The Son of Time

Chapter 9

Thalia's point of view

When Lady Artemis told us the other day that there is a new war and that we were going to camp to aid them in the upcoming battle most of us weren't very happy about it. None of us were pleased to be caught up in another war, but obviously we can't do anything about it. I don't hate men as much as the rest of the hunters but that doesn't mean that I enjoy visiting the camp.

Ever since Percy accepted godhood and Annabeth disappeared I don't have that many friends left at camp.  And now most of them have families to worry about. Nico seems to be the only one that doesn't have kids.  We were walking up half blood hill, Chiron along with many campers were gathered on the hill to meet us. Within the group of campers one boy stood out to me.

He looked to be around twelve he had messy black hair and gold eyes that if I wasn't mistaken contained specks of sea green. In short he looked to be the spitting image of my kelp headed cousin.  I knew that Percy had adopted a daughter not long after he had accepted godhood, but she didn't look this much like him. That could only mean that this boy wasn't adopted, that he was actually Percy's son. 

It will be interesting to see what happens when Artemis and the rest of the hunters find out. Knowing milady she will probably jump to the conclusion that Percy took advantage of the boy's mother. And since Percy is the only man that Artemis has respect for, well this will be interesting to watch.

Most of the hunters went to the Artemis cabin but I decided to head for the archery range to get in some practice. Once I got there it seemed that the boy from earlier had the same idea, he was practicing at one of the targets. I never thought that my kelp headed cousin would end up having a relationship with a mortal much less have a kid with them, but judging by this kid's appearance he had to be Percy's son.  

I just practiced my archery not bothering to speak to the boy. Eventually though he noticed me, he said, "Hi I'm Luke Smith. Son of Perseus"   

that just confirmed what I already suspected, he is Percy's son. What surprised me the most though was his name, it was obvious that Percy must have suggested it since it couldn't just be a coincidence that he is named after Luke Castellan who died in the second Titan war. 

I replied, "Hi I'm Thalia Daughter of Zeus, Lieutenant of the hunters of Artemis."   

When Luke had spoken he had seemed nervous, I suppose he already knew that I was a hunter and about our reputation for being man haters. Out of curiosity I asked him, "have you met your father?"

I wanted to know if Percy was being a good father to Luke or if he claimed him and then chose to ignore him like most of the gods do. I have to admit, that doesn't really sound like something my cousin would do. But it's been twelve years since he accepted godhood, the other god's habits may have rubbed off on him.

  Luke answered, "yeah the evening after he claimed me he visited me, he told me why he couldn't have revealed himself or helped us sooner. He explained why he suggested my name, and admitted that he visited me when I was a baby. He also said that he still loves my mother and if he was still mortal he would have married her." 

My eyebrows shot up at that last one, it seems my cousin hasn't changed even though he's surrounded by stuck up arrogant gods on a regular basis. It seems   he has stayed the way he has always been, Kind, loyal and an idiot at times.

Artemis's point of view

I decided to go check on my hunters, since they were now at that camp. When I got there I headed toward the cabins. On my way there I noticed Thalia walking away from the archery range and back toward the cabins, but it was the second person who was leaving the archery range that caught my attention.