The night was expectedly quiet. After Percy had essentially hunted every monster in the perimeter during the day, there wasn't much to look out for during the night and both his and Naomi's patrol didn't so much as spot any sign of monster activity. As a result, Percy found himself sitting in the centre of camp after about an hour, just passing the time. It took another 15 minutes before Naomi stopped trying to keep a lookout at the outside of camp and came to him.

"What's up with you not doing anything?" Her voice was somewhere between indignation and annoyance, a tone he was surprisingly familiar with. One he'd heard from Annabeth when she was young and people ridiculed her ability. It seems like that just runs in the family as Naomi too was a daughter of Athena. That said he also knew better than to get angry at her, his experience with Annabeth had taught him how much of a mistake that could be.

"I am doing something. I set up traps and an alarm." He tried his best to sound as calm and collected as possible, though his voice was a bit rough. "You saw the water flowing around the camp, right? Anything touches that and I'll know."

From the corner of his eyes he could see Naomi frown even more in annoyance, especially when she couldn't find anything wrong with what he'd said. However, contrary to what he expected, the huntress continued to stay away from him and refused to sit down with him. Not just that, he could clearly feel uncertainty once her initial annoyance faded away.

While he wasn't sure why she acted that way at first, the reason soon became apparent. "You promise nothing can get inside now?" Unlike her confident voice from before, there was now a trace of shakiness and…fear? For a moment Percy was completely taken aback and didn't know what to do in response to Naomi's sudden vulnerability. That was until he remembered the stories Annabeth had told him about her childhood. "They didn't keep the spiders out, did they?"

The visible flinch in Naomi's posture told him all he needed to know. Annabeth had told him that she faced the same issue as a child. Her stepmother had refused to acknowledge the threat spiders posed to a daughter of Athena and she had been tormented by them until she finally ran away from home. And from her reaction, Naomi had gone through a similar experience. Suddenly Percy was a lot less surprised by the fact that such a young girl, from her looks no older than eight, had joined the hunt. She had run away from home.

"I know a daughter of Athena who had the same problem as you. She had trouble sleeping every night and her stepmother never listened when she told her about the spiders, even when she showed her the bite marks. She ran away from home when she was seven and made her way through the country until she eventually came across other demigods who protected her. Don't worry, in this camp nothing can hurt you." His voice had grown much softer now and he had to actively resist the urge to hug the little girl. She had calmed down and was now looking at him with grey eyes bearing an unsettling resemblance to her mother's. Percy could clearly see the hurt in them.

"Dad said that too…but he never did anything. He just let it happen and she…she left the door open on purpose, left the windows ajar to let them in. He lied to me." It broke Percy's heart to hear such a young girl speak with so much pain and for a moment he wanted nothing more than to go to wherever she grew up and give her dad a piece of his mind. But he couldn't and the sheer resemblance her story carried to Annabeth's made him unsure if that was really the right thing to do.

"You know…the daughter of Athena I told you about, Annabeth, she also thought that for a long time. She ran away when she was seven and she didn't talk to her dad again until she was twelve…but when she did he apologised. He told her how lost he felt raising her and how unaware he was of the struggles a demigod could face. His wife was the same, she also didn't know anything about the godly world. They didn't know that spiders haunted children of Athena. They didn't know how monsters work. They didn't know they were wronging Annabeth. She couldn't forgive them for it right away either but…when we were fourteen we got into a lot of trouble and…", suddenly Percy hesitated. Was this his story to tell? When Thalia and Artemis were both so close? But he couldn't stop now if he wanted to comfort Naomi. "That was right before Thalia joined the hunt. We were cornered by a large group of monsters and were about to be overrun when Annabeth's dad flew in on an old plane and started attacking the monsters. I don't know if Athena helped him or how else he was able to hurt them, but he drove the horde of monsters back and saved our lives that day…what I'm trying to say, don't be too hard on your dad…or at least don't judge him too quickly…"

He was starting to lose his point near the end. How could he tell her to take it easy on her dad without sounding condescending and mean? For a moment he was afraid that his poor conclusion would jeopardize his entire speech but thankfully that wasn't the case. Instead Naomi was looking at him with a look he had seen Annabeth wear countless times. She was stuck in her own head, thinking so deeply that she was oblivious to her surroundings. It took a moment before she snapped back to reality and slowly nodded her head, absentmindedly sitting down next to him.

