"Alexia?" A voice called into the young woman's tent during lunch break.
To say the least, she was not pleased to be disturbed yet again that day. Hades was enough, then a governor's son, a few soldiers during practice, and now this. "Come!" She called through her tent as she gnawed the meat off of a bone. Her father and leader lifted up one of the curtains and entered the room, bidding the other occupants to leave as he sat down comfortably to enjoy the company of his adopted daughter. "Father," she muttered softly to herself between swallowing her food and drinking from her goblet. The young woman licked spilled water from her lips and sat up, setting her food down as well as her goblet. "You seem worried; is there something you would like to speak to me about?" She questioned knowingly as she folded her legs and straightened her posture.
"Alexia-" He started hesitantly.
"Yes," she replied quickly, trying to coax him into speaking his mind, "what is it?"
"How is your training fairing?" The man asked at last. He seemed desperate, worried, irritated. Her father was more than likely thinking irrationally. This was no state for his men to see him in. The soldiers had no right to see their leader so weak.
The young woman let out a long exhale and bit at her lips. She scowled at the man she called her father. "It's fine. Fast paced, and nothing to worry about. I'll be sparring for the rest of the day," retorted Alexia, growing aggravated by the man, "but that's not what you came here to speak to me about." Her eyes had grown accustomed to examining him when he would give no hints or lead for someone to go off of. "You should speak your mind before your irritation shows to your men. Weakness may cause rebellion, and no one wants that."
"Fine then," he replied, "I'll admit you are right." His words gave Alexia noticeable relief. "I am worried for you. You very well may be the daughter of the gods, but perhaps you have too much confidence in yourself! You are challenging everything here, don't you see that? Everything is at risk in your life tomorrow when you fight! Are you blind?" He asked, slowly gaining fury as his mind began to unravel feeding words to his mouth that his mind wished to speak. "What if you lose? I will lose you! You're dreams will be impossible; you're life will be changed!"
"Father," Alexia cooed soothingly in a calm, serene voice, "I have no life to hope for. What if I am not a daughter of the gods, or even a nymph or dryad? What then? What if I am the child of no one and simply fell onto the earth without aim?" There was no reply, her father was silent. He had not a single clue what she may have been trying to get at. "Then nothing, Father. Nothing! Nothing will have changed. I am mortal now, as I may be mortal for the rest of my life. It won't change the now or tomorrow for that matter. Do you see that?
"I am here as a pawn of the gods! I will do their bidding! This is what they want. This is what they will get! If I win, your soldiers faith in you, myself, and all of themselves will raise. They will love the gods and feed the gods the prayers they ask for. Do you understand that?" Alexia demanded. "Every word spoken is taken by the wind to Mount Olympus, and my words are no different! The gods hear me, just as they do you and every other man out there, on the battleground or not, we are all heard. I have faith in my gods, and I believe they will fulfill the prayers that need to be fulfilled. I trust the path the gods lead me on, because I believe that is the path I am meant to be on."
"Only the Fates know your path-" The man interrupted.
"The gods will interfere without knowing what the Fates know, but the result will always be the same," Alexia argued stubbornly. "Nothing will stop the gods aside from other gods."
At this the man sighed and rested his face in his hand, a shallow smile slowly snuck its way onto his face. He shook his head slowly at her, and began to chuckle quietly to himself, making the young woman smile slightly and giggle as she had when she was a small, mischievous child. "You've always had that stubborn, hectic aura about you, Alexia," he grunted and looked to his feet. Inhaling deeply the man tried to think of what to say to possibly convince his child out of her silly ways.
"Father, Sister!" A voice called before the owner of said voice entered the tent room. He was lean, but broad-shouldered and muscular. Dark brunet hair and light brown eyes and slender lips as well as a sharply angled nose all made up the face of Hypatos, Alexia's adoptive brother and their father's son. At parties he was social, but preferred to take men home rather than women, which was fortunately quite common among the party goers as well as men of his high social class. Despite being the middle son, Hypatos was the most skilled swordsman of his brothers. One of his plaything servants followed him in, only to skitter backwards at the sight of Alexia and hide on the other side of the curtain. "Settle down, she isn't going to kill you," the brother muttered under his breath to his servant. "Me on the other hand..." He added softly with an uneasy look on his face.
