Demi-God: Chapter Three

by Fenyryn

N/A

I pulled the string back of the bow, aiming it at the tree that was about twenty feet or a little more from me. The first few times I missed it. The wind was pushing the arrows in the opposite direction, forcing them to stick into the ground. Grandmother had offered to help me learn and to practice, but I wanted to be alone. Concentrating on something like my bow and arrow would help me cope with being in this strange – albeit beautiful and magical – place.

It was early evening. The hour previous I had been allowed to leave Odin's "palace". I added quotation marks, simply because I couldn't believe it. It was much too beautiful inside and out to explain. It seemed like it was golden everywhere. I had seen almost everything except for the throne room and the weapons vault. It was my own personal decision not to see either of them.

Now because of the wind, my grandmother had pulled my hair back into a very tight, low ponytail so it wouldn't blow all over the place. It was also a big precaution. No one wanted me to not be able to see where I was shooting and accidentally impale somebody with an arrow through their chest or something.

I finally released the string, but this time the wind pushed it the other way, but not into the ground. It hit another tree on the side. I wasn't pleased with myself in the least. Sure, I hit ia/i tree, but not ithe/i tree. Sighing, I carefully walked over to the tree, not wanting to step on any of my previous failures. I stopped by the arrow, setting my bow up against the trunk. It looked pretty jammed in there, that's for sure. I grabbed the shaft and tried to pull it out. It wasn't going to come out. So much for the Goddess of the Hunt, right?

Just as I was about to try again, a muscular arm reached from behind me and pulled the arrow out like it was no problem. Then the man – or boy or whatever he was – came out from behind me, handing me the arrow.

The only possible way I could even think about explaining this...guy was he was fairly muscular, reminded me somehow of Goldilocks, and that he looked incredibly idiotic. When he spoke next, I got so startled because his voice was so low, yet it boomed somehow.

"You are not from around here," he stated.

I shook my head, putting the arrow back into the case on my back. He had the accent of what the Midgardians would call, "Australian".

"I assume that you are daughter of Apollo!" he then said loudly.

So he either knew about my arrival and knew my father, or he wasn't an idiot after all. But when I tried to ask him how he knew who I was, he wouldn't listen. Instead he would just point and show me stuff. So when he wasn't paying attention, I walked around, picking up my mistakes from the ground and putting them back in my arrow case.

"And that is the sea," he finally finished.

"Wow," I said sarcastically. "It's so...sea-like."

He looked at me like he didn't understand. Did Asgardians not have sarcasm? Or was he really an idiot? I shook my head, sighing.

"I'm sorry; my name's Artemis," I said quickly, holding my hand out to him.

"I am Thor, son of Odin!" he replied loudly, grabbing my hand.

For a second I could swear he was going to shake it very quickly to the point where I wouldn't be able to feel my arm at all anymore. Instead he decided to kiss the back of my hand.

I nodded. iOkay,/i I thought, blinking.

Then it dawned on me. I had purposely thought of him as an idiot and he was the iKing's son./i

"I'm sorry," I quickly said.

"For what?" his voice boomed.

"Never mind. I just – Your mother – Frigga, right? - She, er, told me that you were away, battling."

"You have spoken to Mother?"

"I work at the palace during the day."

I saw my Grandmother waiting for me up on the hill, waving me over. She must have known I didn't want to stand there and speak with Thor any longer. I still had to ask her how she was able to get into my mind. That was something I was really curious about.

"Please excuse me; my grandmother is waiting for me," I said, running off toward the hill.

Grandmother looped her arm through mine when I reached her. She decided to cut right to the chase and ask how my practising went. I just flat out told her the truth that I didn't do well at all and I probably still had a long way to go.

"So, honey, is that why you were speaking with Thor?" she asked. "Because your arrow got stuck in the tree?"

"I tried getting it out and it was too hard," I replied. "But then he came and pulled it out like it was no problem."

She rubbed my hand, sighing. "Well, you do not seem to like him much."

