It wasn't too hard to find the Arena, it was sort of big, and I didn't need my super-human hearing to hear the yelling and screaming from inside of it. Something had obviously happened in there, and I rushed to find out what.
When I stepped in, I saw a row of blonde-haired gray eyed kids standing across from three people that looked suspiciously like my brothers. Neither side seemed very happy, which wasn't good, because Athena's kids were masters at revenge and my brothers could destroy the whole camp. I wasn't quiet sure who had paired them up for training, but I knew that they were an idiot.
"It's not my fault that Akakius stepped in front of my arrow!" Neleus yelled, his brown eyes flashing angrily, and I raised an eyebrow.
"She didn't step in front of it, you turned and shot it at her!" one of the blonde-haired kids snapped back, and that same kid stepped forward so he was measuring up to Neleus, which was sort of funny because Neleus was really short.
"Do you honestly think that he could have hit her? We're sons of Poseidon, not Apollo." Theseus said, his voice calm, although I could hear the anger underneath it, Athena and Poseidon didn't get along since Athena one the patronship of Athens, and that rivalry also fell on their children.
"You hit her, and now our best fighter is out for a week!" the blonde boy growled, and I slowly began to walk forward to defuse the situation.
"What are we going to do for capture the flag? She's our best strategist. You did this on purpose!" another Athenian child said, and I smacked myself in the face. For being brain children, they didn't really use theirs much.
"Why the Hades would I care about one little Athenian child?" Neleus asked, and I frowned. "It's not like any of you can take me on."
He was setting himself up to get a good, old-fashioned, butt whooping.
"Oh really, would you like to wager on that?" the kid in front of Neleus asked as he drew his sword.
"I would, but I don't feel like wasting my precious time on the likes of you." Neleus said, and looked up at the boy with an arrogant smirk.
"Neleus!" Theseus snapped, and the blonde looked over at Theseus with a smirk.
"No, it's okay Theseus, it really is. I don't want to fight a snot nosed, good for nothing, five-foot, sea spawn anyways." the blonde said, his gray eyes lighting up cockily as he looked back at Neleus.
"Why you!" Neleus growled, and almost tackled the child of Athena to the ground, I was thankful that Theseus had such great reflexes.
"What's going on here?" I asked, deciding that it was the perfect time to step in.
All ten heads snapped to me, and three sets of eyes widened to the size of a discus. "Perseus?" Belus questioned, his blue-gray eyes seeming surprised, which was more emotion then I usually saw out of him.
"In the very flesh." I said, and walked forward so I was next to my brothers. "What have you done now, Neleus?" I asked, and stared down at the blonde children in front of me.
"Nothing!" he exclaimed, still struggling against Theseus, and Belus sighed.
"He shot this girl named Akakius in the knee, don't ask how, but he did." Belus explained, for once not having the cocky bravado that he was known for.
"Is that so?" I looked over at Neleus with a glare, and he stared at me for a second, before cringing back.
"The information that you have received may or may not be correct." Neleus said, his voice going soft, as if he was afraid that I would smite him or something.
I stared at him for a second, before sighing, and looking back at the children of my father's rival. "I'm sorry for my brother's actions, but they have absolutely no ability to hit a target, much less a knee, so I'll thank you kindly to back off." I wasn't terribly mad yet, but Athena and her children annoyed me, so it probably wouldn't take long for my anger to grow.
"Why would we listen to you?" a random child asked, but cringed when my eyes settled on them.
"Because I have the ability to take away all your senses, and I wouldn't have a problem doing it." I said, and his eyes widened.
I couldn't do that anymore, but they didn't need to know that.
"Who are you?" a different one asked, but I was looking at the one that was still dangerously close to Neleus with a sword in his hand.
"He's Perseus, the God of Tracking." the tall boy said, and I gave him a kind smile. I had to remember that I wasn't here to flip at the people I didn't like, I had to unite every child from every God.
"That I am." I agreed, and his eyes lightened slightly.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his eyes shining with curiosity.
