Third POV
"Shocked?" Percy was walking along side Artemis, looking around and taking in the scenery. He was shocked and he voiced it. "Honestly, yea. I expected to be running." The goddess nodded. "For some reason, most belive that we just run everywhere. Illogical honestly." She said with a scoff. "It would be an unnecessary waste of energy to just run everywhere." Percy nodded in agreement. "Yea, I see that, but if I can play devil's advocate for those people." Artemis nodded. "You may." She said.
"Aren't we in an active hunt? You probably don't want the monster getting away." He offered. Artemis nodded. "I could understand why you say that. However, certain hunts can be executed in certain ways. If we were hunting something like the Manticore or the Lamia, then we'd be running. Cetus on the other hand gets too comfortable too fast. He knows we can't get to him as long as he stays under water." Artemis explained. "Ahh, genius idiocy."
Percy nodded, as if that phrase summed up the explanation perfectly. Artemis didn't feel it did and rightfully asked him to elaborate.
"Have you ever met a person who seems to be a complete genius, but lacks basice common sense and logic?" Artemis nodded. She actually had. Multiple times. She has been alive for about four thousand years now. "Right, that's genius idiocy. At least, what us humans have recently been calling it." He explained. "To take Cetus as an example. He assumes that you can't get to him and I doubt dad's warriors bother to hide their scents or aura when they go to deal with him so it isn't hard to escape for at least a few weeks." Artemis nodded.
"I... think I understand." Percy shook his head. "Spend some more time around humans and you'll definitely get it." He said. "Although, you'll likely loose brain cells while at it." The goddess scrunched her nose. "I have Apollo to kill enough of my brain cells. I'd rather not allow mortals to do so as well." Percy shrugged. "Eh, Apollo seems cool." He said, making Artemis double take. "You've met my brother?" She asked, to which he nodded.
"Yea. Only for a little bit. He came to my house and asked me to look for his daughter. He wants me to get her to camp." He said. "Hmm. I believe he was actually 'sizing you up' as he would put it." Percy nodded. "Yea, he told me that was part of his reason for coming personally. Said that due to his powers over prophecy and seeing things from his chariot, he didn't see me as a problem." Percy said. Artemis hummed in interest. The hunters were all watching them have this casual conversation with tense muscles.
Their patron had told them of the boy. The girly looking boy that had prayed to her, asking that she watch over his mother and had fought Ares which ended in the war god's genitals being destroyed. So while they had more respect for him than most men(which wasn't really saying much), they didn't know why exactly their goddess was being so friendly with him.
"Hey, um. I really should've asked this already, but what exactly is Cetus? Chiron nor Annabeth have gotten to him yet." He said. "Cetus isn't just a singular monster. He is actually a type of monster. A species if you will." Artemis replied. "Are all of them male?" She nodded. "How do they... nope. Not gonna ask." He shook his head. "I'm not sure and I wouldn't like to know." Artemis agreed. "He's a large serpentine monster that can easily be mistake for a sperm or blue whale." Percy went through his memory, trying to remember of he'd seen any whales that looked off, but there was nothing.
He's been on a good amount of boats, seen whales. Never seen a whale sized monster, although Chiron did say that the mist works leagues better on those not looking for mythological events.
"Alright. Large, whale sized monster, serpentine looking. Got it." He said. "It's back half is serpentine. The front half is something completely different. It could be a giant boar, a bull, a lion. We don't know." Artemis said. "Oh, yay. So I could either be skewered by horns, ripped apart by teeth or... what do boars do?" Artemis ignored his question.
"Ok." He muttered. That was undoubtedly heard, but also ignored. The trip was silent after that. With the occasional buzz from Percy's phone which he of course always answered. Unless it was a picture. He avoided those much to Artemis' amusement.
After a long few hours, they stopped at a cliff. Artemis pointed at the ocean.
"It was last seen here." Percy looked down and saw nothing. "Can you see?" She asked. Percy gave her a confused look. "This is close to one of your father's old palaces and as a fellow immortal I cannot see past the surface. There is a magical glare." Percy made and 'ohhh' face. "Yea, I can see under the surface, but it's not around here. The closest thing that could be Cetus is a beluga whale." He said. "Are you sure it's not Cetus?" One of the hunters asked. "Beluga whales are no where near the size of a blue whale, even a sperm whale. I'm sure."
Percy said sarcastically. The hunter glared, at the back of his head.
"So, do we wait?" He asked the goddess. "Depends. How much of a time crunch are you on?" Pery dismissed her 'concern' with a wave. "I've got until tomorrow night. Well, if I want to be yelled at that is, but eh. I'm used to it." He said. "Good, then we wait." Artemis said. "Set up camp!" The Hunters did so and they did quickly. To be fair, they didn't put up any tents so it was quicker. Percy stayed on the edge of the cliff, on his phone. Artemis had walked off to give directions to her followers.
Grade A Bloodpack
Hey, you gonna be in Bullworth tomorrow?
Nah, got invited to Alice's party and I'll be there. You can drop by though.
I'll be sure to. Probably sometime in the morning.
Kay, see you tomorrow.
Hold on, how ya been? Is Eddie still bothering you?
No. He backed way off when Carlisle told him to. He's still really weird around me though.
Makes sense. You're blood smells delicious.
Thank you for making me feel like nothing, but food.
You say that like it's an insult. You smell sad taste great.
I feel like you don't just mean my blood.
I don't.
Whoops, gotta go. Goddess looking over my shoulder.
"Hello Lady Artemis." Percy said cheekily. She gave him an unimpressed look. "I've been watching you and I'm well aware of your romantic situation. Despite what the daughter of Athena believes, I won't simply assume you a disgusting pig. I've seen women willingly share men before, however I ask that you keep the sexual talk to a minimum around me. Even if it was only through text." Percy nodded.
"I can respect that." He agreed. Artemis nodded. "Good. Come eat with us." He raised an eyebrow. "Don't be nervous. You can give the details of your 'fight' with Ares." She said and walked to the middle of the campsite where they all sat around a small fire. Percy sighed and walked over plopping down next to the goddess, making all the girls look at him. "So, Artemis tells me you all want to hear about how I took off Ares' dick."
