Daphnae fired off 3 arrows consecutively, each one landing right in the middle of the targets set up in front of her.

"You never seem to listen," Daphnae looked towards the speaker and found Artemis leaning against a tree nearby. "Your archery skills have no need for practice. Your footwork during close combat, however, requires the opposite."

Daphnae laughed as she faced the goddess, slinging her bow over her shoulder as she did.

"Why would I need footwork when I can simply kill my enemies from afar?" Daphnae walked towards the goddess and sat down in front of her. Artemis looked at her before chuckling and following her lead, sitting down with her back against the tree.

"Sometimes I wonder if you forget I'm an Olympian." Artemis spoke as she closed her eyes, taking in the nature all around her.

"I consider you more my aunt than my patron." Daphnae replied almost teasingly. "Though you might as well be my mater at this point, seeing how I'm part of the Daughters of Artemis."

Artemis huffed in mock annoyance and their banter ended, silence now enveloping the two.

Daphnae was the one to break the silence, and she swallowed some saliva nervously before she opened her mouth to speak.

"My visions have been more vivid recently."

Artemis' eyes opened and she looked at her niece with worry clear in her eyes. "What have you seen?"

Daphnae shut her eyes as she tried to recall the visions she had seen in the past few days. "They all follow a single man, fighting most of the time, always alone." Daphnae bit her lower lip and unbeknownst to her a single tear drop rolled down her cheek, something Artemis noticed but didn't point out. "And I don't know why, but every time I see him there's this aching pain in my heart that doesn't fade even after I wake up."

"Is there anything you recognize in your visions?" Artemis questioned, trying to make sense of Daphnae's visions. "The man himself, perhaps? Or maybe his opponents, or the battlefield they fight on?"

Daphnae shook her head. "I do not recognize anything in my visions, though the man's foes sometimes do not look Greek."

Frowning, the goddess processed the information. "The man himself is Greek?" Artemis asked after a brief few seconds of thinking. Daphnae nodded hesitantly. "I have seen him use a xiphos, so I would assume so, but I have yet to see his face clearly."

"I cannot say for sure, though I think it is likely what you are seeing is an omen of the future. Perhaps Greece will have to fight off invaders of some sort, hence why some of the man's opponents are foreign." Daphnae seemed to have accepted her patron's answer and sat in silence.

"Daphnae! The captain of the ship says there is a storm in the stretch of sea between Melos and Delos, and he wants to depart early to try to arrive before it gets too bad!" A female voice called out to the two girls under the tree. Both of them stood up and prepared to leave, but Artemis grabbed Daphnae's arm to stop her. Daphnae looked at the goddess in confusion, but Artemis didn't explain herself, merely reaching out with one hand to cup Daphnae's cheek.

"Do not let your visions burden you, Daphnae," Artemis said softly. "You are the strongest child of my brother that I have ever seen, and you are the only one I know of that inherited his powers of prophecy. No matter what you see in your visions, be sure of the fact that everything will be well in the end; I will make sure of it. Now go. I will meet you and your sisters back home on Delos."

Daphnae, empowered by her patron's words, smiled and nodded confidently, her sad demeanor now completely gone. Artemis watched as Daphnae jogged off until she could no longer see the girl anymore before disappearing in a bright flash of light.

Daphnae made the horrible decision to sleep on the ship. The moment she let go of her consciousness, she felt her powers of prophecy that she usually kept a tight lid on start to go out of control.

She found herself on a snowy mountain, an uncommon sight in Greece. A man, the one her visions usually followed, Daphnae assumed, trudged through the thick snow and stopped when he arrived at a cliff. She tried calling out to the man, but no voice came out just like the many times she had tried before. Noticing that the man had his attention on the view below them, Daphnae followed his gaze and gasped when she saw thousands of people gathered near the coast with hundreds of ships of an unfamiliar make, anchored near the shore.

Was this the start of an invasion, just as Artemis had said earlier? Daphnae attempted to force herself to wake up, but nothing she did seemed to work.

"And so the Great Summer Army starts to move," A deep masculine voice behind them said with a hint of amusement. Daphnae didn't recognize the language the man spoke, yet she somehow understood the man's words. "Does the Destroyer, the skorungr of Asgard not intend to join them?"

"They have a perfectly good home here, I still do not understand why they want to move east." The 'Destroyer' replied, his voice steely cold. Daphnae looked at the other man, noting that he looked nothing like any Greek she had ever seen. While the 'Destroyer' was slightly taller than the men she usually saw in Greece, the other man dwarfed the 'Destroyer' in every way. His muscles were bulging and long, untamed red hair rolled down to his shoulders. The clothing he wore was unfamiliar to Daphnae, and while there were symbols etched into his belt, she could not make any sense of them.

"You know how we are; when there is gold and glory to be earned, all will answer the call." The large man laughed. He then adopted a more serious expression as he looked at the 'Destroyer'. "Home is a fickle thing, you know."

Those words seemed to have a strong effect on the 'Destroyer', as Daphnae could tell he froze up.

"How would you know?" The Destroyer whipped around to face Daphnae and the large man, his tone dripping with aggression. That was the first time Daphnae ever saw the man in her visions clearly and her breath hitched when she realized how much he resembled her. There was one stark difference though; where Daphnae had warm yellow eyes, his eyes were a vibrant shade of sea green.

Daphnae gasped as she sat up, now freed from her vision. Her sisters looked at her worriedly, but Daphnae smiled at them to dissuade their concerns. She then took her knife out and stared at her reflection in the silver blade. Her resemblance with the 'Destroyer' was clear. Were her visions following an ancestor of hers? Or perhaps a descendant? The latter was not likely, as she knew she was to remain a maiden to be in service to Artemis. She had no intentions to sire any children anyway.

"I need some air." Daphnae informed her sisters and promptly headed to the deck without waiting for their replies. She was greeted by a soft sea breeze, and she sighed in content.

"The sea is quite nice today, isn't it?" A man next to Daphnae commented. "The calm sea is quite beautiful, though not as beautiful as you."

"Verily." Daphnae replied, not impressed at all by the man's attempt. Even though she thought she already expressed her disinterest, she felt the man's gaze rest on her and she shuddered involuntarily. Deciding against making a scene, Daphnae walked further away, only for the man to keep his eyes trained on her.

"I'm not interested," Daphnae raised her voice, not wanting to entertain the man further.

"But I am."

Daphnae ruffled her nose in disgust and turned around to face the man, her hand reaching for her knife. "Do not test me." She said icily. The man raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

"Fine," He raised his hands in mock surrender. "I'll leave you alone."

For some reason, Daphnae saw a hint of sea green in the man's brown eyes.

Not particularly my best chapter, but just wanted to add some backstory. I'll be adding quite a few of these I imagine, but I'll try to make it so that you can skip these without missing too much from the main plot. If anyone finds any mistakes/plotholes etc. drop a comment and I'll try to fix it. Happy holidays people