Abandoned- a pertemis story Ψ ☑️

FireLight. Chapter 10

So uhhhhhhhm. Any feedback? At all? How's the fic going? Yeah, okay. I see, I see. -Internet Head.

ΨPercyΨ
I never liked waiting. I hated the "sit still and wait" part of the job. As Carmen went to find Alexus Artemis and I were forced to get the hunter's ready for anything later on. Thalia had them eat and sharpen their arrows as well as fletch new ones. Artemis helped Thalia with this and because I confided in them that I felt pretty useless they made me do laundry. Shirts, jackets, pants, and other things I will never speak about until I reach my grave. I trudged back to the middle of the camp, tired after a long day of washing clothes, and was surprised to see Carmen and Alexus back, on separate ends of the camp. Alexus was joking around with a gaggle of hunter's all of whom touted weapons twice the size of their bodies. Carmen sat alone, tending to a fire which he roasted a hot dog over, as he looked into the burning wood with this look on his face. I knew the look well. I had seen on Ethan's face and more so on Nico's face. I had no doubt that people had seen it on my face. This was the "should have" look. " I should have done this. I should have done that. Should-a, Would-a, could-a" That sort of thing. I watched the two from afar, remembering what could have happened with Nico and all of my other friends. Alexus chatted animatedly, while showing off her own bow and the quality of her bow string. As her hunter friends took it and fawned over it she took the time to look back at Carmen, something along the lines of worry before turning back to the group. Why didn't she...? I thought and then immediately reminded himself the question is why would she? I sighed and walked over to Carmen, heavily dropping down next to him. Carmen looked over, his eyes blank and vacant before turning back to the fire as he roasted his hot dog. I started to feel sort of worried for him. It's not like we were very close or anything but I had seen one too many heroes die in front of me and I wasn't about to let it happen again. I rubbed my hands together "Carmen, buddy. What's up?" Even to my own ears I sounded stupid. Carmen said nothing for a long long time until he finally responded, still staring into the fire "y'know. With my powers I could make this fire pop. I could kill everybody in this camp. Each and every Hunter." His eyes reflected the flickering fire as he ate the hot dog one bite at a time, throwing the stick away once he was done. This.... was not the path I wanted this to go down. I steeled myself "but you-" he cut me off "I don't want to of course. I'm not homicidal. It's just... there's this thing inside of me. It's like a heart in my chest that's on fire. It keeps... whispering dark things. Like I want to do them. Sometimes it hurts so much I feel like I'm burning." He whispered, staring at the fire with a tortured look on his face. I didn't know what to say. I had never heard anything like this. This was a place I did not want to go. I had seen many things before and many people had turned on me but this... this was something else entirely. I took a deep breath, turning to him I looked at him seriously "What brought this on?" I asked "old memories bringing back old feelings." Carmen whispered "what old memories?" I inquired, trying to get to the bottom of this as quick as possible "The man who gave me this-" Carmen traced the scar on his eye "-I want to repay him in kind. But it's more than that. I feel..." I watched him as his face screwed up with worry and fear "you feel what?" I asked tentatively, worried for his health "I feel sick. Like my body is rebelling against me. It hurts." He said quietly, clutching the area where his heart would be as he looked at me fearfully. I grabbed his shoulder in consolation "you'll be okay." I nodded to him, looking him in the eyes, and he nodded back before turning back to his fire. I watched him for a little longer, leaving him alone only when he fell back into a sort of catatonic state. I walked away towards Artemis, looking back towards Carmen. "Sometimes it hurts so much I feel like I'm burning." Were his exact words. Burning. Leo never had these problems.

Artemis and I were walking through the woods. Thalia was berating Alexus for running off and Carmen had fallen asleep by the fire, the bags under his eyes more pronounced than ever. I was glad he was finally taking a long deserved rest. Artemis was walking besides me, looking around at the trees and the falling sun that shone through the leaves. I didn't particularly like nature much but she seemed to find beauty in it which was nice. I still had a grudge against peach trees, seeing as they totaled my mom's car. Artemis looked at me and gave me a smile, a real one. A glowing one. "Why are you smiling at me?" I asked the obvious question "I feel the need to thank you. You've done more for me than I could have asked." She replied, her smile dimming yet still there "well don't reward me too much. I mean, woah! That smile." I chuckled at my own joke "this means nothing." She responded with a hard poke to the stomach "of course not." I returned her smile. We laughed and continued our trip, eventually coming across a decent sized gap within the trees "woooah." I said "indeed." Artemis frowned. There in that small gap was a fire and next to the fire a girl of about eight. This girl was familiar to me because I had seen her before. Yep, Hestia had come to say hi.

