...And I'm back. College is starting again, like tomorrow, so this is going to be the last update in a while.
Remember, reviews make me happy and give me motivation!
Wary.
Evidently, the feeling was quite mutual.
Orion stared at the Hunters, raising his hands in an I-come-in-peace gesture. The girls stared back, unimpressed.
"Greetings," he waved in an awkward attempt to appear affable. "My name is-"
"We know thy name," the girl in the lead interrupted.
"Right," he was about five seconds from breaking into cold sweat. The tension was palpable. "I'm here to join the Hunters."
"So we have been told." The girl did not sound happy.
"Ah..." he struggled to think of something to say. "Thank you for not shooting me on sight?"
"The goddess forbade us," she said dismissively, recognizing his attempt to break the ice for it was.
"Ah." the short, one sentence answers, along with borderline hostile stares were freaking him out. "So, does one of you mind showing me around?"
Orion was designated the honorable job of cooking food for the entire camp. He got the feeling the girls had done this in an attempt to be ironic. Orion just thought they were being petty.
A man doing a woman's job, while the actual women hunted...Yes, Orion thought this was exactly the kind of situation in which the Hunters would find humor. All at his expense, of course.
He put up with it, though. Partially because he had to, and partially because...well, Artemis was kind of cool.
He had been a hunter, after all, before the whole incident with Merope and the hot iron. Hunters worshipped her by default, and he made it a point to follow their example.
He wasn't even sure why he insisted on sacrificing to the goddess. He certainly didn't have to, considering that being Artemis's bane meant that he automatically was good at hunting, and being the bane of both archery twins meant that he was deadly with a bow. Perhaps he wanted to blend in with the rest of the city's hunters (Oinopian would have a fit if he realized that the Orion that was Chios's best hunter was the same Orion that was an Olympian goddess's worst enemy.) Perhaps it was an act of rebellion against his mother-he had the habit of taunting Gaea every time he made a sacrifice to the gods- it was a minor miracle that she hadn't retaliated yet.
He was too afraid to admit, even to himself, that the most likely reason was to get Artemis's attention.
He was always a bit different from the rest of his brethren. For one, he was the only one curious enough to look up information about the gods before attacking them. Even Enceladus, hypothetically the smartest of the giants, was too busy coming up with battle plans to do research.
So he disguised himself as a son of Poseidon (to account for his towering figure and the ability to walk on water) and skipped to the nearest city-state.
The things he had heard and the mortal friends he made would eventually lead him to desert his siblings.
Apollo's stories were rather generic, if he were honest. Gods doing things, slaughtering Python, causing plagues...what else was new?. He was too loud, too flashy. Orion found him rather dull.
Artemis, on the other hand…
Never had he thought that he would relate so much to anyone, much less his worst enemy. Someone who clearly didn't fit into the standard of expected behavior? Check. A person who rejected her destiny in favor of pursuing something else? Something that he could get behind: he didn't like being told what to do, either.
The fact that she liked spending time in the forest didn't hurt his opinion of her either. Orion was completely and utterly entranced.
So he made his sacrifices, partially as a peace offering, and partially as a prayer to meet her in person. Now that he got his wish, his admiration didn't end.
"Orion!" a sharp voice called.
...Although, it would be nice if he could get along with her Hunters.
He straightened. "May I help you, Phoebe?"
The ginger-haired Hunter regarded him distrustfully. Orion was starting to get tired of the suspicious glances, though they didn't exactly mistreat him.
"You've been scrubbing for the past thirty minutes," she told him. "You're going to wear a hole through that thing."
"There's still burned food stuck at the bottom of it," he tried to protest.
"Whatever. There's a new recruit that came today. Zoe wants everyone by the fire."
It wasn't until a week later, when the said new recruit, Agatha, worked up the courage to ask Orion if his new eyes were detachable that he truly felt that he fit in with the rest of the Hunters. Apparently, his mechanical eyes had drawn the curiosity of many, and now that the dam was broken, Orion found himself bombarded with questions.
Artemis watched from afar, satisfied. It had taken more than a month, but the biggest obstacle had been overcome.
Maybe this arrangement would work out, after all.
Thus concludes section one of this fanfic. Section two will be posted once I'm done writing it.