Ares gasped as he awoke, reaching up to the sky. His eyes were wide, his body cold as though it had been encased within ice, and then were the feeling of great sorrow deep within him. Yet, deeper still, like a chest buried deep within the ocean, there was some else.

Fear.

“Ares?” Lana’s sweet voice called out to him and his eyes darted to her, which filled hers with alarm. “What’s the matter?” she asked as she reached forward to hold onto his elbow, before pulling away. “You’re so cold.”

“What?” Ares asked. He looked around and then back to Lana. “What?”

What happened? He wasn’t entirely sure what was happening. No. There was… there was a dream? Not a dream, a nightmare. Ares clutched at his head as he tried to recall it. He couldn’t. He looked up at Lana.

Runar began to cry, throwing out her arms and legs before Lana hoisted her up. Ares reached over to hold onto her head and Runar gasped, her eyes opening with alarm as she looked around, a little confused before Ares pulled his hand away. Runar looked into Ares’ eyes with her own, which seemed curious and confused.

“Shit…” Ares grunted as he pulled away from the pair. “I need to… I need a bath, I’ll be seeing you.”

“Ares, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Ares left the pair behind him. His guards were on edge, seeing Ares dripping head to toe in sweat. They remained a hair’s breadth closer to him as they escorted him to the bath. Ares dropped down and shifted his arms into flames to warm up the water, and only when it was near boiling did he feel the heat return to his body.

He sighed as his body cracked and relaxed. Ares looked up at the sky, reaching up with a hand to notice just how pale he was. Then he looked down towards his wound, seeing that it was…

Not fine. It wasn’t ever fine, but it was pretty normal.

No, whatever it was, it hadn’t been the wound. This was something else. Ares reached up to rub his neck, which was tense and taut.

“Ares-kin,” called Rori, “are you alright?”

Ares nodded his head. “I’m fine, Rori…kin,” Ares quickly added, since they were in the company of others.

Rori remained silent, but there was something unspoken between them. Ares had to think long and hard about it before he shook his head. “I’m fine, please continue as normal.”

Ares knew Rori wanted to mention the trip south, but Ares still needed to go. Even if he was feeling poorly, he couldn’t help but think of all the people that required some aid. He was going to bring along a bit of extra food, which should help some of them, but he wasn’t going to shower them in resources. They would be enemies later, and he didn’t want to feed them to the point they would come back at him with great strength.

Ares sighed and then covered himself with the water. He stared up at the sky, so blue and bright and expansive…

He was afraid of death.

He didn’t want to die, not now. He had Lana, Runar, Ozar and Ozri. He had another child on the way too, and he…

He sighed.

No, there was no point in thinking about that right now. Eventually something would happen, sure, but right now he needed to focus on the people. He had to fortify Rivea and to also make sure they’d be okay without him, only then was he allowed to die.

He slapped his face twice, once with each hand. The sharp slapping sounds alarmed the Roaring Tridents. Ares emerged from the water, shifting his body into flames as he leapt up and soared through the air. Then he dove and shifted back into a human once he was at the training area.

He changed into his training outfit, began to train, pushing himself as hard as he could. He was aching all over, but even then he pushed passed it. He carried a large boulder and then began to toss it and catch it. He worked on his blade play, furiously charging forward towards his warriors, who met his blade. He wasn’t going at it with his full strength, for that wasn’t the point. Ares was pushing himself and also pulling back simultaneously, he wanted to feel every single inch of his body.

Then he was done, panting wildly as he stared up at the sky. Whatever it was that crept into him in the night, he wanted it to know that he wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Eventually, as the sun crest over Rivea, he relaxed. He sighed and then he made his way to the river to clean up again, where he met the seven, Beor was missing, that would be accompanying him. They knew his schedule, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise.

“It’s good to see you all,” Ares said with a nod of his head, smiling at them all. Seeing them all relaxed him, as though a gentle wave was caressing his heart after the whirlpool of the morning.

“You as well, Ares-kin,” Torak said as he turned to look at Heria, who was very quickly nude and bathing alongside her wolf.

Ezak stepped into the water right after Ares did, and then he looked like a child at the pool. His smile was dumb, but in the childlike way.

The others entered the river soon after, with the Roaring Tridents standing on watch. Ares continued to siphon a little bit of the water as he always did. He found summoning water from the ring easier than forcing water out from nothingness.

“Are you all ready?” Ares asked, noting the looks on Jiaga’s face, who was no doubt suspicious of the Bitan and the Reptai.

Jiaga nodded though. “It honours me that you have allowed me to accompany you.”

Ares smiled. “It honours me that you are accompanying me. I should have taken you along previously, but it… it didn’t seem to be the best idea at the time.”

Jiaga bowed his head. “It is of no issue.”

“Don’t sit so straight, human boy,” Heria said as he picked at her teeth with a nail and then licked her lips. “If you stay like that you’ll just drag us down. Look at the fish boy,” she said as she splashed some water his way.

Ezak relaxed further in, seemingly lost to himself in the elation of the water.

Ares heard some steps behind him to see Beor, the large bulky man stripping down as he approached the stream.

“I thought I told you to not show your face until after breakfast?” Ares asked.

“I just wanted to bathe, there’s no problem with that is there?” Beor asked.

Ares laughed. “Beor, you’re a fine one you are,” he said. “A piece of work.” Ares continued to chuckle as the eight were all together.

“Is this one strong?” Zika asked.

Ares shrugged his shoulders. “Strong enough.”

Beor flexed as he glared at Zika. “Strong enough to wear your hide.”

Zika snarled and Ares laughed.

“Relax!” Though it was in a playful tone, everyone grew to attention. “We’re meant to be the Magnificent Nine, I can’t have you at each other’s throats.”

“The Magnificent Nine?”

“The Magnificent Nine. There’s nine of us and we’re magnificent.”

Ares could see Torak visibly cringe. Ares frowned. “What? I thought it was a great name.”

Torak and Heria laughed, even her world got in on the action.

“Actually…” Ares said as he looked at the wolf. “We’re the Terrific Ten. There’s ten of us and we’re terrific.”

Even Ezak was giving Ares a look, as though he was regretting the fact he decided to join Ares on his adventure.

Ares had thought his names were fine, but he supposed that perhaps he was just that bad at making names.

Still, it could be worse.