A golden-haired god sat slumped in his chair exhausted, his arms were barely propping his body up.

"Sis, would it have killed you to go lighter on the guy," he said sighing.

The only response that he got was a disdainful, "Hmph."

"So what did he do this time?"

Artemis's eyes looked at the recovering patient with an urge to beat him up again.

"It wasn't me."

"Pfft. As if."

Apollo could see the clear murderous intent in Artemis's eyes and refused to believe her. He wasn't dumb enough to believe that his sister had nothing to do with Ares's condition.

The bruises on his body told enough of a story to do that.

Clearly, Artemis didn't know what the word overboard was because Ares was hurt badly.

"His organs were a mess and had severe internal bleeding," Apollo's eyes narrowed as he looked at his sister, "Plus, he was beaten up so badly that he lost consciousness."

"And you say that you didn't do it? Uh huh..." Apollo said in a very suspicious voice. "You must think I'm dumb don't you."

Artemis had a blank expression as if she was thinking, "You're not?"

"You-" Apollo pretended to be hurt and wore a pained expression, "Little sis that hurts, I thought we were close."

A small frown appeared on Artemis's forehead. "I am the older one," she said blatantly ignoring the latter half of his sentence.

The silver haired goddess coughed lightly to shift the conversation. "Anyways, whatever his condition is wasn't my doing this time."

Apollo gave his sister a look that said, "You're really expecting me to believe that?"

Artemis shrugged, "For the most part."

Artemis really hadn't done much this time. Sure, she thrashed him a bit when he was knocked out, but it was fairly justified. Besides, Ares was a god. If there was anyone who could take a beating, it would be this battle junkie.

For her, this wasn't really a big deal, but the same couldn't be said for Apollo.

Just from a smallest tremor, Artemis could tell how Apollo was feeling, and he was fuming. Unfortunate, she could not see his expression, because he was clearly too exhausted to show it.

He was probably thinking something along the lines of, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN FOR THE MOST PART??? YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY THE CULPRIT HERE!!"

Artemis wondered about the other times she beat up Ares for courting her.

There was that one time at the citadel...

Oh! And that one too.

Mhm at that time.

As well as the one at the Elks.

Ah.

...

Now that she thought about it, the goddess did beat Ares up quite often, so it was no surprise that Apollo was angry.

But this time, it really was out of her hands. However, it would be quite unlikely for Apollo to believe her at this point in time. For now, it was probably better for her to tell the truth right now and explain the rest later.

"Alright, alright, calm down. I may have contributed some of the damage, but I was not the one who put him in this state," Artemis confessed.

Although, Apollo didn't seem to hear her words. Maybe healing Ares took too much if a toll on his body, despite him being a god and all, but he was unresponsive to her words.

Artemis tried a few things to try to pull his attention but to no avail.

He was definitely out of it.

In times like these, Artemis felt like she was obligated to care for Apollo as the older sibling.

The goddess picked him up and put him on one of the beds nearby.

She pulled out a vial of Moonwater, which was usually only reserved for her and her hunters. It wasn't something men would ever have a taste of, maybe once every five blue moons. It was mainly used as a energy drink for, and the effects were quite potent even for gods.

Artemis fed Apollo a few drops, quickly waking him up, before shoving the vial back into her pocket.

Apollo woke up extremely revitalized, feeling good as new with all his exhaustion was wiped away.

There was a clear taste of something exotic in his mouth. Apollo instantly knew that his sister had gotten rid of exhaustion somehow.

Just a moment ago, Apollo felt so tired he was going to die, and in the next he felt brand new. Most likely, it had to do with whatever he had just ingested.

It tasted much different than nectar and ambrosia. Apollo knew the taste like it was a best friend. There was no way he would forget it.

It was definitely something more unique and more precious.

There was only one thing that he could think of that matched the effects of his condition.

And that was Artemis's precious Moonwater.

"ARTEMISSS!!" The golden-haired male gave his sister a big hug with tears welling in his eyes.

