Artemis' Apprentice - The End of Olympus - Inspired By Rick Riordan - Book 1 - Chapter 4

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Chapter 4

Selene

Being born was weird.

I could remember it somehow.

I first saw light- It lasted for a minute at least. Everything was coated in white.

Finally, the light dimmed. I opened my eyes quickly. I felt a warm embrace and a weird, but satisfying smell in the air. I looked up to see someone above me. However, this man was had wet curly, dark brown locks, with kind sea green eyes. I snuggled against him, feeling loved and happy.

But that all ended too fast.

Within hours, someone else was caring for me. The man who had hugged me so dearly disappeared. Water nymphs took me and cared for me instead, but it wasn’t the same.

Where did he go?

When I was about five years old, a stranger was brought inside. This lady had a brown braid and wore a white satin outfit that I adored.

“Hello, young one,” the lady cooed, “My name is Artemis. I am going to be your teacher.”

I had laughed and nodded, happy to finally meet someone new other than the Nymphs and man I hadn’t seen in five years.

Artemis was skilled in action. By the time I was seven, she had taught me how to master gymnastics, archery, and Greek sword- fighting. She taught me how to use myself as a human-compass so I could navigate myself if I ever got lost.

I remember when I was eight, the man finally came back.

I was down at the arena, sand wafting from the ground. The wind blew my hair over my eye patch. I looked up at the spectator's box to see Artemis joined by the man who had held me when I was born. He had his bright, sea green eyes, full of love as he gazed down at me.

I turned around as I heard the gates open behind me.

A manticore was released on the field.

The beast had a large, lion head and mane with piercing black eyes. Huge dragon wings unfolded from it's back. It's scorpion tail unraveled and swung behind it as the beast approached me.

I held my ground and drew my bow defensively as the beast approached. We circled around each other warily.

The beast became impatient and sprang at me, claws and teeth bared.

I shot my arrow and it hit directly in between the beast's eyes.

The manticore yelped in pain but barreled after me. As it charged, I drew my dagger and backflipped out of the way just as it was about to hit me. As I flipped, I twirled my blade and it scrapped the beasts face.

In anger, the beast shot its tail at me. I deflected the barb full of poison with the butt of my blade, in mid-air. I landed gracefully on the ground without a scratch.

The beast, bleeding badly from my new cut, charged at me angrily.

I must impress this man. I felt like the weight of the world was suddenly crumbling on me.

I took a deep breath and focused on the raging manticore.

I jumped out of the way but wasn’t fast enough.

The beast clawed my arm. I had never felt pain before.

It felt like fire, my skin burning. White dots danced in my vision. I yelped and stumbled, unfocused by this new reality.

I crashed into the ground as the pain seared up my arm, my eyes boiling to the brim with tears. I looked up to see the man jump from the spectator seats followed by Artemis. He pulled out something that looked like a large fork and stabbed it straight through the beast. The manticore wailed in agony before collapsing, dead.

Artemis and the man ran over to me and knelt beside me. I shivered as I looked at my arm. Gold liquid spilled from the wound.

Artemis put one hand over her mouth and gasped. The man, who stared at the liquid, looked at it in a mixture of shock and horror. I suddenly felt immensely guilty.

“She has ichor,” Artemis breathed, “The blood of the gods.”

The man shook his head, “It isn’t possible-”

“Then what could that be?” Artemis questioned.

The man sighed, “I don’t know.”

I suddenly felt dizzy. The world began to sway. I felt my eyes become unfocused.

“Selene” Artemis responded, clearly worried, but her voice sounded far away, “Are you alright?-”

Everything went dark. I wondered for a moment if this was death.

Then I saw light again.

I groaned and realized I was sitting in my bed. The man was at the end of the bed, inspecting me. I sat up and moaned, my head throbbing.

“Shh,” the man cooed, and gently laid me back down.

“Who are you,” I mumbled.

The man gazed at me, his eyes sad and dark now, “I am your father.”

“Father?” I groaned as my head hurt again, “What is a father?”

His eyes looked even sadder, “I am your creator, and I love you dearly.”

My heart warmed at the thought of being loved. I sat up, ignoring my screaming head, and leaned against my father.

At first, he looked panicked, like he didn’t know how to react to my affection. Then he placed an arm around me and nuzzled me close. I felt the same embrace I felt when I had been held by him when I first saw light.

My father stayed with us for a few days. I remember the morning he trained with me;

“Selene,” my father said, “Today, I wish to train with you.”

I had been so excited after recovering to train with my father. I walked by his side as we re-entered the arena.

“Did you know” he paused, “That I am the king of the seas?”

“Um,” I sighed, “What are seas?”

His eyes got sad and guarded again, “Do you know what water is?”

I nodded slowly.

“Well, a way to look at a sea is like a huge amount of water.”

“Oh,” I paused to imagine it, “So you are like the important one?”

He laughed sadly, “Yes, I am the ‘important one.’”

I smiled, “So does that make me a lost Princess?”

He stopped  laughing, “Partly.”

“So i'm a part-lost princess?”

He shrugged, “You could say it like that.”

I giggled, and my father smiled.

“Did you know I can control water?” my father asked.

I gasped, “You can?”

“Yes,” he laughed. Suddenly,  water began sprinkling from the arena ground.

I looked between the spring of water and then back to my father, “You did that?”

He nodded, “And I can teach you how to do it as well if you wish.”

