II.

Artetris continued wandering the forest path silence. Normally, she'd hunt the rabbits for kicks and play. Or she'd put the stray beaver out of its misery and then, after harvesting the meat and the fur, bury the bones to pay homage to their lives helping her to sustain her own. One was all, and all was one, after all. However, for once the urge to hunt eluded her completely, for her mind and thought processes were overwhelmed with questions and frustrations. A darkness threatened her forest home, a darkness she could have prevented had she been there, had she known.

The tree nymphs around her all grew mournfully silent at her lack of reply to their celebration and praise. She searched for their hidden foes but not because she enjoyed it. She simply had to now that she was there.

Several days had passed since the excursion with Betty, since the conversation with the forest nymphs that had followed and kept her behind. After meeting Betty at dawn, as agreed, they had ventured out there to her old neck of the woods and her old tree friends for their lesson. In that time, she taught Betty of the power of magic found within nature and the lands while explaining to her why they were so strong and dangerous. Whether Betty had listened much, she truly did not know, for the woman's mind seemed focused, madly focused, on some unspoken and specific answer.

As part of the magical demonstration, Artetris had found and merged with an old tree to illustrate transformation magic as well as its dangers and how one could overcome the urge to be as that which one transformed into. In addition, Artetris also spoke to the tree nymphs inside and the twigs, all of which she relayed to the researcher in an effort to raise her awareness of the forest's true life and a need to respect it. Though whether Betty retained such lessons, she could not be sure and, honestly, doubted.

However, Artetris had not told Betty all in their time together. She did not tell Betty of her own personal addressment from tree nymphs to her beyond Huntress Wizard. She did not tell how the nymphs called her "Hyleo" or "Watcher of the Woods and Trees" and pled for her return, mostly because explaining it would have been a pain but also because such address to her meant one thing—the reality and answer to her wonderings she dreaded most and feared.

No one in their cursed nymph world had appeared to replace her.

"You left us…Watcher…" the tree nymphs had told her, much to her pain. "You left us behind, and we've cried for you. Did you not hear us until now? Why? Why?"

Why? Why had no one replaced her as Watcher? Why? She only left them to have that deepest desire granted—to be severed from the Watcher's role and granted her freedom. But her wish had not come to pass. Had she been the openly despondent type, Betty might have quizzed her on what she felt in their time together, but, of course, Artetris had naturally hidden such things from Betty during the endeavor. Only once alone did Artetris express pain and derision at the circumstances that befell her.

"The forest needs you to kill the Arba yaga and her cursed fiends," several tree nymphs had told her over the past few days in her wandering. "Kill the wood witches and drive them from our homes… Please Watcher! Oh please…"

Artetris hated their whining, but she could not ignore the calls of those with no other ears to listen.

"Where might I find her and her kin?" Artetris had asked, but no one had answered. "Well?"

They, then, eventually said to her in return, "They shall simply find you…"

They shall simply find you… Since then, the whole time she hunted she heard those cursed words echo inside her so fiercely that she burned with frustration like fire, so much so that burns would sometimes appear from her thoughts alone. For days, she had been on the hunt for that witch but with no traces and no word from the tree nymphs of how she might find her. A darkness seemed to cloud their thoughts, an evil that wished not to be found.

Artetris looked up to the tree tops as she walked, pondering her next steps, her next moves.

"I should find King," she said aloud to the trees above. They listened. She could feel them freely now, having treaded amongst them in their homes once more, but none dared answer. Their silence bothered her. Was she just talking to herself? "He would know where the Forest Spirit may be found so that I may cons—…"

The tree nymphs finally broke their solemn silence and spoke to her.

"The fowl fey, King, is gone…" the trees whispered to her. "Gone… Gone…"

"Gone?" Artetris responded, stopping.

The word echoed from her lips in shock and disbelief. How was King gone? That antler-horned, feathered beast had lived through wars and more, long before her—or so she had heard from her dad. Her mother had even ridden him to battle on her last hunt to face the cursed white elk, Acteon. So how in the glob's name was King just…gone?

"What do you mean, 'gone'?" she asked them. "Has he died? How…?"

"Murdered!" the trees exclaimed, all crying in grief. "Killed! He was slaughtered, slaughtered in cold blood!"

Artetris' eyes widened in pain.

"You were gone!" another tree cried, and Artetris felt the guilt grow in her. Silence followed, and she narrowed her eyes in frustration at the statement and the sensation that came with it. Why had no one bothered to replace her when she left? Why? "You were gone and he came. The white beast."

White beast?

"Do you mean Acteon?" she asked, thinking of the monstrous white elk that had once haunted the forests until her mother had driven him off. "My mother slayed him with Diana's Judgment before dying. He couldn't be—"

"No," the trees abruptly said in reply. "A bear, a white bear who hunts, murderously hunts. He has slaughtered his own and more. No one…can stand against him. A monstrous animal! The reborn white beast!"

