Chapter 3 - Isa pt 2

Isa, as he was now known as and accepted, had been with Faye and Kratos for three weeks. He wasn't sure what happened but they seemed to have adopted him into their family. Isa was worried they saw him as a replacement for their dead son. Kratos seemed to have him around as an assistant for himself and Faye.

Kratos had left a week back for a hunting trip.

Kratos was an odd guy. Gruff, stern, and not a little intimidating to just be around. But Isa knew he was hurting inside still. Hurting very bad. Just a feeling he had in his gut. They both were. He was a giant of a man and his muscles were so solid they were not something he'd even call chiseled anymore. There was nothing chiseled about him, he was just a mountain of strength.

Hazard seven feet tall. The man was bald and had a thick beard on his face. And eyes that were hard as rocks. He usually was without a shirt and just kept pants and a warmer pelt around his waist along with his boots. How he didn't freeze, Isa attributed it to part of his ability. He didn't have quirks as quirks did not exist yet. But Gods did exist in this time, and Isa was fairly certain he was one of them. But Kratos was a greek name, so wasn't Norse. Ares came to mind immediately.

Isa was fairly sure that he might, he probably could, outmuscle All Might. It was a quiet strength too. He didn't flaunt it, he didn't draw note to it, he just had it and used it for what he needed to do.

Faye... Faye was a very kind woman. Tall too, as tall as her husband. The two made him feel especially short. 'Why did she make me so young?' He would keep thinking to himself. And that was usually followed by other thoughts on what else she did.

Faye was tall, as tall or maybe an inch or two more past her husband. Red flowing hair that she kept braided to tame. Would wear actual clothes and covered up like a normal person. With her large axe always on her back using a holster. She was a beautiful woman too, face showed a hard life but was also incredibly kind to him and Kratos. Stern to her husband at times when he'd get a bit angry. Isa felt in his gut his bad days when he was sparks away from exploding.

They were more frequent towards the end. It felt directionless too or at least inward. It was bad and Isa did not go near him those days. Faye did and being around her did ease his rage. But he left when it was at its worst.

Isa was sitting next to Faye doing laundry with her by the river. Using soap he had helped make. Just was washing everything with her calmly, rubbing the stains out. Isa was shirtless as he was cleaning his own shirt since it was a fine enough day and he stunk. He was nervous to clean up in the cold as fuck water though.

Just sat with his cloak around him since he had been left essentially a dress to cover himself with. "Isa." heard Faye say. He looked. "Are you a girl?" Isa blinked at her and looked back at the shirt he was cleaning.

"No." He just said. Firm and to the point. He was a guy, no matter what he was changed into. He hated it and felt like a goddamn pedophile. "I'm not." Faye was silent for a moment before returning to her clothes too. It was not brought up again. "Built in my image, fucking..." he grumbled to himself as he got a blood stain out from a cut. Had put pressure on it on his shirt, one of the reasons he took the shirt off to clean.

Just bundled the clothes into the basket Faye showed him how to make. And carried it on his back as he kept the cloak closed in case of wind. And Faye followed as she was done as well. Got them hanging and Isa settled to sit to the side. Feet bare once more since he didn't mind it. Snow was cold, but the body he was in was heartier than his old one at least.

He watched the light snow drifting around. Had to be real far north. It wasn't winter, it was fall. Isa just rested and watched the clouds. Humming to himself as Faye was sitting with a book nearby. "Isa, can you read?" He looked at Faye and to the book.

"My home tongue," he answered and approached. "This one. Probably not." He looked at the book and it was gibberish. "Nope."

"Come, the chores are done and the stew is simmering. Sit and I will show you." So he sat. And he was shown.

Time easily drifted as days merged. Five weeks passed since he first joined the household and Kratos was back. Carrying several deer. Winter rations. Faye met him at the gate and hugged him. Isa watched from the garden where he was playing with a magnetic rock he had found.

Kratos looked at him as he was dragging the deer in. "Boy. I will show you how to prepare a deer. Follow." And he followed. Kratos was no longer angry. He must find hunting relaxing or something.

It was bloody and mildly uncomfortable, but... the deers were dead and so forth. Just meat. Just cut the hide carefully and then cut the meat into strips to be dried and cured. It stunk too, but... it was what it was. Needed done and he benefited from it. He didn't hunt this and he still was going to eat it. So felt good being able to earn his keep. Even if the task was… messy for a city boy.

The next morning, he told Faye that he was going to go exploring around. Faye looked at him for a moment. "How far?"

"I dunno. Around. Should be back by night but definitely by tomorrow night." He said and she gave him a cloth with bread and some dried meat in it. He smiled and thanked her, bowing a bit. And walked out, and left the area, tossing his magnet up and down. Had plans on how to kill time.

