Chronicles of a Huntress

Chapter 3. "Bringer of Healing and Disease."

Hey guys!

So excited about this chapter because things are getting real. I hope you guys will love reading it as much as I loved writing it.

Also, as you have probably realized, I've given the hunters sort of like a feminist agenda which, I know it might not be quite according to the times they are living but also, they are a group of immortal woman who have renounced love and men. I'm writing about them as a badass feminist group. Sue me. I do want to make them have a journey in which they decide what their role in the world is and I hope I'm able to accomplish that by the end of this fic.

Chapter 4 is going to be named "Sisters In Arms" so please fav, follow and review so you can stay tuned because it's going to be so cool.

Disclaimer: Go to chapter 1.

Chapter 3. "Bringer of Healing and Disease."

It took the Hunters one full century before they began to heal from Kallisto's death.

Of course, there was her horrible fate to be taken into account but, more than that, Kallisto's undoing had reminded them of how unstable their position was, even where they were supposed to be safe.

Most of them had taken their oaths as a way to avoid a mortal life in which they were underappreciated and even threatened and mostly, they had become maidens to avoid the men who made it clear they thought women were theirs to own.

They had all taken their oaths because they wanted an out, they wanted to be free from that trap of a life! They wanted to be the ones in charge of their own lives, lives that were built by their desires and ambitions, not out of their fight to survive. Regardless of their background, age or race, they all shared a common ache for freedom, a common need to feel like they were heard and that their experiences mattered. However, it wasn't until Kallisto's death that they realized they hadn't reached that freedom, not entirely at least.

The fact was that they hadn't been mistreated for their age, their weakness, or their social status. They'd been mistreated because of their condition as women. They'd been mistreated because they lived in a society in which women were taught to believe they were little more than objects while men grew up thinking the world, including women, was theirs for the taking.

It was then that the hunters stopped blaming Artemis for Kallisto's murder. Not because they were blind followers of a goddess in the wrong, but because they were beginning to understand that the society was a reflection of their gods. As a female goddess herself, Artemis couldn't be blamed for an ideology that had been damaging towards her too.

And, when you thought about it, it made sense that they weren't safe in the Hunt. Of course they weren't, because the world wasn't safe for them. Of course they weren't, because they were a part of that world.

Where did that leave them, though? What could they really do, if their enemy seemed so much bigger than them?

All in all, the conflict seemed even more complex that they thought at first, so the hunters began to feel the need for a safe haven, somewhere they could rest, ponder, and rally stronger. They needed somewhere in which they could have the time to figure the answer to that question.

The response to their need turned out to be Delos, Artemis' birthplace.

Respecting her oath to never forget Kallisto, Zoë had been the first to have the glimpse of an answer to their question, to the impasse the Hunters found themselves in. It was with Phoebe that she discussed it first during starry nights in which the two of them seemed to be the only beings in an otherwise desolated world. It was during those moments that Zoë shared her beliefs.