I sighed and waved Artemis forward. We both sat down on the opposite end of her, me doing my criss-cross applesauce (because my kindergarten teacher recommended it) and Artemis sitting with her legs folded under her thighs for a reason I could not think of. I gave her a look and she gave me a "What are you gonna do about it?" Look in response. We faced Hestia and she spoke "Hello again, Perseus." I gulped "hello Hestia." She was still my favorite goddess but with Artemis sitting next to me this interaction seemed a little bit embarrassing "what is the meaning of this? I was under the impression that gods were not allowed to aid me." Artemis asked "I am not here to aid you. Rather I have come to give Perseus information he desperately needs." Hestia turned her warm eyes back on me "information? Like what? Not another prophecy..." I moaned, regretting taking a walk in the forest "I'm afraid so." Hestia said with a small smile "how is there another prophecy? All of the oracles are controlled except for the Grove of Dodona." Artemis butted in "It is true that the Grove of Dodona is the only oracle that is not controlled by Apollo. There is one other oracle, however, that has been lost for a long long time. Seeing as it is lost there is no one to control it. You must find it and obtain your own prophecy." Hestia informed us "isn't that technically a quest?" I frowned "this is true but You have all the companions you need. Is there a problem?" Hestia smiled warmly once more "no." I sighed, I felt obligated to make her feel at ease "we will do this, Hestia." Artemis stood up and waved for me to follow. She does that a lot, doesn't she? I thought as I moved to stand up. Before I could Hestia grabbed my wrist, her skin pulsing with warmth. I turned, looking at the goddess's face. For some reason she looked worried and frantic "there is one last thing I must inform you of." She said "what? What is it?" I could only ask "there is a demigod with whom you are associated that is infected with an ancient evil. One that will cause distraught and horror to your new quest." Hestia searched my face "what demigod? What ancient evil?" This was confusing and weird "it is a disease that should have been lost ages ago. They call it DragonRot." Hestia let go of my arm and kneaded her hands in her lap "what? What does that mean?" I was so confused but I could tell this was important to her "it is dangerous. Not just to you but to him as well. Do not let them stray." Hestia pleaded as her fire grew and flared up, doing what I can only guess as reacting to her emotional state "we will not." Artemis stepped next to me and grabbed my shoulder "thank you. Now, enjoy some rest before you must leave." Hestia nodded and returned to her fire, watching it settle down "okay..." Artemis and I walked away from the hearth, our minds feeling like mush "this is a lot to take in." Artemis rubbed her temples, looking back at an empty fireplace were there was no trace of ever being a fire "your telling me. DragonRot? What is that? And a completely new quest with another prophecy? Ugh!" I moaned "DragonRot... DragonRot. I have heard that before." Artemis muttered to herself as we walked through the forest, storm clouds brewing above "you have? Wait, your a goddess, of course you have. So what is it exactly?" I asked her "I don't remember it exactly. I just know it is an old story Leto used to tell me... it was definitely a darker story." Artemis said with a thoughtful expression "a 'darker story'. Great."

We finally made it back to camp as soon as the rain started pouring down. What we came to find was not something we wanted to see at the moment. The camp was being attacked by... dragon tooth warriors? Gifts from ares? Here? The last time I had seen these warriors was back when I was with Frank Zhang.... besides those warriors, which were befuddling by themselves, there were three Cyclopes, fairly bigger than Tyson. Alexus ran over to me, her hair frazzled and a cut on her face "just in time, lovebirds. We're all about to die." Just after she uttered those words an explosion burst in the middle of a ring of Dragontooth warriors and Carmen jogged towards to us. His eyes burned with the intensity of embers, his eyes glowing fiery orange and his clothes singed and still smoldering "something is definitely going on here. I think we've got a bit of a quest problem." And I sighed "oh yeah. New prophecy, new problems."