Atreus' experiences over the past months had left him prepared for many things. Part of that was down to his father's lessons, brusque as they might have been spoken and delivered via painful experience. The rest was due to how fantastical the journey with his father had been. Fraught with hardship, certainly. But they had done so much! Met the World Serpent! Travelled the realms of Alfheim, Muspelheim, Niflheim, even the inhospitable Helheim and the inaccessible Jotunheim, not that there was much to see for that last one. And that was to say nothing of walking the Realm Between Realms, something no one but Tyr had done!

... And maybe the dwarves. But the way Sindri had explained it, Atreus still couldn't quite wrap his head around what they were doing. He called it stepping between realms but that didn't quite line up with visiting the Realm Between Realms, not if dragons could still sense him in Midgard.

His thoughts were getting away from him. The point was, he had seen plenty of things that were just so far beyond anything he could've imagined. It had seemed impossible for him to be surprised anymore. And yet he had suffered three surprises.

First. Finding himself inexplicably cocooned within a ball shaped from the ivory-white branches of the world tree.

Second. Odin. Or at least someone calling himself Odin. And not only did the Aesir god not try to kill or capture the young god on sight, didn't even seem to know who he was.

And third. What happened when the woman, Rossweisse, took him by the hand and whisked him away to somewhere else entirely. No Bifrost, no Temple, no Realm Tear, just... One place to another.

And what a place it was, like he had once again stepped into an entirely different realm. The buildings entirely unfamiliar in design but bearing their own kind of grace, if he had to put a word on it. Sun-baked clay-tiled roofs and white painted walls, the roads made of stone but perfectly shaped to be uniformly flat.

"Where are we?" he asked in confused awe.

"Litochoro," his guide told him, the woman smiling at his wonder. "You said your father is Kratos, yes?"

"Uh, yeah," he answered, unsure how to explain. "We got separated. There was a realm tear and I got sucked in. Now I don't even know what's going on or where I am."

"A realm tear?" the woman asked. "A tear in the realms? But why would Kratos have–?" She shook her head, evidently experiencing her own confusion which made Atreus even more unsure how he should answer her questions. It seemed his answers made no sense to her. "You said... No, you didn't. Where was your father from? Did he have any family?"

"Just me and mother," the boy answered, not wanting to get into what little he knew of his extended family. "Well... Just me, now. And he said he was from a place called Sparta. But he didn't talk about it much."

Somehow, that seemed to satisfy the woman. "Well that certainly makes sense." The silver-haired woman stooped low, ruffling his hair. "We'll work this out, I promise."

"Who are you, exactly?"

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't introduce myself! My name is Rossweisse, one of Lord Odin's valkyries!"

"Really?" He frowned up at her. "I thought I knew all of the valkyries, I've never heard your name before. Also, aren't valkyries supposed to be spirits?"

"Oh?" she asked archly, raising up to put her hands on her hips. "And what's that supposed to mean? Who qualifies to be a valkyrie in your eyes?"

"Sorry! I just, I haven't heard your name before, that's all." Also, the being a flesh and blood person instead of a spirit. But saying he expected her to scream and try to murder him wouldn't go down any better than his comments already had.

Rossweisse sighed, shaking her head, angry at herself more than him, maybe. "It doesn't matter. Let's just–"

"Look, I'm really sorry," Atreus tried again. "I didn't mean to be rude or anything! The valkyries are really strong!" He would know. "So if you are one that's really amazing! I don't want it to seem like I was trying to insult or doubt you, I was just confused." He looked around again, at the strange landscape so different from what he was used to. "I'm confused about a lot of things right now."

Her slight irritation seemed to wash away in the face of a boy confused and uncertain but still trying to make her feel better. To make up for his mistake. "Okay, Let's go get you some help, see if we can reunite you with your family." She laid her hand on his shoulder and guided him down the street, their destination unknown to him.

Reunite him with his family. The odds of that seemed to be getting longer and longer by the moment.

As they walked, Atreus couldn't help but look around and stare in awe at the crowds of people around. There were so many! More than he had seen in his entire life, all in one place! Well, unless he counted draugr and hel-walkers, which he didn't. But at the same time, while he was staring in awe, he also noticed he and Rossweisse were dressed nothing like them. More than that, none of them carried weapons. Did they feel that safe here? "Why isn't anyone looking at us?" he asked his guide. "Shouldn't we stand out?"

