The Sea and The Moon

Chapter 13

Percy POV:

The next morning, Artemis and I stood side by side with Ashley in my arms. It was time. We nodded at each other and took our first step forwards, then our next, and our next, until we were on our way. I didn't exactly know where we were walking to, but Artemis seemed to have a general sense of direction so I just followed her. After ten minutes, she increased the pace and soon we were sprinting, the trees a blur around us.

I had noticed that I tired much less after getting the Guardian's Blessing and I could full out sprint for over and hour without so much as break a sweat. At one point, I almost dropped Ashley, but managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Artemis was still pushing the pace and I was forced to speed up or else I would be left in the dust. I decided to try something.

Using my powers over air, I propelled myself and Ashley forward and outstretched my fist like Superman. I felt us traveling faster and faster. We were like a bullet, quickly catching up to Artemis and I glided next to her as she ran.

"Seriously Perseus? That's cheating," She said with a raised eyebrow. I smirked and sensed that she could go even faster, so I shot ahead and waited for her to catch up. It wasn't long before a caught up to, not even looking like she was trying.

"Geez, how fast can you gods run?"

"As fast as we need to. Now I would suggest we stop and try to figure out where we are."

I nodded and we stopped in a clearing. I sat down with Ashley in my arms. Artemis sat on another log across me.

"That was fun! We should do that again Percy!" Ashley yelled excitedly. I chuckled and ruffled her hair before turning to Artemis with a serious expression on my face.

"Do you have any idea where we should start?" She asked.

I thought about it before answering. Man, I would really hate saying this, but I think it's our only chance.

"I think the best place to start would be taking a visit to the one of only other immortals alive while Apollyon was still free."

Artemis looked confused for a second, but then she seemed to realize who I was talking about and her face paled immensely.

"You can't mean..."

I nodded,"We need to find a way to contact the titan council. It is our only chance of finding this key. I mean we have no information on it's whereabouts or even what it looks like. The titans were the only beings alive other then the gods and Primordials during that time. Obviously, I don't think it's a smart idea to find the Primordials and none of the current Olympians were alive back then. We can only hope that at least one of the titans had witnessed the making of the key."

She looked reluctant, but agreed at the reason behind my words.

"There is still the problem of how we contact the titans. Pretty much all of them hate us and I don't think they would be willing to meet with us peacefully."

"We don't need a reason other than the fact that the world may be close to the end of it's life. Without Earth, there's no titans. They will understand, trust me, they will. We just need to go to Mount Othrys, where the council is located."

She nodded at stood up,"Well, I guess we should get moving then, we shouldn't waste anymore time."

"But, I'm hungry," Ashley butt in.

I laughed a little,"Here you go." I summoned her a couple blue cookies before handing her to Artemis. Our hands briefly met and I felt a shock run through my body. What was that. I've been feeling like this a lot whenever I touch her. Maybe I'm falling i-. WAIT! SHE'S A MAIDEN GODDESS, WHY AM I THINKING THESE THINGS?! I must have had a weird expression on my face because Artemis said," Uhhhh... Percy? Are you ok? You were just staring out into space." The moment she said this, she clamped her hand over her mouth and her face had a mortified expression.