As always, the game of capture the flag was an easy win for the hunters of Artemis. In around 25 minutes, the hunters had managed to get rid of all the defenses and had taken the campers flag. Zoë Nightshade, the lieutenant of the hunters, was the one who had grabbed onto the flag and who was running towards their side of the field.
The Hermes Cabin tried to put on a fight with their speed, but the hunters were just too good of archers to be beaten purely from the ground. The Apollo cabin tried to stop the archers, but they failed their task yet again.
There was only one little boy who managed to delay the hunters passing the division. The brown-auburn haired seven year old stood with his bow in hand, his eyes glaring at the girl running at him. He shot around five arrows, all able to slow down the girl enough for her to be in a close enough range for him to use a sword.
Noticing that the boy had taken out his sword, Zoë Nightshade put the flag on the pocket of her pant, taking both of her silver daggers for the fight. Both competitors glared at each other, daring the other to make the first move. After around ten seconds, the lieutenant of the hunt decided to attack the young boy. He defended himself fairly well with his sword, making contact with both of Zoë's daggers and dodging the attacks of the lieutenant of the hunt.
During the fight, Zoë Nightshade managed to take the helmet off the brave boy. At this action, the boy growled and began to fight with even more fury. As hard as he tried, the physical situation of the seven year old boy made it very difficult to fend against a well trained 14-year old. Even as he was losing, the boy did not give up or lower his intensity, something which bothered the hunter.
The boy continued to defend himself against the attacks he received, getting very tired. Suddenly, the seven year old was hit in the head with a metal bat, making him lose consciousness and begin to bleed uncontrollably.
Behind him stood Agnes, a hunter of Artemis older than Zoë Nightshade herself, with a bloody metal bat in hand. The lieutenant of the hunt looked at her fellow hunter in shock and slight disgust, as her comrade had just hit a seven year old in the back of his head, possibly killing him.
"Hey, boy" Zoë began to poke at the little boy, receiving no response.
Campers and hunters alike gathered around the scene, calling a silent truce to stop fighting while they dealt with the serious matter.
"Is that Hector?" "I told him he shouldn't have played" "is he ok?" "Who would do something like that to a kid?" "Somebody help him" the campers said all at once, taking part of private conversations all covering the topic of the little unconscious seven year old.
The crowd began to part as a frantic Artemis ran towards the scene. When her eyes landed on Hector, her face quickly changed to desperation. She made her way to the unconscious kid, taking his vitals and making sure he was still alive. Then, she looked up to see the hunter who had done such a cowardly act.
"Agnes, did you do this?" Artemis asked in a low voice, scaring the gods out of everyone present at the scene
"Y-yes Milady" Agnes muttered
"Go to my cabin and wait for your punishment. I do not wish to see your face right now. And pray to anybody that he comes fairly unharmed from this, or there will be Hades to pay. No go" the hunter stood paralyzed in shock. "Are you deaf or are you stupid? GO TO MY CABIN NOW" Artemis yelled
The hunter ran towards the silver cabin, not looking at her mistress in fear of being killed where she stood. All onlookers backed away from the fury that the goddess of the hunt radiated. Artemis picked the boy up in her arms and walked towards the infirmary, with Chiron trailing right behind her.
Artemis placed Hector on a bed, examining his wound with great detail. Noticing how bad it was, she had no other choice but to call professional help.
"Apollo! Come here please!" Artemis yelled at nothing.
Waiting a few seconds, Apollo flashed inside of the infirmary, wearing a tank top, shorts and his signature sunglasses.
"Hey little sis! What do you-" he was cut off by the sight of his nephew with a head injury
"Help me heal him Apollo" Artemis said frantically, ignoring the way Apollo had called her
Apollo nodded and proceeded to turn around, "Chiron, if it isn't much of a bother, I would rather heal this demigod without many people in the room, so could you please wait outside while I work?"
"Of course Lord Apollo" Chiron bowed and made his way out of the infirmary, closing the door with him
The sun god turned to Artemis and started to inspect the wound on his nephew, "what the heck happen?"
