The Olympian council all left each other to their own devices, flashing out of the throne room in blinding arrays of light, each a colour respective to their assumed domains. Their light reflected off of the golden embossed surfaces with a serene beauty as they each departed in eerie silence.
One by one they all disappeared until it was only Artemis sat in her throne with Perseus standing a few feet away, arms folded in casual anticipation for what the Goddess was going to do next. It was pretty clear to him that from the get go his challenge was going to be extremely painful.
"Come on Asgardian," Artemis beckoned him with a wave of her hand. She stepped away from her throne and began to rapidly shrink until she was about half his height, if that. "The girls will be dying to meet you, and I must admit I am curious to find out more about an Asgardian Demigod." Artemis nodded slowly.
"I literally just told you all that I'm not a Demigod." Perseus told her with a quick nonchalant shrug. He realized that if she really wanted to keep calling him a Demigod then there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it.
"I know, but you didn't actually explain what you are, so it will be simpler when we tell my Hunters that you're a Norse Demigod, unless his highness has any smarter ideas?" She asked with an edge of sarcasm that was plain and present in her words.
"It's weird to hear that. I know you were mocking me, which is fine because you're a Goddess, but please don't ever actually say that. It's not me, not yet at least." He muttered, hoping that she'd at least do that much for him. So far she'd shown herself to be at least willing to give Perseus a mutual respect which almost betrayed her tags of hating men. How hard could this challenge actually be if this was what passed as someone that hated all men?
"Hmm." She hummed to herself quickly, expression unchanged. "This will definitely prove to be an interesting time while you're with us." Artemis grinned evilly. Perseus let out a breath that he'd been holding for quite some time. With each passing second it was clearer and clearer that his time serving with the Hunt was going to be mostly painful, at least to begin with.
"Well then, let us be off, I'd hate to keep my new patrons waiting." He smiled back, though most of the smile was forced. It seemed that Artemis registered this with amusement before she clicked her fingers and they were elsewhere once again. The disorientation was intense just as it had been the first time but his body was starting to adapt to the forced relocation and it didn't stick around half as long as it had previously, that was a good sign that he wasn't going to be rendered to his knees forever when that happened. He truthfully hoped that he wouldn't be subjected to it much more as it was a horrible way to travel in his opinion.
This time they materialized in a thick forest of healthy green trees that formed a great canopy above their heads. In the distance there was running water, a creek by the sounds of it. That was probably going to annoy him if he didn't automatically tune it out soon. He could hear birds rustling in the distance, and small animals running around the undergrowth a few dozen yards away. The moonlight was strong tonight, shining through gaps in the canopy, illuminating the forest floor where it could.
Artemis led the way and soon enough they were back at an encampment surrounded by way more girls clad in silver than he'd initially seen. So only about half of them had accompanied the Goddess when they had tracked him down to that garage? That must have meant that the other half stayed as a defensive garrison for their campground.
As soon as they noticed him on approach to the perimeter they drew their bows at him, despite their Goddess being right beside him. Their disposition towards men was brutally unbalanced in favour of his challenge. The Goddess didn't seem to be an impossible task, but these girls were giving him the feeling that he wouldn't sway them.
"Girls, enough. A lot has transpired on Olympus and as it turns out, you'd be extremely foolish to take on this Demigod." Artemis told them, bluffing slightly to ensure that they didn't actually try to kill him. While Artemis was sure that eventually they'd probably succeed in subduing Perseus, she knew that there would be losses and that would be too much for her heart to bear if she was able to avoid the bloodshed.
A few slacked their bows and let it go, the others were a little more hesitant. It was only when the girl with the spear came up to the pair of them that the others seemed to register it and relax to the point that Perseus wasn't going to be intentionally attacked for the time being.
"Milady, do we know who his parent is? Is he one of us?" She asked frantically, a measure of excitement in her voice. She looked at him curiously. She'd seen that he'd been capable of wielding lightning so to her the possibility of a distant relation elevated her mood immensely. She was a lot warmer towards him now than when they'd previously met where she'd been neutral and held mild intrigue towards him.
"No, it's far more complicated than that Thalia, I'd rather we told you all together. Gather everyone at the campfire." The girl nodded and began to round up the others. Perseus looked extremely confused and Artemis noticed this. Usually she wouldn't bother to give him any advice for free but there was something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. There seemed to be a unique sense of light in the boy that she'd not seen before. It was almost like she was trying to convince herself that perhaps Perseus could be the one to succeed with such a task, and maybe she'd make a unique friend in the Asgardian before her.
