Hunters of Artemis (cabin #8) discussion

Aearia shot another arrow in the middle if a tree

"Stupid Penny." She mumbled

"Ug"

Charlie entered the Archery range and started practicing her aim

Ray tried to shoot a few arrows but never got a bullseye. She just couldn't do it. She sighed and walked to the side. She was too distracted and she had no idea why.

((Ack Sorry I didn't respond))

Charlie spotted Ray and waved.

She noticed her waving and waved back

Elizabeth walked in, willing the sun to shine on her so she would warm up a bit. She smiled and went to get a bow and a quiver full of arrows. Finally equipped, she put herself in position and got ready to fire her arrows.

Andromeda jumped down from a nearby tree and strode purposefully towards Elizabeth.

Elizabeth felt the presence of someone. She shot her arrow and spun around quickly, not watching where it had landed, her bow at the ready, you never know, she thought.

Cyrene walked over and took a bow into her hands.

"Woah, What are you doing Elizabeth?" asked Andromeda, she waved at Cyrene, and turned back to Elizabeth.

Cyrene nodded at Andromeda, then strung her bow and breathed deeply in and out. She let go and it hit a bullseye. She grinned.

Elizabeth lowered her bow slowly and slung it across her back. It disappeared into thin air and would reappear as soon as she needed it, something she still hadn't understood after all this time at the Hunt.

She smiled, "um... Sorry Andromeda, I didn't know who it was. It could've been a spooky monster or simply a man who shouldn't be in here". She shrugged but you could see her grin behind her indifferent face, she would've loved scaring a man out of his wits.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Cyrene shoot perfectly, "that was great Cyrene!" she called and looked back at Andromeda. "So... wanna practise together?" she suggested.

Cyrene glanced over her shoulder at Elizabeth and nodded once in thanks. She walked over to the target and swiftly yanked the arrow out of the bullseye. Cyrene inspected the tip and flipped the arrow a couple of times.

Roxane walked to the archery range and transformed her necklace into her bow and arrows. She got into position and shot, it missed the bullseye but still got pretty close. She tried again and hit the bullseye. She then turned her bow into her necklace and put it back on.

Elizabeth smiled as she saw Roxane's training from the corner of her eye, this was exactly what was needed to do to improve. "That was great!" she called out to Roxane as her bow appeared at her shoulder, ready for some more practice.

Roxane smiled in happiness. ‘’ Thanks!’’ she replied.

"Of course!" Elizabeth answered smiling and, she motionned sending a kiss to Roxane and chuckled a bit.
The Hunters were just the best: best friends, best fighters, best people, best everything!

Roxane was super happy, she loved being a hunter! And she loved hunting with her new friends. It was the best experience any girl could ask for. After a break, Roxane decided that it was time to start training again. She transformed her necklace, got into position, and shot. ‘’Bullseye!’’ She yelled as the arrow hit the target. She shot three more times only missing once, then decided to call it a day.

Andromeda nodded in response to Elizabeth, "Of course" she said.
She pulled her bow off her back and said to Elizabeth and Roxane together, " I bet you can't shoot the third target from the left from that tree over there." She pointed to a huge tree with lots of branches, it was over 500m away. Andromeda wondered if they would actually accept her challenge or just deny the almost impossible task.

Andromeda knew it was possible though, she done it once before, but only once. The tree was infested with huge wasps that would sting anyone that came near. She'd gotten stung 15 times the one and only time she'd been up that tree. However, it had been in the middle of the day and nobody had been around, it was late evening now, it would be hard to see. Would it even be possible?
Welll, thought Andromeda, if they did hit the target she would have to find another impossible task to challenge these wonderful girls. That, at least would give her something to do.

"Wanna bet?" Elizabeth grinned widely. She was the type of girl who never backed down from a challenge, even if it wasn't a good idea: she wasn't a daughter of Athena after all.

