chapter four !
ARTEMIS ASSURED them that dawn was coming, but sanju wasn't sure. they had spent hours at the camp, and now it was colder and darker and snowier than ever. even up on the hill, westover hall's windows were completely lightless. sanju and percy stood shivering in the snow( unlike the hunters, who didn't seem to feel at all uncomfortable ), and artemis stared into the east like she was expecting something.
bianca sat off to one side, talking with nico. sanju could tell from his gloomy face that she was explaining her decision to join the hunt. thalia and grover had come up behind sanju and percy in the meanwhile and huddled around him, anxious to hear what had happened in their audience with the goddess. when he told them, grover turned pale.
"the last time the hunters visited camp, it didn't go well." sanju winced at the memory. the hunters of artemis had burnt down the aphrodite and apollo cabins, declaring them to be vain and irritating.
"how'd they even show up here?" percy wondered. "i mean, they just appeared out of nowhere."
"and bianca joined them," thalia said, disgusted. sanju opened her mouth to argue, or agree, she wasn't sure yet, but decided to remain quiet. "it's all zoë's fault. that stuck-up, no good ─"
"who can blame her?" grover said. "eternity with artemis?" he heaved a big sigh. thalia rolled her eyes.
"you satyrs. you're all in love with artemis. don't you get that she'll never love you back?"
"but she's so. . . into nature," grover swooned.
"you're nuts," said thalia.
"nuts and berries," grover said dreamily. sanju snorted. "yeah."
finally the sky began to lighten. artemis muttered, "about time. he's so-o-o lazy during the winter."
"you're, um, waiting for sunrise?" percy asked.
"for my brother. yes." percy just looked adorably confused. "it's not exactly as you think," artemis said.
". . . oh, okay." percy still looked confused, but he started to relax. "so, it's not like he'll be pulling up in a ─"there was a sudden burst of light on the horizon; a blast of warmth.
"don't look," artemis advised. "not until he parks." sanju averted her eyes, but someone was already covering them for her. she glanced over and saw percy holding a hand over her eyes. she blushed and looked away, because it felt so natural, so normal, that it scared her.
the light and warmth intensified for a few minutes, then suddenly died. she looked, and saw it was percy's dream car, except it was in red. it was glowing, and the snow had melted around the car in a perfect circle.
the driver got out, smiling, looking about seventeen or eighteen, with sandy hair, golden eyes, and a bright, playful smile. he wore jeans and loafers and a sleeveless t-shirt. maybe, in another life, sanju would have found him attractive, but she looked over at percy, his sea green eyes, and his dark hair, shining in the light coming from the car, and suddenly apollo seemed to dull in comparison. however, there was still a power emanating from him. she could see how he had been the cause of so many heartbreaks and so much tragedy.
"wow," thalia muttered. "apollo is hot."
"he's the sun god," percy said, completely oblivious to what she actually meant.
"that's not what i meant." thalia whispered back, not looking away from the god.
"little sister!" apollo called. if his teeth were any whiter he could've blinded them without the sun car. "what's up? you never call. you never write. i was getting worried!"artemis sighed, the familiar sound of an older sister very, very annoyed with their younger brother ( sanju knew this because she had gone through the same ).
"i'm fine, apollo. and i am not your little sister," she replied warily, as if she was used to this.
"hey, I was born first."
"we're twins! how many millennia do we have to argue ─"
"so what's up?" he interrupted. "got the girls with you, i see. you all need some tips on archery?"
artemis grit her teeth. she looked like she was minutes away from strangling him, and her hands were tightening around her bow. "i need a favor. i have some hunting to do, alone. i need you totake my companions to camp half-blood."
"sure, sis!" then he raised his hands in a stop everything gesture. "i feel a haiku coming on."the hunters all groaned, and sanju winced. she had heard from the apollo kids about their nightmares about his haiku.
he cleared his throat and held up one hand dramatically. "green grass breaks through snow. artemis pleads for my help. i am so cool." he grinned at them, waiting for applause. next to sanju, percy made a sound like a dying frog.
"that last line was only four syllables," artemis said boredly. apollo frowned.
"was it?"
"yes. what about I am so big-headed?"
"no, no, that's six syllables. hmm." he started muttering to himself. zoë nightshade turned to them.
