Phineus was conflicted. On one hand, he just became a demi-god, a ridiculous thing to happen that granted him all new powers and abilities. But one of these said abilities ‘Turned me into a prepubescent little boy!’ he screamed inside his head.

  “There's nothing I can do about it right now. Just calm down and move past it,” he reassured himself. “And I bet I’ll age out of this body in no time!” he declared, but deep inside, he was doubtful. Artemis was a child; why wouldn’t her demigod, her true representative, match her appearance?

  He let out a deep sigh. “Maybe I just won’t age at all? That could be nice… eternity as a child,” he groaned.

  “Just move past it!” he said, forcing himself out of his funk.

  “Okay, let’s recount everything I know so far. I’m now an ‘immortal?’ Little boy… my eyes are a different colour, all my features are a little ‘smoother?’ I can ‘feel?’ the forest.

  No, that’s not quite right. Maybe ‘sense’ is a better word. No, that’s not it either. It’s like… I’m connected to the forest, as if it is a part of me.”

  All of his senses seemed to improve as well, but he couldn't tell if that was a base growth or just being supplemented by his ‘forest sense’. At the very least, his eyesight definitely improved, forest sense or no.

  The next thing to test was his new body, running back to his camp from the river, he felt light on his feet; every step took him farther than before, and even without that, he was way faster than before.

  Mixed with his ‘forest sense’, he was weaving through the trees with a practiced ease, never losing speed once. He could also jump way higher than before.

  Phineus always considered himself a pretty fit guy, but everything he did now was night and day better than before. Stopping in front of a rather large boulder, too large for his old self, wouldn’t even be able to roll. Phineus bent down until he found a solid grip, then stood up from his squat. Phineus wasn’t just able to lift it but raise it above his own head. He wasn’t even getting tired; he threw the boulder off and felt his whole body shake when it slammed into the ground.

  He was caught off guard by the feeling; it didn’t necessarily hurt, but it definitely put him on guard. Realizing the feeling came from the forest sense, he sighed at another strange thing he’s just going to have to adjust to.

  Coming back to his camp, Phineus just realized some bad news. His damn bow is way too big for him. The whole thing was larger than him. “You just had to pick a long bow, huh?” he cursed under his breath. Just as he was wondering what he was going to do, he felt a strange sensation coming from his left forearm.

  Quickly rolling back his long ass sleeves, just under his mark of Artemis, he saw what looked like a brush stroke being formed. Just as quick as it started, it ended, leaving Phineus flabbergasted.

  “An Artifact,” he hollered out. Artifacts are magic items that get ingrained into your spirit. There are two different types.

  Mortal-made artifacts are designed and sold by mortals, usually made by those with a blessing, and can come in any shape or form.

  The second type is God-given, artifacts that are granted by a deity for a specific mortal. Receiving an artifact from a god is considered even rarer than a blessing, unless, of course, you're a demigod, then it’s only a question of how many they have.

  Calling on his artifact like he’s seen others do hundreds of times, he cleared his mind and pictured it coming out. In front of his eyes, two objects appeared; the first was a stunning recurve ornate bow.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  The body was made of wood, and it felt alive. Carved along the edges was a ridiculously intricate forest landscape, and the cracks were filled with a deep forest green that carried a faint glow.

  Next to it was an empty cloth quiver of the same motif, as both manifested Phineus’s mind was filled with information on how to use them.

  The bow can be telepathically moved, resized, even aimed and fired by itself, and the quiver can conjure any type of arrow with just a thought.

  Phineus just laughed; he's never heard of any artifact this strong.

  Eager to test them out, he called the bow over to his hand, gently rubbing his fingers along the carvings. It felt perfectly smooth.

  The bow itself carried a slight warmth to it along with a subtle pulse. He felt intimately connected to it, not just through the artifact, but it seemed to connect perfectly with his forest sense as well.

  Calling the quiver over as well, we marveled over the perfect stitching of the cloth. Looking inside the quiver, it was dark, really dark; he couldn’t even see where it ended.

  Looking into the void that was his quiver, Phineus’ morbid curiosity won out, and he quickly stuck his whole arm into the quiver. Only to be slightly disappointed when the inside just felt like a normal bag.

  Next, he went to his bag, took out a few things, and then put them in the quiver. When they just plopped to the bottom without disappearing, he let out a little sigh.

  Phineus was checked to see if he could turn the quiver into a bag of holding as well, but there was no luck. With a thought, fifty arrows suddenly appeared in the quiver, looking exactly like the ones he bought back in the village before he left.

  With another, they all shot out of the quiver into the air, some spinning around in flips, others circling around him. All disappointment was just as Phineus marvelled at what he was capable of, trying to find his limit, he conjured another fifty, and they all took flight once more.

  With a hundred arrows, Phineus needed absolute concentration just to keep them all up, and his overall control got a lot sloppier.

  Stopping all one hundred in the air, Phineus focused on one and started making it grow. With the arrow already created, he couldn’t make too many changes, but could make it both thicker and longer.

  Within a second, it was double the size, another second, it was as big as a spear, at three seconds, it was the size of a baliista bolt.

  Once it got to that size, Phineus was struggling to keep his hold on all of them and found he had to drop about ten arrows before it was somewhat manageable again.

  Once it got back into a reasonable limit, he found that the size didn’t even matter in regard to his control over it. This told him that there was a type of weight limit before he started to feel heavy strain.

  Although he was still able to lift more, so maybe that told him it might be able to be trained like a muscle.

  For his next test, Phineus used his manipulation to shoot an arrow by itself, getting rid of all arrows but one, which was as easy as a thought. With his full focus, Phineus lined up and then slammed the arrow into a tree.

  He was again caught off guard as a jolt seemed to shock through his spirit right as the tree got hit.

  “That's going to take some getting used to,” he mumbled before looking at the aftermath of the arrow.

  Looking up close, he saw the arrow was about two inches deep in the trunk of the tree, pretty impressed. He got his next shot ready. Using manipulation of both bow and arrow, Phineus this time aimed at a felled tree a little further away.

  This time, the arrow shot out much faster than before, crossing the farther distance in a shorter time. Piercing the trunk right up to the feathers of the arrow, Phineus was amazed that it was one of the strongest shots he's ever seen, and he was the one to lose it.

  Finally, Phineus called his bow into his own hand; he didn’t even have to bring an arrow over and could conjure one already knocked. Pulling the string back, he felt a contradiction of tremendous resistance yet absolute ease.

  As the string got tighter, the bow’s pulse started speeding up; he felt more resistance build, getting stronger with each beat. The pressure kept growing until it was suddenly too hard to hold on anymore, and an arrow blasted out, cutting through the air at an impossible rate.

  Within a second, the arrow was completely gone, and even with his new forest sense, he could get anywhere close.

  “Whoa,” was all he could say, just truly stunned at the power he could now display.

  By the time Phineus was able to come back to his senses, it was already dark out, and the moon seemed to be especially bright.

  ‘Wait,’ he stopped, is it the moon that's bright… or me?’ looking down at his body, he was radiating with a soft light glow that seemed to surround him.

  “Huh,” he said outloud