The Moon Goddess' Chosen

472 [Bonus chapter]Divine Calling

The smell of wood and steel… the faint scent of sweat and the strain of laser focus coupled with a wavering resolve. These were the first things that Honour noticed when she regained her senses…

Or not… It seemed, once more, that her senses were not her own. And neither were her actions. She was back in the body of a beautiful goddess dressed in a white flowing gown, standing in the compound of a grand white palace.

“Relax your shoulders… feel the wind… Don’t tense up or you’ll mess up. Do you know what my divine arrows can do if you miss? You could sink a whole island with one reckless mistake…”

“Arty, please… I can’t relax when you keep scaring me like that,” the bow-wielding female being instructed whined.

“Then do as I tell you or else I’ll keep saying the same things over and over again until you get it right,” Artemis replied in the same commanding tone, completely skipping over the girl’s pleas.

Selene groaned but chose to do as the goddess had said.

‘Breathe in, breathe out…

Clear your mind…

Relax your shoulders…

.....

Feel the wind…

Master how the arrow feels against the current before taking aim…

Hold the arrow steady…’ the words she’d been hearing went through her mind as she finally set her eyes on the target before her. The silver bow in her hand had within it a silver arrow nocked.

The arrow itself hummed and shimmered with a frightening amount of power. This was the goddess of the hunt’s favourite bow.

‘She let me use it! Why?’ Selene thought to herself before a voice interfered with her thoughts.

“That’s it, Selene. You almost got it. Steady with your aim… focus on the target and the target alone…” for once, Artemis wasn’t screaming into her ear but rather letting her voice flow gently into the breeze that would then be delivered into her ear.

The effect would allow the goddess of the moon to keep her focus on the target. ‘Is she this serious about becoming friends with a Titan?’ the woman asked herself as she finally felt her aim was true.

“There you go,” Artemis’s voice sang and with it, the goddess of the moon let the arrow loose.

The silver projectile sang gracefully through the air and struck the bullseye with a frightening shockwave that shook the moon palace and sent tremors through the entire moon’s surface with its power.

“That’s going to cause a few storms and hurricanes in the land of mortals. Hopefully, nothing serious,” Selene sighed…

Regardless, she was happy with the result. The arrow had lodged itself deep into the target, half its shaft going through the sacred wood and straight through the red mark that Artemis had drawn into its bark.

“YOU DID IT, SELENE,” the goddess of the hunt squealed, dashing over to the target. Selene watched the joyful goddess marvel at the results of her mentoring, “We are not taking this out. I’ve never seen a more impressive shot. It was so accurate. Wow, you could take on my brother with a little bit more training.”

At this, Selene laughed hard, “Oh no… I would never be a match for the god of archery.”

“Yeah, that was being too ambitious of me… But still, this is beyond what I would have expected. To be honest, I thought you would destroy a few islands and cause a few accidental typhoons in the land of mortals before you got one shot on target,” Artemis chuckled… and Selene joined her in her merry mirth.

........

The goddess of the hunt’s chuckles was drowned out as Honour woke up to a groggy start. Her mind was muddled with a poor grasp on the present. “Honour, are you awake? Honour wake up…” Madeline’s voice cut through her fog.

Honour lifted a tired eye and witnessed a blue glowing room. A blue mist covered every inch of their room along with a floral incense that slammed Honour with a wave of nostalgia.

‘Moon lotuses… The scent of moon lotuses…’ she thought to herself.

“Honour, can you… um, get rid of this before someone sees?” Madeline asked her.

The girl sighed and waved her hand in the air. The blue mist swirled all around the room, turning colourless the faster it went until it was gone from view. It was as though the mist had never existed.

“Are you okay?” Madeline put her hands on the girl’s shoulders.

“Yes, Mady… I’m…” Artemis’s face flashed through Honour’s mind once more, muddling her thoughts. The power of a goddess surged through her veins the more vivid these memories became. For a moment, she lost her grasp on reality.

Honour was a werewolf born to the Sirius empire and not a goddess that had been double-crossed in the name of vengeance, ‘No, I’m not that goddess,’ she tried to convince herself.

With each passing day, this was getting harder and the feeling of divinity was getting even stronger for her. The pull towards her original home was getting much stronger.

“I’m fine, Madeline. I just need to take a shower to clear my head,” she groaned, rolling out of the bed.

“The memories are still there, aren’t they?” the Seeker asked. Honour paused at the door to the bathroom, slightly out of breath.

“They are getting worse…” she replied, before closing the door behind her.

The young goddess made fists and clenched her toes, straining to feel her body. To grasp the feeling of her mortality.

‘It’s like I don’t fit in my own skin anymore,’ she sighed and stepped into the shower. Honour allowed the water to flow down her back. Shivers racked her body as she struggled to grasp her sense of self.

The dreams were not only getting clearer but they were also tugging at her heartstrings, rousing emotions from centuries ago... Old memories felt as clear as day, ‘Was Artemis really my friend back then?’

.......

Inside her room, a delta rushed in through the door, “Where is she? Did you tell her?”

Crysta slowed down when Madeline didn’t react to her urgent tone, “Mady?”

Madeline looked up from the bed and to the door to the shower, “It’s Honour. That mist came back. It was worse this time…”

“Where is she?”

The girl pointed to the shower. As she did that, the sound of falling water came from the other side of the bathroom door. The girl began tapping her foot on the ground impatiently, “Alright then… You wait for her. I have to go to Lina now… Make sure you keep Honour calm. We wouldn’t want her to get riled up. Who knows what could happen?”

“Hey… that’s Honour you’re talking about. She wouldn’t…,” Madeline recoiled at the thought.

“I know, Mady, I know. Just keep her safe and calm. When she can, meet me, Lina and Bree, before the start of the games,” with that, the delta left the room, leaving Madeline frozen at the goddess’s bed. The sight of the swirling mist wouldn’t leave her mind. Honour’s face when she’d tried to wake her had looked odd as well.

Instead of the normal Honour, they were used to, the woman that had lain in the bed had been stunningly beautiful with perfect skin and features. There had been an ethereal glow about her body and when Madeline had tried to wake her up, her eyebrows had scrunched in frustration.

It was only after her opening one eye that her appearance began to revert back to her normal self… ‘How much time do we have left, Honour?’ she wondered to herself.