His face looked like he was touched to the point where he was about to start crying onto her clothes, and Artemis realized it.

"Okay, that's enough."

Sniffle*

"I knew you cared for me.."

Snot was leaking out his nose as he attempted to hug Artemis again. She was quick to dodge, but her brother was persistent for some unknown reason.

"Stop! Get away from me!" Her arms trying to keep the male away from her. "What is wrong with you!"

However, Apollo was too strong, pushing past her defenses and causing her jacket to be stained.

The moon goddess's face instantly crumpled with a murderous look on her face, but it didn't detract from her beauty whatsoever. It was a mistake to look after this idiot. She instantly regretted feeling bad for this moron, who kept trying to seduce her hunters whenever they were in the same space, despite her warnings.

A brief moment later, Apollo snapped back to reality. Now that he was sober, there was an ominous feeling that something bad was going to happen soon. It was strange because he could feel the temperature around him rapidly dropping, despite him being a god.

Apollo wondered where that feeling was coming from.

But, it did not take long before he found the source of his worries.

Artemis looked like a volcano that was going to explode at any second.

"Oh shi-"

Artemis promptly beat him up.

T-T

Percy had successfully reached the top of the mountain, completing his punishment. He stared listlessly at the landscape, admiring the world he had been brought to.

Every direction lay a vast expanse to behold, giving him the desire to see the rest of the world.

From here, Percy could see the forest area the hunter occupied, a bit in the distance. That small clearing was not far off. He was instantly reminded of the reason why he was on this mountain, but he refused to let the thought linger.

Instead, he estimated the area where he fought that strange guy.

It be somewhere around there...

Everything seemed so small. It really makes you think how small humans really are. Just small specks on this land.

For a moment, Percy thought about exploring the unknown territories that this land had to offer, but he knew that it was impossible.

Percy had a duty to fulfill that many other people did not. Not only would he disappoint his family at home and everyone that worked hard to become chosen as a guardian but also himself. His entirety was set on becoming a guardian, and that was not something Percy was willing to give up so easily to a mere desire.

Perhaps, there would be a day where he could freely roam the land, but today was not that day.

It was probably time to go back, the trip would be quite a bit long.

But before that, Percy had to do his daily training.

Somehow, it had slipped his mind, and he broke his years long consistency, much to his dismay.

His exercise was simple.

Swing his sword one hundred times.

It may seem like a small number, but every swing must contain the same force and the same strength as the one before it. Nothing more nothing less. If he messed up, then he would have to restart from the beginning.

His teacher always taught him that consistency was the key to strength, and fundamentals was the key to improvement.

Of course, Percy didn't begin with one hundred strikes, that would be a tad bit much for a beginner even for a so called genius. Geniuses were still only human after all.

Percy had never felt like a one though, majority of his time spent was spent training. Sometimes with other people but mainly by himself.

Often times, his teacher would come and give him some advice, improving his methods as well as his mentality. More often than not, he would watch, muttering to himself, and stroking his goatee that was greyed with age.

Someday, he would like to go back to see them, but no guardian had ever come back to the Isles ever since the departure of the first guardian. No one questioned it though, it was as if it was an unspoken law.

Guardians must follow their protectorate until death, or until they were unable to.

That was the way.

Finishing up his routine, Percy decided to go clean up at a little spring he passed by on his way to the mountain, which would finally cleanse him of his self-enforced punishment.

T-T

The clear waters seemed tempting to jump into, but that would defile the nature of the spring Percy thought.

Was there really no way to do this?

As he was pondering, he heard a voice behind him.

"Who are you and how did you find this place?"

Clearly, the woman did not appreciate his being at the spring.

It seemed like all of the women in this world seemed to have something in common, which was to express a distaste for men or maybe it was just him in particular. Percy didn't know.

Well, with the exception of one person.

Percy saw a woman with a frown on her face and her arms crossed.

He was surprised to see someone with light blue skin and pointy ears. He had never seen someone who looked like this before.

She had an aura of nature around her, making him think that she was some sort of goddess.

