Chapter Text
Artemis loved her son with all her heart. But, the problem was that he was a male. She despised males. So much that she created a group of man-hating women called The Hunters Of Artemis who would kill any male on sight. If Artemis were to show her son to the hunters they would be furious. That is why she was hoping for a girl but the fates were against her as usual.
Now you must be wondering how she got here. Even though Artemis swore to never love a man she always wanted a child. A child of her own to love, to protect, to care for. That was practically the reason she created The hunters. They were all her family, her sisters. Artemis thought of the young ones of her daughters even though they were not related by blood.
When she found out about modern technology where she didn't have to be with a man to have a little one of her own. She was delighted. Without thinking she might birth a male she had done the procedure. For 2 months she used her powers to conceal her pregnant belly. But while she was going over battle strategies with her lieutenant Zoe, the magic wore off. Zoe saw her mistress's pregnant belly and was confused. Artemis told Zoe the story and Zoe swore on the Styx to not tell anyone till it was time.
To make sure nobody else would know of the baby Artemis left the hunt under Zoe's supervision. Many Hunters asked where Lady Artemis was but Zoe just dismissed it with a simple " She was called to Olympus." And the hunters didn't ask anything of it.
So now we are where we started. Artemis had just given birth to a male on August 21st, 1993. He was small and weighed so little that she was concerned for her son. He looked nothing like his mother except for his eyes which were light grey. They reminded Artemis of the moon. He had wavy black hair and pale skin with many freckles on his face. There even seemed to be streaks of white in his hair. He was adorable. Artemis's original plan was to introduce him to the hunt and grow him to respect women and make him the only good male on earth.
But now that she thought more of it she feared that the hunters would not like her son. So she Iris messaged a woman she trusted to take care of her little boy and discreetly teach him how to fight because sometime in the future he will have to go to Camp Half-Blood. When the woman came to pick her son up, Artemis greeted her.
"Thais, long time since I've seen you."
"Well of course how long has it been 8 centuries!" Thais laughed.
"Thais I have to Thank you for this. But promise me you will bring him to Camp Half-Blood when it is time."
"You have my word Lady Artemis." She bowed. "Excuse my rudeness but have you picked a name for the little one."
“How silly of me I haven't given my son a name let me see..." Artemis brought the little bundle of a boy closer to her face. The little one giggled at his mother and cupped her cheek in his small hand. "I shall name the small one Emris, meaning Immortal."
Time Skip (7 years later)
Narrator Pov:
The giggle of a young boy running through the forest could be heard. The boy's name was being yelled out by his caretaker, Thais, who was desperately trying to keep up with him.
"Emris come back!! It's time for Supper!" Thais laughed. Even though the young boy was only seven he could run for long without getting tired. Thais found this amusing because she was getting a workout and having fun at the same time. Which was Impossible for her because she hated running. She has been taking care of Emris for the past 7 years. To say he wasn't trouble would be the biggest lie she would tell in her life. When he was only 2 years old he ran away from home because he didn't get to watch his favorite show.
Thais served as his teacher as well. She enrolled him for preschool when he was three and on his first day they kicked him out for attacking another student for stealing his animal crackers. To be fair it was a stupid reason to get kicked out because Thais always taught him to hurt anything that steals his food. After that preschool, she enrolled him in another. He was doing well until his 2nd week where he got a hold of chemicals and made a small bomb. The problem with that was he made the news so basically, the whole state found out of a boy making a bomb at a daycare.
So being the smart person she prided herself to be she moved to America. When she got there she decided to homeschool Emris. Since he no longer goes out into the cities he usually spends his time in the forest playing with the animals there.
Thais knew it wouldn't be long till monsters would start to come after Emris. If she were to be telling the truth she has been paranoid about it from the time Emris turned seven years old. This whole week she has been trying to keep him in her sight but the child liked being alone. Emris was quite observant for his age so he had picked up on her nervousness and ran away just to spite her.
Emris has started to tire from running for so long. He began to slow down his pace of running to a jog then to a walk. Emris practically lived in these woods from how long he usually spends in them. When he checked his surroundings he started to panic. He was in a meadow filled with colorful flowers. To his left, it looked like there was a shallow pond where small ducks were taking a bath. Emris has never seen this meadow before, he didn't recognize any of the mountains surrounding it either. The sun looked as if it had been in a different place from where it was when he left the house.
