AN: Welcome back everybody and thank you all for reading and sticking with this story. You all have no idea how much it means to me that I've captured the attention of all of you. Anyways let's get into reviews that you all have posted.
TheFinicalPogo: I'm using Lilith for the Wraith name and Orka for the Kraken, so congratulations. Two of your names has been submitted in the story and thanks for reviewing.
XCOMHEAVY12: I'll try to keep this story interesting for you as long as you keep up those badass reviews and thanks for sticking with this story.
GrimmKingOfAtlas: Since you've stuck around with this story I'm going to put your Wraith name in here, Kyla it is then. Thanks for reviewing and coming up with a name for my story; also keep doing good with your story, I've enjoyed it so far. Sorry about not trying to think up a name for yours, I really suck at names as you can tell.
hornig3: Not at all, he reminds me of myself sometimes too. Anyways, thanks for reviewing.
STRIKER ENERGY: I actually didn't think about the frost Goliath, so thanks for the name and congratulations. You've filled in the last name I need for the story.
I just wanted to say thank you all for putting in some ideas for this story, as far as names I mean. I enjoy writing these for you guys and I hope that you will continue to read and enjoy them also. So without further adieu, let's roll on with the fucking story!
Months later:
Winter slowly arrived in Vale, masking it like a white blanket over the kingdom. While the occupants of Vale were busy selling items to keep everybody warm and Beacon keeping their students warm and cozy, there was the occupants in Emerald forest that had minor problems. The group had somewhat stocked up before the winter had hit full force, since Mathias had a somewhat good idea to head into Vale a few weeks before. He didn't pick much up but a few coats and pants for the young ones, plus a few packages of medication, he claimed it was for the little ones since their immune systems hadn't fully developed. Everyone was currently in the main hall eating dinner while having little conversations, Ares and Brock were having one on who could hunt better, Michelle and Arachne were having one on who could be stealthier, the children were having their own conversations, while Mathias sat quietly sipping on some tea made out of a few berries and plants.
"Bullshit Ares, I can hunt way better than you." Brock said.
"Yeah, the moment your fat ass can go without breaking a tree." Ares said while propping his head on his hand.
"I'm not even that fat! Michelle am I fat?" Brock asked. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow before looking down and up again.
"Hell yeah. I'm surprised you're even able to move." She teased while looking at him with an amused expression.
"What the fu? Dad?" Brock asked Mathias who looked at him amused.
"I must admit, you have gained a few pounds." Mathias laughed lightheartedly.
"Dad! You're supposed to be on my side! Arachne?" Brock asked. She looked at him up and down for a minute before smiling smugly.
"Hmm, you're not fat." She said.
"Oh thank god." He said.
"You're p.h.a.t." She winked.
"What? What's that supposed to mean?" He asked. She laughed and walked over to him before leaning down and whispering in his ear quietly, his eyes suddenly widened as he looked at her. She winked in response before laughing as his face lit up and he stood up quickly, pulling at his shirt.
"Well, ahem... if that's what you think I'm glad... night everybody." He said. Everybody looked at him as he stumbled out of the room in an awkward manner, he accidentally bumped into a stand and knocked it over; quickly picked it up before shuffling out of the room. Arachne giggled quietly as she stared at the spot he left making everybody look at her, Ares raised an eyebrow as he looked at her.
"You mind telling us what you said to him?" He asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know, hmm?" She hummed cheekily.
"Yeah, that's why I'm asking." He retorted.
"Well, let me tell you then." She said getting up and walking over to him. He stopped her just an arms length away.
"First that's far enough and second just say it right here." He said. Arachne stopped and widened her eyes at what he said, she couldn't just say it out loud in front of everybody. It was to embarrassing and inappropriate for the children, not to mention if she said it in front of Mathias she would get one of his talks. Something she hated more than being on cleaning duty, and be secluded to her room for a few days.
"It's uh... nothing." She said.
"No it's something. Or else you wouldn't have said it to Brock, what was it?" Ares asked making Arachne shuffle around. This was bad since everybody was looking at her, especially the children, something like this would ruin their fragile souls. Ares looked at her amused while tapping his claws on the table, he started laughing quietly when she started shuffling around and tapping her claws together nervously. The whole room went quiet as they all watched the spider monster of the group go from a ball of bubbly joy to a nervous quiet blubbering mess, it was quite amusing, especially if it was from the loudest one of them all. She didn't say anything and just bolted out of the room in a green blur that reminded Ares of someone who he hated with every fiber of his being, just the thought of that annoying gnat made him scowl. Dinner passed when all the children started to yawn and fall asleep on the table, most of them just face planted on the table and snored loudly but eventually woke up and went to their rooms. Ares looked to see Rei and Ken the only ones up and sighed in annoyance, he sighed more when he saw them give him cheeky grins. Michelle looked at the three in curiosity as they just stared at each other, Ares with a stern expression and Rei and Ken with cheeky ones.
"Don't you two dare-" He stared.
"Too late!" Rei laughed and bolted out of the room with Ken in tow; Ares growled in response and quickly got up before chasing them throughout the cave system. Michelle looked at the spot where she last saw them then looked at Mathias who had his eyes closed with a content smile on his face.
"What are you smiling like that for?" She asked.
"Nothing... just enjoying the peace and silence before I head on to bed." He said as he sipped some more of his tea. The two sat in silence with the exception of Michelle's tail scraping against the ground, the cave seemed to be filled with a soothing silence with the exception of Rei and Ken laughing in the distance. It was times like these that Mathias enjoyed the most, the silence in a place where he could call home and people he could call family. The silence was suddenly interrupted when Rei and Ken came in the room giggling before hiding behind Mathias and peeking from out behind him, they later receded when Ares walked in the room and looked around. He began to look around the room in a joking manner before he heard giggling behind Mathias and quickly went over to him, looking behind his back only to find an empty space.
"What the fuck?" Ares asked. He heard giggling behind Michelle and went over to look behind her back her but scowled when he saw nothing but an empty space. Michelle smirked when she saw Ares grow frustrated as he began to look around more frantically, to the point where he was knocking things over and searching under things. She almost burst out laughing when she saw the two on his back laughing silently, they looked at her and put their fingers to their mouths which made her laugh and do the same.
"Oh my God! Where the fuck are they?!" Ares asked angrily as he searched underneath the table, near the pot, in the halls, and underneath Brock. He finally sat down next to Michelle and snarled to himself making her look at him with an amused expression, something he noticed.
"You know something I don't?" He asked.
"Nope." Michelle smiled cheekily. Ares just sighed in annoyance and put his arms on the table and head in his arms; he growled in annoyance when Michelle smacked his tail with hers.
"Why are you smirking?" He asked.
"No reason, just enjoying the show." She smiled. He threw his arms up in the air and stood up, looking around the room. "This is bullshit!" He exclaimed.
"Why are you so mad?" Michelle laughed.
"This is the longest I've ever taken to find them! They usually last a couple of minutes but it's been almost ten, what the fuck!?" He asked angrily, making Michelle burst out laughing then Mathias started to join in. He looked at the two in confusion before he heard giggling behind him, he looked over his shoulder to see Rei and Ken hanging on to his spikes while laughing at him. They suddenly yelped when he grabbed their tails and hung them upside down before spinning and making them dizzy, as soon as they were about to throw up he quickly let them down and pinned them with his knees. Their expressions went from pure joy to horror as Ares smiled evilly at them, he flexed his claws before suddenly tickling them with brotherly fury.
