Alex yawned as he woke up from his little slumber. He blinked twice, and found that the stars were still hanging over his head in the night sky. He sighed. They had set up camp a few hours ago, but he was sure that it dawn would have already broke when he woke up. He hated it when that never happened and he couldn't go back to sleep.

He sat up and winced in annoyance as he felt his back stiffen a little bit at the movement. As of now, his current sleeping arrangements had been reduced to simply sleeping in the comforts of leaves that were surprisingly comfortable. The amount of leaves under him had served as a sort of cushion to keep him for touching the ground. How Atalanta even managed to grab a bunch of them were beyond him, but she managed to somehow gather a ton of them when they weren't looking.

He honestly didn't expect a bunch of leaves to be this effective at comfort. Atalanta really did know her stuff when it came to surviving in the wilderness. The fire that they had started earlier hadn't gone out yet, and were still cackling with crisp embers as it eminated warmth.

Desmond was resting against a log with a little bit of drool falling out of the corners of his mouth. Meleager was leaning against the trunk of a nearby oak tree with his spear resting against his side. He had never paid attention to the weapon, but it was definitely a finely made spear that was made by a master blacksmith. It was an 8 ft long iron pole with a dangerous barbed tip that looked like it was meant to stick inside someone and screw around with their insides. Meleager never explained anything special about his spear, but said it was a gift from his dad before he left the kingdom.

He suddenly tensed when he realized that one party member was missing among them. He looked around with a little bit of worry before he spotted Atalanta sitting up in the trees along a branch with a bored, but alert look on her face. Her bow was firmly clutched in her hands and looked like it was in prime condition to be fired without a single moment of hesitation.

He smiled at that. He knew that they were resting out in the area where a supposedly dangerous wild boar prowled around during the day and night, but he felt like she was being a little bit too serious. Honestly, it amazed him that she hadn't gained any wrinkles or grey hair from stressful hunting.

He quietly made his way over to her as to not wake up his two sleeping comrades. The air was cool and crisp, enough to see his breath exhale from his nose and mouth. The climate had taken a drastic turn overnight, and it didn't seem anything like a normal climate of Greece. There was even a little bit of snow falling down onto the ground, but it wasn't enough for it to stick, luckily.

He forced chakra to his feet and began climbing up the tree silently until he managed to reach Atalanta's branch. Before he was even halfway up, however, Atalanta spoke up.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" She asked as she turned her head to face him. "It's quite a while away until Helios comes with the sun."

"I just woke up a few seconds ago." Alex said as he finally reached the branch she was sitting on. "How long have you been up?"

Atalanta shrugged. "I didn't keep track." She turned her head back to the clearing and sighed. "The three of you fell asleep before I did. Leaving me to be the one to be on lookout while the three of you slept." Despite the lack of change in tone, Alex could tell that she seemed slightly annoyed at that prospect.

"Sorry, that was a little bit rude of us." Alex said with a sheepish smile. "We were just too tired that we completely forgot about it."

"How could you be tired by simply walking? Don't forget that I also walked with you!" Atalanta said with an exasperated shake of her head. "You males are always quite lazy."

Alex pouted. "Hey, don't be like that. If you're tired of it, I wouldn't mind taking over for the rest of the night."

"Can you even stay focused long enough for me to even get some sleep?" Atalanta questioned.

"I am perfectly capable of doing such a task without problem." Alex assured her with a smile. "Don't worry about it so much."

"I can't help but worry about you." Atalanta said with a frown. "You attract all kinds of trouble to you. I wouldn't be surprised if the boar decided to show up and attack us right now because of it."

"Hey, it's not like it happens to just me!" Alex argued with an offended look. "Besides, you know I'm strong enough to take care of myself. Stop worrying yourself and just try to get some sleep."

Atalanta seemed to think about that for a moment, but it was obvious that she wasn't one hundred percent on board with the idea.

"What if something happens to you while I'm asleep?" Atalanta asked as she gave him a worried look. "I don't want to die without being given the chance to fight back."