His little legs carried him along as he explored. Finding old stonework and statues. A decepted temple he didn't go into. Looked dangerous and the door heavy. Got to the mountain and found a few caves. Finding raw iron wasn't hard. So he went and got a tough branch, bashed it with some rocks, drilled a hole into it and cracked rocks against each other until he had a fair sized point. And now had a really rudimentary pickaxe.

It took him several hours, but he managed just for something to kill time with and started hammering against the stones. Cracking them off and gathering the raw iron. "Steel is Iron mixed with something... right?" Isa asked himself. "Mixed with... carbon." He nodded and just got more of the raw ore. "Heated to melt with the carbon, molecules agitated and merged with the carbon… or something." He talked to himself just to have noise around him. Without reading or his hyperfocuses, he found it best to talk to himself to keep on tasks.

And walked back with his basket full of this raw iron, better than any pig irons that would have been found in japan before it was mined clean before he was born.. It was kind of heavy but he didn't really care. Good exercise at least. Was only a few miles away so just pushed through the dark. Arriving there and quietly put his stuff down, and entered. Softly stepping along to his spot on the floor and burrowed down on his makeshift bed. Atreus's bed would never be something he felt right sleeping on.

Come morning, he was examining the ore he had as Faye watched. He just got out a bigger rock and carefully broke the big parts of not ore off it. "What are you planning to do with that?" Faye asked finally.

"Make something," he said absently. "Learn a skill. I know how to make steel… Conceptually. Just a project." And he went to make some bricks. Walking a mile away down stream, he just got some clay and put them in a mold. And just baked them using a camp fire. It took a day and he ate some berries Faye taught him were good. By night, he was almost done and just slept against the tree to the side as the fire was going with the last batch.

It was his pet project. Making a bloom forge and then making steel ingots from them. His first ingot, he made a hammer with. It was really really hard and he got mildly burnt a few times even with his thick leather mittens he made after realizing he needed protection.

Kratos just tossed him a rabbit hide from his breakfast when Isa asked if they had any scrap leather or hide no one was using. And he made forge mittens, insolated with some more leather inside. It took him three months to finish the hammer, since he was in no way formally trained or that motivated, and it was an ugly son of a bitch. But he had made it and it helped him make more.

Otherwise, he was with Faye a lot. Learning how to read and the stories of the nine realms and the gods and giants. As well as several other writing systems. It was a simple life really, but... he liked it.

"Keep up," Faye said as he was next to her. A bow in hand. "You said you wanted to learn."

"Short legs," He reminded Faye as he was in her tracks as winter was raging around them. Hoping along in her tracks to reduce noise and not have to wade through snow.

"We could wait until you're bigger," Faye noted.

"I'm impatient," Isa just said and followed along. They got to a clearing and just waited. Faye never seemed bothered by the cold so she was fine. Isa, while tougher than he was, still was freezing as he kept his cloak closed. had a lot more layers on now and shoes.

And just leaned against the side of a tree for a wind break. Time ticked by and then Isa saw movement. He looked and it was a rabbit. Isa watched it as he straightened and had an arrow nocked. Only been learning for about a month now, but he could hit things most of the time. This one might be his hardest shot yet.

Faye was silent next to him and he drew the arrow back, aiming and imagining the line between his arrow and the target. 'Gravity, arrow head will drag it down, hit by the front legs for a quick kill and not spoiling the meat.' His mind rapidly circulated.

And he saw the path and released. The arrow flew through the air and slammed into and through the small creature. It springing up and kicking, but landed as it withered. Isa hurried over as it was bleeding and he kneeled by it. Isa hesitated a moment, before grabbing the rabbit by the head with one hand and the other on the neck. And rotated sharply before he got lost in his head. A crack filled the clearing and it was dead. 'Don't hesitate,' Isa chidded himself. 'You didn't trying to kill those two, don't when its just an animal. If I want to eat, things die. Don't waste anything.' And he got some roped and looped it to his belt after extracting his arrow.

"A clean kill," Faye complimented. "How did your arrowhead do?" He looked at it. Was his first arrowhead he made. A simple one with a very sharp tip and tripoint to it for maximum cutting potential.

"Worked," Isa said simply. All he needed it to do and it did. So it was good. "Heavier than I'm use to but... I hit so not unusable." And walked back with Faye, dressed the rabbit and Faye prepped it for lunch as Kratos was working on reheading his axe.

