Summary: God AU. Pertemis. She finds him when they are just godlings, he is in the form of a wolf so that he might not be found by the Olympian council, and injured. What Artemis doesn't know about her new companion is that he is really the god of power and virtue, Perseus, son of Poseidon and Hestia. Together they live through the ages as Olympians, spun in the web of the politics and antics of the Greek Gods.

Chapter One, The Unknown Companion

"Why don't you get dinner while Apollo's out collecting firewood?" Leto suggested weakly, she was lying on the ground near the fire that was almost out. She was still exhausted from giving birth to her twin children. Artemis was still concerned for her, she seemed to have fallen ill, and she nodded, not wanting to disobey her mother.

Leto had to find an island where Hera couldn't find her, and the conditions weren't the best. It had been raining, leaving her cold and wet. Artemis sprung out of her as a fully grown woman, and with expert skill, she assisted her in the birth of Apollo. They were godlings, and they had already pretty much developed their powers. Apollo and Artemis hadn't gotten their domains yet, they were still in hiding until Zeus could figure out a way for them to be introduced to the council without Hera smiting them.

Artemis wrapped another blanket around Leto's shivering form and strapped a bow and her quiver onto her back before setting apace in the woods. "Love you mom," she said, although she was quite nervous about leaving her mother behind completely defenseless and without a weapon. She would have to do this fast. She grabbed the bow and nocked it. Stopping so that she could hear any stray movements, Artemis drew her bowstring. After a few moments, she was fairly certain that nothing was in that area. So she ran to the next clearing she could find. She had to slide through two trees that were humongous, covering the path, and then she was in a small plain like area.

The flat topography was wreathed with trees, and the tree line in the distance appeared to touch the overhanging fog. Artemis silently cursed herself for so stupidly leaving by herself and so far from the camp. She should've waited for Apollo to come back. She was still a godling, and if a monster had decided to attack her, she would've had a lot of difficulty killing it. Her strength was not yet fully realized, nor were her teleportation skills. If there was a monster nearby—well, she wouldn't fair well.

She drew her bow again but did not prepare to shoot it. She didn't hear anything, not yet, anyway. Deciding that she would turn back and tell her disappointed mother that they'd just have to eat the dried rabbit meat Apollo had caught two days ago, she turned around.

Crack.

Artemis jumped so high, and her hair on the back of her neck bristled. Pure fear filled her blood, and slowly she pivoted back around. Resisting the urge to cry out, she drew her bow slowly and with caution. "Who's there? This—This isn't your island, I tell you. So shoo," she knew that no monster in its right mind (even though not one monster was truly in its right mind, that was what was made it a monster) would listen to her. But with a stern voice she yelled out, "I said SHOO!"

Crack. Stumble.

"Go!" Artemis took a fighting stance, her spine tingling with adrenaline. She felt her muscles contract, preparing to run, but what she saw collapse from the tree line was not what she had expected.

A big bundle of black fur tumbled by her feet, and she watched with a shocked expression as the small wolf whimpered and looked up at her with big, wide green eyes. She found herself staring into their depths, and she not only saw her own reflection but another version of herself. She was older—her hair was longer, her face more stern; and silver eyes flashing with fury. Artemis, shocked from the visions that laid in the eyes of the black wolf; stepped backwards. Her skin pricked as goosebumps formed. She heard a roar from deeper in the woods that the wolf had come.

Fueled by pure terror, she picked up the wolf and began sprinting back towards her camp. Hoping that both Apollo and she could take down the monster together—though by the sounds of it, they probably couldn't—she drew her bow. The wolf whined and began howling in pain as her awkward position applied pressure to wounds in his ribs. "Sorry, so sorry," she apologized through clenched teeth. The wolf only growled back in reply and leapt from her grasp. Placing his front paws in front of Artemis, he assumed an aggressive stance. His ears were pressed flat against his skull, as he began to snarl and howl loudly.

Artemis knew that she and the wolf would have to do this alone. She closed her eyes and slowly nocked her bow. This would be her very first challenge as a goddess. She could not afford to fail. Fading was not an option. Artemis pulled back, and for a moment, she was confident, and thought she could do this. It was just her, the black wolf that she could barely see in the near dark, and this monster. She glanced at a tree stump separated from all other foliage and set it on fire so that she could see. And she did expect to see the very first of the monsters she faced: a cyclops.

He was a horrid sight: at least twenty feet tall; he dwarfed Artemis's form. Snakes hissed and snapped at her, looking like they wanted to leap from their master's thighs just to reach her. Artemis held back from throwing up when she smelled his putrid scent. He had a human face, but other than that he was pure monster. Green scales clothed his body, up and down his chest and legs. When he grinned a toothy grin at the fact that he had found the spawn of Zeus, Artemis cringed at his black teeth. He approached them with heavy steps; he was slow enough where he was at a disadvantage, but too fast for her to run away too far. The wolf went berserk. He kept in front of her, and bravely approaching the monster, jumped on him and ripped off one of the snakes. The giant cried out in anger and ferociously swiped at the wolf. He yipped and snapped at yet another snake, and Artemis soon understood what he was doing.

