Beauty of Thebes - Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Her Will To Live  

Eutostea rose again with superhuman strength. She could taste the blood in her mouth. Biting her molar, she endured the pain.  

She needed to run to live. It was a simple proposition. Was there anything more concise and desperate than that? Eutostea could no longer rely on any god. She rose to the beat of the full moon and ran again, the bright moonlight shining her path ahead.  

The longing for life was the driving force pushing her forward.  

She didn’t want to die by the hands of the hounds.  

She didn’t want a painful death by the arrows.  

‘Run, you idiot, run! Faster. Faster! Faster so no one can catch you. Run!’  Eutostea shouted inwardly.  

Fortunately, both her legs were still intact. Fatigue piled up and began to sag, but still, she boosted her energy to its limits. Suddenly, it occurred to her that she had lost too much blood.  Eutostea  shook off the idea. She’ll keep running. It was the only way out. She clenched her teeth and vowed to do so.
 

The huntress preying after her had the same thought.  

Artemis cast her last arrow. The arrow flew at Artemis’ wish and penetrated Eutostea’s left ankle.  

Eutostea wasn’t immune to pain. She was a mortal. With a cry of despair, Eutostea fell over the knee-high bushes.  

‘It’s over.’  

This was the only thought she had.  

Her loss of mobility made her an easy prey for the hounds. They’d tear her tender flesh to shreds, exposing their yellow teeth under the moonlight. A trained hound would immediately tear her nape off.  

This was not the ending Eutostea wanted.  

She wanted to live.  

Was there anyone who wanted to die like this?  

Anyone who looked forward to someone taking their own life?
 

It was okay to be limp, to have her whole life ruined, but she wanted to live. Eutostea shouted her thoughts inwardly despite knowing no one would hear her calling. She wanted… to live…  

She knew she couldn’t pray to a god and lie down at the most hopeless moments of her life. She didn’t have the right to. It was a god killing her.  

Moving her hands and legs, her fingernails scratched the dirty soil and bled. Her whole body complained of her aching pain as she pulled herself up with pressure on her elbow.  

‘Still, I have to live,’  Eutostea thought.  

She grabbed a bundle of dirt and grunted. The more strength she put into her hand, the more painful it became.  

‘Still, I have to live.’  

Her tenacity was the only light guiding her.  

Eutostea crawled forward, smelling the strong blood she shed. The word  “going forward”  seemed funny. She was moving at a slow pace. But still… still… she wanted to live.  

In the meantime, the hounds that were doggedly tracking her had caught up.  

Tigris, the head of the hounds, was a black-haired hound like Apollo’s crows. Tigris was the size of a wolf. He was intelligent and Artemis put special care towards him.  

The hound excitedly pressed Eutostea’s back with its front paws. A long muzzle opened and hot saliva flowed down from the hound’s black mouth.  

The saliva that fell on Eutostea’s neck had a pungent smell. It was the smell of death mixed with the blood of the game.  

Eutostea had a piece of stone in her hand.  

‘Come on…’  

Where does she get such courage? She decided to attack instead of covering her arms to defend herself.  

The hound would tear her neck apart in the blink of an eye. Could she act faster than that? She’ll only know when she tries. Eutostea turned her upper body and quickly raised her arms high.  

“Stop!”  

Far away, Artemis’ screaming voice cut the open air.  

Tigris’ huge body collapsed helplessly. The dog fell to the right of Eutostea, unable to mumble its last despair.  

Eutostea hadn’t made a move. She was dumbfounded and looked at the body of the hound then to the golden figure standing tall and proud.  

When the leader of the hounds died, a group of nervous hounds barked uneasily. In a hierarchical society driven by an alpha, when the leader of the pack falls, the order collapses.  

Yet there was one who approached Tigris without fear. Apollo’s arrow once again cut through the air. Like rice straw, the hound collapsed after losing its life, an instant kill on the head.  

Artemis breathed heavily.  

“No! Come here!”  

Artemis bellowed at her dogs stealthily approaching the corpses of their companions. But no matter how well-trained they are, the terrified hounds wouldn’t listen to their owner’s command. They began to approach their immobile colleagues with thoughts to wake them up.  

Resisting the pain in his arid arm, Apollo squinted and opened his eyes. His bows bent tight. Five arrows fired like rapid fire. The brave hounds who were hunting for its prey died at once.  

“No! No!”  

Artemis threw the arrow canister and flew to her brother. She flew up like a winged fly and lifted her silver to the top of her head.  

“Are you crazy? They’re my dogs! It’s not my dog, but her that you shoot!”  

The belt of Artemis’ bow struck Apollo’s head. There was a long scratch on Apollo’s cheek. He held his sister’s silver bow back with one hand and spat out blood. The first blow had given the impression that he had been beaten.  

“You win the bet, Artemis. Go ahead. Use the laurel tree in Hyperborea and turn it into a chair or a coffin for four. I’ll leave it to your will. I think the latter would be better. There’s so many that I don’t know if one tree can cover all of them.”  

“How do you get to decide that? This is a violation of the rule!”  

Artemis’ hand, holding the bow, trembled.  

She clenched her teeth and tried to use her silver bow again, but failed to gain the upper hand in terms of strength.  

Apollo’s blood-red eyes looked down upon her in the coldest way she knew.