Male Reader x Artemis Goddess of the Hunt

Chapter I

(Your POV)

Pain, Pain is and always will be the greatest motivator out there, I remember years ago when it was just me and my father we would spar every day, and every day I would receive a new pain.  Sometimes it was just a slap on my hand with the flat of a blade, other times a spear would plunge deep within my body never enough to kill but enough for the message to ring loud and clear. "Come on don't just stand there you still have your other arm! do you think that the monsters that are out there will go as easy on you as I do? FIGHT fight through the discomfort the pain utherwise you'll be dead!" funny even 4 years after he's gone and his message still echo across my mind.

"Go fuck yourself dad" as I say that my blade pierces the enemy standing in front of me, some monster from long ago whose name currently escapes me.  After the beast in front of me explodes into a large amount of golden dust I turn to survey the rest of my surroundings seeing that no more monsters stand to oppose me I begin to relax, and the aching in my legs and arms finally begins to draw in on me, I look down to asses the damages and see that arrow has pierced my left thigh sometime during the altercation, on my right arm a wound had been made with some sort of green ooze leaking from it along with numerous different nicks and scratches upon the rest of my body, luckily the breastplate that I wore took the brunt of the otherwise lethal wounds that would have certainly done me in.  Limping back to the campsite I return only to see a disturbing sight, the companions that accompanied me on this journey to find the lost son of Poseidon lay still and motionless, although I was in a great amount of pain I quickened my pace to be at the sides of my friends.

Upon reaching the two bodies that lay motionless I begin to survey the to see what injuries they might have received during the monster fight that had taken place the night before, wait night? shit, it's already morning, have I really been fighting for that long? Shaking my head I looked over the body of the boy in front of me, he had a dagger stuck in his left side and his throat had been slit, poor bastard didn't stand a chance.  The boy, a child of Hermes if I remembered correctly, was only a 2nd-year camper I had told Chiron about my reservation of bringing someone so inexperienced and young on this search, "The boy was adamant about going on this search (Y/N), I understand your cautiousness about the situation however it might be good for him to go along." Oh, Chiron I know your heart was in the right place but this boy had lost his life over a fruitless search.  I pull out a drachma and place it in the boy's hand and say a prayer to Hades for safe passage to Elysium, although he was inexperienced as a warrior, he deserved a warrior's paradise.  Looking over I see my next companion had shallow but labored breathing, quickly I rush over and begin to quickly examine the woman lying in front of me.  Olivia was a very good friend of mine a Child of Apollo she was kind and courageous and would be a friend to me when no one else would, after all, who would want to be friends with a scarred and "ugly" child of Aphrodite as many of my siblings have called me.  She was injured and heavily so a deep gash was on her right leg and she had a fever, as she lay there holding onto her life I sprang into action and quickly began to give first aid help, ripping the pant leg off of my own pants I had fashioned a tourniquet for her to help slow the bleeding before I had given her some ambrosia and nectar in hopes that she would pull through, I knew that if we stayed here we would get ambushed again so I fashioned a sled and gathered what supplies were left before I began to make my way back to New York, however out of guilt I turned back to the son of Hermes and retrieved his beaded camp necklace.

(Time Skip)

After many hours of dragging Olivia across the wilderness, it had begun to approach nightfall, an hour or so before that we had passed a sign "Welcome to Arizona the Grand Canyon state, heh normally under different circumstances I'd be happy to visit here." The act of dragging Olivia and periodically checking in on her to make sure she was still breathing steadily began to take a toll on me physically and mentally.  "Oh, what are you tired, exhausted even? pathetic I raised you to be stronger than that, that girl is hanging on by a thread and you're feeling sorry for yourself? You're just like your mother soft and can't do anything." hearing "His" voice began to make the rage burning inside me rise even further, I hated the way he treated me making my life miserable just so I could be "Strong" as he put it, always belittling me for having human faults... But he is right, I can't let myself be slowed down, especially with Olivia's life on the line. So I bare my teeth and trudge onwards with every bone aching the entire way.