Alex groaned at his partners continued stubbornness. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "Atalanta... don't you trust me enough to do this? I know you're used to working by yourself, but you need to learn when to rely on others." He gazed into her eyes and let out a comforting smile. "I promise that I will wake you up in the unlikely event that something is wrong. Is that good enough for you?"

Atalanta was silent for a moment in thought as she contemplated on what he had just said. In truth, she had no doubt that Alex could handle any problem by himself since he has demonstrated prowess in many different kinds of skills. However, there was just a part of her that didn't want to make it seem like she was relying on him for everything. She may be a woman, but she had her pride as a huntress. Relying on others was something she didn't do.

Still, that insisting persistence of his was slowly whittling down her resolve. It didn't help that it was cold and her eyelids were getting a little bit droopy. A little nap right now couldn't hurt her, could it?

She sighed in defeat. "Alright... But only on one condition."

Alex nodded. "Name it."

She grinned. "You are going to let me sleep here with you while you stand watch in my place."

Alex blinked. "You mean... right here? On this branch? Isn't it a little bit unsafe for you to sleep on?" Atalanta grinned and wrapped her arm around his.

"You'll be here to catch me, won't you?" Seeing his discomfort, she giggled in amusement. "Didn't you say I could trust you with my life? How can I do that if you don't let me test it?"

Alex pursed his lips, but finally relented with a nod. "Alright... Come here." Atalanta grinned and scooted over to him. Eager to get some sleep, she laid her hand down in his lap and held onto him for support as to not fall off the branch. She let out a comfortable sound as she snuggled against him with a look of content.

"I can't believe you're so warm." Atalanta muttered as she held onto his cloak even tighter. "What are your clothes even made out of?"

"The finest of fabric." Alex said with a chuckle as he patted her head affectionately. "You should try and get some warmer clothes. You'll get sick if you don't have any suitable clothes to wear."

Atalanta pouted. "I never really thought about it that much. It's usually warm and hot every single day. It's very rare we have days like these in this part of Greece." She brightened up when a thought struck her. "At least this snow will do some good."

"How?"

"You're really dense, aren't you?" Atalanta said with a sigh, ignoring Alex's grunt of annoyance. "Use your head. The snow makes tracking the boar much easier. Do you think a creature like that can cover up its tracks with all the snow lying on the ground?"

Alex shrugged. "I guess not. I'll leave all the planning to you. Just point out what I need to do and I'll do it without hesitation."

"Leave the manly work to you, eh?" Atalanta muttered with an annoyed look. Alex just smiled and kept on rubbing her head warmly. The two of them stayed like that for several minutes before Alex noticed that Atalanta still seemed to shake a little bit despite the contact between the two of them.

"Are you still cold?" Alex asked with concern.

"A little." Atalanta admitted with a sheepish smile. "Don't worry about it. I'll get used to it soon."

Alex wasn't convinced about that at all. He brought a hand to his cloak and began unbuttoning it, earning a surprised look from the huntress. "W-what are you doing?"

"Keeping you warm." Alex said simply as he unbuttoned the last button and removed his cloak. "Should be a suitable replacement for a blanket."

"Won't you be cold?" Atalanta asked with worry. "It wouldn't be right. You should keep it for yourself since you'll be up the rest of the night."

"It'll be fine." Alex said with a smile as he draped the cloak around Atalanta like a blanket much to her insistence that he should keep it. "Better?"

Atalanta tucked the cloak cutely up to her face so only her eyes remained visible to him. "It's better. I'm not very cold anymore." She eyed him up with a frown. "If you start getting cold, don't hesitate to take it back if you want."

"That won't be neccessary." Alex said nonchalantly. "If you don't believe me, go and touch my arm."

Atalanta blinked for a moment in confusion before she raised her hand and gently touched Alex's head. Her eyes widened in surprise and alarm when she felt his face was warmer than normal.

"You're burning up!" Atalanta exclaimed with worry as she touched his skin. "Are you coming down with a fever?"

Alex gave a small chuckle at her concern. "No, I'm not. There's nothing wrong with my body at all." He gently removed her hand from his face and held it in his own. "I simply raised my body temperature up a little bit to keep me warm."