"Oh, they aren't paying attention because I don't want them to. Just a little bit of magic, nothing to worry about."

"So you're a witch, too? Oh, wait, I guess all valkyries know at least a little magic, sorry."

She ruffled his hair again. "Of course. If I couldn't pull off a little trick like this, Grandmother would give me such a scalding!"

"Your grandmother?"

"Gondul."

"Oh!" Atreus suddenly exclaimed. "See, that name I know." And... With that knowledge in hand, he ran her previous words back alongside the last time he had seen Gondul. When she had set his father on fire several times. "... You said 'scolding' just now, right?"

"... Right. Of course I did. Oh look, we're here!"

Atreus looked up to the building she was leading him to, saw the sign above written in two sets of letters that he didn't understand. Though a few were at least somewhat familiar. In fact... He pulled away from Rossweisse before they got inside, moved instead to the windows where many signs were written in both languages. "Wait, so that... Oh, I get it now! So that means... And that.."

"Atreus, what are you doing?"

"Figuring out the languages."

"Your father... Didn't teach you to read?"

"Well, no, he didn't know how. Or he did, but not the languages Mother taught me. I had to read stuff for him. Wait... Maybe one of these is the language he could read? Is one of these the language of that Sparta place?"

"Ah, this one," she pointed to the letters that were harder for him to parse. "Greek."

"Greek... Oh! Greek!" he exclaimed, finding the word on the signs. "Or.. Ellinika? Why are the names so different for the same language?"

"Greek is the word for it in one of the world's more common languages. The other, or Hellenic, is the word in the local language. Your father is a god in the Hellenic pantheon."

"Oh. What's he the god of?" A thought occurred to him. An otherwise insignificant memory. "Is it war?"

"No, Ares is the god of war. Kratos is the god of strength."

"Oh," Atreus answered, finding it funny as he looked back on more memories. "Well he always was really strong." An echo of something he had once said when he was far more ignorant of his place in the world.

"Are you satisfied?"

Another few seconds of looking and he nodded with some amount of satisfaction. "I think so. Sorry for holding you up."

She guided him inside the building, the inside as bright as the outside. A desk table at the back of the room with some odd accoutrements laid out across it. And behind it sat, stood, walked, moved from behind it to smile, bow, look, smile, grin at Rossweisse and Atreus. "Well well! If it isn't cousins from way up north! Not had guests of your sort in quite some time, no we haven't! Here to deliver a message? Though you," he halted his quick-fire diatribe to stare at Atreus for barely a fraction of a second. "No, you're no messenger. Not that I have a problem with messengers, being one myself. So what brings some nice norse to my delightful doorstep?"

If Atreus needed more help in getting to grips with the spoken language he certainly got it, crash course though it might have been. But he was also still trying to take in the figure that had spoken those words. A man of tan skin and dark hair, wearing what appeared to be a white tunic-like garment with metallic scarlet trim. Boots that seemed to have wings on them, much like the wings that adorned his head. He stood out as much as Atreus and Rossweisse did, if not more.

And yet people were looking at him just fine. "Aren't you hiding yourself?" he asked, in halting but understandable Greek.

"Why would I?" the fast-talking man asked. "The tourists love it. Coming to Mount Olympus and there they find Lord Hermes here and waiting for them. Not that they know it's actually Lord Hermes, mind. But if I can do my job in clothes I like and everyone just thinks it's a bit, well that just suits everyone fine, doesn't it?"

"Lord Hermes," Rossweisse spoke up, intervening before the quite literally flighty god would talk their ears off. "Apologies for intruding on Olympian territory. However, we seem to have inexplicably found the progeny of one of yours within the territory of Midgard. In a crater."

"One of ours, eh? Please don't tell me he's another of Dad's. Lady Hera will have his guts for garters, I can tell you that for free. And they say not to shoot the messenger nowadays but let me tell you, Lady Hera did not get the memo and as the messenger I do not want to be on the receiving end of that again–"

"No!" Rossweisse interrupted again, Atreus realising it might have been a necessity each time. "No. His name is Atreus, and he claims Kratos is his father."

"Kratos?" Hermes was an expressive man, his confusion from hearing that name was obvious and he made no attempt to hide it. "Wouldn't have thought him to be the type. I'll hear it from the lad's own mouth though. You say you're the son of Kratos, little man?"

"I am. Kratos is my father. Faye i– was my mother."

