Time is a very complex subject. To explain its course is a fairly easy task, that is until the fact that it flows differently in two places is taken into account. If we were talking that decades passed in the natural world, it would be implying that centuries have passed in the island, but at the same time only few minutes have passed.
It's all subject to the point of view of who we are talking about. It would take a whole book just to explain the logic behind time alteration between places, and that is not where the priority is at.
Five hundred years had passed in Artemis perception of time. Five hundred years of combined friendship and hunt quests. Five hundred years of getting to know her friend in a deeper level. But most importantly, five hundred years of Artemis breaking down her barriers and allowing herself to feel as a woman is born to do.
Although five hundred years had passed in Artemis perception, only around two hundred had passed in the natural world. The world had changed much since the eighteenth century Spanish colonial era. The flame of the west had moved the Greek pantheon to the United States, making it the first time the gods had moved outside of Europe. Her domains had strengthened as there were many forest for the hunt to manifest itself, and even though the forest were being cut down, many national parks were protected by the central government, which made her important to their society.
During the five hundred years that Artemis had passed, she and Percy became even closer than best friends. They told each other everything, joked about everything, and even cooked each other meals. Artemis had taken Percy under her wing and began to teach him all about their world. The boy already knew the basic things, but many other important details and deities were left out from his mental encyclopedia.
From titans to dryads, Percy learnt the name of every being and it's role in the world. He learnt that Apollo was very annoying, that Athena was also very annoying, and that Zeus was the kind of dad who would give Artemis everything.
When he learnt about his parents, Perseus could not help but feel mad at them. He was the first son of both of them, yet they had forgotten about him as soon as he was banished. The god of tides constantly asked Artemis to let him know if his parents ever talked about him or made any effort to try to contact him. As time passed by, he got used to the negative response his friend always seemed to carry.
As a thanks towards Artemis for teaching him all about their world, Percy decided to teach Artemis all about the technology he possessed. The way he explained everything was fairly interesting, but nothing compared to the lessons Artemis gave him.
In every story Artemis told Perseus about the Greek heroes, he noticed how all of them used a weapon. Recalling even further, he noticed that every deity had some sort of weapon that helped them in their task, or simply for self defense. Even Artemis had her bow and her hunting knives.
And so, Perseus decided that he should try to get a weapon for himself. At first, Artemis lent him her bow to figure out if he would be using a long range or a short range weapon. After Percy successfully shot Artemis (who was standing behind him) in the calve, they both decided that it would be a much better idea for him to obtain a short range weapon. He tried knives, machetes, scythes, but in the end, the good old sword was the weapon for him.
After obtaining a weapon, Artemis and Percy began to train every day for around three hours minimum. They both improved greatly, giving advice to the other so it could be an even harder fight the next time. In less than ten years, both of the gods were killing machines. Nothing could stop them except each other, but that didn't seem to have any plans on occurring.
Since Artemis had returned that third time, the both of them had been more aware of each other's feelings. Even though officially they were only best friends, they both knew that they were already in a relationship. The affection was very present, it was noticeable that they were 'something'.
"Percy, the war between Zeus children and Hades kid is getting out of control. Not many deaths have occurred in the US, but millions have died in Europe. Both Zeus kid and Hades kid have concentration camps and Poseidon kid is trying to save England I think...it's a mess. I have never seen a war this big Percy, it actually scares me" Artemis hugged Percy. The Second World War had been going on for about four years, and it only seemed to get worse and worse.
Percy held Artemis close to him. "Don't worry Artemis, it's gonna stop soon. Worse comes to worst, you always have this lovely prison as your home"
"I'm not declining your kind offer, but I really think we should focus on this. It has been really bad, but somehow I think that it's gonna become so much worse. We thought that the worst the demigods could do was the civil war, when the Romans and Greeks began to have their petty fighting, but this is much different. All of them are Greeks for gods sake! They're fighting for power, but they don't realize how many innocent people they're killing"
"Wouldn't it be better if the big three abstained from having children? It seems that every conflict is because of them...or they at least take a big part of each and every one of them"
"That would be much better, but what are you going to do? Even if they make an oath not to have any more children they'll still break it. They're men after all"
"I think you're exaggerating Arty"
Artemis got up from their embrace "I swear. In fact, I bet you fifty drachmas that if they ever make an oath not to have any more children, at least one of them will break it"
Percy pondered about the bet, and finally decided to accept "deal. By what you told me, I don't even think that they'll make such an oath"
"Probably not" Artemis said shrugging her shoulders
"let's go watch Tarzan" Percy suggested
"I'm sick of Phill Collins singing. Can't we watch another?"
Percy glared at Artemis "we are going to watch Tarzan"
"I don't want to" Artemis said not affected by the glare "let's watch the grinch instead"
"The grinch? Why would I need to watch a movie about you?" Percy teased
"Why you-" Artemis launched forward and tackled Percy. He fought him off and was able to flip her around, but not before being grabbed by the legs and pulled all the way to the ground. This went on for around two minutes, only stopping once Percy hit his head on the center table. "Ow! It hurts"
Artemis, seeing as this was partly her fault, felt pretty bad for inducing that amount of pain on him. She also knew that he tended to exaggerate his pain quite a lot, so she didn't know what to expect. "Percy, where did you hit yourself?"
