First Lie || Deception Book I ||

Awakening Pt. 3

When we arrived at Artemis's residence on Olympus, I slid off Avalanche, patted her on the head, and crossed the threshold. Even though I had been here many times, her residence still left me in awe every time I came. Unlike most of the gods and goddesses' residences, which were just huge, elaborate palaces, with some exceptions like Athena, Artemis' was a sprawling complex in a forest beyond the wall. She had a giant, one-floor complex inside a forest enclosed in a giant wall on Olympus. The forest wasn't like a normal forest, though. There were no animals except for her wolves and falcons, and the trees and plants were magical. It was beautiful, but also dangerous. Artemis didn't just have regular animals. There were also her mythological beasts that prowled the forest, and though they were tamed, they did tend to snap at intruders. Luckily, I came here often enough that they recognized me and Artemis' wolves even came up and nuzzled me when I entered her forest. I followed the winding path through the forest to her house and knocked on the door.

"Artemis?"

"Clari, come on. You've been coming here for years, and since when was I ever inside? I only go inside to take care of business, eat, and sleep. Actually, no, I usually sleep outside in the forest."

I turned around to see Artemis standing at the edge of the treeline with one of her wolves beside her. Arrow, I think, was its name. But then again, the wolves all looked kind of the same to me and she had like fifty of them so I could be wrong. "Artemis," I said, giving her a slight bow. "You requested my presence. What for?"

"Well, as I'm sure Athena told you, I need to brief you a bit more on your trip. And I wanted to give you something as well that would aid you. Come," she said, walking towards the forest. "I'll tell you as I do my patrol."

I hurried to catch up and fell into step with her.

"So, you know that you're leaving after the Winter Solstice, which is tomorrow."

I nodded.

"Your mother is sending you to Yancy Academy, which is where Poseidon's son, Percy Jackson, currently studies at. He's in sixth grade. You're supposed to be a high school volunteer from White Pine Secondary School who's helping Chiron, or Mr. Brunner, with his mythology class. Introduce yourself as Rianna Claire. That will be your name, so be careful to not slip up. I will also remind Dionysus every time I see him to make sure he doesn't forget." Artemis grinned slightly at me. "You know he is with names."

I smirked. "Yeah."

"Anyways," Artemis continued, "your first task is to befriend Percy and his satyr protector Grover, and when a monster attack happens, you need to help defend him and get him to Camp-Half-Blood by whatever means. Do you understand?"

I nodded again. Artemis picked up a stick and turned it into a rabbit, setting her wolves after it. "Everything will be concealed with the mist, so you don't have to worry about explaining why you're there to the principal, okay?"

"Okay. Do I know that I'm a demigod?"

"Yeah, you do. You know that you're a demigod, but you don't know who your godly parent is. You've faced monsters before and know how to fight them. Your father ran a thrift store in New York but then was killed in a car crash because he was an alcoholic and drug abuser. You were left alone to fend for yourself and were sent to an orphanage and ran away at the age of seven. Then, the police found you and brought you to another orphanage, where they are sending you to White Pine Highschool. Hecate will claim you when Percy gets claimed, however long that may take."

"Okay..." I memorized every detail, taking it all in. It was a lot more than I expected, and I could tell Artemis wasn't done yet. Sure enough, she continued again.