"You'll find that out later, but I'm here to show my brothers how to shoot a bow, if you'll please excuse us." I said, and turned to walk over to the archery fields.
"Back off guys, it's not smart to take on a God like him." the same boy said, and I smiled as I walked over to the fields.
I had at least had the foresight to bring my bow with me, that boy knew who I was, and if he noticed that I was using a normal bow, there was no doubt in my mind that he would figure out my power-or lack thereof.
"Alright guys, grab your bow, and let's get started." I said, and pulled my bow off of my shoulder.
"Yes, Percy." they all said with a sigh, and I smiled slightly as I knocked two arrows.
After a lot of yelling, screaming, and shouts of pain, Theseus was able to hit the target, and Belus came awfully close. It was surprising what getting taught from a God could do for them, my brothers specialized in swords and other close-combat weapons but I felt as though they would be using a bow like a child of Apollo in no time.
Anyways, after archery, they had sword fighting with a few kids from the Hermes cabin, mostly the unclaimed ones. There was one that was particularly good with a sword, his name was Peleus (at least that's what Theseus told me), and he was demolishing all the other Hermes kids like he ate them for breakfast.
Peleus was dressed all in black, which I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for the fact that it was a really hot day. He had a black tunic on with a cloak around his shoulders that was a shade lighter then his tunic, and an onyx amulet held his clock on his shoulders. I couldn't make out what was on it from where I stood, but there was something on there that looked like a scythe, or maybe I was just imagining it. Peleus wore a hood, too, which covered most of his face, except for the bottom half, and I could just barely make out curly black hair, and his skin held only a light tan, which was surprising since half-bloods spent a lot of time in the sun.
Peleus stopped fighting suddenly, and his eyes settled on me, well I think they did at least. I couldn't be to sure since a hood was covering his face, and he frowned deeply. There was something about him that made me feel...unsettled and weird.
"Hey Percy! Come fight with us for a while." Theseus said, and I glanced at him for a second, before looking back over at Peleus, who was still staring at me. I wasn't sure if I just didn't like him, or if I was scared of him.
"Alright." I said, and pulled my eyes away from Peleus, forcing myself to smile when my eyes met Theseus' blue ones. "Just don't whine to dad when I kick your butts."
"As if you could." Belus snorted with an eye roll, and I smirked.
"Is that a challenge?" I asked, and he looked away from his sword to stare at me instead, his eyes, gray at the moment, were intense, but he smiled slightly.
"Of course it is, brother dear, that's the only way you can fight us, isn't it?" Belus' eyes were twinkling mischievously, and I pulled Riptide from my belt in preparation.
"Alright, you three against me, I think that's more then fair."
We fought until Dinner, I won, but it was surprisingly fun, Artemis and I hadn't had a good old scrimmage for a while now, and I hadn't realized how much I had missed fighting for fun. There was no stress involved with it, and I had managed to forget all my problems for an hour.
When we stepped into the dining hall (1), everybody immediately stopped talking, and turned to stare at us. I guessed that, that Athena boy had told them who I was, and everybody was now awe-struck. That might have been my ego getting to me, I was hoping that they were awe-struck, but it was impossible for me to actually know.
I forced myself to ignore them, and followed my brothers to the Poseidon table, where I hesitantly sat down. I knew that my father wouldn't smite me, but that didn't stop me from being weary, this was another God's territory, it wasn't my place to be here.
I didn't have to eat as a God, Nectar and Ambrosia sustained me, but I was hungry now, a feeling that I had never felt before. I scowled, but watched as the nymphs brought in some delicious looking food, I didn't have my amazing nose, but the delicious scent filled my nose immediately. I doubted that it would taste as good as Ambrosia, but it was impossible to be sure since I had never had it before.
The nymphs set our plates down in front of us, and my brothers immediately dug in. I watched them for a second, before hesitantly reached down to pick up a piece of meat, it looked to be sheep. I carefully put it in my mouth, and smiled when my taste buds were assaulted by one of the tastiest things I had ever had.
