Chapter 10

Percy POV

After I talked with Hades I ran over to my mom she was watching the girls clean the pots and pans, or I thought she was, she looked deep in thought. Deciding I didn't like the thoughts that made her brows scrunch together and a small frown to adorn her face I called out to her, my voice barely audible over the clanging. As expected she turned to face me, immediately wiping all signs of stress from her expression, and put on a smile for me, leaning down she asked me what I needed.

"Well, Hades told me to come and ask you where we are going, he looked pretty stressed about it, where are we going mom?" I asked laying the curiosity on thick to help lower her walls. Mom always suspects i'm up to something from all the years hating men, I can't say I blame her men really are horrible.

"Well-" she trails off, shooting a glare towards Hades, "Uhm, hon we-" now I know something is up, and wherever we are going she knows it's gonna upset me, she used HON.

"we're gonna go to meet some new people, some other demigods, we figured it was time you started getting some friends outside me, your uncles, and your sisters..." She trailed off again. Meet OTHER demigods, I was nervous, obviously, who wouldn't be, being isolated from people for so long. I wonder what they'll be like, - wait, does that mean?...

"Mom.." I start hesitant, "Yes?" "Will there be, uh, Guys there? Like older m-men?" I whisper, she looks at me, worry clear in her gaze, but luckily no pity.

"I'm sorry Percy, but, yes, there will be older boys and the two men that run the camp are, older. I suppose you could say." Fear strikes my chest, i've gone to all my therapy sessions with Apollo, but that doesn't mean I'm ready for the real thing yet! I still can't hug my UNCLES! I am starting to hyperventilate, I can tell, Apollo taught me to recognize panic attacks and what to do when I get them, or feel them coming on, I clench my hunter's coat in my fist and sprint off, whistling as best I could, Ms.O'Leary comes bounding up to me.

I put my hand on her and we travel quickly through the shadows, we end up at the clearing, I let go of her and sit on the ground, putting my head between my knees I looked at the ground. By now I was in full blown panic mode. I could hear my blood pounding in my head, my chest heaving for the air it so desperately needed, terror, that gripped my very soul. I clench my eyes shut and grind my teeth, I know what I'm supposed to do dammit!

I slowly open my eyes and do my count down, five things I can see, tree, rock, stick, branch, shoe, four things I can touch, Ms.O'Learys fur, my coat, the dirt, the pine needles, three things I can hear, birds chirping, Ms.O'Learys breathing, a creek nearby, two things I can smell, the animal poop nearby, the pine trees, one things I can taste, my breakfast orange juice. I take a deep inhale, hold it for three seconds and slowly exhale, I put my hand on my chest again, my heart rate has slowed and I am breathing much better.

Sometime during my attack Ms.O'Leary had curled up behind me, I was leaning on her side. I look at her and she gives me a big goofy grin full of sharp teeth, I giggle, others look at her and yell, AH MONSTER! I look at her and yell, Ms.O'Leary, Stop eating my BREAKFAST! I pet her head, her fur is so soft, Hades says it'll get rougher if I don't brush her everyday, so I keep on top of it. Looking around again I feel much better, I know if I get too scared all I have to do is shadow travel here and I'll be safe.

Nodding to myself I look at Ms.O'Leary again, "Ready girl? We're gonna go meet some other half-bloods, just like me!" I whisper shout at her, she woofs at me, tail thumping away. Smiling I get up and we walk back to camp, we should be heading out now if we want to get any real distance before we stop for lunch.

Artemis POV

I'm pacing, I know I'm pacing, everyone can see it, everyone knows it, but I can't seem to stop, my conversation with Percy running through my head on an endless loop, How could I have been so STUPID?! I KNOW he has a, history, with men and the first thing I tell him about the camp is, 'Hey, you know about your massive phobia of men, welp, there's gonna be a bunch of em there!' Yeah, way to go Artemis.

Muttering to myself, I continue to pace for how long, I'll never know. I just come to a sudden stop seeing Percy walking back from his clearing, tears pour down my face and I run over to him, sweeping him up into a hug I apologize profusely, he just laughs, laughs, at me and pats my back saying he has a plan if he really can't handle it and it's ok if we go to the camp.

"Are you sure Percy?" I ask again, he nods yes, rolling his eyes at me, little stinker. Nodding at him I put him down and turn to my girls, my amazing, tiny, strong, vicious family. I smile, no one was gonna get to Percy, NO ONE.

"Alright we are leaving in two minutes, everyone do one last sweep then meet me by the creek!" I yell so everyone hears me, nodding they all split off, I turn back to Percy, jerk my head in the direction of the creek and he nods, walking over we see that Hades is already there. Ms.O'Leary woofs loudly and bolts ahead to drown him in drool.

