Artemis POV:
The next morning, I found myself tucked into the folds of my blanket. I looked at the alarm clock beside my bed and quickly bolted into the bathroom to get ready. It was already very late and I still wanted take Percy to Olympus after the attack. That stupid boy Nico would cause a huge disruption on the Council. Wait, did I just refer to him as Percy? His name is Perseus not Percy. If I call him Percy then it will seem like I'm becoming soft of him, which I am most definitely not.
Speaking of Perseus, my cheeks lit aflame as I remembered last night's event. I can't believe I walked in on him without a shirt on. His body did look kind of good though. So muscu- WHOA! Bad thoughts! Get them out of your head, I mentally berated myself. I shook my head to clear those terrible thoughts and finished preparing for the day.
I walked out into the kitchen and was surprised to see Perseus already there with Ashley. They were laughing at something he had said while eating some sort of blue pancake thing. Perseus noticed me and got up to greet me. I didn't notice that his cheeks turned a little rosy
"Good morning, Lady Artemis. Would you like some pancakes for breakfast. I made them myself," He greeted gesturing to the blue slabs of batter. I frown, Why did he call me Lady Artemis. He normally just calls me Artemis. I pushed the thoughts away thinking nothing of it.
"Why are they blue? Last time I checked, pancakes are not supposed be blue," I asked incredulously.
"Well, my mom taught me how to make them and we always used to cook breakfast together all the time. It just brings back good memories," He explained, smiling a little self-consciously.
I just shook my head at his silly antics and sat down in the chair to his right. I put one of the blue things on my plate and took a hesitant bite. My eyes widened as the flavors exploded in my mouth and melted into my taste buds. This was the best pancake I had ever eaten. I scrambled to pile as many as I could fit onto my plate.
"I take it you like them then?" Perseus smirked.
"No they taste terrible. I'm just really hungry and I would eat anything at the moment even if it tastes terrible," I quickly replied to cover myself up. Perseus looked at me skeptically and then broke into a grin.
I finished my bite and said,"I think we are going to Olympus today. I am a little worried about that little attack from your friend. I'm not sure what this could signify and this might be a sign of a threat rising against us."
He slowly nodded, remembering the words that Nico had spoke before he had sunk into the earth. Worrisome indeed. When the three of us finished our breakfast, I grabbed both of their shoulders and flashed them into the throne room. I walked to my throne and pulled out my bow, shooting a silver arrow into the sky to call for a meeting. Within seconds, all of the Olympians had flashed into their thrones and were looking at me questioningly.
"Why have you called a meeting my daughter?" Zeus asked.
"Yesterday, Perseud was attacked by a mysterious man in a cloak. Perseus was almost overwhelmed by him, but I managed to get there in time to save him. I fired a bolt at him, but he seemed to become intangible and it passed right through him. Before he left, he said something about a master that was far more powerful than he was. The man was Nico."
The throne room went into an uproar. The gods were in a frenzy of arguing and shouting at me to explain further.
"My son would never betray Olympus!" shouted Hades.
"I'm sorry, Lord Hades, but I swear on the Styx that it was Nico that I saw," Perseus said sadly. Hades slumped into his throne and looked defeated. I knew that he was thinking how his favorite son had betrayed them for some unknown master.
"We must discuss this issue immediately. There might be something lurking beyond our sight that will come into the light at the most dire of times," I said.
"If there is some sort of new found threat, then we must be ready to defend against it, but after the last great war, we do not have enough demigods to fight back. How can we possibly hope to fight another war in the state that we are in?" asked Hera.
"We must have some people that are powerful enough to fend against this possible oncoming force, but not restricted by the ancient laws," Athena said. Everybody turned at looked at Perseus, who looked like a deer caught in headlights.
"Me? But I am not strong enough to defend Olympus. You should get somebody else to do it. I will just let you down," he said dejectedly.
"Perseus Jackson! Don't you dare say that about yourself. You are the twice savior of Olympus and the most worthy hero to ever live. You are strong and we all have confidence that you will not let us down," scolded Hestia. Everybody looked a little shocked that Hestia would speak out so much. She was normally such a peaceful goddess who never raised her voice to anything.
"As much as it pains me to admit it, Hestia is right. Perseus you are one of the most loyal and strong willed people I have ever met. You were the one that made my daughter as happy as she was before she died. I know that she would agree with me," Athena agreed. I saw Perseus' eyes tear up a little at the mention of his fallen girlfriend, but quickly dissipate. Apparently, he was still not over her death. I felt a small pang of something enter my chest, but I didn't know what it was.
"I agree," Zeus said," I think that Perseus will need to be the one to defend Olympus. He will need to be trained even harder though. Every god will help train him in their own domain as he has gained the blessing of all of us from the Guardian's Blessing." Zeus had seemed to warm up to Perseus in the passing years of his disappearance. He had grown an inkling of respect for the young demigod and he felt that he deserved at least a little bit of courtesy.
The rest of the council nodded their head in agreement, except for Dionysus and Ares as they still hated Perseus. Personally, I felt a little happy that I would get to spend more time with Perseus. He had become the closest thing to a friend that a male could be to me.