"Right then. I'll just pop on upstairs and pass the word up. You two feel free to have a sit down if the mood takes you. But don't get too comfortable! I'll be back in two ticks!" With a flash of golden light, the man vibrant in both looks and personality was gone.

"So what do we do now?"

Rossweisse gave him an understanding, somewhat patronising look. "We wait."

"Wait?" The boy frowned, not satisfied with the idea of just standing around. "Can I go look around this place a little? I've never seen–"

The valkyrie raised a single finger. "No. Just wait."

Five more seconds. And then with another flash the messenger god returned. "Hoo! Alright! Had a word, Lord Zeus says you're welcome to come on up if you can."

"That's it?" Rossweisse asked, concerned. "He wants me to just take him up?"

"Nope." The fleet-footed god gave a helpless but largely uncaring shrug. "Dad says if he's really a god and if he's really Kratos' son, he should be able to climb Olympus easy-peasy."

"You can't be serious! He's just a boy!"

"Olympus," Atreus repeated. "That's the mountain, right? I just have to climb up?"

"That's right, lad! Up Mytikas peak and beyond. Careful not to go up the wrong one, though! End up wasting a load of time that way!"

"Don't I know it," the boy muttered. "Is it always gonna be a mountain?" Looking at Hermes he nodded. "Alright. I'll go."

"Atreus." Once again the valkyrie stooped low to look him in the eye. "You don't need to do this. I can talk to Lord Odin. Maybe he would be willing to take you in."

"Not anymore!" Hermes interrupted. "Sorry, if he's saying he's one of ours then he's one of ours or he's no one's. If he tries to weasel out of it that means either he lied or he's trying to get out of family commitments! Dad wouldn't stand for that, wouldn't be happy with anyone who tried helping him either!" He remained unrepentant even under the glare of the warrior mage. "Hey, careful where you send those looks! Like I say, I'm just the messenger, telling you two what you need to know. Little lad's legend has gotta start somewhere."

"Rossweisse," Atreus said, putting a hand on her arm. "I promise, I got this." His eyes turned to Hermes. "This isn't the start of my legend anyway."

"I've never heard of you, but hey, the fates are a whole 'nother department. Look forward to seeing what you can do!"

-(-)-

Climbing another mountain. Climbing another stupid mountain. At least this one wasn't crawling with draugr and tatzelwurms and revenants and ogres and trolls and a dragon. Still. Another mountain.

At least it was a nicer trek too. Aside from the lack of monsters and dead. It was a mountain just full of life! Birds and goats and lizards and things! It was nice just to see all the different kinds of creatures he had never seen before. Plus there were actually other people out on the mountain. Not just Brok and Sindri popping up every now and again. The people, tourists as the hotel signage called them, they didn't do much more than look at him strangely. Didn't really want to talk to the strange boy with a bow and strange clothing. But that was fine too. It gave Atreus time with his thoughts.

Things were different here.

Odin not instantly leaping to kidnap him and wring his secrets out was the first clue. Not seeming to either know or do anything about the death of Baldur. And Freya...

He... He didn't want to think about Freya anymore.

Rossweisse. She was an oddity but not directly. Mother had told him stories of the valkyries. He knew there were more than just the nine he and Father had met. But then, a granddaughter of Gondul? Atreus wasn't aware they could have children. Did she have one while she was... He shuddered thinking about it. And then, if the valkyries had children, and they were working with Odin after what he did to them... None of it made sense. And what was that magic Rossweisse had used? Taking them from the middle of nowhere to a town in Greece, wherever that was? Mother told him no stories of it, that was for certain. The only two he had heard came from Father. The origin of Atreus' own name, and the very vague details of how he came to be in Midgard.

... Kratos was here. At the top of this mountain. Kratos. Not Father. His suspicions were rising that whoever this Kratos was, it was not the same one he journeyed with to the highest peak in the realms. His Father killed his own father. Probably some kind of important god, the only time Atreus had seen him he talked about the destruction Father had caused. The idea that everyone here, all of the gods here, would just be fine with that... It didn't add up. There was something very wrong here and though he was only getting small hints of it, putting them all together made for a very worrying picture.

But... It was the story he had told. And it lined up closely enough with the facts of whatever this place was that he could claim he was telling the truth. He was! Just... A different kind of truth.

