(A/N) ShotgunWilly: Thanks for the review. This chapter was not originally part of the story as I summed up everything that happened over the year in a later chapter. I decided that it would best to actually explain those events instead of giving them just a brief mention. As such I finished this chapter a few days ago, but never got around to proof-reading it unlike my other chapters. This is a slightly edited and quickly proof-read updated version of the chapter. Enjoy.


Artemis

It has been fifty years since the end of the Giant's War. Fifty years since the one uncorrupted man in the world fell into hell itself.

I tried not to think about him originally. I expected him to fade from memory as Orion had for the most part.

As the years had gone on, however, I found myself thinking about him more and more.

Unlike Orion who had been a pig, the absolute lowest of the low, Percy had been one of the most noble people I had ever met.

I remembered the first time that I had seen him face to face. He was going out of his mind trying to find his friend Annabeth.

I knew at that moment that he was special. No one else would have been brave enough to shout at me like he did when I didn't let him go search for her.

What had truly earned him my respect had been the battle right next to where the sky tried to meet the earth. He had been foolish enough to face Atlas head on despite Zoe's warning to him. And despite being outmatched, he had ignored me when I told him to flee.

Ignoring my orders would have ordinarily been met with harsh consequences despite the, awkward situation I was in. He proved himself to me yet again though by not trying to continue his fight with Atlas.

Instead he freed me, holding the entire weight of the sky by himself while I fought Atlas myself. Most heroes I have seem over the years would have been terrified about the mere idea of them holding the sky. They would have fled when I told them to. Or worse, fight Atlas themselves.

Percy was braver and smarter than I gave him credit for though. Despite my pain at Zoe's passing, I could not help but be impressed that he had gained the respect of my best friend.

That was when my respect for the Hero of Olympus had begun. I found out much later that it would soar through the sky due to all that he accomplished before he fell into Tartarus.

Something changed drastically during the final battle against the Giants though.

It had started when Perseus had saved me from being absorbed by Gaea and when he had fought the Earth Mother herself.

I had been happy when I realized it was him who had saved me. When I realized that it was because of that I was happy, I nearly fell out of the sky I had just retreated to.

Then when he fought Gaea I had felt panic. I found myself praying to who knows what for him to be alright while he fought her. Not just because if he lost, we all would have lost at that point. I found myself actually caring about what would happen to him.

When Gaea fell before his blade, I had nearly screamed in relief that it was over, that he was safe. When he fell into the pit, my grief had only been matched by his father and Annabeth.

I originally told myself that my feelings where nothing to worry about. With Percy's loyalty, he would never leave Annabeth's side for anything. I told myself my feelings didn't matter. They would not sway him from his love and they would disappear because of that.

It came as a shock then, to find out that after ten years Annabeth had finally began to move on. I could not berate her though, I also knew it would not hurt Percy to know that his girlfriend had been faithful for ten years in the hope that he would return before she moved on.

It presented a strange problem to me though. Without Annabeth in the picture anymore, there was no one to prevent me from thinking about him. I found myself daydreaming about him whenever I had a good day.

When I realized how often it was happening, I tried to suppress it. I occasionally took a glimpses through hidden Iris messages at bars and other places males went to see the scum who frequented them. It was suppose to remind me of how terrible males were and why I should not be thinking of one.

My plan backfired spectacularly. I began praising Percy in my head whenever I compared him with the swine that made up his gender. My only solitude from my secret shame became the fact that Perseus was still in Tartarus.

We knew he wasn't dead, Hades had told us that much, but he still wasn't among us. My biggest worry became what would happen if Perseus ever managed to return from Tartarus. What would I do?

I was suddenly pulled out of my thoughts by Hermes of all people.

"Could you repeat that Hermes? I wasn't exactly paying attention."

He snorted a bit at that. "Sort of? I've been trying to talk to you for the past two minutes. You kept staring off into space, even when I threatened to hit on one of your Hunters."

I blushed slightly at this before snapping at him. "Unless you want the same treatment I give my idiot brother, don't even thing about it. Now what is so important that it requires you to deliver a message personally."

He began to say something but I raised a hand cutting him off.

"Wait, don't tell me. Another emergency meeting right?"

He nodded and I sighed.

"Well, let us hope it is actually something important this time," I grumbled while we both flashed over to the throne room.

As I grew to my godly height I couldn't help but remember the last time an emergency meeting had been called.