Like that they sat in silence for a while, Naomi clearly still pondering what Percy had told her just now and only breaking the silence once she had digested it fully. "Perseus", before she could even continue, Percy held up his hand and interrupted her. "It's Percy. I don't use my full name.", he injected swiftly which Naomi accepted with just a small nod in return. "Percy, can you tell me more about Annabeth?"

The way she was looking at him reminded him of the younger campers back when he was subbing in for Chiron temporary director and told stories of different quests around the campfire. While he usually tried to tell the stories of ancient heroes, it wasn't uncommon for them to end on one of his quests. He couldn't say no to that innocent curiosity. "Sure, fire away."

How he regretted that. What followed was a painful reminder of why it was a bad idea to tell a child of Athena to ask anything they want. Naomi started a never-ending stream of questions, ranging from easy ones to complicated ones and even some he couldn't answer at all. The shine in her eyes told him that he may have inspired her to take a new idol in his former girlfriend and her excitement came through via the speed of her questioning. Percy had to actively stop her and get her to ask one question after another in order to even start answering anything. What followed though was a rather enjoyable retelling of the adventures of Annabeth Chase, a story where for a change he was a side role rather than the central figure.

He spent the better half of the night retelling stories to Naomi, the young girl being almost giddy at the prospect of hearing more whenever he started a new portion of the story. As he continued spinning tales mostly of Annabeth and sometimes of himself and Thalia, Naomi slowly lowered her walls, letting him see the child inside. Sure she was every bit as analytical as you'd expect from Athena's children but it was paired with childish innocence and excitement.

Hours passed while Naomi listened intently to him talk about his and his friends past and that time was only cut short when the first rays of sunlight started to come over the horizon. At the same time, something alerted his water barrier too, the human steps making sure he knew who it was. While the goddess of the hunt came back from her nightly duties, Naomi was starting to show signs of tiring, yawning suddenly. As it just so happened, Artemis arrived at their spot in the centre of the camp just in time to pick the girl up, placing her on a soft pillow she conjured up.

The lack of surprise from Naomi at the goddess's sudden arrival told him that this was apparently a somewhat regular occasion and indeed Naomi took a little more than ten minutes to fall asleep from there. Unlike him though, Artemis looked more surprised, casting a curious look his way. "How did you get her to open up so quickly? She still refuses to have long conversations with some of the other girls even, much less with people outside the hunt."

Percy couldn't help but shrug, looking away with a tinge of embarrassment. He never considered himself particularly good at comforting people or anything but being in two wars had taught him a thing or two. "I just told her a few stories, nothing more…", he interrupted himself halfway, a hard stare from the goddess telling him that he better give a proper answer. "She reminded me of Annabeth when she was young and…I just ended up telling her about Annabeth's experience with being a daughter of Athena. She liked hearing her stories, so I told her more and she opened up somewhere along the way."

There was a twitch in Artemis's eye as he said Annabeth's name with a bit too much fondness for her liking but the goddess nodded regardless, well aware of how much having godly half-siblings tended to help young demigods. Just having someone with the same heritage and power provide guidance was a massive help to many who struggled with their godly powers and so many came to look up to their older sisters and brothers almost naturally. If that older sibling just so happened to also have had similar experiences in their life it was basically a foregone conclusion that one would rely on them.

And despite her apprehension of having one of her hunters idolize the ex of her fiance, she was happy that Naomi had come out of her shell, even if just a little bit. Deciding to just accept things as they were, Artemis went over to her own tent, extending her hand just as the tent magically shrunk and folded itself into a small clip of fabric. As she watched Percy try to figure out how to activate the magic on his own tent, the first few hunters came out of their respective tents, some picking the tent up in the process while others went to have breakfast first. It took around ten minutes until Percy had finally managed to shrink his tent and Artemis spent that time gently waking Naomi up so she could eat too.

Albeit being a bit groggy, she did join the others for breakfast, eating what she knew to be just enough for no one to kick up a fuss before going back to sleep. Artemis didn't like how calculated Naomi was with breakfasts like this but she'd rather have her eat something than argue about eating, even if she wasn't eating much. The rest of her hunt was a stark contrast though as none of them held back at all, swallowing more food than they probably should way too quickly.

That said, with them eating so quickly, they were also ready to leave soon after and she wasn't going to pass that up. Once again extending her hand, the dining tent shrunk and placed itself in the palm of her hand before she gave it to Thalia for her to carry. Then she went over to the still sleeping Naomi and gently picked up the girl, placing her on her back. Normally it would be impossible to carry her without waking her up but as a goddess, Artemis could travel very smoothly if she wanted, especially in her own domain. Extending her power to block sound from Naomi, she turned to her gathered hunt, fixing Percy with a quick look as she remembered that she had yet to announce their destination.

