An Encounter in the Night

A late night breeze finds you in your tent, going through sheets of paper that inventoried the equipment and supplies your camp possessed. You could easily spawn whatever you needed, but you wanted that little bit of administration so you wouldn’t forget what you did or didn’t have. Plus it gave people something to do.

As you signed the last of the inventory sheets, you unrolled a map of the local area. Dotted all over the map were towns and estates that you could possibly approach for new recruits. You narrowed your eyes at a couple of those places, a line having been marked through them to indicate they aren’t there anymore. The disaster of the Roman collapse was truly monumental in scope. While the people in modern day France, Spain and Germany are mostly fine, here in Italy there is unchecked looting and pillaging from the self-proclaimed King of Rome Odoacer.

The hooting of an owl grabs your attention. There was something wrong with the sound, like it was both near and far at the same time. You narrow your eyes as you stare out of your tent’s entrance, noting that the moon looked brighter than it should. With a mental command, your armour picks itself up from the corner of the tent and forms itself around you while your sword belts itself to your waist. Now fully equipped, you stride out of your tent and into the night.

Following the hoots of the mysterious owl lead you to some kind of grove or clearing. Fearing some kind of ambush, you decide to make yourself invulnerable to weapons.

“Who’s here?” you call out in a commanding tone. Your only response is another owl hoot. “I’m losing my patience” you say, voice lowering into a threatening tone. The owl hoot came again but this time, you saw the owl. It fluttered down until it was close to the ground where a ray of moonlight hit it, momentarily blinding you. When you could see the owl again, you were shocked to find a girl in her late teens standing there. The first thing you noticed was that she had a hooded cloak wrapped around her, then you noticed the bow in her hands. Under the cloak was some kind of leather vest, similar to one a hoplite might have worn, if he wore a vest of leather instead of bronze or iron. Under that vest was a simple Greek style dress that went to her knees.

The girl wasted no time, nocking an arrow and letting it fly before you even had time to react. Thankfully, you have enhanced your reflexes and caught the arrow before it got to your throat. It was then that you noticed something odd. Your hand hurt where you caught the arrow. You know this shouldn’t be possible as you had just made yourself invulnerable to weapons. With a confused frown, you let go of the arrow and see deep cuts in your hand, blood already trickling out of the wounds and down your fingers. Looking back at the girl, you saw her triumphant smirk before she nocked another arrow in a blur of motion. This time you are ready for it, drawing your sword even as the arrow flew and batting it aside while you advance on the girl.

The girl tried to back away and escape into the forest but you threw yourself forwards with some god power, landing neatly in front of her. The girl scowled as she nocked an arrow and let fly, you dodged and slashed at her with your sword. She caught the blow on her bow, deflecting it away. You tried for another slash across her stomach, which she also deflected, leading you into a thrust which she dodged. The girl spun around your blade and attempted to lodge an arrow into your neck but you grabbed her hand and threw her to the ground. You tried to stab the girl on the ground, however she rolled out of the way and unleashed a blast of moonlight at you. You had to take a second to recover, letting her nock an arrow and shoot it at you, you battered the arrow away and charged her again. The girl attempted to get away again but this time you unleashed a blast of sunlight which met her moonlight causing a small detonation between the two of you.

The girl was practically growling now as she looked at you on the other side of the clearing. She packed her bow away into her quiver and pulled out a sword of her own, it looked like a Spartan sword.

“I won’t let you steal his domain Usurper!” she growled.

“I have no idea what you are talking about” you answer as you settle yourself into a fighting stance.

“DON’T LIE TO ME!!!” the girl screeched as she charged, you blocked her overhead strike with ease while sliding yours down to strike at her shoulder. She backed up and tried to stab you which you countered by batting her sword away and trying another shoulder strike. Your blades met as she blocked your strike but this gave you the opening to kick her, sending her tumbling to the ground. You pounced on her, slamming her into the ground with your body weight and attempting to hold her. You felt her get her legs under you and the next thing you know, you are airborne. You twist yourself around in mid air and landing on your feet. Before you know it, the girl is on you again, a flurry of strikes coming at you as fast as she can manage and forcing you to parry them without thinking to keep up. The girl finally gave you an opening and you punched her, before ramming your shoulder into the girl, sending her tumbling back to the ground. She rolled and was on her feet again, sending a blast of moonlight at you, which you met with sunlight. The attack, however, was a distraction and next thing you know, you are dodging her blade as it just narrowly missed your face. You growl and throw a flurry of blade strikes of your own, the girl just barely parrying your strikes as they come and backing away with wild abandon to keep herself alive. Finally, you had had enough, you unleash a blast of light energy as strong as you can manage. The girl tries to protect herself with moonlight, but you simply overpowered her and blast her into the ground, leaving a gouge a couple body lengths long and half a body length deep.

