Authors Note: A very small time-skip, not unlike the previous chapter. Why am I telling you this? Cause I have nothing to write for my beginning authors note, but a lot for my end authors note. Oh well, on with the story.

Chapter 6: Perseus finally makes some friends! (who are his age, for now)

CLANG

"DODGE!"

SMACK

"DODGE AGAIN!"

WHAM

"SIDESTEP, NOW!"

"OOF!"

"COME ON AGAIN! GIVE ME A BACKFLIP WHILE YOU ARE AT IT!"

CLANG

"THAT IS NOT HOW YOU DEFLECT A STRIKE! YOU ARE ALREADY ON YOUR BUTT, YOU RUNT!"

Perseus was lying on his backside, panting, as Ares looked down at him with a sneer on his face. Both of them were outside in Ares's personal fighting grounds. "Two months and you cannot even learn this simple method?! I did it in a week, and I was only half your age!"

"Don't talk bull, pig-head." Perseus said, using the spear he was carrying as a support as he got up. "Your mother told me that you were never at any point of time my or half my age for like a week. You went from a newborn straight to a teenager in like two weeks! And you never held a weapon until then as well!"

"Eh, she wasn't even there during my early days, obviously got her facts wrong. And why did you even wanted to know about that? But anyways, at your age, mental that is, this should be child's play. And last I checked; you are a child. Unless...you are still a wee little baby on the inside, hmm." Ares said with an obnoxious voice.

Ever since Perseus aged up to be eight years of age three months ago, Ares had definitely increased his training level and methods with Perseus which promptly made Hestia faint when she witnessed it firsthand (and later giving Ares a very long verbal smackdown. Perseus of course wasn't there to witness that; he was still eight). The training regime, while heavily toned down, definitely worked out fantastically with Perseus as he definitely excelled a lot with a sword and could even best Ares most times (which he really wasn't happy about). He was also alright with a bow as well, his other weapon of choice. Athena even reckoned that under the tutelage of someone who can really use a bow, Perseus would be exceptional with it. However, there wasn't anyone of that caliber, yet.

"I am not a baby; your stupidity has already corrupted you it seems. And I wanted to know if there was another immortal who grew up like me so I asked your mother. And well, you came up." Perseus then grinned. "Is it true though, that you wanted to go on a critter killing spree but fainted at the first sight of blood when you cut your leg?"

Ares stilled for a moment. "How do you know that?!", he demanded.

Perseus shrugged. "I met your nanny, Thero, when my mom took me to Thrace to see some tribal camps. Oh, she also said that you should eat cereal, its truly a warrior's dish."

"Why you little...eat CARNAGE!" Ares yelled as he charged forward with his spear.

Perseus's eyes immediately widened as he quickly sidestepped, narrowly missing the spear. Taking the chance with Ares barreling forwards, Perseus quickly launched a succession of attacks on Ares's back which prompted him to vault himself away from Perseus, using the spear as a vault.

"Not bad kid, was going to feint but you didn't give me a chance. You still have to learn though, especially how to backflip. Try doing it just without your weapon, get a hang of it at least." Ares said, as he made his and Perseus's spear disappear.

Perseus quickly got to work, not wanting to be disappoint him. While Ares always was loud and more or less an idiot when it came to certain things, he was still a formidable warrior, and Perseus respected that. Though his teaching methods were a bit, unconventional especially for a child, they had greatly helped Perseus wielding a sword and knives, now his signature weapons. He could have of course stopped there but he felt that learning more arrays of weapons won't be that bad which he did. Now he was learning how to use the spear, something he felt that would be easier considering this was his trainer's signature weapon. But this is Ares we are talking about.

"Alright, you are good now. Now, with the spear. Don't try to engage, I don't want you unnecessarily getting injured which would lead to your mother unnecessarily coming after me." Ares said.

Perseus nodded; his black eyes filled with determination. With a yell, he again started his practice. It took a while, after landing on rather embarrassingly on the ground a couple of times, but Perseus was managing it rather well, even doing backflips consecutively sometimes.

"Huh, who knew calling you a baby and feinting an attack would rile you up so much." Ares said grinning at his tired student.

"Please tell me we are done; we've been going at it for hours." whined Perseus.

