Chapter 7

Third Person POV

Silver leaped from tree to tree dodging arrows left and right and at one point an axe.

'Dang cyclops.' Silver thought as an arrow grazed his cheek leaving a small cut. Why was Silver fighting cyclops' in the middle of a forest you might ask. The answer was simple, the Fates. The Fates had told him to remove every monster in this particular forest by midnight tonight as the first of his four tasks.

After what seemed like an eternity to Silver one of the cyclops' made a mistake giving Silver an opening. In a fraction of a second Silver closed the 50 foot gap slicing through the cyclops with ease before moving onto the next not wasting a second. With their formation broken the cyclops' stood no chance. Silver shredded them in minutes with a skill and grace that only came from years of blistering training.

Swiftly Silver headed for the next area of the forest which also happened to be the last as he had already cleared the rest. After only a few minute of searching Silver found another group of cyclops' but this time half were in combat with another much larger cyclops while the other half chased a young girl that was carrying a child.

The child was maybe 6 or 7 and Silver unable to help himself leaped in between the young girl and the cyclops' that were chasing her. The cyclops' were shocked by his sudden appearance but quickly shook it off and resumed their attack. An arrow shot passed Silver and straight at the girl. He could have simply used the ample water in the humid air to stop the arrow but the same cyclops that had been fight it's brethren leaped in the way. The arrow suck deep into his thigh but the girl and child were fine 'he's trying to protect them' Silver thought.

Silver killed his remaining opponents in second giving them no time to attempt another attack on the child. Returning his attention to the odd three he had just saved Silver noticed something he hadn't before. Though the child was clearly a demigod the young girl actually wasn't a girl at all, she was an empousa. Silver took a cautious step forward and the empousa moved in front of both the child and cyclops protectively "Just leave us alone we're no threat to you." the empousa said letting it's charm speak roll over Silver.

"Your charm speak will have no effect on me empousa." Silver said taking more confident strides forward.

"Look we don't want any trouble we're just passing through." she said. Silver took out a hunting knife ready to kill the empousa and cyclops if necessary but his main focus was getting the child away from them before he became their next meal. Then the child who turned out to be a boy did something Silver didn't expect he walked straight over to the empousa and said gesturing to Silver "Mommy who is that man?".

Silver stopped dead in his tracks as the boy continued to ask if the cyclops or as the boy called him 'Daddy' would be ok. For the first time since he noticed the girl was an empousa Silver took a good look at how the boy acted around the two. He clung to the empousa leg like it was he afraid she would disappear. He also took several glances back at the cyclops to make sure he was still there. Silver got down on one knee and asked the boy to come over to him in the kindest voice he could, the boy seemed reluctant to leave the side of the empousa but eventually came when the empousa promised she would stay right there and wait for him.

"Why are you traveling with them?" Silver asked once the boy got close.

"Mommy and Daddy took me in after my old mommy left me in the woods and never came back." he answered playing with the bottom of his shirt.

"How long ago was that?" Silver asked.

"1, 2, 3, 4 years." the boy said counting it out on his fingers. Silver was a little shocked that the boy had been living with the two so long. Usually a demigod is dead within a matter of hours after being found by a monster. After looking the boy over Silver noticed that he had several injuries from being beaten but all of the were five years old at least and not a single one newer.

In fact aside from being a little thin the kid looked perfectly healthy, looking back at the empousa and cyclops who still hadn't moved from their spot Silver noticed a few other things. First was a tattoo on the cyclops' arm marking him as a former soldier in Poseidon's army which meant that at least as far as the cyclops was concerned this boy was not perceived as a meal. Second was the look in the empousa eyes, the look took Silver aback, it was a look he had seen several times before back in ancient Greece. A looked that all mothers shared when a predator came near their child, complete and utter fear.

Silver looked between the child and the unlikely duo and knew in his heart what he had to do. Slowly he stood up and walked over to the child's parents "I'm sorry for frightening you but I had to make sure the child was safe." Silver let the child go and he quickly ran into his mother's arms.

Silver then removed the arrow in the cyclops' leg and dressed the wound "I trust you will keep the boy safe." Silver said helping the cyclops up.

"Yes of course." the cyclops said "My name is Killeen by the way."

"And I'm Maria and his name is Travis." the empousa said picking up the boy.

Silver smiled and said "Follow me."

"Why?" Killeen asked in a guarded tone.

"Because the Fates have commanded that I remove all of your kind from this forest by midnight. While the others were killers you are not so I'm willing to just walk you out instead of killing you." Silver said "And if we leave now we should make it out with few minutes to spare.".

As they walked Silver felt compelled to ask why Killien and Maria had decided to raise Travis. Killeen had recently retired from his service in Poseidon's army and had no son but always wanted one, so when he found Travis in the woods he took him in. Maria on the other hand had spent years killing males both mortal and demigod alike but after her most recent kill Maria had stayed for a while looking for more victims but instead she saw the effect she had because she killed the boy. After that she swore on styx never to do so again and shortly thereafter met Killien and Travis.

Once they exited the forest Silver said his goodbyes before telling Travis to be good to his parents.

Leto POV (3 day's later)

I was walking through the woods near Yellowstone looking for my daughter Artemis. I had felt her presence here an hour ago and I could still feel it but I was having a rough time find her exact position.The years I'd spent imprisoned had dulled my senses. As I entered a clearing I could see the hunters camp four stories straight down from the cliff I was currently standing on.

