1/
It isn't easy, being one of us.
Most of the time it gets us killed in horrible, painful, gross ways. Honestly, we spend a good chunk of our lives trying to survive the dangerous, crazy things that get in our way. Try not to worry. If you're lucky, then you're a completely normal mortal.
But if you are one of us, I can't tell you anything about our lives, as you could end up finding out who you are. And one that happens, your innocent 'mortal' life will end. Permanently.
I guess I could tell you one thing. A warning: if you sense something familiar in what I'm telling you, if you feel like you know what I mean, I suggest you stop reading, close these, and never look back. At least then you can enjoy your life for a few more months, give or take. But if you're willing to face this head on, right here, right now, if you're ready to subject yourself to the truth, then keep reading. I'm breaking a lot of rules by doing this, so you have to promise me: as soon as you're done, run. Fast. Hopefully you'll know everything there is to tell.
Or, at least you'll think you do.
I gritted my teeth and opened my eyes. I was hanging onto a piece of driftwood. I looked around, exhausted. Pieces of the boat were floating around me. I saw no one.
A splintered, but solid door floated by and I used the last remnant of my strength to heave myself onto it.
After hours at sea, my raft slid to a stop and I lifted my head. I was on a beach. I dragged myself out of the water, too weak to do anymore. I heard whooping and running feet but I couldn't make my body move. A strange and beautiful woman leaned over me. She murmured something to someone behind her, but I didn't hear her. I had already slipped away.
I woke up with a wooden spoon against my lips. I opened my mouth and I tasted chocolate. I sat up and gulped it down. Someone laughed and my eyes opened. A young girl, around fifteen years old, was holding the spoon in front of me. Her straight blond hair fell around her face and her blue eyes were merry. I grabbed for the spoon and she laughed again, holding it out of my reach. I looked around.
The girl and I were sitting in a clearing in the woods. There were tents scattered everywhere. Other girls sat around stringing bows and sharpening knives.
"I am Bianca," the girl said. "Who are you?"
"Alice," I said weakly. Bianca nodded thoughtfully. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but then suddenly everyone stood and faced the east side of the clearing. The strange woman I had seen walked in. Everyone bowed. I scrambled to my feet and followed their example a little late. The woman laughed at my clumsiness and came over to Bianca and me.
"This is the half-blood?" she asked Bianca.
Half-blood? I thought. But even though I wondered what she was talking about, I felt as if I already know, or should know.
"Yes, my lady," Bianca bowed her head. The woman was young, though older than most of the girls here: maybe about twenty. She was encased in a haze of silver, and she wore a lunate silver crown in her dark hair. Her tunic and skirt seemed to be woven from moonlight. A great silver bow was slung over her shoulder, an ivory quiver strapped to her back.
She beckoned behind her and several of the girls brought forth two chairs, one more elaborate than the other. They shot me an evil look before scurrying back to their work. The woman sat in front of me and motioned me to sit as well. I sat.
"Who are you?" The question burst out of my mouth without my permission and I felt my face redden.
She laughed. "I am Artemis." The answer struck me and floated around in my brain. Artemis, goddess of the Hunt? Like in Greek myths?
The…goddess nodded like she could read my mind.
"Where am I?" The wood around us looked unfamiliar.
"I believe we are in Oregon."
I blinked. I was completely confused.
The woman smiled wider. "Child, you are a half-blood. You are fifteen, yes? I'm quite surprised they haven't found you yet."
"What? I'm a half-blood?"
"Yes, child, but we have no idea who your father or mother might be." My head wheeled. "How we will find out, well your godly parent will have to tell us," Artemis went on.
Suddenly my left arm burned. I clapped my hand to my arm.
Artemis' eyebrows wrinkled up. "What is it, child?"
"My arm," I spoke through my teeth. "It burns."
Ever since birth, I'd had a perfect, trident-shaped birthmark on my left forearm. My mother had been terrified of my reputation if others saw it, and had taken great lengths to cover it with alternating powders and creams.
I looked back up and saw Artemis' face relax as she studied the mark. "Well, Alice, it seems now we know. You are a daughter of Poseidon."
