A.N: Why, oh, why does spellscheck hate me? Thank you geolke for showing me the way through! Haha, see? Learned my lesson.
All that glitters is not gold - Chapter 4
The next day came too soon for the nobles, as it marked the beginning of Alexander's plan. Acting in accord with said plan, the prince made his way to the waterfall, a confident look on his face as he studied the background where his friends should be hiding in. The waterfall was one of his favorite places as a child, where he spent hours practicing his diving skills, much to his mother's horror. He had to admit there were probably better, less suicidal places to practice, but the sixty feet fall helped him clear his mind.
Reaching the top, he found Hephaestion leaning over the stream of water that delicately made his way down the cliff. The prince still remembered this place perfectly: the small trees that here and there shadowed over the stream, the bright sun making the river shine as pure crystal and the silent breeze that made this place perfect in every way.
The man was still fully clothed, only his sandals were tied to the horse's saddle and his sword resting against a tree. Upon hearing a stranger's arrival, he turned and frowned.
"Prince Alexander." Hephaestion's words left his mouth more in tone of impatience than that of surprise. He figured that the royal family had a hard time giving up their desires, with the whole ruling over Macedonia thing, but this was all too much.
"Hephaestion!" The prince exclaimed in a merry sound, mentally patting himself on the back for his own talent as an actor. "What a strange coincidence." He spoke, dismounting Bucephalus in one swift move.
"I've known you for three days and since then I can't seem to go anywhere without running into you." Hephaestion stood as Alexander made his way to him, holding Bucephalus reins.
"Destiny." Alexander suggested.
"Misfortune." Hephaestion retorted. The prince decided to ignore him, instead turning his attention to the stream.
"Don't let me interrupt your bath." He spoke, a sly smile on his lips.
"You're not." Hephaestion spat, knowing it to be a lie. He could probably live with Alexander's unwelcome visits, but the thought of having that pervert watch him as he washed was simply repulsive.
"Then proceed." Alexander calmly suggested.
Hephaestion awkwardly turned to the water and then back to the prince, speaking, "The water is too cold."
Realizing the true reason for his hesitation, Alexander simply kept his character and said, "You have no need to worry, I won't pressure you into becoming my eromenos. I see it as a position of honor, not one that needs unwilling participants." Hephaestion opened his mouth to retort but the prince interrupted.
"But if you do change your mind, you know where to find me." Hephaestion rolled his eyes. The vain hope that Alexander decided to forget him vanishing in mere seconds.
"Prince Alexander, after our small conversation last night I thought you had understood what I meant." He spoke in a determined tone, deciding to put an end to this story once and for all.
"I-" Alexander started, only to be stopped by a motion of Hephaestion's hand, who proceeded to explain the matter further.
"And what I meant was: if we were the last two human beings on earth, I would be trying to start a family with Bucephalus."
The prince blinked, turning his attention to the horse, which in return looked back at the man. They stared at each other for a few seconds, making Hephaestion wonder if there was some kind of telepathic communication going on, then figuring it was probably due to their identical intelligence that the horse and the owner seemed to get along so well.
Suddenly, a discrete noise was heard, coming from the bushes.
"Did you hear that?" The soldier asked, looking around for the source of the sound. A gallop sound tore his attention away to another event, namely the sudden escape of his horse, which was now running at full strength to nowhere.
"My horse!" Hephaistion said. As soon as the words left his mouth he wished he could recall them and instead say something slightly more logical, like 'My dignity!' or 'My sandals!'
"Parmenion will have my head." He mumbled as soon as he remembered he had brought one of the army's horses. On the bright side, if it got scared that easily it was also pretty useless in battle.
"You have other things to worry about." A voice spoke huskily behind him. Hephaestion turned swiftly, finding five armed masked men standing in an attack position. Alexander had already reached for his sword, moving against two of the presumed thieves.
Hephaestion grabbed his own sword, sitting by the tree, using it to defend himself from one of the robbers. At first, he could easily dodge their attacks, making it effortless for him to strike on his own. However, as the battle went on, it became more difficult to defend himself. It was just as if the thieves were testing the waters before attacking him with all their strengths. They certainly were good at what they did; their movements revealed knowledge and practice in the area, something all but common in between thieves. Good as they might be, Hephaestion was better.
