With that, Athena dissolved her form, morphing into a small owl that beat it's wings rapidly, flying towards the setting sun. Artemis scowled at Athena's final mental comment. Worse still, she couldn't disagree… but she did disagree with Athena finding him charming.
...
Perseus coughed lightly below her, "I probably earned that comment. Does she turn men into woodland creatures as well? Anything I have to worry about?" Artemis couldn't help but notice the bandaged shoulder and arm he had.
"Maybe a gorgon. However, I would like there to be less of those in the world, not more," Artemis replied, studying him, "However, I think for now, you should see your wounds tended."
Perseus grinned up at her, before quickly scaling the couple of body lengths up the rock face, to sit besides her, a couple of feet away, "Now I know you are my mother. Alexander said something along the same lines, but after I told him that he could as easily put me to bed as he could cross the mare aeternum, he told me to find you.
"I am inclined to agree with Alexander on your health," Artemis cocked her eyebrow, and gestured to his side. Up close, his breastplate had a small puncture from a spearpoint, one that Artemis had seen a Persian thrust up at Perseus. "I watched you fall from your horse."
He looked down to his breastplate, using his uninjured arm to scan the metal, "My ribs will hurt in the morning id imagine, but the spear didn't even pierce the leather padding underneath. Besides," Perseus continued, laughing, "although it was a dangerous situation for a while, when I was on foot, Leonphalos found me. He was none too pleased with me, but he was more furious with the Persians, so here I stand."
Artemis processed this.
"Lion headed?" His horse had a similar name to Alexander's, which didn't come as a surprise.
Perseus grinned, "He likes his mane, I think it suits him. You'll have to be introduced of course. But enough about my exciting fiasco. You are the talk of camp right now. Even Kleitos seemed a bit respectful towards you."
"Yes, that was my plan all along, earn his respect." Artemis snapped, glaring at him. Honestly, he had a tendency like no other to flip her countenance from relaxed to being stung by a bee.
But Perseus pressed forwards, "And the Pellians, myself included mind you, are swearing up and down that you won the Battle. That young captain, Lysander, is particularly vocal right now. I'd advise you avoid him though, since he is bellowing about the kind of wife you'd make…"
"Is he now? It seems like he desires to be turned into an earthworm then." Artemis coldly replied, scrunching her nose distastefully.
"I wouldn't expect anything less!" Perseus proclaimed, before turning to her, "You do have to come with me though, Alexander's orders. He wants a report from you about…" Perseus gestured to the same Simurgh carcass that Artemis had seen stuck on the jutting rock, "Whatever those are."
"Athena visited me, to tell me about them. I will admit I had no knowledge of the beasts. They are fast, and deadly. Not much of a problem in solo combat, but their swarm was deadly enough. Athena called them Simurgh's: Bred by the Goddess Anahita, in the Iranian mountains."
Perseus whistled, "Right where we want to go then. And you said that these monsters are the pets of Anahita? Who is she?"
"I'm not surprised you haven't heard of Anahita. She is a powerful Persian Deity. She attempted to kill me before sending in her Simurgh. Apollo came down to stop her." Artemis admitted quietly. The words spilled out with little difficulty, something that Artemis frowned internally at. Why was she telling Perseus this? She had no need to unfurl her problems. They were hers to bear, and hers alone. Not some young Macedonian's…
"What?! Lady Ar...Cleoxene!" Perseus said loudly, snapping his gaze over to the work gangs by the river, that may or may not have been able to hear him.
"Really? You are worried that a Persian Goddess tried to kill me, but don't mention the blood drenching I got from the Simurgh?" Artemis asked, a smile cracking through onto her face involuntarily.
Perseus fixed her with an exasperated look, "I told you that I would see you through this expedition, and I follow my word. That'll be hard to do if there are vengeful divinities flying at you left and right. Regarding the Simurgh, I'm more worried about them than you. You took down five of them, so I hear, while wearing their blood as a skin. That's slightly terrifying, along with your uneven hair."
The image of herself running down a scampering Simurgh, while soaked in their blood was too much, and Artemis let out an ungodly snort, unable to bring up her hand in time to cover the noise.
Artemis felt her eyes widen, and she glared at Perseus, who was struggling not to laugh.
"You tell no one of this. I'm going to wash off in the river." First, she lost some of her auburn hair, now she had to endure Perseus's cheek the entire day. She couldn't wait to dunk her head in the cold water, if only to wipe the creeping blush of embarrassment from her neck.
...
