The Moon's Shine (PJO)

Chapter 50

Artemis was happy.

There. She said it. It wasn't every day when the stern, maiden goddess was truly elated. 

But she was now.

She'd forgotten the exhilaration of hunting with others—not with people who pitied or lusted after her, but true friends. Each hunt used to be filled with silence and mental praise. Now, footsteps rang all around her as the recruits chased after the prey that Caroline had alerted with a missed arrow. Weapons were brandished as they blocked Alina from charging alone into a monster camp guarded by hundreds of dracaenae. 

This is my family, Artemis thought proudly.

A very violent family, but a family nonetheless.

Naturally, this came with a lot of close calls. On their first hunt, Serena had narrowly dodged being crushed by a tree that'd been cut down by the errant swing of a cyclop's club (Caroline's observing nature had functioned well to warn her). Alina had somehow managed to almost get decapitated—for ten hunts in a row.

Eventually, Artemis had enough. I just got a second chance. I can't lose them. With safety as her reason, she began cutting down on the amount of hunts. In the first month, she took the recruits on four expeditions weekly. Then three. Then two. And finally, none at all.

It wasn't long until the hunters broke. "You can't do this to me!" Alina protested, ever the bloodthirsty one, when her supply of monster hunts had been cut off.

"My house, my rules," Artemis told her. She looked at Louisiana for approval, from whom she'd been slowly but surely learning the modern dialogue. 

But the daughter of Hypnos shook her head in horror. "I've created a monster." She looked like she'd been struck by a psychological weapon—as though she regretted everything she'd ever done.

A little selfishness from a maiden goddess never hurt anyone. At least—I don't think so. Artemis, on the other hand, couldn't be happier. The hole in her heart was healing—the jagged edges creeping away to arcs and bridges. All she had to do now was to thank the one who'd helped her come this far.

~~~

The day was an ominous one. The wind blew fiercely. The sun seemed to sink quickly, summoning night. Leaves withered and fell from trees. On the ground, a deer shivered and continued to nibble on flowers—

Whoosh! A silver arrow cut through the air, faster than light—and then pierced through the flank of the animal. An incapacitating shot for most animals. But for any onlookers, the deer's foreleg transformed into a scaly arm. The face and antlers paled, turned taught, and crumpled into a horrifying sight. If there was such a thing as a vampire in the Greek world, this one was closest to a melting one.

"Show yourself!" The monster hissed in a feminine voice. Its wound refused to heal, instead throbbing painfully—and was that poison spreading? "You dare to ambush me, Lamia?"

Bushes rustled to the right. Lamia leaped toward them, snarling triumphantly, "I won't give you a pretty death!" Then, a second arrow shot through the bushes and lodged itself in the monster's skull.

Five stories above, Artemis leaped off a tree branch and landed with an impressive summersault. She brushed a bit of dust off her hunting gear—couldn't let her precious bow get dirty—and hummed to herself, completely ignoring the monster disintegrating to the side.

Lamia was easy prey. But Artemis had a job to do, no matter if it was boring or not. This evening, she had an even harder time than normal to stay on schedule. One thought went through her mind: My hunters are waiting for me!