บท 5: The price was a clean, mostly painless death.
With the wind beneath his wings, Ares flew over the dense forest. There were no creatures that he could see or hear, not for a long while at least. The sun was glaring down at his back, though in his phoenix form, it provided him a gentle warmth that soothed him.
He kept the sun to his right, heading northward first, and then once the sun was finally on top of him, he turned right to fly eastward. He wanted to see just how much the humans had settled in this world, how powerful their army was, as well as just generally scouting them out.
As he flew, and it approached evening, he noted some commotion within the forest. He swooped down and then shifted back into his human form, quickly trekking through the forest to see what was happening. He could hear the shouts and cries of some beings, humans or humanoids at least.
Then he broke through the clearing, watching as three heavily armoured individuals were tying up injured beastfolk, who had cat like ears atop their heads.
"May the sun forever hold your favour stranger, what brings you about these parts?" a guard asked as he finished tying up the small child, poking them with the back of his spear to pin the child down.
Ares clenched his fists until they cracked, then relaxed them. "I heard a commotion so I made my way by," he said, motioning his hand towards the beastfol. "I can see what caused it." Ares kept his distance.
"Where are you from, stranger? State your name and your business," the guard stated.
Ares could see they were on edge.
Good.
Ares motioned to the beastfolk again. "I have been traveling to find some beastfolk."
"Oh? Looking to find yourself a slave."
"If it's legal under the law I don't see why not," Ares said as he eyed up the others. Four beastfolk, a man and a woman, a boy and a girl. Yet his ears picked up the shallow breathing from nearby, another.
"Well, I'm afraid you can't have these. They're ours."
"I'm sure you're reasonable fellows. Everyone has their price."
The guards shifted their gazes to one another for a moment, and Ares took that as his cue to attack. He imagined a serpent made of water, which snaked its way around the human's heads. As they choked on the water, Ares let the serpent drop in order to attack.
He was upon them, like a whirlwind. He cut the gasp of air for one by cutting through the back of their skull, his blade piercing forth, though he pulled back to glance his blade off of another's spear, the clang of steel signalling a break for the guard to catch his breath. It wasn't enough though as Ares cut through the guard's arm, his blade moving through the air as a leviathan would through the sea.
Finally he leapt over the third guard, bounding over their head and clashing with their spear mid-flight in order to move it away from him, before dropping down behind them and then kindly removing their head from their spine. The head dropped beside Ares as he turned to look at the second guard who was clutching at his elbow.
"The price was a clean, mostly painless death." Then with a final thrust, he silenced the last guard.
The forest became deathly silent.
"Were there any more?" he asked the child, who remained still, frozen in fear. He then turned to the nearest adult, the woman. She shook her head once.
"Good," Ares then cut at the child, hearing the scream and the shout of the other beastfolk nearby. He stepped aside to reveal the child, free of his bonds.
"Excuse me. I should have said I was setting him free, that's my bad. I'm going to cut you guys loose too, alright?"
The others remained still, though the child ran to his mother. Then Ares approached, and though they held suspicious eyes, they let Ares set them free.
"You can come out too," he called to the fifth, a girl that looked to be a young adult still.
Ares sheathed his sword and then motioned to the spears and the gear the guards no longer required. "Take them, you'll need them," he said.
The beastfolk stepped around him to pick up the spears, clutching at them tight. He stepped aside to allow them to loot in peace, but waited.
"Why did you set us free?" the man finally asked, spear in hand.
Ares was still eyeing up the situation. The three that were armed with spears were poised to defend themselves, though made no aggressive action towards him.
"I was asked by a friend to help the beastfolk. You can consider me a friend."
The beastfolk bared their teeth towards him. "Never! We would never consider a human a friend."
"Well, it's a good thing I'm not a human then."
The beastfolk quickly dropped their glares, now staring at him in confusion.
