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The young boy listened to the gentle sounds of water running as it cut through the silence of the forest. The sun high in the sky was muffled by the trees around him, but the heat brought a trickle of sweat that ran down his back, and he resisted the urge to shudder it away. The birds sang brightly in the trees, and occasionally, they would take flight from their high branches and swoop past quickly. Every now and then a rabbit would sniff gently at his heels, as it made its way through the tall grass. The rabbit was wary of foxes, owls and dogs, but the boy resembled none of these, and his stillness gave all the animals a sense of safety that was not authentic, but he faked it well. He stayed perfectly still as a deer padded its way softly past him, and made no effort to draw his bow and make a shot. The buck was beautiful, and would have made a perfect prize had he been hunting deer, but today he was searching for something else entirely.
He was a very good hunter. He’d been doing it since he was about six years old, and he took to it like a fish took to water. He was big for his age, only fifteen, but stood tall with broad shoulders and strong arms. His skin was a deep cedar, the already dark natural hue bronzed and warmed by the powerful Grecian sun. He spent his summers in these woods, and knew them almost as well as he knew himself, if not better, having been taught the ways of the forests from mentors and caretakers. And though he was young, when the call had gone out to hunt the beast, he hadn’t hesitated, and after a tense discussion, neither had the villagers.
Of course, it had helped that they were desperate. That the beast had been stalking the nearby village off and on for the past five years. That they had sent their best and most powerful hunters after the creature, and most had come back, when they came back at all, missing a limb or other important body part, almost drained of blood, or half mad. So, when the boy had volunteered, though there were some voices of dissent, they were overcome by the sheer desperation of the situation, and soon gave way to the boy’s insistence. He had no parents that anyone knew of, and no family that anyone could remember. He would make a fitting sacrifice. Perhaps with his youth and beauty, the monster would be appeased, and leave the rest of them at peace.
And a monster it was. It was impossible to think of it as anything else. Some said that it was a god in the form of an animal, punishing them for some long forgotten slight, but they prayed until their knees were worn and still it came, plucking children from the edge of the forest as they played, or people traveling through the woods at night. It took the form of a bear, but was smarter and more cunning than any bear anyone had ever known. It seemed to know when someone was tracking it, and could thwart any traps that were set up, no matter how inconspicuous. It could sense when hunting parties were in the woods, and sometimes would avoid them entirely, or take them out, one by one, until none remained.
But, the boy knew all of this, and still volunteered. He’d known all of the stories. How the monstrosity stood higher than any bear anyone had ever seen. How it could run faster than the fastest horse at full speed. How its claws were like swords and its teeth like knives. It could scale any obstacle, climb any tree, and had an intelligence never seen before. He knew all these things, and yet volunteered anyway. Why? Perhaps the boy himself couldn’t tell you. The village had never been much of a home to him, but to be truthful, he’d always loved the hunt, and the more difficult the quarry, the more the thrill of the hunt gave him. He’d spent the year before hunting a man-eating crocodile. It had taken him almost a month of stalking the marshes, but in the end, he’d been victorious, stringing up his prize in the town square, and collecting the hefty bounty.
He knew how to hold his breath just so that he wouldn’t disturb the air around him. He knew where to stand so that his scent would be carried downwind. He knew how to walk so his footsteps fell silently on the thick underbrush. He liked to think that he learned this from his father. Perhaps a great hunter as well. Someone who was able to make the forests an open book that lay before him. The boy would often lie awake at night and fantasize about the man, a great hunter who was a legend, but who died before he could meet his son.
Even though he was lost in revere, the boy was still alert to all sounds around him. He dismissed the light tap of a wild pig behind him, but focused in on a deeper rustling in front. All of his senses lasered into the sound. It was almost as if a very large creature was trying very hard to be quiet. He could see a brush of brown, and felt his pulse quicken. His prey.
His footsteps muffled by the stream he’d so carefully positioned himself near, he took off towards the creature, moving so fast he seemed to blur faintly about the edges, he readied his bow, and stepped into the clearing, and there it was.
The boy took a moment to breathe before drawing his bow and aiming it at the bear. He didn’t have to hope it flew true, thousands of shots before had prepared him for this moment, but he said a prayer to Artemis regardless, and let it fly.
