KING OF BEASTS (Hiatus)

The day had passed by uneventful for the buffalofolk so far away had been chatting away about Ares’ offer and Orazuta had taken to introducing himself to the group. He seemed like a polite enough fellow, though Ares wasn’t sure if Orazuta would act up soon. He seemed to be the kind of guy that loved to get himself into trouble and then Ares caught Torak’s face, who looked ever so tired already.

 

“What’s the matter?” Ares asked.

 

“I have found that the children within this group had expanded to two,” Torak said.

 

Ares pulled back. He hadn’t expected Torak to be quite so rude. His eyes flashed to Ezak for a moment before he looked back to Torak. “Ezak is a proud member of the Elegant Eight, you shouldn’t speak so ill of him. He’s man grown from his tribe, and therefore he is man grown within Rivea.”

 

“Ezak is capable enough to look after himself, it is not he I am worried about,” Torak said as he stared into Ares’ eyes.

 

Ares glanced about to see who else he could mean. It was definitely not Jiaga, for he was a human and yet he was rather mature. It couldn’t be Zika either, she was… well, she was Zika. Then there was Orndu, but he was a fine enough warrior and someone Ares could place his faith in. Then there was Beo-

 

“It’s you,” Torak finally states, exasperated. “You are the child!” Torak poked Ares’ chest with his finger.

 

Ares opened his mouth with a gasp, staring into Torak’s questioning gaze. “Me?!” Ares exclaimed aloud, enough to warrant the attention of the others about. “I am no child! You don’t have to look after me!” Ares turned to his allies. “Orndu, what do you say?”

 

Orndu bowed his head. “You are no child, you are King Ares.”

 

“See?”

 

“He is just saying that because he is one of yours,” Torak said.

 

“Zika, what do you think?”

 

“You are a great warrior,” replied the Reptai, “one who I will follow into battle.”

 

“See?”

 

“That does not mean you aren’t a child,” Torak said.

 

Ares looked to Ezak with great hope. “Ezak, you don’t believe for me to be a child, right?”

 

Ezak’s head darted up. He stared at Ares for a moment before slowly bringing up the ladle to his lips and sipped on it long and slow, the noise of the slurping quite loud as he slurped as slowly as he possibly could.

 

“Ezak, come on…” Ares said before he turned to look at Torak. He tried to fight back against such an assertion and then he looked back to Orazuta. The similarities were blinding and Ares relented, his shoulder stooping as he crossed his arms.

 

“You have been awake for too long,” Torak said. “Sleep, we will watch over the camp.”

 

Ares sighed as he finished up creating the last layer of the camp, creating a wall much further away as he had when he first met the buffalofolk. Ares yawned before a wave flowed through him. He was missing something. What had he forgotten? He supposed it didn’t matter if he didn’t think of it.

 

Then Ares created his tent and fell asleep inside of it, welcoming the black void of slumber.

 

He awoke soon after, his power nap had filled him with great vigor. He stepped out into the now evening air and looked about to see his party talking amongst one another.

 

Beor and Orazuta were speaking with one another with great ease, as though they had been friends forever. Torak was keeping watch casually, throwing a look to Ares before nodding his head in a greeting.

 

“Morning,” Ares said. “Everything alright?”

 

“There has been nothing to report,” Torak replied calmly.

 

“Good, good… did everyone eat?” Torak nodded and then Ares smiled wide. “There’s some for me, right?” Ares laughed and then poured himself some food, warming the bowl over the coals to warm up the remainder of the food.

 

It was filled mostly with vegetables and a little bit of meat, the vegetables had been gifted by the buffalofolk and it seemed as though they were fine. The buffalofolk seemed to be quite seriously thinking over Ares offer, or at the very least they were planning his death quite in depth. He felt as though they could beat the buffafolk even in their state, though realised he could not see Orndu.

 

“Where’s Orndu?” Ares asked.

 

“He sleeps soundly,” Torak said, “though it had taken me much effort.”

 

“Oh yeah? Why is that?”

 

“He did not wish to sleep as you slumbered, but I convinced him to do so eventually.”

 

“Well he was looking pretty rough… was he alright?”

 

Torak nodded his head. “He just needed some sleep, he will be fine. He had been feral for too long, but that should heal with enough rest.”

 

“He was quite the monster, wasn’t he?”

 

“Indeed he was, but one of many within Rivea.”

 

Ares wondered who was more powerful, Orndu or Gantal. The pair were strong, and though Gantal had much experience as she was slightly older and had the first experience of being one of the Riveans that had been against the humans when they had been outnumbered during the fight alongside the oxfolk.

