Orion's Story: The Descent

I am the youngest of 5 children, children of the god and mortal goddess of the night, Lord King Nuit Night and Goddess Queen Luna Diana. My father and my uncle, Jud Day, fought over the sky and earth constantly. When my uncle killed my mother's parents, my remaining grandfather, King Epsilion, decided to make a compromise with my mad uncle. He said to stop the war he would place an Astra, a fallen star, on earth to make the decision for us. He proposed that the Astra would chose which side would own the sky, and one child of my uncle's and my father's would be sent down to earth to attempt to woo her, I was the one chosen.

When I turned 19, I was tossed down to earth to Athens, Greece quicker then I could protest. Once on earth I found that Cornelio had adopted the name Apollo, and was almost instantly named a god. He lived a life of luxury while I was left alone to fend for myself. I lived alone and hungry as one of the poor for a year before I decided to do something. I was only 20, with absolutely no talents, and I was forced to pick up a trade. I learned metalworking. Not too long afterwords I became an apprentice, I opened my own Smithy shop. I worked over the burning flame and hammered pieces of molting metal into lethal weapons. My specialties were fighting swords and arrows that the nobles would request at high rates. I made a good living, and I liked the feeling of taking my life into my own hands. Apollo soon left Athens to live in Troy at his newly built temple, while I remained in Athens and lived my life as it was, and I lived there in Athens three more years before I met the pre-picked Astra, Astra Artemis.

The First Astra

Artemis was beautiful; from her ivory skin, dark brown eyes, dark blond hair, all the way down to her wonderful personality. She was smart, witty, and graceful; she was perfect and everyone loved her. It took Apollo a year to return from Troy to find Artemis, and he instantly attempted to win Artemis' heart, and grew quite close to her. They became inseparable, like brother and sister, and where she went he went. And despite my parents prodding, I didn't woo Artemis. One rainy day about a year after Artemis arrived, in walked a hooded woman soaked to the bone. I stopped working on Twigh and wiped my brow of sweat.

"Smithy, I need some assistance," her voice was like music to my ears, and I didn't look up at her until I had placed Twigh, my most recent project, on the pegs on the wall. "I wonder if you do custom orders?"

"Depends on how custom," I answered, still not looking at her.

" I need 50 arrows for the hunting contest. Do you know the one? It's in a weeks time," she said as she walked farther into my smithy.

"Yes, I know the one. I am in it too, " I answered. I looked from the wall to the woman and almost lost my breath as her beautiful ivory hand gracefully pulled her damp hood from her head. As her dark blond hair curled and tumbled down her back, I knew instantly it was Artemis. I looked around her, to see if my cousin was right behind her, and I was surprised that he wasn't. I had recently heard that Artemis had joined Apollo and had been named a goddess. For a girl so filled with beauty and wisdom, there was no other explanation for her perfection. I had heard, she became the virgin huntress of the moon.

"How may I be of service, my goddess?" I asked as I bowed. I looked up and watched as she rolled her eyes and walked to me. No, she didn't walk; she floated.

"It's Orion, right?" she asked kindly as she looked at me, a slight hint of wonder filled her eyes. I couldn't speak, I only nodded. She smiled as she took a crumbled wet piece of paper from her cloak and handed it to me "Again, I need 50 arrows of this design in a weeks time," she said, "Can you handle it?" I looked over the print, true it was an elaborate design, but I knew I could handle it.

"Sure I can handle it," I looked it over again, and I noticed the designs had slight flaws, most that would slow the arrow, others would make it fly on a slight curve. At first I thought that maybe I should fix them. "I'll be sure not to faulty them for you," I said in a pleasingly calm manner as I looked up into her gaze. She was so beautiful, and with each beat of my heart I felt the adoration that was born in me grow; I was so afraid she would see it in my eyes with her deep gaze.

She smiled softly, "Best not anger the goddess, smithy," she said amused and I watched as she floated out my door. I stood there, confused at the way I wanted to show off, and I quickly went to work on her arrows. I tweaked them, made them quicker, stronger; accurate…I made them perfect.

In a weeks' time I had finished 50 of them as promised, and I waited eagerly in my smithy for Artemis to collect them. I tried to occupy myself with small tasks, but nothing could distract me long enough. Finally she arrived, and she inspected each of the arrows carefully. I noticed each small smile when she saw my little improvements. I waited for her to speak, only to smile when she scoffed politely.

"My dear, Orion, you obviously wish me to win," She smiled as she placed the perfect arrows in her pack. I had never been so proud of myself in my life. "How am I to pay you? How much?" she asked as she searched for her purse in her tunic. I realized then that I didn't want her money; I loved her, and I wanted her love in return. As she offered me prices, relatively high ones, I had a better idea.

"My goddess, take them as a gift, from a humble admirer," I said with a bow.

"Why, how kind of you, thank you, Orion," she said with a small laugh. I stood and watched as she turned to leave, but my heart almost stopped beating as I watched her turn.

"By the way, just call me Artemis, " she said softly. "I'll see you at the contest," and as she had before, she floated from my smithy and out the door. I gazed at her in admiration as I let my heart slow back to its normal beat from its elevated state. I loved her, and that terrified me. She became my one weakness.

The next day was the contest, and before it began, Artemis tapped my shoulder with her beautiful hand and said softly "Orion, good luck"

"Don't be sore if I beat you, Goddess," I said with a smile. She went to answer but Apollo wedged between us and lightly kissed her. I watched her face twist in slight discomfort.

"Good luck," he said, she looked at him with a weak smile. I noticed the tension between them flare, and before I could mention anything, the horn blared to begin the contest; in the end, after all our work, and every dodge and shot, Artemis and I tied.