The bear leaned back on her haunches and sniffed the air. The wind was quiet and still, but the forest was alive with activity that she could feel in every hair. The rumble of the stream that she stood beside curled upward from her toes, and through her legs. There was something about this body. This large, hairy thing. Something that caught every turn of the air, and every vibration in every molecule of her being. She had spent many years in this forest, walking on two feet, but on four, it was a different experience entirely.
For the first time in a long time, she’d felt truly at peace. For many moons, bands of men came after her in waves. They carried swords and shields, and hunted with flames and dogs, but she’d beaten them back. At first she’d tried to run, but as that got more and more dangerous, she’d turned around to fight. The men fell before her like sheaves of wheat before a farmer’s scythe. It had been difficult at first to see the terror in their eyes, to hear their bloodcurdling screams, and the clatter of their weapons as they fell to the ground. However as time went on, as her previous humanity slipped further and further away, it had gotten easier. She’d fall on the groups long before they got close to her nesting place, and rip them to shreds, leaving only a few survivors so that they might tell the tale. But they always came back, sometimes a few at a time, and later in bigger and bigger groups, until she’d spent several days rooting them out, and making them pay for their intrusions. But the battle had left her exhausted, and worn, and she’d taken to a nearby stream to rest.
She remembered little of her life as a human, but she remembered her love of the water, and the lazy streams of the forest still kept her company on dark days. She’d splash through the water, her large form upsetting the fish that swam beneath her. She’d pay them no mind, and like a cub she would enjoy the way the light from the sun reflected through the droplets and painted rainbows through the air. She looked downstream and noted the streaks of red, and tufts of hair that flowed there. It had been a hard fought victory, but a victory nonetheless.
The sound of the arrow reached her ears almost as it left the bow. She could hear the familiar twang as the rope distended and guided the arrow forward. It was a sound she’d heard thousands of times before in the earlier part of her life, and thousands of times after she’d found herself wandering the forest. She could tell so much from that sound. She knew exactly on her thick hide where the arrow would land, and before she knew it, she’d shifted her backside to allow it to sink into the rough skin there. The exhaustion that she’d felt only a few moments before was replaced with vigor and a white hot rage. This hunter (and he was alone, she could tell even now), would not even have allowed her a moment’s peace. That was the problem with men, they thought they were all sons of the gods, and the world their playground. She was there to show them differently.
She spun on her back legs until she was facing where she knew the hunter would be. He’d shifted after the shot, and it was a move that might have tricked a lesser creature, but the old bear was wiser than she appeared, and had seen the trick many times before. She heard him yelp has she crashed in the underbrush towards him, bursting through the shrubs and small trees, decimating them and uprooting them, sending them flying.
He was fast, she would give him that. He took off at an angle that kept him just ahead of her enough that she couldn’t reach him with a mighty swipe of that great paw, and even took a moment to shoot another arrow off. The bear careened around a tree and the arrow bounced harmlessly off the bark. She had seen him as he turned, and was surprised. He was not yet grown, still a boy even, without the shadow of manhood on his face. However, his jaw was strong, and his eyes were clear and focused, and he shot the bow with the strength of a skill that she hadn’t seen matched in any of the hunters who’d come before. She almost paused at the shock of it, and her humanity surged forward. A boy. So young a thing. Out here alone in these woods, and hunting a creature such as herself. Whoever had sent him here had sent him to his death. Where were his people to speak for him? Where was his mother? She slowed nearly to a stop. If he had no one for him, then she would be for him. Perhaps, the last thing she could do was spare his life. She listened carefully as the boy’s steps took him farther away, and turned heading back the direction that she came.
Suddenly, a sharp snap disturbed her footing, and a rope pulled taut in front of her, yanking her paw from under her. She roared and stumbled the few steps that the rope would allow, another snap behind her, pulled her back leg in another direction. She stilled her movements, wary of another trap that would catch another foot. Her ears turned towards the soft snapping of twigs that she could still hear over her steady panting. The steps slowed softly, but her ears still followed, though she made no movement of her head. She had wanted to spare the boy, but she didn’t think that would be possible now. He was a good hunter. The traps were a good idea; and well made. It would have held any bear in the forest. But, she was not like those bears. She was myth and legend, and had rightly earned her title.
