Work Text:
The monsters were digging into her flesh. Hellhound claws, cyclops fists, Fury whips. They were all on her. She tried to howl in pain. The air left her mouth in a gasp as a Cyclops knocked her down. She fell to the ground, blood pooling around her and mixing with the damp mud of the rainy night. She felt her body turning stiff, rough, and coarse, as it all faded to black.
Thalia Grace awoke with a yelp. She wasn’t in a bedroom with clothes strewn across the floor, in an alleyway in Newark, New Jersey, or below a tree, her tree. She was in a tent surrounded by her fellow hunters, her new family. She sighed and stood up, exiting the tent. She passed by several more tents before finally stopping on the outskirts of the camp and sitting down on the crest of a hill. She looked up at the moon, where an aspect of her mistress Artemis was riding her chariot across the sky.
She sat like this for several minutes until she heard a faint sound of footsteps on the grass behind her. She didn’t look around to see who it was; she already knew who it was. Another aspect of Artemis sat down next to her.
“I see you are not in your tent,” a pause, “What troubles you, sister?”
“Nightmares, my lady.”
“Please,” Artemis smiled, “I care not about titles, certainly not from you, certainly not now. But if I may ask, would you care to talk more on this matter?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice.”
Artemis waited for her to continue.
“The nightmare tonight was about that night- th-the one on the hill.”
Artemis nodded.
“It just started some memories…of that night…A-and the tree.”
“The tree?” Artemis inquired, “What of the tree?”
“I-I,” Thalia groaned and put her head in her hands, before sliding them off of her face as she looked up, “I haven’t told anyone about this yet. W-When I was a tree, I could feel everything. I couldn’t see, hear, or smell, just feel. Mostly, it was fine. Someone- Probably Annabeth or-” She stopped herself before she could mention Luke, “Someone just laying their hand on the tree. I remember one time I felt like I was in a rope for a few minutes. Turns out the Stoll brothers decided to wrap the tree in Christmas lights before Annabeth stopped them,” Thalia managed a smile, which quickly fell, “Then there was the pain. A year before I woke up, I felt a sharp pain in my side. Turns out the Minotaur ran straight into my tree.”
Artemis cringed lightly.
Thalia continued, “Then the year I woke up, I just felt this constant pain. It lasted for months, I-I couldn’t even think straight or feel anything else. But it wasn't the feeling something that was bad. It was when I didn’t . Sometimes there were days on end of just nothing . I-I thought I would go insane. Maybe I have, I-I-”
Artemis stopped her, “Sister, you are not insane. You are amazing, fearless, powerful. In just three years, you have become one of the greatest Hunters in history. Remember when you shot the Epirotic Boar right between the eyes? That was one of the cleanest shots I have seen in my millennia of living. To continue, though I may not have been turned into a tree by our dear father, I know what it is like to be imprisoned, unable to do anything. If you ever need to talk about anything, feel free to confide in me for help.” Artemis paused, “If I may ask, how do you feel now?”
“Uh-better, actually.”
“Perhaps your bottling up of these thoughts is what caused such nightmares. Maybe, if you are ready to do so, you could tell others- Perseus, Annabeth, Niccolo- of this. You might end up feeling a lot better about yourself.”
“Yeah, I think that might help. Wait- out of curiosity, how do you know this?”
“I am the goddess of the moon. I know about many things that happen in the night. Now, it seems I will be ending my journey across the sky shortly. I recommend getting some more sleep, for-” Artemis cleared her throat and imitated Thalia’s voice, “-we’re going to catch that fox tomorrow!”
Thalia Grace laughed out loud for the first time in a long time.