Chapter 22

A few days passed and Artemis had made no progress in talking to Tinkerbell about the Winter Woods. Instead the animal fairy spent most of her time getting to know her new found brother Terrence and surprisingly, made time to get to know Dash more as well. Unlike Terrence, Dash was a little apprehensive of making conversation with her in public at first, which Artemis couldn't blame him after knowing the stuff he went through in order to be liked among his peers. However, as these past few days have gone by, the fast flyer had made progress by waving at her every time they saw each other.

Now unlike Dash, Terrence was a lot more social with everyone and had a goofy side and was using this side of him to teach his sister the ways of 'Goofing Around', which always resulted in laughter between the two. Getting to know him, was like getting to know the other half of her soul and the animal fairy relished in these moments. In the end though, Artemis knew she couldn't make these moments her primary focus as she still had to find another Hawk Rider who could help her understand what it means to be one.

So early in the morning, Artemis made way to check on Strider before heading over to Tinkerbell's house. The large hawk was waiting for her and welcomed the fairy's soft strokes on its head. After the events of being chased by the crow and meeting the Indian's, Artemis could feel her bond with Strider had become stronger. It was like ever since that day, the two had become one in both mind and spirit. The two could now easily tell what each other was feeling and had become very protective over one another.

As she continued her strokes, Artemis began to hear a whooshing sound in the distance. After the crow incident, she began to take certain noises seriously, and so she turned to see what was the cause of the noise. She couldn't see anything in the distance, and so she flew up a little closer to get a better view. A few seconds passed of nothing and then all of the sudden all she could see was purple as the wind got nocked out of her and she was crashing to the ground.

"Ow!" Artemis groaned and then bumped her head which she was then given the response of "Ow!" as well.

"Dash?" Artemis turned to look and sure enough, she found the fast flyer rubbing his head next to her.

"Why is it whenever we see each other, I'm always ending up in pain?" Dash asked his thoughts out loud.

Quickly looking behind her, she didn't see Strider, and so she asked "What are you doing here?"

"I was making my daily rounds and - Oh my gosh, get down!" He began and then he was pushing Artemis down to the ground.

A loud shriek came behind Artemis and knowing fully well it belonged to Strider, she pushed Dash off her and began the process of calming the protective hawk.

"Artemis what are you doing?!" Dash shouted, watching the animal fairy in disbelief.

"Trying to calm him down! Easy Strider, easy!" Artemis shouted back, grabbing hold of her hawks face, who was looking at the fast flying fairy with aggression in his eyes.

Seeing Strider, Dash came to a startling realization "But that's-!".

"I know." Artemis cut him off, stroking Strider's face which made him begin to calm down. "He's the hawk you and I risked our butt's to stop so long ago, but I promise you he's not really dangerous."

"Oh really, then why is he looking at me like I'm a piece of meat?"

"He's just not used to being around anyone yet, especially to someone who helped injure him in the past. Trust me, I know."

"Injure?"

Artemis sighed as she knew how confusing the situation was to Dash. She just wasn't quite sure how to explain it. However, surprisingly Dash was willing to listen to her story and without meaning to, she realized she also told him about her discovery of being a Hawk Rider.

"I shouldn't have told you that." Artemis mutters, wanting to take back her secret.

"Why?" Dash questions.

"Because I don't know what this will lead to and it might become dangerous."

"If that's the case, then you should still pursue it."

Surprised by this encouragement, Artemis turned to him with a questioning gaze and with seriousness in his own, Dash continued. "Artemis you've lived a life without a purpose or a reason for it. Now you do and even though I've never heard of Hawk Rider's before, I do think that what you told has given me enough clues to indicate that their purpose is an admirable one. Yes it comes with danger, but it will give you a chance to do something in the lines of legendary. I've always known there was something different about you and it wasn't because of your past. You love your talent to the extent that it makes you feel alive and the fact you went off to understand all hawks when no one else would be brave enough to do it, just shows how much you truly care. You've been given a chance to have a higher calling, so don't lose it, otherwise you may regret it."

Silence fell between them and Artemis began to process his words. A few weeks ago, if Dash tried to give her such encouragement, she would have stared in disbelief. However, she now knew this was the real Dash, the one only she was allowed to see and she took his advice to heart.

"So why do you need to go to the Winter Woods?" He questions, snapping her out of her deep thought.

"I need to see if anyone knows about any living Hawk Rider and since Tinkerbell has a sister who lives there, I thought maybe she could take me to meet Periwinkle." Was her answer, eyeing Strider carefully as the hawk still had his intense gaze on the fast flying fairy before them.

"Well if that's the case, then you don't need Tinkerbell to take you, I actually know the snow fairies and I can take you if you want. Also you can try the library there for more information."

Artemis thought about this idea and began to think of it as a good one. Unlike Tinkerbell, Dash knew her secret and it would be good to have someone who knew it to help her go to such lengths to find the truth. In all honesty, she was surprisingly glad he was the first one to know.

"Okay." Was her response.

"Cool, but you may want to put on something warmer before we go." Dash points out, making the animal fairy realize she hadn't put on a coat.

Author's Note: Hey ya'll long time no see. Yeah I know it's been a while since my last update, but a lot of things have been going on lately. I am now working two jobs, going to church, a voluntary leader for a Christian program, and I have decided to pick up on larping. For those of you who don't know what it is, LARP stands for live action role play, which means I am one of those dorks who dresses up in medieval outfits and fighting with foam swords. You can call me weird and I will agree with you, because in reality I am a really weird person. Anyways so yeah lots of stuff going on which means it's going to take a longer time to post new chapters, but don't worry I still plan to continue this story and I have a general layout of how I want it to go. Now I want to thank my new reader and follower HawkRider Wannab for your review, it's great to see there's still people who are interested in this story of mine and I'm not just writing it to an imaginary audience of readers. So yeah, that's pretty much it, I hope you all like this chapter and I shall do my best to fit the next one in my schedule as we are about to enter some crazy stuff. Tootles!