First Day On The Job
Percy woke up with a start. Sweat beading down his face with tears following right behind. He had another one of those nightmares and like every other damn time he missed that fucking arrow, images still flashing in his head.
"Annabeth please. Don't leave me. I can't live without you." Blood was pooling around him.
Her cold lifeless eyes stared at him, "Why didn't you save me?"
Percy tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down but he just couldn't. It felt like he couldn't breathe. If he was not this distraught he would have laughed at the irony. So this is what it felt like to drown.
Someone barged into his tent making him jolt, "Perseus you better get up right this second it's already 7:00am and I don't have the ti-" Artemis looked at Percy and her angry mood instantly turn into worry. Percy looked like he just woke up from death itself with tears streaming down his face and sweat matting his hair down. "Percy? Are you ok? What happened?" Artemis asked genuinely concerned for the male she considered a friend.
Percy shook his head, "it's nothing Artemis, and I'm fine. It was just a nightmare." Percy assured wiping his face with the sheet on the bed. More like a memory, Percy thought sadly.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Artemis asked nervously, she was never good at talking to others about feelings and such. She was a hunter and hunters were supposed to be fearless and merciless. She wasn't sure how to act like a friend since she never really had any that were not hunters.
"No." Percy snapped angrily. Artemis looked taken aback and Percy instantly felt guilty, "I'm sorry. It was just a bad dream. I'm fine, I promise." Percy assured.
Artemis looked at him doubtfully but nodded, not wanting to push him.
"Ok if you say so. And Percy…be sure to put on a shirt before coming out." Artemis said feeling the heat rise to her cheeks before quickly rushing out.
Percy looked confused at the spot that Artemis was just standing. Did Percy just see Artemis bushing? He shook his head and just chalked it up to exhaustion. He looked down to see that he was shirtless, guess he somehow took his shirt off in the middle of the night.
Meanwhile outside Artemis was trying to control her blushing face. Why was she, a maiden goddess, ogling a male? Because Percy defiantly better looker then most males with his beautiful sea green eyes and perfect face, a body that seemed better than some of the gods even and-. Artemis quickly turned these thoughts away. She should not be having these thoughts. Instead she decided to focus on the ground in front of her waiting for Percy to come out of his tent.
Percy emerged from the tent fully clothed but his hair was still a mess. Not much he could do about it so he just rolled with it. He saw Artemis staring intently at the ground in front of her.
"Artemis?" Percy said getting her attention.
Her head snapped towards Percy as she tried to remember what she came her for. "What? Oh yeah. Today you are going to start you chores and such so follow me." Artemis started to walk to the center of camp. "There are only three tents you need to worry about. The largest one over there is the dining hall, the one with the boxes in front of it is the storage/armory. The last one you need to worry about is my tent which is the one over there with the moon symbol on the entrance, the rest of the tents are the hunters." Artemis explained while pointing out each one.
Percy just merely nodded his head trying to keep up with all the information being given to him.
"I let you off of chores yesterday because it was your first day but today you are going to work. You will eat after the hunters have eaten and then clean the dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You will also be doing the laundry of the hunt at the river, you will find all the cloths there. Once you finish laundry you will start training. You will have archery with Thalia and then hunting with me. I will not let anyone in my hunt, especially a male, not know how to shot a bow or hunt. After all your training you will have guard duty. Any questions?" Artemis finished.
Percy looked at her blankly for a second trying to process everything that was said. "Um…yeah I think I got everything. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, laundry, training, guarding." Percy listed off.
Artemis nodded her head satisfied with his answer. "The hunters are just finishing up breakfast so you can eat and then clean up after them. So get to it." With that Artemis walked off to do something else.
Percy walked over the dinning tent and went inside. The tent was very long but narrow. There was a giant table in the center with chairs surrounding it with only enough space to squeeze around them. There was only two hunters left eating, a girl with long brunette hair and one with long braided blond hair. Once Percy walked in the blond one just sneered, got up, and pushed passed him without saying a word. Percy felt very welcomed. The brunette just gave him a glance before returning to eating her eggs. Percy grabbed a plate and silverware from the end of the table and sat down far enough from the hunter not to disturb her but close enough in case she wanted a conversation. He looked at the food that was left over and saw there was some egg scraps and the burnt pieces of bacon left over. Guess they didn't want him to eat.
