ever have been anything between those two? They hate each other, they are mortal enemies. Each has killed several dozen on the other's side."

"But how did they relate to each other before you were born? This fighting between them hasn't been going on as long as you might think. All I remember is that their rivalry started in the last ten years or so. What if they were actually together before you were born?"

Percy looked at Hecate somewhat skeptically, only now realizing how close they actually were. Her eyes were very dark, almost black, but if you looked closely you could see a hint of purple in them.

"And what do you suggest then? Should I look for Lycaon and ask him about the circumstances of my birth?" he asked.

"Why not? Aren't you curious?" replied Hecate with a counter question.

"He is a werewolf, the king of all werewolves. He might not be too keen on meeting me if I'm the son of his arch-enemy."

"You're his son, too. While I don't necessarily think that would stop him from trying something, that's just it. He couldn't really hurt you because unlike Artemis, he doesn't have a divine form to roast you with. He's the safer bet, Percy. He can tell you more about your birth, and even if he does decide to sic all the werewolves in the world on you, none of their claws and teeth could penetrate your skin!"

"He could still capture me. I'm pretty sure I could handle a few werewolves, even their king alone, but against a whole pack?" asked Percy scratching the back of his neck. His mother hated it when he jumped into a situation without thinking, and this one especially required a lot of thinking. This wasn't a matter of life or death. He could just go on living happily and never meet his parents. Should he really risk all this just for his curiosity? What if what he would find out would destroy his relationship with his mother?

"Well, my dear," Hecate said, putting her hands on her hips. She looked Percy in the eye and said, "Then I guess I'll have to make sure you don't get captured. This is going to be fun. I haven't been on an adventure in a long time."

"You want to come with me?" asked Percy, surprised.

"Oh, you don't want me along?" asked Hecate mockingly, clutching her heart exaggeratedly. "Don't you like me?"

"No! Uh, I mean yes. I mean, uh, who wouldn't?" stammered Percy.

Hecate said nothing and just continued to look at Percy expectantly. Percy looked back questioningly.

Hecate rolled her eyes and asked, "Can I come with you or not?"

"You are a goddess. I think you can do just about anything without me being able to do anything about it."

"I won't force you to endure my company, Percy. I asked you, not ordered you to take me."

"Sure you can. Probably be a bit boring to go off on your own, wouldn't it?" asked Percy with a grin.

Hecate smiled happily.

"Great, thanks Percy. You have no idea how boring immortality gets after a few hundred years. Such adventures bring new spice to a dull life."

"Dull?" snorted Percy. "You've got to be kidding me. You're a goddess. The goddess of magic. Not goddess of boredom. Surely there are always interesting things you can do?" said Percy, pointing to the glass container with the myterious hybrid creature inside.

"That's just a little side project. After a few hundred years, you've experienced almost everything there is to experience. At least, the things that happen to you naturally. You have to forge your own destiny in order not to go insane. That's why an adventure like this is so special to me. And besides, the company isn't necessarily bad either."

Percy grinned broadly. "Not necessarily bad, huh. Don't worry, I don't think you're necessarily bad either."

Hecate laughed. "If I didn't know better I'd think you were flirting with me."

This time Percy couldn't stop his cheeks from blushing, but then something caught his attention. "Wait a second. What about the ancient laws. I thought gods had to avoid direct interaction and were only allowed to help in a limited manner? Doesn't coming along on this kind of quest violate that rule?"

Hecate shook her head. "We're not allowed to interact too much with our demigod children and common mortals, but you're not one of them, Percy. Through your veins runs the blood of a goddess of Olympus and the king of werewolves. Not a bit of mortal blood, which means we don't break any rules."

Percy nodded in understanding, but then abruptly jerked his head up. "Does that mean I'm immortal?"

"Most likely. I could tell for sure if I could get your blood. Right now, though, I'd classify you as a monster on a purely technical level." At Percy's pouting reaction she added "Just technically okay? If you died, you would turn to dust and be reborn in Tartarus after some time."

"Wow. Wait a minute, didn't you just tell me how boring immortality is?" grunted Percy questioningly.