"Such is all we know," others said. "Darkness clouds the forest, young Huntress Wizard, Watcher of the Forest… We know not what they desire us to forget most in their songs…"

"No…" Artetris said, holding her head in anguish and rage. "Why? Why did no one replace me? What happened?"

"No one could," the tree nymphs whispered to her bluntly. "Who could hope to replace the Eve? Watchers are carefully chosen and sent here…but none could come so long as you are the One, the strongest one running. None could come…"

"I see…" Artetris repeated, the sadness welling up within her. "Glob it all…"

Artetris stopped her cries by covering her face and eyes and muffling her chokes. Nothing had changed for her. Her status as the one and only Watcher remained. Though she held back her tears, her breaths sobbed gently while she struggled to recompose herself. What had been the point of leaving and staying in the city if nothing had come of it?

Why did she still have to choose between them—between living forever for the forest or dying for companionship and love? As a Watcher, why could she not have both a bond for the forest and a bond for a love like that between her parents?

To be a Watcher, she knew, meant devoting oneself to Artemis and the forest for the sake of its protection. To be the Watcher meant choosing to abandon love's path in favor of the eternal hunt so that one could serve Artemis for as long as one's strength lasted, a road that could wind forever if one chose to hunt for her and only her in that eternity. As part of that, however, she could never fall in love or marry, especially not with a man, least she become cursed and bound to his mortality. Even if he lived to his eldest days her lifespan would still be considerably shortened, and there would be no turning back from it.

The forest remained silent as Artetris' pain reached them.

"Can I not have that one desire?" she uttered aloud at last. "To love and know a bond like theirs for myself? Why must I choose between forest and mate? Why can't I have him and the forest too?"

"Greedy…" the three nymphs answered. "Greedy child!"

Artetris snorted at them in contempt and sobbed.

Being the Watcher had been the poison that killed her mom. Its curse had condemned her to die quite young. For when her father passed, her mother followed shortly two years thereafter. Remembering pained Artetris deeply.

"Mom…" she muttered, her head hanging in sadness. "I can't… I can't do this… Not like this… I can't stay torn between both wants… Will no one…help me?"

The forest did not answer. Artetris sighed and took deep breaths. She weighed the dilemma against her heart and its flutters and cringes within her chest.

On the one hand, she desired the freedom to love and to find one like her parents' bond more than any treasure or hunt the world could offer.

However…

On the other hand…she also desired to protect the forest as she was meant to, and she could, undeniably, not have both.

Artetris moaned and glared at the dirt in frustration. No one had ever told her of the dangers of wanting and having both…not until finding out the cold, horrible truth from her mother's passing. After her mom died for choosing the path of romance, family, and love against Artemis' will; she, Artetris Huntress Wizard, had chosen to abandon the path of the Watcher completely and the trees she was meant to protect. In hopes that someone would come to replace her and set her free, Artetris had left the forest behind for the city. Only when she could have hopes fulfilled could she pursue the affections of another she craved…

But no one had come to replace her. Nothing had happened. Nothing had changed.

Artetris balled her fists in frustration and anger. Why? Why? Why had no one come? And why had no one told her about the forest's plight sooner? Why had no one fetched her aid when they were in need? The forest needed a Watcher, after all what with witches and reckless magic users running amok. She was its Huntress. At the very least, she should have been told.

Or…perhaps she just had not wanted to hear it.

Artetris inhaled deeply and thought deeply.

What did she truly wish to do?

Return to the city and leave everything behind for good?

No.

She could not return to the city, not now.

The forest needed its Watcher, and she was, sadly, the only one it wanted, the only one Artemis' will, itself, desired. Thus, the forest needed its Huntress Wizard to look after it. It needed her, Artetris Huntress Wizard, daughter of Hylea Huntress and Manevus Wizard and mistress of forest magics and trees. Artetris rose up tall and looked straight ahead towards the other trees in the distance. Was that what she needed too?

She could not yet be certain of what it was she wished. Even so, one thing was certain.

She definitely needed to fix what she had broken by her leaving.

The fowl fey King was gone. A white bear had killed him and more, slaughtered him in cold blood as the trees had said, and that could not go unpunished. Without someone else who could hunt him, she had a duty to pursue the bear and purify his wicked spirit by ending him with her javelins and arrows. She had a duty to run the wood witches from their stolen homes by finding and slaying the tree witch that commanded them.

She would find the bear and kill him. She would strike him down and free the forest of his burden. As a Huntress, with or without Artemis' burden, she needed to do that much for them and for herself.

Her hunt for Huntress Wizard had ended. For now.

She would find them! She would find that witch and that bear, and she would make their spirits fear the name that was Huntress Wizard. She would cleanse the forest of their ilk. Only then could she know for certain the path she desired.

Only then could her path be chosen.

With her mind made up, she hurried off for King's part of the forest for clues.