Hey everyone!
And I started this new fanfic to celebrate Percy's birthday~ So don't forget to make blue cupcakes! ;)
And thank you autumnflame for beta-reading!
This is the first chapter of my new fanfic about Artemis and her past life. I hope you enjoy this! :)
The Vow of Eternal Maidenhood: If Poetry could Kill
Artemis let her fingers slide from the bowstring and felt it quiver under her grasp. The arrow shot toward its target and hit the eye of the deer.
She tried not to cause any unnecessary pain to her prey if she could help it. It was simply unjust to harm a part of nature in such a way.
The carefully shot arrow pierced the deer's exposed pupil. Blood spurt from the eye at first but then slowed to a trickle as the pressure died down.
The galloping deer immediately crumpled to the ground, its legs failing and folding into itself.
'With a force like that, the arrow should've pierced the brain…' she thought. 'Better revive it.'
Artemis walked over to the carcass, gently pulled the arrow out of its eye and wiped it clean before slotting it into her quiver. A glowing orb travelled from her hand to its body.
Life sprang back into its eyes and it nuzzled her hand. Artemis smiled.
"Off you go now! Just… Go. Off you get!" she cooed.
It was tiring encouraging the fawn to leave.
"Please! Go back to your mum… or dad… or something…" she continued urgently.
Around the clearing, there were obvious sounds of crunching leaves and snapping twigs. The deer's ears pricked up.
"Please, there is someone coming. Please just go."
The young fawn remained stubborn. Artemis was seriously reconsidering giving the young deer back its life.
"Fine, get out of here and meet me here tomorrow. I'll get you food, now go!" Artemis said exasperated.
Artemis wasn't sure what it was that made the deer gallop away; it was either her wonderful negotiation skills, the fact that she had promised food, or… Because of a cocky looking man stomping around the clearing with a smug grin on his face.
"Hey Artemis," her annoyingly annoying brother said. "I finally have proof that I'm older than you."
The goddess did a mental face-palm. She had gotten rid of one very frustrating creature only to have it replaced with one even more frustrating.
'I so want the deer back now!' Artemis said to herself.
"I'm telling you, we were both born at the same time!"
"I have composed a limerick of such proof," Apollo said, making himself seem even grander.
"I am really old,
For that I have been told.
Whenever I see a bucket,
I feel a lot like a Muppet!
I wish Artemis was bald!"
At the end of his poetic masterpiece, Apollo had a triumphant smirk.
"And this is true because it rhymes!"
After much consideration, he added, "And it was written by me!"
Artemis was so disgusted by his limerick that she became speechless.
"It's okay Artemis," he reassured, "Your puny brain cells probably couldn't handle that. I'll give you a haiku instead!"
"I am really old,
Or so I have been told.
I am so awesome!"
Artemis rolled her eyes and pointed out a mistake.
"Line two only has six syllables… Do you want a suggestion of what you could replace it with?"
Apollo pondered over his mistake.
"Why not? I'm glad you're finally taking an interest in the Art of Poetry!"
"You are such a big doofus," Artemis shot back.
"Oh, thanks Artie! That works really well!" he said graciously (if that was even possible for him).
"I am really old.
You are such a big doofus,
I am so awesome!" he recited.
Artemis physically face-palmed and simply ignored her agonisingly annoying twin brother.
If horrible poetry could kill immortals, Artemis would be six feet under. Being the mature person that she was, she simply went back to inspecting the grass and gently tugging it.
A large clump of grass came loose and dirt-covered roots were pulled out of the ground. Artemis widened her eyes in surprise of her own strength and dumped the plant back into the dirt before covering it up as best as she could.
Flustered because of her not-very-environmental actions, Artemis stood up, brushed some dirt off her dress and ran in the general direction of the throne room of Mount Olympus.
"I'm still older than you!" Apollo added.
"Artemis!" a fatherly voice called. "Artemis, come over here," Zeus yelled from his throne.
Artemis got up from her position on the floor and put a ribbon in her book to mark its page.
"Yes father?"
Zeus cleared his throat and stroked his goatee that he had insisted on growing because apparently, it was "macho".
"This is Orion the hunter. He has committed many great deeds on Earth, so I have considered giving him immortality," he explained.
"Hi…" Artemis said trailing her words. After all, it wasn't every day that her father invited a mortal up to Olympus to be given immortality (apart from Hercules because that was a very special case).
Orion walked down the steps to Artemis and kissed her hand.
"You're so beautiful, that even the sun and moons in the sky cannot compare," he wooed before giving her an alluring wink.
Artemis flushed tomato red and swatted his face away.
"Well that's ironic, because I'm the goddess of the moon and my brother's the god of the sun…" she rambled trying to distract herself. "Wait… are you saying I'm prettier than my brother? And it's weird if you're saying I cannot compare to myself… Because I am me… So I should be fully capable of comparing to myself… Aren't I? Urgh…" Before long, Artemis had created a paradox involving the astral beings, Orion and herself.
"I… Uh… yeah… whatever…" she said after confusing herself.
Zeus' flickered between the hero and one of his many, many daughters.
"A note for Artemis, Orion's a very gifted archer so why don't you take him to the woods to show him your skills?" he suggested, keeping the conversation moving.
"Gifted archer eh?" Artemis said with a twitching eye. No one got away with embarrassing her. No one!
'I'll beat his face off, that'll teach him!' Artemis thought.
A fiery aura encircled the angry goddess and even Zeus was slightly intimidated.
"Uh… I'll leave you two to get acquainted then… Toodles!" he proclaimed before teleporting off to his next Zumba class.
"So…" Artemis said glaring at her latest arch-nemesis.
"So?" he asked with a flicker of hope in his eye.
"Off to the woods then," she yelled storming off back into the Olympian Woods.
"I'd love to see what kind of things a lovely lady such as yourself would do in the woods?" he called out loud enough for her to hear. "Pat the bunnies, sing to the birds?"
Artemis shuddered at his voice, with her hate for him growing every second and walked even faster.
So…How'd you like that? Tell me below what you thought about this first chapter. I promise that for this fanfic, I will reply to every single question you have about the story! I'll swear on the River Styx too! ;)
See you next time~
