Stunning, beautiful.

~

Suddenly, I am being tugged back by my jacket and turned around roughly. I tug my jacket back from his hold before growling at him. He growls at me and black flames ooze off his body. That's when I come to my senses and realize that I just growled at a god.

Well done, Nefret.

"Who're you talking to Nefret?" Mom asks and I could literally feel my grave being dug deeper than six feet.

With mom constantly rapping on the door and his presence in my room, I seemed to have lost my ability to conjure any thoughts.

I look at Arles. Black flames are oozing off his body and there's this guttural air to his presence that makes my bones shiver. His head turns towards the door before he lifts his hand and point it towards it. Black fire emits from his hand and hits the door making mom go silent instantly.

My eyes grow bigger than saucers and my jaw drops to the floor. What did he do to her? In the next moment, I am racing to the door before opening it and peeking outside. Mom is walking away from my room as if nothing happened.

What did he do? Did he hurt her? If he did then I am going to kill him, god or dog, I don't care.

I shut the door and turn to face him.

"What did you do?" I ask urgently feeling the rage suppressed by me all these years rising inside me like a high tide with promises to wash everything away.

He steps forward, I could feel his eyes set on me, watching me like a predator, calculating my next move. I clench my fists and jaw and glare right at him.

"Why are you here?" I growl, breaking the silence in the room. Suddenly, I am being thrown off across the room, my back hits my book shelf before I kiss the floor with a loud thud. Several books fall over me. I groan and see him step in front of me.

"I am not your mother. I won't tolerate it if you speak to me like that. You're already in trouble..." He trails off as he sees me trying to get up. I wince at the pain at the right side of my body. I must have broken a rib or two, "and I won't mind making this harder for you." As he completes, he's leaning down in front of me. His face his dangerously close to me and whenever his cold breath blows on my face, I shiver. His threat hangs fresh in the air, making it hard for me to breathe.

I somehow get up, my body shaking from the effect. The hit was hard. He gets up and steps away, his hooded head turned towards me. His eyes are watching me warily from under the shadow of the hood.

When I finally get up, he starts speaking.

"I am here for your second task. You need to come with me." The powerful and regal tone in his voice tells me that he won't take a 'no' for an answer from me. I have to go with him to whichever hellhole he has decided to take me.

I nod, my body screaming in pain and my mind, in agony.

Like last night, we climb down the window of my bedroom. It was hard for me but with all the pain in my body, I somehow manage to carry myself.

"What's the second ta-"

"Shut up." He growls as I follow him through the snow. The sun has not set yet and it's still snowing like it always does. He led me to the forest at the back of our house.

While I followed him, I kept thinking of the next task. What would it be? Would he send me to slay a dragon and bring its intestines? Or would it be something worst?

I try to talk to him but the dangerous and powerful vibes that emanated off him was all the motivation I needed to keep my mouth shut. We walked deeper into the forest. I traced his large and heavy footsteps with my small and light ones.

The trees had started to thicken and now their naked branches clouded the sky that was hardly recognizable. The angry wheezes of wind along with low hisses and calling of unknown creatures put me on alert.

What is this place? I haven't been here before. This place seems to be out-worldly and eerie. Few crow flew above our heads, looking down at us with hungry and curious eyes.

Thinking about the creatures that could live in this eerie place makes me shiver. I don't know what I am going to face next.

I force the thick and moist air of this place inside my lungs that seem to stick to my insides like tar. My nose is running wet, snorting and sniffing any scent that the air brings to me.

Suddenly, he stops in front of me and tilts his head at a side as if listening for something. I step by his side and look up at him to know what he's doing.

"Listen." He says, his voice low and husky like the chime of wind. For a moment it felt like a part of my imagination. I stood still and listened to all the sounds that floated in the air.

The sound of my breaths, the wheezing of the winter wind, the crows croaking in the distant sky, the low hiss of a creature that I could not imagine of and finally, the crunching of snow followed by a low grunt. This sounds familiarly unfamiliar.

He takes a deep breath beside me before silently stepping forward and peeking through a tree.

I follow him, peeking from right behind him and what I see next takes my breath away.

A Golden Deer.

Beautiful, powerful and regal. Standing tall with it's head high. Its big and branch like thorns adorn its head like a golden crown. Its fur glowing from within, radiating a glow that lights up the now darkening forest as the sun starts to disappear under the horizon. Its ears are erect, filtering the air for any sound. Its black and piecing eyes could look into one's soul.

I haven't seen something as beautiful as that. I couldn't look away from this beautiful creature.

He turned around and stepped away. I followed him.

"The Golden Hind..." He trails off as his voice floats off in the air far away, "sacred to Artemis, faster than an arrow." He continues as he looks down at me. It didn't take me long to realize what my next task is going to be.

"Catch it."

"What's with you wanting people's things?" My mouth speaks on its own.

A thundering growl rings throughout the forest before I am being picked up by my neck. As my feet leave the ground, his hold on my neck becomes tighter, squeezing my windpipe shut. I start choking, my hands trying to pry his hand off my neck.

I am kicking my feet in the air in a desperate attempt to get off his hold. If he doesn't let me go soon then I might die of suffocation.

Black spots start to appear in my vision as his icy cold hand tightens its grip around my neck. My head is throbbing due to lack of oxygen and my lungs are screaming at me to provide them with oxygen.

Suddenly he lets go of me and I fall on the snow with a thud, choking and gagging.

"Next time, I won't mind gripping a little harder to shut that mouth of yours forever," he warns as I catch up on my breath. It takes me some moments to compose myself.

"I give you two sunsets and one sunrise to catch it..." He trails off as he looks at the sun that disappears under the horizon, leaving the sky deserted and dark.

"One sunset is over, "

"But-" I try to speak but stop when I reminisce about what just happened moments ago. He turns around to look at me, scorching my skin with his heated gaze.

"I... I'll catch it."