As soon as Artemis had explained who I was, she offered me a position as one of her Hunters. I thought for a minute then accepted. I didn't want to go back to my life of boredom. When I told her I would join, my body seemed to glow and I felt stronger. Better. Artemis told me that it was the immortality.
Bianca and her friend Eleanor dressed me like themselves. They cleaned my face roughly and picked the thistles and seaweed out of my hair. I was given a quiver full of razor sharp silver arrows, a silver sword, and a bow. Bianca explained that since the weapons were magic, they would repair themselves and return to the owner if lost.
Bianca and Eleanor, who shared one of the silver tents, offered a space for me. I happily accepted, glad I fit in so easily.
It was my third week in the service of Artemis, and Bianca and Eleanor woke me. "Do you want to practice archery?" Bianca asked me.
I nodded, rubbed my eyes, and jumped up, hurrying after them. Bianca went first. Eleanor and I sat nearby and sharpened our arrowheads. "The first rule of being a Hunter," Eleanor said in a low voice. "Never break thine oath to Artemis."
"What's the second?" I asked.
"Never touch a fellow Hunter's bow," she answered.
I barely had a chance to smile before a girl I'd never seen before ran into the clearing where we were set up. She was clearly a Hunter. But she wore her hair loose, with a silver diadem set delicately on her head. The crown was interestingly made: a circle of intricately woven silver, coming to a slight point resting on the wearer's forehead, set with a blazing white pearl.
"Who is that?" I murmured to Eleanor.
"'Tis Petronilla," Eleanor whispered back, "my sister. She is the first lieutenant of Artemis. When she speaks, be sure to listen. And do not draw her attention."
"She looks…peculiar," I noted quietly.
"Petronilla is eight hundred and seventy four years old," said Eleanor.
"Does that mean everyone here is someone famous?" I asked.
Eleanor was quiet for a moment. "Yes," she said.
"Petra! Petra!"
All Hunters within hearing stiffened at the sound of the voice: it was a man's.
I instinctively jumped to my feet and notched an arrow in the direction of the voice, and saw all other Hunters had done the same. I shot a glance toward the 'lieutenant' Petronilla; her face was pale and tight.
A man—boy, I should say—dashed into the clearing and threw his arms around Petronilla, completely unaware of the arrows aimed at his chest. The boy suddenly noticed what was occurring around him and froze.
Artemis rose from her throne and flicked her finger. I knew what the motion meant and reacted quickly; pulling out a small crossbow, I shot a poisoned dart into the boy's neck. He fell to the ground at Petronilla's feet. "No!" she shrieked, sinking to her knees.
"How. Dare. You." Artemis's voice made me tremble, even though it wasn't intended for me. "You swore an oath to me, Petronilla."
She seemed to shrink before the knife-like eyes of the goddess. Artemis liked to keep herself in the shape of a young woman, about five feet five inches tall. But she grew taller and taller until she was over twenty feet high, looming over Petronilla. "Petronilla of Aquitaine, you are here forth stripped of your position as lieutenant and as a Hunter in my service."
"No!" Artemis's victim cried.
"To have a heart of stone than stone you shall be!"
Suddenly the lifeless boy in the dirt began to turn gray and stiff. The lieutenant of Artemis realized what would occur, and she threw herself across the body of the boy, sobbing. Petronilla's copper skin began to gray, until she too, had turned to stone.
The hardened figure looked beautiful, in an awful way; Petronilla held the boy in one arm, the other raised dramatically toward the sky. I realized that the marks on the statue's face were tears—the stone Petronilla still cried.
"Back to your tents!" Artemis barked. "Alice! Come here!"
I shot a fearful look toward Eleanor and Bianca as they went by, but I obeyed the wishes of Artemis and knelt before her. She went over to stone Petronilla and removed the silver circlet from her head.
"Alice," Artemis said. "Do you swear to turn away the embrace of men?"
"Yes, my lady," I murmured.
"Do you swear to turn your back on the company of mortals?"
"Yes, my lady."
"And do you swear to keep to me and the Hunters unless I say otherwise?"
"Of course, my lady."
"Then I bestow upon you the honor of the Lieutenant of Artemis," the goddess announced, and she placed the elegant circlet on my head. Then she pulled out my braid.
