The Unknown Destiny

| Chapter 1 || The Uphill Battle |

Chapter One

The Uphill Battle

*First Person Point of View ~ Artemis*

I was frozen. My body was stiff and my heart was hammering away behind my ribs like a caged bird. I couldn't get the image out of my head.

The gut-wrenching, heart-stopping vision of his mangled body. His shredded left leg, nothing but flesh and blood and bone splinters. His arm was bent back so far from his elbow that it had nearly been torn from his body. The crumpled black leather that stretched over his bones, barely able to be called skin, torn up by the intense heat from which he suffered.

The air was horrid, poisoned by the overwhelming stench of blood. Percy's blood.

Over and over again I saw the light leaving Percy's eyes. Those once beautiful eyes that had looked at me with such affection - an affection that I had stamped down, unable to face the veracity that was in my heart. I saw his dull green orbs staring up at me with such love and I couldn't hold back my tears. For the first time in over three thousand years, I cried for a man.

I was sobbing. I knew it. I wasn't even embarrassed that I was sobbing over the death of a man in front of my family. I didn't care if they figured out how I really felt about my guardian. They all knew what had happened to my last guardian. They all knew how I felt that time.

I laid my head down on his chest. It was bloody and dusty and sticky with sweat, but I didn't care. I was the same. The battle had brought us to this state. Pretty soon, what remained of his shirt would also be stained with my tears.

My breaths came in gasps, chest contracting so tightly that it hurt, but nothing could compare to the agony in my heart. I was suffering. My heart was breaking. All because of a man and his heart. His pure heart that was no longer beating.

Wait.

My eyes snapped open.

What was that?

I heard it.

I pressed my ear to his chest once again, my tears dry if only due to the shock of the sound that I just heard.

There it was again. A heartbeat. He was alive!

Was he alive? Was it my own imagination?

I pressed my head down again.

No. It was there. I heard it. I hear it now!

"Apollo!" I called out to my brother.

He was at my side in an instant. Kneeling next to me, he sent me a look of concern, curiosity also flashing in his eyes. I replied with a look of my own, one that conveyed to him the situation. Understanding, he gingerly pressed two fingers against Percy's neck. I waited as the doctor checked. I waited and waited. It felt like an eternity. What was taking so long?

Then, Apollo nodded.

My heart nearly leaped out from beneath my ribs.

He was alive. I knew it. His heartbeat was there. Barely, but it was there!

"You must bring him to an infirmary! You must treat him!"

Apollo's expression was grim as I turned to him; I was upset that he hadn't moved. "He's hanging on, but just by a hair. Are you sure? There is a great chance that he won't make it," he said.

"But there is a chance that he will!" I replied, desperately holding my hope. My hands gripped Percy's hand - the good one - which was limp but still warm.