Chapter 35

                                    

                                          
To Percy's relief it wasn't an attack,thank the gods...but it didn't make him any happier.
                          
The very fact that Artemis had been forced to touch down just made his situation harder.
                          
She was supposed to drop him off at his house then make her way back to the hunt. 
                          
When his friends woke up the next day,they wouldn't find him and Artemis,which would make them assume the goddess and him had left early ,only to find out he wasn't with them when they finally got to the damn camp.
                          
That was the plan.
                          
Cold but it saved him the horrors of painful goodbyes.
                          
Now...the plan was ruined. He'd have to sleep here with them and he couldn't bring himself to look at them knowing he'd just leave them.
                          
He'd made his mind up with the issue at today's start...this was just prolonging the inevitable pain.
                          
Thinking back on it,Percy wondered just when he'd lost himself. He used to be cold and resigned,and as Cassie had said once,he acted like he 'had a stick up his ass', whatever that meant.
                          
He didn't like how attached he had gotten with Thalia and Annabeth,to the point where it hurt him to actually leave them.
                          
Since when did he care about people? People hurt him,people spoke behind his back,people insulted him,people  wished he would just die and leave them alone...
                          
His thoughts went back to the particular peck the daughter of Zeus had given him in the morning. 
                          
If any girl had done that in the past,he would have recoiled in anger and may or may not have left her hanging upside down during a monster raid. He absolutely loathed human contact!
                          
Yet,in the morning he had wanted to recoil,not out of anger but of guilt. Why was his life so damn complicated?
                          
"Diana"
                          
Artemis helped him down the chariot and turned to face the gigantic red wolf that had spoken. To his view,Artemis underwent some kind of change.
                          
Her somewhat leaned back composure became sterner and her bright auburn hair grew darker. The silver eyes turned bright topaz and had a somewhat angry look.
                          
It took him a few seconds to realize that the red wolf had spoken to her and the goddess standing next to him was no longer Artemis.
                          
This was a completely new deity.
                          
"Lupa" the goddess said,her voice deeper and more restrained" Where are my hunters?"
                          
Lupa...Lupa was a Roman goddess...the famed mother of Rome! And she just called Artemis Diana...
                          
So he wasn't looking at Greek deities,he was looking at Roman gods. 
He looked at the goddess of the hunt and smirked. Talk about being bipolar.
                          
"Temporarily detained by my pack" the wolf goddess answered.
                          
"And why would they need to be detained?" Asked Diana,her expression dark" and while you're at it,explain to me what you're doing here...far away from your allocated domain."
                          
"I should be asking the second question to you Diana" the wolf goddess growled.
                          
"I am the goddess of the hunt. By some measure,the ancient rules do not affect me. You on the other hand..."
                          
The giant wolf sighed before she cast a wolfish glare at the other goddess" Three weeks ago I felt a spike of divine energy. Titanic energy to be precise. My pack and I were hunting for it."