Getting rid of one of them by punching him in the stomach, the next one attacked him from the top, making him raise his own sword to stop the enemy's blade from cutting him in half. Suddenly, he felt his knees grow weak as someone tripped him to the floor. However, this was not nearly enough to beat him. Kneeling on the floor, he used the same idea and tripped the one who first attacked him, then turned to the other and used his sword against him. As a third one came from behind, he raised his leg and kicked him strongly in the crotch.
Mouth agape, Alexander could only watch as, one by one, Hephaestion destroyed all his friends and, consequently, any of his attempts to rescue him. Every time they attacked in pairs, it was meant for Hephaestion to fall and Alexander to come and save him from the bad men. No need to say, they had underestimated Hephaestion greatly.
As he realized he was being quite useless to the battle, Alexander threw himself on top of Philotas, who still lay in the ground, grabbing onto his crotch.
"You have other things to worry about." Alexander mimicked Philotas' voice in a whisper, in a mocking tone. "Seriously?"
Philotas interrupted his agonizing moment to whisper back, "Well, next time I'll just pat him in the back and politely inform him I will proceed to attack him." He spat, while still whimpering in agony.
Alexander rolled his eyes. Moments later, he and Hephaestion traded short glances, raising the need to appear useful. "I'm punching you now." He whispered to Philotas, who frowned and responded.
"Fine." Alexander punched him softly, but still taking a huge commotion to do it.
"You need to knock down his sword." The prince advised, now pretending to suffocate the enemy.
"You fight him!" Philotas hissed. "You're both invincible so it would spear us all the misery."
"Alexander!" Hephaestion called, concern filling his voice. Alexander couldn't be happier. As soon as he caught a sly smile trying to appear on his lips, he quickly destroyed it by remembering himself he was supposed to look troubled.
"This one's down!" He yelled to the other man. Turning his attention to Philotas, he said, "Play dead." He then ran towards Hephaestion, standing next to each other as the remaining thieves gathered in front of them.
"They know what they're doing." Hephaestion mumbled.
"You think they're soldiers?"
"I think they are excellent soldiers." Alexander almost rolled his eyes, imagining how the others would blush and giggle like little girls at Hephaestion's compliment.
"Who are you?" Hephaestion spoke in a tone of authority. The thieves looked quite unsure for a second, assuming they couldn't say more as Philotas had almost threatened their mission by speaking to Hephaestion in the first place. So, as good old barbarians, they attacked again in order to avoid further conversations.
As Alexander was about to make his grand heroic move, a gallop was heard. All men turned their attentions to two others approaching them by horse at great speed.
The future companions exchanged concerned expressions as Hephaestion sighed, relieved, and said "Argeus, Simmias."
Shrugging in harmony, the young men just assumed they were supposed to fight those ones too. However, as the forms approached, they realized in how much trouble they were in. The two men promptly came down from their horses, swords in hand as the thieves gaped at their size. One was terribly tall and the other incredibly tiny.
Cassander, being a true friend and gentleman, quickly turned to the smaller one, who seemed the easy way out. "I'll take the elf!" He spoke, altering his voice with a harsher tone. All seemed good and easy, until the small man suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs and charged against him.
Eventually, all men were caught. Alexander unwillingly made Nearchus and Ptolemy his victories, adding to that of Philotas. Hephaestion cornered Ptolemy, the elf trapped Leonnatus and the tall man grabbed Cassander by the collar.
"Who are you?" Hephaestion repeated, still fighting to catch his breath.
"You ogre!" Came the redefine tones of Cassander, eagerly kicking the air in vain hopes of freedom.
Hephaestion froze. He had heard that petulant voice before in some miserable episode he'd rather forget, when a man named Cassander insisted that they'd spend the night together.
"Cassander?" The supposed question came off more as an affirmation as he stepped forward to retreat the thief's mask.
Cassander stopped suddenly, closing his eyes and feeling the fabric of the mask slip through his face in one easy move. When he summed up enough courage to open them again, which took him some time, he found many pairs of eyes plastered on him.
