A Hunter's Secret

The moon hangs largely in the night sky. It's light the only thing bathing the forest below in a pale glow. A waxing gibbous. Within the next few days a full moon would arise. The forest itself seemed dark in nature. The trees dropped, their bark a deep brown, nearly black. The leaves died off long ago, so only the skinny jagged branches reach forward to the heavens. The path through the forest was worn heavily, but was starting to become overgrown. It was highly neglected. No one had traveled it since the werewolf of Quatertown began it's blood thirsty rampages.

Two forms walk along the long forgotten path. One a large man armed with a pitch fork. A silver cross clenched in his hand. His clothes didn't scream werewolf hunter. With his only clothes being a pair of plain overalls, heavy boots, and a pale grey shirt. He was a simple farmer, and going on a mission like this was never a part of his job description. But it was in hers. The other form was much smaller. A female.

Unlike the farmer, she was dressed for this. She sports armor. Black armor that covered her chest, shoulders, upper arms, and knees. Her boots had 13 straps across them, each had a small symbol on them. Her hair was cut short, really short, and was an icy white. Her black revolver held tightly at hand. It had no ammo in it, but then again, it didn't need any. Her blue eyes drifted across the silent forest. Not even the sounds of raccoons or owls. Just nothingness.

"Ms.Artemis. Are you sure you can h-handle this?", whispers the farmer. His hand tightness on the cross.

"I've been doing this longer than you'll ever know.", Artemis replies.

There was no emotion in her voice. Professional and bland. But she didn't want to talk, even if she wasn't on a mission. She was to busy looking in the forest trees.

The bush rustled wildly and Artemis reacts with lightning speed. Her gun is drawn, locked, and aimed before the farmer even moves his head toward the noise. Her eyes narrow as she gazes down the barrel of the steel gun.

A whisp of blue smoke comes out of the stone necklace around her neck. The head of a dog appears in it and the smoke starts to form the body of it. The dog slowly spirals it's way to the ground and by the time it touches it's become a full , 4- legged German Shepherd. It's half transparent, and all it's features are a ghostly blue. The tail is longer than a normal shepard's, it fades into a ghosty whisp at the end.

"R18. Report.", Artemis spoke sharply. The animal raised it's head to her and looked forward into the bush. With dazzling grace, it lunges forward and vanishes into the heavy foliage. The farmer trembles, and turns around and makes a run for it.

Artmeis turned, "NOOO-", but it's to late. A massive black shape erupts from the bushes. A flash of teeth, and it's all over.

A massive man wolf stands over the fallen farmer. At first glance, it looks like a massive wolf. One as big as a car, but it's back legs were thinner than the front ones. It slowly stood onto it's back legs, the chest more human like than animal like. Claws coated in a glimmering scarlet.

Artemis narrowed his eyes. Fool. She thought bitterly. She ran forward. "R18 ATTACK!!!", she yelled. From the bushes launched the ghostly dog. It ran pace for pace with it's master, and then ran ahead. Jumping like a champion show dog, it lands onto the back of the werewolf. It's claws sink into it's flesh.

"AUUOOUUUUU!!!!", screams the furred monster. Wildly it starts to thrash around. It tries unsuccessfully to rip the dog off it's back. But the dog has been in to many fights for that. When the werewolf slashes at the left shoulder, R18 swings to the right one and vis versa.

Artemis starts shooting. Each bullet made of pure magic that is synthesized deep inside the gun. Bullets whiz by the werewolf. It turns to look at her and snarls, yellow teeth snapping in the pale moonlight. Rears fully onto it's back legs and, it kicks the dead farmer at Artemis. She slides on her knees barely dodging the bloody body. By the time she jumps to her feet the massive monster is on the move!

"Damn it!", she chases at him. As it runs, the werwolf slams through trees. It's thick bones and muscles barely flinching as it burst through the dead forest. R18 yelps as he is showered in spike like splinters. The werewolf takes full advantage of the dog's momentary vulnerability. It does a quick somersault and the dog falls off, crushed by the massive weight of the wolf. Artemis runs past the fallen dog. He lays flat, squished like a grape.

"Get up you lazy Bastard", she yells, never stopping to look at the fallen animal. The blue smoke starts to form around it and in a moment it is standing once more. Not a single scratch on him. R18 again runs in pursuit.

