Falling Forest | pjo

helplessness

Percy's POV

I didn't know what to think at the moment. My best friend of two years just fell off a cliff along with a half-blood that I was sent to help. After they fell, the enemies weren't finished and the helicopter started firing at us until the girl with auburn hair turned the helicopter into a flock of ravens. I was too shocked to even care.

The Hunters advanced on us.

The one called Zoe stopped short when she saw Thalia.

"You." She said with distaste.

"Zoe Nightshade. " Thalia's voice trembled with anger. "Perfect timing, as usual. "

Zoe scanned the rest of us. "Four half-bloods and a satyr, my lady. "

"Yes." The younger girl said. "Some of Chiron's campers, I see. "

"Annabeth! And the boy, Charlie!" I yelled. "You have to let us save them!"

The auburn-haired girl turned toward me. "I'm sorry, Percy Jackson, but those two are beyond help. "

I desperately tried to struggle to my feet, but a couple of the girls held me down.

"You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs." The auburn-haired girl said.

"Let me go!" I demanded. "Who do you think you are?"

Zoe stepped forward as if to smack me.

"No." The other girl ordered. "I sense no disrespect, Zoe. He is simply distraught. He does not understand. "

The young girl looked at me, her eyes colder and brighter than the winter moon. "I am Artemis," she said. "Goddess of the Hunt. "

~

After seeing Dr. Thorn turn into a monster and plummet off the edge of a cliff with Annabeth and Charlie, you'd think nothing else could shock me. But when this twelve-year-old girl told me she was the goddess Artemis, I said something real intelligent like, "Um... okay. "

That was nothing compared to Grover. He gasped, then knelt hastily in the snow and started yammering, "Thank you, Lady Artemis! You're so... you're so... Wow!"

"Get up, goat boy!" Thalia snapped. "We have other things to worry about. Annabeth is gone! And so is that demigod we were supposed to bring to camp!"

"Whoa," Bianca di Angelo said, obviously shaken at seeing her friend fall of the cliff. "Hold up. Time out. "

Everybody looked at her. She pointed her finger at all of us in turn, like she was trying to connect the dots. "Who... who are you people?"

Artemis' expression softened. "It might be a better question, my dear girl, to ask who are you? Who are your parents?"

Bianca glanced nervously at her brother, who was still staring in awe at Artemis. She slowly wrapped her arm around her brother

"Our parents are dead." Bianca said. "We're orphans. There's a bank trust that pays for our school, but..."

She faltered. I guess she could tell from our faces that we didn't believe her.

"What?" She demanded. "I'm telling the truth. "

"You are a half-blood." Zoe Nightshade said. Her accent was hard to place. It sounded old-fashioned, like she was reading from a really old book. "One of thy parents was mortal. The other was an Olympian. "

"An Olympian... athlete?"

"No." Zoe said. "One of the gods. "

"Cool!" said Nico, forgetting about Charlie for a moment.