Page 44 of Arrogance
I knew exactly what she was implying. From all this confidence I put forth, I was experiencing a powerful tingling sensation within my body. I needed to release myself, and so I would gladly take Aphrodite up on her offer. “I like the sound of that.”
Aphrodite squeezed me harder. “Good. And I likeothersounds I’m going to make come out of your mouth before I’m done with you.”
Chapter 21
Artemis
“The nerve of them!” I howled to Orion. “Aphrodite and Adonis need to be taught a lesson for their lewd behavior. How dare they think they can get away with acting like that towards me?” I sat on the log of a fallen tree, back on the island of Delos.
“Try not to let them get to you, Artemis,” Orion replied, before moving to sit down beside me on the rough oak log. “You are well aware of how superior of a goddess you are compared to Aphrodite. Her remarks come from a deep pit of jealousy buried inside her. She wanted to rile you up to get a reaction out of you, but you handled yourself exceptionally well.”
Orion’s compliment put an endearing smile on my face. The past few months he has spent here with me as my hunting companion has proven to be fairly pleasant. The two of us were very congenial and became close rather quickly. Orion was a formidable adversary and partner too, while we were on the hunt. Sometimes we would make our hunting experiences competitive to see who could kill a specific animal first. Other times, we trekked through the forests and mountains together to target the same mammals to serve as our meals.
I’ve grown so accustomed to his company in just this short amount of time. His presence gave me great comfort. But lately, I’ve been experiencing a new feeling I’ve never quite felt in my entire existence up until now. When Orion runs off on his own to hunt or explore the island and I’m left alone, I sometimes find myself almost grieving over his absence. But the moment I see him approach me, a light burns bright within me. A flame that was blown out has again been relit. It was hard for me to decipher these uncommon feelings I was experiencing, but all I knew was that I was getting used to them and I welcomed them so long as they continued to lift my spirits as they were currently doing.
“You are too kind, Orion. I appreciate you serving as my constant voice of reason,” I politely thanked him with.
I turned my head to glance in his direction beside me, only to catch a tense expression displayed on his face. It gave me alarm to see him so jittery when I’ve been so familiar with his docile tone and constant focus and discipline as the skilled hunter that he was.
“Did I offend you somehow?” I inquired.
He shook his head. “No. You could never offend me.” Orion then stood up, pacing around us, not daring to make eye contact, which left me even more suspicious.
“Then what’s wrong? Obviously, something is the matter.”
Finally, Orion stopped dead in his tracks and looked directly at me. “It’s hard for me to admit this to you, but I can no longer deny my feelings. I know you feel them too, Artemis.”
I was not expecting him to come outright with expressing this aloud to me. I wish he hadn’t. It was bound to make things extremely awkward between us. Orion knew I was the Goddess of virginity. So, he had to know that I was emotionally unavailable to him. Why would he put himself through this? I was not meant to find love. I’ve upheld this stoicism about myself for this very reason. No one should fall in love with me. Now I began to question accepting Orion into my life. Was it a mistake to allow him to get this close to me? Perhaps I should have maintained at least some distance between us all this time. Kept things casual. Now I was completely regretting that I had lowered my walls when around him.
How could I have been so careless?
Yet at the same time, I was struggling with being fully honest with myself. Part of me enjoyed being so open and vulnerable with Orion. And was being genuine with him so wrong? No. It wasn’t. I just wish things continued to progress naturally, as they were in our friendship. This confession of his would surely be a conundrum. Things would never be the same for us both from here on out.
But the decision that was presented before me would be a difficult one to navigate. Should I come clean and let Orion know of my true feelings, or should I lie and keep myself emotionally detached from him?
“Orion, I…”
But before I could even let the words escape my mouth, I became instantly distracted by Orion’s sudden change of face. His eyes widened with alarm.
“Artemis! Look out!” he yelled, before swiftly kneeling on the ground on one knee, drawing his bow from his back with one hand while grabbing an arrow in the other and firing it directly past me. The arrow nearly grazed my shoulder as it shot behind me.
A screeching siren pierced through my ears and echoed far and wide. The shock from the suddenness of this chaos and the continued shrieks from whatever was behind me left me stumbling to the ground. It took a moment for me to regain my composure.
Once I spun around, I saw the gargantuan creature before me. It had two massive sharp pincers. Its amber, segmented, elongated body stretched far, with eight prickly legs. Just above its head was a curling tail that barbed upward. The tip of it seemed lethal. Sharper than any weapon Hephaestus may have forged himself.
A giant scorpion!
I had no time to question its bizarre and inexplainable appearance in this forest. As the colossal creature crawled toward me, I barely scooted myself backwards, enough so that its claw that swept to strike me just barely missed.
Its tail now stretched high, directly aimed to pierce and strike me head on. But before its stinging tail could come down upon me, another one of Orion’s arrows shot from behind me, hitting the scorpion in the center of one of its eyes. It howled once more from the inflicted pain it was enduring.
The distraction it faced gave me just enough time to push myself up on my knees and reach for my gold bow and arrow, ready for my assault. I drew and fired shot after shot along with Orion until there were nearly fifty arrows sticking out from the scorpion.
It shook and attempted to attack us, but was completely misguided in its aim. The creature continued to struggle, but Orion and I did not withhold our firing. We would not stop until it was fallen on the ground, dead.
Only a few more arrows were all it took for the scorpion’s legs to give out and to fall onto the forest floor, lifeless.
Realizing it was safe, we stood up and withdrew our weapons. I slowly approached the monster.