A quick rinse in the river took merely minutes, and in no time at all, Artemis was walking with Perseus back to the Macedonian camp. Fortunately, her hair was not in fact all that damaged. A quick cut with her hunting knife on her right side, and there was only a small noticeable different in the lengths amongst her curling locks. The first part of the journey to the Macedonian camp was quiet. Artemis didn't mind the lack of communication, she had enough to think about regarding Anahita, monsters, and any other deities that might want to kill her. At a couple point, Artemis stole glances over at Perseus, who was always looking at their surroundings. She imagined that Perseus was accustomed to doing so, as Artemis had a similar routine of being self-aware in unknown lands.
Yet, the closer they got to camp, the more soldiers and camp followers they encountered. That's where the praise started.
She hated it. Soldiers greeting her, even cheering her name, while a variety of camp followers tried to sell items to herself and Perseus. In one such case, their own bodies.
Two very loosely clad women were approaching Perseus, from the very outskirts of the Palisade wall of the Macedonian camp. The area was teeming with camp followers, as crowds of soldiers flocked to the camp for supplies, services, and revelry. Artemis regarded the pair disdainfully, clenching her first around the hilt of her gleaming bronze knife.
"Hullo there young man, come find my tent tonight? Bring your Amazonian friend as well?" A slim tanned woman said silkily, running her hands through a curly mess of dark hair, displaying her body in a provocative way.
"Oh Gods." Perseus muttered half to her, under his breath, and he drew breath to speak.
But Artemis beat him to the retort, "Rather than being pierced by swords, you should learn to wield one. Maybe then you'll have a purpose in your life. Now get out of my sight." Artemis snarled, drawing her knife on the woman, of the kind whom Artemis had met a thousand times over. Her mind pulsed with rage, and the emotion was stronger than Artemis had expected, but she immediately wrote it off because of her current mortality.
The sight of the dagger alone sent the two women scampering off, both voicing their thoughts in angry huffs that were thrown back towards Perseus and herself.
'Alright, I'm impressed, It's usually an awkward affair getting them to leave." Perseus remarked, his gaze following the two women as they stormed off to another group of Macedonians.
"They foul the reputation of any woman. I'd turn them into celibate sea slugs if I could. I've seen their kind before, adulterers " Artemis frowned, resolutely avoiding any gaze of admiration from the thongs of people around them. She turned her gaze to Perseus, who was looking at her with a calculating expression, making a dimple on his check form under his light beard.
"That night during the beginning of the expedition, when you put your sign above my head. Why did you do so?" Perseus asked.
Artemis paused, looking at Perseus's eyes before looking back over to the follower's camp, seeing a multitude of stalls and shops that the Macedonians were visiting. "You were the first person I'd seen that put yourself on the line for a woman, even an adulterer, for moral reasons. I've seen much in my centuries, yet selflessness is far less common than I had expected.
Perseus laughed, looking over to her grinning, "Some hero I am then."
He was joking, but Artemis looked at him long and hard. Unlike most mortals, she knew almost first hand about most 'heroes' that had journeyed across the world: Achilles, Aeneas, Odysseus, Theseus, and Hercules all amoung them. All had their legacies and deeds, but when Artemis looked at Perseus, she recalled him quietly throwing the fangs of the Chimera at Alexander, following Alexander, without jealousy or any lust for power. Speaking his mind to her, without fear or hidden veils. He annoyed her, yes, but not in an unpleasant way… No, Perseus didn't compare to the ancient heroes. He was something else entirely.
"No Perseus. You are not a hero. You are better than a hero."
"Well, now I know you are pulling my leg. How could I compare to the Mighty Hercules, or swift-footed Achilles, who'd likely cut my throat in a duel without even blinking?" Perseus laughed, his left hand resting on the pommel of his sword as the both walked through the open gate of the Macedonian camp.
"You are not wrong. I have seen both, and each would grind you into dust. Their skills were unparamounted, yet even heroes have their flaws. Hercules betrayed a huntress of mine, Zoe, by going back on his word. She has always remembered that fact, and I expect that she will never trust a man again. You yourself told me the power of one's vows, even though I do resent that you feel that I need protection, and how they show one's quality of character. After all, what good are great deed, or achievements if, at your core, you are rotten inside? As for Achilles, his lust for war consumed him, and from what I have seen, you abhor war. Prudence isn't an easy trait for a hero to acquire Perseus, yet you display it in the most strenuous of situations…" Artemis cut herself off, a rush of heat creeping up her neck and searing itself into her ears.
'What was she doing? Perseus was a tolerable man, but she had no reason to tell him so!' In fact, Perseus did have flaws. He was headstrong, loyal to a fault, and far too polite for his own good…
Perseus seemed equally stumped.
...
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