Chapter 24

Percy POV

There was silence for a moment, "Nobody? Huh well never mind," I muttered to myself. I sat up which resulted in my head spinning, I immediately collapsed back down into my pillow. I heard someone snicker from nearby inside my tent, I opened my eyes once again, all I could see was someone wearing hunters' camo cargo pants which wasn't too surprising.

Whoever it was stepped closer, "Here, drink some more." I opened my mouth and let them pour more of the nectar down my throat. I felt the familiar liquid trickle down my throat and felt myself fall back into Hypnos' realm.

Line break

I woke from my nap with my head my head still aching but most of my muscles felt fine. I sat up which made me feel dizzy, yet I stayed conscious. I swung my legs out of bed and was about to stand up when I noticed a plate sitting on the table next to my bed. On the plate was the most perfectly golden grilled cheese I'd ever seen, I picked up the plate and my stomach made a noise similar to a hellhound.

"Mmm," I groaned as I bit into the warm cheese. "This is so good." I sat there eating, appreciating each mouthful yet was demolishing it at an incredible pace. I had almost finished wolfing down the sandwich when Thalia walked into the tent.

"Hey Perce, feeling better?" She asked sitting at the wooden chair by my desk, I'd never used it but it didn't look too comfortable.

"Mufch beffer," I replied with my mouth full.

"Please finish eating before you talk," she said with a mix of disgust and despair.

"Sorry," I swallowed my mouthful which was tough as it was a little under chewed. "I said I'm doing much better."

"Good, you've been asleep like 17 or 18 hours or something, which is bad even for you."

"I've slept longer," I replied and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't somewhat proud of it.

"Not something to be proud of," she said, apparently picking up on my undertone. "Anyway, you think you're up for a visitor?"

"Yeah sure," I answered busy finishing off the grilled cheese. It was hands down the best grilled cheese I'd ever had but I had no idea who made it, I'm not sure if even Hestia could make something so good. I was too busy relishing my sandwich that I hadn't noticed that Thalia had left, I only noticed when she re-entered, this time with Chloe.

"Hey Chloe,"

"You promised me that you'd be fine," she said with annoyance evident in her voice. "You pinkie promised me." It was strange being told off by a 9 year old but I could tell she was annoyed so I still felt ashamed that I broke my promise.

"I'm sorry, Chloe, I really am." I said genuinely but was soon cut off by Thalia.

"It's hard to take you seriously when you have cheese dangling from your face." She cut me off. I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand.

"Charming," my cousin muttered but I ignored her.

"Are you ok?" I asked the daughter of Apollo.

"Oh yeah I'm absolutely fine," she said cheerfully bouncing on my bed as she sat down. "But Eva's in hospital." She added, her tone changing dramatically.

"Thanks to you," Thalia said.

"Hey." I interjected, hurt.

"I wasn't accusing you," Thalia quickly added, "Apollo said that if you hadn't done whatever you did then Eva would be dead. So thanks for doing whatever it was."

"Oh well, to be honest I wasn't really sure what I was doing, I was just following the voice in my head." Thalia and Chloe looked at me with concern. "Hestia," I added, which eased their concern. "How about you Thals? How're you holding up?"

She sat herself back down in my chair sighing in the process. "Couple bruises, tired, you know but nothing major. The rest of the hunt aren't doing too badly either apart from Eva we got through it lightly."

I was about to reply when someone knocked on one of the tent poles. "Hello?" I called out to the silhouette in the canvas. A head of long, straight auburn hair then appeared through the flap of a door. Artemis looked her usual self with not a single bruise on her skin or a tear in her clothes, but she had slight bags under her eyes which was the only sign of the exhaustion and worry that she felt.

"Good you're up." She said walking over to the desk next to Thalia. "Are you going to stay awake for more that ten seconds this time?" She joked, leaning against the desk. Her casual attitude was something that I hadn't experienced but it was more like being around any other demigod or friendly hunter than a goddess. It took me a few minutes to realise that she was appearing older than usual, maybe around nineteen. Since the giant war there had been a couple of times where I'd seen her appearing older than she traditionally does, when this was I sometimes found myself relaxing and forgetting that I was in the presence of an antient deity.

"Yeah I think I'll manage it," I replied stretching my back making it pop a little. "What time is it?"

"3:26 in the afternoon," Artemis answered immediately. "Thalia, Chloe, the other girls are going to visit Eva and New Rome soon if you two want to go with them."