The girl must have noticed Percy's dilemma because she spoke up, "You can have some of mine if you want."
Percy looked up at the girl with a raised eyebrow, "You are offering me some of your food? What did you do to it?"
"Nothing I promise. I just saw you have nothing to eat so I thought I would be nice." She answered sincerely.
"And why would you be nice to me? In case you haven't notice I have a certain appendage that you all hate." Percy inquired.
"Well I do hate males but not as much as the others, I joined the hunters because I needed a family not because I have a problem with males. Plus I heard about what you did for Olympus and for Zoe so I think I can be nice to you. But don't mistake my niceness for weakness, if you cross me I will castrate you." She said twirling the knife in her hand. Percy gulped and nodded.
"Well…" Percy started giving her a pointed look.
"Khloe" She filled in.
Percy smirked internally, he finally learned another one of the hunter's names. Now he just needed to learn the rest of them. "Well Khloe, thank you for the offer but no thanks. I think I'm good in the food department." Percy grinned and snapped his fingers.
Khloe watched in shock as a stack of blue pancakes appear on the plate in front of the demigod who seconds ago she thought was stupid for refusing her offer.
"What… how did you… why the hell are they blue?" She stammered. Percy just chuckled at her confusion.
"Helping the Goddess of the Hearth getting her throne back does give you some perks, as to why they are blue that's an inside joke between me and my mom." Percy explained. "Do you want anything? I can summon any home cook meals."
"Anything?" Percy nodded. "Can I get some hash browns? My mom use to make me those all the time."
Percy smiled at her and snapped his fingers. Steaming hot, golden brown hash browns appeared on her plate which she gladly tore into. Khloe could only sigh in satisfaction as she bit into the delicious potato treat. Percy smiled at her and turned back to his stack of pancakes and started to attack them. Little conversation passed between the two until they were both done and full.
"Thank you Perseus." Khloe said.
Percy grimaced, "Please call me Percy. Perseus makes me sound old. And it's no problem if you ever want some food all you got to do is ask"
Khloe gave him a smile and nodded her head before turning out of the tent and walking to do whatever the hunters do this time of day.
Percy looked around the table and saw what the hunters had left for him to clean up. They definitely were acting like he was a maid. Plates were left all around the table with food stuck on them that Percy knew would be a pain to take out. In the middle of the table a stack of dirty plates as tall as him was left over as if each hunter used a different plate for each item of food, which they probably had. Percy shook groaned and got to work and picked up all the plates around the table making two stacks. He took the first stack to the back of the tent where he found a bucket of water, some soap, and a wash cloth to clean the plates.
As he was coming out of the dinning tent again with the second stack of plates he tripped over what seemed like thin air.
"AHH!" Percy screamed as he fell to the ground. The plates he was holding flew into the air as he tried to catch himself and started to rain down all around him breaking on the floor. Percy groaned on the floor and heard some giggling near him. He tried to look up to where the giggling was coming from but another plate fell from the sky and landed on his head, shattering, making him collapse back on the ground.
"Ughhh…" Percy groaned slightly dizzy from the blow to his head. The giggling that he heard before turned into full blown laughter.
"Hahaha. Did you see him fall and scream like a girl!" A girl laughed.
"This is suppose to be our protector?" Another girl chuckled.
"Seems like we can at least get some form of entertainment out of him." Another added.
"What is the meaning of this?" An authoritative voice questioned.
Percy shifted his head towards the voice and saw Artemis there with her hands on her hips. Percy didn't know if it was because of the plate that hit his head but Artemis looked truly beautiful from where he laid. Wow how could I have never noticed how pretty Artemis looked in the morning light. Wait why am I thinking this? It was the blow to my head, yes definitely. Percy reasoned with himself.
"Perseus? Care to explain what happened?" Artemis asked. She looked down on Percy, who had broken plates all around him, sprawled on the floor.
Percy slowly got up, a little wobbly at first, and looked behind him. He saw the glint of a small wire right at the entrance of the dining tent the hunters must have set up as he was in there for him to trip on.
"Um, nothing I just tripped on a rock. Sorry about the plates Artemis. If it makes you feel any better one managed to hit me on the back of the head when I fell. Percy said sheepishly. He rubbed where the plate hit feeling a bump already starting to form. He lied because he knew that if he outed the hunters they would hate him more then they already do and he didn't need to give them any more ammunition.