"Ahhhhhh, Ares no!" Rei squealed in laughter as she was the first victim, her laughing reached its peak when he tickled the side of her neck, making her almost howl in laughter. Ken tried to struggle and almost got out before Ares turned his attention to him and began his attack on the younger brother's armpits, making him howl in laughter and start coughing. Ares continued the assault on the two before he stopped when he heard multiple feet behind and above him, he turned to see the children all standing there with confused expressions as they stared at the three.
"Guys help us!" Ken shouted. The other children looked at him then nodded and began to charge at Ares, prompting him to release the two and brace for impact as a young Goliath named Frost was the first to charge him. She managed to make him stumble a bit before a Wraith named Lilith warped up to him and tackled his face, throwing him off balance, the other Wraith named Kyla assisted Lilith in tackling him. Andy ran up and charged his stomach with the assistance of a Kraken named Orka, the two managed to make him fall to the ground and try to sit up but were kept down when all the children dog piled him while laughing. Michelle smiled at the site then looked down when she saw Mimi sit on her lap and lean against her, looking at the dog pile. Mimi watched everybody kept Ares on the ground and began to crawl all over him, Ken stood on Ares' chest and struck a heroic pose, making Mimi laugh. The other children looked at him with curious expressions.
"Let it be known fellow compatriots... this is the day that we had defeated my big brother. Who stinks... and sometimes snores loudly... and will drool when he's hungry... and... Rei what else?" Ken asked as he looked back to see her batting Ares' head side to side while he just scrunched his eyes. She looked at him before tapping her chin in a thinking manner.
"Oh and sometimes he gets a rock and acts like he's about to throw it at Michelle when she's not looking." Rei said making Ares' eyes spring open to see Michelle with a stern expression, he lifted his hand up and waved at her. She cocked her head to her left and shouted down the hall.
"Brock!" She shouted; everybody heard a groan from down the hallway.
"Whaaaaaat?" He groaned loudly.
"Dog pile!" She shouted back. There was a few moments of silence before thundering footsteps could be heard down the hall and enter the main one.
"Dog pile!" Brock shouted as he leaped through the air and towards Ares, who went wide eyed before pushing the children out of the way. Brock suddenly landed on Ares' stomach and sat on him with a wide smile on his face, his tail was wagging really fast as he looked around to see everybody giggling at him.
"Brock! Get your fat ass off of me!" Ares shouted. Michelle had a smirk on her face as she watched Ares thrash around while Brock sat on him while wagging his tail quickly, she almost burst out laughing when Brock's tongue stuck out slightly; that stupidly happy expression made her smile. The thrashing continued on for a few minutes while everybody just stared at Ares struggle, they all looked at him to see his face was beginning to turn red from anger and his muscles glow. Mathias just laughed and sighed before beckoning Brock to get off before there could be a meltdown. Ares quickly got up and glared at Brock, who just gave a goofy smile in return, before angrily marching outside; a rock could be heard tearing out of the ground before impacting a tree and breaking it. Michelle looked to see where Ares had left and raised an eyebrow before turning to look at Rei and Ken who had sheepish expressions on their faces, they rubbed their arms the same way their faces were.
"Ares gets uh... kind of mad when he's pinned." Rei said.
"Why?" Michelle asked.
"It makes him feel helpless, he always likes being somewhat in control when he's in messing around with somebody. He knows you're messing around when you're roughhousing but when you pin him it gets kind of personal." Ken said.
"So uh... he's mad at me isn't he?" Brock asked.
"Ehhh... kind of." Rei said. Brock's shoulder's slumped before he walked outside and left everybody in silence for a few minutes before he returned with a happy expression on his face.
"We're all good now." Brock smiled while giving a thumbs up. He slowly turned around and began limping while saying 'ow' a few times as he walked, there was a sudden thump in the middle of the hallway and a loud snore. Michelle rolled her eyes before she caught site of Mathias looking at her with that 'look' which made her groan and slowly stand up. She began walking outside in a somewhat slow manner and finally arrived at the entrance to see Ares sitting at the cliff's edge on the rock while staring out into space, you really couldn't see the lake down below since it was being masked by the snow and frost that was in the air. She sighed and went up to him before sitting a few feet away from him, and staring out into space too; she looked at him to see his face back in its stoic look again. Her presence merely didn't exist as of right now, she could only guess why.
"Are you seriously mad about that?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"..." He didn't say anything and just turned away from her while resting his hand on his hands, the frost and snow seemed to be accumulating on him before melting and drying up quickly as heat burned it all away. The snow seemed to be getting heavier and started to come down more violently as time progressed, the night seemed to be getting darker to the point where it was pitch black and the only light was the light from Ares and Michelle's muscles as they glowed a mixture of blue and red in the darkness. The temperature started to dip down into the negatives making Michelle slightly shiver and blow a stream of fire in the air to illuminate the space in front of her, she caught a glimpse of Ares still in his stoic look while having a hazy look in his eyes. The light faded as quickly as it came basking the two in darkness again; the red glow from Ares suddenly stopped making Michelle look in his direction, she blew a stream of fire to see him sleeping the same position.
"Wha? How do you even fall asleep in that position?" She asked. He of course didn't reply back but merely slumped over onto the cold snowy ground, letting the snowfall build up on him. Michelle sighed and threw an arm over her shoulder but dipped down when she noticed how heavy he was, but eventually grew accustom to his weight and started to shuffle towards the entrance. All the weight suddenly lifted off of her making her stumble a bit before placing a hand on the entrance and looking up to see Ares with a tired expression, his movements were sluggish as he gently passed her and walked down the hallway. Michelle followed him until he got to his room and collapsed on the fur bed and snoring softly, she saw Rei and Ken come out from the corner of the room and put a blanket on him before getting underneath the covers themselves. They saw her and waved before slowly falling asleep. Michelle stared at the three and retreated to her room where there was an already sleeping Mimi in her own bed, clutching something in her hand. Dismissing this as another one of her collectibles, she turned towards her own bed and promptly fell asleep.
The cave was cold this morning, while none of the snow had gotten in, the cool air had flooded the halls. Mostly everybody was warm and cozy with the exception of a certain spider monster of the group, who was cursing up a storm as her feet made contact with the cold stone surface.
"Fucking stupid ass, bitch, cunt, shit, whore, slut, dick, fucker, bitch." She cursed as she tip-toed to try and minimize contact with the floor. She finally made it to the main hall and saw that the cooking pot was empty and seemed to be mocking her hate of the cold as it blew a gust of cold air in her face. Right now her mood was not the greatest; first her room was cold, second there was no food, and third no one was awake to pay attention to her. She needed attention dammit!
"Let's see... Ares is no fun since he's always around his siblings, Brock gets embarrassed too easily, Michelle can somewhat tolerate me and talk with me, Mathias will completely fuck me up if I decide to mess with him, and the children are off limits." She said to herself. An idea popped in her head as she went to Michelle's room and burst the door wide open with so much force it seemed to shake the room.
"Hey Michelle! I-" She suddenly stopped when she saw Michelle stretching like a cat; her hands were stretched out in front of her and her head was low to the ground while her butt was high in the air with her tail curling towards her back. She and Arachne looked at each other before Arachne suddenly started to make a squealing noise in her mouth and she eventually covered it with one hand.
"Oh my god Michelle! That is so cute!" She gushed. Her squealing had awoken someone who was not a morning person, making him march over to her.
"Arachne... why the hell are you squealing like a Strider this early in the morning?" Ares asked as he rubbed his eyes. She didn't say anything but point in Michelle's direction, he followed her hand and saw Michelle still in her stretching position while looking at them with wide eyes. Ares looked at her with a surprised expression before jumping back when she blushed heavily and threw a rock at him; he caught the rock but failed to stop her shoulder charge him to the ground and sit on his stomach. He looked up to see Michelle stare down at him with a stern expression but with a slight pink tint to her cheeks; she suddenly got close to his face and lightly glared at him.
