Treborn

Sitting on a rock in a forest of unknown location, Artemis was helping a rabbit couple sort out their problems.

"He ate the rest of the berries I had saved"

"You told me I could have them!"

"You should have known that I actually wanted them and that I was only saying yes to be nice"

Artemis could not fathom what to do with these two. They've been together since she was a kid, and consistently argue over seemingly stupid things.

If she was truthful, she was on the husband's side, it didn't exactly make any sense why he was supposed to know she did want it when she said she didn't.

But they came to her for help, so she would be the voice for both sides.

"Dude, I understand your frustration with her, but this is the fourth time she's gotten mad at you over this exact thing, whether or not you're in the wrong or right, you should've learned by now."

He only grumbled in response, which told me he understood.

"Both of you hop along now, I have archery practice"

Seemingly in a better mood, they both remarked, "Why do you even still practice archery, you're already so perfect at it"

"Yeah, I bet there's nobody better than you"

She didn't know how to tell them she still practiced archery because there was nothing left for her to do.

"It's therapeutic for me, allows me to clear my head when the only thing I'm focused on is hitting my target"

It wasn't a lie, archery seemed to call her like no other, but lately Artemis felt like she could do more, learn more. Her head like an empty lakebed, it was agonizingly boring doing the same every day, all day. She mastered the basics of Heldic like the trees taught her, but they refuse to delve deeper into anything.

"The greatest insights come from within"

It was just a load of bear droppings. Sounded more like they were too lazy to teach her anything else, preferring sleeping all day, every day; they were terrible at holding conversations.

Whilst idle in her frustrated thoughts, Artemis found herself in front of an enormous tree, that dwarfed every tree in the forest except an identical one stationed on the other side. Those two were some of the few trees she was never able to awaken, despite them quite obviously being alive

In fact, almost all of the trees in this forest, Artemis had to wake up from a seemingly eternal slumber that permeated the entire wood.

Some were grateful and willing to help, others were grumpy and promptly ignored her best efforts to beg for wisdom.

Her target for today was in the opposing tree, the last challenge given to her by the trees before they refused to teach her any further.

Steadying her breath, she used Heldic to summon a bow and notched arrow, drawing it back with strength and precision.

Artemis identified her method of approach, a wide over-arching shot to glide down into the target, whether it would work or not was to be determined.

"Shot for the ages, attempt number 4568"

She aimed, and fired

Stunning shot that could not have been performed better, to which was evident by how the arrow soared through the sky beautifully.

Yet, alas, like every other attempt, the arrow made it 3/4ths of the distance and fizzled out.

"Aw nuts, why can't I do it? Is this the pinnacle of my skill in archery? Am I destined too forever be stuck here?"

Deciding to take a break from anything making her head hurt, Artemis settled on doing one of her other, favorite activities.

Scaring the local wildlife!

Scurrying onto a lower branch of the ancient tree she began her hunt, so to speak.

Artemis jumped from branch to branch in a stealthy fashion, looking for a victim of her nefarious ploy.

Her friends have always told her that she could sneak up on a spider in its own home, which she turned around and did.

Just before she decided that nobody must've been out to play today, her ears twitched; someone was drinking water at the stream.

Dashing to the stream while remaining as silent as possible, finding a large wolf drinking merrily, unaware of the tragedy that would befall it.

Priming herself in a good position directly behind it, Artemis inched forward, her previous demeanor shed away.

The stream was well within a clearing on both ends, making it hard to stalk behind someone taking a drink unless one was willing to risk sprinting out quickly. However, that logic applied to others; unbeknownst to the reason why, when Artemis walked through the forest, not a sound could be heard.

Once near enough to touch the wolf, resisting the urge to blow her cover too soon, she moved a breaths length from the back of its ear and released a bit of killing intent

"Boo"

In the blink of an eye, the wolf tensed and jumped into the stream, taking on a defensive stance while baring fangs.

"Artemis, you need to stop doing that, you're shaving off years of my life each time"

The wolf was very visibly annoyed, but relieved there was no danger

"Oh, come on Fluffles, you make it hard not too"

"Why do you insist on calling me that still"

"Do you have any better names?"

Since he only huffed in response, she knew she won this one; just like she won every time her nickname for him was brought up.

But truth be told, they didn't have any names, they don't even interact with each other if Artemis isn't the mediator. For familiarity's sake and convenience, she just gave names to everyone.

The two rabbits were Sarah and Cody.

"Is there a reason you have come here to torture me, other than for your own sadistic pleasure"

"Mr. Fluffles, don't be so mean, I was bored and wanted to come talk to my favorite fluffy creature"

"You make resisting the urge to bite you, extremely difficult"

"I love you too, Fluffles"