Artemis, Chapter 1

Artemis
CHAPTER 1
Artemis and Ali
Artemis' arms ached, they ached not only from firing hundreds of arrows from his bow, but from knowing that they all missed. He tried to find a teacher, a mentor, someone who could help him, but he was the only one in his village that used this strange weapon.

The village was famous for its meat. It's Hunters. Hunters that were strong, well built, Hunters that were role models. All the children of the village dreamed of being a hunter, it was all they wanted to do. Whenever a hunter came back to town to drop off his massive burden of meat, most of the village showed up. As soon as the hunter dropped of his load, everyone gathered around him as he told them of his amazing feats and how he survived the brutal adventures of his hunt.

But Artemis was different. Sure, he wanted to be a Hunter, but he didn't like the idea of being massive and muscular. If he was massive and muscular, he couldn't climb trees the way he did, nor could he run as fast. Artemis loved being up high, to survey the area he was in and what was in it and look for animal tracks on the ground and follow them to the homes of their owners.

Artemis longed to be a legendary Archer. He longed to be a Hunter. But he was only 13. “You have to be at least 18 years old, Arty.” Said his best friend, Ali for the thousandth time. Ali was 13 years old as well but he knew the rules and regulations like the back of his hand, because Ali's dad was the Administrator of the Council of the Hunters. Artemis was surprised when he found out that Hunting comprised of many rules, when all they had to do was supply meat for the surrounding villages.

Artemis first met Ali when he was practising. Ali just finished doing rounds for his dad, and making sure that all the Hunters had their registration up to date. Only the best hunters who had 'Gold' status didn't have to have registration, because the King himself rewarded the Hunter with the best possible reward, Glory, that was all the Hunters wanted. So Ali finished the rounds and he was walking home a different way than he used to, and he stumbled across a dense forest. Ali wanted to explore, and since his work was done, he raced across the forest as fast as he could, but he wasn't as fit as he thought he was and he slumped against the last tree of the forest when suddenly a arrow whistled passed his ear. He looked around and saw a boy his age and started shouting at him. “WHY ARE YOU SHOOTING AT ME, I CAN GIVE YOU A MASSIVE FINE FOR ATTACKING THE SON OF AN ADMINISTRATOR! But Artemis just sat there, like he had been yelled at for millions of years. Eventually Ali calmed down. He realised that he shouldn't be screaming at this stranger. Artemis just smiled at him and said in a calm voice, “How are you? I'm Artemis but most people just call me Arty”. Ali just stared in disbelief at this 'Arty', no-one talks to him like that after he screams at them. “Ahh.. umm.. Im kinda.. ummm” stuttered Ali. “Don't worry, It's okay, come with me, it's getting late” Artemis told him. So Ali followed Artemis to his house, which was a simple hut made out of the pine from the neighbouring forest. In time Artemis became the closest friends with Ali and they learned from each other: Ali knew all the rules about being a Hunter, and Artemis knew all the practical, outside things, even though he wasn't a massive guy like the local boys. Ali always went to Artemis' house when he was finished his work and Artemis sometimes went into town to Ali's house because he was always helping out around the house. Artemis lived mostly with his mum, because his dad had died when he just started being a Hunter, but Artemis didn't understand, because his dad was a massive Hunter who had a reputation of chopping a deer's head off clean, but Artemis was a small scrawny boy, who couldn't even lift up a log for the fire in their house. Ali was small as well, which they had in common but Ali also got some carpentry techniques off his father, and could build a pretty good tree house, which they both made. Ali would nail and carry the planks of wood and Artemis would saw and even sand the planks.

The day they started was a blue sky, perfect weather, they thought. They decided to build it in the very centre of the forest, where people usually strayed from, because there was a rumour that there was a mysterious monster that would rip you to shreds as soon as you reached its territory. But that was just to keep the small children from straying from their mothers and their village. Artemis wasn't scared the slightest. But Ali was a little. “What if the rumours are real, what if we DO get ripped to shreds, what if..” “What if we DON'T” interrupted Artemis. “Fine, but I don't think that we should bring lots of things with us, because we will be walking heaps, and we will have to go around more dense patches of trees, because of the trailer.” Insisted Ali. The trailer was a simple wood box, without a lid, with 2 wheels made of rock and 2 poles to drag it with. Ali got the left pole and Artemis right. “Lets go” they both said in unison.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF CHAPTER ONE, IF I GET 100 VIEWS I SHALL POST THE SECOND