“What is that?” Ares asked as he stared at the long bronze plains ahead. Yet that wasn’t exactly what he was looking at, he was looking at the smoke in the distance. He squinted and he could see perhaps close to a thousand buffalo all running ahead.

“What is that you see?” Torak asked.

“Buffalo, hundreds, maybe a thousand?”

“A stampede,” Torak said.

“The stampede,” Heria said quietly.

“The stampede?” Ares asked.

“Something has happened to the buffalofolk,” Torak said as he brought up his waterskin. He stared at the scene ahead with a great displeasure.

“Something like?” Ares asked.

“Perhaps they were wiped out.” Torak shrugged, unsure.

Ares nodded his head. “Then we were too late, it’s as simple as that. We won’t be late for the others though, come on.”

The group marched forward. They had been travelling for only a single day and evening was soon approaching. They had travelled fairly quickly, for the ground was flat enough to walk on, and though there were no trails, they could follow a fairly decent enough path forward. Ares was surprised to see just how clear the south was, though soon the terrain changed. There was nothing flanking them on either side, and no mountains behind them. They could see all for miles and miles, and all that was miles and miles could see them.

Hopefully they were small enough that they didn’t seem to attract anything, or perhaps they were small enough to attract the wrong kind of attention. Ares turned to Beor to see what he had in mind.

Beor just nodded and Ares followed him. Beor had been giving general directions and had been filling Ares in on the general layout of the terrain they were following.

“We had come from the silver hills to further down, we may reach it if we continue for the day,” he turned back to look at Ezak, who was starting to struggle. “If we can continue.”

Ezak continued to waddle along ahead, trying his best.

Ares raised a hand. “No, we’ll stop.”

Ezak looked up at Ares alarmed, his eyes filling with great embarrassment.

“I still am injured in case any of you forgot,” Ares said as he pulled up his front. He was wearing a new set of armour, a large breast plate. He also wore his typical cloak too, the same cloak that Levi had given to him all that time ago. The cloak filled him with a deep warmth, as though he had consumed the most delicious stew.

His thoughts stopped.

He furrowed his brows and then looked back to his allies.

“Do any of you know how to cook?” he asked.

The others all stared at him, throwing looks at one another before looking back to Ares.

“I do,” called a meek little voice. It was Ezak, of course.

Ares stepped over to him and dropped to a knee. He placed a hand gently onto the boy’s shoulder and then gave him a thumbs up. “I’ll leave it in your capable hands then,” Ares said with a large smile on his face.

Out of everyone here Ezak was probably the one he most wanted to cook. Of course not everyone else was as enthused, and Orndu stared at Ezak as he began to cook on the small fire pit.

Orndu would stop Ezak now and again.

“What is that?” Orndu asked.

“It is water-leaf,” Ezak said, pulling out some herbs from his little pouch he carried with him. “Just a little goes a long way,” he said.

“No.”

“W-what? Water-leaf makes everything taste better…”

Ares walked over. He dipped a finger into the pouch and then licked it off his finger. The flavour that burst into his body caused him to shudder, it shook through him like an earthquake, and his body convulsed as he gagged and then spat it out.

Orndu had raised his short blade towards Ezak, a low growl escaping his lips, but Ares raised a hand. “Relax! Relax!” Ares said as he spat out the herb and then looked over to Ezak, whose face was full of worry. “It’s not poison or anything, it was just a little strong…” Ares swallowed the aftertaste and then licked his lips, trying to recall why it tastes so familiar.

It was quite literally the ginger and garlic paste. The sweetness of the ginger and the… garlicness of the garlic, put together. It was extremely potent though.

“How much do you usually put in?” Ares asked.

Ezak revealed a single tiny shred, it was about half the size of a nail. Ares had licked a single one, so no wonder the flavour overpowered him so, especially considering his enhanced senses.

Yeah, that made sense.

Ares nodded his head. “Alright, I’ll leave the food to you.” Ares looked to Orndu and raised a brow at the warrior, who sheathed his blade and saluted Ares. “Relax, alright?”

Orndu bowed his head apologetically before leaving, taking a few steps away. He kept an eye on Ezak, but gave the youngster some space.

“Are you alright, Ezak?” Ares asked as he shifted a mound of earth and then sat down on it, as though it was his throne. In reality he just wanted to be near the smell of the food, it would start smelling great soon no doubt, especially considering they were starting off strong with the drake meat. One would have thought drake meat would have been too tough, considering it was made of drake, but actually it wasn’t so tough after all. It was slightly stringy, but nothing too bad. It was more akin to chicken, though not exactly.

