6. Confrontations and Quests
Chapter 6
[An Hour Later]
Hermes flashed into the goddess of the hunts tent and saw her sleeping. He cautiously moved forward, as he still remembered the last time he had to wake her up, and softly shook his half sister's shoulder. She mumbled a bit, but continued to sleep. Hermes hesitantly decided to shake her shoulder again, this time however was no different and only elicited a groan of discomfort from the silver eyed goddess. Sighing he thinks to himself (I'm going to get hurt again) before slowly putting his hand on to Artemis' stomach. The instant contact was made between the winged messenger god's hand and her body, Artemis instantly bolted upright and had Hermes in a head lock with a knife at his throat, before he could say Bob is Zeus' Uncle. Artemis relaxed her grip once she saw that it was only her stupid half-brother. "You now for a moon goddess you are extremely hard to get up," Hermes joked as he got out of the head lock that Artemis had released him from.
"What do you want Hermes" she growled.
"Our oh so kind father has asked for us to have a council meeting, something about stupid sea-spawn, broken oath, and Poseidon."
Artemis perked up, (oh no) she thought, (he must have found out about Percy.). "Of course he has, let's go Hermes, you have been at my camp too long" Artemis said somewhat politely before flashing out. The messenger God hovered there for a while, surprised at Artemis' change in behaviour, he let it slide and flashed out as well
At Mount Olympus]
The council meeting had started and Zeus was yelling at Poseidon about his lack of self-control. Artemis was sitting on her throne waiting for her father to shut up, whilst Poseidon was having a mental conversation with Zeus. "You say that my self-control is bad Zeus, what about your other child the one that Hera doesn't know about."
"What how did you find out about him? I made sure he was undetectable." Zeus asked surprised
"Yes, you did, that is until the moment that he had to cross the Tiber, do you not remember that the Tiber is water, I am the god of the sea, he could not have crossed without alerting me." Poseidon said informing his younger brother
"You will not harm my boy Poseidon, if you do I declare war" Zeus threatened
"What about your daughter, surely you haven't forgotten that she is not completely dead, or have you not told Hera about her either?" Poseidon shot back
Zeus stopped shouting and sat back down somewhat pondering the situation.
"Poseidon for breaking the oath, your child is hereby sentenced to death." Zeus bellowed. "Ares I want you to take care of the boy."
Ares looked up and smiled wickedly, "With pleasure." But before he could flash out, Poseidon again mentally conversed with his brother, this time only using three words. "I'll tell Hera."
"Father wait" Artemis piped up. "Is it not ancient law that we cannot kill a hero until, he has been given a chance to prove himself?"
"My sister is right, we aren't allowed to by the bounds of the ancient laws" Hearing this Artemis looked up at her twin with a new-found respect, "we cannot kill this spawn of the sea until after he has been able to prove himself."
Zeus looked at disbelief at his twins and caved in. "Very well then Perseus Jackson has until the Summer Solstice to return my master bolt to me, if he is unable to complete this quest then he will be struck down by me. Council Adjourned" and with that he flashed out.
Artemis sat there a mixture of emotions floating around in her head, relief that he wasn't going to be killed..yet, pride that he gets to take part in a quest and dread on how hard the quest is going to be and what would happen if he didn't complete the quest in time. Poseidon walked over to his niece and hugged her while whispering in her ear that everything was going to be alright."
Percy's POV
[At Camp Half-Blood]
That capture the flag game was an eventful night, not only did I knock out three Are's kids but I also got claimed which sent the whole camp into disarray, I was thrown out of Hermes Cabin (Literally Conner and Travis wanted to make sure I didn't leave with out their signature goodbyes so they picked me up off the floor while I was sleeping and threw me into the lake). Since then though everything had gone weird, I got dirty looks every time I passed an Athena camper, Annabeth wouldn't even look at me let alone talk to me, and well everyone else treated me like I was the king of the sea (Well technically I am the prince). I finally was able to corner her in the arena and decided to challenge her in a duel for a chance to talk to her.
Apparently as a son of Poseidon, sword play was one of my strengths and with my new sword riptide, which also happened to be the same Pen that Mr Brunner (aka Chiron) had given me at the museum, I was ready to beat her. We must have sparred for half an hour before I had her pinned down, yet she didn't yield, instead she looked as determined as ever to try and get out of my hold. "Why are you avoiding me, " I yelled at her as we tumbled around on the floor of the arena.
"Because you're sea spawn"She yelled back.
"So you can't even call me by name now Wisegirl" I challenged.
"Ahh your so stupid your head must be filled with seaweed from all that swimming in the ocean. We can't be friends any more seaweed brain."She retorted
"Why not" I said back dumbly.
She let out an exasperated sigh before explaining. "We can't be friends because our parents are immortal enemies."
"And... Who cares" I said to her as we stopped rolling, with me on the bottom and Annabeth straddling my waist holding both of my arms behind my head as she leant down dangerously close to my face.
"What do you mean who cares?" She asked confusion streaked across her face.
"Has your mum ever visited you?"I asked her back.
"NO. but.."
"Well then why should you care about your mother's rivalries if she isn't a part of your life?"
The question must have hit her pretty deep because she sat up and started thinking, all the while a crowd had gathered probably because thye heard us yelling at each other. A few of the older Aphrodite campers started giggling at us and pointed it out to other older campers. Soon enough all of the older campers were being immature and I was completely oblivious as to why until I remembered that Annabeth was still on me, straddling me, "Hey Annabeth do you mind getting off me now and helping me up."
"Of course seaweed brain," she answered as she gingerly got up and lent me a hand.
"So. Friends then?" I asked still unsure of what her answer would be.
"Friends it is... Oh and Percy..."
"Yeah?"
"I won." she smirked and and walked towards the dining pavilion while I was left there in a daze.
[At Dinner]
"Campers" Chiron announced. "A new quest has been issued by the Gods to Percy Jackson. Percy do you accept?"
"I accept the quest" I say boldly however more likely sounding like a scared cat.
"Who shall be your companions on this quest?"
I looked around at all the tables and saw Luke, Travis and Conner at the Hermes Table, Katie who sat at the Demeter table and Clarisse at the Ares table, who was giving me murderous looks, until I finally settled on the two faces I had gotten to know best around the camp. "I choose Annabeth and Grover to accompany me."
"Well then I guess its time you go see the oracle" Chiron said and he trotted to the big house with me following closely behind.
'Waking up this morning I didn't think that it would be filled with Confrontations and Quests' Percy thought as he climbed the stairs to the Attic where the oracle resided
The mummified corpse that sat on the stool next to the window spoke. "I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecy, of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach seeker and ask." I gathered all my wits about me before I could sprint out the door and run down to the ocean, and took a deep breath. "What is my Destiny?"
End Chapter
The Ocean Bluedude out
