The sky was covered in gray clouds as the morning light faded in. Eurydite had woken just as Marcaria poured water onto the flames of the fire, careful to not leave it burning in case of someone still looking for them. The young woman sat up, groaning as her wound gave her protest upon moving, but it was time that they press on to Thrace. There was no doubt that they were still being followed by the Amazons, but they were just watching and waiting for her to finally leave their territory.

She eventually stood from her resting place near the extinguished fire and allowed Marcaria to roll up the furs that she slept on before placing them on the horse. There was a quiet in the air that made her feel uneasy. This uneasiness gave her a sense that they should take a different path to Thrace, however when she looked around her eyes came across the man that had not only stood against the Amazons, but had also seen her unclothed. The sure stare on his face eased when he walked closer to her and lifted her right arm to check the bandages that hid her wound.

"Who are you?" She asked him before he let her arm down.

"I have many names, but you can call me Enyalius if you wish."

"The God of War?" She said looking over to Marcaria who stood waiting for her by the horse and then looked back to him. "You are Ares?"

"One of my many names." He said making sure she was healed enough to travel. "Come, I will go with you." He smiled at her before picking up the cloak that she wore and placing it around her shoulders. "There is much you need to know about the world you have been kept from all these years."

Eurydite didn't respond to him, only followed him as he brought her to the horse and let her mount it with Marcaria sitting behind her. The God of War took the reins in his hand and led them into the forests that spanned the base of the lesser range. All the while, she wondered why a god of all things, would come down from Olympus and walk among mortals? Even go as far as leading them to apparent safety. It was a thought that she didn't understand and then the only person who could answer these questions was walking beside the horse.

"Why would a God of War come down from Olympus to walk with mortals?" She said as she held on to the black mane of the bay mare. He looked back at her with an amused glint in his hazel eyes.

"I was not always a God of War, Eurydite." He said as he walked. "I came from a land in the East called Babylon and I was known as Belus, before that, Ashur."

"So, you are not the son of Zeus and Hera?" The words he spoke had surprised Eurydite as the Greek gods were all sons or daughters of Zeus, or even the Titans. Perhaps they were all different.

"No." He said with a long drawn out vowel. "I am older than they are, but not as old as Nergal or my sister Ishtar."

"Who are these Gods that you name?" Marcaria asked the God that led them.

"Nergal, you know as Aidoneus, or Hades."

"My father." Eurydite said feeling as though she had learned some great secret that should be kept.

"My sister and I followed him to Greece when the great flood pushed all the people of Assyria and Babylon to the West. Most of the other gods faded away when the land they were rooted to was destroyed. Those of us who are bound to human existence were able to leave, though not many of us did."

Eurydite asked nothing more of the god and kept quiet as he guided them, making sure that they were on the correct path. There was still much she wanted to know about the old gods as she had come to know them, but she felt it dangerous to press the topic. Instead she let herself relax even though her wound would ache every time the horse moved a certain way, but it was better than walking on foot.

Soon enough the gray sky began to cry and suddenly they were all drenched in rain, even the god which she called Ares. He allowed himself to become drenched and eventually torrents of rain made it impossible to press forward through the forest as the water came down the mountains. He didn't say anything more as he led them to a cave that was hidden safely in the mountain side. He pulled the horse inside and made it lay down so the two young women could get off and then they pulled all the furs from the saddle to lay them on the dusty ground.

"I'll look for dry tinder. You should sit down." Marcaria said putting a hand on Eurydite's shoulder as Ares watched from the entrance of the cave. "I'll be back."

Her attention turned to the god who had brought them all this way, finding herself very curious about him, but did not dare go near him. Surprisingly, she felt herself very comfortable in his presence, as though she had known him all her life. He was supposedly the Father to all the Amazons, but from the stories he told of where he came from, she did not think so. He even came in between them and her in order to save her life, but if his origins were true, was it because he held loyalty to her father? War was not without death and one could even say they went hand in hand with each other.

"Why did you save me?"

The dark haired god looked to her and then moved closer to sit on a boulder that stood in between them. He ran a hand through his wet hair and let it fall beside his face again, trying to find an answer it seemed. However, he shook his head.

"I have always been allied with your father, and you saved my own daughter." He looked in the direction of where Marcaria had gone to. She was picking up any dried piece of wood she could find in the low light of the cave and Ares seemed to be rather pleased at this. "Her mother knew me as Tyr."

