21st February 2007- 3 days later.
I had been making some surprisingly good headway, only three days and I was already about halfway there. Mostly thanks to a combination of bus rides and running through forests. Apparently when in a forest I could easily outcompete Olympic athletes and my stamina could last for hours. This is obviously because of my heritage, I was likely the son of some kind of Nature goddess. I tried to skim through what goddesses I knew about that were in some way tied to nature. There was Demeter, but I wasn't all too fond of cereal and I felt like that was probably something she would love. Then there was her daughter Persephone, but she was married to Hades and I was born during winter, which meant that she must still have been in the underworld during my birth, and Hades didn't exactly strike me as the sharing type. I don't think he would have let me or my dad live if he found out that my dad had a child with his wife.
Then there was of course Artemis, my personal favourite goddess. She was a goddess of the hunt, moon, maidens, children, childbirth and of course hills and nature. Now that I thought about it there were definitely a few similarities between us, and for a few seconds I even entertained the idea, before quickly laughing my ass off and disregarding it entirely. Artemis didn't exactly have the best track record with men, why would she even go near one long enough to have a child? Not to mention that she swore off men and love, how could she bear a child with a man? The idea was ridiculous and I promptly ignored it.
I was probably a child of Demeter or something and I had not yet discovered my love for cereal, or maybe Demeter didn't even care about cereal!
I was somewhere in a forest in Massachusetts when all hell broke loose. Literally. A pack of hellhounds seemingly popped up out of nowhere. Wonderful.
I was near a clearing but I stopped and unsheathed my blade anyway, might as well make my stand here. There were a lot of them, around maybe 5 or so. Considering the trouble I had with just one last time, I didn't exactly like my odds, but I had little choice, they could catch up to me easily, even in a forest, where I was at my peak. Thankfully this power up that forests seemed to give me also increased reaction time and power, so hopefully that would be enough to help me take these mutts out. It was unlikely though.
One quickly pounced towards me, before finding itself nestled in my blade, its own weight and momentum causing the blade to drive itself into its torso. Thankfully it was a young hellhound, considering it was smaller than the first I fought, and all the others in this pack were massive. Relative to normal dogs of course. I don't want to know what they considered to be big dogs.
Facing one was hard, but manageable, but 4 of them? It was hard work. And unlike videogame enemies, they did not wait their turn to fight me as they took me on one on one. They would all pounce at me and swipe in a synchronised manner just like, well, a pack of dogs. It turns out that this makes dodging their attacks a nuisance. I ducked under a few swipes and retaliated with a few slices, but I was granted no quarter and one of the hellhounds got in a swipe, hurtling me through the foliage into the clearing. I skimmed along the ground a bit, I think I bounced a few times, before eventually dragging to a stop on the ground. That hellhound had hit me quite far, definitely several metres.
I stood myself up, only to find myself near the edges of a campsite, several silver tents were behind me, and a few were even in front of me, in the direction I came flying in from. I also realized that the camp was in fact inhabited. Several young girls, the youngest being around 10, wearing silver parkas and blue or dark jeans. They all had bows on them and there didn't seem to be any boys around. What, did I crash into a girl scout meeting?
An arrow flew straight past my face, likely a warning shot, as a voice spoke up to meet it.
"Thou would do well to leave this campsite, boy"
I looked at the voice that spoke up, it came from in front of me.
My eyes landed on what seemed to be the oldest girl in the campsite, perhaps around 16 years of age. She wore the same type of clothing as everyone else in the camp, a silver parka with blue jeans. She had copper coloured skin, with a long dark braid of hair nestled on her shoulder, and an elegant silver tiara crowned upon her head, she looked like a Persian princess. She was beautiful. Where'd that come from? I'd never called a girl beautiful before. In fact, I'd never really been all too interested in romance, much to my dad's chagrin. As we made eye contact, her face contorted into the kind of look one would give to something they had stepped in, if I had to guess, probably dogshit.
"I'm sorry, I was assau-" I was cut off, quite rudely might I add.
"I care not for why thou art here, only that thou make thine exit, swiftly." Ok, fine. What was up with the thous and thines? What was this, the 1600s?
I was about to make a retort, but my eyes widened as I noticed a hellhound burst out of the same foliage I had. It was bounding it's way towards the girl from behind her. Instinct took over.
I shot forward, sprinting towards her as fast as I could, shouting a warning
"Look out!" she didn't seem to appreciate my action as she nocked an arrow and let it loose. I stepped slightly to the side, just enough for the arrow to make its home in my shoulder, pain shot through me but I simply grit my teeth and kept moving.