"Only if you let it be and don't start having adventures. And trust me Percy, you'll have plenty of adventures," Hecate chuckled.

"Speaking of which, do you actually know where we should start looking for Lycaon?"

"Well I don't know where Lycaon is, but..."

"But?..."

"...But I might know what he's hunting at the moment. I've heard from Apollo that he's heard from Hermes, that he's heard from Medea that Lycaon is looking for the Ceryneian Hind."

"The sacred animal of Artemis? Is this some kind of revenge action or something?"

Hecate nodded "In his latest fit of rage, he has decided that he will kill the hind to taunt Artemis with it. Or maybe he thinks he'll get magical powers or something if he eats the Ceryneian Hind's flesh or something. That's actually interesting, I still need to investigate that..."

"I don't think he wants magical powers. Well, probably he wouldn't say no to that, but I think you were already right with your first theory," Percy said.

"And why is that?" asked Hecate.

"That would be the ultimate slap in the face. It would be like offering you dog fillet to eat, or drowning a herd of horses in front of Poseidon," said Percy. "So off to Cyrenia, then?"

Hecate nodded and almost seemed giddy. She clapped her hands and a pile of camping gear appeared on the ground.

Percy whistled through his teeth. "I guess it must be good for something to have a goddess with you on a quest, huh?" he said with a grin.

Hecate grinned back. "But no teleportation, I want this adventure to be real. The path is part of it! We can meet other adventurers in host cities. We can fight bandits on the trails and search caves for lost treasure along the way. It's going to be awesome!" Hecate enthused, thrusting his fist into the air. Percy couldn't help but be infected by her mood and thrust a fist into the air as well.

"Monsters will block our way," he shouted, "but we will defeat them all. We will find a legendary creature and face the king of werewolves!" He held out a hand and Hecate grabbed it.
"Let the hunt begin!" she shouted, and Percy laughed.

"Oh, by the way, do you know where Cyrenia is?" he asked her suddenly.

"Just a few thousand miles over land and sea. Might take us a few months to just get to the region. We'll also have to find a ship for the journey over sea," Hecate answered still smiling.

"Wait, what?"

"Cyrenia is on the island of Cyprus, my dear, and it's not just around the corner. But you can worry about that tomorrow," she said, clapping her hands together. Two beds appeared in the middle of the cave, separated from each other by a purple curtain floating in the air.

"There, now lie down and rest. Tomorrow we'll start," Hecate said cheerfully and dropped onto one of the beds. "And stay on your side, mutt," she added with a sleek smile.

Percy rolled his eyes and settled down on the other bed. It was actually incredibly comfortable, much better than any other he had ever slept on. "Well, let's hope it stays that way and I don't get blown up in the middle of the night," Percy grumbled, closing his eyes. The last thing he heard was the soft giggle of Hecate on the other side of the curtain, and he thought to himself that he would like to hear that sound more often.

As it turned out, Percy should have been at least a little worried. He and Hecate had left the very next morning. Well, not quite the next morning. First they had gone back to Elis to get Percy's belongings and tell Selene their plan. To say that Percy's mother thought their adventure was a stupid idea would have been an understatement. She had resisted vehemently and said that it was too dangerous. Percy had replied that he was old enough and had to find his own destiny. Besides, it had helped to mention that he was pretty much invulnerable and that Hecate wanted to accompany him.

Finally she had agreed to let him go and Percy had gone to his place in the temple, in wolf form of course, to get his possessions. Since he didn't really own much, he decided to just take his favorite cuddle pillow and blanket. A man has to take care of priorities, after all.

"Please take good care of him. He means everything to me," Selene said and a tear like molten silver ran down her cheek. Hecate hugged her friend tightly and said "Of course I'll take care of him. If things go south I can always flash us out of there. You have nothing to fear, Selene. He's strong."

"What if he likes her better?" asked Selene gloomily.

"Who Artemis? We're looking for Lycaon," Hecate said, confused.

"Yes, but what if the answer he gets from him makes him seek out Artemis. What if he'd rather be with his real mother. Or gods protect us his father?"

Hecate took her face in her hands and forced her to look at her. "Hey, you raised him. You protected him. You taught him everything. You changed his damn diapers and held his hand when he had his first boo-boo," she said.

