Arcadian Huntress ⚢

Chapter V Archery

Parthenos set out throwing knives on a table. We were near a slope and I stopped pacing and squatted down by the knife case. I was about to select something that caught my eye when I hesitated and met my companion's blue eyes.

She tilted her head, giving me permission to go for it. My lips curved slightly and seized the knife that caught my fancy, which is a bright celestial bronze dagger with a steel grip and threw it in the target.

"Nice shot." She said, using a hand to shield her eyes to see the target a stone's throw away far from us. "You might have your way with bows soon. Who did you say taught you to do that?"

"My mother," I said, as I roamed my eyes on the selection of knives again. "Queen Nonakris gave me a knife when I was eight. She told me that someone wanted me to have it so I could protect myself."

"Your mother is very kind to teach you. But honestly, I think the knife came from someone who also loved you as if you are their child."

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged like its no big deal. "Cause it sounds like the blade came from a true parent."

"What?"

"I mean, it is a theory, but might you think that the knife came from your real father?"

"What?" I repeated.

"Think about it. From what you've told us, your father does not care about you, but he cares about his wife. If his wife had an affair, he is not in the place to complain since he had countless other wives and affairs. Surely, it came from your true father."

I understood where she's going with this. She is implying that we have the same problem―the same in family issues.

"I do not think so," I said, my teeth gnashing.

"It is okay, Callisto." Parthenos took a knife and threw it on another target and it hit bull's eye. "Children out of marriage are not a product of a failed marriage. It is just the bitter truth of our lives. A will to live as a philosopher might call it."

"Are you insinuating that I am like you? A demigod?"

"There is that possibility, though I am hoping that you are. If you are, your godly parent will claim you soon."

She was crazy. To think that golden ichor, the blood of the gods, pumps through my veins when I am just a mere insignificant princess who now bears no title or claim to the throne.  "No God has claimed me as their daughter yet, and I do not feel like I have ichor flowing in my veins."

"I shall cling to that mere hope." She said as she took another blade. It was a particular object that was just shorter than the length of her forearm, and it was not made of ordinary metal like the other knives, it was simple, straightforward, and very sharp. She calculated her throw, counted out twenty paces from the target, and shifted the hilt in her hand so that the blade was pointing backward toward the camp. Then she flung it, extending her arm in the direction of the target.