Aphrodite had lost her favorite hairbrush and was screaming at everyone. It had taken over three hours for her to be calmed down, and that was after several more fights had broken out. It turned out she had left it in her other dresser. At that discovery the rest of the council had to hold me back as I tried to end her existence right then and there.

Shaking my head slightly and returning to the present, I saw that the last Olympian to arrive was my father.

After he had taken his seat he glared at everyone, daring them to divert the discussion. Not a sound was made, as everyone had noticed that the King of the Gods looked more serious than usual.

"So," he began.

"We have quite a large...problem that needs to be dealt with."

Everyone grew tense at that. It wasn't the statement that he made that had everyone on edge, he had made it countless times over the years. It was the lack of theatrics that tipped everyone off that this was a very serious matter.

"It seems," he drew the words slowly, "That we have a werewolf problem."

Everyone grew silent at that, as they all knew the danger the Lycan King posed to our children.

"The scum has declared full out war on all of our children." I looked around and noticed that everyone had a confused face that probably matched mine.

Cutting us off before we could speak, Zeus continued his story.

"I know what you are probably thinking. Hasn't he always been at war with us? Well the answer to that is yes. However."

I felt the room grow a little bit chilly at this. We were definitely not going to like what came next I could tell.

"He has managed to find away to enhance his sense of smell it appears. He has already personally attacked and slain over six of our children, the oldest being no more than eight."

Many gasps of surprise and outrage were heard, mine being the loudest.

Our surprise came from the fact he had managed to tell they were demigods at such a young age. Generally they had to be around ten before that happened, or realize that they are demigods. From the tone of my Father's voice, I figured that it wasn't the case.

"That mongrel has been alive for far to long," I thought to myself.

"I will rip the answer of how he increased his senses out of him, then skin him alive for harming those children."

I may be a maiden goddess, but I still loved all the children I meet. Even the male ones weren't to bad at that age, it was only when they grew older that I began to despise them.

"Except for one," crept through my mind.

I mentally slapped myself for that slip, and then again when I saw Aphrodite turn towards me curiously. She had obviously felt something come from me, and I was not about to let the Goddess of Love influence me.

"Father," I spoke loudly, and waited for him to face me fully.

"Allow me to hunt down this forsaken being and bring you his head." I waited as all the gods began nodding at this.

They might not agree on everything. But when it comes to a monster messing with their children, they are not happy.

Even Hera and Hestia were nodding their heads, and they had no demigod children of their own.

"Very well daughter. You have my permission to end him once and for all."

The lord of the sky looked thoughtful as he finished.

"Because of the threat involved with the Lycan King. You will have three months before you show me the progress you have made with him. If I am not satisfied with what I have seen, I will be sending out additional teams to ensure his quick demise. Do you understand?"

Normally I would have thrown what my idiotic brother would call a hissy fit. In this case though I didn't.

The threat was so severe to all demigods that I knew if I had made no progress in stopping it in three months, I would need all the help I could get to stop it.

"Yes father," I replied after a moments consideration.

Most of the other gods looked at me in surprise as I had not argued the point.

"Very well. Then hunt well daughter. Meeting adjourned." With a flash of lightning, the sky god disappeared.

I flashed myself to my palace and began making preparations.

After I finished gathering everything I needed from my palace, which wasn't much, I flashed myself to where my Hunters were camped.

They were all sitting around the camp fire as I approached. The night had come faster than I expected.

They stared to rise to greet me as I approached, but I gestured at them to remain in the seats.

I took my usual spot by the fire as that spot was always reserved for me and I stared into the flames.

After a few minutes had passed I addressed my girls.

"We have been given another mission. One of the utmost importance."

I could sense the girls where excited at this new development and apprehensive at the same time.

I suspected that it had something to do with my facial expression and the way they light from the fire shone on it.

"We are hunting the Lycan King." I stated as calmly as I could. It would not do for me to lose my temper in front of them.

"He is hunting down demigod children. Most no older that eight."

Angry muttering had broken out, but they took a confused tone when I told them how young the victims were.

Anticipating their next question I pressed on quickly.

"We are not sure how he is able to smell them when they are that young. My father has requested that we do our utmost to find out how this has happened. Preferably before we kill him."

I could see the anger in my girls eyes, they are pissed beyond belief that this monster had taken to attacking defenseless children.

"We start hunting at dawn," I said, then walked over to my tent to begin my planning session.

The fifth year has barely passed for our hunt, marking it as the longest it had ever taken to finish off our quarry.

