Chapter 4: Behind closed doors
"Percy. We need you to chop firewood." Thalia said.
I turned to her and nodded. It's not like I was doing anything better. She handed me an ax, and out I went. The wood splintered as I swung the ax. I kept on going and going. Only when I heard my name called did I turn.
There stood Artemis. Looking at me oddly. "Perseus, that's enough." She gestured at the stack of split logs now piled on my shoulders. " Why are you chopping wood? Usually, one of the hunters does that?"
I shrugged. "Thalia told me to do it."
"I see."
~/~
"Why is Perseus doing chores?" Artemis stared at the girl in front of her.
"You encountered him before. If I don't give him something to do, he just stares at a wall or lays in bed. That's no way to live. He's half alive these days. I just don't know what to do."
Artemis wasn't one to care for men. But Perseus had been good to her hunters and had held the sky for her. He was one of the few men she respected, and seeing him as a shell of himself hurt. "We could try and get him training again. Maybe he could accompany us on our next hunt." Artemis suggested, also unsure of how to help him.
He was grieving and drowning in regret. But there was no cure for what he faced. At the end of the day, it would come down to his own personal strength. She wasn't worried because, if nothing else, he was strong.