"Okay," Chloe said. "Percy are you going to come?"

"Probably not, I doubt Eva wants me there."

"Pleeease come," she dragged it out trying to persuade me.

"Sorry Chloe," Artemis interrupted. "But Percy has archery practice with me this afternoon. Or what's left of it." She said denying the young hunters request.

"What?" I exclaimed.

"Aww really?" Chloe protested at the same time.

"Yes really. Chloe, you can go round New Rome with Percy tomorrow or some other day. As for you Percy it was one of the conditions of you staying with us so you will practice." The goddess said in a tone denying any further protests from Chloe or me. "Percy meet me at the Camp Jupiter archery range in half and hour." She said before leaving my tent.

"I'll go see when the others are going, Chloe are you coming?" Thalia asked standing up from her chair and brushing her choppy hair out her face.

"Ok sure." The younger hunter answered sliding off the edge of my bed. "See you later Percy!"

"Cya Perce," Thalia said. Just as she was leaving, she turned back to me, "You should probably wash." And then the two of them left my tent, leaving me alone on my bed.

I lifted up my arm and gave it a quick sniff (hey I know its gross but sue me). "Ugh, yeah I do," I muttered to myself regretting my previous actions.

Timeskip (around 30 mins)

Artemis POV

I was standing at the archery range which was deserted, the romans were probably taking a day off to recover after the battle. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail to stop the wind blowing it into my face and summoned my bow and started shooting absentmindedly down the range. As I shot my mind wandered back to what had happened this morning.

Timeskip back to this morning

It was a quiet morning and the sun had just started to rise and pierce through the morning clouds and I was wandering around our camp. The hunters were all in their tents and I knew it would still be a while before any of them rose after the intense day previously. The first thing I had to do this morning was to check on Perseus. I went into the smallest tent of our camp which was the storage tent and rummaged around in the backs until I found a flask of nectar. I left and I made my way towards Perseus' tent in the outskirts of the camp.

I rapped my knuckles on the metal pole that supported the tent. I wasn't expecting him to be up but I waited a few seconds nonetheless. After a few seconds of silence I unzipped the door and made my way inside. Perseus' tent was the standard tent each hunter was issued with. Over time each hunter personalised their tent in their own individual way. Percy hadn't really done anything to make the tent 'his' but there were a couple photographs on his bedside table; one was of him and Annabeth on their bronze ship, the Argo II I think it was called. The other picture was of a woman and young boy on a beach, I could tell from the unruly black hair and sea green eyes that the boy was Percy which meant that the woman must have been Sally. Percy himself was laying passed out on his bed after he had been brought back to his tent.

"Percy?" I asked gently giving him a soft nudge on the shoulder. Again there was no response so I poured a little nectar into a glass. I put the glass up to his lips and tipped it up slightly so golden liquid trickled into his mouth. A small amount of nectar dripped down his cheek so put the glass on the bedside table and left to get a tissue to wipe it up. I heard a noise come from behind me so I looked around and saw he had managed to open his eyes.

"Wakey wakey," I sang in a voice that was unlike me, unsure why I did it I spoke again this time in a much more normal voice. "How'd you feel?"

In response all I got was a groan before he managed to say a full sentence. "Anyone got a grilled cheese?" I stood there for a second a little thrown off by the random question. "Nobody? Huh well never mind," he continued before trying to sit up which resulted in him falling back down onto his bed.

I couldn't help laughing a little at him. Caught a glimpse of his sea green eyes as he opened them again. I stepped forwards and picked up the glass of nectar again. "Here, drink some more." He opened his mouth letting me pour more down his throat. Again I got a little on his face so I wiped it off with a tissue. "Feeling better?" I asked but he had faded off to sleep again.

I left Percy's tent and made my way to the food tent without even realising what I was doing. I gathered some ingredients together and began to make a grilled cheese, I didn't normally cook but I found the simple task quiet relaxing. I wasn't long before the cheese had melted and had gone a golden colour so I put it on a plate and went back to Percy's tent for the second tent time. I left the sandwich on his table and exited back out into the morning air.

Timeskip back to the present.

Looking back at my actions in the morning I realised that I had acted rather out of character but at the time it felt like the natural instinctive thing to do. I was brought out of my musing by a son of Poseidon entering the range.

"Afternoon Lady Artemis," he greeted rather formally which was a little unusual.

AN/: That's all for this chapter hope you enjoyed! I'll try update again soon.