To think, not so long ago he feared Father. Maybe hated him on some level. At least resented him. But now Atreus wished he was here. Maybe even that Mimir was here. For once it would be Father telling tales of his homeland. What Sparta was like. What the gods were like. They weren't here though. It was just Atreus, alone.

"Oooooo?"

"Huh?" The sound, it was familiar. A voice, but a voice that wasn't a voice. "Wait!" He searched through his pouches, looking for what he knew it had to be. Excitedly, he withdrew a small stone. One that had once been set in a ring. "Andvari!"

"Ooo! Oooo?"

"I can't believe it! I thought I was all alone here!" He had forgotten that Father got so irritated with the dwarf soul's warbling that he simply gave it to Atreus.

"Ooooo?"

"I don't know where we are," Atreus admitted. "I... The Realm Tear sucked me in, I hit something and then... I woke up looking at Odin."

"Ooo. Oo oooo. Ooooo."

"Not Odin?" But he was definitely a god. One going by the name of Odin. Either it really was Odin or the real Odin would be doing everything in his power to kill the impostor. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Ooo! Oo oooo oo. Ooooooooo!"

"The Realm Between Realms? That fits. We went through a Realm Tear after all. But how did we leave Midgard then come right back to Midgard?"

"Ooooooo..."

The Realm Between Realms... Emptiness... Then a really, really, really big dragon. "You think we found a new realm?"

"Oooo? Oooo ooo?"

"Yeah, it does look a lot like Midgard for a new realm." He sighed to himself, watching his breath come out in a puff of mist. The lush green forest having long turned to a white-frosted grey mountainside. "I don't think we're ever going to figure it out from here. But how would we even try going back out? I want to get back to Father, but it's a miracle we even got here in one piece."

"Ooo oo ooo."

The young god giggled. "Yeah. Also the dragon."

Well, at least he wasn't completely alone. And as much as he wanted to return to Father's side, he was a man. More than that. He was a god. Wishing for things to be different wouldn't help him. He had to stand on his own for now. Find his own way.

And on the subject of finding his own way, he took his final step to the peak of the mountain. "Okay, so.. This is the peak. Now what?"

"Oo-oo."

"Rhetorical question, but thanks." He looked around, down, all the way down. There was definitely no more up to go. Pursing his lips, he unslung his bow, pointed an arrow skyward. "Ljosta!" An arrow of light screamed skyward, piercing the clouds above.

... Nothing.

"Worth a shot."

A voice, a familiar voice whispered to him on the wind. "Try again."

"Hermes?" Atreus asked, seeing nor hearing anything more from the messenger god. And suddenly the words of the god came back to him. "Careful not to go up the wrong one though! End up wasting a load of time that way!"

"Rrrrgh..." the boy let out a grumbling sigh as he turned around, trying to pick out which of the multiple other peaks was probably the highest via eyesight alone, before beginning his descent to ascend his next choice. ""Och, Ah'm afrrreed yeh've come to the wrrrong pleece lettle brrotherrr," Atreus spoke in an imitation of Mimir's voice, complete with rolling Rs. "The hayest peek in oll the rrrealms is o'er thayarrre! No' he-yurrre!"

He was starting to get real sick of mountains.

Another unnecessarily long journey took him back down from one peak and up another. One that certainly looked taller. Not that it was easy to get perspective on that with a great gulf of emptiness between the peaks.

"Let's try this again." Once again he unslung his bow, not knowing why he expected it might work even if it were the right peak. But with nothing better to try... Another bolt of light struck the cloud cover, and as if in answer, a whole new world seemed to open up before him. Where before he stood on the Mytikas peak, the highest point in all of Greece, suddenly there was an entirely taller mountain laid out before and above him. Rising far, far further up into the clouds. The skies themselves shining with a strangely golden luminescence.

Unsure if what he was seeing was real, he took his first tentative step onto the land that had not been there before. Finding it solid and... Strangely comforting. "Okay," he spoke quietly, taking another step. "Now we're getting somewhere."

It was like stepping into another realm. Which really, it might have been. No bifrost or temple required. These Greeks just did things differently by having the gods' realm connected but hidden above the realm of men. This Mount Olympus that mortals would likely never see. These lush, unnaturally bright and colourful forests sitting above the snow-capped peak. It was beautiful, and touched some newly bitter memories of a forest like this.