The young hunter didn’t say a word as he circled his prey, carefully examining the points to which she was ensnared for any signs of weakness. The great bear left him in his imaginings. That she was harmless to approach. That she could not reach him. That he was safe. He nearly reached her head before he spoke.
“What a beast you are. I’ve heard tell, but they do not do you justice. You are a thing of wonder.”
His voice was almost a whisper, and it held the awe of someone who truly understood the great beauty of nature. Again the she-bear felt her heart slow, and her reaction still. Her desire to kill him left as quickly as it had come, and she resolved to leave without taking the boy’s life.
She moved like a flash, and her front paw was free. She swiped, and the boy went sailing. The other was free, and she turned, moving again towards where she had come, not waiting to see where he landed. But, there was something in his movement as she tossed him aside. He seemed to absorb her power, and dissipate it like it was second nature. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the unbelievable; the boy was nearly running beside her in step. Keeping a pace that she had barely ever seen in human form. She turned again, a sharp thing that left him behind and pushed herself even harder. She heard the arrows before she felt them, but still it seemed she wasn’t fast enough. She couldn’t imagine that he was firing them as they ran, and yet they still rained down on her, strong and true. She turned again, pushing herself as fast as she could go, using all of the strength that was left in her body, not only to avoid the great arrows that fell on her flesh, but to get away. A emotion took over her, and it was something that she had not felt in a long time.
Fear.
The humanity was pushed back into the deep recesses of her mind, and the animal took over. She panted and grunted, destroying the land as she galloped, crushing whatever was underfoot. The steps became more and more primal, and the pain from the arrows more and more intense until the only thing she could see was the small band of vision directly in front of her. Suddenly, the arrows stopped. She wanted to turn, wanted to see what had stopped her pursuer, but there was no time. Before she could bring her oversized body to a halt, the ground gave way in front of her, and she was sailing through the air. All four paws clawed, desperate for some purchase, some ground to connect to, but there was nothing, and then before she could even comprehend what was happening, the earth began to crash towards her.
The boy scrambled down the cliff face, landing gently. He wasn’t even breathing heavily as he reached the ground, a soft sheen of sweat clouding his features. Instead of appearing as if he’d been sprinting through the bush for the better part of the last half hour, he looked as though he’d just taken a leisurely stroll through the woods with his lover.
He surveyed the body of the bear where it lay. He’d been right. It was a massive thing, and even in her stillness shook the surroundings with her size. He’d been loathe to kill her, but he’d volunteered to do away with the thing, and he’d promised he would. It was as if his entire training had been heading towards this moment. He could feel the adrenaline racing through his veins, and with a deep breath he calmed it. It had done its job, now he could rest.
The thing about triumph is that it’s intoxicating. The only thing in the boy’s mind were the cheers of the townspeople when he brought the carcass of the bear in. He could only see the longing looks of the boys and girls who wished they could be his bedmates. He could only imagine the pelt from the gargantuan creature hanging around his shoulders like a trophy. The strange way the wind picked up didn’t bother him, nor did the gentle rise and fall of the bears enormous chest.
He was near her right paw when she swiped. This time giving it all her strength, and baring her claws to rip and rend. She had lost all thoughts of sparing him now, there was nothing left but his death.
She was on top of him in an instant. Her maw dripping blood as she eyed his neck. There was a moment of hesitation before she struck. And then black.
The water was in her ears and eyes and everywhere. She struggled not to swallow it and breathe it in, but that was nearly impossible being as she was face down. She pulled herself up on her elbows and took a deep, ragged breath. She tried to focus but the crashing of the waves were too loud. She tried to open her eyes.
Bad idea.
She snapped them shut again as the pounding in her head became a clanging. She could only sit there for a few moments and try to catch her breath. She wondered if this was how babies felt when they were born. No wonder they came out crying.
She would have laid there until the end of eternity but a voice called out to her, close to her head.
“Callisto.”