"A few ground rules. These girls have all come from horrible backgrounds, they've all suffered terribly at the hands of males and simply do not trust them, and they will not trust you. If you are to succeed in your task, you're going to have to earn the trust of every single hunter in my camp." Artemis folded her arms and had a smug look on her face. He only saw this as a chance to rise to the challenge and take it head on, by the horns, as was his way of life.
"I suspected as much, and I will respect that. I will protect anyone that has suffered at the hands of mankind, that very much includes your Hunters Lady Artemis." He told her confidently. Artemis had to admit, this male was already seemingly above the rest of them, he'd come her way and was still confident in his task, even though the odds were against him. Artemis had three thousand years of hating males, so what chance did this one have? True he was one of a kind in terms of heritage, but that changed nothing. At the moment.
"Agreed, I will specifically tell them that you are not to be attacked. In the camp your job should be obvious. You're incredibly powerful and I think that if we train you to be a real Hunter then as the Hunt we can start tracking down some very strong monsters. Your job just to clarify is to strengthen and protect my Hunt and keep the girls safe. If you do that well enough then we'll see where we are with your task. If you're wondering why I am acting calmly around you so to speak, I do not like you by any means, nor do I like this preposterous task set by my father, but I do respect the strength that you have, and hope that you have a matching strength of character to boot. I do not believe that you will succeed on your task but I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to have someone such as yourself essentially guarding the Hunt. Now let's go and tell the girls." Artemis strutted off towards the fire that had been put up in the time that they had been talking. Perseus sighed and followed, hoping that he didn't get an arrow in the ass anytime soon.
An hour and a half later and everything had been covered, to his surprise the girls were more in awe of anything else. A Norse Demigod? They'd never considered the possibility that there was more out there than their own origins. They were asking questions, most were whispering for some of the older Hunters to be the ones to ask but that was ok, it was understandable that some of them would shy away from him. They wanted to know how he squared up in terms of strength to the Demigods that they knew.
"During our meeting, that banshee Aphrodite tried to charmspeak him." Artemis began, quickly cutting Perseus off when he'd looked puzzled as he didn't actually know any Demigods.
"He resisted, then she tried harder and administered her strongest level of charmspeak. He broke through it and rejected her from his head completely. She was so shocked that she shared with us that no mortal had ever done that before. The boy has the mental strength and willpower rivaling that of Gods." Artemis explained calmly, not really having an opinion of the whispers that began to spread out amongst the girls. This was all a very new concept for their whole world, she wasn't about to reprimand the girls for gossiping and chatting about it, especially when it was likely going to be what they were doing for the next few days anyway.
One of the older Hunters, whose name Persues hadn't actually heard, had stood up and approached them both from the other side of the fire, she had a quizzical look plastered over her face, "With respect Lady Artemis. The boy has been set a nigh unachievable task. All of us joined the Hunt for reasons regarding males, what will we achieve by treating him as a part of the Hunt?" She asked.
He'd figured out from the context of a few of their words and questions that they all seemed to have joined the Hunt from different time periods, some of the older ones were actually a LOT older despite looking like teenagers. They were immortal, or half immortal as Artemis had told him, they would never age but they could be killed in battle. Artemis, a Goddess, was fully immortal meaning that she simply could not die, but there were ancient laws that could cause much worse damage. Perseus sat somewhere in the middle, he could die in battle but he was entirely unconnected to the ancient laws that restricted the Gods of Olympus, something that he was sure would come in handy sooner or later.
"Because this was his challenge Phoebe, a challenge set by Zeus himself, you'd do well to remember that I am bound by this just as much as you are. I would appreciate if you would all be civil with one another, I'm not asking you to buddy up and be best friends, I have my doubts about this challenge as well but that is what it is. If he shows any disrespect or hurt anyone then I will personally hand him over to Hades, and he knows this." Artemis announced, fully quelling anyone who would have further questions in line with Phoebe's.
"Which, despite it being my fate in question, from an outside perspective I would have fully agreed with, just so that we're all on the same page." Perseus commented after the silence had fallen upon them once again. The crackling of the fire was therapeutic but there was still much to be discussed and he needed to figure out all of his new duties.