"It is settled. Training will begin tomorrow. You will meet with half of the Olympians a day in which we will train you specially to become the strongest demigod to ever live. Not that you aren't," Zeus said,"Meeting adjourned."
The gods and goddesses starting to flashing out one by one until only Perseus, Ashley and I were left standing in the throne room.
"Say, Artemis, would you like to spar a little? I have been meaning to teach Ashley how to use a sword for a while. I know she is still young, but with this coming threat, I think it is best that we are prepared," He said. Ashley perked up at this information and looked at him excitedly. She was eager to learn how to fight like her brother and to help defend the world.
"Sure," I said. I grabbed their shoulders once again and flashed them to the arena. Perseus set Ashley down on one of the stands until we were done with our spar. He brandished his sword and held it between his hands in front of his face. I drew my hunting knives and nodded at him, before we ran at each other, blades clashing. Sparks flew as we we sped up our attacks, becoming a blur that both of us could barely follow. We were just acting on instinct, raising our blades to block blows that we didn't even know were coming and sending an attack the other's way just as fast.
Suddenly, he jumped back and dropped his sword on the ground. Grinning, I understood what he wanted and dropped my knives at my feet. Again, we ran at each other, except this time with no weapons. We fought like we had been training for an eternity, which I kind of have. Perseus tackled me to the ground and we started grappling, trying to get on top of one another and gain the upper hand.
Finally, I managed to come out on top and wrapped him into a head lock.
"Yeild?"
He nodded and I relaxed my arm, grinning widely. It always felt good to beat him as I admit, he was quite a bit better than I was in close combat. I held out my hand and pulled him up. He took my hand, but I had misjudged his weight and he ended up pulling me onto his chest. We lay there stunned for a second, before jumping up and moving apart from one another, blushing madly.
The awkward silence was broken by Ashley who was clapping enthusiastically.
"I want to learn how do that!" She yelled. We chuckled as she came running towards us from the stands. Perseus drew a small miniature sword that he had hidden in his boot.
"I have been holding this just for you. I was hoping that I could teach you how to use it," he said to her raised eyebrow. She nodded at took an experimental swing with it. Apparently she was not used to swinging a sword and the momentum spun her around before she landed on her butt. We laughed at her embarrassed look as she got up.
"Ok, Ashley, Artemis and I will demonstrate moves on each other and you can try to copy them. We wills start easy and just to the basics, before we get onto the harder moves," He said,"Artemis, I'm going to do a simple swing at you. Ashley, I want to you watch and try to replicate it afterwards, got it?" We nodded and he took a swing at me, which I blocked with ease.
"Can you do that, Ashley?" Perseus asked in a slightly challenging tone. Ashley looked at him with determination in her eyes and held her sword up. She swung the blade at me as hard as she could and my blade clanged against her smaller one as I parried.
"Good, now don't use all of your strength because it will make you slower to recover and you will deplete your energy a lot faster," he instructed. She swung again at me, this time with less force, but better technique. He nodded in approval, before asking her to continue repeating the stroke to get the hang of it.
From there, he started teaching her and we took turns showing her new moves and having her master them.
(Line Break)
Two hours later, she was ready for her first spar. Perseus summoned a very weak undead warrior (remember he has the blessing of all the Olympians including Hades) for her to spar against. At first she looked scared, but soon enough, she looked like she could kill it with just the glare in her eyes.
The undead warrior took a swing at her head, but she ducked it and slashed at it's arm, chipping one of the bones. The warrior didn't notice the pain and continued to attack her. It swung it's sword in a downward motion, attempting to slice her in half. She blocked, but the blow was strong and it made her stumble back, off balance.
I noticed twitch a little, no doubt ready to rush forward and save his little sister. I laid my hand on his arm to hold him back. Ashley needed to win this fight on her own. If it truly turned out to be deadly, then we would intervene, but for now, she could still win.
Ashley rushed forward again and blocked another blow from the skeletal warrior, before sending it a slash of her own. This time, it took off it's whole left arm, rendering it useless. The warrior hissed in pain and tried to kick her in the face. She dodged yet again and brought her sword down on it's leg, severing another limb. Now the warrior had only one arm and one leg, with barely and fight left in it.
She made one final push towards the warrior and swung the sword with all her might, slicing right through it's head. The body clattered to the ground and crumbled into dust as Ashley panted for breath.
"Great Job! This was your first spar and you managed to beat the warrior pretty easily," Perseus congratulated. She beamed in pride stuck her sword into the ground beneath her foot to lean of it.
"I think that's enough for one day, don't you think?" I asked They both nodded and gathered up their belongings before I flashed them back to the palace.
"I think I'm going to visit my mother again. Would either of you like to come with me?" Perseus asked.
"Sure, I want to meet the mother of the only acceptable man on the planet," I said. He blushed lightly before turning to Ashley.
"Yeah! I want to see your mommy!" She almost shouted. He smiled and grabbed our shoulder, mist traveling us outside his mother's apartment. He knocked on the door and a minute later, there stood Sally.