"There is no prize for ties," The judge said. I watched Artemis' face fall as she walked to the prize, a beautiful new horse. I didn't need a horse, and by the looks of Artemis' disappointment, I knew what I had to do. I walked up to the judge and whispered in his ear.

"Judge," I started.

"Yes, Orion?" he asked weakly. "Please don't make this hard on me,"

"I forfeit," I said. The judge looked at me confused, then to Artemis and watched her affectionately hug and pet the horse.

"Well, if that's what you want," he said, "Are you sure?" I nodded, and with a sigh of relief the Judge smiled.

"Thanks Judge," I said softly, and I started off the field. And as I left, I heard the judge call out my choice.

"Orion chose to forfeit. Artemis you win the contest, the horse is yours," I turned around for one moment to look back at the scene I left behind, only to see Artemis. She was happily petting the horse, looking about her to find me. She was quickly surrounded by her worshipers, and in the last few moments that I saw her face; her eyes locked on mine, and she gave me a soft smile and mouthed the words 'Thank You'.

Later that night I was finishing my sword Twigh in my smithy, another late night, when my door opened. I looked up and almost dropped Twigh in the flameswhen Artemis walked in and sat down at my dinner table. I burned myself as I went to put my sword down and wipe my hands on my apron. I slowly walked toward her, her expression was unreadable, and all I could do was guess.

"May I help you, Goddess?" I said with a quick bow. I couldn't believe my voice was so calm while my heart beat so fast. She gave her soft half smile as she looked up at me from under her light blue cloak. "Do you want me to take your cloak?"

"I came by to thank you, Orion," She said. "You left before I could thank you properly,"

"You're welcome, Goddess," I answered as I went to my water pot and splashed water in my face.

"It's Artemis," She corrected. I turned to look at her. "Please call me Artemis," She stood and started toward me. "No one has done such a nice thing for me before," I started to get nervous and started to babble.

"You get weekly offerings and ceremonies…you are going to get a temple like Athena's, surely a horse isn't that important.

"Orion, they do that because they want me to do things for them, they want immortality, they pray to me only to get what I can't give them," she now stood a food in front of me, " they do those things because they fear me, because they are supposed to. They may say I am a goddess, but I am no more immortal then you are," she said. I had thought that ironic, for here I was a god on earth, while this girl was merely a human given the title, and she spoke to me as if it where the other way around. But when she looked down at the dagger on my table, I slowly hesitated. I couldn't tell what she was thinking, was she going to do something terrible.

"Goddess-"

"Watch," she interrupted as her expression became once again unreadable, and she slowly took a dagger from my dinner table. I flinched to get the dagger back, only to watched confused as she simply sliced her finger. The blood from the slice slowly dripped from the wound, "You see?" I held my breath as she looked down at her finger. The smell of blood filled my lungs, it was strange to still have that power, yet my godly ability to remain calm while a woman stood near me was gone with the grains of sand in the hour glass.

"What do you want me to see?" I forced; she lifted her finger to me.

"I am bleeding. No immortal, no goddess bleeds," she stated. I knew full well that we gods could bleed, but she had a point. Here on Earth, Gods are Gods, Humans are Humans, and if they are different, then a god must be everything a human is not. Which means if humans bleed, the gods don't? I slowly took her hand in mine.

"Here, Artemis. If you leave it like that it could get infected," I said as I ripped a piece of cloth from the clean clothes on the table. "Stay still, I'll wrap it. It should feel better in a little," I told her as I tied the small cloth around her finger. She only gazed up at me, and I couldn't help but gaze back. "What?" I stammered.

"I was just wondering, why have I never seen you before?" she asked.

"I am not that much of a man to remember," I answered with a shrug, but I knew the real reason. Apollo wanted to keep Artemis as far away from me as possible. Her eyes smiled when her lips could not, I was trapped, and I couldn't look away.

"No, it's not that. You're an amazingly talented man, you're nice and…you're beautiful," she sighed as her now bandaged hand slowly caressed my cheek.

"What?" here I was all sweaty and smelly and Artemis, the beautiful nymph, called me beautiful. I faltered. "I…ah, I'm a man, a man can't be beautiful," She laughed softly as she smiled her beautiful smile, her fingers tracing paths down my neck as her hand landed lightly on my shoulder.

"Well then, you're handsome," she looked into my eyes, a sudden seriousness in her face. "How could I have missed your beautiful blue eyes?" She blushed lightly and coughed awkwardly as she took her hand and flexed her wrapped finger.

"My eyes?" I tried to keep my voice calm, to control myself, while I only wanted to take her in my arms. She looked at me in awe, as I grew bolder and took a step closer to her. I now loomed over her, and we were inches apart. "You're eyes enchanted me the first time I saw you," She smiled as she gently placed her hands on my chest, as if to push me away, but she paused and let them brush against my skin. My heart was pounding so fast I knew she could hear it; and with her hands on my chest, I knew she could feel it too. It was all I wanted, Artemis in my arms, and she let her arms snake around my neck. Her fingers laced in my hair, my arms wrapped about her waist, I looked down at her in my arms; how had we gotten here. She brushed her nose against mine, her skin smelled like olive blossoms, and we stood there barely rocking back and forth in each others arms. Finally Artemis kissed my chin and broke the awkward silence.

"Orion," she whispered into my ear. "I want you to kiss me," I hesitated, I was afraid just how much I wanted her, wanted to kiss her, and the fact that Apollo would stop at nothing to kill me if I did frightened me even more.

"Artemis, I really want to, but Apollo,"

"Forget about him, he's nothing to me," she answered her voice low and breathy. I didn't kiss her, at least until she reached up toward me and bit my lower lip, by then I had lost control and took her lips with mine.