Lightning Strikes

5

I hope y'all enjoy part five! A couple of warnings and a bit of a teaser. The first one is that Apollo (ironically) lies a hell lot in this chapter. Don't take whatever he says too seriously. And secondly, if you can tell me (with the very few hints I've provided in the "prophecy") which (Hindu) god or goddess is going to be joining Aru on the quest, I'll be really impressed! Let me know your guesses in the comments! The answer should be revealed by chapter eight and the main ship of the story should be revealed by chapter seven. Until then, enjoy a few more chapters of Aru beating people up!

The camp's weapons shed was a mess. Aru and Artemis went inside, the former trying to figure out what the hell was up with this place. It was a debilitated mess of metal blades, some of which had probably become unusable around twenty years ago. It looked more like a graveyard of weapon parts than a storage shed.

"No, I am not going to get a spear from here, didi," Aru said. "Vajra is my weapon, I don't care who sees me with it."

Artemis laughed. "I thought you would say so. Here's a bow. You should be a natural at it, considering who you're a reincarnation of."

"I highly doubt that," Aru said.

"Well, you'll have the best teacher of archery I've ever known," Artemis said.

"You?" Aru asked hopefully.

"Not quite..." Artemis grimaced.

----

To his credit, Apollo really was an amazing archer. The first flaming arrow that flew off of his golden bow was enough proof of that. It found the dead center of the target — and then burned the whole thing down.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said about Aru. She was missing horribly while using the bow that Artemis had given her. Every shot landed well off of the target.

Apollo examined the bow. "There's no way anybody can be this bad. I mean, I'm literally aiming for you! Something has to be wrong with the bow," he said to Aru. "Did my sister give you this?" he asked.

"Yes," Aru said. "It feels fine, thank you!"

"It's not about that," Apollo said. "She should've known better to give a bow enchanted with Greek magic to you. It's resisting your shots."

"So what do I do?" Aru asked. Apollo handed her his bow. "Here, shoot one with this, and do it quick! Shoot before it realizes that you're not Greek."

Aru took aim and fired. The shot hit the inner ring of the target, just shy of the bullseye.

And then the bow burned Aru's hand. "Ow!" she dropped the weapon like it was a hot potato. Apollo did his best to suppress a laugh.

"The bow burned you?" he asked. Aru nodded.

"Well, you're not a terrible shot," Apollo said. "There's only really one solution that I can think of, though. You'll have to go on a quest."

"A quest?" Aru asked warily. "Why?"

"So that you can get the proper weapons for your war," Apollo said in a strange voice.

"War?" Aru asked.

"What did I say?" Apollo asked. When he realized that Aru was looking at him with her eyebrows raised, he clarified, "No, I really don't remember what I said. Did I say anything?"

"You said that I had to get the proper weapons for my war," Aru said. "I don't know what you meant by that. You were saying it in this really creepy voice."

"It was my power of prophecy coming into play at an awkward time," Apollo explained. "Luckily, I didn't give you a prophecy yet. But I feel one coming. Let's get to my sister right away."