You cautiously approached the trench you just made and the girl currently inhabiting it. Her eyes locked onto you even as she struggled to stand.

“Do it” she muttered, defeat colouring her voice “Finish it” you could see she was holding back tears.

“Why? Why are you attacking me? Who paid you?” you ask, though you really wanted to know how the hell she got her powers.

“Payed me? I should be asking you that Usurper!” the girl snapped.

“I still don’t know what that means” you tell the girl.

“My brother’s domain! The Sun! You stole it!” she exclaimed before coughing and falling back into her trench.

“And your brother is?” you ask.

“You don’t even know his name” she sighed, screwing her eyes shut to fight off what looked to be tears.

“I don’t know YOUR name love” you tell the girl “As far as I’m aware, you’re just some assassin hired by Odocaer or something” you explain. The girl’s eyes snapped open in shock.

“You don’t know?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

“Know what? You’re being uselessly vague right now, this isn’t a novel where you use tricks like that to build suspense” you snap at the girl.

“I’m Artemis” she replied. THAT got your attention, Artemis, Greek god of moonlight, hunting, women, and a whole lot of other things. That would also mean her brother would be Apollo.

“If Apollo is annoyed about me stealing his sunshine, he should have come himself rather than send his sister” you say, locking eyes with the girl who averted her gaze. Artemis muttered something that you didn’t hear. “What was that?” you ask, frowning.

“HE’S DEAD!!!” she screamed. You stepped back, her words like a slap in the face.

“How can a god die?” You ask, looking down at your hand. It wasn’t bleeding anymore but the wound was still there.

“We never thought much of those Jews” the girl stated “Their religion was simple and their god was hands off” she explained “And when that Christ came about, we thought it would be exactly the same” she took a deep breath “Now look at us” she muttered “I think I’m the only one left of the Olympians” she told you and your eyes went wide “Even the Roman Olympians didn’t stand a chance” she continued “That god of theirs, and his ‘angels’ have been going around the different pantheons and butchering everything” she explained. It explained why Rome fell so spectacularly, their gods had died.

“Well, I’m here now and I’ll rectify this mess” you say with conviction. You wanted to rebuild the Roman Empire and that meant that it needed it’s Pantheon back. Artemis for her part merely sighed and slumped back into her trench

“I’ve heard those words before” she muttered “When I joined up with Mars” she continued “He’s dead now” that was self explanatory, but you let her speak anyway.

“I’m different” you tell the girl. Before unleashing some light energy to heal her and yourself and to fix the scar you made in the land.

“I was comfy there” Artemis grouched, pouting. You let out a bark of laughter before walking over to her. You see a flash of something in her eyes as she watched you but otherwise, her only action was to sit up.

“Stand up and fight” you say “Stand up and see the sky turn bright” you are basically quoting lyrics from a song but hey, it’s pretty motivational so it works. You offer the girl a hand and, after a good long moment of consideration, she took your hand, letting you pull her to her feet. “Now I have to figure out how to explain you to the troops without saying you are a god” you say “Not the right time to come out just yet” you tell her. Artemis snorted.

“I’m Greek and female” she stated “I’m obviously fleeing slavers” she said, nodding at her own words. It’ll do for now but eventually she would come out as a goddess and that will be interesting indeed.

“Well then, we might as well get back and get some sleep” you tell the girl, noting the fact that you are still holding her hand.

“And I suppose you just happen to have no more tents available?” she asked, putting one hand on her hip. The action would make her look more sassy if not for the fact that you are still holding her hand.

“Wouldn’t matter” you say “You want a fourteen bedroom tent with shower, kitchen, toilet and a spa? Say no more” you say, letting go of the girl’s hand.

“What’s a ‘spa’?” she asked

“Well my dear, why don’t I show you?” you reply.