" Hello Clark. Your bath is ready. " Brianna shyly said.
" Ohh. " Clark looked around. " Where are others? "
" Xena and Gabrielle went to pool . Mother went to work. "
Clark raised , immediately felt stinging pain , almost fell down.
" Let me help you . "
Brianna placed Clark hand around her to give support.
" Thank you . " Clark said with smile.
Brianna can't help but blush seeing him.
Clark slowly walked until they reached to back of the house with large tub and wash cloth along white rock like substance maybe soap.
" Here? " Clark asked, seeing open place.
Brianna nodded.
Clark want to say something but maybe this is how they bath in ancient times. Maybe they will get offended.
Clark sat in tub .
" Don't move . " She said. " Let me help you ."
Brianna touched his belt buckle.
" What are you doing? " Clark asked with panickingly.
" Xena instructed me to bath you and clean your wounds. You have strange clothing . " Brianna said.
" I am from strange land. Brianna, thank you but I am not comfortable with you bathing me . " Clark said.
Brianna looked into his eyes. Clark can see desire in her eyes.
" It's okay Clark. Don't need to shy. Help me remove your clothing. "
Clark unbuckled his belt then unbuttoned his pants.
Brianna pulled his pants slowly. Clark can't help but feel shy being in his only underwear.
Brianna licked her lips absently, seeing such a perfect male specimen.
Brianna started pouring water until they came to below his wound.
She picked soft cloth , dipped in soapy water and started rubbing slowly and sensually.
Clark can feel pleasurable tingling sensation wherever she touches him .
Clark can't believe he controlled his hormones when cute girl rubbing his wet body. Beside , it's hot day and her cotton gown stuck to her body like second skin, almost as she is naked, low deep cut of her gown is hinting her cleavage.
Brianna can see where Clark is looking.
She moved closer and closer, her hand went lower and lower until it reaches his underwear.
Clark moaned when her hand rubbed against his hardened manhood.
" Brianna , stop. " Clark stopped her, grabbing her hand.
It's unusual and Clark can feel something is wrong here.
Suddenly there is a laughter is heard. It's ethereal, soft , almost musical.
Clark can see Brianna is not moving, like statue, looked at source of laughter.
" Wow " Clark can't help but say seeing most beautiful woman he ever seen.
She is most beautiful woman, in her prime beauty age with perfect curves and gorgeous smile, wearing thin but glowing robe , like crafted by magic, transparent, leaving nothing to imagination .
Whatever he is seeing, it's nothing to compare. She is definition to ultimate beauty.
" Clark " she said with amusing smile.
" Aphrodite . " Clark recognised her, absently raised from tub.
" Mmmm big boy " she said with naughty smile, looking at his bugle in underwear.
" You knew me but I don't know anything about you except whatever I saw after you arrived here . Who are you? Where did you came from? How do you know me? "
She moved forward, placed her hand on his chest, teasingly rubbing against toned chest.
" I recognized you from the statue , amazons built for you. I thought no one will be that beautiful . but I have to say it didn't do justice to your beauty . " Clark said.
" Quite a charmer you are Clark but amazons didn't built my statue. " Aphrodite said.
" Maybe not here. Where I came from , they did. " Clark said.
" So visitor from other plane, how exciting ? "
Aphrodite looked at him with excited eyes.
He maybe handsome man, beauty rival to gods maybe but how mere mortal came here? What's the significance? Aphrodite thought.
Aphrodite shook her head.
Haa she thought herself . all the thinking getting me headache . Here I have yummiest mortal here. I am thinking.
" What's happening with Brianna? " Clark asked.
" Ohh that. She is fallen for you lover boy. Usually she is quite shy . But little nudge of my special kind of magic , she is exhibiting her inner desires. You felt it too . Don't you lover boy? "
She looked at his underwear with smirk.
" Still, hand it to you. You resisted better than anyone. Anyway nice meeting you lover boy, just wanted to test you. Laters. "
She kissed him so deeply, felt like she placed entire body into kiss.
While he is in bliss of kiss, Aphrodite left.
" Clark. What happened? " Brianna asked, seeing his almost naked form with dreamy eyes.
" Oh nothing Brianna. I guess my bath is done. "
" Aphrodite "
Aphrodite looked at the man who called her .
" Clark? " Aphrodite called but quickly realised it's not Clark. The aura is different, radiant even though similarity is quite evident.
She recognised that he is god even though she didn't knew him .
" Who are you? " Aphrodite asked accusing voice .