Percy respectfully replied, "I am Perseus Jackson. I apologize for intruding on your spring, Miss Goddess. I mean no harm."

Now, it was the dryad's turn to be surprised.

She? Was called a goddess?

Her face felt hot and carried a light blush that was very visible on her skin. It was probably the first time she ever had been called a goddess by someone.

Of course, the dryad felt quite flattered, but his appearance was still quite suspicious. His face was covered in a weird mist that prevented her from seeing anything more than the crescent on his forehead. By the tone of his voice, she knew that the male didn't know who she was, however she still did not completely trust him.

"Why are you here?" The dryad asked in a much gentler voice.

"Miss Goddess, I came here to clean myself."

"Why are you calling me Miss Goddess?"

Percy showed a confused expression that asked, "Are you not?"

"Miss, looks a lot different than other people I've seen in this world so I thought that you were a goddess since you were so pretty."

Percy just said it truthfully without much thought to it.

The naiad was speechless and didn't know how to respond to his compliments. It wasn't very often that people came by here and when they did they were not able to see through the mist formation she set up.

Unless you were a god and knew about the existence of this place, it would prove very difficult to find.

"First things first, I am a naiad."

Question marks popped up in Percy's head. Naiad was not a term he was familiar with. "Nai-ad?"

"Naiads are like water spirits."

"Spirits?"

It was obvious to her that he was thinking about spirits as in ghosts and was still confused.

"Ah.." For the first time in her life, the naiad was stumped on how to explain what she was. "Ok! Lets just say that a naiad like a goddess."

"Hm.. Ok...?"

"Except naiads are not as strong as a regular goddesses. We are like lesser gods."

"Plus we have restrictions. We are connected to specific areas, mainly freshwater areas. Our lives are tied to them. And I am tied to this spring."

Percy could now see why she was so hostile at the beginning. She was only here protect her spring. Suddenly, Percy felt bad for intruding.

"I am sorry for intruding..." Percy apologized. "I'll take my leave then."

His figure turned to leave.

"Ah wait!" Halting him in his tracks. The naiad felt bad leaving him in his dirty state and said, "Although, I'm not as strong as other goddesses, I can do at least this much."

Her hands danced in a way Percy found entrancing.

A string of water rose from the spring following the naiad's movements.

It lifted him up and ran around his body, cleaning it.

At first, he felt resistant but soon surrendered himself. It wasn't like he could do anything about it anyways.

After she was done, Percy was gently put back onto his feet, brand new.

Not only was his body cleaned but his clothes were as well. To top it off, he felt completely dry all throughout.

His eyes were glittering in amazement.

"Wow! That's amazing!" Percy fervently thanked her. He was genuinely impressed at her powers.

The naiad could make out a bright smile underneath his mask, making her blush.

"Ah- I didn't do much..."

Percy flat out denied that statement. "No. It's really impressive that you can control like that. I can't do anything even remotely like that."

Her face was bright red, a stark contrast to her light blue skin.

"If there is anything I can help you out with, please let me know."

Originally, the naiad didn't have anything she wanted specifically, but she soon thought of something.

"Then... Can you burn a bit of food for me, the next time you eat something?" It was a bit shameless of her to ask because it felt like she was taking advantage of an innocent chick. But, she wanted to remembered by him at least once, strange enough as it was.

Although Percy didn't know what that would do, it didn't seem too hard of a task. "Sure, I can do that. But how do I?"

"Just a small fire will do and you can just toss it into the fire."

"Are you sure, you're okay with just this?"

"Mhm!"

Percy was rather unconvinced, but since the naiad herself was okay with it he shook off the feeling. He looked at the sky and said, "Miss Naiad, I really have to go now. If fate permits, we will meet again." For the second time, he turned to leave.

"If the fates permit..." she said depressingly.

Percy didn't hear her soft mutters.

A small distance away, he could hear the naiad shout, "My name is Ixia! Don't forget it!"

Ixia. What a nice name.

Percy decided to commit the name to memory since she was quite nice.