Before I could head down to my daughter three figures which I later recognized as the Fates appeared in a burst of light. I gave them a small bow "How may I help you?" I asked.

"We have come to tell you that it is not yet time for you to tell Artemis of Silver's existence." they said.

"What! But he's her son! she has every right to know he's alive." I said.

"That may be true" the one on the right said "but he must remain unknown for now, he is currently in a state of change. If he finds his father or taken to the gods too soon he may not be ready for what is to come.".

"What's coming?" I demanded "And why are you taking such an interest in his life?"

This time the middle sister spoke "Our mother Annake the Primordial of Destiny and our uncle Chronous have long since faded. While Chronous' power is currently split between 3 vessels, our mothers power has yet to choose a new host. Tartarus seeks to obtain that power for himself and should he obtain it it would allow him to remake the world in his own image. He will succeed if we don't defeat Oceanus and his army in the coming war. Our only hope lies with Perseus and his son's plan, therefore the timing of their return must be perfect." she said.

"But why must Artemis remain oblivious to her son's existence?" I countered "Surely it wouldn't hurt for her to know he's alive.".

The Fates seemed to consider this "Fine." the one on the left said "You may tell your daughter Silver lives and you may give her that letter from him. But you are forbidden to tell her anything else at all. Not even the reasoning for why she cannot know." she said before flashing out with her sisters.

Artemis POV

I sat by the fire with my hunters as we ate dinner. The past few days had been some of my happiest in the last 3000 years. First my best friend returns from the dead then I learn that my fiance has also come back. Even if he doesn't remember me at the moment.

You should have seen how Poseidon lit up when he learned Perseus had been reborn. Hades did get a little heat from it but as Hestia put it it was a 'happy mistake'. Even with the news of more enemies coming Olympus was in a state of celebration that the demigod was returning.

I doubted my hunters understood why the possibility of having a male join the hunt made me so happy but none of them said anything against it which made me both happy and concerned with their lack of protests. Atlanta out of all my hunters seemed the happiest at the idea Perseus was coming back.

The reason for that was really very simple, when the hunt was first founded I wanted it to be like a family and as me and Perseus grew closer he became the father of the hunt while I was it's mother. The two of us basically raised most of the hunters during the first few years and the only one who didn't think of Perseus as her father was Zoe for various reasons.

The border patrol blew their horns warning the rest of the camp that something was coming. Quickly we readied our bows and waited for the thing to show itself. The figure eventually stepping into view from the trees and relief filled my chest "Hold your fire!" I called running towards the figure. "Mother" I said greeting her with a hug

"Hello Artemis." she said giving me a warm smile. I had her join us for dinner then we spent the next hour catching up since we hadn't seen each other in almost 400 years 'that is way too long' I thought before promising myself I wouldn't let it happen again.

At length I was forced to set aside catching up and move on to more serious matters. "Mother there's something I need to ask you." I said

"Ask away." she said

"The Olympians know about you getting both trapped under the sky by Prometheus and you getting freed by an unknown warrior." I said "We've known about him for a few months but we have no idea who he is or if he's a threat. Some of the demigods that were there seemed to think that you knew who he was and Zeus was hoping you could tell us."

Mother took her time picking her words carefully then said "I do know who he is but the Fates have forbidden me from telling, at least for the time being. As for whether or not he's a threat you, personally I don't that is the case." she said.

I was a little upset at getting so little but moved on "Is there anything else you can tell me about him." Mother shook her head.

I had expected as much but it was still disheartening. "I may not be able to tell you any more on that subject but there is something else I think you in particular might want to know." she said with a teasing smile.

"And what would that be?" I asked

"Silver is back." she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked not understanding.

She rolled her eyes "Silver the son of your guardian is back, alive and well." She said.

Immediately I was inches from her face "Are you sure?" I asked trying to contain my excitement

"Yes." she said grinning ear to ear.

"Well where is he?" I asked gathering my weapons to leave right then and there.

"I don't know" she said simply.

I whipped around to face her completely shocked "What! How could you not know, he just got back and you let him disappear again!" I screamed.

Several of my hunters gave me strange looks after my outburst so I forced myself to calm down. After a few seconds of silence my mother spoke "I don't know because the Fates said they have plans for him." she said which cause my anger at her to decrease and my anger at the Fates to increase. "However when I saw him he did gave me this." she said pulling out an envelope "It's addressed to you." I took the envelope, tore it open and started reading the letter.

Hey Mom I'm sorry I've been gone so long I promise I didn't plan it and neither did Dad. We ran into trouble and Dad did this to save my life so please don't kill him when I bring him back.

He gave me a way of tracking him down so hopefully I'll be seeing you soon, but if not I'd like to take this opportunity to say I love you mom so please don't kill me for being gone so long.

PS: Please tell Phoebe I'm back, we both know she'll kill me if I told you I was back and not her. Also I have a picture included of a statue of uncle Apollo I found…with some modifications.

Looking at the picture Silver had made Apollo's nose six times as long and added a set glasses and buck teeth. I laughed at both the letter and the picture holding them close to me chest 'I will find you my son and you Perseus I swear on Styx'.