"What did you see?" She interrogated.
"A female monster stretching like a cat for some reason. Did you just feel like practicing your mating position or something?" Ares joked. Michelle suddenly sat up and turned away from him with tinted cheeks, she was suddenly knocked over when Ares stood up and stretched before twisting his neck and cracking it, which made Arachne shudder ecstatically. When he was done stretching he saw Michelle on the ground rubbing her back before extending a hand her way, she looked at the hand for a few moments before grabbing it and standing up. Ares looked at her face and grabbed her head before placing his nose in the crook of her neck and taking a small sniff, during this time Michelle's face blushed a bit more as she stared wide eyed at his action. When he let go he turned his head to the side and sneezed shaking the two out their shocked stupor.
"You smell different." Ares said as he walked past her and entered the main hall to see that there wasn't any food. He sighed when he realized that they didn't have anything to eat, thus making it hard for everybody to continue throughout the day. Normally he would go hunting with Brock but ever since his dog pile stunt he didn't feel like inviting him, the children were too young to even be considered going hunting during the winter, and Mathias is too old to hunt for long periods of time. That left... the girls. Now there was nothing wrong with them, it's just that they've never asked him to go with them or he never asked them, which ever one it was. But right now there wasn't much of a choice due to it being winter and they all needed food now, if not then they would all starve in a few days. He turned to see Arachne poking Michelle's head with her index claw while Michelle glared at Arachne and smacked her hand away repeatedly as she kept on doing it.
"I never asked this but do you guys want to go hunting with me?" He asked, which made them stop and look at him.
"I don't and I have my reasons why." Arachne said, crossing her arms
"Okay, and I don't really care why." Ares said and completely ignored her, before turning to Michelle.
"You coming?" He asked.
"Don't see why not." Michelle shrugged. Ares lead her to his room but motioned for her to stop as he entered and closed the door behind him, there was a few minutes of silence before the door opened to reveal him with his mask on. Michelle raised an eyebrow at him before noticing that he had a hunter belt with many pockets on him that seemed to be holding all type of trinkets inside, her curiosity got the better of her when she saw numerous stone shards that were shaped like throwing knives laced with a type of thick fluid. Ares brushed passed her and quietly made his way out of the cave with Michelle in tow; the two were taken aback as the cold morning air bit their skin with frozen fury but brushed it off later as body heat took care of the rest. The path into the forest was covered in feet of snow which made the trip somewhat hard, but the forest itself looked completely different. It almost looked beautiful if you didn't count the broken nearby trees from the numerous arguments Ares and Michelle had, a lot of them ended with one of them being sent into a tree or rock and breaking it. The trek through the snow was quiet with the exception of the shuffling feet of the two monsters, the snow had stopped falling and just sat on the ground while grey clouds masked the sky and blocked the sun from entering. Snow fell off of branches and made a small thump as it hit the ground while the river was still rushing with all of its glory, while usually Michelle enjoyed silence this was too peaceful for her taste.
"Ares?" She asked.
"Hmm?" He hummed as he knelt down to look at some hoof prints that were in the snow, they seemed to belong to a large animal judging by the size.
"What do you think of me?" She asked making him stop inspecting the prints and glance at her before turning back.
"You're alright. Sometimes come off a little bitchy but overall alright friend wise." He answered truthfully before looking up to see a receding body pass some trees.
"Do you ever say anything nice?" She asked.
"That means I have to like you a lot to do something like that. I like you, just not that much yet." He said.
"Well it's a start I guess..." She whispered. She was suddenly stopped when Ares stuck his hand out and gestured in front of them, there were multiple elks 90 feet away from them. He looked at her then at the branches before pointing a finger up, she looked up to see a high branch and multiple ones close to it; she looked back at Ares confused which made him slap his face quietly.
"We're going to attack them from above." He whispered and stuck his claws in the tree and started to ascend, he stopped and gestured for Michelle to do the same. She hesitantly stuck a claw in the tree and another one before she started to slowly ascend with Ares making quiet thumps in the tree. Once she caught up to Ares, who helped her get up on the branch, she crouched down with him to balance themselves on the branch while staring at the group of four elks in front of them. Ares quietly started to traverse the branches by swinging on them and leaping from one to another with such stealth that it made Michelle look like an amateur compared to him, once she finally arrived next to him on the branch they were ten feet away from the elk. Ares gestured for Michelle to leap across a gap that was right above the group but was a far jump, something like that would probably generate a lot of noise and scare the animals away. She was about to protest but was interrupted when Ares had begun counting down from five in a slow manner making her scoff and leap towards the tree; the elks looked around frantically when snow fell from one of the branches and landed next to it. Ares waited a second for the elks to calm down before slowly counting down again, when his finger hit one and then went to a closed fist he quickly equipped a throwing shard and threw it into one of the elks. The rest of the herd panicked and looked around quickly before suddenly running when another one was tackled to the ground by something and had its neck forcibly snapped, creating a loud crack. Michelle slowly stood up to see Ares land on the ground and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear.
"Next time you should discuss the plan with-" She was cut off when Ares ran past her and began to chase after the herd while snarling loudly. Snow kicked up past him as he barreled through everything in his way while keeping a certain elk in his sights, the elk with the stone shard in its side began to slow down as the poison began to kick in before it fell to the ground. It tried standing up but failed when its legs gave out from underneath it, making the snow around it kick up. Its vision started to black out as its last sights was someone walking towards it in a slow manner while flexing their claws. Ares looked at the dead elk and slowly walked towards it, kneeling down and slowly brushing his hand against its fur. His stomach growled loudly the longer he stared at it and snarled before suddenly thrusting his mouth towards its neck and taking a large chunk out, he spit the fur out and started to savagely tear into the exposed flesh while blood started to fly into the air. The snow started to turn red all over as Ares ripped his head up and tore a chunk of flesh out before slurping it up and caking his face in the red liquid; he went over to the head and slammed a fist on the skull, cracking it open and stuffing the brain in his mouth in large chunks. The stomach was suddenly sliced open when a claw was stuck in its side, releasing the stomach contents which steamed in the cold air as they slowly fell on the ground with a wet splat, splashing blood all over Ares. The kidney was suddenly ripped out and chewed into pieces before it slid down his throat and started to melt in stomach acids.
"Ares, I think everybody is up now. We should... what are you doing?!" He heard Michelle scream. He snarled and quickly turned around to see Michelle dragging the dead elk by its antlers while shivering slightly, her face was in a mixture of annoyance and agitation as she stared at his bloody face, a few pieces of flesh could be seen falling from his mouth. She tapped her foot while giving him a stern look which made her look like an annoyed wife.
"I'm waiting for an answer you big dumbass." She huffed.
"I'm eating duh. Now leave me alone so I can feed more." He growled and went back to chewing on a piece of flesh; a rock suddenly hit the back of his head making him snarl and look to see Michelle standing there with the same expression.
"I am not in the mood, now leave me alone." He growled.
"No, because we need to get these back to everyone. So stop being greedy and help me drag these back." She said and began to drag her elk back. Ares glared at her before his look softened and he looked back at the half eaten elk, sighing in annoyance at the fact that she was right he picked up the elk by its antlers and quickly caught up to Michelle. She appeared to be fine but on closer inspection she had a stumble in her walk, was slightly red in the face, was shivering, and had trouble dragging the elk.
"Michelle..." Ares said.
"What?" She asked, stumbling in her step.
"Drop the food." He said.
"Why?" She slurred.