"Hit myself?! You were the one who made me lose half of my brain!" Percy exclaimed
Artemis scoffed "Oh please! You need to have a brain in order to lose half of it"
"Fine, don't help me. I hit the back of my head" Percy rolled his eyes
The goddess went to one of the closets in search for the first aid kit. To her, it was pretty obvious that this was the home of a man. No woman could have this level of disorganization, it was simply impossible.
It took her a while to find the first aid kit, as it was hidden behind two Jengas, one monopoly, one Sorry!, and one Game of Life. Once she had it in her hand, the moon goddess ran towards the living room, where Percy was sitting down.
As soon as he looked at what Artemis had on her hands, Percy's face paled.
"You know, I'm feeling much better. I think I don't need that" he said in a really high pitched tone
"Seems like you really lost half of your brain when you hit that table"
"No really, I'm fine. You don't need to use the kit"
"Stop resisting, it'll happen even if you don't want it to" Artemis knelt in front of Percy while he tried to move away. "Let me see the wound"
"No"
"PERSEUS LET ME SEE THE WOUND" Artemis howled at the god.
"Fine, don't have to tell me twice Great Goddess of the Hunt Lady Artemis" Perseus grumbled
Ignoring the comment, Artemis checked the open wound on the back of Perseus head. Ichor flowed like the River Nile in the back of the God's head, and a little bit of bone was clearly visible from the open wound.
"Oh no, I can see your brain decomposing from here" Artemis joked
"What?! Help me out Artemis! Please! I beg you!" Percy cried
"Fine, now let me see if I can save you" Artemis further inspected the wound "it doesn't look good, that's all I can tell you. By the end of this you might forget how to walk or how to see colors"
"You're joking right?" Percy said, stopping the tears from falling
"Let's just focus on the task at hand, ok?" Percy nodded "don't move your head"
"Sorry" he muttered
"Anyways, all I have to do is stitch this up and put on some antibiotics. We may be in mortals but that doesn't mean our microscopic friends don't like to visit"
"Is there any way that we could do this without opening the first aid kit?"
"Oh what is the fascination with me not opening the first aid kit? There is nothing-" Artemis was cut off by the sight of the first aid kit.
Usually, the inside of a first aid kit contains bandages, sterile gauzes, gloves, scissors, pain killers, some sort of alcohol to sterilize an area, cream, and stuff for suture. An item that is not expected to be found inside a first aid kit, however, is a small navy blue box. Filled with curiosity, Artemis opened the navy blue box, only to find a diamond ring.
"Yeah see that's why you weren't supposed to open the kit" Percy said
The goddess was in complete shock and struggled to come up with words. Five hundred years ago (or two hundred in the normal world), Artemis had asked Percy's hand in marriage. After being rejected, she never thought that they would ever get married. Yet, here she was, holding the hidden diamond ring which she could only assume was for proposal purposes only.
"Is this what I think it is?" Artemis asked Perseus
"Yeah. It was supposed to be this romantic gesture where I would save you and then I would ask you to marry me so I could show that I'm not the only one dependent here, but seems like reality had other plans" he chuckled
"So this is it?"
"I mean I have to ask. Give me that" Percy took the box from Artemis hands "Artemis, there are no words to describe how happy you have made me. You literally made time here pass by so fast just with your presence, you've taught me how to defend myself, but you've also taught me how to be myself. Without you, I would be a loner with no family or knowledge about my powers. But now that you're here, I have reached everything that I need to be.
"So I'm asking you right now, as your best friend and the person who will always be by your side. Will you, Lady Artemis, make me the happiest man in existence and marry me?" Percy proclaimed
Artemis knelt there in shock, the words not fully entering her mind. Minutes passed and Percy's happy demeanor morphed into an uneasy one.
"You could say no also, it's fine" he said
"You idiot, of course I say yes" Artemis hugged Percy really hard, which made him hit his head.
"Ow!" He yelled
"Oh sorry! Let me fix you up and then we can be happy again" Artemis said, earning a slight nod from Perseus.
After five minutes, Artemis had stitched the wound close and rubbed some alcohol there so that no unexpected infections occurred. Once there was no danger to be seen, the new engaged couple celebrated by doing what they were most happy doing together: watching a movie. The young couple decided to just watch a movie and be happy in each other's embrace, nothing new from what they had done for the past couple of decades.
"So Percy, now that we're getting married you can actually go outside of this island" Artemis said excitedly
"Won't your father mind that you married me without your permission?" Perseus asked worriedly
"Nah, he wouldn't do anything to you once he finds out how much I love you"
Perseus wasn't fully convinced, but decided to keep the option open. "Fine, we can just wait for the war to end right?"
"As soon as the war ends we're getting married and you're going to get the hell out of this prison alright?"
"Cristal clear Milady" Perseus declared "so, when is this war ending?"
"As soon as one of the three big demigods dies I hope" Artemis sighed
"Which one do you hope does first?"
"I honestly don't care, they're all stupid egocentric boys"
"If that's what you say..."
"They're like all boys, think they should become conquerors of the whole world and kill anybody who aren't like them. And then use the girls to create more boy soldiers and stealing their childhoods by indoctrinating them!" Artemis ranted
"I'm not like that tho"
"Well that's because you're not a boy" Artemis leaned into forward "you're a man soon to be my husband"
Hearing the word husband come from Artemis mouth made the god of tides very happy. He could not express the level of excitement that was passing through his body. After all, he was getting married to the love of his life, and a bonus of getting out of is island prison. Overall, this was the best day of his life.
At the same time all of this was happening, an ancient being began to stir in Tartarus, waiting for the perfect plan to take the Olympian throne from the gods.