Man of The Moon

Chapter Four - Doubts

The hunt continued to stay at Camp for a few weeks, waiting for Chiron to come back, and because of the timing, a capture the flag game had been planned and everyone was excited, well, all the hunters were excited.  Over the time at camp, Percy had developed some of the mannerisms of the hunt. He began to understand even more that most of the males in the camp were jerks, and he had started to enjoy how the rest of the hunters treated the males around camp, but he was silently worried about himself. While he was at camp, he was always in his female form, making it easy for him to be with the hunters, as he didn’t have to worry about how he acted, but he was worried what would happen when they left camp.  Artemis and Zoë had noticed a change in Percy’s behavior towards most of the hunt, as if he was slightly scared of the hunt, even though to the two of them, it didn’t seem possible, so for as long as it wasn’t a problem. The only problem with that was that it seemed like a constant problem.

Without knowing it, Percy had slowly drifted from the majority of the hunters, until he only seemed comfortable with Zoë, Artemis, and Phoebe, the three of them having the biggest influence over him, and had helped him adjust to being within the hunt.

When the hunters would head to dinner, most of the time, Percy would walk behind them, and while they were eating, he wouldn’t talk, and at other times, he would just hang out in the shadows. Over time, this became worrying to Zoë and Artemis, and finally after about a week of this, went to confront Percy about it.  They had just eaten dinner, and the hunters were heading to the campfire, to prepare for another Capture the flag game on the following Friday, the third one while they were there. As they walked, Zoë and Artemis both noticed that Percy wasn’t there with them, causing them to both to worry greatly. They felt bad that they hadn’t confronted him about his behavior, and they were worried about where he was.

After some searching, they found him sitting upon the top of the Zeus’ fist surprisingly in his male form, starting at the sky above him. Artemis and Zoë sat down on either side of him. If Percy noticed, he didn’t say anything. Artemis and Zoë shared a look, and then looked down at Percy, before both of their hearts broke for him. His eyes were red and puffy, and his eyes, which Zoë found absolutely beautiful, seemed to be broken and lifeless, even though he was still alive.  Zoë had no idea what could have caused this, but sadly, Artemis did. She suddenly understood what he was feeling. She knew that he felt that he was not really a part of the Hunt, as if he was just a person in the shadows. He saw what the hunters did to the men around them, and felt as if he changed back to his male form, the form that he is more comfortable in, that he would be treated the same as the males around camp.

Zoë watched the expression on Artemis’s face turn from one of sadness, to one of a little bit of guilt. She still didn’t understand why, but she knew that she needed to comfort Percy. She slowly pushed him up, and pulled him into a hug, but he tensed. Zoë frowned at this.

“Percy,” Artemis said softly, “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t be a part of the hunt. I’m a male, what happens when we leave camp and I live with you, ill just get ignored and beaten.” Percy said softly, his voice cracking by the end. After he finished speaking, he broke down into sobs. Zoë hugged him tighter, feeling horrible at the prospect of Percy not wanting to be in the hunt.  Artemis and Zoë shared a look, before Artemis brought her hand up to Percy’s face, and wiped the tears from his face, and turned his face to face her.

“Percy, you are as much a part of the hunt as Zoë is. Just because you are the first male in the group does not mean that we will abandon you or hurt you.” Artemis took a deep breath. “Percy, even though you have only been part of the hunt for a few weeks, you are like a little brother to me. We will love you like family, I promise.”