"Just do it." He huffed. Michelle sighed then dropped the caribou and stood there looking at Ares, she was suddenly engulfed in a hug which surprised her.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Just shut up and don't move." He said, his body began to glow and steam as it generated heat. Michelle's shivering came to a stop as her body temperature began to heat up again, the snow around their feet melted and dried leaving a dry dirt patch which seemed like an oasis in the middle of the frozen climate. The heat from his body made her purr as she felt her body heat back up until it was back up to its original temperature, she closed her eyes when the heat grew and grew until it was suddenly gone. She opened them to see Ares look at her before grabbing both elk bodies and dragging them back to the cave, leaving Michelle standing in the middle of the dry patch of dirt with the fading warmth of Ares on her. She shook her head and quickly followed him back to the keep to avoid any more of the cold from engulfing her again, maybe she should have stayed inside with Arachne.
Everybody shifted and groaned as they sat at the dinner table, today was not a good day. First it was cold since the only two Goliaths weren't there to at least warm up the place, two there wasn't any food to eat, and three they were all bored out of their minds. Right now Mathias had a headache due to his hunger and he recently ran out of tea to help with them, the children were all groaning which didn't help it at all and it made it worse that Brock was acting like a child too.
"Daaaaaaad." Brock groaned.
"Yes Brock?" Mathias sighed slowly while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"I'm hungryyyyyyy." Brock groaned.
"I am too son." Mathias said. Andy kept hitting his head on the table while drooling to the side making Lilith and Frost recoil in disgust.
"Ewwwww! Andy's drooling!" Lilith screamed making everybody look at the young drooling Goliath then recoil. Frost scooted away from him as she sat next to Ken who was throwing pebbles at Rei making her glare at him, she threw a pebble back to which he ducked under and make it fly past his head, hitting Frost in the side of the head.
"What the heck Rei?!" Frost said as she lightly glared at Rei, who just gave an impassive look.
"Didn't mean it. Ken moved at the last second. Blame him." Rei said she set her head in her arms. Frost looked at her then huffed before looking at Ken who was throwing a pebble at the wall then picking another one up off the ground and repeating the process again. Everybody was to busy doing their own thing that they didn't notice a heavy object lay itself on the table until they heard Ares speak up.
"You all just going to let it sit there or are you going to eat?" He asked. Nobody wasted any time and began to gorge on the already half eaten carcass that was on the table, splashing blood on the table and themselves. Everybody ate the corpse so fast that nobody seemed to notice Ares drag another body into the back room where he began to skin it with one of the many tools Ken had made him. Despite his young age, Ken was extremely inventive when it came to making tools for survival; most of the things on Ares' belt are Ken's creations, which ranged from a simple carving knife to poisoned throwing shards that killed the elk in mere minutes. Rei was also inventive too, she was the one to propose the idea of creating a type of container to store the meat for future use, while it wasn't completely full proof it at least worked at most times. She was also a skilled sewist, often making different clothes that she had learned from Arachne. Ares hefted the elk above his head and hung it by its antlers on one of Arachne's hooks she has in the ceiling (he really doesn't want to find out what they're for) before taking the obsidian stone knife and start skinning the caribou at a steady pace. After ten minutes he had finally gotten the fur off and set it in a tub of water to rinse off the residue blood then place it on the drying rack. He went back to slicing the elk before he heard somebody walk behind him.
"You need any help?" He heard Michelle ask. At first he was going to tell her to go away but decided this might be a chance to try and build a relationship with her.
"...Yeah. Just take this other knife and start placing the organs in that container over there." Ares pointed to the makeshift cooler in the corner. Michelle grabbed the other knife Ares had offered and started to help skin the caribou, they skinned in silence with the exception of meat hitting ice and the sawing of a knife against tender flesh. The ground was caked with blood and the room felt stuffy making the two slightly shift uncomfortably at the stuffiness. Once the body was nothing but bloody bones they began to clean the room, aka douse the place with water and let it flow out through a mini tunnel in the corner of the room, before heading to the main hall to see that everybody was was slumping forward rubbing their stomachs with content expressions. They noticed that the entire body was picked clean and there was nothing left but a bloody set of bones on the table, Ares then saw Ken take a rib and began to sharpen it with a rock and place it in a pile of knives made out of wood, rope made from vines and bone. Ken stopped when Ares sat next to him and rubbed the top of his head then patting his back a couple of times.
"Hey Ares?" Ken asked.
"Yep?" Ares asked as he found a piece of flesh on a bone and stuffed it in his mouth before chewing slowly.
"Do you think we'll ever get back to Shear?" Ken asked while picking up a knife and lightly poked his finger before placing it with the others and repeating the same process. Ares just sighed and rubbed his head, not noticing Michelle standing in the corner of the room, before looking at Ken's curious face.
"I don't think so... and personally I don't want to either." Ares said a bit solemnly.
"Why not?" Ken asked.
"Because it brings back some bad memories... every time I think of Shear, it's always about those fucking hunters." Ares snarled at the thought of those psychopaths. That's all they were in his eyes, crazy gun-toting psychopaths with nothing better to do than to kill the local wildlife for fun. Humans weren't even on Shear until ten years ago, no monster really paid attention to them until they started to destroy the local wildlife and take the planet's resources for some use. Apparently from what their dad said, Shear had been a paradise before. It was so full of life and peace for all monsters, with the exception of territory, mating rights and pack wars, that nothing seemed to go wrong but when the humans came it all went to hell. They had polluted the air with their waste, destroyed the planet with their mining, killed or enslaved numerous wildlife for their own purpose which deprived a lot of monsters of food, and basically drove all monster-kind to extinction due to them trying to defend their home. But not all humans were genocidal monsters in disguise, some where passionate beings who wanted nothing more than to study the monsters and preserve their lives, like she did. There was only one other person, other than that scientist Caira, who wanted nothing more than to observe monsters and try to understand them but... she's dead now, has been for a long time and nothing could bring her back. That didn't matter now since Michelle was sitting across the table from him while propping her head on a hand, her other hand was tapping the table while she stared into space towards the hallway to the right.
"Not trying to be an ass but what are you doing here Michelle?" Ares asked.
"Dunno, trying to figure that out." She said, tapping her claw on the table.
"Alright... so Ken what'd you use as the poison for the shards?" Ares asked.
"I had Arachne help me make it. We took some of the snow berries and her poison that she secretes and made a type of paralyzing poison, did it work?" Ken asked hopefully.
"Worked like a charm, good job bro." Ares smiled as he ruffled Ken's hair making the latter give a pout before going back to making more bone knives. Michelle looked at the knives carefully and noticed that each one had a mixture of designs that resembled the tattoos on Ares' arms, her thoughts drifted back to when he hugged her and decided to ask the question.
"Ares, why did you hug me in outside?" She asked. Ken looked at her before looking at Ares and sporting a smug look, he later rubbed his head when Ares smacked the back of it then lightly pushed him to the ground.
"You were showing signs of hypothermia and I wasn't about to let you die, plus I would be a shitty person to leave Mimi without her big sister." Ares said while rotating his neck.
"Alright... hey Ken, what are you doing?" She asked.
"I'm uh... making some bone knives for everybody when we go hunting with Ares." He said sheepishly.
"Where'd you learn to make them?" She asked.
"Mostly through trial and error, I learned to make them when Ares usually went hunting and the bones were left from the carcass after we were done eating." Ken explained, sharpening another knife and placing it in the pile. All went quiet from there with the exception from the a rock sharpening bone to a fine point, everybody that had gorged on the elk was fast asleep and the three awake occupants just basked in silence. Ares yawned and stood up before stretching out his muscles and walking out of the room, leaving Ken with Michelle. The former would send glances at the latter before continuing to make knives while the latter just stared to the right while humming softly.
"You're the first person his age that he somewhat likes." Ken said out of the blue, making Michelle blink in surprise since she had always been the one to try and strike up with them but failed every time, maybe this could be her chance to get to know them.
