Chapter 4: The Hunt's Hunt

It was midday and the hunt was half way to it's destination. A creek located half a mile east of the Cyclops gathering, according the karla the hunt had been based there more than a few times. It seemed to be a place of great pain to Artemis and she was very reluctant to go there again. Aria was asleep on my back gripping my fur and snuggling herself in as much as she could. Karla began to tell me the story that was attached to the pain.

It was a story from when the hunters of Artemis was relatively new, a hunter by the name Kalliso who at the time was regarded as Artemis' best friend and confident. Unfortunately she also attracted the attention of artemis father, the drama queen himself who everyone knows can't keep it in his pants. Zeus disguised himself as Artemis in an attempt to seduce Kalliso, she refuted his advances, but of course Zeus had his way with her anyway. Fearing Artemis' fury she hid her resultant pregnancy from her only to be caught later during a bathe and exiled from the hunt as well as changed into a bear for her lies. The next time the hunt were to see her, would be her last. This happened in the very creek they were heading to, Kalliso's very constellation, ursa major placed by Zeus in guilt, was best viewed from that spot.

Percy realised that this was the very same constellation that Zoe had them follow during their quest.. he realised it was probably her whom had killed her in the end though couldn't be certain.

Percy wasn't quite sure why karla had told him this, sure Artemis' mood was sub par, even the hunters had noticed, when they asked she shrugged them off meaning they clearly didn't know the story. "Why tell me this? I'm grateful that you did, but why me?" She looked thoughtful for a moment before replying "because you seem to genuinely care" those words made no sense to me, of course I would who wouldn't? Pushing the thoughts aside, we all walked in silence the story still playing fresh in my mind. To think the constellation that lead them through that Junkyard was linked back to Artemis in such a way was nearly as strange as becoming a wolf himself.

"It was a mistake to cast her out like that, even if she lied. It was out of fear, I could've helped her through it. She was raped by my father and I cast her out and I'm forever sorry for that" spoke artemis, she must have heard my thoughts and while her actions were horrible to say the least, her genuine regret and guilt near enough made up for that fact. The gods all have their evil sides and their good even Hestia who did a minor "evil" to better the good with Prometheus even going as far to protect him from the punishing aftermath of her sneaky actions to bestow a small part of the heart's fire on the mortals through him. Percy couldn't help but wonder why he knew such a story, perhaps Greek history class had actually managed to teach him more than he thought.

"Lady Artemis, we all do things that we regret and as an immortal those regrets will be bigger than most. Kalliso's sacrifice can serve as a good thing should you learn from it" I'm sounding WAY too much like a athenian child. I put those thoughts aside once more trying to remain focused on the conversation at hand.

"Perhaps, thank you damian. I needed that. Now let's hurry up and get to the creek. I think a sacrifice to the stars is in order" with that we travelled the rest of the way chatting about minor things such as what meat was better boar or bear somehow we concluded deer to be the best, not sure how that even became part of the convo.

Before we knew it, we had arrived at the creek and Artemis still had a look of despair from the memories it held. Kalliso and her friendship was practically as strong as Zoe's was if not more. I volunteered to hunt for kalliso's sacrifice while the others hunted something for Zoe. The obvious choice would be a bear since she was turned to one, but then I realised that would basically be cannibalism and probably offensive to her. Instead I began tracking down the largest deer I could find. I know fish would be more appealing to a bear, but that ain't happening while I'm here Simple as that.

While tracking I realised just how instinctual it was, the smell was familiar and stood out among the rest, the subtle changes in the ground from dear hooves caught and filled my vision as if impossible to miss. I eventually caught up to my pray, a magnificently sized deer that towered me twice over, I'm quite the large wolf standing at almost the same height as an average human so this deer was tall as hades.

I got low down and stalked around it untill I was down wind to ensure a hidden approach, now it was a waiting game, waiting until he moved; whether that be turning to face away from me or moving towards me didn't matter. A good 15 minutes went by and my ADHD was in a full blown war with my wolf instincts, A war worthy of my father and Zeus. Of course my instincts won and I eventually ran out of things to think of, eventually the deer turned away to get a fresher tuff of grass. The chance would be only last a few seconds, but that was enough for me to close the large gap and snap its neck. While it was necessary, I did hope it felt no pain. I began dragging the deer's body back to the creek to be sacrificed. Once I arrived Atlanta looked at me with impress and took the deer from me.