She scrambled away from the voice, startled, and tried to open her eyes again. This time the sunlight didn’t burn them quite so harshly, and she was able to take in a few shapes and colors. The blue of the sky. The white foam of the ocean. A darkly clad figure only a few steps away from her. The shape wasn’t familiar, but suddenly Callisto was filled with information about it. A woman. About one hundred and twenty pounds. Black hair. Dark eyes. The woman could probably run for five minutes before giving out, and Callisto knew exactly how fast she’d have to run to double back and sneak up on her. Her footsteps were soft, but not silent, and she’d never held a bow in her life. Or a sword for that matter. Callisto’s moment of panic and uncertainty faded. The woman wasn’t a threat.
“Callisto!” The woman said again.
Callisto took her time, settling back on her haunches, and letting the water wash over her legs. She opened and closed her hands a few times, letting stray pebbles and sand run through them. She was in no hurry and let her vision come back slowly. Her memories began to return as well. She let her eyes focus out on the distance. Where there had once been unspoiled countryside was filled with buildings and people. A highrise looked down on the beach, and Callisto fought against the confusion that rose up inside her. She knew of this thing and many like it. The world had moved on in a number of ways since she had been imprisoned. Callisto focused back on the woman standing in front of her, and suddenly a name appeared in her mind. Her memory of the woman had returned as well.
“Persephone.”
It was not a question. Persephone knelt closely beside her.
“So, you remember me?”
“Yes, but there’s a great deal that I don’t remember. How did I get here? Did you do this? Why? Does Zeus know about it?”
“I don’t have much time Callisto, so I must be short. Time is of the essence.”
“Time before what?”
“I can’t stay here for long.”
“Here, where?”
“Greece. You’re back in your homeland.”
“And?”
There was a moment of hesitation, and Callisto didn’t have to look to feel Persephone’s annoyance.
“You are no longer in your place among the stars, Callisto, you are free.”
Callisto grimaced. “I have a feeling that this freedom has some limitations.”
“We certainly didn’t bring you back for a bite to eat.”
“What, then?” Callisto looked Persephone full on. Her deep brown eyes flashed angrily, and Persephone had to resist the urge to take a step back. The hunter stared at her until she felt like she had to speak again.
“I have something for you.”
A ruffle of Persephone’s cloak, and she produced a hunter’s bow that she handed to Callisto. There was a power emanating from it that Callisto could almost smell. The aura wafted around it like the wavy lines around a fire. It was probably the most beautiful bow that Callisto had ever seen. It was carved from the wood of a Oleaceae tree, with deep lines that created a bear on one side and a doe on the other. The bow string was a material that she couldn’t quite place. She reached out for it in spite of herself, and when it landed in her hand, she realized she’d never felt a bow more balanced. She turned it this way and that, feeling its weight.
“It’s amazing.”
“It’s a gift, one that you can keep. It will always shoot true, and never needs any ammunition.”
“And what is its price, goddess?!” Callisto nearly spat out the words. Her voice was hoarse and soft, but her desperation was real. She trusted Persephone as little as she trusted any god, and would not be taken again by them. “You bring me back here, greet me, and give me this enchanted weapon. Your price must be very high.”
Persephone seemed to think on this for a moment. “Yes, perhaps it is. But I think it is something that you will enjoy.”
“And what is that.”
“Do you think you were the only one betrayed by the gods, Callisto?”
“Of course not. I heard tell of a great many.”
“And what if I were to give you the chance to make those wrongs right?”
“How?”
“Use the bow. And wait for my instructions. I will tell you how to help them, and you can save them. You can be their savior.”
Callisto shook her head. “But why would you do this? Why would you help me? You’re not a human, you’re a god.”
“I lived on my own, away from the other gods, and then was brought into their-” She sniffed delicately. “Troubles. I have no sympathy for them. But I do care for the humans on this world. I can’t convince you now, and I wouldn’t try to. Take the bow, and wait for me. I will explain all.”
“And if I don’t?”
“The bow is yours to do with what you will. I just hope that you will not let your heart get hard toward humans.”
“How could I do that? I am one of them.”
“Not anymore, Callisto.”
There was a pause, and Callisto looked back to the bow. She squeezed it tightly and felt the power flowing into her arm. She didn’t have to ask Persephone if that was true, she could feel it already.
“So, what do I do?”
“Wait for me to return. And survive.”