" Come on child . Can't you recognise your ancestor? "
" Child? " Aphrodite can't help but offended . " Who do you think you are ? " she asked.
" As I told you, I am Rao, your ancestor. " He replied.
" You are Rao? " Aphrodite suddenly changed her demeanor flirtatious . " Oh thought you are grumpy old man like my papa from stories of I heard . You are a handsome man . " She suggestively started rubbing his muscular biceps .
Rao simply smiled . " Stop it . Your tricks won't work on me Aphrodite . I want to talk to you about my son. Kal-el, as you know him as Clark. "
" I can see family resemblance . He may have looks of God but I don't think he is god " Aphrodite said, still upset that she can't affect him , pressed her breasts suggestively to his back.
" Cut it. " Rao said ,with little harsh, but that little thing made Aphrodite thrown against the wall.
" Ouch. That hurts grandpa . " Aphrodite raised from ground , said . " Don't you know women are like flower? "
Rao smiled . " I am sorry child. I forgot how feable you gods are . "
Aphrodite truly surprised by strength of the ancient god.
" What do you want to talk about? " Aphrodite asked.
" Time is coming where there is no longer place for your gods. "
" Are you talking about twilight of gods ? It's myth. Mortals won't survive without gods " Aphrodite asked.
" Trust me. They will. Age of god's will be over, soon age of heroes will come. And Clark will shine like diamond in jewel . " Rao said like proud father.
" Yeah yeah . What will you want me to do? " Aphrodite asked, getting bored.
" Nothing. I want to save your life. " Rao replied.
" Why am I so special? " Aphrodite asked sarcastically.
" You maybe petty , not cared for mortals but your different from other gods. " Rao said.
" Of course. I am pretty " Aphrodite said , suggestively posing , making her body elevated, showing her gorgeous tits.
" That's you are. " Rao agreed. " But that's not why you are special. You are not cruel. You have a potential to greatness. " Rao smiled.
" Oh. " Aphrodite has to say, she is surprised. No one ever said that to her before.
" Only thing you know is these petty gods. I want you to be friends with Clark. " Rao said.
" I can be better than friends you know " Aphrodite said suggestively.
" I don't need details. " Rao shook his head. " This is for your own good. "
" If that's the only thing you want , I can do that . "
" Remember child, I know you better than you think . I know you will meddle , I warn you , don't meddle. He has great journey ahead . " Rao said seriously .
" Sure grandpa. " Aphrodite nodded but Rao is already disappeared.
Clark has to say, being mortal is not as much fun as it seems, especially if he stuck in ancient Greek and stabbed at first day of being mortal.
But best thing about this is he is among the best people. Xena and Gabrielle are great people, and Brianna is clearly attracted to him, she is offering so much food that he is afraid he will be soon.
Brianna's mother , Hando is kind woman, making him reminding him his own mother.
" Looks like you are healing quite nice Clark . " Xena said after seeing his cut.
Xena has to see, he is healing faster actually.
" Thank you Xena . " Clark said.
Xena smiled.
" We are ready . " Gabrielle came with sack of supplies .
" Good bye Clark. Have a speedy recovery . " she kissed him on cheek.
Suddenly there is a big bell started ringing.
" Oh my god. We are being attacked . " Hando cried.
Xena quickly ran outside.
" You guys are lucky that attack happened when Xena is here . " Gabrielle said. " You guys stay here "
Gabrielle ran after her.
Clark is new to this , he is looking at the events with wonder. Xena is moving like leader, ordering and organising the simple farmers against warlords to fight.
Clark has to say Xena is one hell of strategist. Clark is sure that before coming to village, warlords may lose half of their men.
Xena forbidden him to take rest .
While everyone is busy, Brianna came running.
" Brianna , what happened? " Clark asked.
" I went for water. But it got poisoned. It's a monster made of clay and water. I have to tell Xena . Unless we kill the monster, our water supply will run short . "
Clark can't believe the situation this village is in.
One side there is war, other side it's monster.
" No. Xena needed there. I will go. " Clark said.
" Clark. You are injured and not a warrior. " Brianna said.
" I know but I have to do it. " Clark said and raised, immediately moaned with pain.
" Are you sure? " Brianna asked.
Clark smiled.
" You need sword . " Brianna left and came back with big sword.
" Thank you . Don't tell anyone unless I didn't come back within hour . "
Clark started going.
Brianna can't help but cry. " Wait. " Brianna grabbed him and kissed him passionately. " For good luck . "
Clark reached the place. It's cave with waterfall and rocky surface pool. Clark can see crystal clear water but distant hint of black ink in it.