"Campers!" Chiron yelled suddenly, and I looked up at him, he was sitting at the head table with a few nymphs. "We have a very special guest here today, although I'm afraid that he brings devastating news from Olympus." Chiron's kind brown eyes met mine, and I slowly stood up. "Perseus, why don't you tell us of the coming danger."
"Um, well," I said nervously, and looked around at all the campers. "Artemis and I met a... Gigantes. This Giant was apparently made by the Earth Mother, Gaia, to kill my father, Poseidon, and take his place in the world as Lord of the Oceans. As far as Artemis and I can tell, there was a Giant made for each and every Olympian."
"So why are you telling us?" some Apollo boy asked, and I looked over at him. "The Olympians will take care of it." there was several murmurs of agreement, and I frowned.
"But this time, I believe that they can't take care of it. I have a feeling that the Gods will need your help, these Giants are powerful, Polybotes, my father's enemy, froze my limbs. I couldn't move for almost a minute, and the power he holds is so great that I'm not even sure if my father will be able to take him." so maybe some of this wasn't true, but I needed them to take this seriously.
Yells broke out again, each table began to fight with each other, and I sighed with a smack to my face. This was getting seriously annoying, and it was weird how much they were like their parents.
My brothers, at least, were relatively quiet, they were talking amongst themselves, but they weren't yelling or fighting, for which I was thankful.
"Giants?" Belus wondered, his gray eyes turning confused, and Theseus ran a hand through his hair with a sigh.
"More powerful then Father?" Theseus wondered, his deep, ocean blue eyes were confused, I didn't blame him for that, when you saw the destruction that Poseidon could cause, you wondered how he wasn't the King of Olympus.
"Ah, don't worry about this guys! We can take these stupid giants!" Neleus said, being his normal self, and I rolled my eyes with a small smile.
Neleus was insanely annoying most of the time, but I knew that, that was the attitude we needed to defeat the Giants.
"Quiet!" Chiron yelled suddenly, and everybody immediately quieted down, all tables going quiet except for a few small murmurs. "Let's talk about this like rational people!" Chiron seemed weirdly angry, but I guess that I didn't blame him. "You are all panicking... man up! You're the children of Gods! Start acting like it!"
I almost snickered, almost, but then I realized that I was in the same boat as them, and I didn't.
"Perseus, you have fought a Giant before, and you said that your limbs froze, how were you able to escape your paralysis?" a blonde haired girl sitting at the Athena table asked, and since her knee was all bandaged up, I figured that she was Akakius.
"I thought about..." I hesitated, I didn't want to say that I had been thinking about Artemis. "I thought about my friend, I wanted her to get away, and warn Lord Zeus of the coming danger."
It was pretty obvious as to who my 'friend' was, I had told them that I was with Artemis, and I could see by the way that Akakius' steely eyes were glinting that she knew exactly who it was.
"But if a God's limbs froze, how are we expected to do anything?" a child at the Hermes table asked, and we all looked over at him. "We'd never be able to escape!"
"Not if we were by ourselves." Akakius said, and all heads turned to me. "But if we were with somebody, a God, perhaps, they would be able to distract the Giant."
I stared at her for a second, not quiet getting what she was saying, before bursting into laughter when I suddenly got it. They wanted to fight with Gods?
They wanted to fight with Gods?
They wanted to fight with Gods?
They wanted to fight with Gods?
I couldn't help it, perhaps I had already known that we would have to fight with them, but it was really funny coming from their mouths. It was just so outrageous. Demigods could never fight with Gods, we had to return to our immortal form to truly fight, they couldn't even set their eyes upon us.
I could feel everybody's stare on me, and I slowly forced myself to stop laughing. Okay, so maybe I was laughing a little bit to much, but that didn't mean they had to glare at me like they were.
