Silenced (Demigod Story)

Huntress

I woke up in the inside of a large tent.  It looked like it was as smooth as silk but when I touched it, it was about as stiff as rock.  I was on a blanket on the floor right by the wall of the tent.  When I took my eyes off the wall, I saw an eight-year-old kneeling over me.  She was slightly tanned and had brown hair in a braid that reached her hips.  I would’ve said that her gray eyes were beautiful, if they were not glaring at me intensively.

“What happened?” I asked.  The small effort of trying to get up, set the pain alarm off on a small spot on my stomach.  I collapsed onto my back and examined the wound.  If I ever saw a bullet wound, I would say that it probably looked like this.  It was like a hole that was trying to close.  “Was I shot?” I looked up at the girl, wondering if she was ever going to blink.

“Do you know who I am?” the girl asked, but it sounded like it came from a grown woman.  Her tone was firm yet soft.

“No,” I answered, curiously looking up at her.  She was practically eight, there is nothing that I can do that no eight year old couldn’t, but I mean that it is hard to become popular around the world when you only had eight years.

“I am Artemis, goddess of the hunt,” she seemed to glow of pride, illuminating power.  Gods and goddesses can look as old or as young as they wanted, so it made the smallest bit of sense.  “What is your name?”

She didn’t seem like the kind of person to call people by their nickname, so I told her my real name.  “Floret Green.”

“Who is your mother?”

“I don’t know, I was never claimed,” I admitted, not exactly feeling the love that a mother usually had.

“Probably to protect you,” she muttered as she nocked an arrow into a bow and aimed it at me.  “Claim her now or my arrowhead will,” she threatened, staring distantly above my head.

I felt tingling in my palms and lifted them up to where I could see them.  There was a dark green flower in the center, like a tattoo.  Designs of stems, vines, and leaves drew themselves on and went around my fingers like gloves.  The designs went all the way to my elbows.

Artemis lowered her bow, not sure if I was an enemy or not.  “No one  has ever been claimed like that,” she stared at me suspiciously.

I turned my arm, admiring the designs that were small and dark green as if drawn in sharpie.  “Demeter?”

“Yes child,” she nodded, unsure of herself.  “Demeter.”

I was about to move, but the soreness from my stomach’s wound stopped me.  “Was I shot?”

“Only lightly by a sleeping arrow.  It couldn’t have done too much damage.”

“Where’s Dan?” I asked, attempting to get up again.  I bit my lip through the pain as I got up onto my feet.

“That thing is at the edge of our camp,” Artemis scrunched her nose up in disgust.

“What did he do?” Dan seemed like the kind of guy that most people would like.  It wasn’t like he was the kind that would mess with a goddess.

“It is a boy.  Boys are selfish and stupid creatures.  That is why I have immortal huntresses if you’re interested,” she offered, tossing me a pamphlet.  I glanced at the cover and put it into my back pocket.

“Thank you for the offer, but I need to have my own reason to hate boys to forget them forever,” I smiled, hoping that I wouldn’t offend her.

Artemis nodded, not exactly showing any emotion.  It is like a win-win situation for her.  If I don’t join there are more resources for the huntresses.  If I did join, there would be one more personality and one more girl saved from the evil boys.  “My offer is always opened.”