"So how many different powers do you have? And do you have a weapon?" Thalia asked, she took to him a lot better than the others did, what with sharing a similar control over lightning. He considered this for a moment before he felt a slight tinge grow around him. Artemis was the only one who could also see this.
"See, it's funny you should mention that, I think I'm about to. Lady Artemis, the Hunters need to stay clear, this could have the potential to cause some damage, I'm not sure just yet." He told the Goddess seriously as he backed up well away from the fire and the Hunters, giving himself enough space for whatever was happening. The aura only seeming to grow around him furiously. The girls could now clearly see it alongside Artemis who'd detected it at the same time as Perseus had.
'To he who should be worthy to wear the hide of Leviathan, should also be worthy to wield the power of Yggdrasil, gifted from the world tree itself.' A voice from the heavens boomed above them before a lightning bolt struck him dead on, engulfing him completely from head to toe before he no longer had to resist it, it naturally became a part of him. After the dust and smoke had cleared he saw the piercing gaze of thirty something immortal prepubescent girls and a Goddess, all staring in shocked silence as the scene before them unfolded.
"Percy you uh…" Was all Thalia managed before a stream of armor began to actively burn away his clothes before weaving itself around his body. Soon enough his regular clothes had been replaced by a gleaming suit of armor crafted from the hide of the Leviathan itself. The next thing that happened was an arrow of light struck the ground besides where he'd been standing but before the object in question struck the earth, he caught it and slammed it into the ground with added force. Their world erupted into powerful tremors that caused even the Hunters to have to actively focus on keeping their footing.
Everything came to a standstill and the world resumed at it's normal pace. "Awesome." He grinned before making his way back over to the group. The spear in his hands couldn't seem to decide what it wanted to be. That's when Odin's words seemed to make sense in his mind. The ever changing weapon, a gift from Yggdrasil itself. The tree of life had granted the wearer of the Leviathan's amour a weapon in the choice of whatever the wielder wished, which to him seemed open to abuse but he couldn't really imagine that there were many weapons like this in existence. He only knew of three or four others that were made out of this material. As it turned out, it's quite difficult to forge weapons from the cores of dying stars.
"Did you call me Percy? Haven't been called that before." He muttered slightly as he walked back over to the fire, this time fully clad in armour. He was holding his new 'weapon', swinging it around his hand somewhat harmlessly, definitely mindlessly. Luckily it was sat in the form of a long pole with no offensive edge.
"Yeah, is that not short for Perseus? I thought it'd just be easier, definitely less formal as well." Thalia shrugged somewhat, not bothering for whether or not he preferred it.
"If you want formal then use his title. He's the son of the Asgardian King, which makes him the Prince of Asgard." Artemis told them, looking smug as she did. She couldn't help but smile as Percy slowly turned on his heel and deadpanned at her betrayal.
"Thank you, my Lady." He told her quietly, not caring for that title or the sarcastic mocking that it was no doubt going to bring his way. It was strange but being around the Gods in the throne room had recovered a lot of his memories. Memories that had previously been blocked, kept as hazy gaps in his mind where he simply didn't know what had happened. He chalked it up to being around such concentrated sources of divinity, but the longer he stayed near Artemis the more of those mental blocks seemed to have lifted. It wouldn't be long before he remembered everything from his old life.
"But really, please don't. We're not in Asgard right now, so I'm totally not a Prince, right? Let's just stick with me being a normal ish Demigod." He told them, a clear plea in his eyes for them to not use any honorifics for him. He assumed that they wouldn't anyway, sheerly because they were likely to hate him from the get go and use any excuse to not respect him.
"Could you explain what just happened, as it was not very clear at all." Artemis asked him, pulling him back on track. She was intrigued by the fact that he'd seemingly been smitten from the sky only to then have been declared worthy enough to receive some armour and a weapon.
"Christmas came early." Percy told them, looking straight into the silver eyes of the Goddess with an animalistic toothy grin that had an effect of the silver eyed Goddess, a feeling that she'd not felt in MANY centuries. He'd gotten more brash almost immediately after coming into contact with these new toys of his.
"Ignoring how Christmas is a Christian construct, what is the point of getting a new weapon? Your axe looks to be in a perfectly good state of repair." Artemis pointed out, trying to shift her focus away from herself and what she was currently feeling. If she could preoccupy her mind then she could address the issue later in private, and just why the Hades that had come over her.