Ares wondered if perhaps Dragons were a type of chicken? Chickens were like dinosaurs, wasn’t that what was said about them?

“I am well, Ares’O,” Ezak said.

“Ares, none of that O business, alright?”

Ezak bowed his head. “I am sorry, Ares.”

Ares nodded his head. “Where did you learn to cook?”

“All Bitan learn to cook when they are young, it is one of the first things we learn.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes,” he said as he bowed his head.

“It is a great past time as well, for when we were hunted down all those years ago, we turned to food. Sometimes it had managed to save us.”

“Save you? How?”

“There was a time when one of the great leaders had come to face us, Ozar? I believe that was his name…” Ezak then quickly stared up at Ares.

“Oh, Ozar? Really?”

Ezak nodded his head meekly and then turned back to the food.

“What happened then?”

“We offered him safety and some food, though we hadn’t known he had come to face us all that time ago. When he finally revealed himself, he had told us that he had decided to not fight us, partly because of what we had done for him, but also because of the great food. We handed him some recipes and he allowed us to live in peace, keeping us a secret from most of the world. His kin had come during a particularly harsh time for us to aid us, but that was the last we had spoken with him.”

Ares smiled. “Ozar is a cool name,” he whispered to himself. “I hope that my son will also do such a thing for the Bitan.”

Ezak nodded his head. “If he has but a single scale from you, he will be a great man.”

Ares puffed up his chest. “He’ll have many scales from me, all the good ones I hope.” Ares laughed.

Everyone gathered around the fire in a circle. They were able to see passed one another, so technically everyone was on watch at the same time. Saykkera was just more on watch than most, followed by Orndu. Everyone else was far more relaxed, as relaxed as they could be considering their company.

“Today was quite fun, all things considered,” Ares said.

“Fun?” Torak raised his brow towards his King.

“Fun…” Ares looked down at the food. It was a drake curry of some kind and they were eating it with some flat bread. He and Ezak were eating it fairly similar to one another, breaking off bits of the fluffy flat bread and then dipping and hoisting up some of the meat within the fold, and then biting into it. That ginger and garlic flavour was there, but it had been cooked down with the rest of the wild onion and the soupy base. It was slightly fiery as well, Ezak had managed to put a few specks of some chili flakes and it gave it quite a kick.

It was a little too hot for the others, but for Ares it was barely fine, and Ezak was more than happy to take it all down. He was one hell of a kid.

Ares sipped down some ox milk and then sighed. “Fun!” Ares laughed. “Everything has been so… rough isn’t quite the word, but it’s been so…”

They waited for Ares to continue, but Torak just nodded his head. “I understand. It is that kind of feeling, isn’t it?”

Apparently everyone knew what he was talking about. There was a shared feeling of struggle and trying to overcome it whilst also having very little idea of what to do since everything was so new and foreign to them.

“Well, either way, I’m very glad we’re all travelling together,” Ares said.

Orndu pulled out his drum and then was about to slap it when he stopped. He turned to Ares, as if asking for permission. Ares nodded his head. Orndu then started to gently tap the drum with his fingers and palm, just giving them a little background music. This was almost… wholesome? That wasn’t quite the word, but there was that feeling.

Ares wondered if he expanded too quickly… or if he wasn’t actually expanding as quickly as he should have been. He sighed and then rubbed his forehead. It probably was neither, it was probably that he hadn’t integrated everyone properly. He needed to do more…

Perhaps it was him?

Perhaps it was the image he gave off to others. He was too relaxed, and he didn’t earn that level of respect from everyone just yet. He needed to be a little more consistent, serious with a sprinkle of jovial, rather than jovial with a sprinkling of serious. Though the latter did sound quite terrifying.

He looked at the soup and then smiled to himself. He needed to be three chilli flakes and a single water-leaf, that’s what he needed to be. Right now he was two of both, and he had learnt the hard way just why you only need a single water-leaf. He sipped down the remaining soup, which was just a bit of fat.

With that he shifted the earth to create a small wall around them and then some small triangular tents of earth, that way they didn’t need to mess around in the morning and they could leave quickly. Plus he wanted a landmark around this area. Then he finally crawled into his personal tent and looked up.

The floor was cold and hard. He thought of Lana, and then Runar, and Ozar and Ozri.

Tonight’s dreams were peaceful.