KEEPSAKE

chapter twentythree

23 MASTER AND APPRENTICE

      THE ARROW STRUCK THROUGH BARK AND BENT INTO THE TREE SMOOTHLY.

     Adonis grinned, shaking his head in disbelief, "What are we? Thirty feet away from the target and you struck dead in the middle."

     Coolly Artemis shrugged and flashed Adonis a smile before unsheathing another arrow and aligning it to the string.

"Let me give it a go." He asked, taking a step forward, crunching a stray leaf as he did.

The sun had just began rising when Adonis and Artemis awoke and regained themselves to continue their trails. It was Adonis' rumbling belly that made Artemis position her bow and set out for hunt. And after a few taunting words from Adonis, she began playfully shooting for sport and confident boost that she was in no need of.

"You sure, pretty boy?" She mumbled against the bow and let the arrow fly. Expectedly landing in the eye of a passing pheasant.

Adonis quirked his lips before laughing, "I think we both know i'm much more than just pretty." He teased, referring to the intimidation that drove Artemis to kidnap Adonis and take the two on this journey.

She shrugged and extended her sacred bow to Adonis, "Fine. Show me what I've been crying about at night."

Without another wasted minute, Adonis snatched the weapon and strutted up to where Artemis had stood. He tried his best to replicate Artemis' stance, peaking down at his footing and where his hands lie on the bow.

     She chuckled, scrutinizing him from toe to scalp. It was itching her to tell him everything he was doing wrong but the humiliating part of it was stronger.

     He drew back the arrow, eyes narrowed at the tip, to his destination. "Right there," He nodded his head at a pheasant that landed on a tree branch. And than he sent the arrow flying in the sky. Time seemed to slow down, both Artemis and Adonis holding their breath just before it skimmed the pheasant. It squabbled and made a incoherent noise before flocking off.

"Well." Adonis sighed, sucking in his bottom lip.

Artemis doubled over in laughter, hunching and holding her stomach as bubbles of chuckled escaped her system uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She spit out in between laughs, gasping for air.

He slowly turned to her with a glare, "Eat it up, Artemis."

"I'll eat you up." She joked but by the way Adonis' jaw clutched and the dilation of his eyes, he didn't bite the bone.

She forcefully smirked at him, moving her feet in his direction and yanking her rightful bow and arrow from his hands that surprisingly held a tightening grip to the accessory.

"Here, I'll show you once more, but you're on your own after that." She lined herself up, grazing the arrow against the string and squinting her eyes at a weather mark on a tree stump. After telling Adonis where she was aiming, she freed her arrow and let it fly home.

Taking her eyes from the aimed target, she proudly beamed at Adonis, his attention still on the mobile arrow. She knew the exact moment it landed straight into its proper spot by the annoyed grimace that shadowed the god in front of her.