He was about to turn back the way he came in but he had forgotten which way he entered. Every flower looked untouched as if he had just teleported in the middle of the meadow. Now that he noticed the meadow was not even surrounded by woods. It seemed the flowers went on forever. There were mountains off in the distance but he never saw them before. He looked up at the position of the sun trying to remember where it was before he left his house.
"Hey! Who are you?" That voice startled Emris. He turned to look at three people. Two of which were girls and one male. There looked to be a girl about his age with blonde hair and stormy grey eyes. The other one had black spiky hair and startling blue eyes. She was looking at him with confusion. The male had sandy blond hair with soft blue eyes and he also looked at him with confusion.
“Hey, Are you alright?” The male asked again, stepping closer to him.
Emris just tilted his head at him looking confused.
The blond girl giggled at his actions. While the blacked haired girl chuckled.
Again the male spoke “ Well not much of a talker are you?,” He laughed. “ My name is Luke buddy. The girl with blue eyes is Thaila and the other's name is Annabeth. What’s yours?”
Emris did not dare speak. Thais always told him not to speak to strangers, especially males. She said men were bad. Instead, he took a step back from the boy named luke.
The one named Thaila spoke “It’s alright little man. Nobody’s gonna hurt you.” She smiled.
As if the ducks were listening in to their conversation they started to quack loudly startling Emris who forgot they were there. He turned toward them and saw the Mom of the little family nodding her head as if to tell him these people would not hurt him. Emris always listened to animals because they were smart and superior to humans.
So he looked Luke straight in his eyes, stood up confidently saying ”My name's Emris, and uh I'm kinda lost…” His shoulders sagged at the end, all his confidence deflating like a balloon.
Thaila smiled and said, “Well Emris do you see anything around you that looks familiar?"
"Well obviously- "
He was cut off by a thunderous roar.
"Well, that doesn't sound like a bear." He frowned.
He looked towards the others. Thaila's friendly smile was replaced by a relentless gaze. Annabeth had a look of fear. Luke protectively stepped forward in front of Emris.
"Why are they so far out in the woods..." Thaila mumbled.
"I don't know..." Luke replied.
"We have to run, they could have smelled us," Thaila stated.
"But what about Emris? We can't leave him here!" Annabeth cried out.
They seemed to have forgotten he was there because at that moment they both turned to him.
"We take him with us," Luke announced.
"I would very much not like to be taken! " Emris shouted.
"We don't know if he's like us. We can't risk a mortal's life." Thaila said ignoring Emris's shouts.
"He would be in more danger if we left him out in the woods alone!"
"Hey! Stop talking about me like I'm not here!!" He sounded angered.
Annabeth grabbed his hand making him look at her.
"It's alright. Whenever they get into a fight it's like they can't hear the people around them."
"That's so dumb," Emris grumbled.
"Well you are the one who got lost, so it's your fault."
"It's not my fault!"
"Sure."
"You know what I don't wanna talk to you anymore,”
"Ok."
They both looked toward the older teens. Their argument has evolved into a fight. Thaila was holding a spear and Luke was holding a dagger. Emris had no idea where they got them but he wasn't going to ask.
"Hey Emris?" asked Annabeth.
"Huh, what? I thought I said I wasn't gonna talk to you!"
"How did you get lost?" she said, completely ignoring him.
He paused for a moment but then decided to tell her, "I was running away from my Aunt because she was acting weird."
"Why was she acting weird?"
"Dunno."
And the conversation ended there.
What seemed like minutes later Luke and Thalia’s "disagreement" ended with Thaila pinned to the ground. Luke got up and offered her a hand which she took with a grumble. Once they were both up they started walking over to the seven-year-olds.
“Well, that was interesting. . .” Emris mumbled.
“Welp, that settles it, you're coming with us,” Luke stated, “We should start getting out of the meadow first though.”
“Woah, Woah, Woah, who said I was gonna come with you guys?” Emris said, “You guys are weird people, I mean you pulled out weapons on each other over kidnapping me!”
“I told you it doesn't matter. They will drag you out of here anyway,“ Annabeth uttered.
“Yeah what she said, it doesn't matter once Luke has something on his mind.” Thaila agreed.
“This is straight-up kidnapping you know?” Emris said.
“Yep, it is!” Luke cheered already marching away, “Now let's get a move on! We gotta get out of this place fast!”
With that Annabeth was quick to follow, with Thaila right behind her. Emris stared at their retreating figures in disbelief.
“You know what, I got nothing to lose,” Emris whispered, running to catch up to them.
