(A/N) And after almost two weeks i'm back. So, for those of you who read the authors note ,which I have never really appreciated until now(the note, not people reading it), I have some news. Chapter 14, the previous one which I said wasn't done is now complete. Sort of. When I was posting it I realized how much extra garbage I had come up with when I wrote it a month ago. I didn't feel like letting all that writing go to waste so I posted it. When I say garbage, I really mean Fluff. There really isn't a single thing in there that would really influence the story any differently than me saying "Oh, ten years later and Lily is now sixteen, the end of that chapter." Unfortunately despite the fluff, the rest of the story flows from that point so that's another reason to keep it.
The last reason why I plan on keeping it despite my animosity towards it is the mention of the future. If you want to know what I am talking about, scroll down to when Percy alters Riptide. This is the one piece of the story I was having a debate about. I know this is a fantasy story, but the leap I took there was ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, I could probably come up with an explanation, but I will only do that if you want me to. So in short, I need you guys to review and tell me if I should remove that part. I am pretty sure you will want me to, but on the off chance that you want me to keep it here is your chance.
Onto this part of the story, we finally see the romantic interest.
Thalia
When we had originally failed to find whoever was responsible for the theft of the golden apples the Hunters had become slightly depressed for awhile.
After all the hardships of the years, it was painful to fail in your first assignment. We had done our best to hide it from Artemis, but I was never sure if we actually managed to fool her or not.
We needn't have worried though. When Artemis had reported our lack of findings to the council, they were very understanding. It used to be surprising to have the gods all agree on something, until Percy had changed up the game of course. Through his actions the council was more united than ever, which meant more things got taken care of.
Our new instructions reflected this mood fairly well. The council had decided that officially, the Hunters would try our best to eliminate all the monsters in the major cities. Unofficially? We would be trying to find any clues to find the prey that had eluded us. There were many reasons for wanting his capture.
Artemis wanted to punish him for assaulting the Hesperides despite how annoying they were.
Most of the council wanted to get this being under Olympian control to avoid any power struggles.
A few, which included myself, Poseidon, and Nico, wanted to talk to this powerful being. After going so long without knowing anything that was happening with Percy, we were becoming desperate for any type of news.
I didn't have high hopes for when we caught up to him, as the total amount of news about Percy had been zero. There was no way that I was going to give up on my cousin though, even if pretty much everyone else had. I couldn't be angry at them though. For someone to spend so long in Tartarus with no word about them, it is to be expected that they would lose hope about that person.
The person I truly could not blame, however, was Annabeth. I did not want her to have to relieve any painful memories that she didn't have to. I also really didn't want to know what would happen to her if Percy did return. If he did not accept the fact that she moved on, it would destroy her emotionally. So you can probably understand where my determination came from now.
I did not want two of my friends to get hurt any more than they already had. I was also determined to spend some alone time with my cousin after so long. I had not really told anyone this, though I assumed that Artemis had realized this from the start, but I had never really wanted to join the hunt. I wanted a family and I wanted people to care about me in a family sort of way. Not the way my jerk of an immortal family cared about me. That way involved debating it was safe enough to let me live so I wouldn't destroy the world.
I knew it was slightly selfish leaving behind the few family members I did have like Percy and Annabeth, but the allure was to strong. I loved my sisters, don't get me wrong. But with the end of the war and the heartbreak of the loss of my sisters, I wanted to spend time with someone who had been though almost exactly what I had been through. The only person that fit that description was Percy. Also, I would never admit it to anyone, I had always had a slight crush on Percy. The way he looked with his gorgeous eyes and messy hair had cause more than just one girl to fantasize about him.
I had counted myself lucky when he showed an interest in Annabeth. It meant that I would not have to worry about doing something I regretted while part of the hunt. Now that he was single ,however, and I was planning on leaving the hunt if he ever came back, it would be a perfect time to see if he had any feelings for me. I knew there was only one problem though and that problem's name was Artemis.
It wasn't that she would be furious that I had fallen for a guy, though she probably would be. It was that she would be furious that I had fallen for this particular guy, the guy that she also had feelings for. She thought she could hide it from everybody. But she couldn't hide it from me and I doubt she could hide it from Aphrodite. The only reason that no one had noticed was the only time she ever showed something was when it was just the Hunters.
The other girls had not noticed anything, probably because they didn't want to. It was clear to me though, that Artemis had fallen hard for Percy. He was the only man we ever talked about in the hunt due to him gaining the respect of Artemis, and every-time his adventures were mentioned Artemis would smile slightly for some time, before her expression became conflicted with anger and sadness clear in her eyes.
