Meeting the Moon at war

Chapter 23

Artemis glanced at Percy, still in his bowing stance, seemingly stuck there for some reason, and she soon found out why as be started to fall, nearly fell face first into the mud is Artemis hadn't caught him. When her fingers came in contact with his skin he hissed and winced as if he was being burned by something and was in immense pain.

This made the goddess worry even more and by the looks of it, she wasn't the only one. All of the hunters had looks of pity for the man and if he had earned the respect of their patron then he had also, some what, earned their respect too.

She hurriedly lifted him up, carrying him bridal style, and rushed towards the infirmary tent. She ignored the fact that Percy had his head rested in her chest, or the fact that no man had ever gotten this close to her, which resulted in her being flustered. But that wasn't the time to be thinking those thoughts, her main and only focus is to help relieve Percy of his pain.

She entered the tent, placed Percy on a freshly made bed and ripped his shirt in two, ignoring the heat she felt rose in her cheeks. She gasped at the sight in front of her. He had multiple bruises littered across his abdomen and torso, and multiple scars that were there prior to him gaining the curse were reddened as if they had reopened and were stitched together in a hastily manner, as if to say that it's closed and not worrying about any infections or diseases. She fumbled around the tent, opening cabinets and drawers for her to find some fresh water, ambrosia and nectar.

She didn't realize that her entire hunt were there too, looking at the males body with looks of shock and sadness. Jackie had started to brawl her eyes out at the sight and was hugged by Phoebe to calm her down, even though she also had tears of her own.

Artemis finally found what she was looking for and immediately started to apply the nectar and the water to the wounds while force feeding him the ambrosia. She saw his wounds subdued a bit, the bruises faded in a lighter blue and wouldn't notice them if you didn't lion closely. His scars had went to their normal white colour, causing a sigh of relief escape the goddess's lips.

She had finally noticed that her hunters had came to see the male too, and was shocked to see how much they were crying, though she couldn't blame them, not after seeing how much pain and suffering that those man had to go through and at such a young age too.

Zoe, who was the first one inside the tent, right after her patron, noticed something weird about the pattern of the scars, not all of them, but some peaked her curiosity as they looked too 'organized' for them to be from a monster. She voiced her thoughts to Lady Artemis and she too, upon closer inspection, saw that her lieutenant was right. The scars seemed too straight, as if he was constantly hit but something hard and when she turned him so that his back was facing the ceiling she saw more and more of these types of cuts.

She traced them with her fingers, all the way down to his tail bone, as she felt him flinch and shiver to her touch. She also noticed that they went all the way down, down to the hem of his pants and below that. She quietly and quickly told Naomi to roll up his pants. The hunter nodded and rolled up his pants. The hunt and their mistress noticed that the scars had kept going down to his feet, which was something horrifying to think what he had gone through and how many more scars he had hidden.

A groan was heard and Naomi quickly rolled down his pants, as if nothing had ever happened. Percy woke up feeling as if he'd been hit by a speeding chariot, right off the edge of Olympus, which to say is less than a pleasant experience. Looking around he deduced that he was in a tent, an infirmary tent to be exact. He also noticed that he was shirtless, showing his endless sea of scars that littered his body, not only that but that he was shirtless in front a bunch of man-hating teenagers that would kill a male for even looking at them, and here he was, half naked, wondering how he was still alive.

Percy's eyes were foggy and looked as if he was deep in thought about something when Artemis decided to break the awkward silence by asking him one of the many question that their mind was filled with. "Percy, how did you get injured so badly?! " she shouted in a worried tone wondering what her friend had gotten into to have this much damage applied to his body.