"lord apollo has been going through this haiku phase ever since ─"
"─ he visited japan," sanju cut in, giving zoë a sickly sweet smile. the older girl glared at her, and sanju felt petty satisfaction. percy rested a hand on her arm, raising an eyebrow, and sanju calmed down.
"'tis not as bad as the time he visited limerick. if i'd had to hear one more poem that started with, there once was a goddess from sparta ─"
"i've got it!" apollo announced. "i am so awesome. that's five syllables!" he bowed, looking very pleased with himself. "and now, sis. transportation for the hunters, you say? good timing. i was just about ready to roll."
"these demigods will also need a ride," artemis said, pointing to them as if they were scum. sanju crossed her arms and turned her chin up. "some of chiron's campers."
"no problem!" apollo checked them out. "let's see. . . thalia, right? i've heard all about you."
thalia blushed. "hi, lord apollo."
"zeus' girl, yes? makes you my half sister. used to be a tree, didn't you? glad you're back. i hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. man, i remember one time ─" his tone was light, but sanju could see the grief that flashed in his eyes, and for a second, she pitied the god.
"brother," artemis said, and perhaps she had noticed it, too, because there was sorrow in her eyes. "you should get going."
"oh, right." then he looked at sanju, and waved a hand around. "i. . . don't know you." sanju's face fell, for just a moment, but she put on a semi-emotionless mask, and bowed slightly. ( she wasn't an idiot. ) he looked pleased.
"sanjana verma, lord apollo." the god nodded, making a very exaggerated oh sound.
"right," he said, drawing out the i. "aphrodite speaks very highly of you. says you were skilled, and. . . have a good fashion sense? i dunno, i wasn't really paying attention, but that's probably a compliment coming from her."
his eyes wandered to where percy's hand and hers interlocked, and for a split second, he looked bemused, flickering back and forth between sanju and percy. sanju gave him a half smile, not sure how to feel, as he moved on to narrow his eyes at percy, whose grip tightened on her hand.
"percy jackson?"
"yeah. i mean. . . yes, sir," percy mumbled. apollo studied him, but didn't say anything.
"well!" he said at last. "we'd better load up, huh? ride only goes one way ─ west. and if you miss it, you miss it." sanju frowned at the maserati, which would seat two people max. there were about twenty of them.
"cool car," nico said.
"thanks, kid," apollo replied distractedly.
"but how will we all fit?"
"oh." apollo seemed to notice the problem for the first time. "well, yeah. i hate to change out of sports-car mode, but I suppose. . ."
he took out his car keys and beeped the security alarm button. for a moment, the car glowed brightly again. when the glare died, the maserati had been replaced by a bright yellow shuttle bus.
"right," he said. "everybody in." zoë ordered the hunters to start loading. she picked up her camping pack, and apollo said, "here, sweetheart. let me get that." zoë recoiled, and her eyes flashed murderously.
"brother," artemis chided. "you do not help my hunters. you do not look at, talk to, or flirt with my hunters. and you do not call them sweetheart."
apollo spread his hands. "sorry. i forgot. hey, sis, where are you off to, anyway?"
"hunting," artemis said. "it's none of your business."
"i'll find out. i see all. know all."
artemis snorted. "just drop them off, apollo. and no messing around!"
"no, no! i never mess around."
artemis rolled her eyes, then looked at the demigods and hunters. "i will see you by winter solstice. zoë, you are in charge of the hunters. do well. do as I would do." zoë straightened.
"yes, my lady."
artemis knelt and touched the ground as if looking for tracks. when she rose, she looked troubled. "so much danger. the beast must be found." she sprinted toward the woods and melted into the snow and shadows. sanju wondered what she meant, but there was a more pressing problem.
apollo turned and grinned, jangling the car keys on his finger. "so," he said. "who wants to drive?"
the hunters piled into the van, cramming into the back so they'd be as far away as possible from apollo and the rest of the highly infectious males.
bianca sat with them, leaving her little brother to sit in the front with the demigods. sanju wasn't sure if she was the only one who say a flash of regret in bianca's eyes, before the girl quickly covered it up. however, nico didn't seem to mind.
"this is so cool!" he said, jumping up and down in the driver's seat. "is this really the sun? i thought helios and selene were the sun and moon gods. how come sometimes it's them and sometimes it's you and artemis?"
