¹Pocket Full of Posies, p. jackson

iv. A Coming-of-Demigod

chapter four
❛ a coming-of-demigod ❜

━━━━━ WITH HOW THE night had unfolded so far, Posie shouldn't have been as shocked as she was. In truth, she felt foolish for feeling as stunned as she did. It should have been obvious to Posie: the one Hunter who could turn an entire helicopter into a flock of ravens; the one Hunter who all others seemed to turn to for the go-ahead, even Zoë with her silver circlet — that Hunter was the one to be Artemis, the Goddess of the Moon. Then again, after witnessing Dr. Thorn morph himself into a manticore, only to plummet off the sharp cliff's edge, Posie didn't have enough left within her to put much thought into which Hunter was Artemis in disguise.

And if she had known that the auburn-haired girl was Artemis herself, Posie never would have spoken to the goddess in the manner she had. As Posie went over the last few moments before the earth-shattering revelation (that shouldn't have been at all the earth-shattering revelation), she couldn't help but wince silently to herself — questioning how the immortal goddess, who knew everything there was to know about hunting and searching for things, could know where Annabeth was? Well ... Posie felt quite foolish. She felt mortified. And some part of her even felt relieved that Artemis still felt enough for her to soften upon locking eyes, despite how Posie had questioned her.

Even then, the daughter of Apollo still found herself blinking silently at Artemis, who looked to be around twelve years old. Worst of all, Posie couldn't shake the reminder: Artemis was intended to be Apollo's twin sister, his older twin sister, to be exact. The Goddess of the Moon was her aunt (as much as one could be, with godly DNA), and the Goddess of the Moon also looked younger than her niece ...

Perhaps that was a large reason Posie's mind still spun with confusion and disarray.

To make matters worse (however, it didn't seem that they could get much worse at the stage of the night), Percy had reverted to this ... Well, it was hard to explain. Just as much as the son of Poseidon was brave (stupidly brave, at times) and incredibly rash, he also had this knack for saying the worst things at the worst times imaginable. It wasn't that he was dumb; in fact, he was incredibly smart, only that it was something he apparently liked to keep hidden, not just to keep monsters on their toes, but his friends, too. And with his knack for ill-timed remarks, he stared at Artemis, his brows furrowing deeply, muttering, "Uh ... Right. O-kay ..." He shook his head slightly, as if he was trying to reason with himself that Halloween had come late that year, and a twelve-year-old was pretending to be the goddess.

However, Percy's lack of a reaction wasn't even the most absurd reaction there, in the circular, snowy clearing in the woods, where the remains of a battle were strewn about. Truth be told, Percy's grumbles were nothing compared to Grover's extravaganza. The satyr gasped loudly, his brown eyes going wide, and then, to Posie's astonishment, he knelt in the snow. She watched the satyr with an agape mouth and a bewildered expression as Grover began yammering over his words, "Thank you, Lady Artemis! You're so ... You're so — Wow!"

He didn't stop there, continuing to prattle on about how he loved the Goddess of the Moon. He was talking nonsense about how grateful he was to her, who had saved them, compared to any other Olympian god who could have come down from Mount Olympus. It was like when those crazy, super-obsessed fans would meet their idols, reminding Posie of the kinds of horror stories she'd heard about fans losing all self-control and awareness. She didn't know whether to be shocked or embarrassed on behalf of the satyr; however, Thalia chose to be angry, snapping, "Get up, Goat Boy!" She reached over and grabbed him by the arms, pulling him back onto his hooves. "We have other things to worry about — Annabeth is gone!"