Chaptah 2! BEGIN!
Right as we left off last time!
"WHAAT!?" Link covered his ears as best he could. The combined screech of all the huntresses combined was murder for his highly sensitive, wolf-enhanced hylian ears. Not how he imagined his meeting with his mother would turn out. One of the Hunters looked absolutely outraged.
"What are you talking about, milady? How could you possibly have a SON!?" She looked at the young hero (who was snapping his fingers next to his ears to check if they still worked) and summoned her bow "He must be using some sort of magic to confuse you! Don't worry milady, we'll free you!" Apparently, the other hunters found it easier to believe their goddess had been bewitched than her actually having a son.
"Wait, what?" Said son turned to his mother's hunting troupe, blinking confusedly at the girl aiming at him. "Uh… Why all the fuss?" He turned to the woman claiming to be his mother. "And how can you be my mother? You can't be much older than I am!" The woman stared at Link for a few moments, before cursing under her breath in some language Link didn't fully understand.
"Di Immortales, Hyllus… you couldn't just tell him, could you?" She turned back to Link. "Give me Hyllus's letter. Come on boy, be quick about it." Link quickly gave her the letter, mostly out of fear he'd be shot. Artemis read the letter quickly, tears welling up in her eyes at the last sentence of the main message and chuckling at the postscript. She sighed after she was done. "Of course he didn't… Then again, it'd be hard for you to believe the truth about who I am…" Link turned back to the small army of archers aiming at him.
"Uh… the leader of a hunting troupe?" He scratched the back of his head. Artemis laughed at her son.
Turning towards her hunters, she began to issue orders. "Phoebe, take Zöe to the medical tent and see to her wounds. Naomi, go through our supplies, check how much food we have. Everyone else, start setting up camp. My son will be dining with us."
"WHAT!?" Phoebe screeched, dropping her bow. "Why would you let that… that MUTT in to eat with us! He's a man!" Link turned and glared at her.
"Oi, watch it with the dog insults." He said angrily. "I'll take doggy, pup, and the occasional furball, but mutt is where I draw the line." The hunters glared at him for a moment, until a twice as ferocious glare from their mistress sent them to do their tasks, Phoebe helping Zöe to the infirmary tent. Artemis gave her son one last look before joining them in setting up their tents.
"Soooo…" Link turned to the owner of the voice, a boy with messy black hair and sea green eyes. "You're… a son of Artemis?" He asked doubtfully. Link shrugged.
"Looks that way. I don't know why all those hunters were so against it…" He remembered his father saying something about the hunters not liking men, but it couldn't be that bad. "Oh, right, I'm Link. Link Hyllus II." He held out his hand to the boy, who shook it earnestly.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Percy Jackson, and these are my friends" He motioned to the people behind him. "Thalia Grace, the one with the punk clothes; Annabeth Chase is… the one that looks like she wants to ask you a million questions." Annabeth glared at Percy, but she knew he was right. "The one with the rasta cap is Grover Underwood, and these are… uh…" That's when Percy realized he didn't know the names of the two Demigods.
One of them, the girl, stepped forth. "I'm Bianca di Angelo, and this is my little brother, Nico." The boy nodded excitedly, shuffling through a deck of cards. Link smiled graciously at them.
"Pleased to meet you. Just one question…" He looked over the demigods…"… What is a "Rasta"?"
Infirmary tent, a couple of minutes later.
Artemis walked into the medical area, the smell of antiseptic and ambrosia filling the air. Phoebe had left not long ago, leaving only Zöe inside. Said huntress was pulling her outfit back on, hiding the bandages covering the wound on her shoulder caused by the manticore's tail.
Artemis approached her lieutenant's cot. "Zöe? Are you better?" To her surprise, the girl refused to meet her eyes. Her gaze held a small amount of anger, likely directed towards her mistress. Artemis sat next to her. "Is… this because of my son?" She asked softly, not wanting to create a rift with one of her favorite hunters.
Zöe sighed. "It is a lot to process, milady. Thy son represents many things, amongst them that thou took the company of a man." Artemis shook her head. She should've known her son's appearance would spark trouble within her Hunt.
"Yes, I know you all must feel that way…" The Goddess looked down sadly. "The moment I knew I was with child, I knew something like this would happen. If it makes you feel any better, I am still a virgin Goddess. My pregnancy was much like those of my sister Athena." Her lieutenant shuddered. Artemis was like a mother to her, so hearing stuff like that, while relieving, was also rather unnerving.
"I understand milady but… I must ask, what did thou see in the boy's father to conceive him?" Try as she might, the lieutenant was unable to mask the sheer curiosity behind her words. Artemis chuckled, lightening up the mood as she reminisced.