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We were almost to Camp Half-Blood when it happened. It had taken us until dinner to get where we were, only another 20 minute walk to the camp when Ms.O'Leary started growling deep in her chest. Instantly on alert the wolves spread out growling too, peering through the trees I saw the source of the problem, cyclopes.

They didn't seem to notice us as they were already chasing some other kids, looking closer I realized they must be half bloods with a satyr trying to make the run to camp, but I knew even at top speed they wouldn't make it, and they already looked pretty rough. Acting on a split second decision I signaled for my hunters to take out the cyclopes, there were five of them and we split off into groups, Percy stayed with me. Running to catch up we started firing arrows to at least slow the cyclopes down or take their attention away from the tired half bloods and scared satyr.

We had split into four groups including me and Percy being our own group and already the other three groups had each lured away a cyclops to kill. But two were still chasing the half bloods, knocking over trees as they ran. One of the demigods tripped, a little blonde girl somewhere around Percy's age, they all stopped turning back to help her, I heard Percy scream as he shadow traveled behind the closer of the two cyclopes slicing the back of it's knee to immobilize it, and running to the other to repeat the action, he narrowly avoided getting squished when the second toppled backwards.

Finally caught up I stopped and shot an arrow through the first ones head, instantly vaporizing it, looking to the second just in time to see Percy shove his sword into its eye, poof, dust. Panting we look around, the half bloods were surrounding the little girl and staring at us in shock, they looked tired, dirty, hungry, and scared. Looking closer I realized their group consisted of two boys and two girls, one of the boys being a satyr.

The little blonde girl had grey eyes and was watching us warily, Athena, my mind supplied, the other girl was giving us an untrusting stare her black hair a stark contrast to her electric blue eyes, Zeus, my mind supplied again. The demigod boy was blond and and blue eyed, lanky and a slightly athletic build, no freckles, so probably not Apollo, but maybe Hermes?

I thought, the Satyr had brown curly hair and was wearing a red, yellow, and green hat. I look at Percy, he's staring at the satyr with something close to recognition and confusion in his eyes, looking at the satyr again I can see the same emotions on his face, before I can speak the rest of the hunt shows up. All of them look fine, only one with a bit of a dirt smudge on her clothes, probably from having to slide on the ground to dodge a blow. I nod happy that all came out uninjured, and turn back to the demigods.

Ms.O'Leary comes up beside Percy and he rests a hand on her flank, the half bloods look ready to bolt. Trying to stop myself from smiling I turn to Percy,

"Would you mind if you send Ms.O'Leary to scout ahead for monsters, she's making the other demigods, nervous." I say, he looks at me and nods, we all watch as he leans into her ear and whispers in it, she woofs, licks his face and bounds off into the woods. They relax a bit after she was gone.

"Mm-baa, d-don't I k-know you?" the satyr asks, I was about to open my mouth to reprimand the stupid satyr for not recognizing a goddess, but Percy beat me to it.

"So I guess you really weren't a monster, sorry sir." He says quietly looking at his feet, some of the girls inch closer to him wanting to comfort their little brother i'm sure.

"And may I ask, Who might you be?" I ask angrily. The satyr turns toward me about to speak when his eyes widen in recognition, finally putting together the pieces and figuring out who I was.

"L-Lady A-Artemis!" He squeaked, and bowed, "I-I'm t-terribly s-sorry for a-all the t-trouble we c-caused you ma'am." He said with full respect, I could feel the fear radiating off him, the demigods looked back and forth at me and him in confusion.

"No need to apologize satyr, I was simply doing my job." He nodded and peeked up at me, holding in the urge to roll my eyes at him I told him he could stand. Percy was staring at me, looking over at him he cocks an eyebrow, like, dude what did you do to make him so scared? I smirk slightly my expression reading, oh you know, stuff.

He gulped catching the underlying sinister tones in the expression. Turning back to the kids I notice the satyr staring at Percy and I realize I have no idea how they had met, he never leaves the group except for- oh, his quest. Deciding I would get the story from Percy later I ask the group if they were also headed to the camp, the satyr nodded his head vigorously.

Nodding to myself I told them they could join us as they seemed worn out and we could offer more protection, looking at where we were I realized we were maybe five minutes from the camp after all the running. After asking if any of them had injuries we set off to the camp.

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I look up at half blood hill. We made it.

AN:

UGH, i'm so sorry this took forever, and I know, I know, he was supposed to meet everyone today but...

I got kinda immersed in the GETTING THERE part of the journey, plus it added more boding scenes between Ms.O'Leary and Percy as well as introduced some new... Characters, three guesses on who they are. lol I was debating on whether or not to do this because obviously this is gonna change the way things go even more, but I feel like it will help with Luke, like maybe he won't go dark side on us? Anyways, I hope you liked it and I am always open to ideas, not saying I'll use them ALL but, I will consider all of them. Promise.

-Love WolfMistwood