Ares snorted. "It's only been two hours kid, but yeah you are still young. Grow up already, and I mean literally. I really can't wait fight to go all out on you, you know. Oh, and gymnastics class is over." he said, summoning ambrosia and nectar and giving it to the young godling.

"Thanks" Perseus said. Ares then sat beside him on the ground.

"I was wondering, how are your powers coming along, that freaky shadow thing you do. I want to start teaching you how to incorporate those in your fights." Ares asked.

"They are coming along well, oh and check this out." Perseus replied as he concentrated at a particularly shady spot, when suddenly dark wisps came out and grabbed a nearby and waved it around. The wisps then dropped the weapons and grabbed a training dummy by its limbs.

"I can hold stuff now properly! The tendrils are like an extra set of hands."

"Interesting..." Ares murmured, thinking of all the various possibilities these shadow wisps can be used for. Some possibilities quite dark as well.

"Hey Ares, do you know where my mom and some of the other goddesses went to? They seemed to be in quite a hurry." Perseus asked.

"That? Nothing special, they probably went to help Leto with her delivery." Ares replied.

"Leto?"

"Yeah, she's that chick who my father was recently...uh...infatuated with.

Perseus just stared at Ares after hearing what he said with a disgusted look on his face.

"Your father fell in love with a baby chicken?! And the goddesses are helping her deliver her and uncle Zeus's...eggs?!" he exclaimed.

Ares was the one who was now staring at Perseus with an incredulous look on his face.

"What?! Kid no, Leto is a normal woman, well a titan but normal looking. She's not some poultry."

"Oh" Perseus simply said. Then. "But then why did you call her a chick?"

"Well, that's just something us guys call ladies sometimes you know."

"No, I don't" Perseus said flatly.

"Eh, you'll learn one day kid, I could give you a crash course as well."

"Crash course on what exactly." a voice asked behind them.

Ares and Perseus turned their heads to see that it was Athena who asked the former the question.

"Um, on the...ladies?"

Athena scoffed. "As if you can ever get a lover. You are to pigheaded to even comprehend it."

"Oh yeah? You don't get to talk high and mighty about love when you are a maiden goddess. And just you wait. One day, I'm going to have the most beautiful and gorgeous woman by my side as a lover, mark my words." Ares said, bristling with anger.

Athena just rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Come Perseus, your mother is asking for you. She wants you to meet someone."

Perseus was confused. "Mom wants me to meet someone? Isn't it usually the other way around?" he joked.

Being an unknown immortal, Hestia's first adopted child and a slow but powerful godling made Perseus a hot topic among the immortals with many of them wanting to personally meet him. Though that didn't really work out due to Hestia somewhat hovering over him which led to many immortals asking her if they could meet her son in order to not get on her bad side,

"Well, they are quite new, very new in this world. Hence, why your grandeur hasn't reached them already."

Perseus scoffed at the last part. "Non-existent grandeur. I haven't even done anything grand at all." He then turned towards Ares and waved him goodbye. "Bye pig-snout! Don't forget to eat your cereal."

Ares laughed "See you later...uh, momma's boy!" and quickly flashed away.

Perseus had a blank look on his face as he looked up at Athena. "Can you please teach him some comebacks and nicknames, He's been calling me the same thing for the third time now."

Athena had a thoughtful look on her face. "How about...no. It's fun watching him suffer." and the two flashed away as well.

The two Olympians flashed over to what Perseus deduced to be some kind of island. Suddenly, the island began to shake and after a big lurch, it stopped.

"What was that?!" Perseus asked as he grabbed onto Athena's hand for support.

"It looks like the island of Delos has finally taken root after all these years. Which also means that the other twin has finally been born." Athena replied.

Perseus looked at her quizzically, as they were walking down a path. "An island taking root? And what's a twin?" Perseus asked.

"Well, it is what it is. An island which once had no structures to anchor itself, now does. And a twin is what you call two children that develop inside a woman at the same time and are born on the same day, with a brief time gap between them of course when born."

"How does that happen?"

Athena groaned internally. "This kid was going to be the death of her, he is as curious as a cat!" she thought.

"Oh look, we're here." Athena said gesturing ahead. Perseus followed ahead and saw what looked like a grove. There was a small hut in there with a bunch of goddesses milling about and at the center was a young blonde haired godling playing a Keras, a sort of a trumpet and spouting some really horrible lyrics. He really needed some lessons from the Nine Muses, Perseus thought which was what he did in his spare time. He spotted his mom at the far end talking to what looked like a little girl. The girl spotted him first and tilted her head curiously as she saw him approaching, her. "Cute" thought Perseus.