She took out two arrows and shot them one after the other very quickly yet precisely. The first one hit the middle of the target, Bullseye! she thought. The second one cracked the first one open as it inserted itself at the same place. She smiled, she was as ready as she could be.

"Can we use our powers in a way they can suit us?" she asked. If this was a yes, it would truly help her, not by putting her arrow in the right direction but by shedding light on the faraway target.

Andromeda looked quite impressed, but said nothing, if she had to congratulate everyone every time they hit bullseye, she wouldn't be able to do anything else.
"Did i use my powers?, no." answered Andromeda, excited that someone had accepted her challenge. "We'll wait till nightfall to make it even harder, if that's not to hard for you?" implored Andromeda. She knew it would be almost impossible to see at nightfall, but she knew , or hoped that Elizabeth and Roxane would not refuse the challenge. She knew she could manage the shot, but she'd had over 1000 years to practice and she was a daughter of Apollo, she was a naturally good shot, would this challenge be too difficult for the others? Surely not, but then there were the wasps, she'd almost forgotten about them.

Almost. " I warn you, there's wasps up there." warned Andromeda.

Cyrene looked over at the other hunters. I wish I was that social. she thought to herself. She set down her bow and arrows and began to walk away.

"At night?" Elizabeth repeated, "just great!" She said feigning exasperation but you could hear the note of excitement in her voice. This was one of the hardest challenges she would face for quite a while, this was going to be great.

"Oh... Wasps!" She exclaimed, remembering the bad encounter she had had with them once. She scooted over to Roxane and whispered, loud enough for Andromeda to hear "you know anything against wasps by any chance?" She smiled anyways, this wouldn't have been a true challenge if there weren't any obstacles in addition to the distance.

She resisted the urge to start jumping around. Why was she feeling this excited? Probably because these times had been pretty quiet and calm. But peace and quiet is always welcome, isn't it? Well apparently not for her. She smiled at herself and slung he bow across her shoulder.

Elizabeth saw Cyrene walk away and said quickly, "be right back!" She ran up to the lonely hunter, and as she catched up with her asked her, "wanna join in the challenge Andromeda suggested? You'll see it'll be fun!"

Cyrene turned around to find Elizabeth. She raised her eyebrows, "What kind of a challenge is it?" She asks

Elizabeth smiled. "We'll try shooting the third target from the left from that tree over there!" She pointed to the tree in question and added more information, "we will do it at night and there are a lot of wasps in the tree. Maybe not the wisest challenge but it'll be a fun one! You up to it?" She asked with a smile that said she would love Cyrene to be a part of this.

Roxane answered Andromeda, ‘‘ I accept your challenge.’’ And got into position. She transformed her necklace and unstrung her bow, she got stung a couple of times but right before she shot, she got stung on the arm and her arrow missed by quite a bit. Dejectedly, she looked down, bun then said determinedly, ‘‘I’ll get it at some point and win your challenge.’’ ‘‘And maybe even beat you Elizabeth.’’ She said teasingly

‘‘I’ll see you tonight and I’ll be better!’’ Roxane added, excited for another challenge

After her loss at the tree, Roxane wanted to keep her word and so she got into position and shot again and again at the target until after about the 15th try she finally hit the edge of the target

An hour later, Roxane finally hit the bullseye. ‘‘YES!’’ she cheered, she was super happy that she finally succeeded but was super tired and sore after shooting arrows for felt like forever. She nocked another arrow and let it fly. It split the first arrow in half. She decided to go to the lake and cool off a bit.

"Wow "said Andromeda "That was impressive."
She walked towards the tree, and beckoned over Elizabeth and Cyrene, who were chatting by the edge of the range.

Elizabeth smiled from a distance at Andromeda and nodded. She had heard Roxane's cry of triumph but hadn't turned around to see what had happened. "Come on" she said excitedly and took Cyrene's arm before she could respond or go away and led her to Andromeda and the tree, her eyes twinkling.

"Do you want to go first?" asked Andromeda, "I'll go if you don't want to go first."

