The Curse Of Artemis (Percy Jackson Fanfiction) [COMPLETED]

( t w e n t y )

( t w e n t y )

I woke up before Leo the next morning, and he was still holding my hand. I carefully pulled my fingers from his and kissed his cheek before I rose to my feet and stretched.

Percy and Annabeth were sitting with their weapons drawn by the mouth of the cave, and I headed over for a quick word.

"I'm gonna go get some air," I told them. "I'll be back soon."

I left my bow behind, but of course, Arch stayed with me.

The cave's opening was situated right above the water, so I got about two seconds of actual air before I dropped like a stone into the blissfully cool waves.

I settled on the bottom for a minute, closing my eyes. Before long, though, I opened them again and propelled myself easily forwards, to deeper waters.

The waves bent easily to my will, guiding me along until I stopped to lay on my back in the sand.

I ran over the previous day's events in my mind.

Yesterday I felt hurt and alone because of Artemis' disregard of me. She treated me like she would anyone else; worse, even.

But why should I care? She was my mother, but she was a stranger. I should have expected no more from the maiden goddess.

Though I felt much better now that most of my anxiety over the quest was gone, I still couldn't shake the distinct feeling that Artemis gave me.

And Dana... I'd barely spared a thought for her. Being stressed was no excuse.

No matter what the others said, I was the one who asked her to go on the quest in the first place. If it weren't for me, she wouldn't have died.

Stop that, I told myself. Stop blaming yourself. Regardless of how guilty I felt, Dana was still dead, and there was nothing I could do about it.

A single tear slid down my face and vanished into the water, almost undetectable.

I didn't bother to hold in the rest of my grief; I let it stream down my face, salty, until my cheeks and my collarbone were as wet as they would be if I was in the ocean in the literal sense.

Finally, a while later, I rose to the surface of the water and found my way back to the cave.

I hastily tried to wipe the wetness away as I entered (on a rather dramatic wave I conjured) before anyone noticed, but Leo was waiting for me by the entrance, and I didn't finish quickly enough.

He offered me a silent hug, which I gladly accepted.

When I pulled away, he wiped the last of my tears away and took my hand.

"Come on, Battery," He said, "we're leaving soon. How's your stomach? Still holding all of your insides in?"

I frowned and pulled my shirt up to look at the gash stretching from one side of my abdomen to the other. I'd completely forgotten about it. It was almost a scar by now, and it didn't hurt in the slightest after the sheer amount of godly food I had ingested.

"Fine," I told him, "Great, actually."

Together we walked to the other side of the cave and packed up our few belongings. My pack was much lighter now - almost all of the mortal and godly food alike was gone.

It was only a few steps to the other side of the cave where the pegasi were waiting.

Hello, miss, Luna said, nuzzling my hand.

Hey, I greeted. How are you feeling?

Luna whinnied indignantly.

"Right," I muttered, turning away, only to find my half brother standing a few feet away. "Oh my gods, Percy, don't do that."

He grinned easily. "Whoops. Are you ready to go?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Could we stop for food sometime, though?"

After consulting the pegasi and he rest of our group we figured out a rough plan. I gave Leo a quick kiss and then we were off, out of the cave and over the cool water.

The sun had yet to reach the middle of the sky by the time we headed inland, keeping low, just over rooftops, simply because we could. If the mortals noticed us, they didn't let on.

Many hours later, when we were quite far from Tampa, we set down in a secluded area under a bridge in who-knows-where.

The four of us left the pegasi to rest for a while and set off through the town. We didn't bother with a newspaper; we simply tracked down the nearest McDonalds, ate, and rejoined with the pegasi.

We decided that a forest would be a much better place to stay for a few hours, but the best we could find was a small cluster of trees in the middle of a park. Nevertheless, we made camp there and sat in silence while the pegasi slept.

Before long, or so it felt, the sun was starting to set and the boys seemed to be growing tired. I didn't like the idea of sleeping here, so close to the mortals, but I didn't voice my concerns. Instead, I offered that Annabeth and I took the first shift.

Percy nodded, yawning, and pulled a blanket from his pack. Soon, Percy and Leo were both sound asleep.

I brushed Leo's hair from his face gently as I tucked my backpack under his head as a pillow. He stirred briefly, but he didn't wake.

I smiled fondly at him. The Curse was lifted, and I was okay. We were safe now. I still had Leo.