Son of Odin

The Golden Sailboat

Percy was exhausted. The Hunters had physically beaten the shit out of him earlier that day under the guise of training drills and Percy knew that if he argued against it they would have seen him as weak and never respected him, much less liked him as a man. That would forever have sealed away his chance of returning to Asgard.

Percy grunted, straining to even climb up into his hammock as every muscle in his body screamed at him. He'd lasted longer than Artemis had expected him to however so that was what made him know that he could complete his task. He fell into a deep sleep and started to gently snore as his hammock swayed slightly in the wind. The night rested into a gente sky that watched over the Hunters and their newest addition.

Morning came around and Percy twisted his body in order to fall back to the ground, he was far too lazy to lift himself out. His heavy boots his the ground with a satisfying thump before he took in a big breath of fresh air. He was going to make sure that he did better today. He wondered what Artemis had actually planned for the day. His archery still sucked but as opposed to his first session with Lady Artemis, he was no longer in any danger of sending lightning bolts careering into the moon anytime soon so he at least made some progress on the matter.

An arrow came out of nowhere and bounced harmlessly off of the armor links that hung perfectly over Percy's toned chest. He looked at it and laughed for a moment before picking it up and inspecting it curiously. He glanced over to where Phoebe was staring at him with a challenging look in her eye. "What is it Viking? I can shoot a lot harder than that." She said almost with a feral grin on show.

"Oh no doubt, but your distance is terrible. You're only fifty yards away and it bounced harmlessly. Feel like a match of distance?" Percy grinned, knowing what he would do to win if she said yes.

"Lady Artemis?" Phoebe said casually, keeping her eyes locked with Percy's. The challenge was there and she only needed approval from her mistress. Artemis had secretly been listening to this entire conversation and felt that one of her oldest hunters needed to be humbled.

"I heard. Of course you can. Both of you use your own bows." Artemis hid her smile very well but Percy didn't quite catch onto Artemis' plan. He paled slightly. "But Lady Artemis, you said that I'm not to use my own bow until I'm efficient enough to actually shoot straight with one." He said making his statement more of a question than a recollection.

"I'll make an exception." She smiled, then Percy realized what she was doing.

"Aye." He finally agreed. He took Yggdrasil from his back but didn't bother extending it yet. Phoebe walked up first. Most of the hunters were watching with anticipation now. They desperately wanted to see what Percy could do. Phoebe drew the arrow and shot high and true. The arrow sailed through the air before finally plopping down and out of sight to most of them. Artemis closed her eyes slightly, focusing on the distance.

"Clear four hundred and fifty metres." Artemis said casually like it was no big thing.

"That's a decent shot, but watch this." Percy grinned. Phoebe frowned at his show of confidence. Percy's weapon extended and morphed until it had formed an ancient bow of legendary beauty. He drew the string back and an arrow formed out of thin air. Once he released the string on the bow Phoebe had known straight away that she had lost. The arrow disappeared in a horizontal bolt of lightning that cleared the mountain they were facing.

"Two miles... Three miles... Four miles..." Artemis muttered every couple of seconds. Phoebe paled and needed to stop Artemis from making it even worse.

"Yes milady, we understand." Phoebe said quickly. Artemis quietened down but didn't open her eyes.

"It touched down at seven miles but it hit something on the way through." Artemis said with a confused frown. A moment later a very confused Apollo reappeared in their camp, just in front of Percy.

"Who owns a weapon with a description that could only bear the words 'God killer'?" Apollo asked seriously. The look on his face plus the fact that he'd been in Artemis camp an entire ten seconds without flirting with any of the older girls made them all realize that he was being deadly serious about the entire thing. Everyone except for Artemis pointed at Percy with a guilty look on their faces.

"Ugh, whatever happened, I am so sorry." Percy said quickly, standing up to face the still unnaturally calm God before him.

"Don't be, because that was off the hook cuz!" Apollo grinned widely, revealing his flashing white teeth. Artemis rolled her eyes. Idiots, both of them.

"If you were the idiot that it hit, why aren't you struggling remotely damaged or even have any holes in you?" Artemis asked. She put her hands on her hips to enforce to scolding look.

"Because it hit my chariot. I was lucky though, it wasn't my chariots true form or even the Maserati. I turned it into a flying golden sail boat because I was trying to piss off barnacle beard." Apollo seemingly didn't realize what was wrong with the words that had just tumbled out of his mouth.

Artemis sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of her nose because of her brother's stupidity. "You were trying to aggravate uncle Poseidon and then Perseus' arrow hit your chariot? There is so much wrong with that sentence." Artemis told them quickly.

"Yeah, the arrow went straight through the sail and we began to descend. I just changed the chariot back to the Maserati but it was still awesome!" Apollo grinned like an idiot.

"Just... Just get out of here Apollo. Take Percy for a while as well. Bring him back later." Artemis told them much to the shock of both of them.

"Are you sure Arty?" Apollo asked like it was a trap.

"Yes I'm sure. I need to take the girls on a new hunt anyway and Percy isn't ready for the stealth side of things so it's better if you take him and do whatever it is you stupid males do." Artemis said, breaking into a small smile as the two men left her camp. One a God and the other a seriously attractive demi-god who had a claim to one of the most powerful godly kingdoms ever known to history. Artemis caught herself thinking about things that she shouldn't be and immediately purged them from her mind.

"Lady Artemis? Are we really going on a fresh hunt?" Thalia asked very excitedly. Artemis nodded and the entire camp plunged into chaos as all thirty girls and their Goddess started to pack up the camp.