Percy POV

The first thing that hit me as soon as I woke up was the intense wave of pain I was feeling. I was in a small cave, probably far away from my camp. As I got up, I winced in pain and fell onto the hard stone, grazing my face. The floor felt wet and warm. My eyes looked down, and were greeted with the sight of my own red blood. Then, I saw my scars and, all of a sudden the memory came flooding back to me, giving me a new kind of pain. Mental pain. How will I survive, I questioned myself. My body could barely move and I was starting to crave some food.

"Help," I croaked, immediately wishing that I hadn't. My body ached from the pain of just talking. It seems as if I've had damage done to my windpipe. As I lay down, I remembered the feeling of despair and helplessness I had felt back during the first Titan war, when one of my closest friends had died on board a ship we had been trying to blow up, all because I hadn't been able to evade Kronos' attacks. Now, I was feeling that all over again. Soon, I would be dead, just as Annabeth wanted. I lay on the floor and thought. Just thought. That's all I was doing. 'Let death come', I thought bitterly. Anything was better than the pain I was feeling physically and spiritually. Anything.

Artemis POV

Now I was pissed. I am an excellent tracker, possibly the best on all of Olympus! However, still, I could not find this one boy. Ever since Zeus had ordered me and all the other Olympians to look for him, it was all I and my hunters had been doing for the last 5 days. We had literally travelled miles just trying to find him, and still hadn't been able to. From snowy mountains to rocky rivers, each place held its own trail, but none of them led up to Perseus. Looking back, I saw all of my hunters panting, which was rare for them. They could almost always keep up with me, but I assume walking since 5AM in the morning for 12 hours straight had taken a toll on them. Had it been up to me, I never would've looked this hard for a male, but Zeus had ordered it, and after all, it was the only decent male in the history of males. Feeling tired myself, I sat down. Almost as if I had started a chain reaction, every hunter collapsed onto the floor. Some sat down lightly on the grassy dirt, while others literally flopped down with a loud thud. Sitting down, I remembered the last conversation we had all had with my Father.

"Olympians, I come here bearing grave news," Zeus Lord of the Sky told us.

Great I thought. What could be so bad that he had to call a whole meeting to discuss it? I hoped that it wasn't something to do with his latest affairs. That made things really awkward most of the time.

"You remember Perseus Jackson, don't you?" he asked. Well of course I remembered him. How could I forget the champion who saved Olympus not only once but twice? While he said this, I wondered if we were gathered here because of him. Last time I checked, he was safe in his cabin with that Annabeth girl he loved. I only remembered Annabeth because she had the potential to be an excellent hunter, had she not gone running off with boys. At least it was Perseus. Why would Father worry about him, especially seeing that he was a son of Poseidon and Father hated all sons of Poseidon. My question was answered immediately.

"This evening, he got lost. All they found was a pool of blood that went South." My mouth gaped. Alright, that was definitely not what I had expected and, judging by the expression of most of the other gods, they hadn't been expecting it either. Perseus Jackson was the best fighter Olympus had ever seen, beating Area himself on an occasion, and that was when he had little sword fighting experience! How could he have been wounded? Something had happened to him and now our best hero was in danger. Straight away, all the Olympians started bickering with each other, but none of them was louder than Poseidon.

"My son!" he bellowed so loud that I could feel Olympus shaking. I looked into his face and saw one emotion. Pain.

"My only son!" He started sobbing, and I felt sorry for him. I knew first hand what it was like to lose someone you cared deeply about when my oldest huntress Zoë had died a few years ago on Mount Othrys. The emotional pain had been so unbearable that my control over the moon had slipped for a while. Zeus raised his hand and slowly everyone quieted down until all you could hear was Poseidon crying on his throne. Even Zeus seemed sad that Perseus was lost, although he hid it rather well from everyone. That probably comes after years of hiding affairs from Hera.

"This hero has helped us in many ways throughout the years," he told us. "We owe him too much. Does anyone disagree?"

No one said anything, and it was clear that they all, including me, agreed.

"I call for a search!" said Zeus. "All the Gods will be split into hunting parties to find him. Whatever happened to him must be reversed. Chiron said that he was missing, last seen heading down the beach. This is an order, and must be correctly followed."

He started dividing all the Gods up until only I remained.

"Artemis, will you and your hunters travel the land to find Perseus?" he asked, yet I sensed fear coming from him. I knew immediately why he was scared: he thought I would say no at the idea of hunting a male. However, we weren't talking about any male. We are talking about the most respected male ever. He saved Olympus twice, slew Kronos, fought giants and even held the sky for me, which I had deemed impossible for him. The least I could do to repay him was help save him from whatever had harmed him.

"My hunters will leave tomorrow," I told Father and Poseidon, and I knew they were both very happy. I wasn't too happy about the idea of hunting a male but, like I've said about fifty times now, it's Percy Jackson, the most respected male known to exist.

