INDURATIZE | HUNTRESS | WC: 941
"Shit," Althea hissed as her foot tangled in the undergrowth, hacking at the weeds with a knife. "Fuck, gods, why—" she cut off with a garbled noise, yanking her foot violently out of the weeds. The ground spun as she stood quickly, and she paused to let it settle, one hand resting on a tree. She took the moment to rest her forehead gently against the trunk, listening to the movement of the trees.
"Sorry," Althea apologized to the tree. "I'm having a hard day. Lady Artemis stopped sending me out on solo-missions a couple centuries back after I— well, I was kinda dumb about it. I guess I wasn't quite prepared this time either. I don't suppose you could help me out?" she asked the trees, closing her eyes to listen to their quiet groans. She wasn't nearly as good as Zöe and the others at asking things from the trees, and she was even worse at interpreting their responses.
"Yeah, no fucking clue what that means," Althea muttered to herself, taking her hand off the trunk and marching forward into the brush. Even while hacking at the vines and branches and kicking bushes out of the way, she couldn't make it particularly far, and she could swear the undergrowth kept getting thicker and growing back. "Gods damn it. Nevermind then. I'll fucking— what the hell, I hate this— fuck!"
Something wrapped around her leg and pulled, yanking her upside down into the air. She cried out again when her backpack and quiver slipped down, choking her uncomfortably and twisting into just the wrong position for her to grab anything but the knife she was already holding. She spun like that for two revolutions, one ankle pulled high from the cord and the other kicking blindly in the air.
"Here I thought you huntresses were supposed to be intelligent," someone commented from behind her, voice deep and unmistakably male. Althea scowled. "Not to mention that mouth on you, when were you even born?"
"Let me go, male!" Althea demanded.
"You want me to get closer to you when you've got a knife and are flailing around like that? Absolutely not, I don't want to get stabbed today," the male said.
"Lady Artemis will—"
"Please, don't finish that. I'm not going to do anything to you, you wouldn't even be in that situation if it weren't for your own bullheadedness," the male complained. "What do you think increasingly thick undergrowth means if not 'back off, don't go this way?' Like really, huntress, this is all your fault. Now unless you calm down, I'm just going to wait here until you pass out to cut you down."
"Never! You're a male, you'll— you'll—"
"What will I do? Maybe, a decade ago, I would have killed you for trespassing or had some fun harassing you, but I've turned a new leaf!" The male praised himself. Of course he was egoistical, all men were. "Ugh, Sally would be disappointed if she heard me say that. Hell, I'm embarrassed I said that. Goddamn, is this what personal growth is?"
"Personal growth is letting me down!" Althea demanded.
"That question was rhetorical, woman. You've still got a knife and still look like you're going to go feral if I so much as look at you, I'm not letting you down," the male disagreed. "Look, you're in the wrong here. You trespassed and destroyed my property, your lady has done worse to people for less serious transgressions than string them up by their ankles. I feel like waiting for you to calm down before letting you go without so much as a punishment is entirely fair."
"Lady Artemis was entirely justified—"
"And I'm not? You trespassed. Huntress. This isn't Greek territory anymore. I'm Tuatha de Danann descended and irritated to boot —I can't believe I said that— point being, I'm fae. Not mortal. Not Greek. This entire forest reeks of supernaturalness, it's clearly not Kansas anymore," the male said idiotically.
"This is Canada, and that's not a word," Althea criticized.
"Really not going to throw me a line, okay, that's fine. You know what? I'll just… hm…" Althea heard him walk further away and heard the quiet whisper of a weapon being pulled from its sheath.
"No! Don't you— agh!" Althea's head was first to hit the ground as the rope holding her up was cut, and she twisted and did her best to jump to her feet, only managing to tangle her feet in the brush and her gear and fall flat on her back.
"Run back home to Artemis, little huntress, and don't come back or I'll actually hit you next time," the male muttered, beginning to trek back through the undergrowth.
"Wait! How do I get out of here?"
"Seriously? Fine, get up," the male barely waited for her to stand before he pointed down the way she'd come. "Turn around, follow the mess of a trail you created, and once you get to the end of the really thick growth, turn left and follow around the border until you get to a road. Turn right there and keep walking and it'll take you to the nearest town, which is about… maybe 4 or 5 miles a walk. Chrissakes, Sally better make me cookies for this, I'm never helping anyone ever again."
"Who's Sally?"
"A friend and a less obnoxious woman than you," the male insulted Althea. "She's actually wonderful. Now fuck off, seriously. I've been suppressing the urge to just kill you and nothing you say makes me want to less. Seriously, what the hell, why did it have to be a huntress?"
a/n: originally had more sally, but then it didn't. so instead it's just someone learning from her and being a better person for it.