Chapter 408

408 Ancient Memories

The crystal-clear bottomless pool shimmered and shone with images, bringing to life the scene that the goddess wished to witness. As it so happened, this pool also possessed the ability to look into the past, something it was rarely used for.

This moment was a rare one indeed. The pool showed a peaceful visage of Artemis’s hunters setting camp near the water. Melodic laughter rang through their ranks as they exchanged naughty tidbits of banter.

At the edge of their camp was a mountain of carcasses to be prepared for the night’s meal and their banter mostly involved events during this recent hunt.

While some readied the tents, others chose to wash off in the nearby lake. Some got started on preparing their night meal while others set away their weapons and got started on polishing what they could before the night drew too dark.

The day’s work had yielded a good catch indeed with next to no casualties and they were to dine on venison from not just one but two stags, a rare occurrence considering the speed and agility of the nimble creatures.

Artemis smiled at the image of her joyous sisters. Just as they were getting comfortable, round objects began to fall from the sky. The hunters didn’t notice these objects at first. And they continued their activities while these ominous spherical objects continued to fall from the sky.

The goddess’s smile was wiped off as they watched these ominous spheres descend. When the first of these black balls touched the grounds, all hell broke loose. An explosion unlike any she had ever heard before... one that shook the ground and roared like a great drakon.

The explosions became more frequent, sending shockwaves through the air and causing others to explode in mid-air. The resulting chain reaction painted the scene in the pool in flame, soot and blood. The hunters hadn’t seen this coming and even if they had, how were they supposed to know that these were explosive projectiles, to begin with? Something of the sort had never been seen even by the gods.

Without their armour or weapons to defend them, they were sitting ducks. There wasn’t anything the two goddesses could see through all the smoke for a while.

.....

When the soot had cleared, there was barely a hunter alive and the goddess of the hunt was only arriving to find her comrades dead. Artemis paused the scene and started zooming out until she found an encampment not far from where her sisters were camping.

An encampment of humans working on a lot of odd machines that she had never seen in her long life.

They would load large black balls into barrel-like machines and light a wick at one end then quickly cover their ears. The sound from the launch was menacing. Every time they launched one of the perilous balls, one of them would take notes of the results from the... ‘experiment.’

Selene squinted her eyes at the scene before her and noticed something. While the humans were indeed doing something very dangerous, they didn’t celebrate when they launched these strange objects. Instead, they returned to tinkering with the machines and got ready to launch more of them.

The humans had no actual target in mind, but Artemis was less likely to listen to that. Her immortal sisters were dead... there was no calming this goddess’s rage.

“Forgive me, dear Selene for the request I am about to make of you,” it seemed as though Selene’s peaceful life was finally getting disrupted. She’d never thought getting involved with one of the Twelve gods of Olympus would yield her any harm, but here she was rethinking every cup of tea she’d made for the goddess of the hunt.

‘Life can be cruel sometimes...’ she sighed, for she knew Artemis was not making a request. The gods of Olympus never made requests... They just took what they wanted... Why would Arty be any different?

.........

Honour woke up to a start, covered in sweat. The temporary headache that attacked her every morning gradually sizzled down until it was gone. Pushing down the cover of her warm futon, the girl sat up and took in her surroundings.

Unfinished cans of soda, numerous bags of chips along with any other kind of snack her friends had brought with them on their mad shopping spree, “Oh right, yesterday was the last day of school,” she groaned, rubbing her head in an attempt to soothe the lingering embers of her morning headaches.

These headaches came as aftershocks to the memories that swarmed her mind while she was close to waking. The warning she’d received from her grandmother never left her mind... and it wasn’t long after that the memories had begun. The girl shook the visage of the goddess of the hunt from her mind and turned her attention to the real world.

To reality, a reality where she had friends and family that cared about her. A family that wouldn’t betray her in the name of... ‘vengeance.’ People, she’d come to love and trust very much.

In the futons next to her, four other girls slept soundly. Bree, in particular, snored louder than Honour would have liked... but the young goddess wasn’t complaining. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

Honour smiled fondly at the friends that surrounded making camp in her mother’s living room. The night before had been filled with fun craziness that had knocked the lot of them senseless.

Madeline’s restless body, which had somehow made its way outside the futon, chose that moment to roll until her foot crossed over to Lina who wasn’t far.

The sleeping royal responded by simply hugging the other girl’s foot tightly. Madeline was trapped. The girl’s body struggled against sudden restrictions for a while before giving up.

