Chapter 11

Somewhere in Connecticut

Percy's POV (1st)

October 7th

Today was Zoë's birthday. Well, it was the day I found her, and seeing there being no way to ask her what her birthday is, I decided this was close enough. I walked back into camp, a freshly killed pronghorn over my back. It was Zoe's favorite animal to eat, and, naturally, it was also the most annoying to hunt.

Setting the pronghorn down by the fire, I started skinning it, cutting off specific parts of the animal that Zoë liked the best and setting them aside. I cut the rest of the pronghorn and separated the meat into two different sections: forr the gods and for me. The gods, of course, got the best portions of the animal, anything else would be seen as, how Zeus put it, 'blatant disrespect, punishable by spontaneous combustion'. Fat bastard...

I quickly cooked the food and threw the gods' portion into the slowly dwindling fire, 'For Hestia, Zoë is the greatest family I could have asked for. Thank you." I decided to go grab some more wood for the fire, Zoë seemed to like it, and today was all about her.

After grabbing enough wood to last well into the night, I started heading back to camp, expecting to find Zoë fast asleep from a food coma. When I entered the camp, what I actually found made me drop all of the wood in shock. Zoë was there, but instead of a sleeping wolf, I found a wolf being belly scratched by a nine year old girl.

"Oh isn't she just the cutest thing!" The little girl shrieked. I had the feeling I knew this girl, I just couldn't put my finger on it. (Don't give me that look, I've been away from society for nearly a decade.) "Now I see why you decided to thank me for her." Thank her? I ne- oh.

"Lady Hestia," I said with a bow of my head, "what brings you to my humble abode. And please don't say war preparations, I'm planning on putting that off as long as I can." Hestia just smiled warmly at me, "No Perseus, I just wanted to meet the famous Zoë you mentioned, I don't hear from you in years and all the sudden there's a Zoë in your life," Hestia frowned for a second, "Did you say a war?"

Of course they don't know. Why would they know that another Primordial is out for blood? I sighed and explained my experience I had with the army of monsters and the telkhine. When I finished Hestia was quiet for a moment, "That is... troubling, to say the least. I should report that to the council later. For Now. Let me hear about what my favorite demigod has been through the past few years."

…

It took multiple days to tell all of my stories to Hestia, who has yet to leave my camp yet. She had kept on insisting that I go through every detail possible, no matter how big or small. I remember trying to explain to her why I thought taking Zoë into a McDonalds was a good idea, apparently the mist doesn't work too well on non-mythological creatures, who would've thought?

Having Hestia around was.. different, to say the least. There were highs and lows for sure. A definite high was having another person to talk to, it could get boring out here by yourself. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade Zoë for anything in the world, but having someone to physically speak to? That's a luxury I don't get other than my weekly Iris Messages to Thalia. Probably the worst part of her staying was Zoë's new complacency; Hestia had spoiled her rotten. Anytime Zoë gave her puppy dog eyes (which shouldn't even work! She's a wolf for gods' sake!), she immediately caves in and summons food. Now I have a lazy 150lb super wolf. Just great.

Hopefully the gods don't start looking for me after Hestia reveals the threat of Ouranos, I don't feel like returning just yet. If they don't shut up I could always say I'm hunting monsters, that's what Thalia says Artemis does when she doesn't feel like going to council meetings