"Don't worry about the plates, just clean up this mess and finish washing the dishes. Don't forget you still have laundry to do after this so get to it." Artemis ordered. The laughing girls disappeared when Artemis appeared so Percy squatted down and started to pick up the broken plates.
/=======================================================/\==================================================\After another 30 minutes Percy finally managed to pick up and clean off the plates only getting minor cuts from the sharp broken pieces. Once the plates were all put away and ready to be used again he headed to the river to start on laundry.
When he arrived at the river bank where the cloths where he could not believe his eyes. A mountain of cloths of all kinds was in front of him that didn't seem to have a end. How could the less then 10 girls use this many cloths? The cloths were also very dirty. It's like they decided to play in mud, change, and then play in some more mud. Percy sighed and tried to figure out a way to tackle this giant monster of cloths. He soon got an idea and got to work. He turned to the river and focused, a tug in his gut appeared and a ball of water floated up from the surface. He moved the ball to the heap of cloths and encased a small section of it in the ball. Percy then lifted the ball with the cloths in it over the river again. Focusing on the ball it started to spin in circles in the air. Slowly all the dirt and muck started to wash away. It took about 20 minutes of constant spinning to get all the dirt off.
After the first set was all nice and clean Percy forced the water out of the cloths and neatly folded the cloths. His cheeks turned red when he saw some undergarments of the hunters in the pile but he just ignored it and kept going.
Soon he was able to get 2 then 3 balls of water up in the air spinning at once. And slowly little by little Percy started to take down this beast of cloths. After about 2 hours Percy was tired and drenched in sweat but he finally finished cleaning, drying, and folding the cloths. Controlling all the balls of waters for 2 hours took a lot out of him but it did help him with controlling his powers. Since he was immortal he had a lot better control over his powers then before and he knew with practice they could get even better. He wanted to keep training so he could protect the people he loved, especially after he already failed once. Percy took the multiple stacks of folded cloths and brought them to the middle of the camp where he set them down for the hunters to find and sort out.
Percy looked up in the sky and saw it was well past noon and knew that the hunters would be done with lunch already. His stomach grumbled as if it knew food was about to enter it. Quickly walking over to the dinning hall he saw that no one was in there and summoned some pasta and scarfed it down. After eating he started to clean the dishes and sighed as he saw that there was even more plates then last time and they were somehow even dirtier. This time while cleaning the dishes he watched his feet making sure not to trip over anything. Luckily he was able to clean the mess without incident soon after eating.
Now Percy had to do something he was dreading. Archery Practice. Percy was bad at using a bow and arrow. Like really bad. He would be lucky if he could shoot it the same direction his bow was shooting. He was scared to embarrass himself in front of the hunt but he knew he had to man up and deal with it.
Percy made his way over to the archery range, hearing the twang of bows being shot on his way there. Once he got there he looked for Thalia and saw her in perfect stance holding the bow steady with an arrow notched. She let out a slow breath and released the arrow. It flew true and hit the bullseye on the target…again, splitting the arrow already there in half. Percy knew the power in a skilled archer, he has been in two wars. Archers were the backbone of any army, they helped cover and give support to the swordsmen on the field. A good archer could be a very strong presence on any battle field picking off enemies left and right from a range they could not be hit. Percy would much rather have a great archer watching his back then a swordsman any day.
The hairs on the back of his head stood up and trusting his instincts he ducked as an arrow whistled by where his head use to be. He turned around and glared at a hunter who was whistling innocently not really trying to hide the bow behind her back.
"Kelp Face get over her. It's time to see how bad you really are." Percy audibly groaned at Thalia words and turned to her.
"Thalia please. You know how bad I am at archery Thalia, don't make me do this." Percy pleaded.
"Not up to me Percy. Now go grab one of the spare bow and quivers over there." Thalia responded pointing to a crate off to the side. Shuffling his feet Percy made his way over to the crate and grabbed the first bow and quiver he saw.
"Now come stand in front of me and pull the string back without an arrow in it." Thalia ordered. Percy glared at her but knew he had no option in this so he quickly made his way over to her and did what he was told. Pulling the string back he got into a position that felt comfortable to him.
