LOVE BRINGS PAIN

Artemis' resolve

Percy Pov
I could only stare at the place where Artemis was; her hunt meant everything to her. She couldn't just give that up. I know that she is angry, but I didn't want her to make a decision she would forever regret. I looked down at my daughter in my lap; I passed her to the equally shell-shocked looking Annabeth. 

I looked around, all the hunters were in tears, and sobbing. The demigods were silenced; they hated the hunt, but even they could tell that, disbanding them was not the right way. Lots of girls that had no place to go had found their home, in the hunt. Right now, that home was burning. I didn't approve of the hunters' actions myself, but I am their patron, too. I couldn't let such a drastic thing happen to them. 

Artemis hadn't disbanded the hunt, yet, she had just announced about disbanding it; her decision was malleable yet. I could convince her otherwise. I could make her see the better choice to take forward. 

I stood up and looked at the hunters, "I am going to talk to Artemis, and convince her to rethink her decision. While I'm away think upon your actions, or I might disband the hunt myself. Go back to your cabins, I will continue the story tomorrow." I said, and vapor traveled her to where I knew she could be. 

No matter how good of a hunter she was, Artemis was as predictable as a sheep on a chicken farm. She had flashed herself to the same cliff where we had spent the night a few days ago. She sat at the cliff side, looking at the tides below us. I stepped forward and sat at her side.

I said nothing, and neither did she. She just rested her head on my shoulder, and I wrapped my arms around her. She started sobbing at my chest, and as I held her. I did not try to console her, or tell her that it was going to be okay. Nothing I said was going to help her until she decided to talk to me first.

We stayed like that for at least half an hour before she broke the silence, "When I became a god I asked my father for two wishes, he asked what they were. I asked him to promise me to never marry me off, or force me to sleep with a man. He promised me he wouldn't't."

I smiled that she was at least saying something. I nodded to her, "What was the second wish?"

She smiled and replied, "The other was that he gave me 50 nymphs as my hunting attendants in the mortal world. He granted me that too, for a while the only hunters I had were the nymphs. One day we came upon this village, where we decided to honor the villagers by staying. At night when everyone was asleep I was awake, and decided to take a stroll."

"When I was returning to my camp, I heard a scream, immediately my reaction was to run towards it. I found a girl about 14 years of age forced down to the ground, and a man hovering over her naked. The girl screamed in horror, I ended the man's life right then and there. I looked at the girl who was scared out of her mind, and offered her a place among my hunting attendants."

"I was already a man-hater as everyone calls me, at that point. I started rescuing maidens that had no one, or were hurt or abused by men. People on Olympus never liked me, because I was too 'righteous', so the hunters were the only family I knew. Overtime, I became overprotective of them. I never thought that my hunters were wrong, but now that its shown to me that they have grown to become exactly like the man I despise, it's a little too much."

I nodded not denying anything she said, because she was true. She and her hunters had become lax at their duties and were misusing the power they had. I couldn't deny that, neither could anyone, but they had done some good. 

I lifted her chin up with my fingers to look at me, "You know what my step-dad did to me, don't you?" 

Artemis nodded with a frown. I guessed right; she had heard the letter I wrote before I left. "I have some sort of knowledge, but don't know the whole story."