The young woman took a sip from her glass before cocking a brow at the younger man. "What reason would you give me to kill you?" She inquired, her interest piqued. "I'm dying to hear what you have to say," Alexia taunted further with a sly smirk on her slim face. "Did you accidentally push another servant into the river?" She continued when he failed to reply.
"Stop it, Alexia," the father scolded flatly. "What is it, Hypatos?"
The servant behind the curtain stepped forward when his master continued to play mute. "My master received a letter in his tent. Despite the clear warning written on it, he opened it. It must have been from Hades or Poseidon, but a large winged creature as well as several other beasts emerged from the paper."
Alexia stood with a groan, irritated that her hearty meal had been interrupted while the sun was at its peak. Hypatos objected by shouting her name as she grabbed her own sword and tied a spear to her back. Alexia responded by holding up her hand to silence him. Then she turned to face her kin. "I suppose I do need more practice with this sort of thing. Perhaps it will even help me learn the sword a little faster," she suggested casually. There was no way the young woman was going to go back on her actions. A few beasts were a few beasts, if no Minotaur creature was in sight, she would have it easy. Looking out of the tent she spotted to hoofed feet before her, following them skyward she realized she would have no such luck as she had hoped. Before her stood a Minotaur and perhaps two others were wreaking havoc on the mess hall tents down the hill. "I thought you said there was a winged creature!" Alexia shrieked as she tumbled between the legs of the minotaur and hauled ass away from the tent. "Get the men out of the mess hall!" She shouted at one of the servants that stood frozen in fear with a gleaming tray in their hands. Under her breath she continued, "I cannot take them all on my own."
"Sister!" Hypatos shouted as he flung the canvas door to the tent out of his way and unknowingly into the minotaur's face. "Sister, are you alright?" He cried, seeing the young woman crawling around the beast.
Within moments, the canvas entryway was gone and the untamed beast howled before making to swing at the younger of the two. "Hypatos! Get down!" Alexia whooped as she tackled his muscular frame full-on to knock him out of the way of the fatal swing. "There are two others! Hurry! Alert the men in their tents! I'll get the mess hall. Now, go, and don't get killed or I'll bring you back and kill you again with my own two hands!" Alexia squawked from on top of him as the minotaur was tackled by their father. The woman took a quick glance behind her and nearly flinched as the old man barely dodged the beast's strike. "GO!" She shouted and pushed her little brother downhill with a good, solid shove. "Father! Duck!" She demanded and didn't wait for him to do so as she withdrew her sword and swung it at the creature before the both of them.
"You're stance is all wrong," her father chastised when her front foot slid from its spot and into his leg. "On the balls of your feet now, or you'll hurt yourself!"
"Hush now, Father! I'm learning through practice!" Alexia snapped, correcting her stance on her own without a single glance down at the old man. "Move now and hastily to the-" the woman slipped again and bit through the skin of her lip when the hoofed man-beast nicked her in its backswing. Recovering from her falter, Alexia rolled her weight from one side to the other to avoid an oncoming blow that surely would have taken her down the hill and into the rack of weapons. "-hastily to the mess hall! Get the men! Spread the message! Make sure every soldier has a weapon in hand!" The general made a back-handed fatherly comment before he too was pushed down the steep slope of the hill.
In her peripheral vision, Alexia spotted someone inside the tent. It was her brother's no-name servant squealing like a pig about to be slaughtered as he watched the entire sight from atop the hill in the comfort of the general's tent. "Ho! Servant Boy, grab me a hot iron from the pit, and be quick about it," she demanded as her arm was scraped by her assailant's horns. The boy stood in horror and she kicked dirt his way, not removing her eyes from the aggressive beast. "Go brat!" She hollered and dove at her opponent's legs in an attempted take-down that would never work with such a poor stance.
Upon his return, she speedily grabbed the iron and knocked behind the knees of the minotaur from behind, taking it down. The moment it fell, Alexia stabbed it straight through the the ribcage and the heart with not a single sign of hesitation. Wiping a few droplets of sweat from her brow, she turned to her brother's servant. "There are two more of these things, what was the winged beast you spoke of earlier?" She inquired coldly. The boy swallowed a lump in his throat but remained unable to speak. His hand raised out to the side and his index finger lead her eyes to a harpy.
I'm so sorry this took so long for me to post. It's been a very rough and busy summer for me. I meant to post this much, much sooner.