Now, Cassander didn't consider himself a people person and, therefore, he didn't usually read through people's expressions easily. Today, however, was an exception; he could completely decipher Ptolemy's exasperation, Nearchus' amusement, Leonnatus' confusion, Philotas' irritation and last, but not least, Alexander's panic, correctly translated to 'Oh, by Zeus. What have you done, you idiot?!'
Hephaestion stared, confused, as his mind tried to reason all the information rushing at once. Slowly, he turned to Alexander.
"You!" He pointed out. At that moment, a common feeling of worry was felt by all the present. Hephaestion's friends, also known as 'ogre' and 'elf', as Cassander so politely enunciated, knew the man was about to do something not so pleasant to the prince. Alexander's friends didn't actually knew anything besides the fact that this was all a terrible, terrible mistake and they should have known better than to go along with the prince's unwise schemes.
There are probably many ways to describe what happened next. Essentially, as Hephaestion was about to rip out the prince's throat with his own bare hands, he stepped on the end of the cliff on which Alexander was standing; the ground gave out, Alexander fell backwards and Hephaestion, wanting to murder the prince by himself and not have a piece of dirt do it for him, reached forward, trying to grab the other man.
The idea backfired horribly.
The future companions' eyes grew as they watched them both fall down the waterfall, silently. Probably because screaming like little girls was neither manly nor helpful.
A long silenced followed, as the men watched the trail of water on the end of the waterfall. The silenced ceased when the ogre and the elf left in a hurry, presumably to find their lost, and potentially drowned, friend.
"He wanted to save him and ended up almost killing him. Ironic." Nearchus snickered, all attentions still focused on the water.
"This is not ironic." Cassander spoke, a high pinch of panic on his tone. He proceeded to explain, "Ironic is so typical that it makes you laugh later. This will definitely not make us laugh later. Later, we'll be dead!"
"Alexander is a brilliant swimmer, he'll be fine." Nearchus added mentally that Alexander was more lucky than wise and could easily pull off something like that and leave unharmed.
All of the sudden, a question popped in Leonnatus mind, he voiced it.
"But is Hephaestion?" They exchanged quick looks as soon as those words left Leonnatus' mouth. Cassander rolled his eyes. A few seconds later, they were running downhill, mostly in hopes of saving Hephaestion's life and earning his eternal devotion; in Cassander's case, expecting to finding Hephaestion barely breathing, so he could suffocate him effortlessly.
---
Alexander emerged with ease, frantically searching for a sign of Hephaestion. He had seen the later hurt his knee when he reached forward to grab his arm but it seemed impossible to find him in the water.
A few seconds later, he dived, finding Hephaestion fighting to release his chiton, trapped under a stone. Alexander quickly reached him, tearing the cloth so Hephaestion could emerge. He did so on his own, with a close guard of the prince.
Hephaestion reached the shore, holding his stomach and coughing loudly. Alexander kneeled by his side, resting his hand on the other's back. As soon as the coughing stopped, Hephaestion slapped the other man's hand away. Alexander let him be, thinking it was all for a need of space. That was, until Hephaestion got up and walked away from him, not spearing a word.
The prince frowned, rushing forward to capture the other man's wrist. Hephaestion's eye twitched. "Prince Alexander, let me go before I do something that will make you infertile and have me executed." Alexander smirked, releasing his hold.
"I'm sorry, but I rescued you and I do feel that I have do right to some…" He licked his lips. "retribution."
Anyone present could feel the hate building up inside Hephaestion's, usually calm and collected, form. However bad Alexander's survival extinct might be, he could detect some uncomfortable aura around him. Probably a storm coming, his brain put eloquently.
Hephaestion turned to the future king, fists closed and teeth clenching. Alexander took a step back, studying the unusual expression the other man had, not that it made him any less beautiful.
"You did not rescue me, you oaf, you nearly killed me!" The soldier spoke with a low, threatening tone, mostly to keep his anger under some, barely present, grip.
Alexander seemed thrown down for half a second before his ego came up, sword in a hand, shield on the other, riding a white horse, easily destroying any attempt of denial that Hephaestion would cast upon him.
"My dear Hephaestion, I assure you, you would have drown had it not been for my gallant action." Hephaestion took a threatening step closer.
