Banished

28

Artemis PoV

I smiled as I got dressed.

Percy had made the effort to contact me the day before and wish me a good night. It was three in the afternoon at the time, but it was a sweet gesture.

Since neither of us had planned on sleeping any time soon, we took the time to talk with each other, albeit mentally.

Aphrodite was just about driving Percy to insanity with her incessant whining, but the whining kept his mind active.

Tartarus took a heavy toll on the mental states of those travelling through it alone, so I suppose it was a good thing that Aphrodite was with him.

Of course, I would have much preferred just about anyone else be sent down with Percy, but nothing ever worked out completely in my favour.

It was then, as I was thinking about my boyfriend, that I encountered the reason he was sent down to Tartarus for his mission, to begin with.

A group of cyclopses was stampeding through the forest, except they weren't cyclopses.

The monsters had two additional eyes each, which technically made them triclopses, but the second and third eye were on the neck and forearms of the monsters.

They also had additional sets of arms, the numbers for which varied depending on the monsters being observed, and what seemed to be a horn sticking out of the back of their heads.

As instructed by Athena whenever I may have encountered mutated monsters, I captured but did not harm them.

I sent arrows with ropes flying every which way and ended up with a makeshift cage that the monsters were too dumb to break out of.

At my request, Athena appeared.

"Nicely done," she complimented. "Not a scratch on any of them. Hephaestus slapped together a quick containment zone for the mutated monsters that are captured, so I'll have to transport them there. Would you like to grab a bite to eat afterwards?"

"Sure," I replied. "I haven't got anything important to do at the moment. I might as well help you transport the monsters and see where this containment facility is, anyway. I'll probably be capturing most of the specimens, to begin with, so I might as well bring them in, too."

My sister nodded and we appeared at the complex.

The monsters appeared inside what seemed to be a designated holding area.

"The monsters will be kept in this cell while I determine their strengths and weaknesses," she explained. "With that information, I'll be able to determine if I need to keep them in another cell for further research or if I can release them to be killed."

I nodded, beginning to become bored by her unnecessary explanation.

We left the complex and decided on grabbing a salad for lunch.

"So, you already know about my boyfriend," I started. "Have you been seeing anyone?"

"No," my sister replied quickly.

"Are you interested in anyone?" I asked.

"Yes, but I'm not going to tell you who," she responded.

I nodded understandingly. "Will you tell me if you end up seeing someone?"

"Probably," Athena replied indecisively. "I know I'll probably end up wanting to keep anything under wraps for a while."

"Percy and I tried that at first," I remarked. "That didn't exactly work out."

Our salads arrived and we began to eat.

"The lettuce is fresh," she commented upon taking a bite of the salad. "There's nectar in the salad dressing, and they used handmade bread for croutons."

I sighed, wondering not how she knew this information, but why she chose to share it.

Sure, I could bore anyone to death with the different types of bows and how different strings could affect the shot, but I didn't.

I loved my family, but I would never fully understand them.