Clark can see dead birds and dead cow near the water .
Suddenly Clark felt presence . Clark guessed the monster is here.
But it's dark, he can't see it.
Clark looked deeply . He looked from corner of his eyes without moving.
It's big, probably 10 feet and coming towards him.
Clark swang his sword, the monster moved so fast to his eyes , hit him.
Clark is thrown for 4 feet. Clark felt stinging pain, his stitches are reopened .
Clark bit his lip to control his pain.
Clark tried to regain his posture and got ready for the monster.
This time, Clark got lucky shot and hit the monster in gut.
Monster growled but the sword did nothing.
With heavy effort, Clark pulled the sword back.
Clark is fighting the monster for almost hour and Clark can feel that his body is too tired to fight, he has barely strength to lift the sword.
Every shot is vain and for every shot, the monster gave him 2 .
Only his will power is left to keeping him in fight .
Clark determined, and jumped towards to the head, but monster is too fast and his move is sluggish.
With its gigantic hand, it's threw it's hand, made Clark's sword thrown away .
Nothing left to do , Clark ran towards it and head butted to its chest .
For his surprise, his head buried into his body .
Clark suddenly felt millions of small clay particles started attaching him , Clark can feel they are doing something to him .
Clark struggled with lack of air supply , and pulled his head back with heavy effort .
The monster somehow knew Clark got weakened so it forwarded to hit him .
Clark , while struggling and baring pain , avoiding the punches and moving backwards until he reached edge of the cave .
The monster stopped . Clark observed that sun light touched it's tip and monster reacted like it got stung .
Clark looked around until he found shiny piece of metal on ground .
Clark adjusted the piece to reflect the light into cave but surprisingly that reflected light did nothing to the monster .
So only direct sunlight can affect him . Clark thought .
What can he do ? Suddenly he got idea .
Clark ran straight towards monster until he got buried deep into monster .
All Clark can feel is darkness , and millions and millions of clay particles started attaching to his entire body .
Clark can feel that he no longer in control of his limbs but he needed to .
Clark concentrated but monster is resisting .
Suddenly Xena came to cave along with Brianna .
It's more than one hour, so Brianna called Xena .
Xena can see sword , but Clark is nowhere to be seen .
" Clark " Xena shouted .
Clark tried reply but nothing but growing came from monster mouth .
Xena looked at monster, jumped so high and thrusted hard into monster .
Clark automatically reacted panicky , growling terrifyingly but what amazed is Clark didn't feel a thing when sword is plunged into his chest .
Clark no longer can feel pain or touch .
Clark knew he is dying . He wish he help Xena somehow .
Clark now with new determination, using all his will power concentrated on legs .
He can feel that monster consciousness is resisting but all he need is control of its legs and just for moment .
Battle of minds until Clark won . Clark knew it's not permanent . Clark knew monster will get upper hand soon .
Without delay, he ran so monster started running and running until he reached end of the cave and jumped out .
Clark felt the pain , he felt like every cell in his body is burning . The sun light is burning the monster along with Clark .
Clark screamed .
Xena, who is looking at monster with surprise, now able to understand .
The layer on monster face removed and Clark face which is screaming is revealed .
" Clark " Xena said .
Monster growled and started running towards cave .
" Nooooo " Clark screamed and monster not able to run .
Xena can tell Clark is dying . She can see that his body is burning , he is screaming.
And cley surface of monster body is turning into red like it's getting burned in furnace .
Clark felt like he is getting burned alive .
Clark lost the senses , he no longer screaming .
The sun light that is killing the monster , suddenly did something to him .
It unlocked something in him , Clark can feel and experience every cell in his body and it's drinking sun light and energising him .
He can feel that his wound is healed .
Next moment , the monster is exploded like bomb and Clark got thrown away almost ten feet .
" Clarkkkkkk "
Xena ran towards him .
Clark has his eyes closed . Clark concentrated and it's like a switch , he deactivated his powers .
Clark never thought he can activate and deactivate his powers like this .
Xena can see Clark is fine and his wound also got healed.
Xena nudged him to wake.
" Are you okay ? " Xena asked woken Clark.
" Yeah. I feel great . My wound is healed . " Clark said.
" What happened there ? "
" I realised the monster can only be hurt by sun light so I jumped and it absorbed me. When the sun light hit it, I felt like I got burned too until some energy healed me ."
Suddenly there is a big flash and a tall and muscular man appeared.
" Ares " Xena said.
" You . " Ares cried . " You spoiled everything . You will suffer for this . "
" Not if I can help. He is under my protection Ares. " Xena grabbed his hand .