SMACK
Thalia hit the front of Percy's knees making his bent knees push in, "Stand straighter."
"What the Hades Thalia, I was comfortable like that." Percy wined
"Well it was all wrong." She smacked him again, "now shut up and stand straighter."
Percy grumbled to himself as he stood straighter.
SMACK
"Spread out your feet more." Thalia ordered. Percy knew this was going to be a long session.
After another 10 minutes of continuous smacking and hitting in various places all over the body Thalia seemed to finally be happy with his stance. Percy was pretty sure he had this position at least 3 different times but Thalia just want to keep on hitting him. Bruises were defiantly going to be all over him in the morning.
"Ok that seems to be the best I'm going to get out of you now notch an arrow and try to shoot at the target." Thalia instructed.
Doing his best to keep down his nerves and not move his position Percy slowly reached behind him and notched the arrow on the string. Percy took in a deep breath and aimed at the target. He actually felt good about this shot. He had someone there showing him what he was doing wrong this entire time. Maybe just this once he could actually learn how to shoot an arrow. He held his breath as he made some last minute adjustment and when he felt confident enough he released the arrow.
"I can't believe it." Thalia said in shock after a few seconds. "How can someone be this bad at shooting an arrow?"
Percy stood there red as a tomato as he just witness his arrow fly a direct 90 degrees to his right after he released the string. Was it even possible for it to shoot like that? Guess even physics didn't want him to learn how to shoot an arrow.
Suddenly an arrow flew from the direction his arrow flew to and hit him right in the soft spot.
"HMMMP" Percy silently screamed as he put his hands between his legs and slowly sank to the ground.
"This is going to take some work." Thalia said while shaking her head and looking down at the boy currently withering on the floor in pain.
/=======================================================/\==================================================\Artemis emerged from the woods with a rabbit in her hands and a deer strapped to her back. Another successful hunt for her it seemed. Even though she was a god and could just as easily summon the animals to kill it wasn't the same as going out and actually hunting them. There was something exhilarating about being the predator hunting its prey. She was the goddess of the hunt and she loved to prove it. As she got closer to the clearing that held her hunters she heard two people yelling.
"I swear, Augusta and Aurelia better not be arguing about who's hair is better again." Artemis muttered. She set her spoils and headed to the source of the yelling and was soon able to pick up what was going on with her godly hearing.
"How can you possibly be this bad at something?" She heard her lieutenant complain.
"Hey, I gave you fair warning at how bad I was. It's your fault that you wanted to actually do this." Someone, who had to be Percy, argued back.
"I didn't ask for this and I don't think I ever will after experiencing this."
"Maybe if you were a better teacher I would have actually learned how to shoot a bow correctly!" A frustrated Percy yelled out. Oh no, Artemis knew this would end badly.
"OH SO IT'S MY FAULT ALL THE SUDDEN?!" At this point Artemis was close enough to actually see the two and it did not look pretty. Percy was staring down Thalia defiantly burses all over his body. Thalia was staring back at him electricity coursing throughout her body coming out of her hands. "YOU WANNA SAY THAT AGAIN KELP FACE?!"
Percy just smirked back at her, "Just saying what I see Pinecone face. You are a horrible teacher."
Thalia let out a scream and went to charge at him but luckily Artemis arrived right before the fight could break out.
"What is going on here?" She asked loud enough to be heard. Thalia stopped charging and looked over at Artemis who was glaring at her, the electricity all over her body slowly fizzled out. Percy looked to her with a nervous look on his face.
"Oh hey there Artemis. Thalia and I here were having a friendly discussion about my training." Percy laughed nervously. Artemis raised an eyebrow.
"This idiot here is unteachable and I don't think could ever use a bow properly" Thalia complained.
"I told you I was bad." Percy said in a sing song voice.
"He can't possibly be that bad Thalia. Percy please try and shoot the target." Artemis ordered. Percy gave a sigh and turned to the target and drew his bow. Artemis expected him to at worse just miss the target by a few feet if he was really as bad as Thalia was saying. And to be fair he did miss the target…and the entire forest behind the target. The arrow went a direct 90 degrees to the right off in the distance were it disappeared from sight. As soon as the arrow disappeared another blunt arrow sailed from the same place and almost hit Percy if he didn't duck in time.
