"My Lady, why do you carry that sword?" Kathleen asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Artemis jerked her head up, quickly finding Kathleen sitting near her. She must have zoned out after telling her hunters more of his story, and she reached instinctively towards the sheathed blade for a comforting presence.
Kathleen, as well as the others had quieted and waited for an answer, reminding Artemis of little children staring at a subject of interest. She quickly gathered herself and got to her feet. If they wanted to know about the blade, then they would see its true beauty, at least in her eyes.
"This… this was his blade." Artemis said, drawing the blade slowly. The gleaming celestial and mortal bronze caught the midday sun rays, and shone as a beacon in the campsite. Artemis allowed herself to smile as she held it in front of her, seeing her smiling reflection. Her hunters were muttering, and Artemis heard Winifred speak in a low tone.
"Doesn't look so special to me." The short haired girl said, leaning back on her arms. Sarah, who was next to her, laughed lightly.
Taking her gaze away from the blade, she glared at the two hunters, "Yes, it does not look like much, but what you see here," Artemis twirled the blade in her hand, "is one of the only weapons that still survives that was made from both bronze and celestial bronze. The mist does not affect this sword, and the sword itself is but a part of its reputation. He who wielded it made the blade a feared weapon indeed."
"Artemis, how skilled was Perseus with this blade?" Zoe inquired, "I have sparred with you thousands of times, and I can count the number of times I have beat or drawn with you on two hands."
She laughed at Zoe's indignant statement, sending some of the younger hunters into giggles. Phoebe groaned besides Zoe, perhaps remembering her own attempts in sparring. Artemis smiled at those memories, before turning her attention to him again.
"Girls, I will be honest. Not long after facing the Chimera in Lycia, The Macedonian army headed Northeast, towards the town of Gordion. Alexander had heard of a legend there that whoever could untie the Gordion knot, crafted by King Midas, would rule all of Asia." Artemis paused, seeing some who knew the tale, including Zoe, Phoebe, and her hunters who joined in the 18th century: Victoria, Elizabeth, and Kathleen. "Alexander, as some of you know, cut the knot, with most of his army there at Gordion. However, he and a few hundred men were sent towards the city of Tarsus, which lay on the very edge of the Northeastern edge of the Mediterranean. I followed the small force south, instead of Alexander. It was a small scouting mission, but one of the nights, I found him alone…"
Artemis was pensive, as she looked at the xiphos in her hand, "It was there where I first crossed blades with him."
The air was thick and seemed to resist her very being, as she rode up in her chariot. She felt fresh and full of energy, but even so, there was a resistance, like the sky and Earth itself wished her to be gone. Artemis frowned, seeing her pegasi snorting against the direction she was heading.
She knew what it was, Dionysus had told her and Apollo before their assignments from Zeus. The East was an unforgiving world, to mortals and Gods. Gods who were not worshipped, and had stepped into another Pantheon's power. It was unsettling, and Artemis found herself wondering how much farther she could press on in her chariot, which took a portion of her power to uphold and keep together.
The land below her was heavily forested, with the shimmering waters of the Mediterranean off in the distance. She had come to observe Perseus, and his command while Alexander chased down legends and myths. An easy choice for her to make, based on preference alone. She looked longing down towards the trees, sensing Perseus among the forest. Two hundred men, all scouting the Persian town of Tarsus. Artemis could see the city, slightly off the Mediterranean's shores, but close enough for a relative ease of access.
Perseus and his men were close, as the city likely was on the edge of their visions. And the urge to get off her forsaken chariot was too strong. She longed to go hunting again, the incident with the Chimera a full month ago, was far too long of a time to spend idle. She knew the consequences, if she were to be caught. The monthly report was due to be given at Olympus later tonight, which would cut her time in the sky short anyway.
Artemis knew the meeting would be full of displeasure from Zeus. Her offerings and sacrifices from the Macedonian army had raised tenfold compared to Zeus's. She very well might need to hunt tonight, in the possibility of being punished by Zeus for her actions.
The idea wasn't farfetched, and she knew that if Zeus reprimanded her, she had many points to make in her own favor.
