*This chapter was written by Metal Pen with some minor edits by me

Chapter 4 – True Nature

Percy was erratically sorting through many different boxes within what Artemis would only ever have been able to describe as a literal treasury. Dozens of chests were forced open because of their overfilled contents. How Percy had been able to amass such an amount of gold and multiple vibrant shades of gems that littered the sea of golden objects before her was just beyond her. How he'd been able to even think about doing that while hunting Dragons was almost unfathomable.

"Percy, what... W-what am I even looking at?" She asked him with a faint stutter. The room itself was quite large with ten plaques hanging on the sides of the walls, each one the size of her body. One of those plaques at the very end of the room held a magnificent four horned head with an open maw filled with glinting silver teeth. The skin of the beast was scaly yet had a beautiful gleam to it where the light reflected in a spectacular gradient.

"Dragons like gold Artemis and I am no exception. Half of this was the horde that Mirroth had gathered together, the rest I've retrieved from hunting High Dragons who don't deserve a place on my wall." He gestured towards the Dragon's head as he said this. From one chest to another he continued to pace around the brazier lit wooden room that was several dozen feet underground next to the base of the river in the centre of the valley. His home really was beautiful and Artemis wondered how he'd come across it because from the outside the entrance was a very small cave opening but inside it had the look of a modern cabin.

"So this was your first. Gods they're such beautiful creatures." She whispered. The sheer size of Mirroth's head was amazing and what with the Dragon being silver and sharing a colour scheme, she found herself being quite fond of the now lifeless marvel.

"Thank you." Percy's voice rumbled through a chest that he was basically half inside. She still had no idea what he was looking for because all of the chests she could see were just filled with pieces of gold and gems the size of her fists.

"I was talking about this." Artemis responded dully. She sighed at him but couldn't physically fight off the humoured smile that had crawled across her lips. He'd changed so much but some of it she couldn't help feeling was for the better.

"I'm a Dragon too Artemis, don't compliment me such and then take it away, it hurts my feelings." Percy finally reappeared, sporting a rather impressive mock pout and folding his arms. He looked too cute to have actually pulled off faking a temper tantrum but there was no way that she was about to admit that and yet, her smile still stayed on.

"Nice to see that you're not constantly stuck in 'War against the Dragons' mode and have time to crack a smile and a laugh." She pointed out with a happier tone than before. She saw that in his hand he held a small dagger that was made from what looked like a... Yup, he was holding a small horn that had been filed and sharpened to emulate a rather detailed dagger.

"Is that what you've been falling into chests to find?" She looked on, trying to get a better view at it. From what she could see, it was a cream coloured horn with a charred 'blade' made from the tip of the horn. It had carvings all around the base and handle but she couldn't see what they were meant to be.

"I haven't fallen into any chests, you're the only woman I've even spoken to in the past few months." He told her with a completely neutral expression on her face. Artemis just stared at him as though she genuinely couldn't figure out if he was being dense or he genuinely had thought she meant something else.

"Oh, you mean the... Right, sorry, anyway yes, this is what I've been looking for. It's the horn of a High Dragon, won't do much against a High Dragon but anything less than that will be killed pretty quickly with a few deep stabs with this, so I guess what I'm saying is... Here." He said, extending his hand towards her, offering her the horn. She looked down at it for a few seconds as she realized what he'd been saying. He was actually giving her something that he'd fought hard for.

A Dragon was gifting her something from it's treasury, she wasn't the professional on Dragons out of the two of them but she knew enough to know that it was no small gesture whether Percy realized that she knew it or not.

"But... Why? I appreciate it but that's a bit out of the blue don't you think?" She asked him with only a single raised brow to suggest that she wasn't sure how she felt about receiving something that would have been precious to the giver.

"If you ever encounter a Dragon and I'm not there to kill it then having something like that is the only way that you won't be destroyed or whatever you Gods do. Slowly reform over many years sounds about right from what I hear." Percy muttered the last part but to Artemis she'd only been focused on the part where he was ensuring her survival if she was ever to be pitted against a Dragon without him. He may not have realized it but even the small gesture that he didn't want her to be hurt was something that had struck her far more that he'd probably even meant it to.