I stared at her, forgetting that she was the Goddess of Love. Of course she would know I didn't like him. He certainly didn't look all that handsome to me or smart. Really. And what was the giant hammer he had been carrying around on his belt? I couldn't take out my book and look it up since my father decided to hide it from me.

"Your pupils did not dilate when you looked at him," Grandmother told me.

Right away, I decided to just change the subject. "Grandmother, I hope this does not..." Listen to me – I was starting to talk like one of them, "tarnish your thinking of me, but I have a night-shift at the tavern where the marketplace is."

She inhaled, thinking about it. When she opened her mouth to speak, I thought she was going to start yelling at me. No. I couldn't handle getting yelled at. Instead, she said, "It is fine, just as long as you do not become a wench."

My mouth made an, "um", movement, but no sound came out. Did Grandmother know what the word "wench" even meant? I most certainly did. When I was in my first year of high school, the only thing I carried around in my bag were books – text books, notebooks, a thesaurus, encyclopedias and several dictionaries. Father had given me that memory back without my asking, and it was a memory I liked.

"Do you know what a wench even iis/i, Grandmother?" I asked.

"Do iyou?/i" she quickly responded. "Here, a wench just is not a servant, she is also what Midgardians call a pros-"

"I know where this is going. I understand. Grandmother, I promise I will not become...ithat./i"

***

I sat on the stone bricks that surrounded the little garden in the village, reading a poetry book I had found while rummaging around in my bag. Once and a while I would look up and see the "palace" in the distance, slightly wishing I lived in the city. But that would be too much. It was loud and obnoxious. The quiet was nice, peaceful. Reading would be almost impossible if Grandmother, Father, Hestia and I lived in one of the golden buildings in the city.

Just as I was about to turn the page, I heard a, "Hello," come from behind me.

"I'm sorry; I'll move," I quickly said, standing.

"No, no, it is okay."

I turned to see a man – boy or whatever – with short black hair and the prettiest blue eyes I had ever seen. He wasn't as muscular or tall as Thor, and he was less intimidating, appearance-wise. I couldn't speak to him. It should have been illegal to have been as attractive as he was.

"Are you alright?" he asked with that what Midgardians would call British accent.

"Yes," I squeaked. Then I cleared my throat. "Uh, yes," I said in my normal voice.

"Father told Thor and myself that we had a new citizen. Of course when he told the both of us, Thor said he already met the newcomer. I am assuming that it would be you?"

I blinked. So Thor was ithat/i kind of person. Like Sarah.

"Right; Thor," I mumbled, sitting back down. "Artemis," I added, looking up for a moment and then, realizing I couldn't look him in the eye, looking down at the ground.

"Loki Odinson," he replied.

My heart immediately started to beat faster than it probably should have. Grandmother had been right telling me that Loki was handsome.

"I'm sorry; did I interrupt something you were doing?" he asked.

I bit my lip, shaking my head. "Um... No, I was just... It was something to pass the time..."

He folded his hands in front of him. "Can I sit and talk with you for a while?"

I shrugged. iOh, God, this is bad. This is bad. Really, really bad,/i came the terrifying train of thought. iI don't think I'll be able to do this./i

"I spoke to Aphrodite about you," he told me quietly.

"Oh." I moved a strand of hair out of my eyes.

"She told me about your family on Midgard and how you obsessed over your education."

I looked up from the ground, my eyes wide. Then I looked at him in horror.

"Why obsess over something so trivial?" he asked, quiet.

"I am not so sure." The corners of my lips twitched. I inhaled sharply, thinking, and looking away. "School was basically all I had after my mother died, because I knew – and I still know – that it is one of those things that will always be there, no matter what happens."

Loki didn't say anything for a moment. He was probably thinking of what he should say just so he wouldn't make me hit him and then run away. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to offend you."

I shook my head, assuring him that he hadn't offended me. I was just caught off guard by his statement. Yikes. Where was Grandmother to rescue me when I needed her? I couldn't talk to him. Were my pupils dilating? It would have been a good idea to carry around a small mirror or something reflective with me to check.