'That isn't important now… lets hunt!' Artemis told herself brightly.
She quickly snapped her fingers, bracing her legs against the sudden turn that the pegasi pulled off, which steeply angled the chariot around, it's new course: Olympus. After it had finished altering course, Artemis slung her bow and quiver over her back, making her they were secure, before morphing into a red-tailed hawk. She flapped furiously away from her now distant chariot, and dove down towards the thick lush forest. Wind whipped around her, the clouds blurring in her hawk vision. She folded the wings to her side, gaining maximum speed as the ground below came closer and closer in her view.
As her vision began to make out specific leaves on the trees, and the ground compassed her entire vision, she unfurled her wings, banking up sharply. Slowing down dramatically, branches whipped by as she flew at still high speeds around the canopy. Leaves flashed by in brilliant colors of gold, red, and brown, causing Artemis to laugh in excitement, feeling the adrenaline rush through her. Her laugh came out or the hawk as a loud skraww, and she quickly rolled, avoiding a knotted trunk high above many of the other trees.
However, her speed slowed, and she came down from her rush of energy, eventually flying steadily just above the canopy of the forest. She cast out her senses, looking for prey or monsters that she could hunt.
There was nothing in the area… she internally frowned, off put by the lack of life, until her senses flared up detecting a rather well known presence.
Perseus.
Still in her hawk for, she slowed, flapping her wings, approaching a thick oak branch. As she neared, she leapt out of the hawk form, landing gracefully on the thick branch, perfectly balanced in her twelve-year-old form.
Her landing zone was situated as an area near a small clearing, which had some of the larger trees in the forest, as Artemis looked around. She felt Perseus's presence near the clearing, and further in the direction, the was a feint signature of the scouting party, which lay deeper into the woods.
The odds of landing so close to the young Macedonian commander seemed slim, but she wasn't disappointed. As there was no game or monsters in the area. He would do just fine. Quickly studying the canopy of branches, and further inlaid shoots of the trunks of many trees, she began leaping between trees, effortlessly making her way towards Perseus.
The air in the forest was much more freeing than her position in the sky. Whether it was because of the forest itself, or her proximity to the ground, she did not know. But as she soared across a gap between two trees, Artemis figured that it may have been her disconnection which the Macedonian expedition, which allowed her to thrive with various offerings and sacrifices.
With that final thought, she skipped onto a last branch, which arced partly over the small clearing she had sensed earlier.
The clearing itself had earned to be called small, as It encompassed an area that was less that a full block of a Macedonian phalanx formation, which was a tightly packed square of two hundred and fifty-six men.
In the center was a small rock, that rose to a human's waist, and consisted of half of that measurement in width.
He sat there, wearing a leather breast plate, and a dark tunic, his sword drawn, which was pointed down into the ground. Artemis froze on her branch, crouching down, studying Perseus. He hadn't seen or heard her, and looked to be in deep thought as he studied his own blade.
That put her to wondering. Perseus, from her more recent observations, had been enthusiastic, and committed in the campaigns, as he led negotiations, and was constantly present with Alexander. Now Perseus was leading his own scouting mission, and was now completely alone in a clearing, which was a far distance from his camp.
She was never one of subtlety, so she dropped to the clearing ground with a thud, breaking the fall with a crouch and a hand which ran over the smooth dull grass, which covered parts of the clearing. However, most was dirt, including the area around the rock outcrop, where Perseus sat.
Artemis looked up from the grassy floor, seeing Perseus's eyes on her, two green pools which shone from the cascading moonlight, which was funneled into the clearing.
"Lady Artemis, what do I owe the pleasure of your visit to?" Perseus asked, standing after a momentary pause, before bowing swiftly. Artemis inclined her own head, although he did not see her own small inking of respect.
"I had come to test your abilities as a warrior, but I think now I will ask of your grievances. Something seems to trouble you, young one." Artemis spoke, gauging Perseus's reaction.
He smiled lightly, "I am twenty-four Lady Artemis, my mother should be the only one to call me 'young one.' As for any grievances, it is just being away from home. These months away have truly made me question why I am here."
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Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.
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