Her eyes seemed to widen as I kept making my way towards her. I then did something that probably got me nominated for the Darwin awards. I pushed her aside with my right arm, and raised my left, as the beast bit down on my arm, agonizing pain shooting up my limb, before I then punched it in the face, having dropped my blade at some point when I was cosplaying a football. It didn't seem to be impressed.
It simply pressed its weight on my arm, and forced my body down on the ground, whilst continuing to use my arm as a chew toy. For a second I thought that it was over, that I was going to die. Then a dagger made its way through the beasts skull, forcing the creature to dissolve into golden dust and return to whatever dark pit it came from, probably Tartarus if my greek mythology was correct.
My saviour was the girl I had just saved by turning my arm into a meal. I could see in the distance the rest of the hellhounds barrelling their way into the campsite before being riddled with silver arrows.
I could feel my vision becoming darker, I was probably losing consciousness because of all that blood loss. The last thing I see before completely passing out was the sight of Auburn hair and eyes as silver as mine.
-Line Break-
Zoë-POV
I stared as Lady Artemis knelt down next to the foolish boy who had sa-... Pushed me aside.
"Wilst thou not transfigure him into a jackalope, my lady?" it was not in my habit to question my lady, but I thought that she would already be rid of him by now.
She simply looked at me and replied
"You know the deal we made Zoë. We help half bloods reach camp, even if they are male." Ah of course. As usual she was correct.
I watched as she went towards his blade that was on the ground. As her eyes roamed over its bronze edge, they widened considerably when they landed on the words, nay, the name inscribed in greek near the hilt.
Did she know him? I had never seen this boy in my life, so that was unlikely, I was almost always with Lady Artemis.
"Zoë, I shall bring him into the infirmary, help me treat his wounds. Take his blade too." I nodded, surprised that she would be treating him personally, usually she left that to one of the children of Apollo in our group, not that the others, like me, were inept at healing. They were simply more adept at it.
We spent a few hours tending to his wounds, much to my displeasure, and several more waiting for him to wake up. She had placed me in charge of guarding him while he slept, as she went to gather her thoughts. As much as I wished to know how she knew him, I didn't voice my concerns. If she wanted me to know, she'd tell me.
I found my eyes wandering over his bandaged body and his gentle, sleeping visage. Messy black hair with two small Tufts of hair reaching to just about above his eyes. I felt some small gratitude towards him for what he'd done. I had not met many heroes who would have acted the same way. It was strange, and I found myself disdaining my own feelings. Gratitude towards a hero. A male hero. It was a foreign feeling, but not entirely unpleasant.
Eventually, after several hours, his eyes cracked open.
"where, where am I?" I could tell his voice was dry, he likely hadn't drank in a long time. I handed him a glass of nectar.
"thou art in our infirmary, where we treat our wounded. Thou should feel honoured to be here, no boy has been treated here before. This is a gift that shall only be extended to thee once, do not expect this treatment again."
He slipped the nectar, before flinching at the taste.
"is that? Is that my Dad's homemade cake?" ah, so his godly parent was his mother? Such a shame one of the Olympians had to birth a boy.
"It is nectar, the drink of the gods, it will help heal thee, however too much would cause thee to combust, exercise caution when consuming it, I would not want to see my work squandered." He looked perplexed for a second, before noticing the bandages around his arm and torso.
"Did you...? Did you treat my wounds?" I merely nodded
"t-thank you, I would have died were it not for you." I raised an eyebrow. He was surprisingly humble for a boy.
"Twas nothing, Lady Artemis ordered me to tend to thy wounds, so I did, it is her thou should give gratitude to." His eyes widened.
"Artemis is here!?" for a second I was confused at his excitement, before quickly forgetting those thoughts and instead focusing on fixing his manners
"She is Lady Artemis, to you, Boy."
He flinched, before apologizing
"sorry, it's just, Lady Artemis has always been my favourite goddess, my dad's too. She's just so cool, what with her archery and her hunting, and the moon!" I raised my eyebrow again. That was unexpected, usually men would have two reactions to my lady, fear, or lust.
"Thou would do well to remove thy fantasies from thy demented head before my lady returns, I would not have her be near such filth" he looked confused, then offended, and then finally like he realised what I meant.
"Do... Do you think I would try to hit on your goddess?" I merely nodded.
"What? No! She's a maiden goddess, I respect that, I would never try such a thing! Besides, just being male within a thirty mile radius of her is dangerous enough. I would like to come out of here alive and human. I could never be foolish enough to try and flirt with her." That was the first time I had seen a boy say that before.