"Percy! How nice of you to visit me? And who are these two?" She asked.
"Hey mom, I'll tell you inside over a plate of blue cookies," He said. His eyes lit up at the idea of blue cookies and I smirked at his immaturity. She led us into the room, a quaint little home, with blue walls and photos of Perseus and his mother all over the place. We sat down on the living room couch and Perseus got his plate of blue cookies, before stuffing one into his mouth.
"Paul is at work right now so you won't be able to see him today. So who are these two?" His mother asked again.
"Mother, this is Artemis, and Ashley. Guys this is my mother," He introduced. Sally's eyes widened comically when she heard my name.
"Artemis? As in, Lady Artemis the greek goddess?" She asked. I nodded and she immediately jumped up from the couch to bow to me, but I held up my hand to stop her.
"Perseus is my friend, the mother of my friend does not need to bow to me," I said. She looked surprised, but nodded. She turned to look at Ashley still confused as to who she was.
"Mom, this is my younger sister Ashley. I saved her from her abusive uncle and have been taking care of her ever since," Perseus explained.
"Hello Ashley, it's very nice to meet such a fine young lady like yourself. I hope in the future we can spend some time together," Sally said, leaning down to look at her. Ashley warmed up to her in an instant and was soon in the arms of her brother's mom.
"Now tell me how you became friends with Percy, Lady Artemis?"
So we told her of everything that had happened since Perseus had disappeared leading up to when Nico had attacked Perseus. His mother looked sad when we explained to her that Nico had betrayed us. Nico had always been nice to her and had been a great friend to her son and she was upset that he had taken to betraying Olympus.
When we were done, the room was cast into a grim silence. Sally seemed to notice this and attempt to lighten the mood by telling embarrassing stories about Perseus. For the remainder of the time, us three females were laughing so hard that our bellies hurt, while Perseus just sat there with a red face, clearly not enjoying it one bit.
Soon, it came time for us leave and everybody was disappointed.
"Good-bye, Percy, Ashley, Lady Artemis, feel free to visit me and Paul any time you want. I had a great time today," She said.
"Yes, thank you Sally. I haven't laughed that hard since the war and I think I needed it," I replied. Sally averted her eyes as I flashed all three of us to my palace.
"I think you're going to need to find somewhere else to sleep after tonight. It might warrant some suspicion from the other gods, especially Apollo," I said to him. He looked disappointed for a moment, but then nodded in understanding.
"I will move back to my cabin after tonight, but can you put some barriers around the area. I still don't feel completely safe sleeping in a house where an enemy knows exactly where I am," He agreed.
"Yes that can be arranged."
I bade Ashley and Perseus goodnight before plodding into my room and getting ready for bed. After taking a shower and brushing my teeth, I dropped onto the bed and fell asleep promptly. As my eyes closed, I fell into an inky blackness, before a man appeared in front of me. Us gods almost never have dreams unless somebody wants to contact us, so this is probably important.
"Artemis, goddess of the moon, hunt, childbirth, and nature. Hater of all men and eternal maiden," The figure said. His face was clouded in shadows and I couldn't see a single feature of his body. It was almost as if he was behind a veil, just a silhouette behind a curtain.
"Who are you and why do you contact me in my sleep?!" I growled. He just chuckled, a grating sound that made her want to turn away and cover her ears.
"Impudent little goddess. You Olympians need to be taught some respect. I have come as a warning to all of you that for the next 2 months, you will have your peace, but after that, no promises," He said darkly.
"You think you can just invade my dreams and tell me that you will attack Olympus without consequence?!"
"Ha! You gods are weak against a true power. You stand no chance against me. You're only hope is that boy Perseus Jackson, but he will not be of use much longer once my assassin kills him. I think you have already been acquainted with him," He laughed manically. He started to fade and his laughter only grew louder. I tried to make a swipe at him with my knife, before realizing that I didn't have anything on me. I watched as his form slowly blended with the blackness around and then I fell into a truly dreamless sleep.
(End of Chapter 11)
BlueBlade906: Thank you so much! You have no idea how much it means to me for somebody to give me such a positive review. I will humbly disagree with your statements thought because I feel that my writing is nothing compared to many of the better stories out there. Again though, I appreciate your kindness towards me and my writing! 3
ghostchilli666: Thank you, but I don't know if I'm going to be making the chapters any longer. I think 3,000 is the max for me because it means I can update more often.
the guy that loves all gunpla: Thank you for the positive feedback. You'll find out soon enough who Nico is serving! As for riptide, I think I'm just going to make it like a souvenir from the war that he doesn't use much anymore. If you want, I can make it so that he wields both at the same time though.
SonOfHades1: I appreciate the compliment and believe it or not, you just gave me a couple new ideas that I might add to the story!
A.N: Hey guys! Here's another chapter of The Sea and The Moon, I hope you liked it! We just hit 5,000 views and I just want to thank everybody for the support and especially the reviews. If it weren't for you guys, I would have abandoned this story a long time ago. Next milestone is 10,000!