"HA! You missed that time!" He yelled. Another arrow flew and hit its mark, smacking Percy in the center of his forehead making him fall over with a groan.
"So it seems that Archery with Thalia is not working out so I guess I will have to train you myself." Artemis declared.
"Here's an idea. How about I just don't learn how to shoot a bow and embarrass myself anymore?"
"Nope." Artemis said popping the 'P', "If you are going to be forced into the hunt I'm not going to ruin its image by having someone in it that can't shoot or hunt, even if it is a male. Now come it was about time for our hunting training anyway we will use that time to try and train you in using a bow." Artemis started to head into the woods.
Percy put his head down and reluctantly followed Artemis into the woods. A hunter who was nearby saw Artemis heading into the woods with Percy. "Lady Artemis you're going into the woods alone with a male? What if he takes advantage of you?" She sneered. Percy glared at her not believing someone would ever think he could ever do something like that.
"Please Abigail, Percy would never do anything like that. Even if he did try something like that I don't think he would be able to live and tell the tale." Artemis said smugly. Percy just gulped and turned white from the evil look on Artemis's face.
Artemis continued to travel deeper and deeper into the woods until they arrived in a small clearing surrounded by trees. Percy couldn't help but feel like this place was familiar to him for some reason. He shook off the thought and headed over to Artemis who was sitting on a log in the center of the clearing. Percy could see the sunlight that trickled in from the canopy and onto Artemis almost like a spotlight. The curves on her body and legs that seemed to go on forever were enough to drive any man wild. Yet, Percy could only stare at her face, Percy couldn't help but see how beautiful she was. Her auburn hair tied in a ponytail with a few strands dancing on her forehead and piercing silver eyes made Percy's heart start to thump in his chest.
Just as suddenly as it came it went away and was replaced with guilt. How could he feel this way when he just lost Annabeth, the girl that he loved? How could he ever love someone one the way he loved her? He decided to push all of this down and focus on his training. Even if he could never love like that again he would protect the friends and family he still had. Becoming strong enough to never have to go through that again.
Artemis blushed slightly when he noticed Percy staring at her. She quickly pushed the feeling away remembering who she was looking at. He was a male. They were all the same. They were disgusting, cheaters, and everything wrong in this world. But even as she thought about all these horrible things a small voice in the back of her head told her that Percy as and never would do any of these things.
"Alright Perseus, show me what you got." She said summoning a target at the opposite end of the clearing.
Percy only sighed and took the bow off his back and took the stance the Thalia drilled into him, drawing an arrow back. Right before he took the shot Artemis stopped him.
"You have your stance wrong." She pointed out. She walked over to Percy and kicked his legs out slightly. Walking behind him Artemis put her arms around him to fix the position of his arms. Meanwhile Percy was doing everything in his power to try and keep his face from turning as red as a tomato and trying to slow his heartrate down to a normal level. Her fragrance was intoxicating, smelling like flowers in spring time. Her soft hands pushing his arms into place felt so nice and he didn't want her to let go.
After a few more minor adjustments and what felt like an eternity to Percy she finally stepped away.
"Your position is good now try and shoot at the target." She instructed. Percy looked at the target only about 10ft away. A little kid could hit this. So he took a deep breath and held it and aimed at the target. When he released it did fly in the direction of the target at least but it went at least 20ft higher then where the target actually was.
"What in the Hades…" Artemis mumbled to herself in shock. "Your form is perfect… I don't understand. Try again." She ordered.
Percy sighed but knew there was no use in arguing. He took aim again and shot. This time the arrow went a direct 180 behind him somehow defying all laws of physics hitting the tree behind him.
"How is that possible?!" Artemis exclaimed. There was no way someone was this bad at using a bow. Artemis has been able to teach everyone, even the ones that no one else could. She had master the craft and refused to believe someone was naturally this bad with archery. No, There had to be another reason to why Percy was so bad at using a bow.
"I told you I was really bad. Me and bows do not mix at all."
"No, I think this is something more than that. Turn to me and stay still." Artemis said seeming frustrated. Percy did what he was told and turned toward the moon goddess not know what she was talking about. Suddenly her eyes glowed pure silver and she started to look all over Percy's body. Percy blushed as he was basically getting checked out by Artemis.