"I would have no need for your 'gallant action'," He copied Alexander's tone on those last two words. "had you not schemed a fake robbery to gain my trust."
"I was merely trying got make you realize the strong feelings you hold for me." The prince enunciated, smiling charmingly.
"Strong feelings?!" Hephaestion repeated. "I am very much aware of my 'strong feelings' for you. Aversion, loathing, spite!" Again, these words seemed to hold no effect whatsoever on the man's confidence.
"Those are strong words, my eromenos." Hephaestion stared at him, dumbfounded.
Trying to talk some sense into Alexander, Hephaestion realized, was like sending off one soldier to conquer Persia. A deaf, blind soldier, that hadn't eaten for three days and had a spoon as a weapon.
"I took you for a bright soldier, an intelligent prince. I now see I was clearly mistaken." Hephaestion paused. "You are but a spoiled child who cares for nothing more than his own ego and manipulates reality to fit his mood. You use other's friendship and trust to persuade them to do what you find best without spearing a thought to the consequences that your actions may hold upon others."
Somewhere along that speech, Alexander's desire was overcome by his need of approval and, consequently, by the anger he released upon those who dared to defy his character.
"Who are you to judge me?" The prince roared, erasing any trace of the calm, kind voice he used to apply when conducting a conversation with Hephaestion.
"Enough!" Hephaestion almost yelled, looking Alexander in the eyes only to tell him, "If I never see you again, it will be too soon."
"You know why the gods made you so beautiful?" The strong voice spoke again, refusing to lose any battle. "To cover up all the madness."
Hephaestion's eye twitched slightly before he rushed forward and, in one fast move, punched Alexander in the face. The prince gaped at him for a few seconds before even realizing what had actually happened. No one had ever dared to punch him, ever. And damn, did it hurt.
"I am the son of Philip and by all my lenience with you I will not tolerate being treated like this! I am still your future king and I demand respect." The prince spoke in his most threatening tone as Hephaestion walked away from him, only turning back to say:
"You want to be treated like the heir to the throne? Start acting accordingly." That was a strong blow against Alexander's pride.
Luckily, by then, all their friends were there. The elf and the ogre hurried to help Hephaestion, who was still slightly breathless from the dive. They rushed him to a horse and quickly fled, not sparing another glance at the prince or his friends.
---
Leaonatus sat comfortably in a corner of Alexander's room, feet resting on the desk as he played with a spoon he found laying around. He really liked shiny things.
In the mean time, five pair of eyes watched the prince walking around in his room, only stopping now and then to randomly kick the chair Perdiccas sat on. Not that is was Perdiccas' fault, no. The boy had only chosen a very bad place to sit: in the way of Alexander's fuming.
"How dare he defy me?" He spoke, fervently. "He called me 'spoiled prince'!" Raising his arms in frustration, he spoke, disbelievingly, "He punched me. He actually punched the son of Zeus!"
His friends nodded absently, even thought most of them applauded Hephaestion for his brave, and somewhat lunatic, action. It was astonishing that a simple soldier could withstand Alexander's worst temper without flinching, and it was simply unbelievable how the same man manage to punch him.
"Maybe you should just wait until you're king," Cassander spoke up, ever the helpful one. "then you can just throw him into a room and keep him locked there until he loves you." The others eyed him strangely as he shrugged in his defense.
"I don't want him to love me." Alexander spat with a hateful frown. "I hope he rots away far from me." He then proceeded his previous action, pacing around the room as he rummaged around his brain for someone to blame. Finding the perfect culprit, he froze on the spot, speaking, "Why didn't you warn me about this, Perdiccas? You seem to be friendly enough with the man."
Perdiccas wasn't particularly interested in Alexander's rage, so he simply answered, "I just thought he would be more lenient since you are the prince."
"Obviously, he doesn't care about that. Ruthless little bastard." The prince mumbled, continuing his pacing.
Leonnatus kept twirling a spoon through his finger, eyeing it pensively. He sighed, sitting himself straight. "You did almost successfully murder him." He pointed out, being instantly glared at by the others who were uselessly trying to calm the prince's enraged state.
