A buck!
Demo notched his arrow, waited silently.
The antlered head extended above the bushes. The moist nostrils sniffed the air. Then the buck bounded across the trail.
The arrow flew, and without glancing at the prey he unstrung his bow.
As he moved toward the copse a falling leaf drifted down, dressed in the yellow-brown of the coming season. His eyes followed it, then he glanced toward the copse. In astonishment, he noted that the buck was no where to be seen. Quickly he rushed forward. Nothing! No buck, and no sign of life!
"Not possible, not possible that I have missed! Now, where is the deer," Demo wondered aloud.
The light glinted on an object. He saw, lying on the forest floor, that object. An object that caused him to freeze in place. A beautiful white feather. And beneath it on the ground, his arrow. Athena will not be rejected!
Uncertainly he stared from side to side, hesitated. Finally he picked up the feather, pressed it to his heart.
"It is the will of the Gods!"
He returned the arrow to its pouch, rushed through the darkening forest to the mountain hut far below.