Elizabeth grinned, "I'll go!" She climbed up the tree and put herself on the branch above Roxane's, just above the wasps though they still came.
She paused without moving, breathed in and out slowly and took her bow and some silver arrows. Placing her first arrow on her bow, she realized she couldn't even see the target from so far at night. She sighed, this was going to be really hard.
"Can I use special arrows? I guess not but I prefer asking!" she called out at Andromeda as an idea to get away the wasps brewed in her mind. She resisted the urge that was taking over her to scratch every place the wasps had touched. She muttered something under her breath, that didn't sound very flattering for the insects, and inched closer to the end of the branch, away from the wasps but it clearly wasn't enough.

Roxane saw the other girls at the tree and smiled at them, she saw Elizabeth muttering under her breath something that didn’t sound very friendly about the wasps and she chuckled. She got into position on the branch and shook off the wasps that kept stinging her
‘‘To bad we can’t use our powers, I could have killed the wasps easily’’ she said with a laugh. After unstringing her bow, she nocked an arrow and let it fly. ‘‘So close,’’she said with a little pout. The arrow had been so close to the bullseye but sadly she could barely see so she was a little bit off.
She jumped down and immediately killed the wasps that had been stinging her using her powers of Hades

‘‘Hey Cyrene, do you wanna try?’’ Roxane asked as she noticed Cyrene hadn’t shot an arrow or talked much yet.

Cyrene shakes her head, "Nah I'm good. I've already shot some earlier today." She says

‘‘Okay, you’re lucky that you won’t get stung by wasps then, but it’s pretty fun.’’ Roxane answered with a small smile

" No, sorry Elizabeth, no special arrows, no powers, that would be unfair to Roxane, she's already gone , and she managed it." shouted Andromeda up the tree, she hoped Elizabeth could hear her. She turned towards Cyrene, "Are you sure you don't want to try?" she asked.

Elizabeth grunted when she heard Andromeda's response and put her special arrows away. Clouds covered the moon, the only source of light and she gritted her teeth as she thought of her powers: she could've moved those clouds if she wanted, with a little help from her grand-mother of course. She pulled the string of her bow back, closed her eyes, imagined the course her arrow would follow and the place of the target and finally let her arrow go. She could hear it for a few seconds, zipping through the still air of the night. She waited and finally heard a thump in the distance.

She jumped of her branch and ran up to the place where the sound had come from, to see if she had hit the bullseye. As she got closer, she saw her arrow sticking out of the outer round of the target. She cursed in ancient greek and took her arrow out, paying attention at the path she was following. Coming back she said to the others, smiling slightly, "the right target but not the right place."

" I'll have a go," said Andromeda, "Then you can go again," . Andromeda climbed up the tree, in a position just under the Wasps nest, last time she had stood just above them and it had taken her a long time to get her arrow ready. But now, just under the wasps nest she could barley see the target. "Great." She muttered, she knew she couldn't get it on her fist try, but it would be highly embarrassing if she didn't get it at all. She knew she couldn't use her powers or magic arrows, but , she'd never said anything about distracting the wasps, or humming.

Andromeda started to hum, at first it sounded incredibly weird, until she got to the sound of the wasps. She was making the exact same noise as the wasps. This was NOT cheating, she wasn't using her powers so Elizabeth and Roxane couldn't accuse her of cheating, she was simply humming. "ZZZZZZZZZ" was around the noise she was making. "OW " she cried, a wasp had still stung her. She continued making the wasp noise, a little louder. The wasp turned away. Phew, thought Andromeda. She pulled up her bow and put the first arrow into place, still humming, she raised her bow and..... missed the target completely. Andromeda squinted, how had she not even hit the target? She was way off , her arrow had landed what she thought was nearly 10 meters from the target. It was very hard to concentrate if she was humming.

