Chapter 607: A Bit Of Acting, A Bit Of Instinct
Artemis ran, the expanse of Aphrodite’s bath being like paradise inside a forest.
"Stupid fucking sister playing games like this. I swear when I get out of this I’m going to find dad to give her a good punishment. I can’t believe I actually protected her for all these years and now that she’s grown so much she thinks she can play however she wants..." Artemis fumed while running. She had seen the madness and lust take hold in the young man’s eyes and she did not want to find out what would happen when he caught her.
Laz, on the other hand, was laughing his ass off with Aphrodite doing the same right beside him.
"Ah... oh... look at her go..." Aphrodite said, her laugh like the tinkling of bells.
"Well... considering what you said to her, did you think she would stand here and not run?" Laz said as he tried to calm himself down.
"I think it was that roar that really got her blood going. So beastly and so... mmm...." Aphrodite purred, as she snuggled up to Laz again.
"Hey now. Enough of that. You asked me to do you a favor, remember?" Laz reminded her, although he didn’t push her away.
"I know. I know. She’s always looked out for me, even when I did stupid things or she was annoyed as hell at me. She’s been the closest to me as well, even out of our other brothers and sisters. So I need to do this for her. She needs to find her path as well, even if father wants to prevent it..."
"So you suspect it’s him?" Laz asked, wondering if she had come to this conclusion based on something.
"Who else could it have been? My mother... I don’t think she would have ever done something like that, not cutting us off from moving forward anyway. Or helping him... if he is responsible for my brothers and sisters deaths...."
"Alright. Enough of that. Focus on one thing at a time, ok?"
"Alright. Then I leave the rest to you? She is a skilled hunter after all. Do you really think you can find her?" Aphrodite asked, showing concern for the first time.
"Trust me!" Laz said with a grin and made to take off.
"Wait... Uh... Maybe put some pants on first?" Aphrodite snapped her fingers and his pants that were left in her bed room appeared.
"Uh... ok. If I must," Laz laughed before taking off.
"I need to do some digging of my own. What secrets are you hiding father?"
Laz ran, sniffed the air but smelled nothing. His vision, as powerful as it was, couldn’t detect a single hint of her passing. No broken trigs or misshaped plants.
"Well, she did say she was a pro at this," Laz said out loud before spreading out his spiritual sense into the surroundings. With that, the energy trail left by her passing was immediately noticeable in the surroundings. The normal absence of people made finding it just that much easier.
"Got you!" Laz said and took off.
Artemis was running like her life depended on it but she had one problem.
She was still naked.
She had been on a hunt for both game and criminals many times before, but that had always involved her being prepared, proper attire, provisions, the lay of the land and nearby back up. Never had she been in a situation where she was running through a forest naked and alone with some wild man chasing after her to do who knows what kinds of things to her.
What was more, she had seen the way her sister had used her power to provoke his sex drive into going wild, turning him into a beast. That made her even more nervous since a normal man could be reasoned with, but this kind of man couldn’t be.
Did she still have her shell goddess strength and abilities? She did. But she was finding these things to be useless at the moment. She couldn’t contact anyone, be it guards or her loyal solders or servants. Instead, it seemed like this bath area of her sister was completely separated from the rest of the world which she supposed made sense, but wasn’t helpful for her right now.
"SHIT!" the goddess of the hunt swore as she tripped over a tree branch blocking her path and fell forward, her body getting covered in dirt, grime and leaves.
"Great. Now I smell on top of everything else," she said as she stopped to pick the leaves out of her hair.
"AAAARRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!" Came Laz’s call from dangerously close by, causing Artemis to jump up. She had forgotten for a moment the situation she was in, but was reminded of it very quickly. She couldn’t help but take off running again, this time keeping her eyes peeled in front of her.
Laz had noticed when she had stopped as once his senses locked on to her, Laz could monitor all of her movements. Seeing her standing there playing with her hair caused him to shake his head.
’Really? Considering what’s happening to you right now and your picking leaves out of your hair? Now I get what her sister meant,’ Laz thought to himself before letting out his best impression of a wolf’s howl.
Even he was fairly impressed with himself.
For the next hour, Artemis ran and Laz chased. Every time she would start to slow down, he would do something to remind her that he was still there, causing her endless headaches.
Still, there was an effect to be had in all this.
Artemis was getting better at sensing where she was and avoiding places that offered no escape. She had grabbed a stick at one point and was using it to help clear brush in front of her when she needed to and to also help her keep her footing in slippery areas.
