Fan Fiction ❯ Cupid's Mistake ❯ Chapter Seven: Well, that took a while ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter Seven: Well, that took a while.

Hours later, Artemis sat placidly enough on the ground watching as Dante looked through her herb box. Her irritation concentrated with every movement until it weighed like a leaden sack on her chest. This was idiotic! To think that she, ESRecon agent number one, was being held in the middle of a jungle with Dante, king of Ego Land (whose fault it was that they were there in the first place…at what point did he think running off and throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the night was a good idea?), with no weapons, no food, no nothing except for a small box full of herbs.

Her head ached again, this time from her lack of eyeglasses.

"Hey, we could use these," Dante said, a twinge of excitement coming into his voice. "Look at all of this fun stuff you have in here…granted, I don't know about all of it, but it sure looks important…" He held up a bag with small, dried yellow leaves and shook it at his eye level once or twice; Artemis resisted the urge to snap at him.

"It is important. And children shouldn't play with it." She added just enough venom in her tone to make him raise his eyebrows at her in amusement and put the bag down carefully, in the exact place he had found it.

"Relax, ba-uh, Artemis. I'm just exploring our options, here. How are your legs?"

"The feeling's returning. And I thought you had a fantastic plan, why are you exploring our options so diligently?" This was a test, of course. Artemis knew best of all that even the most foolproof plan should always have a backup… a plan B, if you will.

Dante secretly wondered how stupid she thought he was.

"Because I'm bored," He threw at her offhandedly, and she scowled, turning her gaze up at the thatched ceiling.

The thatched ceiling.

"The ceiling!" Artemis hissed suddenly, and Dante looked up at it too.

"Nope, that's been there a while. You see how it's all dark in here-"

"No, you imbecile, it's made of grass!" She barked at him, trying hard despite the sharp pains jabbing in her shins to stand up. "Dry grass, that will.."

"…burn!" He said, catching on, his eyes lighting up like a little boy's at Christmas. Burn! He jumped to his feet and immediately probed at a part he could reach. Artemis found her mind suddenly taking in the fact that he was very tall, very lean-

Gross!

She shook her head quickly to clear it, managing after a long, excruciating minute to stand up shakily-but she was standing!

"It'll burn, yeah," Dante was muttering to himself, walking in a circle, "but if the roof burns off, won't they just put it out? And then they'll hit us with more of their lovely drugs, and drag us somewhere else and probably kill us."

"No. We don't have to burn it off and wait like sitting ducks. Didn't you notice anything? The river can't be close to this village, because from what I can see there's a lot of sunlight coming in through the window, and from what you can see there's very little vegetation. So, taking this into mind, we can guess they have to walk for their water. If the hut keeping the chief's future wife prisoner lit on fire, wouldn't the logical thing be to rush in and save her?"

Dante opened his mouth and then closed it again. Yeah.

"When they rush in, they'll be surprised to find me mobile, and that's when you take them out and we run."

"You actually trust me enough to let me take them out?"

Artemis gave him a positively disgusted look.

"Don't be stupid, you're the one with the working legs. But if you fail-" Her voice was menacing. Dante held up his hands in bemused placation.

"Right, right, you'll kill me. Got it."

*~*~*~

Secretly, he was miffed that she had thought of a better plan. Even as he worked on getting little sparks to come from the buckle on his belt onto the dry grass, he thought of simply strangling her instead. She was so…so…unbearable! They were complete antipodes in every way, shape, and form-and not to mention he had to play the part of an otiose oaf that couldn't recognize intelligence if it bit him in the ass…

The grass caught and held a spark, and soon it was part of a small conflagration that was quickly spreading to the rest of the roof. Dante dusted off his hands, put on his belt again, and forced himself to wink at Artemis.

She regarded him coolly.

"Don't take gulps of air that are too big…the fire will take most of our air until they open the door, so be prepared for that." She stood, already less unsteady on her feet than before. Her fingers stretched and then curled into loose fists-she was ready.

Not much longer, they heard the sounds of someone running away and sounding the alarm-almost immediately, there was a scuffling outside the door and then it was flung open…

With movements like lightning, Dante took the three tribal men out and, stepping over their bodies, offered a hand to Artemis. She ignored it and stepped out after him.

The whole village was in a panic-it seemed the guards weren't the only ones who knew of the impending marriage. The people had decorated the little huts with brightly flowered vines and had spread petals in the streets. Artemis found herself infinitely curious about the culture of this tribe, but Dante was tugging on her arm.

"Come on!" He was yelling, and as they stumbled into the jungle she was vaguely aware that they had neglected to even retrieve their weapons.

"Dante!"

"No time"

"DANTE! Our guns!"

He snarled and whipped around. Artemis, caught off guard, found herself staring at his eyes; they were transformed into an incredible array of motley blues and greys with the intense adrenaline rush he was experiencing.

Get ahold of yourself.

"We can't go back now," He said. "They'd kill us."

"Alright," she conceded then took his arm and started back through the brush. "Then we'll have to do without." She still had her boot dagger and she would have been surprised if he had been unarmed. Even a rookie had more sense than to not have a backup weapon, hidden somewhere incredibly creatively.

There was a thrashing of brush behind them, and the baying of deep-throated dogs.

"Shit!" Artemis hissed under her breath, and both she and Dante started to bound through the plants as fast as they could go. However, it was obvious they weren't about to lose their pursuers.

"I see light ahead!" Dante yelled to her, and she saw it too, even without the aid of her glasses. It was bright…and then the edge of the jungle was upon them, and below them spread out a canyon and a rushing, deep, blue river.

"We've got to jump," he breathed, and Artemis found herself recoiling-not from the jump, but from what lay in wait at the bottom.

"Are you insane?!" She snarled, but he had already snatched her wrist. "You moron, I can't-"

Too late. They were falling, plunging…and the bay of hounds had fallen far behind….

Cold shock, like a slap in the face woke her up, and she struggled to the top only to find that she was flailing against the current. Where was Dante?!

Water shoved her under again, forced its way into her throat and down, filling her lungs. Will to live motored her every motion now, but she was quickly losing air-

"DANTE!" She yelled above the roar of water, and then she went under again.

Dante looked wildly around.

"Artemis? ARTEMIS!"

The current was strong, and he realized with a start that she had been trying to tell him that she couldn't swim.

"Damn!" He muttered, swimming hard to where he had last heard her voice. His foot touched something soft, and he dove fast-but her fingers just barely eluded his grasp.

He came up for air, and went down again. Horrible as she was or not, it was his fault she was in the river, and without her he couldn't find his way to the stone. There! He grabbed her around the waist and managed to tow her to a shallow bank.

She wasn't breathing! He slapped his own hair out of his eyes and visibly hesitated. She had probably swallowed water-but god, if she woke up and found him trying to resuscitate her, he'd be a dead man. He attempted to find her pulse, but it was sluggish and fading fast.

"Oh God damn," he muttered, closing his eyes and bending over her…