"Can't even let me enjoy death for a minute Artemis!?", R18 pants as he runs at her side. Tongue lopping from it's mouth. Artemis rolls her eyes, they don't have time for this! They're going to lose this thing. Again.

    Artemis doesn’t look at him, but it doesn't matter. The werewolf turns a sharp corner, and so does she. But when she gets fully around the sharp corner, the werewolf is gone. And only the dark, and cold forest it there to meet her. She curses loudly and kicks a rock. Every time! Every time it slipped out of her grasps like smoke!

    R18 trots to a stop at her side. He knows she’s mad about it. She always is. The Light will not accept a failed mission! Lowering his head, R18 starts to sniff around. Grass. Wood. Soil. He snorts when he runs into a patch of mint. How could that massive creature that smells like rotten flesh vanish like this every time!?

    “Artemis. What if it isn’t really a werewolf.”, R18 says as he returns to her side. She has taken a seat on a fallen log and is now looking over her gun. It’s what she always does when she’s mad, just cleans her weapons. After a moment she looks up at him. He walks over to her and presses the touch screen located on the top side of her elbow long black gloves. A magical menu  pops up into the air, pulsing a soft purple color. Running a half solid paw over it. A book formed. It was a dark brown with golden letters on the front. ‘The Monster Manual’. The book hovers over her wrist.

    Artemis groans. “I hate this stupid thing...”, she starts flipping through it. R18 lays down on his belly and stretches out perfectly relaxed.

    “Aren’t you going to help?”, she raises an eyebrow.

    “Sorry. No hands”, R18 says. A crooked smile crossed his face.

    Artemis angrily mutters to herself. “Stupid familiar can swipe through my glove, get it out of inventory and make it appear in my lap. But can’t flip the freakin page!?” R18 just laughs softly to himself.

    “What if the werewolf is really just a hairy guy? Or....an alien from outer space!! Or a warlock’s failed experiment.....”, R18 rambles loudly. His eyes closed,but his ears are up.

    “Maybe I need to get a familiar who doesn't just complain.”, she shot back at him. He lifts his head.

“Ouch.” He sets a paw over his heart, “That hurts me deep Artemis. Reaaaalllll deep.”, he lays on the ground and starts making loud and obnoxious drying noises. On his back, he flails his paws around like a bad actor. T

    “Goodbye cruel worllddd!! I hardly kneww you!!! I’ll never run though your lush fields or drink from the headquarters toiletsssssss. Never again will I go on long and boring trips with the most antisocial bump on a loggggg. Never more to taste the sw-AOOUUU!!”, he says before Artemis stops on his tail. He quickly draws back from her and strokes his hurt tail.

    Beep. Beep. Beep.

    Artemis looks at her wrist. The book has minimized and her radio has popped up. “Great.”, she mutters as she answers it.

    The head of an old man forms quickly in the purple light. His eyes sunken but his brow seemed almost unnaturally set forward. His eyebrows were long, and curled over his eyes. His beard is so long it vanishes at the wrist. Wrinkles? This guy had hundreds. But then again, he was over a thousand years old.

    “Artemis! Status Report.”, he said. Short, but his voice cut like a blade. His eyes fixed angrily on her.

    “Sir! We lost the werewolf again. But from the way it vanishes, we have reason to doubt it isn’t a real werewolf at all. It might even be an illusion created by a warlock. The reports just said these people were ripped apart. It never said anyone saw a werewolf do it.”, she replied. Her voice flat. R18 lifted his head to the image.

    “Not a werewolf? Hmm....Very well. If it is in fact a warlock’s trick, you’ll need back up.”, says the man. An ancient hand rises onto the picture as he strokes his beard.   

    “Sir. We can handle this. We don’t need back up.”, Artmeis insists.

    “It’s been decided. Return to starting point. We will have Arrow at your side by dawn.”, he says.

    “But Sir-”, she says. But it’s to late, with a sudden click, the image is gone. She groans loudly. The only thing more annoying then R18 was Arrow!

    Artemis sat in her hotel room. It was small, the wallpaper was starting to yellow and fall off. She sighed heavily, looking at the alarm clock on the bed. It was 3:12 am. She sits up and rubs her face. Her armor was placed carefully on the small table in the corner. But her gun was laying at her side. It always did.