Atalanta fixed him with a bewildered expression before she sighed in acceptance. "I'm not even that surprised anymore. You just keep pulling out one oddity after another."

"Pretty convenient, huh?" Alex said with a smile. "It helps when you get caught in situations like this."

Atalanta shrugged. "I guess. Still, couldn't you just grab firewood instead?"

"Eh... too much work." Alex said with a wink, making Atalanta just sigh in annoyance before she laid her head down in his lap.

"Whatever... Just shup up and be a good pillow, okay?" Atalanta muttered as she began to close her eyes. She suddenly tensed up when she felt Alex's warm hand brush her hair gently. For some odd reason, it felt really... satisfying. His touch was really gentle and warm. For a moment, she wondered if Alex was doing this because he was bored, or he just simply wanted to comfort her. Either way, she hoped he didn't stop anytime soon.

Alex didn't stop brushing her hair. Even after she had peacefully fallen asleep, he still continued to do so as he remained vigilent and kept his eyes out for anything that could be a potential threat. In truth, he thought it was kind of cute how Atalanta clinged onto him like a pillow. It made him feel important even if the job was kind of a trivial one.

He looked up at the night sky and watched as several shooting stars flew through the sky. He wondered if those were actually the gods flying across the sky in their chariots. It wouldn't have surprised him that much.

Suddenly, a white comet streaked across the sky that was much too close to even be an ordinary comet. He watched as it streaked across the sky before it finally vanished out of his view. It seemed like it was headed towards some kind of large mountain in the distance that oddly had a vortex of white clouds surrounding the cap of the mountain.

"Huh..." Alex muttered as he stared at the mountain. "Wonder what that could be."

Kuro held tightly onto Pegasus' reigns as they zoomed towards the mountain at breakneck pace. On foot or boat, it should have taken them several days for them to have even reached the mountain. On magical flying horse, however, it only took him two and a half hours.

Of course, they had to stop and ask for directions from a few towns they passed, but most of the locals were kind enough to give him directions to the mountain. Some of them even warned him about going there since no mortal ever managed to snag a fruit ever since the tree has ever been planted.

Was that going to stop him? Hell no! He had a flying horse on his side. What could possibly go wrong? All he had to do was fly in there. Grab a few apples off of a tree, and fly out of there before anything bad happened.

He knew it wasn't going to be so simple, but he could only hope. Supposedly, the garden was at the base of the mountain and was guarded by the hesperides. They were daughters of the titan Atlans, whom was said to be at the top of the mountain holding up the sky as punishment for fighting against the gods during the titan and gods war. How anyone was able to hold something like the sky was beyond him. He's seen statues at museums about it, but it seemed a little bit farfetched.

"Where do you think we should land?" Kuro asked Pegasus as they hovered in the air. The horse just neighed in response. "Since I can't understand you, I'll just trust my instincts." He studdied the landscape before he found an open clearing that was perfect for a landing zone. He whipped the reigns and spurred Pegasus into descent. The horse obeyed his command and landed in the middle of the clearing silently.

"Thanks, buddy." Kuro said with a light pat on the head, which Pegasus seemed to like. "Stay here, okay?" The horse neighed and began grazing on the nearby grass. Satisfied, Kuro began heading towards the mountain. He trudged through the forest, crossing over random streams and huge roots that sprouted from the ground.

Suddenly, he froze as he felt a presence nearby. His hand drifted towards Samehada as he kept an ear and eye out for anything suspicious. Suddenly, a voice rang out from behind him.

"Aex? Desmond?" A deep voice rumbled from behind him. Kuro turned around and saw a huge giant with a huge bow and an equally big stone club. Draped across his body was a furry shroud that had a lion maw used as a sort of face protection. It was pretty obvious who was standing before him.

The giant tensed when he looked upon his face. "You're not desmond or alex..."

"That's true." Kuro said, his hand still hovering close to his sword. "They're my friends. How do you know them?"