He then apologized for my mother, Aunt Chanel and Shenia dying.

But then something dawned on me. How had he known where I even was, in the first place? I confronted him about it.

"Heimdall the Gatekeeper told me," he replied, looking around cautiously. "He sees everything he wants to and hears everything he wants to. He could be listening or seeing this right now."

I blinked, inhaling very sharply. I couldn't talk to him anymore, otherwise my chest was going to hurt. "Are my pupils dilated?" I blurted out.

"What?"

I quickly stood, clutching my poetry book to my chest. "It – It was really nice meeting you, but, uh, my Grandmother – I think she – Bye." I quickly ran off, dropping the book without my noticing it.

When I arrived back at the hut, my cheeks were flushed and I was out of breath. Never in my life, I thought, had I ever run as fast as I did from Loki. My guilt was through the roof. What I had done was incredibly horrible and mean, but I hadn't been able to breathe around him.

Grandmother came down the stairs in a rush. When she saw me, she gasped. She immediately demanded to know what was wrong with me in a calm tone. I told her everything. I couldn't shut up about it at all. At the end, I just asked, "Are my pupils dilated?"

She nodded and I was forced to sigh. I looked down, realizing my hands were by my sides. That's when I realized I had dropped my poetry book.

"Why don't you go back and get it, honey?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No, no, no, no. He could still be there. Besides, I have to get ready for my job at the tavern."

And I thought the city would be loud. I made a big mistake getting a job at the tavern. It was bustling. While the what Grandmother called "wenches" were in the back getting their work done, I seemed to be the only available girl available to take orders or whatever they were called.

"Yes, I will be right there!" I said over the loud atmosphere. "No, sorry! Um...yes, when she is done."

I wanted to quit and it was just my first night. How could all the other girls just abandon me like that? I needed help. I couldn't handle a hundred or more people by myself. Most of them had just gotten back from battles and were incredibly famished and parched. I even found myself carrying more trays than I could handle in the long run.

Hestia came in looking for me. Apparently she had a tab on all the virgins in the world and knew where they were. She looked incredibly disgusted at the drunk Asgardians. When she saw how I was dressed, she loosened up a little. I was dressed almost as modestly as she was, without the veil and shawl.

"Sister," she said over the crowd, tapping my shoulder.

"Hestia?"

"Are you alright, Sister, you look distressed!"

I looked around, seeing some of the other girls come out of the back room. "Yes, I am fine!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the door open. But when I saw that it was Thor and Loki along with some of their – I assumed – friends, my eyes widened. I looked around, dropping the things I had on the tray I was holding. Hestia jumped.

I had to get out of the tavern before either of them saw me and told their father. "Um, Hestia? I know you do not like me much, but could you help me?"

She grabbed my hand and ran for the back door. She wasn't light on the grip, that's for sure. Hestia stopped so she could unlatch the door. Just as she was doing that, I looked back toward the door. Loki had spotted me and he looked more disappointed than I felt necessary. I bit my lip, pushing Hestia out the door when she got it unlatched.

Hestia slammed the door shut behind us, sighing. When she looked at me, she looked disappointed, but not as much as Loki. She immediately told me that Grandmother had told her where I was because she wanted to speak with me. I had this big feeling that she disliked me even more.

The walk back to the hut was excruciatingly quiet and painful. When we walked into the hut, Grandmother looked up from the fireplace. Her smile faded into a frown. She knew. She knew what happened just by looking at Hestia running up the stairs and my flushed cheeks. I couldn't handle my own grandmother being Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. It was just too much.

"Why did you not get out in time?" she gasped.

"Hestia and I were having a hard time opening the back exit," I replied, sitting on the couch. "He managed to get a fairly good look to see that I was trying to avoid him. Grandmother, tomorrow is going to be horrible."

She inhaled sharply, walking over and sitting next to me. She held my hand tightly. "You like him enough to try and hide that job, do you not?"

I sighed, laying down on my side and resting my head on her lap. "It is not fair that we – Gods and Goddesses - are 'destined' to have good looks."

