Wow.

I got a review.

Thanks, people. As a new fanfic writer, this means a lot to me.

Here's the next chapter!

Warnings: references to past myths, irreverent humor, Sarcastic!Artemis

Surprise.

Her mortal (or was it immortal?) enemy wasn't what she expected, appearance wise. He wasn't like the forty feet tall Porphyrion her father had to deal with. He's definitely not like those infernal twins, who tried to stack mountains, of all the impractical building blocks they could have picked. Which were in her domain. Couple that with Otis's plans of marrying her once they take over Olympus, and they were just begging her to personally deliver her own brand of divine retribution. She thought that the killing-each-other bit was a nice touch.

But back to Orion.

He didn't have dragon feet like the giants she's seen. He was 10 feet tall, with wheat toast skin, windswept hair, and was very muscular. She would have pegged him as a demigod, probably one of Poseidon's judging from his water walking earlier, maybe would have even passed as handsome if it wasn't for-

"What happened to your eyes?" she asked in morbid curiosity.

Orion stopped in the middle of his begging for his life to answer. "M-my eyes?"

Artemis inclined her head, then realized that he couldn't see her. "Yes."

"King Oinopian of Chios b-blinded me, my lady."

"Why?"

"I was trying to c-court his daughter, Merope."

Ah.

Typical male. There was a reason she swore off romantic relationships.

But at least he was honest. Other men who had similar experiences often tried to lie to her. Those men had now been added to the wild animal population in the various city-states of Greece. Perhaps the man had better self-preservation instincts than she originally thought.

Besides, his species makes his story intriguing. A giant showing interest in a mortal woman? Practically unheard of. Most giants viewed mortals as beneath them. Pests to be swatted at worst, collateral damage at best.

Well, there was Damasen, and everyone knew how that one turned out.

It suddenly occurred to her that Orion looked the way that he did because he was meant to be her antithesis. It was like those romantic stories (read: doomsday scenarios) that Aphrodite liked to cook up and announce loudly every time Artemis was in earshot, before she made her displeasure known by pinning her to the wall with no less than eight arrows (Artemis was fairly sure Aphrodite still does that, but at least she didn't have to hear it). Artemis meets a man who is nice and virtuous. Artemis falls in love with said man, realizing that not all men are pigs. Artemis gets married.

Artemis is most definitely not going to do that and is honestly offended that people would think up such a thing. Is the concept of a being who simply had no interest in such matters such a difficult thing to grasp?

She resisted the urge to kick him away, or straight up kill him. It wasn't his fault that his very existence was an insult to her established asexuality and aromanticism. That was all Gaea.

Besides, she was short one demigod, and popping by a random nearby island to grab one before coming back to kill the giant might not be the most dignified thing to do.

She realized she had to play this in a completely different way than her usual methods. What was that mortal expression? Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer. If Gaea thought she could destroy Artemis by giving her a bane that would make her forget her vow of chastity, she had to prove that she would not give in to her nonexistent hormonal urges.

This was most irregular, but it looked like she would be having a male on her hunt.

And so it begins! Mwahahahaha.

I was originally going to have them talk it out and have Artemis let him join out of a genuine desire to befriend him. But then I realized: I suck at writing feelings, and I find it difficult for them to morph from "barely knowing each other" to "Wow, join my hunt, my new male friend!" in the span of one chapter. Besides, Artemis letting Orion join the Hunt to spite Gaea is much more fun. Don't worry. The actual friendship and associated feels come later.

Stay tuned!