The others attributed it to the sad parts of the stories that were being told, I on the other hand saw through my mistress clearly. She clearly had feeling for Percy, but her cold and logical side would kick in and drag her into an emotional debate that left no clear winner. I could only imagine the inner debate she would have when she realized that man she was interested in had her closest friends attention as well.
I had no idea at the time how crazy some of those debates could be, but I learned quickly how to appreciate the depths of my mistress's thoughts.
Artemis
We were currently tracking an unusual being across the country. At least we thought it was a single being as the the signs all pointed to that. Admittedly there were almost no signs at all for this prey which made our assumptions somewhat close to useless.
The only way we had gotten this far had been the daughter of Hecate we had picked up on our travels. She was not part of the hunt, though I was doing my best to convince her, but her help was invaluable.
The only trace that our prey had left behind was a slight aura of magic. According to the girl the magic residue we often found was generally a month old. Sometimes older, sometimes younger than that. A normal person would have called off the hunt, which I was prepared to do. That was until our guide explained how powerful our prey was for the magic residue to last that long.
Even though it seemed that we never made any progress on this hunt, we still persevered. My instincts went wild every-time we reached one of the places that this being had stayed. I knew from that reaction that this being was the same person who had evaded us at the Gardens. My instincts were never wrong. I also knew that everyone had expected me to punish this being for assaulting the Nymphs of Twilight, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.
I never could stand those nymphs for what they had done to Zoe, so they were the exception to the rule I had against a man striking a woman. The truth was that I had a good feeling that this being, this man, could give me information about the most complex thing in my life, Percy. When he saved me from Atlas all those years ago, I could not help but respect him.
It was rare for anyone to take the sky from its bearer no matter what the reason. I had kept a distant eye on him the next few years, mostly to make sure my respect for him was not misplaced. He did not disappoint, he remained faithful to Annabeth and treated all but the vilest women with respect which was perfectly alright with me.
With his victory over Kronos and later learning about how he had convinced Poseidon to help in the fight against Typhon, my respect for him had reached a height that only a few on my hunters had obtained over the years.
When he was moved over to the Roman camp before the Giant war had started, I could not help but feel worried about his safety. At the time I had convinced myself that it was worry about the possibility of being without the savior of Olympus in the coming war. It was only after he had saved me once again from Gaea's earthy grasp that I realized that I had been fooling myself. I was attracted to another son of Poseidon.
I often had debates with myself about my feeling, usually trying to compare Percy to the scum Orion. Needless to say, my efforts were in vain. I found myself becoming more and more attracted to Percy as I compared him to his scum brother. When I finally realized what I had done, it was far to late. I had elevated Percy to a level that would be impossible for any other man to obtain, for Percy was in a class all of his own.
I had hoped to keep my feelings about Percy to myself, and as such took the utmost precaution whenever I was around Aphrodite to not think about him. What I had not counted on was for one of my hunters to find out about my feelings. When I discovered that Thalia knew about my attraction to Percy, I was shocked. I had not meant to read Thalia's thoughts, but things just happen sometimes.
I was originally worried about my secret getting out and was going to approach Thalia right after I discovered that she knew. That was until I looked deeper into her mind. I was planning on seeing how long she had known and if anyone else knew. I did not expect her to have the same feelings for the same man that I was currently having these accursed feelings for.
That became the start of new debates that I wrestled with even more than the previous ones. Who would Percy pick? I could not help but feel that was unfair to him as he would have to make a huge choice that would leave someone very hurt. I eventually came to the decision that I would not really mind if I had to share Percy with Thalia if he could not make up his mind. The only thing I had to do now was pass the idea through Thalia, though I had no idea how to do that.
I decided to put off talking to her about all my crazy thought once I made sure that only she knew about my secret. Probably not the best idea for a healthy relationship with one of your best friends, but I told myself that even if we manage to find out the status of Percy Jackson that there was no guarantee that we would see him any time soon.
Why cause drama when there might not be a need for it right?
Or interests? Yeah I have three different possible match-ups. Thalia - Percy, Artemis - Percy, Thalia - Percy - Artemis. Feel free to comment on what you think should happen, but know that I will go my own way on this for this particular matter.
Oh, friendly reminder. Do what I posted at the beginning of this and review about what I should do about that particular part in chapter 14.