"Um Artemis? What are you doing?" If Artemis heard him she made no indication. She just stared all around in body seeming to be looking for something. She kept looking until after a few more minutes her eyes went back to normal and looked annoyed.
"I think I found the problem...APOLLO!" She screamed.
A sudden flash of gold blinded Percy's eyes for a second before it was replaced with Apollo. "Hey little sis! What's with the ring up?" he questioned.
Artemis fixed a glare on him with a hand on her hip. "First off I'm older then you. Second, why did I find a curse that you placed on the Poseidon linage?"
Apollo looked confused all the sudden, the smirk wiping off his face, and turned to Percy with pure golden eyes seeming to scan him the way that Artemis did.
"Huh I forgot about that." He said as the glow went away.
"What are you talking about?" Percy wondered not having a clue what the Hades was going on right now.
"Around a thousand and a half years ago there was this beautiful women. Her name was Daphne and by Chaos was she beautiful. I wanted her all to myself and I did for a while. She was always in awe of my archery skills and I would always spend time teaching her how to shoot. But soon I had to go back to my godly duties and leave her but I never forgot her. Soon I found out she married and I was blinded by jealousy. I found out it was a Son of Poseidon so I could not kill him or I would face the wrath of your father. So instead I cursed him and the rest of the Poseidon's sons to come with horrible archery skills. I know it was petty I just wanted to always have one thing over him even if I couldn't have Daphne." Apollo told them.
"So you're telling me this entire reason I have been horrible at archery all my life is because a distant brother of mine stole your girl. Are you fucking serious right now Apollo?" Percy cursed frustratingly.
"Yup!" Apollo exclaimed not looking embarrassed at all. "You're lucky it was only archery, my family has done a lot worse for a lot smaller. Now how about we get that curse off you? I think you have more than proved yourself to us."
Apollos hands glowed golden and he hovered them over Percy's chest. Percy felt a slight tug where Apollos hands were centered, almost as if something was being pulled out.
"There ya go! My curse is no longer affecting you. Now if you will excuse me I was in the middle of getting this super-hot chick in bed with me so I have things to get back to." Apollo announced.
Since Percy was immortal now he could witness a god's true form without melting. For Apollo he basically turned into pure gold while his eyes glowed with power. It was interesting to see so much power into one being. He wanted to be just as, or even more, powerful then the gods someday. Some people might think Percy was lusting for power like Thalia fatal flaw. However, Percy wanted the power to protect those he cared and loved making sure he would never lose anyone again.
"Gods my brother can be such an idiot sometimes. Now that we have all that sorted out how about we try shooting the target again." Artemis suggested.
Suddenly Percy got nervous. Why would he be nervous? He should be able to shoot a bow just fine now. Maybe it was the fact that him being cursed could have been used as an excuse for being bad with a bow. Now he had no excuse what so ever and had to accept he could never shoot a bow in his life. He calmed himself down and steadied himself as he got into position. He held his breath and released the arrow. The arrow flew true and actually landed on the target.
Percy couldn't believe his eyes. He actually hit the target. For long he was always jealous that people could use archery while he could not but, now he could actually do it. He actually had a chance to learn how to shoot.
Percy was so overcome with joy he didn't even realize what he was doing as he pulled Artemis into a hug and spun her around.
"I DID IT I ACTUALLY HIT A TARGET!" He rejoiced.
"Percy…" Artemis said coldly.
"Yes Artemis?" Percy asked still obvious.
"Put me down"
Percy's eyes widened as he finally realized what he was doing set Artemis down and backed away with his head down, red as a tomato. "I'm sorry I was just so excited that I actually hit a target for the first time in my life."
"Its…its ok P-Percy," She stammered out as she tried to hide the blush on her face and the butterflies in her stomach. Why was she feeling this way? She was a man hating goddess, no man should have this effect on her. She decided to just ignore it and focus on the training.
"Now that you can actually shoot a bow the real training begins." She said with a wicked smile on her face. Percy did not like that look one bit.
/=======================================================/\==================================================\Percy emerged from the woods later that day with blood dripping down his hands as Artemis worked them raw. Surprisingly he still had a smile on his face even though they looked painful. He learned a lot from Artemis and was actually able to hit the red near the bulls-eye, not the best but defiantly not the worse anymore. He could really see himself being able to use a bow in combat soon and that made Percy very excited.