She had also rubbed more mud and leaves upon herself, causing her to blend in more with the surroundings. If Laz had just been going by sight, it would have confused the hell out of him.
She grabbed some fruit from when she was running past a tree, eating it without breaking pace.
At one point she was sitting down and Laz saw this, thinking she was taking a break. He tried roaring, but it didn’t make a difference since she didn’t move. So instead, he burst into the clearing she was in, causing her to bolt upright with a look of intense anger on her face before she took off again. It was only after she had started running that he noticed she was pissing herself while moving.
’Oh. No wonder she was mad. I interrupted her ’go’ time eh?’ Laz thought as he chased, careful not to show any concern.
’Well, that scared it right out of me. Keep moving though. Maybe higher ground?’ Artemis thought as she looked around, not even caring about the warm liquid on her legs as she kept moving, her instincts and survival training overshadowing any shame she might have felt.
’No time for shame. Think, act and react.’
Artemis jump up, scaling the tree in moments even as it scrapped and sliced her body, the mud and grime the only insulation she had against the harsh tree bark.
Once she was high enough up, she leaned in close to the tree branch, hiding as much of her body as she could so as not to be visible from the ground. She slowed her breathing, calming her heart rate and made her own perception retreat, allowing her presence to disappear.
Even when Laz appeared underneath her, she didn’t flinch and only calmly looked on.
Laz was a little startled when his sight of her suddenly vanished, knowing she was at this spot before her body just faded like the mist within his mind.
He couldn’t help but smile as his blood pumped.
’This is getting interesting,’ he thought as he focused his senses even harder. Where as he had only been focusing around Artemis before, now he spread everything outward again to get a sense of her, like throwing a net to catch a fish in the ocean.
He stood there for several minutes, focusing hard as a faint mist finally came into view, one that seemed to start where he was standing and lead over to a tree right next to him. He didn’t look up as he had already figured out what happened, but instead acted like he was confused, turning his head this way and that.
From high up in the tree, Artemis saw his actions and figured she had been successful. But in that one moment, she let out a slightly more noticeable breath than before and Laz turned his head straight to where she was hiding in the branch.
"SHIT!" She cursed as Laz took aim at the tree and punched, breaking the massive and old pillar into splinters as the trunk broke away, causing the tree to topple down. Just before it his, Artemis was able to jump and roll, avoiding the falling branches and began to run again, cursing her own stupidity.
Back and forth like this, over five hours passed. Artemis had never been on a hunt this long before, not even when she had a full escort of guards and servants.
There was no breakthroughs, no signs, no help from experienced trackers no someone to offer her refreshments when she tired. Her legs felt heavy while her lungs burned from the exhaustion. It was getting harder and harder to trick Laz as she could no longer control her breathing. As for her destination, she had set it to just keep going straight out until she reached the barrier of Aphrodite’s domain where she knew there would be at least one or two guards stationed as the personal domains they had were all lined up with each other within the forest and mountains outside the capital city of the Empire.
Still, even after five hours, she had found nothing. Which wasn’t her fault either. None of them would ever consider actually walking the entire area of their own domains. Instead, they would just use the guiding rune that let them appear in the center and then appear back where they had originally been. While it was called teleportation, that wasn’t quite true as something like that wasn’t possible. It was more like a space bridge their father set up to link up two spaces, allowing for almost instantaneous transport.
Still, despite getting nowhere, Artemis kept running and Laz kept chasing.
Two hours later, they had reached the boundry of the domain, allowing Artemis to see a glimmer of hope at the impossible sight of a wall of purple light that stretched up and faded into the sky. She knew it formed a dome up top, but it was clear and therefore allowed one to see the sky like it wasn’t there.
Just as she was about the sprint her way over to the wall and see if she could find one of the region keepers, she sense something from behind her and dived to the side, barely missing Laz’s lunge at her back.
With wild eyes he stared at her, his breath ragged but strong, clearly in much better shape than she was as the mud on her body was falling off due to the sweat.
Laz, a little tired but still ok, put on the show of a desperate wild beast and eyed her up and down. As for Aphrodite, she had been keeping watch from the air, just to help in case Laz needed it.
Artemis, seeing the beastial look in his eyes knew that it was either fight or fail so she reached down, grabbing a dagger like stone from beneath her feet before she took a fighter’s stance, ready to die together with him if that’s what it took.
Screaming, she charged right for him.