"Are you saying Irina is dead?" Eurydite looked at him with shocked eyes.

"She is. Hippolyta killed her the moment you were out of sight."

"Does Marcaria know?" The dark haired woman asked before sitting next to him.

"No, and she does not know who I am to her." Ares said to her with a hint of sadness in his eyes and for once all the tales of the God of War were wrong. If that was the case, what of the other gods? "Hippolyta became jealous of Irina when she found Marcaria was my child and this was the reason she had become mad."

"She did the ceremony out of spite to you, but she would not do it in spite of my father." Eurydite looked down at her hands, feeling as though they were covered in blood again. "I never meant to kill her." A single tear made its way down her cheek and he reached out to brush it away with his thumb.

"She brought it on herself."

The gods were mysterious, but this one was not even bothering to hide the human nature he displayed. Perhaps it was because he was older and preferred the company of mortals than that of other gods? She couldn't tell and it sure seemed that way. Ares, Enyalius, Ashur, or even Belus, were all names that swam around in her mind as she looked into his hazel eyes. He was who he was and no amount of names could even come close to what she saw in front of her. There was a certain way that he moved that spoke of violence, but even in that, she could see the other side to it. Compassion.

"I've got enough wood to start a fire." Marcaria's voice pulled Eurydite from her thoughts as the sound of dried wood hitting the cavern floor echoed throughout the chamber they were in.

She blinked looking over to the red head and shook her head as the god stood up to light the fire by blowing air onto the small pile Marcaria had made. Ares, the God of War, was not really Ares. In her mind she couldn't picture him as Ares, not the hated god through all of Greece. He did not deserve that hate, but then again, she did not see him in his violence. Perhaps one day she would and she didn't know if she should be afraid of him or not. She was trying to separate the man she saw in front of her with the man who was absolutely brutal in every story she had ever heard about him.

"I will take my leave for now, when I return, I shall tell you of Greece." He said turning around and looking at Eurydite in the eyes before coming to her and leaning down to whisper in her ear. "Do not tell her of what we spoke of." He told her before standing up and she nodded to him.

There was no other words to be said and no more to look at other than Marcaria who was busy trying to spread out the furs on the ground next to the fire to dry them. Eurydite felt bad for not being able to do much more than sit around while the red head did all the work, but the wound in her side would not let her use her body to its full extent just yet. She was lucky to have even recovered from it in the time she did, but she supposed she had Ares to thank for that.

She hugged her cloak close to her body as Marcaria came to her and pulled her over to the fire to dry herself. She was glad there was a fire, because she was getting cold from her damp clothes and not only this, she was also getting very hungry. Looking outside, it was hard to tell what time of day it was because of the gray sky and the rain. No doubt the river was swollen at this point and the two Amazons that were following them were unable to get back to the village. Perhaps they were out there hunched over in the rain waiting for them to come out of the cave. Most likely they may have even seen the god walk out into the weather as well.

When the rain stopped the next morning, Eurydite had been keen to get out of the valley before night fall and then to the shores of the Black Sea. She did not want to stay there any longer than she had to, so she made Marcaria pack up the horse and they both navigated the mountain range. They would go with or without Ares to guide them.

"I smell the sea." Eurydite said as the salty air hit her nose right before sunset. She could hear the seagulls crying out in the distance and the sound of the waves crashing against the shores.

"I have never seen it before." Marcaria said from behind.

"I lived on the Ionian sea when I was a child. You never forget the feel of it, or the smell." She said looking through the trees to see if she could see the shores.

"I want to feel it." Marcaria put her chin on Eurydite's shoulder with a smile upon her lips and the other woman just continued to look ahead as they rode. "I bet it feels like a lovers touch." The dark haired woman laughed.

"You don't even know what that feels like."

"You do not either." The red head giggled as she hid her face in her sister's shoulder.

"Come on, let us get to the sea before you embarrass yourself further." Eurydite couldn't help but to giggle herself as she made the horse go into a trot.

It wasn't long before they came to the edge of the forest to look upon the sea as the sun began to make it's way towards the horizon and that was when a great cry came from above the two women. It was so loud that Eurydite had to cover her ears and it made the horse rear causing Marcaria to nearly fall. She looked above her to see a great beast flying over that she had only heard of in stories.