"What did you say?" Alexander asked, the anger sweeping away from his very soul. Leonnatus fell into deep silence instantly, the spoon falling to the floor in a mute sound.
"The man has a point." Perdiccas interfered, mostly to defend Hephaestion's actions than to avoid Alexander's anger to be directed to Leonnatus.
Perdiccas had been too busy to take part in any of the plotting. However, when the prince returned to the palace angered enough to scare most residents, Perdiccas was called to the rescue. He went to Philotas to hear about the prince, since Ptolemy's answer to the question 'What happened' was 'Macedonia's prince is a masochist who insist in dragging us down with him, that's what happened'. Philotas informed him about all the events as Perdiccas fought very hard not to laugh. However, as soon as the punching the prince part came into the picture, Perdiccas went blank and hurried to Alexander's side in order to avoid Hephaestion's certain death.
"You did took him as granted, manipulated him and utterly ignored his own will to deny you." Perdiccas spoke, his voice not flattering under the prince's cold gaze.
Alexander's glare turned to a frown as he thought it over. He did perform those actions that Perdiccas so attentively decided to remind him of. However, the ends justified the means, as he was sure they would be the ideal couple, designed by the gods themselves.
"Don't get all logical and sane on me right now," He threatened lowly. "You're on my team."
"That's right," Perdiccas nodded his head in agreement, sarcastically adding. "he sucks and he's repulsive, etcetera, etcetera."
"Fine." The prince spat, deciding that if his friends were inconsiderate bastards anyway, he might as well spend some time on his own.
"Where are you going?" Philotas questioned, concern eminent on his voice.
"Somewhere where I'm not surrounded by my inconsiderate friends."
The moment Alexander exited the room, silence took place. Cassander opened his mouth, only to be stopped by Ptolemy's words. "I have a sword and I am not afraid to use it."
"Do you think Alexander will have him killed?" Ptolemy rolled his eyes at Leonnatus' question, asking himself, yet again, why did he even bother.
"I would honestly love to be able to answer that question." Perdiccas whispered in a sad tone, fearing for Hephaestion's destiny.
"Truth be said, he had it coming." Cassander said, a confident look on his face as he waited applause for his wise words, or at least a nod of agreement. All he got was a few looks of mild annoyance.
"We need to keep them away from each other." Perdiccas spoke, a thoughtful look on his face as he kept staring to the floor.
"We don't need to do anything." Cassander spat, pointing to Perdiccas. "You, on the other hand, might do whatever you please to keep that devil alive."
"One of these days…" Nearchus spoke, cracking his knuckles and frowning at the man. Cassander gulped, sinking against the wall he was leaning in.
"He does have a point." Leonnatus spoke, honestly as ever. "We have nothing to do with Alexander's decisions."
Nearchus slapped Leonnatus lightly on the head. "If a man who stands up for his honor is wrongfully convicted, we shall fight for his rights." Everybody knew Nearchus had an undeniable passion for justice that sometimes drove the usually peaceful man to a killing spree. So it was better not to contradict him when his vigilante persona happened to emerge.
"I still think you're all trying to get him into bed." Leonnatus spoke, oblivious to the other's occasional violence. Nearchus rolled his eyes, slapping the other man again.
"You really don't learn, do you?" Leonnatus whimpered, turning to glare at him.
"Alexander is walking over dangerous waters, here." Ptolemy spoke aloud, lost on his own thoughts. "If he murders Hephaestion, his father might not contain himself again."
Nearchus nodded. "Murdering a soldier out of nowhere won't be seen with kind eyes."
"All we can do is keep them away from each other." Perdiccas repeated, and then turned to Cassander. "We need to understand there is more than a man's life a stake. Alexander might be exiled for a second time, or worse."
They all nodded in agreement, deciding that keeping them away from each other would be for the best.
Little did they know that, on the other side of the door, Attalus was prying, saying to himself with a smile, "What a loss of great generals will it be when Alexander is exiled for good."
To be continued...
Hi again! (:
This chapter was slightly smaller than I excepted, for some reason. Anyway, I promise I will post Chapter 5 next week (as an Easter present) and it will be at least 5000 words long.
A huge thanks to all my readers & reviewers! :D