Just settled and read a little to practice and kill time. Humming idly to himself. It helped Kratos stay calm and Faye too for some reason. So he did it. His mind was absent as he was reading, just humming and mumbling a soft song to himself that he remembered the jist of. Humming some parts he didn't know.

A romance song about not needing to be a superhero to be someone worth being with. It was a soft song and something that Isa had enjoyed a lot. A quirkless musician had made it and his songs always touched on that struggle in a world that didn't need them. He was someone that Isa listened to often. Had recalled it for the opening.

Reading books of old. Isa hummed and just finished the passage. "Boy." He heard and looked over. Kratos was crouching close and frowning at him.

"What?" He asked, leaning a bit away from him. Not sure what sparked this.

"How do you know Achilles?" His words harsh and Isa repeated that name to himself after a second. Wondering when he said that. And then went over the song he was singing. Sure enough, he was part of the song, partially. Achilles Tendon.

"Achilles... I read it in a book..." He said as he rapidly formed the half truth since he didn't like lying to these two any more than his mom. "My people know a lot about old heroes and I was a fan. Why?" He asked what he believed was Ares himself. He had song it in English. But names translated and such. "And I said Achilles Tendon," translated the word. And poked the back of his leg on the tendon.

He watched him. "Who are your parents?"

Isa blinked at the large man. "Inko and Hiashi Midoriya." He answered after a moment. "Hiashi is likely not his name and he took mom's name."

"And your people?"

"Japan?" He said carefully. "We are... hmm... I believe far north and above..." He nodded to himself. "If you cross all the land to... the south... south east of here, we are across a small sea. It'd take..." he did some rough math. "About a year on foot to get there if you are really determined, and a few days sailing. Half the world away."

"And you know of Greece?"

"We know of a lot of things," he absently corrected. "It is a very prosperous nation. We get a lot of stories and things, a pretty good education."

He slowly nodded. "What do they know of the Greek Gods?" Kratos asked.

"Like Zues and them?" He clarified. He nodded. "Ahhh... We know a lot of the myths and legends. Zues raping his way through the mortal realm and being the source of half the problems in Greece. Hera helping make them all a big deal. Ahh... Hades and Persephone kidnapping and marriage, the way she was trapped in Hades was always up to different translations. I think it had something to do with pomegranate seeds or something. Always about eating something of Hades. I personally don't know much besides the main stories of the Gods. I liked reading about the heroes more. A lot was sanitized for children consumption, the whole... horrible people part... but I read sources and I... well... didn't have fun reading them so I didn't."

Kratos watched him. "And the gods here?"

"I know a lot less of them. We only had two sources I think and I read none of them. So most is just stuff I read referencing things, most I only remember because of Faye's stories too. You know. Odin is king of the gods, married to Frigg. Thor is there and an ass. There are two... or three afterlifes, depending on how you die. Odin runs one for the warriors, Hel another for I guess everyone else. I think there's a third. Aesir, Vanir, and that stuff. Not so much drama involving mortals I don't think... Ahh... I don't... I actually don't know of any heroes from the gods here, except for Siegfried but I don't know if that is actually this set.. But like I said... only had two books since you guys have a really rich oral history and everything, but not a... great literature system. I know more now mostly from Faye's lessons than I ever did before. I... just know the big stuff and even then not well. A few stupid stories like Thor dressing up in a wedding dress posing as... I think his mother or something... or his wife... trying to get something from a giant. Not many interested me." Isa consciously did not mention he knew Ragnorak and how to start it. And since he was there, Loki was dead as a baby, so probably shouldn't mention a god that never happened.

Kratos accepted this and nodded. Settling back in his seat and resumed fixing his axe. Shimming the top of the handle into place. Isa just looked back at the book and started humming again, not singing a song with anything related to the greeks in it in anyway. Just drifted along and ate dinner.

The next day, he was outside helping with the garden. "Boy. Come." He heard and walked over to Kratos, curious. "How do you plan to kill your target if you just play in the garden all day?"

"Deceit and exploiting a very potent weakness," he answered immediately. Kratos looked down at him as Faye laughed freely from where she was in the garden. "I will never be able to match him in strength or speed." Kratos let a rumble out and he felt he was mildly amused by the answer.

"Close the gap so you can survive to try again should you fail." He handed him a stick. "I will show you how to fight, the Spartan Way."

"Doesn't that usually kill people?" Isa commented as he took a step away from apparently a former spartan.

"Only the weak." And he had his own branch out, a switch. "Now, we will begin." And he had him go over swinging the long branch that was suppose to be like a spear. Around himself carefully to start with weapon control and move onto more later when he had been conditioned more.

He was liberal with the switch but not harsh. Isa tried not to complain, being trained by a likely god of war was... it would help. He hoped.