A few days ago Artemis would have never pictured herself waiting to meet up with Alexander. This might be the stupidest thing she had ever done or the smartest. There was no in-between for a situation like this. She was going to expose who she was to a man like Alexander who would love nothing more than to offer up her head on a silver platter to the king.
Maybe she should go back home and forget this entire crazy plan she had come up with. It wasn't like the king was actually going to make it inside the forest. He'll die before he reached her at the lake. However, there was just something about breaking the world Alexander envisioned that excited her. The way he endlessly obeyed the king's commands and the way the king seemed overly dependent on Alexander, made her excited to destroy the bond.
Artemis wanted to expose to Alexander that he could not always be the hero. That the world he lived in wasn't all sunshine and butterflies. That having to whisper about the king was not a way to live and most importantly, drilling in his head that Gods were not the only monsters.
"Controlling the man the king needs," she muttered playing in the dirt with her shoe as she waited for Alexander. "Will he even show up for me to do it? He was probably just wooing a random woman that day and probably won't even show up. I swear if I went out of my way to meet this man and he doesn't show up I'll-"
"You'll what?" Alexander asked, appearing by her side. He found it funny she was worried about if he was going to show up while on his way here, Alexander doubted he would have found her standing here. He half expected her to be playing a joke on him but she wasn't.
"You're light on your feet. I didn't even hear you coming," she said looking down at his feet. Artemis was curious as to how they trained the guards to do that. Did they tiptoe around everywhere? "If I didn't know any better I would think you were levitating off the ground."
"I can do no such tricks. It takes a lot of practice to walk without making a sound and it helps that I am not wearing my armor."
"Yes."
'So easy to kill without all of that metal,' she thought to herself.
Artemis started to inspect Alexander now that he wasn't in his usual attire. Handsome indeed, no wonder the women were excited to see him at the festival. Being bold, she reached her hand out to touch his long dark hair. "Not many men keep their hair this long. Why don't you cut yours?"
Alexander shrugged his shoulders allowing her to practically play with his hair but wasn't this the same woman who did not want to be touched? "I don't like following trends of being like everyone else."
"I expected you would say this. Of course, you wouldn't want to be like everyone else but you are," she released his hair and smiled.
"How am I like everyone else?"
Artemis placed her hands behind her back looking up at Alexander innocently. "Depending on how the day goes I will tell you why. Let's not forget that the last time you promised me entertainment it was a letdown. Today I have something planned for us to do so don't worry, you'll have the answer by the end of the day."
Alexander had the sudden feeling they were going to rob or kill someone. She had a dangerous vibe coming from her innocent-looking smile. He came across a lot of people with his line of work and knew how looks could be deceiving. "Before anything happens I want to know your name. It would be rude of me to keep calling you a stranger."
"My name is Artemis."
"Just Artemis? Most times when people drop their last names it's for a bad reason and I have to keep an eye on them. I hope that's not the case with you." He truly meant he hoped it wasn't the case. This wasn't helping his suspicion that she was not from this kingdom and had snuck in. The only thing throwing him off is that if she really did sneak into the kingdom, why was she willing to hang around him? She should be avoided by the general or anyone tied to the palace.
Alexander was taken by surprise when she suddenly came close and tiptoed up to whisper in his ear, "Are you planning to arrest me, General?" she chuckled, enjoying his surprised expression. Human men were always so easy to toy with.
"Depends on your behavior," he responded, wrapping an arm around her waist. Why on earth was she being so touchy when the first time they met she hated it? What made her become so comfortable around him?
"I'm just messing with you. No need for you to get so serious. I wanted to see what you would look like when you get flustered but that was disappointing. You must be quite the lady's man for your first instinct to be wrapping your hand around my waist. Can you let me go now?" She was the one who started this entire ordeal but she was starting to detest him touching her.
He was still a human man at the end of the day and she hated humans.
"If you keep your hands to yourself, so will I," he released her.
Artemis cleared her throat and mentally imagined scrubbing traces of his touch from off of her. "There's somewhere I always wanted to visit and with a strong man like you, it would help me escape danger if there is any there. Care to take a walk with me?" she started walking backward in the direction of a fallen temple she used to live in before the humans set it on fire. Artemis planned to show him what his people did to her home and what she planned to do to the world.
"Sure," he replied, following after her.