"downsizing," apollo said. "the romans started it. they couldn't afford all those temple sacrifices, so they laid off helios and selene and folded their duties into our job descriptions. my sis got the moon. i got the sun. It was pretty annoying at first, but at least i got this cool car."
"but how does it work?" nico asked. "i thought the sun was a big fiery ball of gas!"
apollo chuckled and ruffled nico's hair. "that rumor probably got started because artemis used to call me a big fiery ball of gas. seriously, kid, it depends on whether you're talking astronomy or philosophy. you want to talk astronomy? bah, what fun is that? you want to talk about how humans think about the sun? ah, now that's more interesting. they've got a lot riding on the sun. . . er, so to speak. it keeps them warm, grows their crops, powers engines, makes everything look, well, sunnier. this chariot is built out of human dreams about the sun, kid. it's as old as western civilization. every day, it drives across the sky from east to west, lighting up all those puny little mortal lives. the chariot is a manifestation of the sun's power, the way mortals perceive it. make sense?"
sanju tilted her head in thought. while she didn't quite like that apollo called mortals puny, she did understand what he had said. nico, however, shook his head. "no."
"well then, just think of it as a really powerful, really dangerous solar car."
"can I drive?"
"no. too young."
"ooh! ooh!" grover raised his hand.
"mm, no," apollo said. "too furry." His eyes skipped over percy, and glanced at sanju.
"nope, still too young."
then he focused on thalia. "daughter of zeus!" he said. "lord of the sky. perfect."
"oh, no." thalia shook her head. "no, thanks."
"c'mon," apollo said. "how old are you?" thalia hesitated.
"i don't know." it was sad, but true. she'd been turned into a tree when she was twelve, but that had been seven years ago. so she should be nineteen, if they went by years. but she still felt like she was twelve, and she seemed somewhere in between. the best chiron could figure, she had kept aging while in tree form, but much more slowly.
apollo tapped his finger to his lips. "you're fifteen, almost sixteen."
"how do you know that?"
"hey, i'm the god of prophecy. i know stuff. you'll turn sixteen in about a week."
"that's my birthday! december twenty-second."
"which means you're old enough now to drive with a learner's permit!" thalia shifted her feet nervously.
"uh ─ "
"i know what you're going to say," apollo said. "you don't deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot."
"that's not what I was going to say."
"don't sweat it! maine to long island is a really short trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid i trained. you're zeus's daughter. he's not going to blast you out of the sky." apollo laughed good-naturedly. the rest of them didn't join him.
thalia tried to protest, but apollo was absolutely not going to take "no" for an answer, which, rude. he hit a button on the dashboard, and a sign popped up along the top of the windshield. thankfully, sanju's mom had spent years helping sanju get over her dyslexia. she still had some trouble, but it was a lot better. anyways, that was how she could read the bright red sign that said warning: student driver.
"take it away!" apollo told thalia. "you're gonna be a natural!" percy crossed his arms, scowling slightly, and sanju patted his arm.
"s'okay, there's only two year until you're sixteen." he still looked annoyed, but significantly less.
"speed equals heat," apollo advised. "so start slowly, and make sure you've got good altitude before you really open her up." thalia gripped the wheel so tight her knuckles turned white. she looked like she was going to be sick.
"what's wrong?" percy asked her.
"nothing," she said shakily. "n-nothing is wrong." she pulled back on the wheel. it tilted, and the bus lurched upward so fast sanju fell back and crashed against something soft.
"ow," percy muttered. sanju winced.
"sorry!"
"slower!" apollo said.
"sorry!" thalia said. "i've got it under control!"
long story short: thalia did not have it under control. the sun bus finally crashed into the camp half-blood canoe lake with a huge floosh! steam billowed up, sending several frightened naiads scrambling out of the water with half woven wicker baskets. the bus bobbed to the surface, along with a couple of capsized, half-melted canoes.
"well," said apollo with a brave smile. "you were right, my dear. you had everything under control! let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"
sanju learned that day that it was not just mortals who had mental breakdowns.
───────── 𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒.
hey ya'll !! how did you like it ? i am so so so excited and ahh sanju is the absolute best !
<3