"You have been in love before, many."

"Oh, you know about Mark, Josh and that fake foreign exchange student from France who was actually from somewhere in the United States?"

"I feel everything related to love between everyone in all the Nine Realms, honey." She stroked my hair gently. "Though those three boys did not work out for you, in the end, you will find someone who will want to be with you and love you for Artemis, not the Goddess of Hunt. And who is to say that it will not be Loki? It could be."

I sighed again, this time deeper than before. I was certainly hoping that it would be like that.

Mark had been in most of my classes from middle school and into the first year of high school before he transferred to a boarding school in Colorado. I had told him in the second year of middle school that I liked him, and he had basically laughed about it and never so much as looked at me again. I hadn't even known why I had liked him; he had never been nice to me and maybe it had been his red hair and freckles.

Josh was somewhat more sensitive about it. He let me down easy when I told him I liked him in the final year of middle school telling me that he had a girlfriend, but she had gone to another school. He had even shown me a picture of him and his girlfriend that was taped to the inside of his locker. I had liked him simply because he stuck up for me a couple of times when I had been feeling down. He went to a different high school.

As for the fake foreign exchange student from France, I fell for him just because he was nice enough to help me with my French homework. However, when I got my mark back for that French assignment – which was an F – that's when I found out that he wasn't even French. He had just been a new kid that wanted to screw with some girls' heads.

***

I tried my best to avoid the two brothers the next morning as well as I could. There came times when Loki or Thor came so close to coming into the rooms I was cleaning. Each time I felt like I was going to pass out. I literally felt like I was stepping on eggshells trying to be careful enough to not get seen.

Then came the kitchen. One of the cooks asked me to help her out, so since I was tired of cleaning, I agreed. Second day in the "palace" and I already had to avoid two of the people who lived there. Unless that gatekeeper guy Loki told me about ended up telling Odin about it, then I would be avoiding three people.

So then, of course, Loki ended up walking into the kitchen while saying, "Mother wants to know how lunch preparations are going, Silva."

"They're going fine, Loki," the cook replied, fixing her dark brunette hair into a bun. "Oh, look at your boots! I thought you cleaned them not just a week ago! Would you like me to clean them again?"

"No, no, it's quite all right," Loki replied just as I was trying to sneak out of the kitchen. "Artemis will do it." He turned to look at me just as I stopped and pretended to clean the window. "Won't you?"

I looked around like I hadn't heart anything, taking the rag down from the window. "I'm sorry; what?"

"Artemis!" Silva exclaimed. "Loki's boots."

"Oh, right, er... I think there is not any polish left... Um... I-I-"

"Go to the marketplace," Loki said, walking passed me and out the door. "I'll be in my chambers."

Silva looked at me with those pretty dark eyes of hers, crossing her arms across her chest. She didn't look pleased with me in the least. Her hand made a movement like she was telling me to, "shoo".

I could tell she thought I did something to make him upset as I walked out of the kitchen. At least he hadn't brought ithat/i up in the kitchen, thank God. As I was walking through the marketplace, I couldn't figure out where to get boot polish. Then I realized I was standing right next to a shop that sold stuff like that.

I quickly got what I needed and headed back to the "palace". Not only was I worried, but I really didn't want to go. I had never really gotten yelled at before, so I had no idea what it was like. I had heard that sometimes it was very scary, or sometimes it was fine.

It even took me a while to find Loki's chambers. Why were there so many chambers in that place? It was terrifying. I hadn't gotten lost in a house-like place since going to a house party with Shenia to one of Aunt Chanel's richer friends. But this time it was different. There were more floors, more doors, and even more corridors.

"How dare you get lost, Artemis?" Thor asked with his booming voice.

"It is a big place," I replied, grimacing. "Where are Loki's chambers?"

He pointed to the door behind me. Seriously? All I had to do in order to have avoided Thor was turn around and knock on the door? At least I could stop looking now that I had found it. I gave him a little smile before turning and knocking.

"Come in," Loki called.