"His father was much like Orion… but truly kind and honorable. I honestly despised him at first, thinking him to be just like all other men. Until one night, I found him dragging a drunken woman to her home, struggling against her constant erratic movements. I offered my assistance, which he gladly took… I decided to give him a chance after that day. Many other men would've taken advantage of the girl's state." Zöe nodded, knowing that there were many members of the male population who would've done despicable things. She noticed that just about every other hunter was peering through the tent flaps, listening to their goddess's explanation. "He invited me to go hunting with him the next day, and I accepted, if only to give him the benefit of the doubt. He praised my skill, and actually asked me for some pointers, saying his arrows always veered to the left." Zöe actually giggled at that. She had that problem once when she was just learning how to shoot. "Every day, we'd go out to the woods and look for monsters and creatures to hunt. His versatility was simply stunning, sometimes covering me with support fire, others charging straight into battle with his sword in hand." She laughed lightly, reminiscing. "Ah, I'm afraid I must stop now. If I keep going I might get lost in my memories…" Zöe's expression, as well as most of the hunters', fell.
"… Did thou love him, milady?" Artemis's face turned from joy to sadness in a split second.
"… Yes… He was the second man I have fallen in love with, but the first, and only, that I have given, and will ever give, my heart." A lone tear slid down the Goddess's cheek. "… All these years, I believed he was in his home, raising our son to be a fine young man. When Link told me his father was dead I…" She shook her head. "I believe I smell dinner. I'll… go get my son." She stood and left the tent, ignoring the hunters that had been huddled up against the tent's entrance. She couldn't show herself crying in front of them.
She would just have to mourn the death of the man she loved in private…
A few minutes later, Hunter dining tent
Link sat nervously at the edge of the table, next to his mother's place at the head. Sitting in front of him was Zöe, whom he recognized as the girl he'd saved. He also recognized the fact that he was being glared at from just about every possible direction.
"So…" Artemis said, trying to start a conversation. "How has your life been? With Ganondorf out of the way, it must be pretty peaceful." Of course, she was referring to the stories the boy's father had told him.
Link chuckled dryly. "Yeah, with him dead Hyrule is pretty much stable." He looked down at the food, his expression unreadable. "… It was a hard fight, though. I honestly wasn't sure Midna and I were going to make it." He shuddered, remembering seeing Princess Zelda being manipulated like some twisted puppet. Artemis noticed something quickly.
"Wait… you're talking as if… you had fought him." She said, her voice betraying a small amount of worry. Link tilted his head to one side, much like a confused dog (which Zöe couldn't help but find adorable).
'Ack! Bad Zöe!' She thought angrily.
"Well, yeah. I fought and killed him around a year ago." He flexed his sword hand a couple of times. "It was a really tough fight. Honestly, if it hadn't been for my friend Midna, I'd probably be dead today. Granted, I could've gotten by without her sarcasm…" He remembered how often he'd wanted to strangle the little twili. And yet, he knew that a non-sarcastic Midna was not Midna at all. The only time she hadn't been a little smartass was after Zant used her as a human shield against the Light Spirit (a time the Hero did not want to remember). Zöe narrowed her eyes.
"And who is this 'Midna' thou speaks of?" She asked, curious.
Link smiled sadly. "An old friend of mine. She was a member of the Twili, people who lived in the realm of the Twilight." Artemis raised a brow at that. Last she heard, the Twili weren't on good terms with the people of Light. "She was my constant companion during my quest… as well as the most sarcastic being I've ever known. Honestly, I might have considered strangling her a time or two." An attempt that would've likely ended with her catapulting him away with her hair.
Feeling slightly awkward, Zöe decided to change the subject. "Why were thou in the form of a wolf when we met? Are thou a werewolf?" At the mention of the word werewolf, most of the hunters got ready to summon their bows and turn Link into a pin cushion. Said hero obliviously scratched the back of his head.
"Uh… I… don't think so?" He dove his hand inside his tunic, pulling out a necklace with an ominous stone tied to it. Said stone was wrapped in some strange, luminous energy "This is what I use to transform, not the moonlight." The crystal pulsed faintly as the light of the room hit it. "My wolf form is a result of me being a Triforce bearer. Whenever I enter a land covered in darkness, I turn into a wolf. This crystal is made of pure dark magic, so if I will the barrier around it away, I turn into a wolf, and if I focus on my triforce piece, I return to normal. Cool, huh?" To demonstrate, he placed a hand on the crystal. It shattered into millions of black squares that engulfed the hero. Upon dispersing, in his place was the same wolf that had saved Zöe earlier that night. He sat calmly, panting slightly. His movement drew attention to a previously unseen source of sound: A shackle tied around his leg. Artemis was finding it hard to keep her calm demeanor going.
