The Son of Artemis Book 2

Chapter 18: Thalia Finally Arrives

Percy's POV:

After our arrival back to camp it has been pretty boring, for like a week. I mean yeah me beating Perseus in soward play was fun and beating Chiron, Odysseus, and the Apollo cabin in an archery competition was fun and all, but literally nothing exciting was happening. It got to the point where I began talking to trees at night when nothing interesting was happening on guard duty.

However at the start of this week, after the week of boredom, something interesting finally happened, something I didn't even suspect, nor do I think the gods suspected could happen. 

You see Thalia's tree was doing perfectly fine and has been healthier than ever. Which is good, but it also turns out the golden fleece was doing it's job a little to well. As it probably thought, oh there's a severely injured demigoddess that's only alive because of this tree might as well heal her too.

I would have been completely and totally fine with this, but it just so happened that Thalia woke up when I was on guard duty...alone...in the middle of the night.

Now I can't tell you which of us was more shocked, me the adopted child of Artemis thinking I was only meant to guard a tree and the golden fleece, or the demigod daughter of Zeus, Thalia, who just woke up from the longest nap ever and technically being a tree.

After the few short minutes had passed, in which I recognized Thalia as the second girl I saw with Annabeth and myself, she demanded to know who I am, "I'm Percy" I stated, though it probably sounded like I wasn't sure of that.

"well Percy where am" Thalia demanded

"Do you want coordinates, named location, or specified name location" I asked

Yeah she got annoyed at me and struck me with lightning, which tickled mostly but it still hurt some. 'Thanks gramps for not giving me total lightning immunity' I thought sarcastically. I swear I could hear him laughing.

Thalia however, looked at me confused, and then demanded to know my godly parent, "You're not going to believe me" I said, and she gave me a look that said just tell me.

"Well when I was a baby, like only a few hours old, I was blood adopted by Lady Artemis" I answered truthfully

"Yeah, you're right, I don't believe you because there's no way in hades that she'll adopt a child nevertheless a male one" Thalia stated annoyed

"you'll be surprised" I said, "anyways we should probably get you into camp before hades tries to kill you again, but this time because you used his name as a curse" I said, and she looked angry like she was ready to face off against Hades, and probably insult him while she's at it.

 I dragged her inside the camp's borders anyways and lead her down to the big house. Ironically Perseus was up, and he unsurprisingly also had Chiron awake who had curlers in his tail. I shared a look with Thalia and we came to an instant agreement, that we were never going to let Chiron live this down.

"My favored pupil who's this, and did you strike her with lightning" Perseus asked

"She's your half sister, Thalia, and she struck me with lightning" I answered, but Thalia was seemingly getting back her memories, or they were coming to her.

"Where's Annabeth and Luke" she asked, and Perseus, Chiron, and myself all shared a look.

"I think it be best if Annabeth explains this to her" Chiron said

"That's the first idea of yours that I agree with" I stated, "shall I go get her"

"yes" Perseus replied

I went off to my death, or to find the Athena cabin pulling an all nighter studying, or researching something. I knocked on the cabin door, and waited a couple of minutes before I knocked louder.

"It's the middle of the night" Annabeth whisper shouted from the otherside of the door.

"you're being summoned to the big house Annabeth" I stated, "It's urgent and an emergency" I said

She opened the door to reveal herself wearing the same clothes she had been, earlier in the day. "I didn't change for bed tonight" Annabeth said noticing my pending question.

"Cool...I guess...race you" I started but she already started running off.

We made it to the big house in record time and we tied...again, but as soon as the door was open Annabeth froze in shock and started tearing up at the sight of Thalia. "Th...Tha...Thalia" Annabeth stuttered.

"Yes" Thalia asked, and Annabeth immediately flung herself at her, while Thalia was left with a who the heck is this look on her face.

"Uhh Thalia that's Annabeth, you've been a tree for a few years" I said, as neither Perseus nor Chiron had the guts to tell her.

Annabeth pulled away for a short moment in which Thalia studied her quickly before being tackled in Annabeth's hug. "Uuh Annie how long was I a tree" Thalia asked.

Annabeth paused from crushing Thalia in a hug for a moment to think, "just under 7 years, I think"

Thalia seemed shocked for a moment, "What about Luke where's he" Thalia asked, and all the happiness that Annabeth had, was thrown out the window and probably thrown down to Hades' realm, maybe even past that.

Annabeth started a long slew of insults and curses, mostly about how Luke is a backstabbing jerk who betrayed her, and whom she would be more than happy to see be tormented eternally...by the hunt. Yeah I definitely allowed her to spend too much time with my sisters. 

Chiron, Perseus, and Thalia all looked shocked, my guess is because of her use of vocabulary.

"I haven't heard cussing like that since back in the ancient times" Perseus said

"I haven't heard it since Percy last year" Chiron stated

Thalia, however, was in shock and likely trying to process what she heard, and how could such vocabulary come from Annabeth. "Annie what happened when I was a tree and where did you learn those words" Thalia asked, and thankfully she didn't process Chiron's comment.

Chiron was about to start explaining, but I gave him a glare while twirling riptide in it's pen form, which kept him quiet. "Where do you want me to start" Annabeth asked, and I have a feeling she could probably give an exact timeline of events since Thalia became a tree.

"Uhhh what ever you feel is relevant to the story" Thalia answered and I took a seat because I'm interested to see where she starts.

"well as you know about my mortal family problems, I tried going back a couple of years after you became a tree when I was nine. That was ok for a couple of months before Helen started being problematic again, and that caused it to go downhill so I left. Two years after that Luke went on a quest and brought back a knocked out demigod" Annabeth said

"I was kidnapped not knocked out" I interrupted, and Thalia shocked me again.

"I asked Annabeth not you" Thalia said, before guestering for Annabeth to continue.