"Perhaps, if thou continues to be respectful, thou might leave intact." He nodded, grudgingly agreeing
"Let's hope so. Also, when I said thanks for saving me, I meant with the hellhound, not my wounds. You didn't have to help me at all." I shrugged in response
"I merely wished to avoid a mess being caused, I would not want to have to clean thy guts from the tents." He shuddered, clearly not liking the imagery I had provided.
" Hey, I don't think I caught your name" he looked at me inquiringly, as if expecting an answer.
"Thou caught nothing, for I did not tell thee."
He sighed, before speaking again.
"Well, could you tell me? I'd like to know the name of my saviour." I sighed, if it would stop him from pestering me, then so be it.
"Very well, if thou must know, it is Zoë, Zoë Nightshade."
"Daniel Ashford." He extended his hand as if to shake mine, I merely stared at him. He stayed like that for a few seconds, before eventually lowering his hand slowly.
"okay then, no handshakes, got it."
I merely glanced at him, a small smirk on my face, it was rather enjoyable intimidating males, even if some, like this one, weren't as detestable as others.
With the glance I stole at him, I noticed something, peculiar. His eyes were, strange, to say the least.
All demigods tended to inherit traits from their godly parents, the most common being stuff like face features, maybe hair colours.
But by far, what every demigod had, was the eye colour of their parent. And his were silver.
I thought for a second that I must be mistaken, that they were grey instead of silver, perhaps he's just a son of Athena. But no, they were in fact silver. There was only two immortals that had silver eyes.
'And I doubt that Selene has had any children recently.'
There was only one possible answer, and I didn't like it.
"Doth thou know who thine godly parent is?" he looked surprised for a moment, before quickly adopting a look of thought.
"My godly parent. Hmmm. I've had a few theories, but I'm not really sure. I'm pretty sure it's definitely a nature goddess, I've never felt as at home as I have in the forest, and it also seems to make me faster and stronger. But I don't really know otherwise."
That left too many possibilities open, one of which I didn't really like the sound of. Before I could reply, the tent flap opened and milady walked in, but in an unusual form. Instead of her typical 13 year old form, she instead seemed to be older, perhaps somewhere in her mid 20's. This in and of itself was unusual. She never took an older form, even when on Olympus.
As she settled down on a chair close to the bed on which the boy lay, my three millennia by her side let me know that she was... Uncomfortable, as if she had been dreading this conversation for years.
"Milady, thou honours is with thy presence" she simply nods in my direction, before laying her eyes on the boy, who was currently vibrating with uncontrolled excitement, her countenance filled with a look I had not seen on her face in centuries, since Callisto. It seems his excitement to meet Lady Artemis was genuine, if peculiar. Though Lady Artemis' expression told me that his excitement would not last until the end of the conversation.
"Should I leave, milady?" Artemis looked at me thoughtfully, seemingly taking her time to consider my proposal, before eventually making up her mind.
"I would have said yes, but, I feel like you of all people should be here, my Lieutenant, my most faithful of attendants, you at least deserve to know the truth. Though I ask that you perhaps keep this a secret from the rest of the Hunters." I did not like where this was going. The boy merely looked confused, yet still excited, I almost felt bad for him.
"Tell me child, what is your name?" he replied quickly
"Daniel Ashford, I take it that you are Arte-" I glared at him, and he quickly realised his mistake.
"Lady Artemis?" Artemis looked slightly amused for a second as she nodded, before replying.
"I see, so he named you after him, did he?" the boys face scrunched up in further confusion, if that was even possible.
"Named after him? What?"
"your uncle, who that blade of yours originally belonged to. You did not know? Interesting."
"uncle? I... I have an uncle? Since when? My dad has never told me anything about any of my family other than a slight bit about my mother." Artemis seemingly perked up at that, before expertly reining in her apparent interest.
"Truly? And, if I may ask, what did he say?"
The boy, Daniel, seemingly grimaced for a few seconds, before answering.
"That she was the most amazing woman he ever knew, the only woman he's ever loved, and the woman who gave him the most important gift of his life, me." Despite the words that he said, his tone did not match. Small amounts of spite and anger entering his mouth with every compliment. Artemis seemed to glow, as she smiled subtly, as if she was receiving praise. If my assumptions were correct then she technically was.
"I never understood it, his love for her, how much he cared. She left him, with a child, and still even after 15 years he still pined for her. She probably never even loved him back." My lady's face seemed to have a small shadow of anger flicker upon it for a second at the last part of the statement before it left as soon as it appeared, instead replaced with shock and some small disbelief, as if she had been told that Lord Apollo was actually a virgin himself.