With shaky hands she drew an arrow and shot at his chest. An arrow sprouted from the creature's pectoral, and she cartwheeled to his other side in order to keep from being hit by one of his giant hands. She kneeled on one knee and shot him again. He wailed in pain, and in a fit of fury, began to pound anything in his sight. "GODLING, I WILL CRUSH YOU UNTIL YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A SPECK IN ALL OF EXISTENCE," the cyclops threatened. At that point Artemis was exhausted, and she was praying to Zeus that Apollo would hear the commotion and come to help. She didn't think she could hold out all that long, and she wasn't even hurt.

The black wolf barked a deep, territorial, raw, powerful bay that frightened Artemis even though she knew he was on her side. He scratched at the cyclops's foot and his teeth sank into the monster's flesh. He growled and shook him off his foot violently, and the wolf was launched across the field before he slammed against a nearby tree trunk. Artemis screamed, a shrill, piercing, hopeless cry, and rushed to the wolf's side. The wolf was whining so desperately that Artemis, for the first time in her life, began to cry. It was such a foreign feeling. Rage clouded her vision and she turned back to the monster. "Prepare to die, foul beast!"

The cyclops laughed, a deep booming sound that shook the ground, "GIRL, I COULD MAKE YOU FADE WITH ONE HIT."

Artemis smirked, allowing the blind fury to clear, and embracing the cold calculation of vengefulness. "We'll see about that, monster. Let's see about how many hits it'll take to make you disintegrate, and become nothing more than a speck of all existence." She echoed his earlier statement to mock him. She rolled to his left side and shot him. "One," she said. She felt unharnessed power build up inside of her as she sprinted to his other side. "Two," she said as she punched him in the ribs with all of her godly strength. "Three," She drew another arrow and shot him in the eye.

At this, the cyclops was so enraged that he struck her, so hard that his hit left a crater in its wake. Artemis yelped out in agony, similar to the cries of the wolf, and tears gathered in her eyes. She heard a crack, and she knew immediately it was her ribs. She slowly got up, leaning on her left arm as her torso could no longer support her, and once she was standing, clenching her broken ribs, she cried, "Die, leviathan!" And Artemis rushed up his thigh, still cradling her ribs, and drove a knife into his leg with all of her strength. She felt her powers slowly returning, it was her godly healing factor. But it wasn't fast enough and she could not dodge the snakes that twisted and curled around her legs. She screeched in anguish as they sunk their teeth into her skin. She had no doubt that they were poisonous.

Weakened considerably, she continued her ascent up his massive body. Her lodgments (an old way of saying "foothold") weren't too great and she feared that she would slip right off his slick scales. Artemis chanced a glance back down at the wolf, just to make sure that he was alright. He was slowly recovering, and was struggling to stand up. She felt the urge to yell at him to stop, and that she could handle it herself, but by then her time was running out and the wolf was crawling towards them.

She turned back up to the task at hand, and she continued to scramble her way up to his heart while he blindly and stupidly searched for her. He didn't even notice the wolf approaching his ankles on the other side. "GODLING!" He bellowed, and the pain in her ears was sharp as she clasped hands over them.

Artemis grasped her knife in her hand, the metal glistening from the light of her fire she had set earlier. She felt pure power flowing in her veins, and with a gold flash of light her form changed; she was no longer her weaker twelve year old form, but a grown woman with a divine appearance. She had realized her true form, and she radiated an old, ancient power in her true form. The wolf looked up at her, his green eyes reflecting her present appearance, but he still reflected what she really was inside: a frightened young girl who wanted, no, needed her mother.

"I'm right here, beast," she said with authority, and once the monster had taken a good look at her, she raised her knife, and with a shaking hand, she stabbed straight into his heart.

"Aaaaaaaghhh!" the cyclops shrieked, and stepping backwards, shook the whole ground with his weight. In order to hold on Artemis had to do something she never wanted to do again: she had to grasp his chest hairs. He fell back, and Artemis's whole world view flip-flopped. He toppled over, and BOOM! There was a huge indent in his shape in the ground. Some trees fell over, the land was shaking so violently. The wolf yipped and tripped over himself.

The monster disintegrated into nothing but a large pile of yellow dust. But his poison was coursing through her veins, and even in her true form she could not get rid of it. She was weak, all of her muscles ached; and it felt like she was lifting a hundred pounds with every movement. Artemis tasted lead in her mouth. Her whole mind was muddy, and in her dizzying sight, she could only make out some shapes. She could hear the wolf running to her, and barking profusely as if he was scolding her. The wolf, when he realized that she was not getting up, began to cry and she finally mustered up the energy to say, "Help me. Please."

And with that she was out.

A/N: So, what do you think? This is going to be a long one, since it'll be throughout a lot of history. (Like the first titan war, and even some Greek heroes might be part of it too. My goal is to get this story to at least 200k) But it will eventually get to the second titan war and giant war with all of the HoO characters and so on. That'll be a while though.

This chapter originally feautured and therefore was designed for Typhon, but, I learned that he um…can't be destroyed merely by Artemis's hand, awesome as she is. So if you see an uncensored Typhon, it's "the cyclops." It might seem awkward…but I'm more focused on future chapters. I may revise fully later.

I'll try to write my chapters longer, but I couldn't for this one because the first chapter is always a filler. So I think I'll make it a goal for me to write at least six thousand words per chapter. If you think that is too long or too short, let me know in the reviews.