"Don't worry, I'll show you one day. Just know that I'm no human, and I'm here to help. I won't draw my blade against you, as long as you treat me with the same respect." Ares motioned to the spears. The man and woman pulled back, but the girl still held her spear tight, pointed towards him.
"My name is Ares. May I ask you yours."
"You don't need to know it," she hissed.
"Mala, her name is Mala," The man then said something to Mala, causing her to pull away and then return to their side.
"I am Ash, this is my wife, Rala. Mala is our eldest daughter, then there is Rash and Ala."
"I'm glad you made the names so easy to remember." Ares chuckled. "I suppose we should head on. I'll follow you, I'm very new to this place. My friend didn't give me too many directions."
"Very well. You shall walk ahead, though." Ash motioned with his head. It was westward, with a hint of north.
"Alright, I can do that," Ares said as he turned and then walk ahead. "If there's any danger, let me know. I'll handle it."
"Very well, Ares."
Ares led the party, though kept his ears alert to see if they were actually following him.
"Do the human always move in groups of three?"
"Yes, usually. Three soldiers usually stick together. Three sets of three, and one, make a unit."
"What does the one do?"
"Usually they are of senior rank. What they do is not something I know."
Ares nodded his head. "How many units make a larger unit?"
"Ten. Hundred, they're called. Though at times the hundred may be larger or smaller, they usually remain at the number."
"They all wield a single spear and armour?"
"No, usually they also carry several javelins. We had fled quickly enough that they could not gather their javelins once they had thrown them."
"Good to know. How many javelins does each soldier carry?"
"At least two, sometimes more."
"Shields?"
"Not when they patrol, but they do when they march out."
"Right…" Why didn't they take their shields out on patrol? That's curious.
With that, Ares remained silent.
Soon dusk was upon them.
"We shall continue for some time, until the dead of night. Then we shall sleep," Ash stated firmly.
"Do you think that we'll be chased down by the humans?"
"Perhaps. They will find out something has killed three of their men, whether they will try to find out what it was, I'd rather not bet my life on it."
"Understood."
They remained silent towards the rest of the night. Ares didn't want to talk too much to let anyone nearby know that they're around.
Ares was still being directed by Ash, who was still whispering directions, finally led Ares to a large rock. Ash nodded towards it and then motioned to the vine that grew on the side, which hid a small hole that led under ground, which then opened up into a much larger room, with a couple of tunnels leading out.
"We should be safe here. The tunnels lead to dead ends, but here…" Ash motioned to a part of the wall. "Through this, we can leave if someone was to come."
"Alright. What about watches, are we to take one each?"
"There is no need for watches here, we will be safe. I do not think they'll chase us this far, this is only known to us beastfolk, and even then, only to a few of us. There are a few of these safe zones around, they would have to split their forces to chase us down, and I don't think they'll believe we were the ones to cause such death."
"Alright, alright." Ares chuckled. "Are you guys hungry?" Ares asked as he reached back, realising he didn't have a pack. He had assumed he would have had some food at this point in time. "Oh… right. Well, I guess I'll try and hunt tomorrow." He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.
"We can eat tomorrow, in safety," Ash replied back.
Ares could see that they were still pretty suspicious of him. He opened up his hands and then started to drink from it, imagining a small pool of water forming in his hands as he did so. When he was done, he looked over to the beast folk.
"Oh right, do you guys want some too?"
Ash's face darkened, gripping the spear tightly.
Ares laughed, realising the last time they had seen the water, he had cut down several men after using it as a distraction.
"Open up your palm and I'll fill it with water." Ares chuckled and then revealed his hand, filling it up before sipping the rest of it down.
Ash opened up his palm, and Ares imagined some water within it. It quickly filled with water, and he did the same for Rala, Rash and Ala. Mala refused, still glaring at him.
"Alright, well, I suppose I'll go to sleep then. I would suggest not trying to attack me in my sleep." Ares yawned. He sat back against the wall, wrapping the cloak around his front before falling asleep.
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