The Dark Side of the Moon

The Dark Side of the Moon

Part 1

Chapter 1

Somewhere in the forests of Pennsylvania, the Hunter's of Artemis campsite

October 7th, 7:46 p.m.

Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus, Lieutenant of Artemis

My name's Thalia. I'm eternally 15 years and 364 days old. And this isn't Percy Jackson's story anymore, well not right now at least.

Everyone always looks up to him. I don't even blame them: he's a great fighter and leader, he's loyal and trustworthy, and he's kind and accepting. I'm not jealous either. But it seems to me that the minor characters, or even not so minor side characters, need to have their point of view voiced. Yeah, I get everyone wants to hear it from the hero, but I know and have heard of a great deal of people that don't get the recongition they deserve.

Take the musicians on the Titantic, for example. Whenever you hear 'Titantic', most either think of the tradegy of the unsinkable ship going down or the love story. Not many look at the bravery of those mortal musicians who played until the very end. Very inspirational. Deserves some credit, no?

It's not that I'm dissing the ones that are always in the light exactly, I'm just trying to broaden the Google search, so to speak.

I think that's maybe one of the reasons I joined the Hunt. I wanted a family, I wanted out of the prophecy, I wanted to forget Luke, sure. But also, I geuss I didn't really feel like being known as the girl that was turned into a tree; Pinecone Face isn't a very flattering nickname, I'm sure you can understand. I wanted out, I wanted to get away from all the drama and chaos that came with being a demigod at Camp Half-Blood in exchange for a life as peaceful for a daughter of Zeus as I could get. I like the Hunt; it's nice to just sort of go with the flow and relax, well most days anyway. But I geuss that's the immortality coming into play. Everything seems so slowed down, it makes it so much easier to handle things.

Before Zoe Nightshade's quest, I don't think I ever would have dreamed of becoming a huntress. But something changed. I don't even know exactly what, but there was this feeling, like the Fates were willing me to follow the path of Artemis. Weird, but that's how it was. And I know why now too. It's because the prophecy was never meant to be mine. Never, in any version of reality, would I have been the child of the Big Three that would make that possibly fatal choice that Percy made three years ago. Wow. It's been three years already; it's still hard to believe Annabeth's older than me, and even little Nico di Angelo wasn't little anymore.

The world sort of exisisted away from the Hunt, still there, just not my immediate reality. It was mindblowing really.

And even when Artemis had asked me to take that oath, I never dreamed that I'd become her lieutenant, and especially not right away. There were plenty in the Hunt with far more experience than I, but no. I never asked why I had been made Lieutenant of the Hunter's of Artemis so rashly, but I did wonder. And forever I'd wonder.

As her lieutenant, I had my own tent, which I'd thought was very generous of Artemis, as we had a lot of girls in the Hunt now. What were our numbers at? 42? 43? We were our own small army of demigods, mortals, nymphs, some Titan-spawn, you name it. So it was nice to have a place here that was all my own, sort of like Zeus' Fist at camp. I know that that worthless pile of rocks wasn't really mine, but it was named after my father, so I figured it was partially mine. They were sanctuaries, the few places I could be alone.

So at nightfall, that's where I retreated. And as I pushed aside the flap of my tent, it really did feel like an escape from the duties and stresses of being lieutenant. The smell wasn't precisely home-y, but familar and comforting, particularly when I unlaced my muddy boots and tossed them aside to stink up the far corner, because that's where they were always thrown. And the air was always thicker; it was harder to breathe in this enclosed space when the rest of the time I'm out in the vast forest, though my tent was in no way small, especially when compared to the others (excluding Artemis').

It sort of resembled a first mate's quarters on a ship: not as grand as the captain's, but still better than the others. My white sheeted bed of wood was cast off into the opposite corner as my desk, which had notes, battle strategies, and a lantern ontop it. At the foot of my bed was an antique chest which held an extra change of clothes or two, a few books and my IPod, and the accessories I was premitted to wear with my hunter's uniform. Small demigod nessecities such as nectar, ambrosia, some weapons, rope and duct tape, and a pouch of golden drachma were stored in the other chest, located right next to the entrance. Then there was this huge open space in the middle which I used for private, individual training. Seeing as it was a tent, there were no windows.

I tore off my socks and threw them in the corner with my big black 'biker' boots. Huh. Big black biker boots. That's hard to say. But anyway, I was exhausted from today's completed mission. We'd been tracking some ancient monster or other for the past two weeks, and we'd finally managed to catch up to and kill it. Thank the gods they turned to dust, or we'd have had a massive cleaning job to attend to. I flopped down onto my bed and just laid there for a little while, my eyes drifting shut of their own accord. Being immortal, you'd think I wouldn't get tired. Ha! It was true I needed less sleep than a regular person, but man, when I was tired, I was already out. So I grabbed the pillow and shoved my head under it, about to fall asleep when I heard the trading of screamed insults in the next tent over. I groaned and rolled to my back. Always something to do, isn't there?

I dragged myself off my comfy bed and walked (barefoot) out into the twilit clearing in which we'd set up camp. The sky truelly was magnifacant when afternoon transitioned to evening. All the colors and blends and the moon and sun out in the sky together and the clouds spaced just right and the cool air of fall... magnifacant. It was definately my time of day, and my type of weather. I didn't have too long to spend admiring the sky, as Justina and Maggie's yelling increased volume and macilousness just then. I quickened my pace until I stood outside their tent and marched in, too irratated and cranky to bother wondering if just storming in was the best option.

It was worse than I thought, but not as bad as they got sometimes. Justina, the smaller yet faster of the two, was running in circles with something clutched tightly to her chest, something I'm geussing belonged to Maggie, who was trailing after her bunkmate doing the majority of the screaming. I trudged over to the center of the room and yelled at the top of my lungs; usually, that'd shut everyone up. But now neither of them so much as flinched. I could have walked in on stilts wearing a big puffy dress and goggles to announce I was marrying Apollo with a bullhorn; they wouldn't have noticed. So, deciding my effort would be wasted and my sleep was far superior, I backed out of their tent, rubbing my tired eyes. Zeus only knows why Artemis shipped that pair together.

On natural instinct, I surveyed the campsite. the tents were arranged in a cresent formation, Artemis' being the tip of the moon, followed by mine, then Justina and Maggie on my other side, and then Alexia and Riley, and so on. The wolves sat or stood gaurd, spread out along the invisible line that would have created the rest of the circle, some of them pacing back and forth; the wolves got restless a lot. A fire was going in the middle of the campsite, a young girl attending it, maybe eight or nine. The woods were... Wait a minute...

I walked closer to the roaring fire, studying it's flames as they slunk into the sky, higher than they should have been able to before dispersing, glowing more richly red than they should have been. Under normal circumstances, I would have overlooked this, and my eyes would have simply slid right over the girl tending the fire. But Artemis had a strick policy on hanging around outside of the tents, something about the enemy knowing exactly where you were and what you were doing. Plus, the fire was enchanted so that Artemis would just wave her hand and the fire would ignite or dispel; it didn't need to be tended.

I stood a few yards away from the girl, her long brown hair was braided down her back, which was to me. Oddly, I got the feeling I should know her... So I took an educated geuss. "Lady Hestia?"