"They traveled with me on the argo to deliver an important artifact." The giant rumbled. "They never talked about someone like you."

"Really? I thought he would have told you about me." Kuro muttered. "What happened with the Fleece?"

"Last I heard, it was being sent back to Colchis on ship."

"That's good." Kuro said with a sigh of relief. "What's your name?"

The giant grunted. "Names Heracles. I also just so happen to be here on a mission as well. I'm guessing you're here for the apples?"

Kuro nodded. "Something like that."

"Seeing as you and me have the same goals, why don't we help each other out?" Heracles offered.

"That sounds great. It'll make this a whole lot easier." Kuro said with a nod in agreement. "Do you know where the tree is at?"

"Indeed I do. I was planning on how to snag an apple when I saw you arrive on that flying horse of yours." Heracles said.

"Very recognizable, huh?" Kuro said with an embarrassed look. Heracles shrugged and shouldered his bow.

"The tree is guarded by a huge drgon with hundreds of heads. Taking it by surprise is impossible, and it never lowers its guard over the tree." Heracles said with a frown. "The only way to kill it would be head on."

"Anything you could identify as a weakness?" Kuro asked.

"The dragons body is wrapped around the trunk of the tree. As far as I can tell, it doesn't have any feet it can use to chase us with. If you can blitz past it and get out, it won't be able to chase us." Heracles said.

"I highly doubt it'd be that easy." Kuro said as he shouldered Samehada. "What about the hesperides?"

"They're not a threat at all. They simply tend to the tree and the dragon, and don't seem to be keen on combat. That's why the dragon is there."

"You think we could take the dragon on if we tried?" Kuro asked.

"Maybe, but I can't touch the apples." Heracles said with an annoyed look.

Kuro gave him a confused look. "Why not?"

"Hera would blast me on the spot." Heracles grumbled as he scratched his back. "The two of us don't have a nice history with each other. If I laid hands on that fruit, she'd use it as an excuse to blast me to pieces."

"Ouch." Kuro said with a wince. "If you can't grab it, do you think I could?"

Heracles shrugged. "Who knows? If I were you, I wouldn't chance it."

The two of them were silent for a moment before Kuro shrugged. "Whatever. If she blasts me, she blasts me. I'll deal with it if that happens."

"So you're the type to take a gamble, eh?" Heracles chuckled. "You and Desmond are alike in some ways."

"So I have been told." Kuro said before he straightened up. "So where's the tree at?"

Heracles waved his hand. "Follow me. It's just up ahead. Just try not to trip on all of the roots that have grown around here." With that, Heracles lumbered off. Kuro fell in behind him, carefully as to not trip over a random root like Heracles said. They traveled for several minutes before they came into another clearing that was filled with white flowers and daisies. In the middle of the flower field, was a small tree with various golden apples hanging from its branches.

"There it is." Heracles said as he pointed towards the tree. "And there is the dragon."

Kuro focused at the base of the tree and widened his eyes in surprise. Wrapping itself around the tree, was a bunch of flailing necks with a small snake like head on each end. There were so many of them that the entire lower half of the trunk had simply vanished amongst the necks.

"That's alot of heads. Absolutely disgusting." Kuro muttered as he watched the necks hiss and turn as it kept its valliant guarding.

"A monster of Gaia." Heracles murmured in agreement. "This thing won't go down without a fight. The best thing for us to do is to hit it hard and hit it fast."

"I'm with you on this one." Kuro said with a nod. "So who's going to go first?"

"I will." Heracles said simply as he raised his bow and drew an arrow from his quiver. Notching the arrow and drawing it back, he spoke:

"Nine lives."

Heracles let go of the arrow and watched as it zoomed toward the heads, who straightened up at the sense of danger. The arrow suddenly multiplied into a nine arrowed laser beam of death as it cut through the dragons heads. The heads roared at the loss of their other heads and immediately trained their sights on where they were hiding.

"Let's go!" Heracles roared as he immediately drew his stone club and charged at the dragon with a roar while the dragons roared back. Kuro grunted and stood up to follow him.

