𝓐 rtemis

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𝒜𝓇𝓉
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Drawn by zippy


Drawn by Srinyx at their artshop


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*See King Zeus' bio in Dynasty for more background info on the beginningof this story*

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Long ago, before Zeus was sent to Earth to leave his second life, Princess Aurelia and Zeus sat by a river which was lit up with moonlight. They talked quietly, not disturbing the peace that was the dark night.

"If you ever had children, what would you name them?" Aurelia asked, tilting her head curiously.

Zeus thought for a bit, before answering the princess, "Whatever you would like, your highness. Whatever would make you happy, all I do is in your service, Princess."

"Call me Aurelia. We are away from the army, from my mother. You don't have to keep such formalities. But I would name one of my children Artemis, it comes from an old legend of my families. It could have been my name, or a sister of mine, if my mother had another daughter." Aurelia bent her head in an embarrassed fashion, "But I would let you chose a name, they would be your children as well, wouldn't they?"

Zeus gazed at the beautiful princess, before smiling softly, "I would like that." That was all he answered, before the conversation fell silent and the two gazed at the river until it became daylight again.

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Pre-Leadership
Artemis' young life was different from most, wandering from pack to pack as she never felt whole anywhere. At night she would look up to the skies and whisper, "Mother….guide me to where I'm supposed to be. Where I will find father."

She eventually found what she was looking for, as she was found by Zeus and taken into his pack. She grew into her life there, and living her life as any normal young wolf would in this realm.

Zeus watched as she found love for herself, in a wolf quite like her, adopted into the pack by Oceanus. His name was Orion, and he loved her with all his heart. But before she was allowed to be paired with him, another wolf found favor with her. He was a wolf from another pack, who happened upon Artemis during a hunt.

Artemis was unsure of what to do, and Zeus was persuaded to let Artemis and this wolf be paired temporarily, as their pups would be strong and beautiful. Artemis bore three pups; Poseidon, Athena, and Uranus. But Poseidon died soon after birth, and Artemis mourned him even after much time had passed. Orion comforted Artemis and helped her to take care of her pups as they grew healthy.

As soon as her pups were weaned, she and Orion were paired and began to work together as scouts in the pack. But later Artemis became pregnant with Orion's pups, and they were born in the thick of winter. Their names were Bouphagos, Erato, Scamandruis, Calliope, and Actaeon. But the first two pups died before they were even weaned, from poison and then from humans.

Over the next few moons, Artemis lost all but one of her young pups. Bouphagos ate a poisonous plant, Calliope was killed by a infected wound, Scamandrius went missing than was found dead, and Erato was killed by humans. With only Actaeon left, Artemis was almost succumbed with her grief.

