Chapter 13

Apollo flew at a speed that would have gotten him in huge trouble had he been flying the sun. Hermes had caught up with him soon after and gave him the map as to where Artemis' hunt was to take place. Apollo thanked him not before scolding him for not giving it to him earlier. Though Apollo was driving at inconceivable speed, it still took quite a while to reach his destination coming from Ecuador. He finally slowed down around the area where the map showed the cave. He saw a group of satyrs gathered under a circle of trees. After landing his chariot he walked in to their circle. "Hello." He spoke softly as to not raise any alarm.

The satyrs scrambled to their knees. "Lord Apollo!" The eldest spoke. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" Their heads rose to look at him.

Apollo gave a gesture for them to raise and relax. "My sister has gone missing. She was supposed to be hunting around this area. Have any of you seen her?"

The eldest spoke again. "Aye, we have heard. I hate to disappoint you Lord Apollo, but neither we nor any of our kin have seen her."

Apollo sighed and looked down. "Well, thank you anyway." He turned to leave.

"Wait!" A high voice rang. Apollo turned back to see a young satyr step forward. "My uncle said he saw someone enter the cave and not come out. He said they looked like a female, perhaps it was Lady Artemis."

Apollo stepped toward the young satyr. "Where is this cave?" His voice was rising.

"About a mile north of here. There's a big boulder that kind of looks like a bunny by the entrance."

Apollo paused at the odd identifier but ran back to his chariot, leaping in to it and shouting back to the group. "Thank you!" He whipped the reins with such urgency that he was thrown a bit off balance with the quick takeoff. He stayed close to the ground while flying. Soon he saw a boulder that looked as if it had two long ears pulled back. He halted the chariot and jumped out. He studied the boulder for a minute, coming to the conclusion that it did kind of look like a bunny. He then looked around and found the small cave entrance. It was well hidden from plain view, and so small that Apollo had to crouch to enter. Once he was inside he noticed the cave was larger than the entrance would have one believe, and just enough light was let in from the entrance that he could see the entire cave easily. It wasn't very wide, but it was quite long and pretty tall.

He took a step forward and looked at the very end wall of the cave, and froze. A figure was sitting at the far end with their knees against their chest. Slowly and cautiously they rose to their feet, clearly noticing Apollo's presence. Apollo could now see the figure clearly, with its silver outfit now dirty and slightly torn near the ends, and the auburn hair that was precisely pulled back from her face. "Artemis!" Apollo called, his voice echoing against the stone walls.

Artemis looked at him with sad eyes. She gave a breath filled with sorrow before speaking. "Apollo." Apollo broke in to a run to get to her, all the pain of all the time lost coming back and fueling this very action of his. Artemis began to speak again in a louder voice. "Apo-" Before she could finish Apollo was halted, bouncing off an invisible force and landing on the cave floor. Artemis had raised her hands to her mouth, silent tears gathering behind her closed eyelids. Apollo got back up and slowly stepped forward with his arm outstretched in front of him. His hand finally came in contact with the force he had run in to, an invisible wall.

He put both of his hands on the wall. "No." He mumbled. Artemis stepped forward and placed her hand gently on the wall, revealing it to be about an inch thick. Apollo saw her tears falling down her cheeks, her eyes looking in to his. His hands curled in to fists and he began hitting the wall, slamming his fist down on the wall. "No, no, no!" His voice grew louder with each hit against the barrier.

"Apollo it is useless." Artemis spoke softly. She had withdrawn her hand from the barrier. Apollo slammed both his fists against the wall one last time before sliding to his knees and giving a sad laugh.

"But I'm rescuing you this time."

Artemis gave a weak smile and knelt down in front of him. She placed her hand on the wall again over her brother's weakened fist. He opened his fist so their hands were aligned and he looked in to her eyes. Even in this cave they shone like the moonlight. "It looks like there is no rescuing this time, my brother."

Apollo sighed, dropping his head. "This was Hera, wasn't it?"

"I am sent on a hunt by Zeus and end up trapped in a cave; I don't think there can be any other culprit." She looked down, and then back up at Apollo. "You were sent here, weren't you?"

Apollo raised his head to look at her. "Yes. I was told you had gone missing, and obviously I would want to go look for you, so I was told you had gone on a hunt alone around here and came right away." He paused before asking. "How did you get trapped here anyway?"

She gave a small sigh before answering. "Well, as you know, I was sent on a hunt to kill a creature that was apparently causing trouble and supposedly slept in this cave. So, I came in here at night, hoping to kill whatever it was in its sleep. When I entered, the creature was nowhere to be found. Then I heard a noise from the entrance and saw something that looked like a large boar. It roared and I backed up, hoping to get a good view to see where to shoot. My back was then against the wall and the thing charged, but stopped. Then I saw why. This barrier had appeared. The creature hit the barrier a few times before it turned in to a golden dust. I then felt something on my ankle, and this appeared." She brought her ankle forward and he saw that it was chained to the back wall. "I tried everything I could to break the barrier and the chain, but nothing worked." She sat down with her back against the barrier. "It's my fault, I should have seen that this was a trap, but I thought a hunt like this would help."

Apollo looked down at her from the side and could see her eyes closing, fighting the tears. "Help with what, Artemis?"

She opened her eyes. "Help me to get over you." She looked up over her shoulder at him. "I was completely torn apart by losing you, Apollo. I felt as if I was being drowned in a sea of darkness and pain. Nightmares, hunting mistakes, I went through it all."

Apollo sat down, his back on the barrier next to her so they could still see each other's face. He gave a sigh. "So, what now?"

Artemis stared straight ahead at the cave wall. "What do you mean?"

"What do we do now? Does this thing have a time limit or something? A password? Secret handshake? Where do we go from here?" He looked over at her.

She gave a small shrug. "I suppose you could go speak with Hera, though what good it would do I do not know."

"I'm not leaving you." He said. "I'm going to stay with you until you're safe."

Artemis smiled. "You may be here a while then."

Apollo felt the corners of his lips pull. "Then we'd better find something good to talk about. I suppose rock paper scissors is always an option too."

She laughed and put her head on her hand. "I know something."

"What?"

"In your letter, you referenced a song. I am unfamiliar with modern music, what exactly was that song?"

Apollo smiled. "You mean you don't know who Bruno Mars is?" She shook her head. "Well, the song was Talking to the Moon. It really captured the emotion of our situation."

She lifted her head. "It sounds like he is a great artist."

"Well he should be he's my son." He grinned, and Artemis rolled her eyes. "Would you like to hear the song?"

"Sure." She expected him to just pull out his iPod and play it, but what really happened was much more.

A lyre materialized in Apollo's hand and he scooted to sit facing her. She turned herself so she could see him as he began to pluck the strings. She noticed that rather than the usual sound a normal lyre makes, this sounded like a cross of a piano and an acoustic guitar. Apollo then opened his mouth, taking in a breath and began to sing in a voice that over millennia Artemis had never heard an equal.

Artemis sat in silence as she listened to her brother sing and strum. It was beautiful. The lyrics were very poetic, she could see why he chose it for her. She was breathing as little as possible as to not disrupt the beauty.

Apollo finished his strumming and the lyre vanished from his hands. Artemis had tears streaming down both cheeks, having given up on wiping them away. She smiled. "I… I love it, Apollo."

Apollo smiled. "Really?"

"Yes." She moved closer to the barrier, against the protests of her chained ankle. Apollo did the same. Apollo raised his hand to the barrier, Artemis putting hers over his, and they sat like this, staring in to each other's eyes. Hers like silver moonlight, his like golden rays of sunshine. They sat here, wet cheeked, in silence, for what felt like hours.