I carefully and quietly opened the door and then closed it behind me after I walked in. Did everything have to have gold on it in the "palace"? The walls of his room, the floor, even the bed posts and his desk had gold on them. There were paintings of landscapes on his walls. His bed was a one bigger than I had ever seen with a green canopy.

I snapped back to reality to Loki saying my name who was getting irritated after a few moments. "Yes, sorry."

He was sitting at one of the desks he had, writing things down into what looked to me like a very old book. Loki sighed, closing the book and turning to look at me.

My lips twitched. I really didn't want him to yell at me.

"Come here," he said gently.

I quickly scurried over, sitting on the back of my knees just so I could meet his eyes so he didn't have to look up. But that plan was doomed to fail. I couldn't look him in the eyes at all.

"Here," he said, adjusting his whole body so he was completely facing me. "I'll talk, and you listen while you - "

"That sounds fine," I quickly replied before he could finish, opening the can of boot polish.

So while he spoke, I cleaned his boots, which were, in my own opinion, not all that dirty. And he had been in battle, after all, for a few days. If it had been Sarah's shoes, she would have probably flipped out over the tiniest speck of dirt. iOn the bottom./i It had happened on multiple occasions. Anyway, he spoke about how it was just a "coincidence" that he had shown up at the tavern the previous night. He hadn't even wanted to go, but Thor and his friends ushered him into going. Then he told me that the reason he had the look of disappointment on his face when he saw me was because he felt that he had made a bad impression on me earlier in the day when he spoke to me about school and my Midgardian family. He even decided to apologize by giving me puppy dog eyes.

After I finished with his boots, I stood, putting my hand on the chair and leaning on it slightly. "It was not anything that you said earlier yesterday that I wanted to avoid you in the tavern."

"I know you work there; your sister told me," he admitted.

"During the night, that's it. I was trying to get out the back because I did not want to...hmm...tarnish your thoughts of me. Whatever they might have been."

"Can't you look at me when you are speaking to me, Artemis?"

"Uh... No. No, I cannot. I like you, and I have been let down and hurt before, so..."

"What? Tell me, what happened to you."

"It..." I sighed. "There were these three boys that I liked – not all at once – and, um, one of them hurt me by laughing about it when I told him and never spoke to me again, the other one, even though he let me down nicely – I thought at the time - I found out he didn't really like me because he thought I was too weird – the girl in the picture in his locker was actually his sister who did go to another school even though he told me she was his girlfriend and they looked nothing alike – and he went to another high school just to get away from me. And the last boy... He lied to me. A lot. So..." I cleared my throat, chuckling just so the tears wouldn't come out. "And Zeus only knows I do not like to be lied to, especially by someone I think I can trust. Listen to me; I sound like a mewling baby."

"You like me?" Loki asked. "Do you really need me to live?"

My cheeks flushed. "I would really like it if you did not play with my emotions like - "

"And who said I was doing that?" He stood, looking at me as I backed up. "No. I would never do that to you; to such a...fragile creature."

"W-Well then, to answer your question about needing you to live, no, no, I do not."

Loki blinked, walking toward me slowly. His voice was quiet, harsh but gentle at the same time. "Those...boys...wouldn't know how to treat a lady properly. They would say they love you, but they wouldn't really mean it, now, would they?" He stopped speaking for a moment when my back hit the back of his chamber doors. "They would go behind your back and then...break up with you and toss you aside like roadkill.

"Ignore you for the rest of your frightened little life. Kiss other potential lovers in front of you and wouldn't acknowledge your time together." He stopped talking again as I bit my lip. "I swear to never lie to you; I'll never trick you, deceive you or hurt you, but I promise you, one day, you will be mine. You will say yes to me."

When the both of us realized that I couldn't respond to his little..."speech"...he pat me on the shoulder. "You can go home."

I struggled to find the door handle, but when I finally did, I bolted out of that room and down the stairs like it was nobodies business. I couldn't even stop for a moment to say goodbye to Frigga or Silva. All I wanted to do was get back to the hut and talk to Grandmother.