"How so?" She asked curiously.
"I'm not going to lie about my big brother because that would make me a cruddy one, but Ares has always had trust issues with others. Every person he meets always tries to get over on him, always tried to hurt us, or tried to kill all three of us. You may have been the first person his age that hasn't tried to screw him over or kill him... what I'm trying to say is that you make my brother somewhat happy other than us and for that I'm grateful." Ken said as he looked at her.
"Well I'm glad for that." She smiled for a minute.
"C-can you stop looking at me now?" He asked nervously.
"Oops... sorry." She quickly apologized. Ken laughed nervously before standing and shuffling past her to enter the room with Ares, she looked to see that everybody was still asleep and didn't look to be waking up anytime soon. She picked up one of the knives and noticed that each one had a name on it and a different design, hers had a meteor design on it with her name inscribed on the handle with a blue color to it. Mimi's had a design of a seashell on near the tip of the blade with a river near the bottom with a swirl design on the handle, it was a forest brown in color overall. She continued to observe each knife with some awe at the artistic design of them before stopping and elbowing something behind her. A feminine groan made her stop and look behind her to see Arachne on the ground holding her nose and groaning in pain.
"What the fuck Michelle?" She groaned, holding her nose to stop the bleeding.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it." Michelle quickly apologized and kneeling down to asses the wound. The nose didn't appear to be broken but was bleeding heavily and dripping all over the ground. Arachne hissed when Michelle tried to touch it and smacked the hand away.
"Hold on, I'm going to get something." Michelle said as she disappeared for a few minutes, she later came back with a bandage and began to ball it up into a small ball before gently applying it to the bloody nose. The bandage turned red as the blood began to absorb into it before it was tossed to the side and another one was applied to the nose, staining it red also. The process repeated itself for a few minutes until the nose had ceased bleeding and just left a stained red mark on her face; as Michelle quietly wiped the remainder of the blood off Arachne's face she bundled up the bloody bandages and threw them away in the other room. She later came back to see Arachne sitting on a fur pillow and facing the table while rubbing her nose.
"Sorry about elbowing you in the nose." Michelle apologized.
"Bah, it's fine. You always told me to not sneak up on you because you react violently, guess I learned my lesson." Arachne shrugged while observing the knives. She picked up a knife that had her name on it and observed it with great interest. The blade had a spider's web on it with a spider near the middle coming towards a wrapped up insect and near the tip was numerous insects that looked to be struggling. The handle was green in color and had a spider's head near it staring at the wielder with malicious intent.
"I already like this knife." Arachne said gazing at it with interest.
"I'm not even going to ask why. But make sure you thank Ken for making it for you." Michelle said.
"He made these?! I knew he was creative but damn, this is amazing." Arachne complemented.
"Yeah... you need anything else for your nose?" Michelle asked.
"Can you kiss it to make it feel better?" Arachne asked smiling. Michelle looked at Arachne with a deadpan expression for a minute before suddenly punching her nose, making it bleed again.
"Ow! I was kidding! Michelle come back! " Arachne cried as she held her nose to stop the bleeding.
"Fuck off." Michelle growled and marched out of the room, leaving Arachne to nurse another bloody nose. She sighed rubbing the tender spot on her nose before getting up and walking towards her room.
Two weeks later: (Another unnecessary time skip)
"Achoo! Fuck!" Ares said as he sneezed loudly. These past two weeks had been hard for him and Michelle since both had gotten sick from their hunting trip, but Michelle had recovered quicker. Apparently he couldn't go outside with just shorts anymore, while his torso could handle most of the cold, his feet and legs couldn't; his head could handle it to a certain extent but not much. Right now he was in bed covered head to toe in blankets with a few people visiting him to give him some medicine, mainly Brock and Arachne, but otherwise no one was allowed near him until his sickness was gone. Rei and Ken would sometimes visit but usually had something around their faces, to avoid getting any airborne sickness, and just talk to him for a few hours until he fell asleep. The bedroom door opened to reveal Michelle, Arachne, and Brock enter with something in their hands; Arachne's smile didn't help since she gave that sickening sweet smile that sent a chill down his spine.
"Whaaaaaat?" Ares groaned as he looked at the three.
"Hey man, we have to give you more medicine. Dad said so." Brock said.
"No, that shit is gross." Ares huffed and turned.
"Oh quit being such a fucking baby and take your medicine." Michelle huffed. She sat on the bed and grabbed his shoulder but growled when he rolled away from her and glared at her from the corner of his eye.
"Ares come on... see? It's not that bad. Yum." Arachne said making slurping noises.
"Arachne, I'm not a fucking hatchling." Ares said.
"Then stop acting like one and take the goddamn medicine." Michelle sighed.
"Let me think about it... no." He said after a moment's pause.
"Fuck this." Michelle said and climbed up on Ares stomach to hold him in place.
"Get off!" Ares snarled as he thrashed around, making Michelle struggle to stay on.
"Dammit Ares stay still!" She shouted. "Are you two dick snots just going to stand there or are you going to help me?!" She snarled. Arachne and Brock went on either side of Ares and held his arms while Michelle grabbed the medicine and poured it in the tiny measurement cup. She put it near his mouth but scowled when he moved his head to the side, she tried to do it again but he moved it again and gave a childish pout. He kept moving his head all over the place while Michelle tried to give him the medicine, after a few minutes of trying to give it to him 'nicely' she got fed up and swiftly grabbed his face. His mouth was suddenly forced open and he gave a audible snarl before suddenly going quiet when the viscous purple liquid was poured down his throat, any struggle he once had ceased immediately making Arachne and Brock let go. Michelle closed his mouth and hopped off his stomach before backing up to see that he was stock still and stared at the ceiling for a minute.
"Uhhhhh, is he okay?" Brock asked as he looked at the suddenly still Goliath.
"He's fine, he's just acting like a fucking baby. Ares stop, you're overreacting." Michelle huffed and turned to exit.
"Michelle, he's not acting." Arachne said.
"How do you know?" Michelle asked.
"Because I'm pretty sure his normal complexion isn't green." Arachne pointed. Michelle scoffed then turned around before going wide eyed as she looked at Ares; his face was green while he looked to be straining himself. She quickly rushed over and looked at his face while Arachne and Brock peered over her shoulders, all three later backed up when Ares' cheeks puffed up and he quickly sat up and vomited in a nearby waste bin. His normal complexion eventually started to return and he started to fall asleep but was kept awake when Michelle lightly slapped his face, making him give a tired growl.
"What?" He growled tiredly, and looked to see Michelle with a skull bowl with some hot meat soup in it. It was a large skull that belonged to an Ursa that Brock had killed weeks before, turns out if you take something off a dead grimm fast enough then it won't disappear with the rest.
"Here, you need to eat." She said giving him the bowl. He looked at it before slowly closing his eyes but later opened them when he was sat up by Brock, he saw that Brock was holding him up while Arachne was behind him to act as a pillow just in case he fell backwards while Michelle was in front of him with a ceramic spoon that had some of the soup on it. He slowly opened his mouth and Michelle stuck the spoon in and waited until it was clear of contents before sticking it back in the bowl again, scooping up more contents and waiting until he opened his mouth again. They repeated this process until the bowl was empty and Ares was almost asleep, Arachne helped Brock get him settled in the bed while Michelle lifted his head and placed a pillow under it.
"How are Rei and Ken?" Ares asked tiredly.
"They're good, they miss you but otherwise good." Brock said.
"They don't have anything wrong with them do they?" Ares asked.
"Nah, they've been chomping to see you though." Brock said.