"Perhaps this would be the best time to test out those eyes." Kuro muttered with a little bit of unrestrained glee at the excitement of testing out a new ability he had waited to use for so long. Which one should he use? Rinnegan or Tenseigan?

It took him several seconds to decide, but he finally decided on using the Rinnegan. The tenseigan could wait for another target some other time. He closed his eyes and began focusing chakra to his eyes before he felt a shift. When he opened his eyes, he was able to see the dormant chakra inside of Heracles and the huge ass dragon.

He grinned. "Sweet! It worked." He looked behind him, and found several black orbs floating behind him in a circular manner. It kind of made him look like a buddhist if he thought about it. There were ten of them floating behind him. More than enough to take care of the dragon.

"Alright... Let's see how this goes." kuro muttered as he dashed forward. Several of the dragon heads hissed as they turned to him and blew multiple streams of fire at him. Kuro formed a shield in front of him using one of the truth-seaking orbs and continued his dash forward. The orb didn't even waver as it took on the full front of the attack. Once he got close enough, he dropped the shield and raised Samehada.

"Chomp on this!" Kuro yelled as he swung his sword, cutting through several heads and sending heads rolling across the ground. Despite being a sword meant to shave, it still was pretty decent at cutting through things.

Heracles roared and slammed his club down on a head before using his fist and backhanding several more out of the way. Despite being a huge target, Heracles pranced out of the way of several fire blasts. How he did that was unknown to Kuro, but he was glad he didn't have to worry about the big guy.

He converted one of the orbs into a bo staff and wielded it in his free hand as he waded through the sea of heads, smashing and cutting through anything with a long neck and scales. He suddenly jumped back in surprised as a beam of heat cut through the air next to him.

"That's new..." Kuro muttered as he dodged another beam. The heads were apparently switching from large blasts of fire to concentrated accurate beams. He raised Samehada as another beam shot towards him and watched as the sword absorbed it out of thin air.

"Kukukukuku..." The sword garbled in a displeased manner.

"Sorry. Forgot you hated fire." Kuro apologized as he sent several of his orbs forward into a group of heads, causing the ground to erupt into an explosion of dust as the orbs completely crushed the heads upon contact. He turned to another group of heads and raised his hand up in a stopping motion.

"Almighty push!"

An invisible force jutted out of his hands and slammed into the heads with enough force to completely rip their heads from their bodies. Right now, there were just a few heads left and they definitely seemed like they were panicking. They were throwing beams of fire around without even bothering to aim.

"You alright?" Kuro asked as he stood back to bck with Heracles.

"I'm fine. Just a few burns here and there." Heracles grunted as he eyed him up. "What's with the new getup?"

Kuro looked at him with his purple eyes. "Just an ability i have. Alex and Desmond have them too, but i'm guessing they never showed you it, huh?"

Heracles shrugged in confirmation. Those eyes were creepy in their own right. Even from a single glance, he could tell that they contained a hidden power deep within them. Even those black spheres unnerved him more than any other beast he had encountered.

"heads up. The beast is coming." Kuro warned. Heracles turned to look at the remaining heads, which had been reduced to eight, and watched in surprise as they began peeling themselves off of the tree. Legs grew, and the dragon now looked like a regular hydra. The necks that didn't have any heads on them simply shedded and fell off the body with a hiss.

"It grew legs. Troublesome creature." Heracles muttered as he watched the dragon shake like a wet dog. Much to his surprise, the beast didn't seem to make any move towards them. In fact, it seemed to shrink away from them and whimper in fear.

"Is it afraid of us?" Kuro whispered with a questioning look.

"we are pretty intimidating." Heracles whispered back as he continued to eye the beast. "What do you think we should do with it?"

Kuro was silent for a moment as he contemplated on ideas. He suddenly snapped his fingers as he felt a thought come to him. Slowly, he began approaching the beast much to the surprise of both Heracles and the dragon.

"What are you doing?" Heracles hissed. Kuro sent him a reassuring wave as he continued his approach. The dragon whimpered, and bent lower as if it was expecting him to hit it or something. It was like a puppy who peed on the floor and was expecting a beating with a rolled up piece of newspaper. Luckily, Kuro had a different thought in mind.

