The loving mother-daughter pair released each other from their hug. One followed behind Vincent into the house while the other gather up the rest of her belongings. Artemis ruffled the fur of her buddy gently before retreating into the house. The family of three had a quick dinner than went off to bed. Seeing that the house darkened, the furball stood from his spot and disappeared into the deeps of the forest in search for his dinner.
Like Vincent announced the day before, he left early the next morning even before the sun came up. Trinity continued with her daily routine, except she did not have to prepare an extra plate for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Artemis took a day off from practicing to work on an unfinished wood craving. She took a break from working on it ever since she obtained the information to create her lovely bow. As a young woman of her caliber she found reading the only lady-like thing to do. Of course, reading so much eventually made her sleepy, so she eventually ended up looking for other activities to do.
Wood carving caught her attention, so she decided to pick up the craft as a hobby. She crafted many small objects like bowls, jars-like containers, and decorated boxes. Once she got the carving technique now, she wanted to try something more challenging. What's more challenging than trying to recreate the resemblance of an animal within wood.
On a recent mission, she came across a small creature in the forest. It had long ears, a round body, and a little puffy tail cover in gray and white fur. It was the cutest creature she had ever seen. Noticing the creature was slowly hoping about looking for food, she took out a piece of paper and a compressed stick of graphite. She quickly sketched out the little creature before losing sight of it.
She had somewhat of a shape of the critter craved. So, she sat on her bedroom's floor carving away at the misshapen piece of wood in her hand. When her arms or hand got tired, she would take a short break in between her carving section and when her legs started to fall asleep from sitting with her legs crossed, she would stand up and walked around. She even traveled between her bedroom and the back courtyard as she worked on her project. Occasionally she would even stop to groom her own furball with her fingers to workout the tenseness of her finger's muscles.
When she finally finished her litter critter, she showed it off to her mother. Her mother immediately recognized the little wooden critter as a rabbit. Some town folks would hunt rabbits for their meat and fur, while she could not stomach to consume one, after having one as a pet when she was a child.
"Oh, sweetie that looks amazing. You are so talented with your hands and have a great eye for details," the soft voice praised Artemis.
Artemis' smile stretched across her face with delight. She was very happy to hear the praise from her mother. She thought she did a good job as well, though having someone else's opinion is also good to hear. "Mother…..this is for you," she offered with a smile.
"Really?! Thank you so much! You're such a thoughtful daughter." Trinity said with joy hugging her daughter like a stuffed plushie.
Artemis returned the expected embrace by hugging her back. Even though tomorrow was her birthday, she rather celebrated it by giving something to those around her that made such a day possible to reach.
The next following days she decided to make a new weapon for all her fellow hunters. Within the hunter's barrack, it was stocked with classic long swords, short dao swords, and many daggers all forged by the head hunter. The weapon of choice by most of the hunters were the bow and arrow. Some prefer attacking their prey from a distance, instead of engaging in close combat.
The one weapon she did not see was a spear. In her village this tool was used for hunting. It was used for long and short distance attack as she was told. She never used one before, but she did know how it looked and its function. She loved to watch her biological uncle construct and practiced with his trusty spear. She really missed him and the rest of her family. Thinking about them now, would always make her sad, but the pain she felt was gone. She was able to overcome her pain due to the unconditional love she received from her new 'family'.
Gathering up several freshly cut pieces of oak wood she began sanding them down to a more cylinder shape. Once the shaft of all the spears were evenly sanded down, she journeyed to the hunter's training ground to ask permission to use some of the daggers that were just laying around. She returned home within a couple of hours after explaining her project to one of the 'uncles'. He was intrigued about her project, so he did not see a problem in giving her a box of daggers. They were only used to improve one's arm strength for handling a bow and only a few used them while hunting or to cut open some fruits.
By the time Vincent and his party return to the training grounds, they were greeted with an unfamiliar scene. Many of the hunters were either gathered around in a group or off training by themselves. In their hands they were training with an unknown object.
The hunter left in charged was a man from the same generation as their leader, he was trustworthy with the same level of experience as their mighty leader. He had a very short haircut, full beard and well managed body. Cover in sweat he was the first person to approach the group with the new object.
"Welcome back, Sir! How was the scooting mission?" asked the man with a strong hearty voice.
"It was fine. We ran into a few low level demons on the outskirts of the town, it was a quick job," voiced the authority figure as he eyed the unknown tool. The tool was long yet slender and looked to be made from wood. At one end of the long stick was a dagger perfectly attached with by a sturdy string. The hilt of the dagger was nowhere to be seen. "What is that your holding?" he finally asked his good friend with a curious tone.
"This?" he asked holding up the tool that he completely forgot that he was holding. "Sir, this is a gift from the young Miss. She was very busy with her hands while you were gone. Are you sure that she's not your daughter separated at birth? She's well verse with her hands like you. Not only did she craft a splendid bow, she's also was able to create this weapon called a spear. She said that her people used this for hunting," explained the second in command enthusiastically.
"Spear?" the husky man uttered while stroking at his beard as he observed the physical appearance of the weapon. "Interesting…" he responded after a bit of silence. "Where is she now?" he inquired with a curious expression.
"She's out with young Travis doing some running drills. She's such a well-behave young lady focusing more on her training as a hunter instead of her other appearance. We all thought she would stop her training routine once she's became a young woman. We're all so proud of her commitment," responded the old fellow like a proud papa.
"You can't have my daughter. You have two daughter already. Train one of them to be like the little tigress," the husky man retorted coldly.
"My daughters?" the old fellow huffed. "They dislike being dirty, so they even refuse to help their mother tend the garden. I love my girls, however, I really wished they were more helpful instead of always worrying about their outer appearance."
"No one told you to spoil them. You should have showed them tough love like you did for your son over there. He's a force to be reckon with, although he doesn't hold a candle to the temperament of my daughter," the husky man retorted coldly again.
"Vincent your so heartless, treating your only daughter so rough," uttered one of the men standing behind him.
"Yeah, she was only six right when you adopted her. She never even had a glimpse of a chance to learn how to be a proper young lady," another one commented.
"She has the most elegant lady as her mother, if she wanted to be a 'proper' lady she would be one. However, considering where she is from, she's clearly was used to manual labor and working with her hands," assured Vincent. "Now, let me see your weapon?" he quickly demanded returning his glaze back to the object.
"No way. This one was handed to me personally by the little 'angel'. Go get your own dear leader," the old man said holding onto the spear like a priceless piece of treasure.