Honour covered her mouth to keep the laugh that threatened to escape her. Whether Lina was awake or had taken her friend captive on instinct remained a mystery. Nonetheless, it made for an interesting sight.

Honour got up, trying her best to keep from stepping on the chips that covered almost every inch of the velvet carpet.

A buzzing sound came from a device by the television, catching Honour’s attention. Carefully stepping over her friends, she made it to the phone by the television and picked it up, reading the notification that had come up.

'

“Where are you, Lina? The Trials are about to begin,” the message left Honour completely frozen in shock and too stunned for words.

Those were today? Wait, what... But, we’ve barely had any time from school. How... Well, I guess the school’s agenda was different from that of the rest of the world, but still... she’s only just... ugh...

“Everyone, get up,” she screamed at the top of her voice, forgetting one detail about herself when her emotions got riled up.

After finding out what she was, a plethora of changes had happened... and one of the effects was just about to be felt. Honour’s voice boomed through the house, shaking it from its very foundation as though there was an earthquake in the room.

Bree leapt up from her futon and grabbed onto the closest living thing, scared out of her wits. This living thing happened to be... Crysta.

“For goddess’s sake, can you keep your divine shriek to yourself?” the emerald-eyed delta grumbled, rubbing circles in the frightened girl’s back, “It was only Honour, Bree. You’re safe.” The delta cooed.

Lina chuckled, unmoving, “That’s a goddess’ shriek alright.” Honour turned around and flashed an apologetic smile at her friends.

Bree’s shivers finally died down and she reluctantly let go of her delta friend, “I can’t believe I’m not used to it yet. Just how many things can one goddess do?”

Madeline, on the other hand, remained dead asleep. “There is only one person in this entire world that can sleep through that,” Honour face-palmed, “Lina, you have the Trials this morning.”

That was the one thing they all needed to get up from their sleep, including Madeline. Honour watched them panic with a mischievous grin on her face. When Lina finally started to get her bearings, Honour was waving her phone at her, “Drake was texting.”

“Honestly, with the pack link, one would assume texting was not a thing, but here is my dorky brother using his phone like a teenager,” the girl complained, “No offence, Honour.”

“None taken, Lina. Although considering the night you had, the mind link would be useless. Now get into the shower. We have to get ready,” Lina started pushing her friend upstairs before she could complain.

When the princess was gone, she turned back to the others in the living room and they began tidying up, “Do you think she will win?”

“I’m not sure, honestly. There is a lot I’m not sure about these days,” Honour sighed, joining in to help with clean up, her mind drifting back to the dream she’d had that morning.

It was a recurring dream that came to her every once in a while, along with other memories of a life she knew nothing about. The memories were hard to hold on to, but they seemed to be in no rush to return either since she would only relive them again the next night.

Almost like a nursery teacher patiently repeating the alphabet to a young child, knowing they will learn it all with time... Time... that’s all that was needed.

“You rise early these days, Honour. Is there something you’re not telling us?” Madeline interrupted her thoughts, yawning unceremoniously, “Feels like you barely get any sleep anymore... and I’m still... sleepy.”

“You’ll catch a fly if you keep yawning like that,” Honour shook her head at the waking wolf, “I get enough sleep, Mady, but perhaps I need less of it considering what I am.”

Bree shook her head while she dusted off one of the cushions, “Still takes some getting used to.”

Bree had come to know about Honour’s decision not long after Ginger’s memorial and after Honour’s approval. At first, the girl acted awkward around Honour, but after a long conversation with her, it was agreed that Honour was to be treated like she always had.

The only difference now though, was that Honour was no longer mocked for being weak. If anything, she was considered the most powerful amongst them all. I mean... she was a literal goddess. “I do hope she wins though. I wonder who she will pick to represent her in the games.”

“I don’t know. I’m more worried about Drake than anyone else,” Honour replied absentmindedly.

“Yeah, it’s not every day you hear a royal offering to step down from the throne,” Crysta replied with a sigh of her own, dusting chips off Lina’s futon and folding it appropriately.

The news was still fresh in their minds. News of the prince’s newfound intentions. It wasn’t long ago when the prince had announced that he wanted to step down as crown prince.

For those that were allowed to know this information, it had come as a shock to all of them. Honour, most of all, for Drake hadn’t said a thing about this to her. She hadn’t even noticed a change in his behaviour that would suggest this.

Drake was still the same sweet, thoughtful royal that liked taking walks with her and taking his time off to spend time with her.