"My son… What… is that?" She pointed at the aforementioned shackle.
The Hero lifted his front right paw, growling. 'Ah, damn it all. I forgot I still had this damn thing on…' Artemish cleared her throat loudly.
"Language, young man." Link whimpered, his ears flattening against his head. The last thing he expected was that his mom (or anyone for that matter) would understand him in his wolf form.
'Oh, uh… *gulp*… you talk wolf.' He said sheepishly. Shadows covered him again, shattering like glass to reveal his human form again. He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly. "Agh, that's gotta be the worst part."
Phoebe, still not very trusting of the boy, piped in. "What is?" The hero pointed at his jaw.
"Do you have any idea how weird it is to go from human jaw, to wolf snout, and back again? Gah, it's like having your teeth pulled apart then jammed together again." He clicked his teeth a couple more times. "Frankly, I've gotten used to the rest of the bone shifting, joint bending and even the tailbone elongating, but the jaw? You really don't get used to that one…" He then noticed his mother's glaring. "Uh… stop avoiding the question?"
"Stop avoiding the question." Artemis confirmed. Link sighed, and showed that his wrist held no shackle whatsoever.
"Result of my first transformation." He said. "I passed out and a Shadow Beast dragged me to the palace dungeons. Midna used her magic to break the chains, but couldn't get rid of the shackle." The Hero of Hyrule shrugged. "I think I've grown kinda fond of it, though. A reminder that even in the darkness there's still hope." The Hunters all felt themselves a bit more accepting of the boy. That was what Artemis had told each of them when they were recruited. Zöe decided she ought to put this man to the test.
"Milady…" the lieutenant's lone word drew the attention of the entire table. "If thou agrees, I'd like to challenge thy son to a contest of accuracy." She turned to the hero. "If he truly is thy son, then a simple test of archery should not be much of a challenge." The hero tilted his head again. 'Grr… stop doing that insufferably endearing gesture!' Zöe thought angrily.
"An archery contest?" The hero asked, a smile finding its way to his face. "Sure! It's been a while since I've had a good opponent. The other soldiers are just pitiful." Artemis looked at her son, then at her lieutenant.
"Very well." The Goddess agreed at last. "You and Link may have your contest. I need to talk to that girl my sister and cousin picked up. Phoebe, could you summon her?" The hunter nodded before running out of the tent. After her, Link and Zöe walked out, heading to a target that had been placed while setting up camp. Zöe walked with fiery determination in her eyes, set to prove she was better than the boy that claimed to be her Goddess's son. Link on the other hand, was smiling like an idiot. He was a fiercely competitive individual, a trait he attributed to his lupine form's side effects. Said side effects were proving to be rather tedious to him, however. His enhanced senses meant he could identify each and every scent of the people around him. The girl, Thalia, smelled like when lightning was about to strike, and the boy, Percy, smelled like ocean water. Zöe's scent, whatever it was, was hypnotizing. Her scent was unlike anything he had smelled before, overpowering every other scent in her vicinity. It had no equal, no other scent he could compare it to, but the hero just couldn't get enough of that scent. However, he could also smell the blood that was still flowing from her wound, stemmed by the bandages wrapped around it and almost completely covered by the stench of medicine.
Zöe summoned her bow, her quiver appearing alongside it. "I sincerely hope to see thy best." She turned to look at him, only to find that instead of a bow, he was holding a bottle full of red liquid, offering it to her.
"Likewise." He answered. He motioned to the bottle with his eyes. "Drink this. I can tell that your wound still hurts, and it's still bleeding. Nothing a bottle of red potion won't fix!" The girl hesitantly took the bottle, glaring at the one who offered it.
"And how do I know it is not poison? Or sleep potion?" Her answer was the hero's dry chuckle.
"We're in a camp, surrounded by archers that could – and I think would gladly – snipe me down without me even noticing the incoming arrow. I'm pretty sure harming one of you would be a pretty bad idea." His smile returned. "Besides, I like you girls. I can tell you're tough, not afraid to stand up for what you believe in. It's more than what can be said about a lot of people back home. Men and women alike." If there was one cowardly race Link knew of, it was the Hylians. With a few very notable exceptions, most hylians – even the guards! – ran away in fear at the thought of seeing a monster. And now he saw a group of girls, many of them not even of age yet (as far as he knew), fearlessly taking down monsters that would give the average hylian a heart attack. Zöe smiled, finding it hard to dislike the hero. She drank the red liquid he'd given her, and suddenly felt at least ten times better. The ache in her shoulder was gone, the pain around her neck from being choked vanished, and she felt like she'd just had a great rest. She hiccupped, having drunk the potion a little too fast.