"...Okay..." Ares said tiredly. His eyes drooped down and he fell asleep on his side making the occasional groan in pain, all three sighed then left the room quietly. It hasn't been good as far as food these last few weeks, there are days when they have little to eat or nothing to eat at all. Brock, Mathias, and Michelle have been trying their hardest to provide food for everybody but come up short every time; Brock makes too much noise, Mathias can't stay out very long but when he does he manages to catch something, and Michelle gets angry to quick which usually leads to mistakes. Arachne doesn't hunt due to her being partially inactive during the cold and hate for it, thus her reason for not hunting and staying behind with the children. The children tried to help out and hunt but were stopped every time by one of the adults, though that didn't stop them from trying to sneak out. Without Ares leading the hunting party food was scarce and it was becoming harder and harder to contain the children from doing something foolish just to get food in their stomachs; last week if Mathias had not woken up in the middle of the night then he wouldn't have been able to stop the children from going out into the cold.
"I really hope he gets better, it's getting hard to keep food around now." Brock said as he led them through the halls, gently pushing past Lilith who was carrying a pot of snow to melt.
"You're telling me, I haven't eaten in a couple of days." Arachne said.
"What?! Why not?!" Brock asked worriedly.
"I've been giving my share towards the kids and Ares." She shrugged.
"Well judging by what Mathias said this morning, he should be better by tomorrow." Michelle said.
"Oh thank god." Brock breathed.
"Yeah, I feel like I could eat a horse." Arachne patted her stomach.
"With you I feel like that's not a figure of speech." Michelle deadpanned.
"That's a figure of speech?" Arachne asked.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Brock asked.
"Whatever Brock, you don't even know what a horse looks like." Arachne huffed.
"Yes I do. Dad and I saw one here years ago, question is how do you know?" Brock asked.
"Back on Shear a colonist brought one and I ate it." Arachne shrugged. Brock looked at her with a look of horror before walking faster than them. Michelle looked at Arachne with an annoyed expression while the latter just flashed a playful one.
"See what you did? You've offended our gentle giant by saying you ate his favorite animal." Michelle said sarcastically.
"Oh come on. He acts like he hasn't eaten one before." Arachne said rolling her eyes.
"Because he hasn't you dumb fuck, he took us to ride one years ago." Michelle said. Arachne rolled her eyes and leaped up onto Brock's shoulders while leaning over and peering at him. He looked at her with a stern expression before focusing his eyes on the path ahead of him.
"Brock? Brock come on, I was just joking." Arachne laughed and kissed his forehead. She suddenly felt the air around her dip down and looked up to see that they were outside. Brock grabbed her by the legs and carried her in a bridal position, making her cheeks tint pink, and looked up to see Brock's impassive face.
"Brock? What are you doing?" She asked slowly, peering at his impassive face. She yelped loudly when she was suddenly airborne and landed in the cold snow, her body tensed immensely as the snow assaulted her skin.
"FUUUUUUUUCK! Brock you asshole! You know I hate the fucking snow!" She shrieked and pounced on him, clinging to his chest and shivering. Her hair was soggy while her clothes stuck to her skin making her shiver more, a pair of hands grabbed her and lifted her up in the air making her panic when she felt Brock lift her up again.
"Brock no! I'm sorry! I was kidding about the whole horse thing, I've never actually seen one before until you showed us! Please don't put me back in the snow!" She cried. She felt herself lowered and desperately clung to his chest making a scared chittering noise while staring wide eyed. Michelle was shocked at the once jovial spider monster that didn't know when to shut up now as a scared vulnerable girl, her shocked expression was replaced with a mischievous one as she stared at Arachne. Some new blackmail had found its way into her mind. Arachne wrapped her legs around his stomach while her arms wrapped around his neck, she placed her head in the crook of his neck and stared ahead blankly with wide eyes. Brock wrapped his arms around her and took her inside with a smug expression on his face while Arachne just stared blankly at the entrance of the cave before she caught sight of Michelle looking at her with a mischievous expression.
"You tell anybody about this and I will forcefully face fuck you." Arachne hissed.
"Hmm, let me think about that threat... nah, I'm still going to tell everybody." Michelle smiled.
"You bitch." Arachne hissed at her and clung tighter onto Brock trying to get some warmth. They all entered the dining hall and noticed that all the children were sitting at the table with Mathias at the cooking pot with the last of the meat in the pot. He turned around to see Arachne clinging to Brock like her life depended on it and raised an eyebrow.
"Care to explain?" Mathias asked.
"Arachne said she ate a horse so I decided to throw her in the snow." Brock said making Arachne tighten her grip at the mention of snow.
"Hmm, well. Try not to do it to many times, I don't want my blankets gone when I go to bed." Mathias said turning back to the pot and stirring the soup. He grabbed different bowls and began to pour soup in each of them and setting them in front of the children, they smiled in gratitude before eating, and gave Brock, Michelle, and Arachne one. Arachne quickly scarfed down her food and curled up into a ball to stop shivering; all the children looked at her before shrugging and eating their food again. Mathias sat down on his pillow and crossed his legs while sipping on some of his gojiberry tea. His ears suddenly perked up when he heard a loud groan and shuffling in the hallway before a loud thump resonated in it, sighing before getting up he marched into the hallway to see Ares face down into the ground. He tapped his foot as he stared at the younger monster in front of him.
"Ares you need to stop." Mathias sighed.
"No." Ares huffed.
"You're not going to get any better if you keep trying to force yourself to get better." Mathias sighed.
"Yes I will, watch me." Ares replied struggling to stand up before he got onto his knees then his feet.
"Get your ass back to bed before I make you." Mathias scowled. Ares looked at the older monster's face before sighing and shuffling back into the room, he saw the medicine on a nearby stand and glared at it before popping his head out of the room.
"Hey Mathias?" He asked.
"Yes?" Mathias replied turning around.
"Why the hell do we have to take this nasty ass medicine?" Ares asked.
"Because I learned it helps with illness. Brock and I learned this when we first came here, those little disgusting viscous liquid help a lot. More than the mixtures that I usually make." Mathias answered.
"I'd rather take your mixtures than this crap." Ares shuddered as he looked at the purple liquid.
"Noted. I'll make you some from a couple of roots and herbs the next time you get sick. Now get back in the damn bed." Mathias ordered.
"Fine." Ares huffed and closed the door. Mathias shook his head and headed back to the dining room to see everything consumed... even his tea.
"Who drank all my tea?" Mathias sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. All hands pointed to Brock who looked around before chuckling nervously when he saw Mathias standing next to him.
"H-hey dad... you make a mean batch of tea, am I right?" He laughed nervously. Mathias' eyes narrowed immensely before he smacked Brock in the back of his head with the stick.
"Ow! Dad stop! I'm sorry, I'll make you another batch." Brock cried as he covered his head to shield himself from the assault.
"You idiot! Do you have any idea how hard it is to enjoy tea without you drinking it?" Mathias said as he continued the assault.
"Pretty easy? Ow!" Brock yelled as Mathias smacked his forehead. The latter huffed and walked away leaving the rest of the occupants to stare at a bruised Brock, even with his hardened skin the hits still hurt.
"Why?" Brock asked as he looked to see Arachne smile at him before leaning in to whisper in his ear.
"That's for throwing me in the snow, you know I hate it." She said, flicking his nose lightly. The dining hall was quickly left when all the occupants left to turn in for the night, unaware of a small drone enter the cave before leaving after a few minutes.
The next day:
The morning came quicker than most would like but came none the less. A few occupants were already up and going through the motions of the day, mostly the children, while a couple slept. A quiet snore resonated through the room as Ares slept with the covers up to his shoulders, he slowly woke up and stretched out his muscles while cracking his bones also. His health had increased dramatically, making him wonder if he had been sick at all but later dismiss it since he was for a few days. His stomach rumbled loudly and mad him groan and sigh before heading to the dining hall to see all the children gathered around something sprawled out on the table.