To add to our shame, it was also the bloodiest hunt in the long history that the hunt had existed.

When the end of the first year had come, we were tired and grief-stricken, but we were filled with vengeance.

Our prey had managed to outwit us on every turn. No doubt due to that heightened sense of smell. If it could smell young naive demigods, it would definitely pick up on a whole group of them.

The Lycan King had left a bloody trail for us to follow across America, but it was the only trail we had.

It was heartbreaking to come across the broken bodies of the young. The only thing we had to comfort ourselves with was the thirst for vengeance and knowledge that wherever the little ones died, the monster was not far behind.

It had only added to our grief ridden hearts when several of our sisters fell in battle in different cities.

The lycanthropes had begun leaving several of their warriors behind when they visited somewhere.

The warriors fell quickly of course, but it was not their intention to win or slow us down. Instead they had clearly gone for the most isolated of my Hunters when they were unaware.

They only succeeded a few times, as my Hunters were never truly isolated. It was still heart-wrenching watching one of my maidens, my friends, die in front of me though.

"No matter how often I see it," I thought to myself sadly, "I will never become used to their life leaving their eyes."

The second and third year had not been better.

If anything it became harder to track the lycanthropes as there were many side missions that came up along the way. I tried to refuse as many of them as possible, but I couldn't avoid all of them. Usually the ones I had to take were nearly as great importance as the Lycan King. So I didn't feel to bad pausing our hunt for him on occasion.

The fourth year was the most depressing yet. I had lost nearly half of my hand-maidens to the scum without being any closer to finding him than before.

Right as the fourth year had come to a close I was more than ready to pause in the hunt for our prey.

The only conciliation we had received that year was that no more young demigods were killed. Normally this might have lead me to believe we were close. The truth was though I had no idea I we were closer or if the King had simply tired of the cruel sport.

My original plan was to allow my girls to rest and recoup from our losses. Then we stumbled upon our prey in a way that could have only be described as pure luck.

We were about to set up camp when we noticed that the tracks we were following had been fresh. Very fresh.

Over the next year we had hunted like never before. Our prey was no long able to stay in the dark and we were only a few steps behind him every time. On several occasions we managed to catch glimpses of them as they had fled from us.

Ultimately though, it was our blood thirst that had cause everything to go to Hades. I was no exception to this.

We were eager for our hunt to end and have the Lycan King's head on a pike. So we did not pay attention to were he was leading us until it was too late.

We arrived on the border of Alaska, the land beyond the gods. Normally I would have called off the hunt immediately. Our prey was closer than ever before though, and we though we had the upper hand.

We were wrong.

The hunters became the hunted the moment they entered Alaska, though we did not know that until two days later.

It was on that faithful night that the Lycan King sprang his trap.

Ordinarily such a trap would have meant nothing to us if I was at my full power. Because I wasn't, the hunt was in for the fight of our lives.

The rest of the lycanthropes attacked my girls, while the Lycan King faced me himself.

I do not know the exact details of what happened when my hunters faced down the lycanthropes, I only knew the results.

With my power weakened, the Lycan King was at significant advantage and he knew it. I kept trying to hit him with arrows, but his speed and my lack of ensured that nothing touched him.

He managed to get close enough to knock me over and force me to engage in a melee battle. The fight came to an end quickly after that. I was nowhere near the king's strength while I was in this forsaken land, and I ended up with him pinning me down on my back in his wolf form.

He was about to tear out my throat and would have manage it too. That was until I found one of my silver arrows in the snow not far from where I was trapped.

I grabbed it and managed to thrust it right between his jaws and into his brain, killing him instantly.

After I pushed the carcass off of myself, the body began to finally dissolve. A fact I couldn't even get irritated about due to how worried about my hunters I was.

What I saw filled me with pride and grief. All of the pack was dead, but so were a great deal of my girls.

I wanted to break down and cry right there, so great was my grief. I had managed not to, and instead gathered up all the wounded and the fallen and made camp.

The next day after we had rested I took account of what our losses had been.

We were down to fifteen hunters out of the thirty I had left with me.

I once again forced myself to hold my emotions in check and had my girls make their way to the border with me.

It was only a half mile after the border that we made camp. It was there that I had finally broken down in tears.

We burned the shrouds of my fallen sisters there, as we had all refused to do so in that gods forsaken land.

It had taken over a year of a break from the hunt to get over all those we had lost.

When we began again, it was with more caution than ever before. We now knew all to well the dangers of overconfidence, even with a small army at your back.