"Identity was partly heritage, partly upbringing, but mostly the choices you make in life." This quote largely describes Emery's personality—for any other person, her history might have created a jumble of half-formed desires and motivations, a chimera of inherited traits barely hanging on to their existence; but not Emery. Quite the opposite, in fact, because she's learned clearly who she is and what she wants, and by god if this child of Artemis isn't going to fly as straight as any arrow fired by the legendary hunter herself.

She's always calm and collected to the best of her abilities, trusting that she's in control of her situation. She never hurries, always seeming to be where she needs to at exactly the right time. Even in times of great stress, she fights to be composed, focusing her energy on what needs to be done and how she can achieve it. She isn't confident to the point of cockiness, but enough to make her a good leader and strategist.

For Emery, each day is another day dedicated to working towards a goal. No matter what that goal is—to better herself, to provide for her loved ones, or even just to make a friend—she pushes through each task to achieve her goals. She knows what she likes and dislikes, what she wants for herself and what she wants for others, though sometimes this affects the way she sees things into a sort of tunnel vision, herself an immovable rock until the goal is reached. She would be nothing without a purpose, although this isn't a realisation she's come to yet.

Though she's largely independent and prefers to work on her own, Emery tries to work well with others, knowing that her allies are important too. Though she isn't the best at taking orders, she's good at offering support to those who need it from her. Her loyalty to those who offer her the same is admirable, as she's ready to fight for those she loves the same way she'd fight for herself.

Every plan is subject to change, and she is no different. A hunter by nature, she's learned to adapt herself to the nature of her targets, adapting on the spot to counter evasive measures. Similarly, as someone who's been shuttled from state to state for the better part of her eighteen years, she's learned to adapt herself to different social situations in order to stay afloat.

What do Maryland, Mississippi, Oregon, Colorado, Alaska, and Louisiana have in common with each other? They've all served as home to one Emery St. John.

Born in the town of Thurmont, Maryland, Emery grew up first in the care of her father. Hadley St. John was a gentle man who owned a business resembling something of a zoo, if a zoo could be run out of a man's front yard and consisted of various animals that were often found by Hadley in the woodlands, hurt by hunters out of season or just by their own foolishness. He'd nurse them back to health and raise them in his garage, devoting his time to looking after them despite the cost of running such a zoo.

Hadley had neither time nor interest in his life for women, and although more than a few young ladies tried to court him when he was in his youth, he always turned them down. But there was one lady he couldn't resist—Artemis. She was powerful and beautiful and utterly in love with the way he handled animals, and she was the one woman Hadley St. John never turned away.

He knew Emery wasn't normal from the moment she was delivered to him. Even as an infant she barely slept, always watching him tend to his work with her blue, blue eyes. Way before he would have allowed any other child to touch his charges she was already joining him, soothing the most terrified animals, helping to tend to the sick and injured ones. And he'd always notice the way their injuries seemed to melt away under her tiny hands.

Hadley St. John knew a lot of things, and he was no less ignorant to the fact that he was dying. Something was eating away at his insides, something even Emery couldn't heal. And when the time came, he kissed his baby girl goodbye one last time, and sent her off to Mississippi to live with her grandmother while he set his animals free and checked himself into hospital to await his death.

Sarah Wyman, a tough old lady in her seventies by the time Emery reached her, wasted no time in teaching the child the only things she knew. Born and raised as a southern belle herself, Sarah read in the last letter from her son of her granddaughter's godly heritage, and decided that when the time came for Emery to join her kind she would go as a proper young lady. She taught Emery how to hunt, how to fend for herself, and how to flutter her eyelashes and laugh at the jokes dull but well-meaning men cracked.

But like her son, Sarah wasn't meant to spend long with the girl. Near the end of a long and terrible battle with pneumonia she handed Emery an address written on a piece of paper and whatever cash she could pull together, and packed her away to a cousin living in Colorado.

From then on it was one family after the other, from cousin to uncle to sister to son, all doing what they could based on Hadley and Sarah's final wishes in the letters they'd sent along with the child. All her guardians meant well, but how could anyone raise a god's child for them? Year after year after year, Emery was shuttled around to a new house, and she quickly learned to adapt to each different living situation. Along the way she picked up her different abilities as a demigod, including animal shapeshifting, settling for two shapes that she was most comfortable with.

Eventually Artemis herself came to Emery, insistent on sending her to a camp where others like her resided, protected from the dangers that a child of the gods faced. Eager to find somewhere she could mix with her people, Emery agreed, and once again packed up, heading for Camp Athens.