"Hunters, we will make our way south today. Our goal is Camp Jupiter as our presence has been requested by their patron and we will make haste to reach there today. Let's go!" At her command, the girls all started to move, blurring into the forest at breakneck speed. To her mild surprise, that included Percy. While he had started late due to not knowing their travel routine, his speed was enough to keep up with her younger hunters even while they were in the forest. She had no doubt he would leave them behind when they left the woods if he so wanted. Artemis herself was keeping an eye on the entire hunt, her godly speed allowing her to easily glide through the terrain while also keeping up with her hunt.

She had spent the entire night scouting their planned route and checking for any large settlement of monsters on the way. Given how urgent Camp Jupiter's request for help had been, she couldn't afford any setback. Mars had been very clear that whatever they needed to hunt was highly dangerous and held priority over any other prey, a statement she still found incredibly concerning. Even in his roman form, the war god was known for his arrogance so hearing him fear an opponent so much was putting her on edge. As such she was even more annoyed that Mars just refused to tell her what they were hunting, only telling her that the Legion would fill her in once she arrived.

To her relief, she had found a rather direct route to Camp Jupiter where they would at most come across individual monsters that could be dispatched with little effort. This preparation turned out to be true as well as she was able to lead her hunters through the entire journey with only three encounters with monsters, all of which were handled by the faster hunters consisting of Thalia, Pauline and Maria. They arrived safely outside of the roman encampment by early afternoon, grouping up first and allowing the less experienced members to catch their breath after the long run. Artemis usually liked to handle everything from hunting to preparing food herself whenever they changed location through a long trip like this but she couldn't do that today.

Because of that she chose to go with the next best thing: Taking them to a restaurant. At least in the big mortal cities, especially close to the camps, one could easily find establishments run by demigods or minor immortals and as close as they were to the roman camp she knew of a few places that wouldn't bat an eye at having her hunt as a customer. It also gave her a chance to talk to Percy given he was probably less than thrilled to be forced to go to Camp Jupiter so soon. So she gave a signal for everyone to follow her, leading them to a relatively small restaurant on the outskirts of the city. They received a few weird looks on the way since the mist only really bothered to mask their weapons and not their age but this time they were mostly directed at Percy instead. Having a clearly adult man run around with a dozen teenage girls was much weirder than just having the teenage girls roam around on their own.

It was probably only because of how close the restaurant was that they didn't have the police called on them even once and Artemis even shifted into her adult form along the way to ease said suspicions a little more. Once they entered though, any issue she could have had disappeared as they were greeted by a smiling restaurant owner who immediately gave a hug to Maria. The immortal who owned this restaurant was a daughter of Apollo that had joined her hunt almost two millennia ago during the roman empire and had become immortal a little less than three centuries ago as a reward for hunting down a hydra that had vandalised two small towns. Every time they visited her, she always loved to catch up with her old sisters, even when she had left the hunt so long ago and Artemis also enjoyed hearing stories from her niece who she had essentially raised.

While there was a fair bit of surprise both at her donning an adult form and there being a man among them, Julia welcomed them all in regardless and before long they were all seated around a large table with Julia herself joining them and catching up in particular with Maria who had joined the hunt around the same time she herself had. Artemis herself, after waking up Naomi, had taken her seat at the head of the table, flanked on both sides by Percy and Thalia at the latter's insistence. Naomi had been quick to take her place on the other side of Percy, surprising the majority of the hunters present.

After a moment of surprise and displeasure though, her hunters returned to their usually lively attitude they had at every meal. Naomi was also very quick to switch sides and sit next to Thalia after exchanging some words with Percy. That left her in the perfect position to talk to the boy herself, prompting to just ask him flat out what he thought about going to the roman camp. "Percy, do you feel fine returning to Camp Jupiter like this? If you don't, I can arrange for you to stay here and join us again once we go after whatever we were sent here to kill."

Fortunately he shook his head at her suggestion, turning it down. "You don't need to do that. I would have liked to return a little bit slower and less public but I'm not going to hide from it. You might need to explain why I'm with the hunt though." At this Artemis had to resist the urge to facepalm. She had completely forgotten about the fact that their engagement wasn't made public and that she'd need some excuse for why he was there. Her momentary plight disappeared just as quickly though as she pointed to her lieutenant. "I can just tell them that Thalia brought you along and from what I heard about their situation, they are in no position to question us. Just make sure you don't let anything slip while talking to your friends."