Hestia looked behind and smiled when she saw her son. "Hello sweetheart, how was training with Ares?"

"No injuries." said Perseus, grinning. "And I properly learnt how to backflip."

"That's amazing sweetie. Oh, I almost forgot." Said Hestia as she gestured for the young girl to come forward. "Perseus, this is Phoebe Artemis. She was born just today."

"The girl, now identified wrinkled her nose. "Just call me Artemis, no need to add the first name." She had long auburn colored hair, pale skin and a pair of brilliant silver-colored eyes.

Perseus nodded. "And I'm Perseus." he said. On seeing his mother lightly glaring at him, he sighed. "Lykófos Perseus. That's my full name. But you can call me Perseus if you like."

Artemis grinned. "Nice to meet you Perseus, if you don't mind me asking, what's this training you were doing.

The two godlings began talking among themselves, as Hestia looked on fondly. Athena approached her with a question in mind.

"Why her? And I guess her twin as well."

Hestia simply shrugged. "There aren't really any young godlings around and after seeing how close they were in age right now, I figured Perseus might like the company of someone his age." she said.

"Maybe, but who's to say they won't age up now? That could always happen." Athena replied.

"That is true, but you forgot that this is Perseus." Hestia simply said, and loud shouts of excitement were heard by the auburn-haired godling.

"Really! My powers can develop properly if I go slow with the aging?" Artemis asked.

"Yup! That's what my mom told me; I can even defeat a war god as well."

Artemis snorted. "Don't be cocky Perseus, that's not always good. Oh! Is that a bow you are carrying?"

"Yeah, you want to try?" Perseus asked her

"Yes please." she said as she nocked an arrow and looked around to see where she could shoot the arrow.

"Alright, I'm not really the best when it comes to archery but basically you have to-" Perseus was immediately cut off by the zip of the bow string and the large shriek that followed from the blonde-haired kid who was almost hit by the arrow.

"Arty! What was that for?!" he cried.

"For your obnoxious singing. And stop calling me Arty!" she snapped, turning to face a gaping Perseus.

"My twin brother, Apollo. Even in my mother's womb he wouldn't shut his singing. Um, why are you staring at me like that?" she asked.

"You just used a bow, for the first time maybe, way better than me!" Perseus said out loud.

"Really?! Wow, that's really cool I guess." Artemis said smiling as she stared at him.

"I like your eyes, really mysterious." she said out of the blue.

"Huh, oh um, thanks, heh." Perseus said stumbling with his words a bit which prompted Artemis to giggle.

Athena looked at their interactions with a smirk on her face. "So not only do we finally have an archery pro in Olympus, but teasing material for Perseus? Nice." she said.

"Don't forget about her brother, I feel that he won't be a slouch when it comes to Archery. And no teasing him, otherwise he'll barrage you more, so don't try it niece." Hestia said, glaring half-heartedly but still grinning at Athena.

"Fine, I won't...maybe. But are you going somewhere now?" Athena asked as she noticed her aunt getting up and straightening her shawl.

"Going to see the Elder Cyclops, I figured the twins might want their own bows seeing how curious they are with Perseus's." she said taking note of the now ongoing tug-o-war match between the twins with the bow and Perseus desperately trying to stop them. "I'll be checking on the Platinum as well. Oh, and watch over those three since I trust you and Leto is more or less out of commission. And confiscate the bow if you have to." she said, disappearing in a column of flames and leaving an indignant wisdom goddess behind to babysit.

Well that's the sixth chapter you guys. And the special someone has arrived! *cricket noises intensifies*. Yeah, no celebration cause i know you guys knew it was Artemis, pretty obvious really. But now we are goin to get more interactions with are favorite goddess, and Apollo as well, we cant forget are awesome fun God. Hope you guys liked the training montage and I also basically retconned the shadow hand thing, lol, it s kinda stupid if you ask me. Shadow wisps, sounds much better. Thank you so much for also reading, favoriting, following and reviewing this story as well (kudos for doing all four!). But anyways, see you guys on Saturday for the next update. \/.