Surviving Paradise

Successful Attempts

^^ Railroad Spike Sword^^

--- Artemis's POV ---

I awoke quickly, startled, and sat up, clutching my temple. "Damn..." I growled.

Queen Hippolyta chuckled. "You feel alright? Other than your head?"

"Yes, my queen. I am sorry. I did not capture him."

"No. He came to me. Slipped past our guards like they were blind, deaf, and dumb. Then he escaped them again, after giving them a full minute head-start, sitting on my throne. Then I found him, nine hours later, on my bed. Sleeping." She growled.

I blinked. "What is he? He's a son of Hephaestus, but he's able to put us on our noses like it's nothing..."

"He's been blessed by both Hera and Hephaestus, and I even sensed Athena upon him. He is... gifted. His knowledge, and skill... what would he have been like with both legs?" She hummed. Then she widened her eyes and looked at me in shock. "Perhaps... perhaps that's why Hera decreed he be crippled." She said slowly.

I flinched. "You may be completely correct... I shiver at the thought of a being, human or demigod, that is so powerful the gods believe he should be crippled to 'even the odds'."

"Still think he wouldn't make much of a mate?" She smirked, but there was no humor behind it, only a mixture of fear and respect.

"I am steadily coming to respect him, but still. He's... rather crude." I shrugged.

"We both know that's your type." She winked, and walked to the door, where she paused. "Oh... and I want you to send everyone who has no duties after him. Every day, In shifts of 2 hours. The Queen of the Gods has decreed a Hunt. It is his test to evade our efforts for five whole years. Make him fail for me, Artemis."

I grinned. "With pleasure, my queen."

---

My vantage point at the top of the mountain was perfect for watching the entire mountainside, and also the gliding suit that Io had fashioned me at my request would get me anywhere, so long as I could fly without crashing. (How Diana managed was beyond me, even if her flight was magical.)

After a month of hunting him, I'd discovered something rather troubling. Any dark tunnel, alleyway, or cave, and he could escape magically to his Forge, which I caught a glimpse of twice, both at close calls.

I reported such to the Queen, and she had simply said 'then catch him during the day'. As if it was that easy. Any shadow big enough for him to jump into was a shadow he could exploit to escape. My chief objective was to get into that forge, so he had nowhere left to escape to.

A flicker of movement. He moved without a crutch now, and his limp was much less pronounced.

I thought of this as a game between us, even though other Amazons competed. They volunteered in droves to play 'Hunt the Demigod'. But today was different. Princess Diana was coming back in a few hours, and we needed to capture him before she intervened, and took all the fun out of it.

And it was fun. No one denied that. The few times he's been 'caught' were when he was heavily injured, once from falling off a cliff, (we'd accidentally caused a rockslide trying to catch him, and he was caught in it.)

The other injuries, which caused the Queen to become very angry, were from when the more enthusiastic Amazons got sore about losing so often, and shot at him with our bows, using Hephaestus Forged Arrows, (capable of piercing even superman's skin with a direct hit,) and it hadn't seemed sporting to attack or capture him in those states, so we brought him to Althea, and she patched him up, and we tried to capture him in the City, which of course failed, but we had to try.