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The birth of the twins was something that the Queen hopelessly tried to stop, but the birth of new life could never be stopped, not by the Queen’s hands, and certainly, not by anyone's hands, and so here the twins are, Artemis and Apollo, celebrated by all but the queen.
To them, there were many gifts, of toys, of garments, of gold, but one gift in particular caught their attention. Twin bows, silver and gold, presented to them by their older brother, Hephaestus. The gift has the two meeting each others eyes, her silver meeting his gold, both gleaming in anticipation.
To the outside worlds, their gleaming eyes stemmed from their new weapons.
To the twins, it stemmed from the fact that they finally have the opportunity to start their hunt.
The next day, the twins trained with their bows, and the day after that, Artemis scouted the place to find the monster while Apollo distracted their mother. It took three days for Artemis to find the monster, who lived and hunted in a cave nearby. The discovery left the two excited, as they plan to leave the next day to defeat the monster who dare hurt their mother.
At least, that was the plan.
For in the dead of the night, Apollo gazed upon his sleeping mother and sister, Artemis cuddling against their mother in peace. He knew that what he was doing was stupid, that he should be waiting until the sun rise so that they could both hunt it down.
But the thought of that damned creature still living in peace while his mom looked around in fear of it when she thought him and Artemis weren't looking was enough to make him divert from the original plan. In other words, he was too impatient to kill that thing. Turning away from the sleeping bodies of his mother and sister towards the woods, he internally bid them farewell before heading out with a bow in hand and a quiver attached to his hips.
Each step Apollo took was filled with anticipation, his mind filled with fantasies of defeating the dragon. As he reached the cave, his hands trembled in excitement. His heart thumped rapidly, a small smile slipping into his face, leading him to shaking his head and clutching his chest, trying to calm himself down and take his first hunt seriously. After a moment, he looked to the slowly setting moon. It will be a while before Artemis and mom woke up, he thought. Which led him to look back to the mouth of the cave and taking a step into the darkness.
Apollo walked in the darkness, hand running along the walls as a guide. It wasn't long until his eyes spotted light, and his vision filled with a cavern, the dragon sleeping at the center of it. He quietly sneaked closer, inhaling deeply, trying to steady his shaking hands. He took in the dragon’s scent, full of power, power that will soon go down by his own, drawing his bow and filling it with power.
Then, he released.
And the cavern exploded in light.
To others, Apollo will exclaim that that one shot was the only one needed to take down Python.
That was a lie.
For Apollo made one mistake.
The arrow hit the center of its chest, causing it to snap up and roar, the sudden motion causing the arrow to fall and the young god to step back. Its eyes opened, the slits thinning as it spots him. Its eyes were a familiar gold, the same gold that Apollo sees in his reflections.
The dragon was not a prey.
“Who dares invade my cave?” It hissed, its voice echoing through the cavern. The echoing snapped Apollo out of his daze as he quickly introduced himself, “I am Apollo, son of Leto and Zeus, and I am here to kill you.”
Nor was it a predator.
A deep laughter retched itself from the dragon, making Apollo forget his fear and redraw his bow. This action caused the dragon to glint at him in amusement, “How amusing, I am Python, son of Gaia, and you, godling, will make good entertainment.”
It was a god.
And it had years of experience, far greater than Apollo's.
Python struck, its first attack lightning quick, quick enough to nick Apollo’s shoulder as he threw himself to the side, several arrows dropping at the action. his body slid against the rocky ground, skin tearing as he rolled. He clutched his bow tightly to his chest as his body slowly came to a stop. He groaned in agony, pushing his body to a crawl, only to be attacked a second time, being smacked to the side by its tail, the attack caused Apollo to drop his bow as he was thrown across the cavern into the wall.
“What’s wrong little godling? Aren’t you going to kill me?” It hissed in amusement, creepily slithering towards the little god. Apollo coughed, a spit of ichor falling to the ground, he could feel his body trying to heal the injury, but it was slow. Cursing internally and not wanting to get swatted again, he quickly pushed himself up, ignoring his screaming body, and scrambled forward, causing Python’s third strike to miss him completely.
Apollo ran, his eyes scanning around before the shadow of the dragon caused him to throw himself to the side as it struck for the fourth time, its head crashing into the floor trying to catch him. As Apollo clumsily caught himself before he fully went down, his eyes catching a glimpse of his bow and a couple arrows laying a couple feet away from him, causing him to rush towards it.
He grabbed one of the arrows and then finally reached for the bow when Python struck for the fifth time, grabbing his torso, causing him to flip sideways, his teeth piercing through his bones, making him scream and trash from Python’s grip as he was pushed against the floor and dragged away from his bow. In a desperate attempt to escape, Apollo agonizingly turned his body to face its eyes, his skin tearing as he rolled around Python’s razor teeth, his godly powers at work trying to keep him alive.
With an arrow in hand, Apollo raised it and quickly stabbed its eye, causing him to drop as a shriek echoed through the cavern. The godling then hurriedly dragged his body towards his bow, finally reaching it and another arrow.
“You insolent child… you will pay for this!”
That sentence was the only warning Apollo got before Python struck for the sixth time, missing as Apollo rolled away, quickly getting into a crouched position and loading an arrow into his bow, aiming towards the other eye.
Python then went for its seventh strike.
And the arrow was released, plunging into the other dragons eye, blinding it.
Apollo dodged out of the way as Python crashed into the floor, roaring in pain.
With Python blinded, Apollo took this chance to strike back.
In the end, it took seven shots to defeat him.
The first shot, to the chest when the monster was asleep, a mistake on Apollo’s part, he should’ve aimed for something more vital, no matter how powerful the explosion was.
The second and third shot, to the eyes, to weaken it. Though, a part of Apollo desired for Python to not be blinded, so that it can watch as it gets defeated by an “insolent child”.
The fourth shot was into the mouth, next time, when the damned snake comes back like all monsters, Apollo promises to bring a knife to carve the teeth out so that it couldn’t pierce him anymore.
The fifth shot was into the tail, a misfire, but one that he accepted for all those stupid times he got slammed and thrown by the cursed tail.
The sixth shot into the head, for daring to think that hunting his mother was fun.
Then, the last and seventh shot, the heart. For monsters didn’t need hearts.
The body then burst into light, brightening the cavern, the dimming into dust. Golden dust.
Apollo’s breath was heavy, his body laid on the floor as he stared at the golden dust, slowly falling to the ground and returning to the Earth Mother.
Pretty
He thought, and he continued to lay there staring at the falling particles as his wounds slowly closed up as the hours went by.
When Apollo finally left the cave, his wounds have disappeared, and the sun was slowly rising.