A man took out his knife and began cutting away at the pelt of a small goat he had caught in a trap. It bleeted as he approached, but he quickly silenced it and as he worked, he muttered to himself, "it's a shame, really, that all I want is your skin, little one. Carrying you back in full will cost more than your skin alone," he wiped his nose, forgetting his hands were covered in blood and smearing it on his face, "let's hope the other traps I set bare such fruit as you-" an arrow pierced his temple, and he dropped to the ground.

Artemis approached from the southern part of the open thicket, tears poured from her otherwise bitter face. She pushed him aside and removed the snare from the wild goats foot, which burned away in her hands, and then removed the mans hand with his own dagger. She held it up to catch the moonlight and then placed it on the goat, who layed still for a moment and then jumped awake.

"Ah, there you are," she said wiping her eyes, "I wasn't too late." She looked down at the corpse and then back to the small goat who began to lick its fur of blood, "He has been poaching for a while now, the fool. To think he thought he could get away with killing in my forest, and on a full moon... pathetic," she rolled him over to his back and placed her hands on his stomach. She gripped his chiton and then released it as thorny vines engulfed him. She pet the goat and smiled when a sound broke through the silence of the night. She stood, drew her bow and arrow and nodded towards the goat, who began chewing on the vines themselves, and then slipped away into the underbrush.

Artemis quickly and silently found the source of the noise: a bear pulled at one of the snares the poacher had set and was crying out. She saw its silhouette- thin, confused, weak- and she lowered her arrow from her sights. She cleared her throat and the bear looked up in terror.

She clicked her tongue, "I'm surprised you fell for that, sister-", the bear began pulling desperately on the snare, dislocating its shoulder and cutting further into its skin. Artemis jumped gracefully and gently landed by the bear and in the same action, layed her hands on the bears side, soothing it.

"Will you let me help you?" Artemis asked with a smile, the bear looked blankly at her. Artemis looked back at the bear, confused, "You can't understand me? You must not be from around here," she shook her head and placed her hand on the snare, burning it away. The bear fell over from the tension on the snare, but did not get back up, alarming Artemis. She ran to the bear side and checked its breathing. After a moment, she sighed in relief and lifted the bear effortlessly onto her shoulders and carried it away.

Artemis spent most of her nocturnal life caring for the bear she assumed was simple minded, and in turn, while she rested, the bear regained its strength slowly and guarded her during the day. They began to take walks together in the mornings as Artemis came back from her godly duties of challenging anyone to rape her lands and maintaining fear within humanity's heart of the wild. Some days she would be so tired, she would ask to lay on the bears back as they took their brief walks, and she she confided in the bear, whispering in its ear while gripping its neck with her toned arms draped in fine cloth. It was soon after these walks began that Artemis began to find the letters.

The first one was indecipherable to Artemis, but it had no unknown smell on it. She opened it with caution, to see that a foreign language scribbled on it with pigment made from berries that grew in her forest. She mentioned it to the bear as she layed down the next morning, and for a while, the letters halted. An unknown amount of time passed between the two letters, but the second one was far more refined, again retaining no smell that Artemis could not recognize, and when she opened it, she could make out the words that layed scrawled on the parchment:

Rare ores describe your eyes

And with them, you pierce my heart

Like a thorn on the vine

Which you wrap around me

My life begins again with you.

Not even your own reflection

Can compare to you

Your kindness, your wild spirit,

You're pulling me in

Like the eternal dance

The water has with the cliffs.

Artemis kept the letter in her pocket for the evening and missed an arrow thinking about who could have sent it. She continued to decline as more letters found themselves at her bedside. She began to mourn at the idea of never knowing who sent her such praises, her heart, for once, felt warm instead of hollow like the light of the moon. She decided to set a trap of her own and began to only pretend to sleep for days.

On the fourth day of this feint, Artemis finally heard someone move beside her chamber of soft grasses and place something on her bedside. Exhausted, Artemis shot her eyes open and grabbed the wrist of the person who was delivering these messages of love. The woman, who stood almost two feet over Artemis, winced back in surprise, and tried to pull her arm away from Artemis' grip. She put her other hand out and a burst of green light and wind blinded Artemis. The woman ran out with Artemis following closely behind, still rubbing her eyes. This stranger was surprisingly quick on her feet, but she looked behind her and met Artemis' arrow to her face when she returned it in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. Artemis' bow trembled in her hands, and she caught her breath while glaring at the intruder. She scanned over the woman while standing on the twisted trunk of a tree, meeting her eyes: beautiful, tall, in foreign attire. Her bright red hair was tied up in intricate braids and her eyes were a beautiful teal that looked at her with caution.

"You have some explaining to do, nymph-"

"Artemis," the woman said with a thick accent, "please lower your weapon."

Artemis blushed and forced her arrow along the womans neck who held her hands out.

"Who are you? Did my father send you? More importantly-"

"- how do you know all those things about me? H-how would you know all my secrets and dreams, and write such poetry to win my affections?"

Her hands trembled further, but were stilled when the woman slowly moved and took her hand in hers. The forest was quiet while they looked at each other and a wind made it's way between the two of them. The woman released her hands and dropped herself to the ground, and shuddered and in an instant, Artemis' good friend the bear stood before her. They met eyes, then the bear grew further to a much larger stature, larger than she had ever seen in her domain, braids and heavy beads draped through the bears fur.