BY fates design

Talk with a goddess

The hunters set up camp in minutes, seven large tents of silver silk curved in a crescent around one side of a bonfire. One of the girls blew a silver dog whistle and a dozen white wolves appeared out of the woods, circling the camp like guard dogs.

Eventually, one of the hunters brought Percy's backpack back to him. Grover and Nico returned from their walk and Grover began tending to the wound on Percy's shoulder. "It's green!" Nico said with delight.

"No need to sound so excited, Nico." Eleana laughed, shaking her head. "You were a peculiar child, weren't you?"

"Hold still," Grover told him, "here, eat some ambrosia while I clean that out. I'm sure Cassiopeia would have a full first aid kit in here." He dug through the bag the witch had left and began dressing the would. Percy winced, but the ambrosia helped. It tasted like the brownies Cassiopeia had made for him one night at camp in the summer, dissolving in his mouth and sending a warm feeling through his body.

Nico rummaged through his own bag, which the hunters had apparently packed for him, and laid out a bunch of figurines in the snow - little battle replicas of Greek gods and heroes. Percy recognised Zeus with a lightning bolt, Ares with a spear and Apollo with his sun chariot. They reminded him of the figures Kira owned and used to demonstrate battle strategies. "Big collection." He said.

Nico grinned. "I've got almost all of them, plus their holographic cards! Well, except for a few really rare ones!"

"You've been playing this game long?" Percy wanted to entertain the boy, to give him some distraction from the chaos, and perhaps himself a distraction from thoughts of following Cassiopeia and Annabeth off the cliff.

"Just this year. Before that..." he knitted his eyebrows together, frowning and the figures.
"What?" Percy pressed.
"I forgot. That's weird." He looked unsettled, but it didn't last. "Hey, can I see that sword you were using?"

Percy showed him Riptide, explaining how it turned from a pen into a sword just by uncapping it. "Cool! Does it ever run out of ink?"
"Um, well, I don't actually write with it."
"Are you really the son of Poseidon?"
"Well, yeah."
"Can you surf really well, then?"

Cassiopeia tilted her head, she'd never been surfing with Percy before, and it wasn't something she thought about, rather he'd taken her skateboarding a few times around New York. "Can you surf?" She look at him.

"A bit." He shrugged, propping his chin on her head. "Not my style though."

Percy looked at Grover, who was desperately trying not to laugh. "Jeez, Nico," he sighed, "I've never really tried." The young boy went on asking questions. Did he fight a lot with Thalia since she was the daughter of Zeus? If Annabeth's mother was Athena, the goddess of wisdom, then why didn't Annabeth know better than to fall off a cliff? If Cassiopeia was so strong, why didn't she just kill the manticore quickly? Was Cassiopeia his girlfriend?

"Wow, you were ruthless." Will chuckled, shaking his head as he listened to the barrage of questions young Nico was firing at Percy.

Just when Percy thought he was going to lose his mind, Zoë came up to them. "Percy Jackson." She had dark brown eyes and a slightly upturned nose. With her silver circlet and proud expression, she looked like she belonged to a royal family. "Come with me," she said, studying him distastefully, "Lady Artemis wishes to speak with thee."

Zoë led him to the last tent, that appeared identical to the others, and ushered him inside. Bianca di Angelo was in there sat at the side of Artemis on a floor of silk rugs and pillows. In the centre of the tent burned a golden brazier with no fuel or smoke. Behind the goddess, on a polished oak-wood stand, sat her huge silver bow, carved in the likeness of gazelle horns. Upon the walls hung animal pelts, many of which were unfamiliar to Percy.