𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑, percy jackson

₀₀₁. demigods shmemigods

Saying the way the girl was looking at him didn't worry Percy Jackson was a lie. The problem was, it shouldn't have. Ivory clearly had no ill intent, or any intent at all, if anything she had less intent than no intent.

He wasn't really making any sense.

The point was, Ivory wasn't upset, happy, or anything of that sort, no. Ivory was angry.

Enraged in a way he hadn't seen the girl be, which sure, he's barely known her for more than an hour or so, but she didn't seem like the emotional type; she hadn't even looked scared when his friend, Annabeth Chase, was thrown off a cliff along with a monster that had been teaching the girl for the better part of a semester.

But as she sat beside Bianca, a notable distance between the two that wasn't there previously, the girl was seething. She glared at the ground while Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, seemed to be feeling an array of emotions, which, by the way, Percy hadn't known a god could feel let alone anything but anger, jealousy, and an extreme want to meddle (was that an emotion? If not, it was now.) or do nothing as the world fell apart (that, Percy had decided, was an emotion as well).

Percy snapped out of his never ending thoughts when he heard a twig snap, and his neck along with it, when he sought after the noise's source. It was Ivory, just so you know, stepping on a twig during her storm out. When he looked back at the others, he finally took notice of Bianca's look of guilt.

He studied the inside of the tent, which was warm and comfortable. Silk rugs and pillows covered the floor. In the centre, a golden brazier of fire seemed to burn without fuel or smoke. Behind the goddess, on a polished oak display stand, was her huge silver bow, carved to resemble gazelle horns. The walls were hung with animal pelts: black bear, tiger, and several others he didn't recognize. He figured an animal rights activist would've had a heart attack looking at all those rare skins, but maybe since Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, she could replenish whatever she shot. Percy thought she had another animal pelt lying next to her, and then he realized it was a live animal—a deer with glittering fur and silver horns, its head resting contentedly in Artemis's lap.

"Join us, Percy Jackson," the goddess said.

Percy sat across from her on the tent floor. The goddess studied him, which made Percy shift, clearly uncomfortable. She had such old eyes for a young girl.

"Are you surprised by my age?" she asked.

"Uh... a little."

"I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray."

"Go astray?" Percy asked.

"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves."

"Oh."

Zoe sat down at Artemis's right. She glared at him as if all the stuff Artemis had just said was his fault, like Percy had invented the idea of being a guy.

The conversation continued on, and Percy attempted to focus on something other than trying to figure out why Ivory had stormed out the way she had. And with their conversation coming to a close with Zoe's mutters about foolish campers.

"And now there is one last decision to make." Artemis turned to Bianca. "Have you made up your mind, my girl?"

Bianca hesitated. "I'm still thinking about it."

"Wait," Percy said. "Thinking about what?"

"They... they've invited me to join the Hunt."

"What? But you can't! You have to come to Camp Half-Blood so Chiron can train you. It's the only way you can learn to survive."