 

The same oxfolk who then eventually betrayed Ares, though he supposed Morak had not truly betrayed him, he hadn’t seen the boy during the war. He wondered how he’d speak with Morak next they spoke, he wanted to know why Morak had left after all. He snapped out of his thought and then nodded.

 

“Well that’s good then,” he said as the buffalofolk appeared, led by Boranran and Lailina as well as a couple of the other mountainous buffalofolk.

 

“We have spoken of your offer and we would like to accept, though we wish that you would consider for us to be a part of the army.”

 

“It’s good that you’ve accepted,” Ares smiled towards the buffalofolk. “You will need to speak with the Consul, he is the other half of Rivea. His authority is the same as mine, and you will need to respect it as much.” Ares raised a hand and then summoned a block, the same kind of block he had given to the rhinofolk.

 

“Take this and show it to the soldiers. Rori-kin will need to see it, but he’ll understand what it means. If any of you cause trouble, Rivea will deal with you. Do not think I have brought my strongest with me, for there are quite a few that would be able to handle Orndu as easily as he had dealt with Uta.”

 

The buffalofolk nodded, throwing a look to Orndu and then back to Ares. Ares had established that he had been telling the truth, or at least he did as much as he could to the point that they just believed what he said. Ares was a powerful fellow with powerful followers and soon these buffalofolk would be given access to such power.

 

With that the buffalofolk left, offering Ares some vegetables and such to take with him on his journey. Not wishing to offend them, since they were showing him some respect, Ares accepted the vegetables with thanks and then shifted them away.

 

The sun was setting as the buffalofolk made way to pack up. Ares turned to his fellows and then smiled.

 

“We will sleep peacefully for now and tomorrow we will continue our journey. Allow Orndu his rest, we will take shifts soon. Uta, you will take shifts with Zika, the rest will continue as normal.”

 

Ares trusted Zika enough to keep Uta in check, for she was perhaps the second most powerful being here. Ares did throw Torak a look with a thought in mind.

 

How strong was Torak?

 

Torak hadn’t shown much of his strength, but being a former Horn, he supposed Torak was strong. Didn’t Torak also train with the Riveans when he could? His experience would give him quite the edge, and Ares was sure Torak was the type that took training seriously, for he was responsible with perhaps an even heavier task than Ares, the defence of his children.

 

“What is the matter?” Torak asked as he noticed Ares look over towards him.

 

“Oh, nothing…” Ares said as he continued to eye Torak up.

 

Torak furrowed his brows and then crossed his arms. Eventually Ares looked up to Torak’s quizzical eyes.

 

“Torak, have you been training too?”

 

Torak nodded.

 

“You’re jacked,” Ares said as he continued to eye up those muscles. Ares followed the contours of his muscles, the way they flexed slightly as Torak moved his arms, even when the oxman breathed, Ares couldn’t help but watch.

 

Then Ares’ eyes fell to Uta who was pretty ripped too. He had fairly low body fat too, Ares wondered how he had become so big considering that Uta probably didn’t have a training regime… unless he did?

 

“Don’t you have Lana?” Torak asked.

 

“Lana?” Ares asked as he threw a look back to Torak. “Right?”

 

“Are you sure you want to eye others.”

 

Ares reeled back and then the realisation came to him. “Oh! Oooooh! Hold on, wait a second, just a moment,” Ares continued to stumble, “that’s not what I’m doing.”

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“I’m just admiring your physique,” Ares said. “It’s a very normal thing to do.”

 

“My physique? Not my horns?” Torak asked, a little confused.

 

“No, why would I look at your horns?”

 

Torak raised a brow, the offence on his face quite obvious. “They are mighty horns.”

 

“Right, yeah, but I don’t have horns…”

 

Torak paused for a long moment. “I see.” He nodded in understanding. “To you humans the body is the same as the horn.”

 

“Something like that.”

 

Torak nodded and then smiled. “So it is not the other way?”

 

“Look Torak, that’s not my thing. I don’t mind if you’re into that sort of thing, but that’s not the way I roll, I’ve told this to Rivee too.”

 

Torak raised his brow questioningly but dropped the matter.

 

“Anyway I’m going to leave you guys to it.”

 

“We will not judge your love,” Torak said. “I understand in your human cultures that it is usually one man and one woman, but we are not used to such matters.”

 

“I’m not at all comfortable to talk about this so I’ll just head to sleep.” Ares threw a casual salute from his home world and then left to his tent.