The next few months were much the same. No contact with the seven. Find and train demigods, kill monsters, have a big night out with Apollo and Hermes. Chat to his mum and Poseidon every now and again. And maintain that feeling of being watched, being stalked. He couldn't work out what it was. He knew he wasn't in any danger, he'd asked Apollo and he'd said he hadn't had any visions where Percy would get in trouble, so he'd had to put that feeling in the back of him mind.
It all came to the front, however, when he'd rescued a demigod from a group of monsters. Once he'd ensured there were no monsters nearby, they made their journey back to camp. The demigod was a daughter of Demeter, Lola, and she couldn't decide whether to join the hunters of Artemis of if she wanted to meet her sibling at Camp Half-blood.
Percy decided he'd give her some space to think and wandered off into the surrounding woods.
That's when he felt it again. The feeling of being watched.
It was so strong and it felt like it was coming from right behind him and he whipped out his pen and spun around to strike whoever it was when thud.
He was thrown back into a tree. Getting up gingerly, he looked up to see who the aggressor was, and just as he was about to make a snide comment, he was stunned into silence.
A tall lady, with flaming red hair and pale skin was staring at him. She looked to be in her early twenties. She has a lithe figure, but that's not what stunned him. Staring back at him were two silver eyes. It was Lady Artemis, goddess of the hunt. But more importantly, it was Lady Artemis, the man hating goddess. And Percy was man.
She was stunningly beautiful, as all the Olympian goddesses were. Only an idiot would deny the beauty of the goddesses.
Wars had been fought over who was the most beautiful.
He quicky dropped to a knee with a mumbled "My lady."
Over the last five years, Percy had plenty of encounters with the hunt, dropping off girls to them, but he could count on one hand the number of times Artemis had been there. She had only spoken to him on these encounters twice.
She scared him. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. He knew the stories. She was as vicious and unforgiving as they came. Such a stark contrast to her easy going and fun brother.
He didn't dare to rise or speak unless spoken to.
She raised and eyebrow at him. "Rise Perseus. I understand you have a potential huntress with you?" Percy nodded his head. "I'm always looking for new recruits. Lead me to her."
Once again nodding, Percy walked stiffly back to his camp, his thoughts racing a million miles a hour of how not offend the man hating goddess. They arrived quickly and Percy retrieved Lola. The meeting was over even quicker, and with a quick hug and goodbye from Lola, they were gone. It seems she already had her mind made then, Percy thought.
His heart was still racing, and so he decided to go for a stroll in the woods before returning to camp to try calm himself. After all, a distracted demigod was a dead demigod.
He thought of the reasons as to why he was so shook. Artemis scared him most of all. She was unlike the other gods. Whilst they had some semblance of morality and care for mortals, Artemis was indifferent. She despised half of the population, and only cared, if you could call it that, for a small portion of the fairer sex. She seemed indifferent to everyone, even her own brother.
Percy had spent many a night consoling a distraught Apollo over the way Artemis treated him. Seeing his best friend like that because of her didn't help herself get into his good books. And then, there were all the legends of the past. He could only assume they were true, and if they were, then she was as barbaric as they came.
With his heart no longer racing and his thoughts settling down, he turned around to go back to his campsite to pack up, when he felt an agonising pain in his back.
As he lay there in a pool of his own blood, his only thoughts were desperate prayers to Apollo.