This time it was Percy's turn to shrug uncomfortably. "I'll try. Not gonna promise anything but I'll try to keep things secret. Who's she by the way?" Percy pointed in the direction of Julia, not understanding why she would be this close to the hunt. "An old huntress of mine. She left the hunt a few centuries ago to live more peacefully but she was with us for more than a millennia before being granted immortality."

She got a surprised look from Percy in return, clearly caught off-guard by the fact that it was possible to leave the hunt. After his initial surprise though, he just nodded, accepting the fact. "Is it that common to turn immortal? It felt like such a big deal when you were discussing about me after the Titan War…" He trailed off at the end but she knew what he was referring to.

"We were discussing making you a god, that's more than just becoming an immortal. It's relatively common for some exceptional demigods to be turned immortal for their service and to keep them around. I know that quite a few of your old friends and comrades could soon become immortal and I've been trying to get Maria and Thalia to be made fully immortal ever since the Giant War too. When we want to immortalise someone it just needs a majority in the council, turning them into a god needs to be unanimous."

This got him to snap over to Thalia, clearly shocked but her lieutenant just flashed him an exaggerated grin. "Ain't I amazing, Perce? I don't need to steal my apple." Thalia ended with an almost mocking laugh, only ruined by the genuine joy still in her voice. She had been this excited about immortality ever since Artemis first told her about it and she was honestly not even sure why but she was still glad that Thalia was on board with the idea. There had been some heroes in the past who had shunned the idea of immortality, including Percy until just recently.

Without even really noticing the time pass, the meal came to an end. Artemis took some more time to catch up with Julia afterwards. She always enjoyed hearing stories from the girls that chose to leave her hunt. Even if they were no longer under her blessing, she viewed them as her sisters regardless and so it interested her how they fared in the new life they now led. Afterwards they did need to get going though and so they set out from the restaurant for the roman camp, Artemis staying in her older form to avoid trouble but not shifting to the aspect of Diana. There wasn't much separating her two forms as she was much less split than some of her brethren but she did have a different appearance.

As they neared the entrance to the camp, she could see signs of nervousness appear on Percy once again, his hands never holding still anymore. Choosing to let him figure out on his own how to calm his nerves, she let him be, entering the tunnel leading to the camp. As they reached the entrance, two guards, both looking rather young, stopped them, fixing them and looking them up and down. Before long their eyes turned wide not because they recognised her or her hunt but because of Percy. Both guards trained their spears at the son of Poseidon. "You are not welcome here, scum!"

A quick glance told her that Percy himself was just as surprised as she was at his treatment but she chose to come to his aid regardless. "And who decides that?" Her voice was brimming with power, revealing her status clearly and causing both guards to lower their weapons and stumble backwards before bowing as quickly as their armor allowed it. "M'lady, we apologise for our rudeness!" Was all that came from the right guard before his colleague added in. "But Perseus Jackson has been banned entry from Camp Jupiter for crimes against all demigods. We cannot allow him in."

She knew that they were just doing their job but she'd be damned if she let that stop her. "And who decided that? Was that my father's decree that it outranks my own?" She was putting on airs right now but that was unimportant. Important was that the two guards were now shaking before her and stepping aside to let them through. "Of course not, Lady Diana!"

A content smile graced her lips as she went past them towards the camp itself. She'd need a word with whoever was in charge of Camp Jupiter about this and probably make an announcement too but she was sure to get her brother's support on this and the Legion wouldn't question the word of two Olympians. Her only problem was how Percy would take being shunned and hated by this camp as well. He didn't show any change in expression but that gave away his dismay in its own way.

Regardless of any of her concerns though, they marched forward until they finally left the tunnel and came to a stop before the river that signalled the border of Camp Jupiter. On it stood two people, one male and one female. The roman praetors had come out to greet them, though one was far more surprised by their company.

Well, merry Christmas, I guess. I didn't plan to write another chapter this year but here we are. I don't really have much to say right now, so…yeah, I added that hunters could leave the hunt if they wanted as long as they didn't just force their exit and instead got Artemis's approval. I'll be making some adjustments to some myths too, though they will mainly be minor changes and nothing big. Also I have no idea how long Percy's stay with the hunt will be in chapters, I might put a large time skip somewhere in the middle or something and I also might take a week off to figure out how to proceed afterwards but those are issues for February or later…yeah.

I also realised I have no clue about America, so I won't name any locations because I don't know them and I try to avoid anything with miles/feet too because I literally need to look up the conversion every damn time too…

Anyways, enough ranting. Have a good holiday everyone and see you soon!

-M