And as those memories struck him, it was perhaps fair that when a great porcine beast confronted him seemingly out of nowhere... "Easy, big guy," Atreus tried to soothe the giant boar. "No need to look so angry. I'm just passing through, not looking to hurt you."

The beast snorted loudly, cloven hooves kicking at the ground as steam seemed to waft from its nostrils. Like its insides were hot enough to burn. Its eyes burned like hot coals, promising only pain and suffering. As did its size.

As did its intentions, passed to Atreus through his instinctive understanding of others. "Okay. You're looking to hurt me, got it. That's clear. But first," he spoke as he reached for his bow with one hand and his quiver with the other. "Just in case. You're not, like, the last of your kind, protected by a witch who it turns out is actually a god and is really good at holding grudges... Right?"

The boar let out what might have been a squealing battlecry if it were smaller. As it was, the sound it made as it charged was entirely appropriate to a monstrous beast of its size. Shaking the forest as its hooves pounded through the dirt toward its adversary. Not prey. It had no intention or care for food. Only to crush, to destroy any foes who may come before it.

"Okay, just checking! Ulfr Hlaup!" An arrow loosed from his bow, that then became a fierce pack of spectral wolves. Their bodies arcing with lightning as they simultaneously blinded the boar with the light of their existence and shocked it as the pack tried to tear into its thick, leathery hide. Enough that Atreus was able to evade the boar's now blind charge. "Accuracy over speed," he whispered to himself, standing on a tree branch. Another arrow drawn, loosed, drawn, loosed, drawn, loosed. Three shots.

It was all the time the great boar gave him before it reacted. Tossing its body, uncaring of the lightning wolves it smashed against to do it, it charged again, headlong into the tree. With a mighty slam it collided into the solid and ancient trunk, crushing the wood like it was kindling.

"Woah!" the boy yelped, leaping from the tree with nowhere to land but on the boar's back. The wolves were gone, leaving Atreus to fight alone.

Without need to care for the distraction, the boar knew what must have landed upon it. Not keen to give its quarry any time to regain his bearings, rolled to crush him under its bulk. However, the young god being spry and experienced, felt the movement and did what he needed to for the sake of staying on top, running, stepping lightly across the boar's back, then side, then underside. A great opportunity presented, Atreus leapt upward and fired again. And again. And again. And again. Four blasts of explosive light striking the beast's soft underbelly brought pained whines and moans from the beast's throat. The monster awkwardly trying to continue its roll despite the pain but with great difficulty.

Atreus panted for breath, but knew he didn't have a moment to rest. If he gave it time, the boar would rally. Rise again as fierce as before. Moving around to the beast's front, he looked sombrely at his foe. "I don't know why you were so angry but... You were really strong." Pulling out his knife, he jammed it into the boar's throat and pulled downward. "I'm sorry."

Letting out another furious snort, the glowing eyes of the Calydonian Boar dimmed to a bleak, empty darkness.

-(-)-

"You're curious."

"I'm not curious."

"You are. I've seen you like this before."

"Mild annoyance at someone stealing the target of our hunt? Probably."

"And yet you didn't slay the beast yourself. You just watched as it stalked him and then watched the entirety of his struggle."

"I planned to watch him fall to his hubris, that's all."

"Oh yes, all ready to laugh at his unfortunate demise. You only had your bow trained on the beast the entire time so you could swiftly kill it once the deed was done. So you could laugh maniacally at such foolish hubris to your heart's content! A-ahahahaha!"

"Okay. First? Shut up. Second? Shut up. I wasn't curious."

"Oh, but you are now. Look at how he felled that boar. You could… Exchange archery tips or something."

"I'm sorry Callisto, but it sounded like you just insinuated I need advice in the way of the bow."

"Ah… Fine. Then how about you come up with your own excuse for you to go and talk to him like you so clearly want to, and save me the trouble."

"... I don't need an excuse Callisto," the goddess of the hunt declared, standing tall and proud, her expression a pronounced and severe frown. "Whoever he is, he is trespassing on Mount Olympus and more importantly in my hunting grounds. Therefore it is my duty to go down there and question him to determine his intentions!" The green-haired goddess hopped down from the ledge she had perched upon, ready to confront the stranger.

Meanwhile, still on the ledge, her redheaded companion sighed. "You're such a tsun."

"You better hope I don't bother to learn what that word means!"

-(-)-

A/N: This chapter seen early by my generous supporters on THE GREAT FORBIDDEN P! Fear the P! Love the P!