The Vanishing Hero

chapter 9

Chapter 9: Filler 1.0

3RD PERSON POV

After the issuing of the new prophecy, Percy's schedule with the Hunt got exceedingly more complicated. Luckily, Artemis cut down his chores significantly to help him out. Laundry and sharpening were usually handled by some of the other hunters, while Percy mostly cooked breakfast and dinner (occasionally lunch, but usually he slept). He began his recon during the evenings after Artemis returned from her chariot as he still needed to guard them.

He typically returned from recon in the early mornings before the hunters awoke to tend to any personal needs, then breakfast. After breakfast he'd have the highlight of his day: training the younger hunters. He had Kiani, Jessica, and Leah as one group together, since the three had been inseparable since they were all rescued around the same time by 'Theo'. They certainly had the best teamwork between the two groups he trained.

All three were adequate with a bow, Leah even able to enchant some of her arrows as a daughter of Hecate. Kiani was superior with hunting knives, which was a bit uncharacteristic of daughters of Aphrodite, but she reminded Percy a lot of Piper. This warmed his heart, but left it with a dull pain at the same time. Jessica remained in a midrange support role for her group as she was the most in tune with her mother's abilities.

The other group was held even closer to Percy's heart and consisted of Lora, Rebecca, and Estelle. Percy didn't have much experience with axes, but he and Lora figured out how to train her together. Rebecca was clearly her father's daughter and stuck to archery support and cover fire. Estelle was more than adequate with a bow, but favored her hunting knives much to Percy's displeasure.

Regardless, Percy saw the importance of all the girl's training, and was more than pleased with their progress. He remembered the day he started training them.

~Flashback: a day after the prophecy~

"Alright girls!" Percy said and gathered the young ones who wanted him to train them together. "I want to start with breaking you into two groups of three. I've noticed from training that Kiani, Jessica, and Leah all work together well?" The shy girls nodded enthusiastically. "Alright! That leaves Estelle, Rebecca, and Lora for the other group."

"Now, I want you to get with your groups, and talk about what it is you like and what you're good at. Knowing each others' strengths and weaknesses is a key part to being a strong group." Percy said, but got some frowns out of the girls.

"But Percy... we can't do much and don't have any cool abilities like you," Lora said with her head down. Percy frowned at this. "Are you kidding? You're all super cool! Even cooler than me!" The girls all looked at him in disbelief, but he continued on, "Lora, as a daughter of Hermes, you can improvise and pick up on skills after only a few days, making you incredibly versatile! Jessica, you can get the plant life around you to help assist you in battle. You just got to feel the connection to it. Kiani, I'm sure you have charmspeak and can get monsters or other enemies to do what you say to some extent. I can ask someone at camp to help you train it. Leah, I'll talk to your mom about getting you some spellbooks, and even more from camp when we get there. Rebecca, your archery is only gonna get better and your healing abilities make you invaluable at support."

"What about me Brother?" Estelle finally spoke up with a frown on her face. Percy picked her up and put her on his hip. "Well my little star, you have some gifts from Momma Hera." Estelle's eyes lit up, "I do?" Percy chuckled at her, "Of course. I have some from her too so you and I can train them together!" Estelle threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek, "Thank you Big Brother!"

~End Flashback~

Percy thought back to how far the girls had come in only about two and a half weeks. "What's got you smiling like that?" Percy turned to see Artemis walking toward him. Percy let a smirk cross his face and said, "Oh nothing, Arty."