The dam that was holding Artemis together broke, and the goddess of the hunt began to sob uncontrollably. "T-they we-were playing c-capture t-t-the flag-g a-ag-gainst my-my hunters and then h-he began to fight Zoë and t-then A-a-ag-agnes hit-hit jim with a b-b-bat" she muttered, struggling to explain what happened
Apollo was shell shocked "a hunter did this?" He said while putting nectar on the wound
"Yeah, and all I want to do is kill her for hurting my son, but at the same time, she has been in the hunt for thousands of years and receiving a really hard punishment would seem unusual for this kind of situation, considering who I am and the fact that he's a boy."
Apollo nodded and put his hand on the wound, making it glow a serene gold. When he pulled it out, the wound was closed and healed. "I understand, and sadly I cannot help you. All I can say is to follow your heart. In the end, she almost killed a seven year old. The only thing that saved him is the fact that he is an inmortal, but that does not change what happened" Artemis nodded and started to stroke Hector's cheek
"You should tell his father"
"Can you please do it? I want to stay by his side" Artemis said, styling her son's hair. "I'll owe you one"
"Fine, but you owe me remember. And more than one. Where does he live?" Apollo asked
"He lives in Orlando, in the only house that emits a godly aura"
Apollo rolled his eyes, "thanks for the address little sis" he said before flashing out, leaving the mother and son alone in the infirmary.
The little boy began to stir, opening his eyes ever so slowly revealing his light green eyes the combination that is silver and sea green. As he opened them, Hectors face turned into one of much confusion.
"What happened?" He asked slowly
"One of my hunters hit you in the head with a metal baseball bat. You went unconscious and many thought you had passed" Artemis explained
"So you're lady Artemis. Excuse me for not noticing and forgetting to do the correct bow" Hector said, trying to sit up. Artemis put a hand on her sons shoulder, stopping him in mid movement.
"You don't need to bow to me Hector. If we meet again, you can just call me Artemis, and never bow to me. You should bow to other gods, don't take this the wrong way, but never to me. Understand?" Hector nodded slowly in understanding. "Great, now you need to rest. A head injury is not something to be taken lightly"
Artemis got up to leave the room, but as soon as she got up, her wrist was grabbed by the little boy.
"Could you please stay for a few more minutes Lady Artemis?" The boy asked the goddess
Artemis put on a small smile and replied, "of course Hector, I'll stay as long as you need me to"
Meanwhile on the south side of the country, a blonde god arrived at the normal sized house of the father of the injured boy. Apollo knocked on the door thrice, waiting for the god of tides to open. As he was about to know just a second time, the door swing open, revealing a twenty something year old man.
"Can I help you?" The man asked
"You're Perseus right?" Apollo asked
"Yeah, and you are..."
"Apollo, the god of the sun and medicine and a bunch of other stuff"
"You don't look anything like Artemis" Perseus said
Apollo rolled his eyes, "It's called being fraternal twins. Anyways, do you have a moment to talk? Artemis sent me"
"Why couldn't she have told me herself?" Perseus questioned
"Yes but she wanted to stay with my nephew until he got better"
Perseus eyes widened "what happened to Carib?"
"If you let me in I'll tell you" Apollo told the god of tides. Sighing, Perseus beckoned Apollo inside of his home, making him sit down in the living room.
They both sat down comfortably with a glass of something appearing in front of them. Apollo took a sip out of one and his eyes widened.
"Gods, this is the best mojito ever. How did you do that?" Apollo asked once he analyzed the taste of the liquid
"Part of being a good host is providing what your client craves and then perfecting it. But we're not here to talk about that. Please, tell me what happened to my son"
Apollo sighed as he put his mojito down, "as you know, the hunters are visiting camp, and it's tradition for them to play a game of capture the flag against the campers. Everything was going as normal during the game, until Hector was hit in the back of the head my a hunter. He went unconscious but I healed him, so he's fine right now. Besides that I don't know any details, cause Artemis didn't tell me much except the fact that I had to tell you, and I just did."