"Quite the catch Damian, I'm impressed not many wolf can catch a deer of that size" while I was proud of my first hunt, I felt the praise unnecessary since I pretty much got lucky finding its trail and scent. Still knowing the hunters didn't completely see me as a male punching bag was a positive for sure. The girls seemed to have gotten a boar for Zoe, supposedly one of her favourite meats. I still felt bad about Zoe, she deserved a life past that day and had he been faster and stronger she would still be among them. This thought quickly triggered another. Where was his sword riptide? The very weapon that once belong to her in her hair as a hair clip. The sword would return to his pocket, but now as a wolf he no longer had a pocket for it to return to. Last time it was in his old trouser, but this was different he hadn't undressed when he changed into a wolf. His clothes kinda just changed with him was it in his trousers before that? Or was it a transformed with him. Artemis looked at me quizzically before speaking "Damian? Why is your fur turning bronze?" And there's my answer, anakulamos was transformed with me. I am now part riptide I guess. Without answering Artemis I dashed for the creek edge where I peered in and noticed the changes that had occurred during my thoughts of riptide; my fur was sharp and made from celestial bronze the same with my claws and fangs. On my forehead sat the symbol of riptide itself hopefully it went unnoticed before else my false identity would be short lived. Looking again at my new form, it was if I was the cross between a metal porcupine and a giant wolf. I could only imagine the combat potential, most attacks would be in effective against me, practically making me a nemean wolf. That said staying like this was a no go, Aria's petting was way too good to lose over this, so I begun trying to revert the changes by doing the one thing my brain hates the most. Focusing. After a grueling 10 minutes of mental torture I managed to change back to my old black, blue and sea green form.

Trotting back to the hunters sacrifice alter I noticed Artemis' look at me with eyes telling me I should explain before she makes me. "My lady, I have to say that was a first for me, I was quite freaked out when you said that and ran to the waters edge to see what happened and try to turn it back, sorry for not saying so sooner" she nodded her head in acceptance before beginning the sacrifices to her friends in the stars. Zeus and Atlas would pay one day for there actions against them.

With the sacrifices burned the hunt got to eating it's own food, I sat with the wolves, but not comfortably due to Artemis staring me down every time she glanced upon me, she didn't make me leave them so I took that as a good thing. During the meal I realised karla had finished her meal which was smaller than mine since I had hunted my own. I decided to offer her and her pack, the rest of my catch since it seemed like the right thing to do. Karla thanked me with a something as close to a wolf smile as you can get. I quite liked it.

With dinner finished we all left for bed, I had to make do with a sub par tree branch since none would be as good as my branch back at our base camp. Sleep filled the hunters as we waited for the dreaded apollo and his annoying torch.

"Note to self, punch apollo for making the sun rise" I spoke as the sun once again ruined my not really pleasant sleep. "Count me in mutt" shouted a random hunter. "Ohh I'd love to punch him in the face" suddenly the whole camp was awake demonstrating their desire to punch the god of the suns face. I was proud of what I had started.

I jumped down go the ground and collected Aria as per usual and headed to the breakfast spot to get a bite to eat. "Hunters.. and Damian.. today we kill off those troublesome cyclops and then we head back to base. For this I want half of you based high in the stress of which half will be conducting an drop ambush and the other half will be firing arrows. The rest of you on the ground will act as backup, you will surround their base and wait until the ambush has started before charging in to overwhelm them. Damian I want you supporting my wolves and me. Hunters! This may be a small gathering, but cyclops are not to be taken lightly, especially ones so large. Are we clear?" A round of nods from the hunters confirmed they was ready "ok let's hunt!"

After that things moved quickly like a machine that already knew what it was doing. No specific allocations were required, everyone just moved to where they were needed and awaited for the initial ambush to begin. It started off almost in slow motion as the hunters dropped from the trees directly on the cyclops backs where they began repeatedly stabbing them with the hunting knives. The archers began the support, rainning down pin point accurate arrows, not one missing there mark. The ground was swarmed with the hunters as the rest of the them moved in shooting, slashing and in Thalias case zapping them all to a crisp. The pack, Artemis and I made our entrance and got to work at whistling down the numbers bite by bite, slash by slash. Their base was crude and poorly stocked so the cyclops had no chance against us.

One sound broke me away from the screams of battle, it was crying, specifically a baby's cry for help. I bee lined it towards the source of the distressing noise hoping not to be too late. What I found was a baby cyclops in a small basket, she was practically a newborn or well the cyclops equivalent, I looked around for the mother, but found no one that resembled her or seemed interested. I lifted the basket and made a break for it, weaving in and out of cyclops and hunters alike. Before setting the basket down near a tree and returning to the fight.

Once the battle was over instead of returning to Artemis I once again seemingly ran away as to collect the baby. Hopefully artemis was not like her father, especially since her domains included childbirth which was severely ironic by the way.

"Damain what on hades name is this? A cyclops baby? What why is that here? I dont recall seeing any females in our battle could she have been stolen? Was the mother even a cyclops to begin with?" Artemis shook her head in stress before picking up the large baby. "Since you found her she will be your responsibility. I will provide you daily with milk for her and then food when she is ready for it" Once again I managed to gain yet another child that I will have to explain to Annabeth in the future. HOW FUN. "I think I'll name her coral her eyes remind me of it" artemis smiled at the gesture and accepted her. Same as Aria, Coral's features changed slightly to match my original body features, I hoped it wasn't enough to arouse suspicion.

Her was now Coral Jackson, but only Aria and I would know that for now.

"Hunt let us set off for home"