Snippet #2495512

Artemis whipped around to face this new voice. Throwing her hands out in front of her, she let her eyes settle on the figure in front of her. A boy. It was a boy. He had a foot on her, and if he was going to attack her, he had all of a half of a second to do it. Artemis was on her feet in an instant.

"Do you need something?" Artemis was surprised at how calm she sounded. The words had spilled from her out of shock—and she regretted them immediately. They were rude. She'd lost control. She folded her hands, blinking shut the tattooed eyes on her palms. Her arms dropped to her side. "I'm sorry. You just startled me." An apology wasn't the best thing to start with, what with its putting her on a lower stoop than her opponent...

She was overthinking it, wasn't she?

"My name's Artemis," she said, at last. Although her name wasn't, in fact, Artemis, it was the name she'd chosen as a girl when she'd first begun the trials, and the surname had stuck. Artemis had picked, quite obviously, in honor of the goddess—her Greek namesake. "Although the question still stands. Do you need something?"

She didn't extend a hand. There was no point in letting him catch another glimpse of her tattoos. If he knew what they were...