She was about to thank him before something very peculiar struck her mind. "If you can only kill and Ancient Dragon by being an Ancient Dragon then HOW did you kill that one." She asked, only then realizing that he wouldn't have had the sworn made from Mirroth's Dragon Silver while he was actually fighting against Mirroth herself and he'd already said that nothing else would be able to kill one.

"I've already told you Artemis you just haven't been able to see through my words." He began slowly with a slight sigh. What he was going to say next must have been of some importance otherwise he wouldn't have been so bothered about having to put it into words for her understanding.

"Artemis." His voice was more focused and his green eyes were locked with hers. She couldn't look away even if she wanted to. "I AM a Dragon." He put so much emphasis into his words that she finally understood it after him having specifically told her that exact sentence so many times.

"Do you understand what I'm telling you?" He finally looked away which seemed to free her ability to look anywhere other than his mesmerizing eyes which held such mirth yet at the same time a destructive promise to bring unfathomable wrath to anyone that dared to challenge him.

"I think so, but just to make sure, please explain to me how you killed Mirroth." She told him quietly, choosing to pace further down the room to get away from his close vicinity. What was wrong with her? She'd never allowed anyone to be that close to her for such a long amount of time but here she was completely compelled by finding out the extent to the changes within him that she was willingly following him down a dangerous path and more than that, she was the one that was willingly getting closer and closer to him all the time.

Percy sighed once again before sitting on the top of a closed chest. This was the part that he hated to dwell on more than anything. "I have a small... Problem that arose shortly after the curse took hold of me and then one other time when I fought against Mirroth." He started to explain, never once letting his gaze fall upon her but instead he seemed mesmerized by the flickering fire within the brass brazier on the opposite side of the room.

"What you see before you is of course Percy Jackson, I make no claims that I am not, but..." He stopped briefly as though he was trying to figure out how he could word his thoughts. "But even physically I am a Dragon. Sheer emotion surfaced when I faced Mirroth and I brought down the silver Dragon with my claws, my teeth and the fire fuelled by my unyielding rage. Do you understand now Artemis? What I currently look like is what I chose to stick with because I cannot control my true form yet, I would salt the Earth with my own fire if I stayed in it for too long." His words stunned her into total silence.

He really was a Dragon through and through, just like he'd told her from the very beginning. His words had been vague from the start and she'd suspected that this was the case but she'd also been in denial about it because of the fact that this changed everything. It WASN'T just his instincts and personality but his flesh. He had scales, he had talons and most of all, he was a Dragon of fire which directly conflicted with his godly nature from being the son of Poseidon. The rage of the seas and the wrath of a Dragon were fighting a constant battle inside his body.

"I shouldn't have pushed... I... I'm sorry Percy, I didn't know that you would... I just." Artemis was just so stunned that she couldn't even form a sentence, she was constantly trying to apologize for causing him to tell her that when it so clearly weighed heavily on his heart.

"Calm yourself silver Goddess, it feels good to have finally been able to tell someone and there aren't many others that I trust so don't beat yourself up about it." Percy told her before she got herself into too much of a tizzy.

"So." Artemis began after a few seconds of silence while she gathered her composure. She was a master hunter, the GODDESS of the Hunt, she NEVER lost her composure during the times she preyed on the most notoriously dangerous of beasts yet here she was, in the home of a Dragon and feeling like she'd destroyed the friendship she had with him. She pointed at the mounted head, still wanting to hear the rest of the story now that she knew the absolute truth behind the face of Percy Jackson.

"Yeah, I killed Mirroth by returning to what I truly am but from that fight I now have a weapon made from an Ancient Dragon, I can hunt the nine others without endangering everything I care about." He told her, finally regaining some of the mirth that twinkled in his eyes and pulling a slight smile. She liked that nothing seemed to actually be able to get him down after telling her. It seemed that he wasn't lying, he did feel better after being able to tell someone about it.

"Anyway, I've already got everything I need, next stop is the Black Forest in Germany, quite aptly named as well because WE are going to hunt down the one called Azazel, the black Dragon of death." He told her with a cheery smile on show.