“Please teach me!” I begged.

My dad smiled, “Alright, but you must do what I say.” My father sat down and I followed him like a pet. “You have to feel the water’s life, can you feel it?”

I couldn’t understand what he was talking about. I closed my eyes and concentrated, seeing if I could sense something. There wasn’t anything

I opened my eyes and sighed, “How do you do it?”

My father got up from the ground, “It's alright, most demigods don't get it till they’re thirteen. You're only eight-”

I felt something. It was like a heartbeat, so powerful, but so mesmerizing. I tried to grab it with my mind. My dad turned around, stunned as I raised a bubble up to his face.

“Oh,” he laughed, “Good job, hun.”

“Wait,” I paused, and stretched out my mind like a piece of string, connecting it to all the water in the area. There was so much, I had to physically stand and raise my arms for it to rise. Thousands of bubbles soared up from the ground, filling the air.

My father, too shocked to move, stood there, smoothing his wet hair with his hand in awe. I grasped the nearest bubbles and commanded them to form. About a hundred bubbles combined to create on, huge bubble.

The bubble became hard as I climbed on it, and helped hoist me on top of it.

“Come on dad,” I laughed, “Don't be a slowpoke.”

I began to float in the air, resting on the bubble. My father, finally getting out of shock, smiled and formed his own bubble. He rose up to join me.

‘This is awesome,” I confessed as we flew higher into the air. He smiled, ‘This is.”

He turned towards me, “Demigods you're age couldn’t do anything near to this without passing out. How can you stay awake?”

I shrugged, “It's too exciting to sleep anyways.”

We both smiled and laughed as we soared into the skies.

But from there, things only got worse.

My father trained with me for that week, but with each day he got more wary of me.

One day I would do something where he was amazed and proud, the next I would do something even better to impress him, but instead, a strange shadow passed across ihs face.

I remember getting up the last night he would be here. I crept along the hallway to my father room. It was dark and cold. My footsteps echoed.

I was about to open his door when I heard hushed voices inside.

“What should we do?” Artemis spoke on the other side of the door, “If she can do all of this, who's to say it won’t come true?”

I heard my father sigh, “We must keep her on our side, and not let her become one with the prophecy.”

A chill went down my spine.

“I know” Artemis said quietly, “But I will have to leave more and more. With the Great Prophecy, it could even be her.”

There was a long silence, “It could be him, as well.”

“Him?”

Another long pause.

“It could be my other son.” My father muttered. Artemis inhaled deeply like she had been stabbed.

“You had another son?”

“Yes” my father confessed, “They were born from the same mother.”

I heard a collapse like someone falling in a chair in exhaustion.

“What are we going to do” Artemis groaned, “How is this even possible? A mutant demigod?”

“I don't know either,” Poseidon sighed, “The fates have always gone after my children, but this..”

Artemis paused, “Recite the prophecy, I think I understand some of it.”

There was a pause,

“Siblings of Sea

One white; One green

Despite their parents

They shall be:

Demolisher of Olympus

Destroyer of the fates

Twelve tattered thrones;

And the end of all space”

“It's obvious that twelve tattered thrones meanss the thrones of the gods” Artemis noted, “And one white and one green match her eyes.”

“Yes” my father agreed, but he sounded sad. He continued,

“When the blood moon is high

Thy power shall rise’

Seize the earth

Rule the skies”

“The next blood moon is in twelve years,” Artemis said reassuringly, “But what do the next lines mean?”

“It's says ‘thy power shall rise’,” my father replied tiredly, “Meaning perhaps her full abilities will be unlocked.”

“Her full abilities” Artemis breathed, “You mean her powers are still developing? The other day she created an earthquake without even a sweat.”

“I know,” my father whispered, deadly silent now. I pressed my ear to the door to hear they’re conversation better, “But I'm afraid this could just be the start.”

“The start?!"

“The start.”

They both sat in silence. My father suddenly continued

“A warning to who bore this fate:

You're offspring shall turn;

Join the betrayer;

And watch Olympus burn”

They both sat in silence once more. “I don't think she’ll turn evil” Artemis confessed, “She is a wonderous being, and brings joy.”

My father sighed, “People change too quickly. Twelve years is enough time to decide what you want to be.”

“I'm not going to let that happen,” Artemis said firmly, “She is a pure-hearted maiden, and a strong one too. I will try to continue with training her.”

“Thank you, Artemis,” Poseidon said, relieved. “But there is still more we must figure out,”

“The world must end:

One way or another

With someone loved dead

Or with none left to cry”

“Someone loved is going to die,” Artemis sighed, “Perhaps the betrayer?”

My father shook his head, “We can't be sure.”

“It is time for you to go,” Artemis told him, “You need to return to the Sea.”

My father nodded, before evaporating in a mini hurricane.

I crept back to my room, cold and shattered like glass.

Artemis came less and less, leaving me for the nymphs. The nymphs were assigned to do testing on me, and every full moon they would take some of my ichor for examination.

I started to feel like I was losing my freedom.

Artemis sent me a present for my thirteenth birthday, a white wolf.

I remember the day a nymph brought it in and read the note out loud,

“Selene, I am sorry I had to miss such a landmark for you. Here is a gift, you have my blessing; Artemis.”

I fell in love with my new pet and named him Jinx. He was my only friend now.

But what happened next was the strangest of all.