"He never had a boo-boo. Couldn't hurt himself," Selene said with a weak smile.

"Yes well that may be. But the rest is true. You are his mother and no matter what we find on this trip, nothing will change that. You can't be replaced by a woman who was never there for him and abandoned him in a damn forest. Never forget that."

Selene nodded and wiped her tear away just as Percy returned. Back in his human form, he was just approaching the two of them when he was already enclosed Selene in a hug. "I'll be fine, Mother," he said, hugging her as well.

"I know. I know, my son," she replied, hugging him to her. "Good luck on your journey," she said, finally letting go of him. "And bring me back a nice souvenir."

Percy grinned broadly and saw Hecate nodding at him encouragingly. And then the two walked through the city gates of Elis.
That was now four months ago. Percy's birthday had been two months ago and now he was sixteen years old, a man in the eyes of the people of the time. In fact, he had missed his own birthday by a few weeks. Keeping track of time was difficult as they walked through half of Greece on foot and it was only when he asked Hecate how long they had been walking that it struck him.

She had no gift for him, but had requested that he at least be invited to a meal at a tavern. They had already arrived on the island of Cyprus and now had to make their way to Cyrenia. And so it happened that they sat together at a table in a small inn on the road there.

"Ah sweet loukoumades, how I missed you," Percy sighed and shoved a handful of the pastries made of deep-fried dough soaked in honey into his mouth.

"I still can't believe how you can shovel an entire lamb chop and then two loads of dessert into yourself," Hecate said incredulously.

"I have to eat so much. Want to get big and strong, after all," Percy said with his mouth full "And we haven't had anything this great for a while."

"I guess you're right about that. Although you've eaten quite a few rabbits and hares on our trip, too."

"Because they're easy to hunt and you refuse to snap your fingers and conjure up barbecued oxen for us," Percy said grumpily.

"Oh come on Percy, surely that would change the experience of the adventure and make it all far too boring. Although I'm actually getting a little sick of the fire-roasted rabbit."

"It doesn't have to taste, it has to work," Percy said, tapping his arm muscles. "And besides that, you had no problem using your magic to beat the crap out of those bandits," Percy said with a grin.

"And I held back. I could have turned them into maggots with an incantation and a flick of my finger, but no, for the experience of the adventure, I did the dirty work and beat them up with my own hand," Hecate said, her nose raised up in the air.

"A hand with a magic super torch in it that shoots flames in all directions," Percy snorted.

"Oh shut up," Hecate said with flushed cheeks, crossing her arms as she looked off to the side. "I had my fun and you got a new sparkly toy."

Percy's gaze moved from the goddess in front of him to the sword at his hip. It was simple, without decorations and made of bronze. He had taken it from one of the dead bandits who had tried to attack them. It had occurred to him that a sword could be handy for parrying attacks, because in his wolf form he was faster than any normal human could look, but he had little chance of blocking attacks. He couldn't really receive damage from such an attack, of course, but it was still not pleasant to be hit by a sharp piece of metal. And after all, there were other things in this world than normal people.

The duo finished the meal and paid the owner of the inn with a few coins courtesy of Hecate. Before leaving the inn, Percy asked him how far it was to Cyrenia.

"Cyrenia? Three more days on the main road from here. What brings you there?" the man asked with interest.

"Hunting," was all Percy said.

"Ah, someone like you came through here a few days ago, also headed for Cyrenia," the innkeeper said.

"Someone like us?" asked Hecate with a raised eyebrow.

"Someone who looks strange and definitely doesn't look like a normal hunter. He also asked about Cyrenia and oh boy, he was the tallest man I've ever seen," the man said. "And he had a damn lion's pelt for a cloak and a huge club at his side."

Hecate and Percy exchanged a look.

"And he said he wanted to go hunting too. Is that in fashion lately or what, hunting in Cyrenia?"

"Thanks for the information," Hecate said with a charming smile, pulling Percy out the door.

"What do you think of that?" asked Percy.

"I don't know, Percy," said Hecate, one hand under her chin. "But when Heracles is involved, things usually get loud, bloody, and interesting."