When Things Fall Apart

Chapter Fourteen

The next day, Percy made his way towards the East coast. He didn't know where to go, but he hoped to find the Hunters in the process.

The ring he was given by Chaos was amazing. Not only was he completely invisible, but he hardly made a sound unless he tried. The thought of seeing anyone or anything excited him. He hadn't seen a human in years.

He walked to the nearest town, and not much had changed. There were no flying cars (much to his dismay). But when he saw a Tesla drive by, he did have a few questions.

He was walking on the sidewalk when he came across a park. There were children playing there. It made him happy seeing the innocence of youth. He remembered the time when he had that luxury, although it was taken away from him too soon.

He walked from town to town for days. He didn't really know where to go, but he tried his hardest to concentrate on the seas, which gave him a bit of nautical skills. Eventually he made his way towards Yellowstone National Park. It was around three weeks after his talk with Chaos.

He saw wild bison running through the park. He got nervous. The hunters weren't likely to be here, because they would never hunt in an area where it was prohibited. However, he saw a hell hound on the opposite end of a large prairie. He saw two silver figures running after it.

"Yes!" he whispered to himself. He went over to the other end of the prairie, and the smile left his face.

There was a huge hoard of monsters attacking the Hunt. The Hunt was doing a good job, but Percy could tell that they were struggling, as the monsters slowly inched their way forward. Percy decided to help them. He turned on his ring. Then, he grabbed Riptide and started slaying monsters from the back. He hoped to stay unnoticed. He was invisible, but if he did anything out of the ordinary, it might have looked suspicious.

Percy did quick work with most of them, and the hunters finished off the rest. All of the hunters left the trees and bushes they were aiming from, and gathered together. With her back towards Percy was undoubtedly Artemis. Her auburn hair was vibrant in the moonlight. He managed to sneak his way closer towards the group.

"Well done sisters. I won't lie, I thought they were going to overpower us for a second. But we pulled through, and things worked out in our favor. Let's go back to camp," she told them.

She turned around to see what was left of the battleground, and Percy's heart nearly stopped. Oh, how he missed seeing her. She was as beautiful as ever. Percy noticed that she was in her eighteen year old form. He didn't know why, considering the rest of the group were sixteen at most.

He had no doubt that she would skin him alive for saying this, but she looked adorable. Her eyes always seemed to have a deceptive innocence to them. They reminded him of the Sirens in a sense. Her eyes could lure anyone to her, but she was not to be messed with. If the Sirens looked like her, Percy would have been a dead man from the start.

He followed them back to the campsite and climbed a tree to separate himself from them. To Percy, the hunters were timeless,. They literally hadn't changed their ways at all. Which made sense, since they were man-haters for eternity. They started a campfire and sat around it. They talked and laughed, including Artemis. When Artemis smiled with the firelight beaming up towards her face, he wanted to melt. He was so happy that she started to forget about him. He wasn't worth her time. She was an immortal goddess, and he was just an annoying demigod who was bound to get himself killed. The fact he was still alive amazed him.

After a while, the Hunters decided to call it a day. They put out the fire and went towards their tents.

"Good night, sisters. Tomorrow, we will be staying here in celebration of our victory," Artemis proclaimed. All of the Hunters cheered and went to bed.

Percy watched as Artemis made sure the fire was put out and the wolves were on guard. He got that tingling feeling in his heart, seeing her once again. He started to dream of how things could have been if he didn't use the fading spell. He knew it was wishful thinking to begin with, that the eternal maiden and Goddess of Virginity would want to be with him. But all he was left to do was imagine. And that was good enough for him.

However, it was perhaps too good. He lost his sense of reality and fell out of the tree, hitting many branches on the way down.

"Who's there?" Artemis called out. Percy quickly got up and made sure he was still invisible from before. He was, but the last thing he needed was Artemis being suspicious of him lurking around. She walked towards the site where he fell. She looked around for a while and then headed towards her tent.

That night, Percy decided to do the little things. He grabbed extra tinder from the forest and set it on their pile. He grabbed all of their eating utensils and brought them to a stream nearby. He willed the water to form a whirlpool, and set them in there to be cleaned. Any other thing he could do to help the hunt, he did.

The next morning, the Hunter's woke up for breakfast. Percy watched closely, hoping they wouldn't notice anything different. Thankfully, they didn't. Not even Artemis, who was eating her food on a tree stump. Percy watched her wipe the bacon grease off of her face. He inwardly chuckled. She was so cute.

Whenever Percy saw her, he never regretted his feelings for her. It didn't matter if they could never meet again. As far as Percy was concerned, this was the best available option. And heck, if he wasn't an Olympian outlaw, she wouldn't have dated him anyways. Percy knew she would never be interested in a guy like him, so a life-long crush was fine.

However, Percy did experience a little concern. Sometimes the Hunters would talk about how all men were evil and dumb, and she would be laughing, and then immediately frown, as if she was remembering someone. He knew it wasn't Orion, considering Artemis found out about him raping one of the hunters, so he was left confused. Nonetheless, he didn't enjoy seeing that frown, even if it was during a castration joke.

This pattern followed for a long time. The hunters would travel somewhere and fight some monsters. Sometimes Percy helped, if he thought they needed it. Afterwards, they would go to bed, and Percy would get to work, doing all of the little tasks that would go unnoticed to them. He spent most of his time sleeping during the day, as he spent hours fighting and managing the Hunt.

And as far as he was concerned, it was the best thing for him. Every day, he fell asleep with a smile on his face. Artemis couldn't see all of the things that he had done. But that didn't matter. She was happy. And that would be good enough for Percy until the day he died.