"What are you guys doing?" Ares asked rubbing his eyes.
"Ares!" Rei and Ken yelled, barreling into him. He grunted as they hit his stomach before laughing and picking them up, the other children watched before huffing and walking up to him, engulfing him in a group hug. He raised an eyebrow before shrugging and kneeling down to their level and opening his arms to hug all of them; personally he didn't know why they were so affectionate but right now he didn't care in the slightest. After a few more moments of hugging they disbanded and gathered around something on the table, from the angle he was at it had the pelt of a Beowolf, with the head still attached but the bottom jaw missing.
"What's this?" Ares asked picking the object up, much to the dismay of the children. He finally gazed at the outfit they somehow made for him. It was the pelt of a Beowolf (He assumed it must have been skinned alive to get it) that was fashioned into a hood of some sort, the rest of the pelt going more towards the left shoulder and ending towards the middle of the back. There was a fur that covered the shoulders and leaned more towards the left side also and had flaps that hung loosely from the shoulders down to the chest area that was connected with two straps going in an x formation. There was a red cloth that seemed to act as a belt of some sort or for another reason with a flap with a three arrow design going down between his legs and around his rear and had numerous pouches on it. The pants were made out of animal skin and seemed to be dark brown in appearance, there was also a hole for his tail to enter with ease. The boots were also made out of animal skin and fur and had multiple flaps on it with a yellowish brown string wrapping around them, keeping them tight fitting but not tight enough to cut off circulation.
"Ares we're not done!" Rei cried trying to reach for it.
"What's there left to do?" Heasked.
"We still need to make the mask fit!" She said.
"Don't." He said looking back at it with interest.
"W-what?" She asked surprised.
"I said don't. It's perfect." He said, setting it down carefully.
"Wait but what about your mask?" Orka asked with confusion, tilting his head.
"I'll wear it when I feel like it." Ares replied.
"So... do you like it?" Lilith asked.
"Yeah I do, good job you guys." He complemented, making the children beam with pride. He stood up and walked over to the pot to see it empty then went back to the storage room to see that the container was empty too, he scowled then smiled when he realized that he could hunt again. Walking back to see the children looking at the outfit with pride, they were suddenly brought out when it was snatched from their sight, they looked to see Ares take the outfit and disappear for a few minutes then reappear with it on. His look just gave off that survivalist vibe and made him appear more wild than he already was... in his half-breed form.
"This just feels natural. Now from what I heard the other day, you all tried sneaking out to go hunt?" Ares asked with a raised eyebrow. The children looked at him with wide eyes then looked to the ground ashamed, some of them began to start whimpering and tears leaking from their eyes.
"I'm not mad at you all. I was worried when I was told you tried to go out by yourselves, hell you all had me so worried I was about to get up and look for you guys even if I was sick. Some part of me is proud while the other part is disappointed." He said.
"B-but we w-were trying to help." Mimi sniffled.
"I know, but you eight know the rules. Look I'm proud you all were thinking about everyone and did what you could to help out but you all aren't at that stage where you can go alone. So promise me one thing: promise me that whatever you do, do not go out by yourselves until you're ready. Mathias, Michelle, Arachne, Brock, and even me would lose it if we lost even one of you; we view you eight as family and no matter what family stick together until the end." Ares said holding out a hand with the palm up. Each of the children smiled and placed a hand on his palm, he placed his other hand on theirs and looked at each one of them before smiling and standing up. He left to one of the rooms down the hallway for a few minutes before later appearing with his stone shards and a smirk on his face.
"Alright, here's the deal. Mathias said we could go out hunting but you all can only stay out until this afternoon." He said.
"Awwwww." The children groaned.
"Yeah it sucks, I know. On the bright side we'll be able to catch more since I'm back which means we can eat like true monsters." Ares said. The children beamed at the thought of being able to eat and quickly grabbed their knives and spears before appearing before Ares again with smiles on their faces, he laughed and turned quickly before throwing on the hood and exiting the cave system.
"You all ready to hunt?" He looked back. All of them gave shrill roars in anticipation and thrust their spears in the air. Ares looked back at them and threw his head up, joining in and giving his own feral roar making birds in the distance fly away startled before running into the frozen forest with eight young monsters in tow. All of them with beaming smiles on their faces and leaving multiple footprints in the snow. Michelle, Arachne, and Brock later arrived at the entrance and leaned on it.
"At least we know he's back." Michelle deadpanned.
"Oh come on Michelle. You're glad he's back, it means we get more food and the young ones won't try anything stupid." Brock smiled.
"Whatever, I'm going back to sleep." Michelle huffed and walked back inside, swaying her tail as she walked. Arachne looked at Brock and opened her mouth.
"I will throw you in the snow if you say a word." Brock said stoically making Arachne's mouth clamp shut before bolting inside. Brock laughed and walked inside to the dining hall and noticed how cold it was. He threw his head back and gurgled loudly before spitting a molten sludge at the pile of firewood and igniting it. The temperature of the room slowly rose to a comfortable temperature making him sit down and close his eyes, falling asleep on the table.
Three hours:
The hunting party came back with smiles on their faces. Ares managed to catch another elk and the children with their combined efforts managed to catch one also, the poor animal couldn't even get the chance to fight back as it was stabbed, bitten, clawed, and tackled to the ground by a group of young ones. Although it was a combined effort, Rei and Ken dealt the killing blow by stabbing its jugular and smashing its head with a nearby rock. Ares agreed to drag both the bodies back if they could kill one, and not surprisingly they did, so here they all were.
"I'm impressed. You've managed to kill your first large animal with nothing despite your small sizes." Ares complemented.
"I mean it was your idea for us to climb up in the trees while you surprised one from the bushes." Ken said still trying to clean off his knife.
"Still. You all did good but keep in mind, not all hunts will be this successful." Ares informed.
"Right." They all replied in unison. Ares laughed and stopped when he heard something shuffle in the bushes, the children heard it too and stopped while holding up their spears. The area was quiet for a solid minute before something jumped out of the bushes and lunge at Mimi, it was intercepted when Ares shoulder charged it and knocked it into a nearby tree. The unknown creature was revealed to be an Alpha Beowolf that was almost ten feet tall, its mouth was foaming as it stared at the potential meals ahead of it. It charged and lunged at one of them but was interrupted by Ares again and was held by the throat by his hands. Ares turned to address the children behind him.
"Go! Now!" He ordered.
"What about you?!" Rei shouted.
"I'll be fine! Now go!" He yelled back. Despite their want to stay and help they knew that fighting would be a lost cause. Listening to them leave he was thrown back when the Alpha stuck its hind legs on his chest and pushed roughly, making him fly through the air and slam into a nearby rock. He glared at the Alpha and picked up the rock before hurling it at the Beowolf who dodged the rock and dashed forward. It slashed a paw at him before jumping back when it was charged at but was thrown to the side when the ground was smashed in front of it. Ares then saw a large branch and ripped it off the tree, swinging at the Beowolf and smacking it in the face, drawing blood from its mouth. The Beowolf retaliated by slashing at Ares' right side and clipping him, leaving three long bloody scratches alongside the ribs. The cut wasn't deep enough to be fatal but it was to draw blood that seemed to slowly ooze out and drip onto the ground; the snow turned red as blood dripped and flew all over the place when Ares and the Alpha traded slashes, bites, and kicks. The fight began to last for almost ten minutes before both knocked each other away and stared at one another. Ares had bruises, bite marks, and slashes while the Alpha sported the same wounds except to a deeper extent. Both of them charged each other and slashed at one another but Ares ducked the last second and smashed the tip of the tail in its jaw, breaking it. The Alpha howled in agony and backed away trying to fix its jaw but was tackled to the ground and repeatedly stomped in the face. It tried to slash as Ares but howled when its arm was twisted a full 360 degrees, snapping the arm and revealing bone at an unnatural angle. It went for a slash with the other arm but quickly regretted it when it found its hand in a mouth and four of its fingers crushed under a massive bite force, cleaving all of them off. Ares slowly crawled off the Alpha and stared at its broken body.