To keep herself busy, she adopted three young wolves, who had been left at the enclave with Lillemore; Idyia, Apate, and Kanshe. She loved her adopted children just as much as her biological ones, and once they were older she became a hunter, to serve her clan before her time came to be leader. She continued to adopt more pups in need, so they could have a true place to live.
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His eyes were dead and cold as a stone, weighing down his face. His fur was dull, fading as his heat did, blowing lightly in the breeze. He was dead. Their pack leader was gone. There weren't words to say, there wasn't a blessing that did enough, there wasn't anything…
There wasn't a reason, a fact, a truth to tell everyone. Why he was gone, why it was her turn to be the lead that he was. But she couldn't do that. He was gone, he had such big paw prints to fill, and Artemis couldn't quite fill them.
Sure, she knew each wolves name, their favorite type of prey, helped them name their children. But she didn't know what to do, all the things she could say sounded useless. Every wolf was staring ahead, eyes glazed over, as if contemplating how life couldn't get better again. They had lost their biggest supporter, protector, the one who took care of them through sickness and hunger.
When a wolf died, it was customary to lay out their body, cover them with their favorite flower or plant, and sit beside them for a long while, thinking about their life and the memories they carried. So the entire pack lay and sat, gathered in the clearing, staring dazedly at his body. His body, devoid of heat or life, a light dusting of arnica flowers in his fur.
Artemis lay close, nose nearly touching his fur. He was her father, he was her mentor, her protector, the one who always cared. And…he was gone. Up in the stars, away from her, for as long as she still breathed. Everything felt hopeless, leeched of color and love. Until her pup came up to her.
His fur was black, dotted with light blue spots just like her own fur. He had no name yet, his littermate dying before they were weaned, and she hadn't had the heart to name him out of the grief for her child and her own father. "Hi, darling." She said, nudging him with her nose, breaking the silence all around.
"Why's everybody sad?" Her son said in his small voice, his fur ruffling in a light breeze.
Artemis looked at him, his eyes bright and innocent, so full of energy and life. Unlike the wolf she was grieving.
"I….He's…um." She paused, unable to quite get the words out. There was nothing she could say to make them better, softer, or smooth them over. So her heart prevented her from saying them at all. "Oh, darling…I…."
Then her mate, Orion, came up beside them, flopping down next to his son with a small grin on his face. "Artemis, why don't you take a walk, I'll talk with him." He glanced at her, eyes filled with sympathy.
Artemis nodded, stumbling to her paws and walking away. Her paws felt numb and too weak to carry her weight. Every step sounded like thunder to her ears, the clearing silent around them.
She walked for a while, not knowing how to stop, or not wanting to. Finally, she paused, her paws weary of walking. There was a small creek running through the forest, skipping about the trees cheerfully.
She sat, almost falling to her belly, next to the stream. She wanted to howl, cry, perhaps die. There was so much wrong with the world, things that she could never fix. Wolves died and kept on dying. Her pups, her poor children, dying, leaving her, again, and again. Nobody stayed forever, and she hated that. She hated that.
Artemis wasn't in control, she wasn't the leader of anything. She couldn't get anyone to listen or to care. It felt horrible, knowing she was powerless, even though she was supposedly leader of a pack. It didn't feel like honesty, saying that she was the lead. Everything felt wrong about that sentence, because it just simply wasn't true. She could never be that, and wasn't. How, how, how, how. How to be a good mother, when she kept losing her children, when it was her fault they were all gone. How to be a good leader, when the only example she had ever had was gone forever. How to be a good wolf, when everyone was expecting her to fail. She was going to fail.
Everything was falling apart, without anyone to reassure her, she felt herself pass her breaking point. It felt like tumbling off a cliff. Plunged into the ocean below. Lost. Alone. Utterly Alone.

~~~

She hadn't moved in a long time….or ever? She had come back from the creek at some point, hidden in her den. Her pup, her sweet little pup, he came to visit sometimes, his name was Zeus II now, Orion had named him. She hated that name. She hated that pup. She was waiting, waiting, waiting, just waiting for him to disappear. He was going to leave. He was going to die, he was going to leave, he was going to leave her. Orion would leave her, so would her adult children. She would be alone again. Alone. Alone. Alone.
She was alone. Orion left…she woke up one morning, he was gone. She left her den, he was gone. Every wolf avoided her, their eyes distant, her daughter, sweet Callisto, told her that he had left that morning. He was gone. Kanshe left soon after, never coming back from one of his scouts. Uranus, Neith, Sopdu, and Acateon, they all left. Why would they leave?? Why? WHY?
