He dreams of a great many things.

Of Calliope playing her flute underneath the shade of a tree. Her small frail fingers moving gracefully along the wooden instrument he made for her. Her music soothing his weary soul. The olive-skinned girl misses a note and puffs air out through her wide-brimmed nose along with an innocent giggle.

"Keep going baby," Lysandra says gently while sitting in between his legs, her back leaning against his bare chest. A bonfire was close by, but he was unable to feel the heat that came from it. While Calliope keeps her eyes closed concentrating on the beautiful song, Lysandra turns to face him. Slowly she stands up, extending a sandy hand out towards Kratos. He encloses both his hands around her offering and rises to stand with her.

Lysandra, his anchor, his Spartan wildfire. She lifted an eyebrow upwards to him. "Dance with me." She demands, reaching her other hand for his belt and pulling him closer to her.

"I do not dance." He says back to her. Their daughter's song begins transitioning from a simple tune suitable for a child's talent to a more elaborate melody a bard with a lifetime of experience would play.

"I don't care, I told you to dance with me." She playfully poked his cheek, confidence radiating from her dark painted eyes. She was always so stunning, seductive, and hard to keep up with. No matter how high he got, she would pull him back down to earth. Her pampered tan skin glowing in the light of the fire. He frowned his eyebrows at her, still retaining a smile on his face. He never knew he could love a woman this much.

Pandora was now suddenly the one playing the wooden flute. Her large eyes kept shut as she continued the same song. Her asymmetric mismatched hair covering half of her face as she leans into the intensity of the music.

The fire cracked loudly as a log collapsed in on itself.

Before Kratos turned to contemplate what had just happened Lysandra twists his chin to face her again.

Faye's blue eyes were looking up at him. "Oh." She stutters out shyly, removing her hand from his face and back onto his chest. Her hands were soft and cool against his dry hot flesh. "You don't have to dance if you don't want to." She fidgets with his harness, her milky white skin unable to hide the blood rushing to her freckled face. She smiled through her blushing sincerity and pulled her lips inside her mouth for a moment.

The way she smiles whenever she looked upon him, eyes free of fear, only adoration.

How?

How could a monster such as himself cause a creature so beautiful to love him this much? She was so pure, a light in his dark world. He quickly looked down to their joined hands. Was he holding her too tightly? He needed to soften his edges while around her, stay in complete control else he fears he would break her. She made him want to be a better man. She made him remember so much. She made him feel so many things all at once, feelings he forgot how to govern. Feeling this close to someone was dangerous, life was fleeting but not for him. His mind clashed with itself whenever he was this close to her. Should he preserve her, or devour her? "I won't force you to do something you don't feel comfortable doing. But, if you ever change your..-"

She vanishes from his arms.

Atreus walks up to the wooden instrument and picks it up in his hands to examine it. He didn't realize Pandora had disappeared along with the music.

It was just the two of them left.

Slowly his son brings the flute to his mouth.

Kratos rushes towards the boy as his lips begin playing the same song, picking up where the others before him left off.

"NO!" He shouts.

His eyes open slowly.

The afternoon light seeping in through the window of his home stung his vision. Kratos groaned slightly as he lifted himself upwards. His body was dehydrated. Foolishly he forgot to stay hydrated while drinking last night.

"Good afternoon!" Mimir shouted at him from atop a shelf.

That is not where he should be.

As Kratos swings his legs out and places his feet onto the ground he steps into something wet and chunky.

"Ahh, yes," Mimir says. "Watch your step there eh?" Kratos sighs as he looks down. Remembering the boy's nausea from last night. He grumbles and ignores the fact, standing up and walking towards the door. He needed to piss and get a drink of water. He yanked Mimir off the shelf and attached him to his belt and threw the door open. Summoning the leviathan, wherever it was. It sounded as if it were left high in a tree. It snapped into his hand and he quickly hooked it onto his back.

"When did he leave?" Kratos spoke at Mimir as he walked towards the river.

"He woke several hours before you. Poor lad was worried his sickness returned. Turns out he was experiencing his first hangover."

Kratos puffed air through his nose as he found a tree and relieved himself on it.

"He has been gone quite a while." Mimir says as Kratos plunges his cupped hands back into the river and leans forward to drink the water pooled in his hands. "Don't suppose we ought to go search for him?"

The icy water quenched his body. He drank two more handfuls of water before he bothered to respond to Odin's former adviser.

"Atreus is fine. He can handle himself."