"Hey, buddy... Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you." Kuro said with a reassuring tone as a chakra receiver formed in his left hand. The dragon hissed a little bit, but it didn't make any move to back away.

"You've got to be kidding me." Heracles muttered in disbelief as he watched Kuro finally reach the dragon and begin petting one of the heads with his hand. The dragon shaked with pleasure and began making sounds that a dragon shouldn't have been able to make.

Kuro grinned as the rest of the heads go jealous and began surrounding him for pets of their own. "Awe... You liked being pet, dontcha?" He petted all of the heads and earned whimpers of delight from all of them. "How about being my pet? You'd like that, right?"

The dragon let out a sound that resembled both a dogs bark and a roar. Kuro took that simply as a yes and began moving to the dragons body, petting it to reassure he won't do anything bad. When he made it to the middle of the dragon, he carefully took his chakra receiver and slowly began sticking it into the dragons chest. The dragon whimpered, but it didn't do anything. Once he had secured it in place, he gave the dragon another comforting pat.

"All better?" Kuro asked. The dragon's heads nodded and Kuro grinned. "Great! That wasn't so hard now, was it?"

"I can't believe you just did that." Heracles muttered as he watched Kuro pet the dragon with affection.

"I've been told I do things that defy people's expectations." Kuro said simply as he scratched the dragons ear. He turned to the golden apples and frowned. "So do you want me to take the apples?"

Heracles grunted. "Go ahead if you want. Don't blame me if you get blasted to dust."

Kuro nodded, and began reaching towards one of the apples. Slowly, he grabbed one of them and plucked it from its branch. He tensed, waiting for something to happen like being turned into a grease stain on the ground, but nothing happened. He exhaled and tossed the fruit to Heracles, who caught it in his hand with a surprised look.

"Huh... Now I've seen everything." Heracles said in disbelief as he examined the authentic golden apple in his hands. Kuro shrugged, and began resuming to pluck more apples.

Up on Mt. Olympus, the queen of the gods was in deep thought as she stared at the two mortals below. One of which being her husbands demigod child.

Normally, she would have blasted Heracles for even being in her sacred garden. Before she could do so, however, HE showed up.

She had thought for him to be Alex or Desmond, but it turned out to be a friend of theirs named Kuro. Apparently he was there for the same reason as Heracles himself: to take her sacred fruits from her sacred garden.

She would have also blasted him as well, but she had taken a strange fondness with Alex and Desmond. Perhaps their friend wasn't any different?

Indeed, he wasn't that much different at all. Similar personalities, and the lack of being a demigod with any godly parents. The only thing that was different was those strange eyes he had exhibitted. Just seeing them made her shiver for a moment, even up here in the heavens.

Such power in someone like him was an anomally. She had expected him to use it to slaughter her pet dragon that she had placed their to guard the tree in place of the hesperides. Those daughters of the titan couldn't be trusted.

Imagine her surprise when she watched him reduce most of the heads to stumps until only eight had remained instead of reducing them to zero. Not only that, but he seemed to somehow tame the mighty beast by petting it while heracles just watched like the stupid oaf he was.

She was so curious about the child that she completely forgot to blast them when they began plucking apples off the tree and handing them to her sworn enemy. In the end, she didn't feel like commiting homicide and just resorted to watch them leave with their prize.

There was just one question that was gnawing at her: What did he need those apples for? Sure, they could turn you into an immortal, but he was taking several of them. Enough for an entire family.

She'd keep her eyes on him. The boy seemed pretty carefree and didn't seem intent on using the apples for any nefarious purposes, but she would have to be careful. If she remembered correctly, Alex and Desmond came from Colchis. No doubt Kuro also came from the same kingdom.

She stood up from her throne and went to go fetch her chariot. She needed to go and run some errands with a visit being one of them.

oh snap! Kuro has managed to attract the direct attention from the queen of olympus herself. What does this mean for our hero?

Tune into the next chapter to find out!

-baloshua