"You know that it's hard to believe you when you smile like that, right?"

"Well what have I got to worry about? My sword can kill anything and most of the time I can reach a half transformed state if I want to. It's a lot weaker but I can control it. Still not used to the weight of my wings though." He muttered casually as he seemed to be constantly finding a new verbal train of thought.

"OK but before we go... What colour are you, I'm just curious." Artemis looked innocent but Percy's senses told him that she had probably already theorized about it and just wanted to confirm her suspicions.

"I'm a very bright shade of green, like my eyes." As he told her that, he held up his left and right arm in front of Artemis' eyes, his skin bulged from the elbow onwards to show her scaly green hide with lean muscles underneath topped off with glinting razor-sharp grey talons at the tip of his fingers. After a few seconds it had returned to how it was before.

She couldn't help it, she thought it was beautiful the way that he had gained at least some level of control over his primal mind, the way that he could bring it out and send it back, to suppress the inner monster. His strength of will to have come as far as he had was intense.

"OK, Azazel, here we come." Artemis announced before she took both herself and Percy half way across the world. The moment that they found themselves to be surrounded by forests, she was caught by surprise when after not even a second she had been tackled to the floor by Percy who was on top of her, a hand cradling the back of her head and another over her mouth to stop her from making any noise.

She was alarmed and not at all happy to have been handled like that or the fact that Percy was still practically straddling her at the waist but he of all people would not do something like that without a VERY good reason. She noticed little things before seeing the bigger picture. He was silent, his gaze set on something in the distance and his nostrils lightly flaring to signify that he was silently breathing in, the scent of something thick in his nose.

Slowly he pulled a hand away from Artemis' mouth and placed a single finger above his closed lips. He got off of Artemis but remained almost prone as he pulled his silver sword out of the sheath he held on his back. It made such a small sound that Artemis herself had struggled to hear it from a few feet away. Before he pulled it out all the way he suddenly stopped and just remained as still as a statue with Artemis doing the exact same.

A few seconds of tense silence had passed by where Artemis was totally clueless as to what was going on. "Shit, he's found us, COME ON!" Percy boomed, grabbing Artemis' hand and bolting down the side of a hill. She still hadn't even been able to open her mouth once and Percy was already rocketing away at speeds that she was struggling to keep up to him with.

"Azazel has caught my scent and I have no idea how it's so much stronger than usual." His voice was distorted by the wind that whipped around the two of them but she could still just about hear him.

"If we find a river we'll be safe, untrackable and I'll fill you in on everything. Don't even hesitate to go in the water, I am still the strongest son of Poseidon ever, if I say that you're going to be unharmed by being in my domain then there's not a damn thing that my father can do about it, now let's go." He told her, still setting the rapid pace that was constantly impressing Artemis. Just what else did he have hidden up his sleeve?

In the distance, a roar echoed throughout the sky and vibrated across the land. Birds left the tree tops in flocks one by one like a Mexican wave of wings. "Kom fin nir kiin, Azazel!" Percy's booming voice matched the previous roar in sheer volume. What language even was that!? Artemis' eyes bored into the back of Percy's head, had he just declared war on the Dragon that had given them a fresh response in the form of turning the sky red with fire.

"Hahaha!" Percy's laughter reached her ears and sent her into a world of her own that she was brutally ripped out of when she saw Percy skid to a halt and turn to face her. She hadn't even begun to slow down so it surprised her to no small amounts when instead of crashing straight into him, he had simply placed his hands gracefully inside hers before pushing himself backwards off of the little rocky outcrop they'd ended up on. He pulled her down with him off of the edge of the miniature cliff, the vast blueness of a lake sat beneath them as they plummeted towards it.

He'd found a water source and already put his plan into motion and now the only thing that was left was for them to safely enter Poseidon's domain without him killing Artemis for doing so without permission. She hoped Percy was right about that, after all, she wasn't sure she was going to be rational once she was stuck underwater with a prince of the sea, she might end up doing something she'd never have ever thought she'd do with all of the sheer thrill and adrenaline pumping through her body from the act of witnessing a war commence between two Dragons, two extremely powerful Dragons.