-A-
Artemis hated hunting by herself, she had gotten so use to having Percy by her side that she got lonely now, so perhaps it was a good thing that Percy had lost his powers, she could return to her roots. Although, Artemis had gotten so use to Percy's mental map, that it was now agonizingly hard to have to truly hunt, she had to find the scent, then she had to follow the scent, and finally, she had to kill the beast that she was hunting, all by herself.
Artemis felt as though she was a child learning how to ride a bike for the first time.
The things that Artemis was hunting weren't even beasts, which made it even harder, because she couldn't be caught by them. If she was, Artemis knew that she wouldn't get away until somebody came to save her, and without Percy's tracking skills, she knew that she wouldn't be found until the war was over and all the Giants were defeated.
Okay, so maybe she depended on Percy a little bit to much. Artemis had found that having a best friend, a friend at all, really, had really helped her. She had somebody to talk to, somebody to hunt with, somebody to make her laugh...
The list goes on.
So now, without him by her side, Artemis felt heartbreakingly lonely. She had visited Zoë a few times, only to give her missions to get her familiarized with hunting, but Zoë still wasn't good enough to accompany her on things like this.
Artemis was forced to shake those thoughts from her head as she caught a particularly disgusting scent, it smelt like war, and it made her nose burn. She had smelt something similar on Ares, but not even he was this... smelly.
Artemis glanced at the forest around her, before breathing in deeply of the scent, and beginning to run. She didn't have to run far, which was surprising, she felt the air shift when she entered the same force-field type thing that she and Percy had went into that one time with Polybotes, and immediately slowed down, and made her steps quieter. Artemis could hear the roaring of monsters, and the smell was so strong now that her eyes burned.
Artemis was forced to look upon one of the most gruesome and blood-curdling things she had ever seen when she hid behind the lone tree in the clearing. The Giant sitting on a daize, high above everybody else, was somebody that Artemis hoped she never had to lay eyes upon again
His hair was white, the color of Death, and it was stained red with the blood of innocents, bones littered his dread-locks, not only that but human hands not yet composed and eyeballs hung from the end of his greasy locks. His face was red, and his upper-half was covered in Celestial Bronze armor, that, like his hair, was stained with blood. The Giants lower half was some kind of lizard, Artemis' brain wasn't able to bring up the kind, but it was completely black, and as far as Artemis could tell, it was the only thing not covered in blood.
In his hand, the Giant held a long sword, which instilled fear in Artemis' heart upon looking at it. It dripped with blood, and there was an aura about it that fluctuated with different shades of red. The hilt was made of bone, the sword came out of a skull, and Artemis could see the beginning of some kind of human bone, probably a femur. The bone was held in the Giants humongous hand, and Artemis felt disgust rise in her chest. Ares was horrible, but this Giant was... something else.
The Giants face turned to her hiding place suddenly, and a demeaning smirk pulled his lips up. His eyes, Artemis noticed, were filled with the souls of those he had killed, she could see their deaths replaying over and over again, she could hear their screams for help that never came, and she could feel their despair and fear as that horrendous sword was pushed through their chest.
Before Artemis even knew what she was doing, she was running, she had to get away from that monster.
Behind her, Artemis heard a laugh that could only be described as evil, and she felt herself shiver. "Yes, Little Goddess, run. Warn your brethren of their doom." the Giants voice was deep, and it brought with it the sounds of war.
Artemis didn't stop running until she reached the safety of Olympus and her father.
Hey, y'all!
This probably isn't as long as you would like it to be, but I did get to introduce an OC from ACOOLGUY! I, personally, really liked him, and y'all will find out more about him later.
I never asked you guys this so-o-o-o:
What were your thoughts on the Mark of Athena?
I, personally, thought that it could have been better, I liked Annabeth and Percy's parts, but the rest was boring to me. I felt like it was all sort of rushed, but that's probably only me.
Also, the Stanley Cup playoffs start on Tuesday! Let's go Sharks, Nemo is on fire man! Who are you guys cheering for (if anybody)?
Anyways, loved it, hated it, your choice, just tell me in a review!
Yours in Awesomeness,
TheProduca