Perseus became furious at the hunters, at life, but mostly at himself for not being able to be there for his son.
"Can I finish my mojito before I go?" Apollo asked
"Oh yeah, sure. Don't worry about it." Perseus replied, turning on the tv from where they were sitting. "You know, I used to have one of these like five hundred years ago back in the island"
"I don't believe you"
"I swear! Artemis and I used to watch a lot of movies back then, and then we'd play video games" Perseus insisted
Apollo stared at Perseus for an uncomfortable amount of time, making the God of tides to sit up straight for no reason. "You don't appear to be lying. Weird"
"I don't lie the first time I meet people, cuñado. Plus, if I lie to you then you would tell Artemis and she would beat me to almost death" Perseus gushed
"Artemis can be pretty violent when she wants to" Apollo declared
"So how was it growing up? I mean, she must've been quite a mouthful while you two were little godlings" Perseus asked after a minute or so of silence
"Oh it was the best ever. We hunted our food, made each other crazy, and then we'd have our mother for comfort 24/7. I remember her being the best cook and loving us a lot. And she had such a difficult time with our birth too, thanks to that bitch Hera" Apollo ranted. He noticed that Perseus face turned sad at the mention of the goddess of marriage, and soon remembered that said goddess was his brother-in-laws mother. How ironic
"Anyways we always had such a great time. We played things like I would be the military and then she would be the damsel in need for a hero, or then she would be the queen and I would be the slave. She was really fun back then, but then when we came to Olympus she changed a lot, cause she saw how badly women were treated back then." Both of the gods kept the conversation going, each learning about the others childhood and habits; getting to know each other more personally.
After some time, a knock came from the door. Both gods turned their heads in confusion to the door.
"That's weird, I'm not expecting anyone" Perseus said as he got up to answer the door.
A man with curly black hair and blue eyes stood by the door. He was wearing long pants and a button down shirt, a look someone who was going to a club would wear.
"Hello sir, is Apollo present? Or maybe you know him by his alias Fred" the man said
"Who's asking?" Perseus counter asked
"Excuse me, where are my manners? My name is Paul Robber" the man said
Perseus narrowed his eyes, "what's your real name?"
The man looked shocked that Perseus had just seen through his lie, and sighed in defeat. "I'm Hermes. Is Apollo there? He promised me we would go get some drinks together since it's my day off"
"Apollo's inside. You can come in if you'd like"
Hermes accepted the invitation and entered the house, immediately spotting the god of prophecy.
"You were drinking while I waited for you? Do you know how much time it took me to find you?" Hermes questioned Apollo
"Probably like five minutes" he replied
Hermes glared at Apollo, "lets just go and hit the club"
"Fine, Perseus you wanna come with?" Apollo asked his brother-in-law
"It's fine, my wife would kill me if I did" Perseus said, taking the empty glass of mojito and putting it in the sink
"Come on man, you shouldn't be scared your wife" Hermes tried to tell Perseus
"No, it's true. If his wife found out he went to a club with me, his life would end" Apollo agreed with the god of tides
"She knows you?" Hermes asked
Apollo nodded, "yep, and she despises everything that I stand for. So trust me when I saw it's smarter and better to leave him here"
"Fine I get that. But I still don't understand what the big deal is. What's the worst she could do?" Hermes inquired
"I'm almost certain she made someone kill a guy once" Perseus said
"Like a paid assassin?"
"Sort of, but not quite" Perseus declared, "I'm sorry for not being able to tag along guys. Hope you have a great time"
"Thanks Perce. Talk to you later" Apollo waved goodbye
"Bye Perseus, it was nice meeting you" Hermes shook the god of childhood's hand.
"Bye guys, nice meeting you too" Perseus said before closing the door, letting his unhappy self finally reveal. The god went to his bed and hugged a pillow, silently crying for not being able to help his son in such a situation. Deep inside, Perseus feared that what his son feels for him would be the same as what he feels for his parents. The opposite of love, indifference.