Slowly, she walks across the room to the bathroom and flips it on. The bathroom isn’t anything special just like the room. The pale colored sink was cracked on one side. The bathtub had an ugly brown stain on it. The curtains were a sickly pale peach color. Artemis turns the water on, and runs it over her hands and splashes her face. The water was cold but she didn’t care. R18’s loud snoring was the only noise besides the water.

Artemis looks at her reflection. Nothing had changed. She still had her short white hair. She still had her blue eyes. Skin still looked ghostly pale. It hadn’t changed in 816 years. Hadn’t changed since the day she awoke as an agent of The Light. She reaches out to the mirror. Her fingers tracing a hairline break on it’s bottom edge. 816  years and she hadn’t fulfilled her contract.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Her thought train stopped. Her eyes darted to the door. Cursing under her breath she walked over and slipped on some jeans and a jacket. R18 yawned and floated over to the door, unlocking it with a flick of his tail. The door unlocked, and the person beyond just pushed it open. Sure enough, Arrow was leaning against the doorway. He grinned ear to ear like a child on Christmas. 

Arrow had that teenage heart throb look. With blue eyes and wild but short white hair, which all hunters had,  he couldn’t walk down the street without being adored by fan girls. With a athletic and tall build, he did hold his own sort of charm. He didn’t even have to say a word to catch your heart in his hands like a butterfly. The only girl immune to his charms was pouring a cup of coffee in the small kitchen area of the room.

“Arty! I’m so glad to see you again!”, he says louder then he should at quarter to 4am. He walks in and slams the door shut. Tossing off his shoes and armor, carelessly tossing them about.

“It’s Artemis! And don’t just throw your stuff around like you own the place!”, she hisses at him. She set the coffee pot back and sipped from the cup, not even bothering to look at him.

“Oh dearest Artemis, your as heartwarming cuddly as ever”, he sits down on the bed. Only his cotton button up shirt, elbow length gloves,  and cargo pants remain. He gave her a wolfish grin. She gave him the finger. His reply was a simple wink.

R18 jumped onto the bed, sniffing Arrow like a normal dog would. Arrow rubs his ears. “Hey boy. What’s it like being a slave to mean old Arty?”, he cooed softly.

R18 just laughs and withdraws himself, returning to his cozy spot on the floor by the heater. Arrow opens his own book of monsters and starts flipping through the pages.

A green wisp starts to come out of a cross pendant around his neck. A cat like familiar jumps around. The tips of it’s  tail fading into a wisp like R18’s tail.

“Ah. L315, I’m glad you joined us. I was going to let you sleep”, he smiles at the cat.  It perches on his shoulder, and stares into the book.

“No. I don’t need to sleep”, L15 replies.

“So Artemis. Is it really so hard to catch one mutt?”, he looks at her, turning his attention to the pages.

“It’s not one mutt. It’s something else!”, Artemis says sharply. She was growing frustrated. Agitated. Irritated. She hated Arrow. Hated everything about him. And him being her was putting her in a worse mood than she usually was.

“Like what?”, L315 blinks at her. It’s ghostly eyes locking onto her blue ones.

“I haven’t figured it out yet. But it might even have something to do with The Darkness.”, she says seriously.

Arrow freezes, his jaw sets hard. His whole body tensed, and L315 puffed up. “The Darkness?”, they both say in unison. R18 lifts his head and looks at her.

“There’s always a possibility.”, she mutters.

“The Darkness isn’t a joke Artemis! It isn’t something we can just willy-nilly throw around! It’s seriously serious! ”, L315 meows loudly at her.

“I know. But I mean. In the last great war...Mr.Moon wasn’t destroyed right!? He just fled with his followers. So, it always could be.”, Artemis sighs in reply. Even his familiar got on her nerves. She glances over at the clock, it was officially 4am. It’s amazing how time flies when you're being tortured by the brainless boy and his stupid feline.

“At any rate. The only one who can answer this is that mutt. So instead of speculating how about we plan a trap.”, Artemis says finally. Silence consumed the room. Arrow kept looking at L315, and R18, and Artemis.

“Fine. But breakfast first! Why don’t you cook me something Arty? I am your guest!”, Arrow blurts out and grins. Artemis groans as if in pain, and R18 and L315 just snicker softly.