She raised her bow again, another arrow in place. She was still humming, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then she opened her eyes again and aligned the arrow with what she thought was the target, it was really just a dark shape in the distance. She breathed again. releasing the tension from her shoulder and let the arrow fly. " THUMP," she heard her arrow hit something... She stopped humming, "OW,OW,OW" She cried as multiple wasps stung her at the same time.

She climbed down from the tree and sprinted over to the target. It had hit bullseye. " YES" She screamed in triumph. Gosh, that would have been embarrassing, if she hadn't got it. Still she wondered how her first arrow had missed the target soooo badly.

"I got it," She said as she walked over to Elizabeth. "Your turn, your first try sure was lot better than mine."

Elizabeth clapped impressed, "second try only and in the dark and with the waps! Well done Andromeda! I'm so impressed!" She then turned around and climbed back up the tree, this time, putting herself on a lower branch.

Now that the clouds had stirred and the moon shone bright, Elizabeth could see the round shape of the target in the distance. Very gently, she took off her bow from her shoudler, trying hard not to be noticed by the wasps but as soon as she took it off, they flew in an angry mob towards her and she realized too late that she had hit their nest. Cursing, she took out her dagger and slashed in front of her, creating a sort of barrier between her and the wasps. But it wasn't enough. She hoped this wasn't going to be seen as cheating, technically it wasn't but she couldn't be sure.
She was getting dangerously close to the edge of the branch and knew it wouldn't end well. In a last slash, she jumped of the branch and fell ungraciously to the floor. She heard the wasps above but they didn't try following her: she was off the tree, that was all that mattered to them.

Elizabeth looked at Andromeda in the eyes with a menacing look, daring her to laugh if she had the courage too. She stood up, wincing as she felt she had twisted her ankle, brushed off the leaves and dust from her clothes and limped to the trunk of the tree, where Andromeda was standing.

"Oh my god , Elizabeth, hahahaha, " laughed Andromeda, but not in an unkind way. "How did you manage that?" She asked "Are you all right?"

Andromeda had been watching Elizabeth up in the tree but she hadn't seen her properly, all she had seen was Elizabeth waving her dagger around and then falling off the tree. She was genuinely worried, had Elizabeth broken her leg?

"Very funny!" Elizabeth said, a point of sarcasm in her voice. "I may have angered the wasps a bit..." she then answered, not going into the details. She was already embarrassed enough. "And I've had worse, my ankle's just twisted, nothing to worry about."

She turned her back around and starred at the trunk and the wasps, she really didn't want to climb back up but she wasn't going to be defeated by a bunch of wasps. Without turning back to Andromeda, she muttered, loud enough for her to hear, "thanks for asking though" and tried climbing back up. But it was useless, without both her feet, she wouldn't make it. She sighed, she hated asking for help but she wasn't going to lose so she asked, keeping her voice under control, "a little help here?"

Andromeda smiled, "What exactly do need help with?" , she was going to relish this moment for ever, literally. She knew how hard it was for anyone to ask for help, they all wanted to be independent, however, Andromeda thought, they were all practically sisters, there's nothing she wouldn't do for the hunters, she would die for them, if need be. However, she would not do the outrageously stupid things people had asked of her before she had joined the hunt, and, she most definitely would not clean their shoes.

Elizabeth sighed and turned around to face Andromeda. She took a deep breath and went for it, "could you please help me get back up there? With my twisted ankle, it's impossible." She smiled slightly but it was a forced smile. The pain was spreading through her leg as she put weight on it and asking for help really wasn't her thing; she had learned to be independent and was always wary that someone would take advantage of the situation. She quickly chastised herself, how could she think such a thing? Before she could, but with the hunters, her sisters? They would never. She hoped her face hadn't betrayed her thoughts and looked down at her feet, ashamed and embarrased.

"Alright, I would have healed your foot, but it's the middle of the night, so ,sorry, i don't have any healing energy." Said Andromeda.
She walked over to Elizabeth and said, "I'll climb up to first branch and then pull you up, ok?"