I bowed my head in respect and backed into my tent. Bianca was asleep on her sleeping pad, her blond hair loosened from its braid. Eleanor was awake, however, and her eyes went straight to my head. They widened.
A roar emitted from the forest and the Hunters burst from their tents. One of them let out a whoop and everyone charged in the direction of the monster's voice. I stayed behind, stunned for a moment before running after them.
A large group of hounds was attacking the Hunters. Well, they looked like hounds, sort of. They had dark coats, red eyes, dripping fangs, and…six legs. My eyes popped as one noticed me standing there and made a beeline for my head. Several silver arrows burst forth from its chest and the monster fell at my feet.
"Move!" Bianca hissed at me, jumping on top of the hound-thing and ripping out her arrows. I don't know what came over me; my hands found the bow and arrows on my back and shot a thin silver arrow straight into one of the monster's eyes. It burst into flames and screeched as it sank into the ground.
Bianca stared at me with wide eyes. "What is that?" I spat at her, ignoring her expression.
"A hellhound. Controlled by Hecate. These are one of her last." One of the…hellhounds saw Bianca distracted and prepared to jump on her. One of my arrows sprouted from its throat and it dissolved like the first one with a bloodcurdling scream.
Bianca was alert all of a sudden and we continued to destroy hellhounds. When the last monster fell and caught on fire, the Hunters whooped (me included). Suddenly a shimmering figure with three heads appeared above the trees and Bianca gasped quietly.
The woman wore a cobra around her waist, and only one of her heads was human. The other two were a horse and violent-looking dog.
Artemis scowled at the three-headed woman floating in the sky and viciously tore an arrow out of a tree trunk. "Hecate," she growled.
Hecate did not smile. Her human head grimaced at the spot where the last of her monsters had died.
"You do not want a goddess like me against you, Lady of the Hunt." Her voice was like a snake's.
"What goddess?" Artemis hissed. "All I see is a three-headed she-demon!"
Hecate snarled. She glanced at me for a moment, then did a double-take, her red irises widening. She controlled her expression quickly; it was gone as suddenly as it had come. She turned back to Artemis.
"You have been warned, Daughter of Zeus." And with that, Hecate and her three heads disappeared.
The Hunters were frozen to their spots, murmuring in fear. Artemis's expression was angry, still glaring at the spot where Hecate had been. She turned toward us, her face tight, and told us to go back to the campsite.
Bianca and Eleanor were already sitting inside when I entered, surprisingly, unbraiding their hair.
"Today is our free day," Bianca told me, her blue eyes sparkling. I must've looked confused, so she turned me around and started combing my hair. I wore it loose now, as was the custom. "The reindeer that drive Artemis's moon chariot know how to do it themselves, but every full moon Artemis rides it across the sky herself. When she does, we get a day off to do whatever we want."
We grinned in unison and ran outside. The girls had already scattered. Some skipped off to the stream to bathe, or go for a walk, or hunt some small game. I loved the water, and convinced Bianca to come to the stream. I finally felt at home, and I relaxed.
The years passed without my notice. I never aged a day, and neither did Bianca or Eleanor. Artemis moved our camp often; we went from state to state. Not that we Hunters cared. We were happy just to be near our goddess. One morning it was our monthly free day and Bianca and I were glad to have it.
We were in the river early, and we took longer than usual, our peals of laughter filling the forest. We splashed each other with water and swam up and down the river. I swam back and watched Bianca have a splash-fight with Eleanor.
Lady Artemis called me back. Bianca and Eleanor exchanged a look but continued to our tent. Artemis didn't mention the deer/man. "Alice, the winter solstice is approaching, and the gods are gathering for their yearly Council. I need you there with me. Will you come?"
I blinked, surprised. "Of course, my Lady. Your wish is my command." The goddess smiled widely. She dismissed me with a wave of her hand and I walked to my tent, where Bianca and Eleanor were waiting for me.
When I entered, they helped me brush my hair and change my clothes. "Bianca, when is the winter solstice?"
She looked at me funny. "A few days from now. Why? What are you planning on the winter solstice?"
"Uhh…I have to go to Olympus for the Council of the Gods with Lady Artemis." Bianca's eyes widened, but she didn't say anything, so we lay down on our bed pads and fell asleep.