𝑬𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚༆𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑦 𝐽𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑠𝑜𝑛¹

𝔭𝔯𝔬𝔩𝔬𝔤𝔲𝔢

༻❀༺❀༻❀༺

IN HER MUCH, MUCH EARLIER YEARS OF LIFE, Azalea lived a life of luxury, of course, that was what you'd expect from a princess. She had servants at her every beck and call, a father who spoiled her rotten and gave her any thing she asked for, a beauty which, Azalea made men from all kingdoms desire her and a life others would only wish for. She was happy.

But all that changed when she reached the dreaded age of fourteen, and those suitors mentioned earlier began to seek her hand in marriage. Generals, princes and even Kings from all kingdoms in Greece payed her father visits and tried to woo her. But, she was glad her father loved her enough to send them all away, for she believed she was too young and had many years ahead of her, before she would be sent off and became her husband's slave.

One of those princes, whose name is yet to be mentioned, desired her so much, he snuck into her bed chambers and almost took away her pride in the dead of night, with the hopes of her having his child and no choice but to be his. She put up a good fight for a young, pampered princess who could barely hold a sword properly, after all being the only female among her six step sisters to actually spend time with her four step brothers had it's perks at times. And she was rescued later on.

Her father, the King of Cyprus realized the sort of danger his irresistible daughter was in, he feared she might even be the next Helen of Troy causing a comflict between his kingdom and others, issued a decree that all who wished to marry Azalea, would go through a series of tasks (which would all be chosen by her) and the victor would have his daughter's hand in marriage.

Azalea was horrified.

She was convinced her father wanted to get rid of her quickly and end all the troubles. She refused to speak to him, avoided her brothers who had taken her father's side and barely left her room as she was planning ways to stop each contestant from winning. She came up with impossible, torturing and life threatening tasks such as walking several miles on burning hot coals and others even worse.

Yep, she was a bit heartless those days...

But that one prince (who had tried to rape her) prayed to Azalea's mother, Aphrodite and the goddess of love, beauty and lust took pity on him and helped him through the tasks easily without breaking much of a sweat while others suffered and gave up, finally realizing the beautiful princess of Cyprus wasn't really worth the torture.

Azalea was sure no one would succeed. Until she heard that prince she loathed had won, she was devastated. She did just about what anyone in her situation would have done, the night before her wedding, Azalea packed her most valuable possessions, including her father's decorative dagger and ran.

She rode her horse far into the woods and got lost, she feared that if she stalled any longer in the forest, her husband to be would find her. She rode in circles for a few hours until what she feared happened. The prince and his men found her, she decided she would rather die than to be his wife and rode away, the men after her in pursuit.

That's when she met Artemis, goddess of the moon and hunt, and her hunters. She quickly told them her story, and as soon as the men caught up, Artemis turned them all into jackalopes. The princess was very grateful for Artemis' help and when the goddess offered the opportunity for Azalea to join the hunt and be immortal, she told her.

"Love is worthless, many had lost their lives because of it. It is a useless feeling...all those who believe in such a thing are fools. Lady Artemis, I accept your offer, I shall join the hunt. And turn my back on love and men, and pledge to be loyal to you as long as I live."

That was how Azalea, joined the hunt of Artemis, and became immortal. Not even giving the fact that she had abandoned her family and kingdom a second thought.

Over the years, she became skilled in archery, fought nicely with a sword and defeated numerous beasts, and proved herself worthy of a lieutenant centuries later and shared the position with her closest sister, Zoë Nightshade.

Little did she know, on December, 2006, she'd meet the one she was destined to be with.

༻༺❀༻༺❀༻༺

𝔞𝔲𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔯𝔰 𝔯𝔞𝔪𝔟𝔩𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰

Word count: 777 words

pretty excited to start writing this rn. please vote, comment and follow!