His confidence in his son continued to grow. After the journey, Faye set them out on they returned home and began daily training rituals together. Atreus did not inherit his strength, but his affinity for combat still left him impressed. He could navigate almost every obstacle he set in front of the child. Using his wit, long ranged combat, and improving knife skills to slip away from danger. He still had quite a ways to go. But Kratos was to blame for that. If only he had started his training at a much younger age...

"Ah, but can he handle himself against everything and anyone that be out there?" Mimir interrupted his thoughts.

"Freya's mark still remains," Kratos says standing up.

If the head was questioning his concern for his son's safety perhaps he needed to go back inside the bucket.

"Ahh. I see." Mimir said. "Breakfast then?"

Kratos hums in agreement.

When he returns back to the house he sees Atreus standing in the garden.

He wasn't alone.

Kratos resisted the urge to sprint towards his son and simply increased his pace as he approached the boy. He was with a girl. She was still a child with impossible refinement for a world as cruel as this. A witch? She was wearing what appears to be a silk nightgown without any shoes in this bitter cold.

"Oh, there he is!" Atreus says warmly. "Father, come meet..-"

"What do you want from us?" Kratos barks down to the girl.

She recoiled from his actions, leaning slightly into his son. Kratos narrows his eyes furiously.

"No, no it's alright!" Atreus speaks between them. "I found her in our woods, she was looking for something and just got lost."

He pointed to a pile of red apples spilling out of a bucket. "Look what we found! I didn't realize our forest had an apple tree growing in it."

Kratos inspected the bucket suspiciously. The closest apple tree was a full week's journey from here.

He would know, he made the tip once a year for a full decade.

"Leave. Find what you want without us." Kratos says, trying to calm his temper. Something more was at play here.

The girl's face was hard to read while she cowered behind Atreus. "I'm looking for a golden apple."

Mimir remains oddly silent during all this. Usually, the head would have stuck his nose in the middle of situations like this by now.

"Oh I'm sorry, let me introduce you. This is my father." Atreus said backing away from the girl allowing him to look upon her again.

Whatever spell she was using made her appear around sixteen.

"Father this is..." Atreus' eyes widened as his mouth kept ajar for a moment. "Oh wow, I- I don't even think I even asked for your name yet?"

The boy fumbled a hand to his face. "That's, embarrassing."

The girl giggled at him and places a hand casually upon his son's upper arm. Kratos held back a growl at her action.

"No it's okay, everything has just been going by so fast I didn't realize it myself!" She brought both her hands together in front of her and lower her head at Kratos.

"My name is Idunn."

Atreus' eyes widened in horror for a split moment. He quickly readjusted his face back to normal, as if hoping Kratos didn't see the expression. He did see it.

"The goddess Idunn?" Mimir finally spoke up.

Idunn gasped. "Mimir?" She looked around not realizing he was behind Kratos. "H-How? Where are you?"

Kratos furiously summoned his axe to his hands. "Leave, now." He snarled at the girl.

"No father wait!" Atreus protested.

"Quiet!" He yells at his son, probably louder than necessary. But he would worry about that later.

The girl's chin begins trembling as she backs away from them.

"You will leave this place and never return. Understand?" He says tightening his grip onto the Leviathan.

She turns away with fear in her eyes, looking at Atreus one final time before she flees into the forest.

Kratos watches her intensely until he was unable to see her off in the distance.

Atreus was furious. "Why do you..!-"

Kratos drops the axe onto the ground and grips the boy's shoulder. "Did she see you first?"

Atreus ruffled his forehead in confusion. "What? No, I heard crying because of my powers. I ran to see what was causing it and found her."

He was telling the truth, he could tell.

"I didn't know she was a god, she was being really nice and needed help."

Kratos releases the boy.

"I thought she was just looking for apples to feed her family. So I offered to help."

"That's the goddess Idunn Little brother, you know who her family is? You know what those apples do?" Mimir says.

"Yes, I know." Atreus spits out. "I didn't realize she was...- I, I don't think she was doing anything all that evil though? She was just being so nice so, I figured I would help."

This is a trap and a lazy one at that. Brute force didn't work with the sons of Thor. Now instead Odin sends young beautiful women to entrance them?

"Odin is after us boy. You must not fall for his tricks."

Atreus crosses his arms over his chest. "You really think he would send a little girl after us?" He says with a hint of pompousness in his voice. The trap was working on one of them Kratos realized. "She's just lost in Midgard, so what if she's a goddess?"

"Honey lures more bees than fire," Mimir says to the boy.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Atreus asked.

Mimir chuckles. "Perhaps your dad can speak to you a little later about all this?"

Kratos grumbles annoyingly, looking at the pile of apples.