His stomach growled at him as he had not eaten anything in a while and while pulling a bow string might not seem like a lot of exercise was very tiring. Percy walked over to the dinning tent and saw that there was still a few hunters eating. He walked inside as his hunger outweighed his fear of the hunters and sat as far as possible from them. Surprisingly none of the hunters got up and left they simply ignored him. Right before Percy summoned a plate of steak he was craving right now the chair across from him scraped against the floor and, to his surprise, Khloe plopped down in the chair.
"Hey Mr. Guardian. Got enough energy to summon me a good meal?" she asked without skipping a beat.
"And to here I thought that you sat by me to have a nice conversation with me." Percy said chuckling.
"Don't worry I don't think you are too bad for a male I just think your food is better."
"Fine what do you want?"
"Can I have a slice of peperoni pizza? It's been so long since I have had pizza." Percy stared at her expectantly. She was confused before she rolled her eyes, "Please."
Percy smiled and clapped his hands together and two slices of pizza appeared on her plate. This transaction didn't go unnoticed by the other hunters in the tent with them.
A white haired girl stood up, "You can summon food? Why have you not been doing that for all of us this whole time? How can you even do it in the first place?" she cried in outrage.
Percy shrugged, "You guys never asked and Hestia blessed me when I become her champion. Would you like anything? I don't mind." He offered.
They all looked apprehensive but they looked over at Khloe who was stuffing her face with pizza. They decided to put away their man hating tendency for a bit and nodded their heads.
"I do want one thing in return though." Percy bartered. The girls glared at him as they all expected him to want to be repaid with some vile deed to pleasure him. He was a male after all and that is all they wanted. "I want each of you to tell me your names." Percy stated simply. The girls blinked in surprise not expecting something that simple from him.
"That's all you want from us?" A dark skinned girl asked.
Percy looked confused, "Ya, is that a problem?"
Not wanting to push their luck the dark skinned girl pointed to younger looking one with long black hair, "This is Maya." She then pointed to the girl with white hair, "This is Maria, and my name is Abigail." Maria gave a wave while Maya just kept her arms crossed.
"Great! What do you three want to eat?" Percy asked.
"We can have anything we want?" Maya questioned.
"Well my power is for summoning home cooked meals so I can't do anything do fancy food but anything else is fine."
They each ordered different dinners from different corners of the world and started to dig in. They looked like animals that have not eaten in days as they devoured the food. Percy summoned himself some steak and potatoes but had to eat slowly as his hands were still sore from the training. Soon everyone was done and content so Percy went around and picked up all the plates so he could wash them. The hunters all left him with only Khloe thanking him. He didn't take too much offense with this as he finally knew three more hunter's names.
Washing the dishes went without a hitch as he finished pretty fast and soon went over to the outskirts of the camp to take his shift to guard. As the Guardian he had the longest shift but he wasn't the only defender but it did give him plenty of time to think on things.
He could finally use a bow and arrow. While he was nowhere near as good as the hunters he felt like with practice he could get there someday. He could finally not always have to be close ranged when fighting enemies as that's always been one of his main disadvantage. He was excited that he could finally incorporate archery into his fight style and he was excited to say the least. He has many ideas that he was going to have to test out as he got better.
Now that he was alone in his thoughts he finally realized that he has not been as sad as he was in camp. Being in the hunt as given him something to focus on and forget about what happened. That made him feel guilty. He didn't want to forget. He want to remember Annabeth for the rest of his life, he was scared to forget about her. He was scared to move on.
The time passed quickly while he was stuck in his thoughts and soon another hunter came to relive him of his duty. He quickly went back to his tent where he quickly changed into some sleepwear, which was just basically his underwear, and collapsed on his bed. His last conscious thought before he pasted out was that pair of glowing silver eyes.
A/N: Hello! Yes I'm alive. Sorry this took so long I was just lazy and didn't really have the motivation to write. To be honest the only reason I was able to finish this was because of the last review that a guest left. You guys gotta realize that I read each review and it really helps to know that people are actually reading and enjoying the story. I'm not asking for a full blown review I'm just asking if you enjoyed it so far. So more reviews = faster uploads. Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed.