" We will see . " Ares disappeared .
" Wow . That's god of war . " Clark said with surprise tone .
" He is war crazy bully . But don't worry Clark Nothing will happen to you as long as I am with you . I promise . " Xena said .
" Thank you . " Clark said .
" We should leave Clark. " Xena said to Clark.
After Ares left, the army that attacked also left in middle.
The village celebrated the victory with Clark.
Clark ate so much food, drank wine and danced with maidens.
One thing he observed here is men didn't not care much with hygiene but women did like to be clean and be pretty.
Xena told Clark should come with them since Ares has eye on him for revenge. It's less likely that Ares will attack if Xena is with him.
Gabrielle can see Brianna is very sad seeing Clark leave.
The villagers provided him with supplies , some flour, bread, herbs and portable bedding etc.
Clark didn't know what the place is but it's a forest.
While Xena is riding horse, Clark is walking in front and Gabrielle is walking behind.
" Gabrielle " Clark called because she is chatty one. " Why didn't you get a horse. "
" It's not because of money. You can't watch everything on horse. If needed Xena can grab me to horse in a moment. " Gabrielle said.
" What about me then? " Clark asked jokingly. " Grabbing me is little harder than grabbing you . "
Suddenly Xena increased speed of her horse, grabbed Clark by shirt and pulled him with one hand.
" Not that hard Clark. " Xena said with smirk. " Also you are heavier than lots of men. " She commented.
" Wow. " Clark said automatically.
Gabrielle laughed seeing his reaction.
Xena didn't stop the horse so Clark is riding the horse on back.
It's very intimate. There is not much space between them.
Clark wrapped his hands around her waist automatically.
Xena is not showing it but she can feel his hard biceps against her , she liked it. That's why she didn't stopped the horse.
" We should rest here . It's getting dark. " Xena stopped horse.
Clark looked around. It's the soft ground without big trees around and enough grass to soften the ground.
" Do we camp it here? " Clark asked.
" I will get the water . " Gabrielle went with leather pouch.
Clark felt like he is in tracking school trips.
He didn't have portable electronic heater or stove now.
He took the job for pitching tent while Xena is lighting the fire with fire stones and brim stones.
It's easy for him to pitch big tents because now he has his powers.
" That's quick Clark . " Xena said, adding dead wood to get more fire.
" Thanks. I had some experience . Where I come from , we do this for fun. "
Xena chuckled . " Fun? "
" You know, I have been said that I am good cook . "
" Sure. Gabrielle can take rest. Are you okay being alone. I will go for Gabrielle. Make sure you ready for fish. " Xena said and left.
" Hmmm fish . I know simple recipe . " Clark said.
First Clark prepared batter , he already got ingredients from villagers and added egg and beer.
Then chopped onions, garlic and ginger and herbs and potatoes.
He is little guilty that he used his heat vision to heat the oil .
He can't believe he is making fish and chips.
When Xena and Gabrielle came back, Clark is ready with potato fries.
" Appetizers . " Clark offered them .
" Mmmm wow, these are tasty. " Gabrielle said.
Xena agreed.
Both looked at Clark who is scaling and cleaning the fish expertingly.
Then he dipped the fish in batter after coated with herbs and fried in hot oil.
" Proper hot food. Fish and chips . " Clark offered them two plates .
" Mmmm " Xena and Gabrielle can't help but moan , tasting it.
" You are genius Clark . " Gabrielle said , eating fish .
Suddenly there is a flash, woman in lingerie appeared.
" Yey food. " She squealed happy.
" Aphrodite " Xena commented.
" Clark. Do you have something for me ? " Aphrodite asked with low husky voice, Clark felt like his mouth dry.
" Yessss . " Clark stuttered and offered her plateful of fish and chips.
" Thanks. " Aphrodite took a seat and started eating. " Hmmm tasty . You know all us gods have ambrosia while you guys have so many food items to taste . I envy you. " Aphrodite said.
" Why are you here Aphrodite ? " Xena asked.
" Nothing. Just here to hangout. " Aphrodite said.
" With us? " Gabrielle asked.
" Ewww . " She said which Clark thought will offend Xena and Gabrielle but looks like they knew Aphrodite so they didn't mind.
" Clark . " She said. " Good job with clay monster. I thought you sure dead . Even I saw Celeste with her candle. "
" Goddess of death ? " Clark asked.
" Yeah. Then she left. " Aphrodite finished her fries. " Do you have more? "
Clark filled her plate with more fries.