After traveling a few more hours I made camp and set Olivia in as comfortable a position to rest in as we had available, the fire crackled in front of me providing warmth during the otherwise freezing night.  I heard coughing and looked to see Olivi had opened her eyes and stared around in fear and shock, "W-what happened, where are we and where is Luke?" her voice was a welcome sound to hear, "We're about 3 hours inland of Arizona, we were ambushed by a massive group of monsters and Luke didn't make it sadly." as I answered her I moved to throw another log on the fire wincing heavily as I did so, Gods it hurt but I needed to save her first.  there was a long uncomfortable silence between us only broken up by the sound of the fire and the nightlife that was the Arizona desert. "why did you save me" a voice said in barely a whisper "What do you mean because you're my friend and my only friend at that" she smiled as she stared at me. "I remember the first time you came to camp, you were about 14 last I remembered covered in cuts and bruises scars, and other injuries you hadn't eaten in weeks.  Everyone thought you were a lost cause barely conscious but I knew better, you had a spark in your one that said you wouldn't go down easily.  You fought in the medical wing of the camp for weeks before you were finally well enough to finally walk outside, everyone thought you to be a child of Ares because of your strong temper and fighting skills" she began to chuckle. "but seeing that white dove appears above your head was possibly the most shocking thing to see besides Pery's Claim" I couldn't help it and laughed with her, "Yeah however my siblings still claim that mother was drunk the day she claimed me," as I said this my smile quickly soured into a frown. "they say I'm a child of love and yet I've never received any, to begin with." as we finished talking the night grew quiet again and we both fell asleep.

As dawn broke I sat up and began to prepare for the journey ahead, Olivia's fever has grown worse and I had begun to panic, doing the best I was able to do we began back on the journey ahead.  The day had become hotter and hotter until it was unbearable, I was sweating buckets however I knew that I had to reach for help before it was too late.  Unfortunately, as I was still dragging the sled I felt a pain buried deep within the side of my chest, then another pain in my shoulder, I look and see arrows piercing me, so in order, to avoid becoming even more of a pin cushion I move myself and Olivia behind a rusted out car on the side of the road near drain ditch. "God damn it every time I think we're making progress we get a slap in the face" after my outburst I turn towards Olivia in the sled and see that she is not doing any better.  I quickly grab her bow and quiver and position myself to shoot at whoever was shooting at us, I draw the bowstring seething in pain as I do so, however that does not stop me from letting the arrow fly... only for it to miss completely as another arrow from the assailant buries into my collar.  I fall back and land crying in pain as black spots begin to appear in my vision, as I begin to black out I hear very faintly the command for archers to draw arrows before a cloud of arrows falls towards where we were being attacked at.  Once that was done I see a flash of silver and in front of both of me and Olivia is a large group of girls ranging in different ages and ethnicities. "Please, save her she deserves to live." as those words left my mouth I finally succumbed to the pain and blacked out.

(??? POV)

"My lady we have secured the perimeter all threats are neutralized" "Thank you Thalia please take this woman back to camp for a full recovery" "umm My Lady what about him" I look down at the male in front of me, his (H/L) (H/C) Hair covered in mud sticks and other filth his clothes reduced to basically rags his (S/C) skin covered in a plethora of different scars and other injuries to signify past battles.  He had several arrows piercing his body, normally I wouldn't care if a male lives or dies as it is their nature to be cruel and uncaring, however seeing this boy like this I felt nothing but sympathy as he is no different than a wild animal who's been hunted till exhaustion,  this boy although male... is till a person that needs help, I may be jaded and hateful to the male of the species but for me to deny him medical care just because of who he is would make me no better than the evil that is out there.  "Thalia return him to camp and restrain him have the healers see what they can do, it wouldn't be right to leave him to die" the woman looked at me then looked back at the unconscious boy laying in front of us before she nodded her head. "Of course Lady Artemis I will see too that he is taken care of." and with that Thalia leaves with the boy. I then look over to a makeshift sled with survival supplies, it looks as if the male had taken that girl to get her treated for her injuries before they were ambushed.  I sigh deeply as I look over at Thalia carrying the boy, perhaps not all of the males are bloodthirsty sexual beasts.

(A/N Hey so as I'm sure you guys have noticed this is a completely rewritten chapter of chapter one, I told you guys I was serious about this haha. however, I do not know how often I will have to work on this story as life is always getting in the way. hope you enjoy the new reimagined story and hope you all have a great day.)