"God's and goddess," shouted Father. "Happy hunting." On cue, the Olympians flashed out, one by, one, until only Father, Poseidon and I remained. I sighed, ready to flash, but was stopped by the sea god.

"Artemis," he started, choking back a sob. I felt sorry for him, truly. Percy has gone through a lot and I know that, no matter what anyone said, Poseidon had white knuckles every time Percy went on a deadly mission, which was about half of them. "Bring my son back for me please," he asked. I gave a small smile, only because of how sympathetic I was feeling, and nodded at him. Then, I flashed out to tell my hunters the news. We were located near Olympus anyways. Our first stop would be to Camp Half Blood, where we would ask his girlfriend some questions. Then, we would follow the wind. I was born from the Lord of the Sky, so how hard could that be...

…Very hard, by the looks of how we had done over the last few days: I had expected to find him in less than a day, and here we were, at the end of day five. If he's injured, he's probably dead from dehydration by now, unless being a son of Poseidon gave him some anti-dehydration ability. I'll search for another week or two, and then he'll probably be starved. No point in searching for a dead body.

Dusk was approaching and we hunters were tired, to say the least. I wanted to continue searching, but one look at my hunters, and I knew that there was no chance of continuing. They looked half dead already and, no matter how much Perseus had done for us, I wouldn't risk the lives of hunters to save him. I'm sorry, but their lives are much more valuable to me. We decided to set up camp for the night near a forest and a cave system. There might be a stream nearby, and lots of game by the melodious sounds of deer and other juicy animals, which would hopefully do something about my hunter's groans of hunger and thirst. My Lieutenant, Thalia, helped set up the tents, and within 15 minutes, everything was set up.

"I will be in my tent if you need me," I told the girls and trudged off to my tent. It was silver, with a golden lining. Inside, it was a mess, but I didn't care. Irritated I figured out that a bit of alone time would be all I needed to feel better. My reputation of the best tracker was at stake, as well as a boy's life. Tomorrow, we'd leave in the morning and try to find Perseus again. At least, I hoped, but I had no idea what the fates had planned. Eyes slowly shutting, I flopped onto the bed and closed them, drifting into an anything but peaceful dream.

When I woke up, I could just tell that it would be a confusing day. The sun had only just started rising and, from what she could tell, it was only 4:45 AM. After seeing how tired my hunter's had been yesterday, I decided to cut them some slack and give them some extra sleep. We could make a move at 6:30 instead, just for today. Feeling bored at the thought of going back to sleep, I got dressed and went out to explore the caves. I'd always loved caves. They seemed to strike as confusing, yet a great place for exploration. Slipping on my hunting boots, and quickly doing the laces, my fingers weaving the two laces with ease after years of experience. Then, I grabbed my hunting jacket and walked out of the tent. It was chilly. Wrapping the jacket around me tiger, I continued walking down the camp, careful not to wake up any of the obviously tired hunters. Once I reached the last tent, I started jogging towards the nearest cave. It had an O shaped mouth, with a warm look to it. Quickly, I slipped into it, feeling comfortable by the new sensation I was feeling. Breathing heavily from my small jog, I started walking down the cave, my shoes making small clicks as they touched the cave's smooth stone floor.

This cave was great, with many exquisite twists and turns that made me even more eager to explore. I felt like a child being introduced to a cookie for the first time. The time by now was probably 7:00, but I didn't care. I knew that the hunters would be awake by now, and were probably choking down their food. Us hunters never have been good cooks. We mainly got the food, and then went into town every now and then to get someone to prepare it for us. The days we couldn't, it was up to us and our creativity to make dishes. In all truthfulness, I can't remember a single time that the food was actually nice.

What caught my eye as I was leaving was a red glint. The cave was dark, but I could still make out something red on the floor. Cautiously bending over to touch it, which was a pretty stupid thing to do, I felt something sticky. Upon raising it closer for examination, it was safe to say that I had indeed stumbled upon some blood, and wherever there was blood, there was a pretty good chance of there being an injured, or worse dead person nearby. Someone was either dead or dying. Quickly, I ran into all the caves nearby, feeling a sense of urgency, searching for someone. There was no time to rouse everybody awake and I was too far away from camp anyways. It took nearly fifteen minutes of frantic searching before I was rewarded with a small, weak sob. It sounded almost as if it had come from next to me. A sob could only mean one thing. Someone was alive and in there. Bracing myself for whatever horror I was about to gaze on, I took a deep breath and walked into the cave to my left. Unfortunately, I was right, and there was someone inside. The fates plan weird things, even for us Gods. Right in front of me, lying in his pool of blood was none other than Perseus Jackson, most likely dead by the looks of his many wounds.