September 2nd, 1907, Early Morning

"Oh no, absolutely not"

Artemis rushed forward, moving her hand over my hand trying to make the trident vanish.

"Gods are always trying to claim for their own names what their children do." The goddess exhaled and placed her hands over her hips, analyzing my expresion.

I was in awe. Looking through my new mind, I could see Poseidon was the god of the sea. That made me… demigoddess of the sea? I had never learnt how to swim, never been close to the shore. At least not since my birth, I suppose.

I looked at my palm. The trident had faded but Artemis kept on looking at the empty space above it with concern.

"Kalila," She placed a hand on my cheek. Even if she was taking the shape of a girl only a few years older than me, I saw her eyes reflect mine with the accumulated sadness of dozens of centuries.

"Look, Kalila," The brown-haired human huntress approached me, "I'm just a mortal, but I can tell you one thing. You are not your father, alright?" Peggy put a hand over my shoulder, but she was still with wide eyes and an open mouth. "What you did right there was incredible, and you did it all by yourself. Poseidon had no say in those actions. You know, it was extremely wise of you not to risk shooting Kass and calling for help. Calling for help doesn't make you any less strong, alright?"

The words flew past my head. I was trying to think of all the myths I now knew, everything Poseidon did. Myths like Athens came to my mind first, but I then found an unsettling one.

"Peggy, do you know the myth of Medusa?" I asked. The Moon interrupted me.

"How about we get a little sleep. Kassandra, Naomi and Peggy get first watch, the rest go back to the tents. You earnt some rest," Artemis headed to the central fire and sat on a log dangerously close to the fire. I couldn't stay around to look much.

Eryth and Peggy took me towards a tent. Peggy wasn't answering, and Eryth was talking about another topic I couldn't be bothered to listen to.

"It's always the same with demigods. Gods only pay them attention during battle and then they're on their own." Eryth muttered. She then turned when she saw my eyes were focused again. "Oh, it looks like someone's back on Earth. How was your trip? No matter, here, put on these clothes."

The nymph handed me a silver jacket perfectly my size. How she knew it, I didn't know. I didn't even know my own size. Along the jacket came a small knife I could now identify as made of divine bronze. I knew it because of my new mind, but still had no idea what divine bronze was capable of doing.

"That's divine bronze, it can kill monsters but… it can also kill demigods. Watch out for it, alright? But don't worry about mortals, it just goes through them. It's the material used in most godly weapons and tools, so you may find it in the wild if Hephaestus decides to throw out some."

Hephaestus, god of fire and forgery, I thought. But my mind could only think about one god.

"Peggy, do you think I can find out about my mother if I talk to Poseidon?"

"No." she closed her eyes to inhale. "Don't search for him. Think about it like this, he wasn't there for you all this time, now he claims you after you do something great so he can get the credit. What better is he now than he was all that time he left you alone?"

"He didn't leave me alone, right after I was born I was found near the beach. Couldn't he have done that? Guided me so my family found me?"

Peggy thought with a frown and a grin, but Eryth jumped into conversation.

"Kalila, we're going to sleep. Artemis wants us to hunt early tomorrow. We need to be well rested," She pulled Peggy's hand towards a sleeping bag made of animal furs.

"But now that I know about my father, shouldn't I know about my mother?" I complained. The mature tone I had acquired since joining the Hunt seemed to be wearing off. I was introduced to this new world of gods and monsters, yet I was not taught about it as fast as I would have wanted. My adoptive siblings, being older than me, would have left my side faster than I could have; in little time my adoptive mother would have most likely passed away. I was handed immortality, and eternal companions, but I was still stuck with the wish of something lesser.

I was once again looking for a family. I was thinking about the defeated wolves, how they could have killed Chris, Oscar, Lila, and Mother Elisa… it was odd to call her Mother now. Yet now, I knew my father, and many questions were opening in my new brain that couldn't be filled at the same speed. Who was my mother? How had she and Poseidon met?

"Why didn't she take care of me?" I whispered out loud without thinking. My eyes became wet for the first time since I had scratched my knees so many months ago.

"Kalila, we are going to sleep." Eryth pulled my hand into a sleeping bed, but Peggy stopped her.

"Look, from human to… half human, parents are complicated, alright? But we are not them. Lisa and Edward might have been my parents, and Elisa's parents, but that doesn't make any of us historians just because they were. Do you understand?"

My chin was pressed against my own neck, but I managed to nod.

"Now, would you like to sleep next to me?"

It had been a while since I had slept with anyone, and I remembered Lily used to move a lot when we shared a bed. I just hoped Peggy wasn't like that.

The sleeping bag was way more comfortable than what I had imagined. I almost felt like sleeping, but the thoughts in my mind and the fact I was not sleeping in my usual bed made it almost impossible. Peggy was sleeping next to me, and Eryth next to her. Another huntress I couldn't recognize slept to my left side, which made me slightly nervous.

After what felt like an eternity of trying to sleep, I started hearing voices. One was definitely Kassandra, who didn't seem bothered by the fact she could have been now dead, was it not for Artemis and a bit of me. The other voice was different, but it was neither Artemis nor the Lieutenant, meaning it was that other name… Naomi.

I would have been shouted at by Oscar had those been Chris and him, but in the early morning before the sun was ridden up the sky, nobody seemed to care about a little eavesdropping.

"A child of Poseidon hasn't joined the hunt in a long time…" Naomi said quietly.

"That's what bothers you? Not the fact that she might be Phoenix's daughter?" Kassandra spoke assuming everyone was asleep, which meant it was loud.

"I always thought Phoenix left the hunt because she fell in love with a mortal."

"That's the mortal story told in Texas, but here in the Hunt we have another idea of what happened."

"We're still in Texas, Kass."

"You know what I mean. On the Greek world." Kass complained.

"Zeus is usually the one to prey on hunters, I wouldn't have expected it from Poseidon… Anyways, we don't know if she's actually the daughter of Phoenix. She could be the daughter of any other mortal."

I was connecting the loose ends. Phoenix was a hunter who left the hunt, check. The gods sometimes try to seduce the hunters despite them avoiding male companionship, unfortunately checked.

"Phoenix was kicked from the hunters almost eight years ago, this girl is… seven, right? That makes perfect sense. Even Artemis wondered if she was her daughter," Kassandra continued. "Ugh, what does it even matter for us anyways? Kalila is a daughter of Poseidon, that's all that matters. If she's a demigod, her mother must have been human, there's nothing else we need to worry about."

"Still… I would like to know what happened to Phoenix. She said she would try to reach for us eventually or something, but nothing came in. And what about that poor child? She's been without parents to take care of her…"

"Naomi, she isn't a 'poor child'. She had older siblings and never lacked a thing. Her only problem was her monster-attracting smell, and for being a child of one of The Big Three gods, she hid it perfectly well for seven years."

"I thought his adoptive father had died killing approaching monsters?"

The hunter next to me sat up. I pretended to sleep by closing my eyes, but I could still listen how she opened the tent door and headed with Naomi and Phoebe.

"It's my turn, girls." She spoke.

"Don't say girls as if you aren't one, Sipriotes." Phoebe chuckled. "Good night, we'll move tomorrow closer to camp."

Pretending to sleep was good for sleeping, I soon discovered. My eyelids would not open again, and I slowly drifted into a dream.