It's great wings were a beautiful black color with the tips and edges a cyan that she had never seen on any living animal. It's body was that of a black lion and it's tail was lined with the same cyan colored feathers as a great fan adorned it's hind quarters. It was the creature the Amazons avoided at all costs and had even tried to kill on multiple occasions, but the beast was immortal. Anyone could tell this from it's cry as it sounded out across the land and possibly over the sea to the other side. How she had not heard it before, she didn't know.

She and Marcaria watched as it flew to a great rock jutting out into the sea and landed. It's great curved beak was the color of the black stone that came from the mountains to the north and it's mane of feathers were the same color. However, the ears of the beast stood straight up and even flattened as it let out another cry. The same cyan color going from the ears and down its neck. Such a beautiful creature as big, if not bigger, than a horse. It laid down shortly after its second cry, folding its wings and watching the sea as if it waited for something.

"I'm not so sure we should go down to the sea anymore."

"We must. As long as we do not attract its attention it will leave us alone." Eurydite said nothing more as she kicked the horse forward towards the sea, careful to keep an eye on the beast.

The two women made it to the beach just as the sun set and Eurydite watched as the sharp golden eyes of the beast found its way to them, but it did not seem to be bothered by their presence on the beach. It's eyes were very wise and seemed to be intelligent, almost like it had been around since the dawn of time.

"I think we should keep going." Marcaria said as Eurydite dismounted.

The dark haired woman didn't say anything as she tied the horse to a dead tree on the edge of the beach and then made her way to the water as the sunset cast a red glow on her skin. She didn't think twice before starting to remove her clothes and smiled before running into the waves. She could hear Marcaria yelling at her from on the beach as she played in the water completely naked.

"Eurydite! What are you doing? Are you serious?"

"You said you wanted to feel the sea!" She said above the sound of the waves crashing and waved at her sister with a grin on her face as another wave hit her. "A lover's touch you said!"

"You don't get to use my words against me!" Marcaria growled as she removed her sandals and then her chiton before running into the sea herself.

Eurydite watched as her sister stood where the waves couldn't reach her and watched as the breeze played with her sisters red hair. She had to laugh at the way Marcaria stood there with a pout on her face and her arms covering her chest. However, her attention was caught by the stretching of the beasts wings as it seemed to be enjoying the sight of two naked humans playing in the sea before putting its head down on its front legs.

"Come on! It's just water." Eurydite laughed as she watched her sister carefully try to inch herself closer to the waves, but as each wave crashed the red head squeaked and ran away. "What are you? A coward?"

"Just you wait!"

The red head closed her eyes and took a deep breath as Eurydite giggled while watching her take small steps into the cool waters of the sea. She watched as the waves crashed against Marcaria and every time they did a smile would grow on her face before she opened her green eyes. Eurydite smiled to her as she held out a hand to drag her into the water until they were not able to touch the bottom anymore. They floated out in the deep as the water moved around them.

"I have to admit, this isn't like a lover's caress." Marcaria said and Eurydite splashed water at her sister causing her to scream. "Why you!" She splashed water back at Eurydite but she was able to duck under the water and avoid the water in her face.

"You have terrible aim." She said when she came back up.

"At least I can hit a stag."

"Well, that is one thing you can do." Eurydite smiled as her sisters jaw dropped before she splashed the dark haired woman again. "Come on, we need to get back to shore."

It wasn't long after that the two women were sitting around a fire on the beach eating a boar that had wondered too close to the beach. Of course, it was even luck that the beast hadn't tried to hunt it first, but it still seemed content with sleeping on its rock above the sea. Eurydite was picking meat off of the rib she had in her hand when Marcaria seemed to be staring at something in the distance out towards the sea.

Eurydite turned her head to see what her sister was looking at and then turned to look back at the red head who was seemingly transfixed on the dark waters of the sea, but Eurydite threw a rock at her. This seemed to bring Marcaria out of her trance and she shook her head before going back to her meal. She had a hunch the beast wasn't here just to get a good rest. It seemed there may be something more going on within the waters of the Black Sea and she was positive that she would find out what it was.

"We need to sleep as far away from the water as possible." She said placing more driftwood on the fire.

"What is it?"

"Nothing to worry about. We will be fine." Eurydite said with a small smile before laying down on her furs. "Just get some sleep. I want to get away from here."

Marcaria didn't protest as she laid down as well.

I obviously need to do some revision on this later, but here it is.

I know it may be slow, but this is how I write. Don't worry, things will pick up in the next chapter.