She felt empty. Alone. Numb to the world. Every time she moved, it ached. Every time she thought, it stung. Every time she opened her eyes, it hurt. Because she was alone….Callisto came in, brought her food. Whispered to her, held her up when she fell. Artemis always flinched away. The touch of another's fur…it was supposed to be comforting, but it felt like fire in her veins. She was going to leave…why wouldn't she? Everybody left eventually. Everybody.

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Thanks to Rebbystar for the commission!! (It's below here) I love it, and i recommend their shop!
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HIM!

She had found him.

The one who had started all of her pain!

In the moonlit wilds, he slunk off, as if he could escape punishment as easily as he had escaped the now-twisted Artemis stepped from the gloom and into the flooding beams of the moon's touch. Her wondrous eyes of blue were a poison now, stabbing into the male as he dared to gaze behind him and break off the suspense that had been building up with his every step. He saw her every emotion shrouding a once pleasant, welcoming, and demure complexion.

Now all he saw was fury.

And she couldn't let herself hold back anymore.

"FACE ME!"

All prior doubts were swept away in a cacophony of barbaric growls as her claws met their target with satisfying accuracy. In contrast to the red that blurred her vision and mind, blood dripped from her claws and she couldn't help but enjoy the sight of its sanguine rivulets. Her delight lasted mere moments before a sturdy flank collided with her; Artemis braced her muscles to lessen the blow, but the sudden force behind it propelled her tensed body a few paw steps away, and nothing more! Stumbling on bloodied feet, her breath came out sharply, almost painfully, as she spat towards her prey. "Leave me again why don't you?!" a maddening wail left her panting maw.

The one she once called her beloved was still pushing her away whenever there was a proper opening. "You've turned mad!" he hollered with rue, optics wide and despairing at her as she prowled about. Tension blossomed in his chest and fled in a roaring cry, and his rows of ivory clacked back at her. "Utterly mad! You've ruined our lives! Go away!"
Her own indignation was exacerbated by the exasperated words of the other. How dare he! How dare all of them?

Snarls droned from her larynx as her frenzy of pique propelled her to pounce once more. In an effort to deliver an agonizing bite, she bared her teeth to aim for the flesh on the male's upper forelimb. Though her stature infused the lunge with undeniable power, its great size burdened her with dismal speed; the eruption of wrath would soon exert her and so she stepped back to regain her stamina, while Orion swiped her optics to blind them either with blood or with the sheer force of his talons. If she refused to be pushed back, he could not be pushed to death himself. He fully lunged at her, she who was no longer his Queen.

Their eyes met in mismatched misery, the words still searing like how her claws seared into him. As gore dribbled down his body in the areas she had reached, he rammed his head against hers. An echoing collision sent them spiraling to the floor of the battlefield. Her teeth snagged the tenderness of his windpipe, and not even a flurry of swiping limbs could detain the Queen and remove her from bringing down death. He came to be pinned, splayed, and mocked, with paws embedded into broad shoulders slick with crimson. Callous yet hollow eyes stared down at his pinned form amid his writhing.

Artemis assumed a foreboding posture, a mimic of her initial attack stance; the elevated hackles, enraged heaving breaths reminiscent of a charging bear, and slightly parted jaws with exposed ivories were a distinct warning that she was far from ready to surrender. "Impertinent fool!" Authority enveloped her vocals before a concave of emotion befell her. "You think you can leave me as I suffer further?! But fear not, you'll be long slaughtered come the day that the sun, clouds, and even the horizon can no longer dim the moonlight. No eclipse can delay the eternal moonrise! I cannot fade away like this!"

Orion howled, struggling still to dislodge her. "That day shall be today!" Artemis snarled through a corrupt, harrowing war cry that sliced his ears as her claws did; over and over again. This was not the wolfess he once loved. He thought he had loved a soul, now cackling and damning his every right and talent, would never falter under any weight. Grief left her like THIS! How was he to know that their children couldn't handle the burden of despair as well? How was he to not that they'd all leave and follow their ashamed, yet unrelenting father? Too late to turn back now, but he was not about to lose himself to what was now NOT his mate! Wouldn't the gods understand him? They had to understand him more than her!

But no one would hear him but the ex-mate he pleaded to no more. Right beneath her grasp, he was torn into a husk of the wolf he once was as a result of her revenge. Beheld by the moon and its glowing might, his life painted the bodies of nature around them, lapping at Artemis' feet and staining the rest of the deranged consciousness.

His throat took the final blow, claws catching the moonlight as though wielding it firmly yet wretchedly, and the huntress felled the beast that her former mate had become. Flecks of red scattered across the forest for the last time as she staggered back and away from what had become of his dying frame.

A cackle made her body shake with spasms.

The last thing he ever saw.

And the last he would ever see of the old Artemis.

She was born anew.

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