"Ryan never took another partner?" the boy replied almost as soon as Artemis had finished
"Of course! he only ever had ey-. How do you know my dad's name?" Lady Artemis seemed to freeze, as if not realising what she had said, before quickly regaining her regal and elegant composure, befitting of a goddess of her stature. I could only observe as the tension in the tent started to rise. I could see this ending in only two ways. Neither were good.
"You're her aren't you? You're ... You're my mother." I could see the realisation in his face, the way he eyed his mother's eyes, as if expecting them to fire arrows at him.
Lady Artemis replied soon after.
"Yes... I am your mother." She spoke slowly, as if not believing the words that were coming out of her mouth. She glanced in my direction, to see my reaction. I had of course figured out their relation to one another, yet the reveal was still surprising. How could my lady of all the gods have a child? And without me knowing? I would have to ask her when this was all said and done.
"T-then, could you tell me why you left? Left my dad? Left, me?" I could hear some small desperation in his voice, as he keenly awaited a response to his questions. It was obviously something he had been wanting to ask her for years, possibly all his life.
"The gods are bound by ancient laws to not interfere too much with the lives of mortals, especially our children." I scoffed slightly, it did not stop them from fraternising with the mortals and having countless children.
"but, but you still met my father! Had a child with him!"
Artemis looked pained slightly, as if the words she was about to say were leaving a sour taste in her mouth.
"you and your father were a mistake. You shouldn't exist, you should never have been born." The boy looked... Terrible to say the least. I could see his eyes moisten slightly as if tears were ready to spill.
"w-what?" his voice was weak. The words barely left his mouth. I winced slightly at my Mistresses words. They were... Slightly harsh. I could sympathise with him, at least slightly. To know that you were unloved. Unwanted by someone, a parent especially. I could at least relate. I had not expected this from my lady, though it did not diminish my opinion of her, I was after all, still her loyal Lieutenant.
"You, should probably leave as soon as you are capable. My Hunters do not take kindly to boys in the camp." As soon as she had finished she stood up and swiftly left the tent. Leaving me and the boy inside. I could hear him snivelling, he was likely to start crying. I left soon after Artemis, not wanting to intrude on the boys tears, and wanting to finally be free of having to stay in the same tent as him for several hours.
Not long after the boy left and ran off into the woods, from the same general direction he had come from. I made my way to Lady Artemis' tent, intent on speaking to her.
"My lady, I wish to speak with thee."
She turned around to face me, before speaking.
"Do you think less of me Zoë? Knowing that I fell for a man and had a child despite all that I stand for? That the Hunters stand for?" I shook my head.
"of course not my lady. Thou art, and shall always be, the one I have sworn my eternal loyalty to. That shall not change. Whether thou art a maiden, or not."
Artemis smiled a relieved smile, before replying.
"Then you'll be happy to know that I am still a maiden. I did not lay with his father."
I smiled back at her, that did answer most of my questions, knowing that she had, at least not fully, broken her oath was assuring.
"That is consoling my lady. But I must still ask. How didst thou have a child?"
She grimaced slightly
"I would rather not talk about it, Zoë. Perhaps another day. Just not today." I nodded, and let out a small apology before speaking once more.
"One more thing, my lady. Wast thou not perhaps too hard on the boy?" A sad look of resignation came over her face.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not."
AN: I'm back with another chapter! I promised to update quickly and so I did, after taking a small break of course. Important chapter this one eh? Two important characters were introduced and the plot was advanced even if only slightly. I hope I did Zoë and Artemis' characters justice, I haven't read Titan's curse in 6 years and am basing this all off of Fanfictions I've been reading over the past 2 months! Btw, bonus points if you can tell me what the name of this chapter means. Even if it is a simple Google search away!
Anyways, Review time! A few people have left some reviews and I'd like to reply to them!
DanielChester998:
Good story so far
Thanks, and I hope I keep making a good one!
Ocurred
Good history
I assume you mean story, and thank you, I try my best.
There are three guest reviews, which I'm going to assume are from the same person:
This is a good story I like it, the only complaint is that the chapters are kinda short
Yes finally, we're going to camp half-blood can't wait to see what happens next
And don't put yourself down like that this is really well written.
Wow, thank you a lot! First things first, I try to end my chapters at a place that to me feels natural, so I'm sorry if this tends to make them slightly short. Second, sorry but no camp Half-blood this chapter. I know I just edged you, but you'll have to wait until the next chapter, sorry! And finally, thank you! I didn't expect to have anything I write to be considered well written but I guess this is the day! I guess we are our own worst critics!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you leave a review to tell me what I did right, what I did wrong, and how I can improve and overall just your general thoughts about the chapter!
Released:15/10/24