He had no idea of how much time had passed before he heard the steps of someone approach. He splashed some water on his face to hide away his sweat and, more importantly, his tears. He rubbed his eyes with the sides of his thumbs when he saw the familiar form of Lana as she pulled the tent flap aside to see him.

She was still glaring, though quickly her face shifted to confusion, then worry. “Ares?”

“Lana.” Ares said as he rubbed his forehead. “Is something the matter?”

“No, nothing. Is everything alright?” She asked as she cautiously approached, as if she were a lemur daring to move closer, ready to withdraw away if needed.

“It’s fine. It’s fine.” Ares whispered and then looked up. He let out a long sigh. “Did you enjoy the warrior’s performance?”

“They were good. None were as good as me though, but you can’t blame them for such things.” Lana landed beside Ares and then placed a hand on his wrist. “You’re tired.” Lana said as she then pressed her head on his shoulder, being wary to not nick him with her horns. “You should sleep.”

“I have too much work to do right now. I’m still trying to figure out a decent structure for the army…”

“Army? We don’t yet have an army.”

“That’s the problem. We don’t have an army. If the humans wanted to come and waltz on by, they could do such things without much effort. I wouldn’t be able to protect you all, we’ll need to train up soldiers, and we don’t even really have a compensation system in place.”

“You need not worry about such things. You will have thousands of warriors ready to attack if you need. We oxfolk do have our great strength, and the wolffolk their wolves and their agility, plus you have a few bearfolk do you not?”

“Thousands, huh? Thousands of beastfolk…” The thought of a thousand disorganised warriors in the chaos, he recalled when he returned to find that the camp had been attacked. He inhaled deeply.

“At least half of the clan will fight, that’s how it’s always been.” She squeezed his wrist gently. “What is that? Three thousand warriors ready to fight right away? An arm’s reach away from their weapons.”

Ares recalled earlier in the day when Heria had to leave to grab her spear. “I would take a hundred orderly soldiers than a thousand warriors that hold no structure. The benefits of having an expert, professional force of soldiers cannot be underestimated.”

“Then make them a thousand orderly soldiers. Make them into three thousand orderly soldiers, as Ozar had once done all those years ago. What a force to be reckoned with.”

Ares looked to Lana, furrowing his brows. “Do you really think that I could gain a thousand soldiers overnight like that?” He stared within her eyes, which shone with a playfulness.

“You are King Ares, Master of Waters, Kin of all Riveans. If anyone can do it, it must be you.” Lana whispered and then she ran her hand along his arm, squeezing his bicep gently. “You conquered Dragon’s Spine so quickly.” She then reached down to her stomach. “Though I would have preferred if you hadn’t fallen asleep against Peros, he had struck me a great blow.” He was still slightly bruised from the blow, but had healed suspiciously quick.

“Yeah…” Ares replied back, glancing away going back into thought. He thought about if he could truly organise so many of them into warriors, and how would he go about it? Having so many professional soldiers would be costly, and not just that, he’d need to find a balance between how many soldiers and how many civilians he would need. There were the smiths that would create the armour and the weapons, the fletchers, bowyers and arrowsmiths for the bows and arrows, oh how longbows would be useful. There were so many oxfolk, they would be more than strong enough to fire such arrows, but the question would be just how large could those bows be? What terrifying power could come from such a monstrous bow? Could they even be called archers, one could call them artillery. Ares would need to think more on it. His thoughts were broken by Lana’s voice.

“You think too much.” Lana said before holding onto Ares’ face and then pulling him in for a kiss. Her tongue slipped into his mouth as she held him. Ares melted against her and then reached up to hold the back of her head. She pushed him down and then pinned him down with her hands against his shoulders, breaking the kiss as she sat down on his abdomen. “You need to stop thinking so much, I think it poisons your mind.”

Ares stared up at her, though his face was as still as stone. He reached up and then grabbed her thighs, then rubbed along her thighs. “I’m not so easy to poison.” Ares whispered as Lana squirmed against his touch. She then reached down to grab at his crotch before he helped her out of what little clothing she had. His heart pounded wildly within his chest, like a thousand drums, which would be a terrifying thing to hear right before a skirmish. In his thoughts of thousands of oxfolk walking onto a battle field with bows the size of them, large great weapons that would need to be held with both hands, beating on drums that caused the ground to shake, Lana went to work on stripping him out of his clothes. He came back to his senses when he found himself to be bare before Lana.

Ares then rolled over so he was on top and he stared down into her eyes. “Lana…” He whispered.

She reached up and placed a finger on his lip. “No talking, no thinking.” She whispered. He then leaned forward and then kissed her, this time taking the initiative as his hands explored her body, following the various muscles that flowed towards her more private areas. Their moans and breath were low and stifled, and their love grew hotter and passionate. It was then their bodies became entangled together, and they melted into each other as they melted into flesh and sweat against each other.

Eventually they collapsed with one another, and though Lana cooed something into his ear, Ares had given himself to slumber as one would give themselves to death, though he had not wished to, his mind and body would not allow him to remain awake.