"What *hic* is this *hic* made of?" She felt a little embarrassed about having a fit of hiccups, but the hero seemed to find it funny.
"Honestly? Not a clue. All I know is that it heals my wounds." He brought his bow and quiver out of his pouch, twirling an arrow between his fingers. "Shall we begin?"
A few minutes later
After the girl, Bianca, and Perseus had left her tent, Artemis sighed. She knew this day would come, the day the General would be free and the beast sought. But this time, she couldn't take her hunt with her. Not if the General's troops were looking for the beast too. Especially not since her hunt had a new member, one that would need to learn the basics of hunting. She realized, much to her chagrin, she'd have to call on her brother. If she was to be separated from the Hunt, she much preferred them to be in the safety of Camp Half-Blood than out in the world without her. She knew she was being a mother hen, but in a way the Hunters were the daughters she never had. With one last sigh, she walked out of the tent… and saw her Hunters gathered excitedly in two rows, leaving a wide gap between them. An arrow flew between the spectating hunt, striking the archery target. Artemis turned to see the archery target surrounded by bits of wood and straw, the bull's eye filled with split arrows. And then she looked for the shooter…
"What in the name of…" In front of the entrance to Westover, the school the demigod children had been attending, were her son and her lieutenant. That entrance was well over 80 meters away. "Uh… what's going on here?" Naomi, carrying a notepad, answered.
"Their archery contest." She answered, tallying down another mark. "First one to miss the bull's eye loses." Phoebe nodded, turning towards the archers.
"HIT!" She yelled at them. Their answer was an excited 'whoop!' from Link. Another arrow sailed past them, striking the bull's eye again. Phoebe repeated, this time with no answer other than the obvious fist pump Zöe did. "I gotta say, milady. He's not half bad. Unlike the son of Lord Poseidon." The huntress pointed at the sulking demigod. Apparently, he had been given the chance to shoot… he missed. At nearly point Blanc. "He invited us to join in, but Zöe insisted that the contest be between them." Link fired again, but this time his arrow struck a little to the left, enough for him to miss the bull's eye. Phoebe laughed. "Sorry, pretty boy!" She yelled at the participants. "The winner is Zöe! The boy missed by…" She looked at the target for a second. "… 0.3 inches to the left!"
Zöe smiled. It had been a long time since she met someone outside the Hunt who could match her in archery. She took a deep breath, fully expecting that her opponent would have an excuse ready. She looked at him, and rather than disappointment, he saw the biggest smile she had ever seen.
"You're amazing!" He said without the slightest amount of remorse. Zöe shook her head, confused.
"P-Pardon?" She stuttered out, still not believing what she just heard. "You… are not enraged or saddened by your defeat?" To her surprise, he shook his head happily.
"Not in the least!" Link told her truthfully. "It was a good loss. You beat me fair and square. I can't ask for anything more than that." Zöe couldn't stop the smile that found its way to her lips. She offered her hand to Link, who just stared confused.
"We were never properly introduced. I am Zöe Nightshade, Lady Artemis's Lieutenant." The hero grinned, and shook her hand.
"Corporal Link Hyllus II of the Hyrulean Army." They looked at each other, straight in the eye. "Honored to meet you, Lieutenant Nightshade." He addressed her respectfully, as he would a higher ranked member of the army.
"Likewise, Corporal Hyllus." The rest of the hunt, despite being far away, managed to listen to the conversation (mostly thanks to Lady Artemis's power).
For the third time in known history, a man had earned the tolerance of the hunt, and for the first time, the respect of one of its members.
AAAND CUT!
Now this is a lot better than original in which the hunt simply accepted the guy. This time, Link earned it. He gave his opponent exactly what she needed to be back at 100%, even though he didn't have to, and took his defeat with honor, admitting that Zöe had simply been the better archer. This spoke volumes about him to the Hunt, and earned their tolerance. Now, this doesn't mean they'll start calling him brother or anything like that! Think of it like this: They like him, but still have their doubts.
And now, for the more interesting bits! Link can't help but find Zöe's natural scent to be marvelous. A scent he just adores. I can't help but think of a certain lupine trait… This is BladeOfThePoet, logging out!
NOTE: Link doesn't know what Ozone is, so he just called it "the smell before lightning strikes".