"You attack the young ones? The ones I consider blood?! I'll fucking eat you alive!" Ares roared as he suddenly lunged at the Alpha and bit its neck, causing blood to squirt all over the ground. Ripping his head up with the flesh still in his mouth, he swallowed it whole before bending down and taking another bite. He sat up and dug his claws in its side and began to tear into the poor Alpha as it howled in agony. His face sported a feral smile as he tore deeper and deeper into its body, snapping bone and rupturing organs as he mutilated the grimm. The grimm howls became silent as the torturous mutilation started to reach its peak, it suddenly stopped when Ares didn't hear the howls of pain anymore.
"You little pest! I didn't say you could die!" Ares roared before raising his fists and smashing the Alpha's head repeatedly until it was nothing but a soupy mix of blood and gore. He slowly climbed off the corpse and fell backwards while taking deep breaths to become calm again, the blood from the corpse stained the pristine white snow a crimson red and was spreading slowly. His vision began to darken and he leaned back onto a nearby tree, closing his eyes.
"A nap sounds nice." He whispered to himself.
"Ares!" He heard someone scream before he blacked out from his wounds.
Michelle dragged Ares back to the keep in haste, her skin was cold but she brushed it aside and kept her stride. Despite his wounds being small lacerations they were still bleeding at an alarming rate making her quicken her pace. They finally arrived at the keep and entered it quickly, she wasted no time and called out to Mathias.
"Mathias!" She shouted.
"What is it this time child? I'm cooking dinne-" He stopped when he saw Ares' condition and quickly rushed to his side, placing an arm over his shoulders and help carry him to his room.
"Brock! Arachne! Get over here now!" Mathias ordered, making the two quickly rush over. Brock looked at Ares one time and was immediately by his side while Arachne was conjuring up webs from her wrist, though these weren't her usual acid laced webs, these were the normal kind she used to traverse across surfaces. They entered the room and set Ares down on the bed gently and began to strip off the clothes that the children made for him; most of the wounds were on his chest and arms fortunately.
"Michelle, knife." Mathias ordered and waited as she quickly heated up her knife and handed it to him.
"Brock, sit him up." He said. Brock gently but quickly sat Ares up and waited for Mathias to pinch one of the wounds and place the heated knife on it, the sound of sizzling flesh could be heard while the smell was evident in the air. Mathias repeated this process until he sealed up all the wounds.
"Arachne banda-" He suddenly stopped when all the cuts reopened and bled but at a slower pace. All three peered closer to see black ooze slowly leaking from the wounds and cover them before slowly hardening once they covered all the wounds. The hardened ooze hardened to the point of rock before cracking and letting out steam, falling off Ares' body, leaving scarred skin where the lacerations were located.
"What was that?" Michelle asked as she looked at the new scar.
"Hmm, it seems he has some sort of control. Brock, didn't you say when you found him he was in his original form?" Mathias asked.
"Yeah. I mean I was too but it's easy for me since we've been doing it for years." Brock said.
"It seems we need to start teaching him how to go back and forth between forms." Mathias said.
"Yep." Brock nodded.
"Okay, hold up. What the fuck are you two talking about?" Arachne asked. Her and Michelle had that 'look' that said they wanted to know more and weren't going to leave until they got an answer. Both men sweat dropped before sighing, Mathias nodded towards Brock.
"Go get the food." He said. Brock nodded and left the room leaving Arachne and Michelle alone with Mathias who sat in front of a sleeping Ares. The three didn't say a word in the span of a few minutes before Mathias sighed and rubbed the his forehead.
"Alright girls, what I say here must not leave this room. Got it?" He asked.
"Yes we got it Mathias, we can continue now." Arachne said.
"Arachne I'm being serious this time. Do. Not. Let. This. Live. The. Room." He said seriously, emphasizing each word. Both of them looked at him cautiously before closing the door and sitting on the bed, with Michelle closest to Ares.
"Alright what's so serious about this." Michelle asked.
"Throughout this whole time we've been able to go back in our original forms." Mathias said.
"What?" Arachne gaped.
"Yes, though it's dangerous to do so. I've kept it hidden from you two because I felt you two would do something foolish. I did it to keep those hunters away from us." Mathias said.
"Us foolish? We'd never do something like that." Arachne brushed off.
"Arachne you are the most reckless one aside from Ares and the most violent. If you were to go into your original form then you could not only lead the hunters to us but go to Vale and start terrorizing it." He said. He rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "Girls please understand, Brock and I have been doing this for years and learned to control our violent urges but with Ares and his episode I can't risk another mishap when you two decide to go into your original forms." He sighed. Arachne and Michelle were about to argue but were interrupted by groaning by the bed and turned to see Ares sit up with some difficulty. He looked to see everyone, except Brock, look at him with slightly worried expressions, shaking his head and placing a hand on it; he was surprised when Michelle suddenly hugged him.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." She repeated.
"For what?" He asked.
"For saving Mimi." She said. Ares looked at her as she let go and shrugged, he walked out into the hallway and noticed that the sun was slowly falling, signalling it was late afternoon possibly early evening. Sighing and walking back to the room with some pain, there was suddenly a loud thump and Arachne flying in the hallway with Michelle marching out with a slightly pink face before marching to the dining hall. He stood there and sighed before shaking his head slowly and turning in for the night... he'd eat in the morning and take a lazy day tomorrow. He deserved it.
AN: Wow, that chapter was meant to be out about a week ago but I got pretty lazy. Anyways some of you may be wondering what Ares' outfit will be from now on, just think of Connor's outfit from tyranny of King Washington. I feel like that single outfit just describes how much of the wild Ares is used to, from the animal pelts, to the bones as weapons, and etc. Now some of you might be complaining about how the hell did he get sick and let me tell you. They're not monsters anymore (well not complete monsters) and are susceptible to everything a human can be, to an extent. They get sick like us, injured like us, breath like us, somewhat eat like us, and try to live like us to an extent. You're all probably wondering why Ares seems like a big fucking softie and it's because he's near people he can call a family, as time passed by he saw this group as people he cares for deeply and will go to the ends of the earth to make sure they're safe, as such example when he fought the Alpha. I also used the throwing shards from far cry primal because they're so damn fun to use and the mask is like an army of two mask as far as the frame; I'm trying to produce the vibe of they don't really care about civilization and only use things Mathias picks up, but other than that they mostly rely on the wilderness's resources for their supplies. Oh and although the children are young they still want to be seen as big kids so they can show the five adults (well three since Ares, Michelle, and Arachne are still teenagers) that they can take care of themselves but they still enjoy making things in their free time. I know I said the usual cast won't be in the next few chapters but it's hard not to so expect them most likely, in all seriousness though I just felt like doing a chapter where the group face the winter and what not. Sorry if it seems a little disorganized, I've been in a sort of funk lately and am really disorganized with pretty much everthing, so sorry about that. Well it's been fun writing this and I hope you all at least somewhat enjoy it because if you don't then I'll feel really shitty and stop writing for a while but then bounce back with enthusiasm and write again. Anyways, thanks for reading, you all know the golden rule about reviews, and take it easy. Have a good one.