KING OF BEASTS (Hiatus)

A little after lunch Ares retired to his tent, followed by Lana and Rori. Runar was still nestled against Ares' chest, steadily snoozing as her breath tickled his clothes, turning her head this way and that as she tried to make herself comfortable.

"What was it you wanted to speak about?" Ares asked, his voice a hushed whisper as to not disturb his sleeping daughter.

"You have left Rivea in my care a fair number of times now, and during those times I have held a great many discussions with various members of Rivea.”

Ares remained silent, his eyes narrowed slightly suspicious. That never boded well for someone like Ares.

“Oftentimes, you would be the topic of discussion.” Rori stared at Ares, long and hard with that statuesque gaze of his.

Ares nodded his head slowly. He was uncertain of where Rori was going with this, and so allowed the bearman to continue.

"We have discussed the ideas that you have mentioned, about how Rivea should progress, as well as the army, and the matters of powers that you possess, your own as well as those by extension of Rivea."

Oh, he was being dethroned. Ares kept his brows together, trying to not reveal the surprise.

"I would like to speak with you of such worries that we have had,” Rori said, “as well as to discuss with you Rivea and the future.” Rori remained still, waiting further confirmation from Ares first.

Ares' heart thundered within his chest. His brow raised an army of sweat that soon marched down his face, his hands became clammy. He could feel his breath tighten within his lungs. Runar shifted her head to become comfortable, bringing Ares out from his panicking stupor.

"Right," Ares said with a nod of his head, his eyes daring not to leave Rori's.

"In the matter of the elite soldiers, those of the phoenix guard and such, I would ask that we reconstitute them once more."

'What?' Ares thought. Was Rori going to install new guards to keep an eye on Ares?

"You noted a uniform for Rivea and her people, clothing that would mark us as Rivean. I would like to speak of that as well, if you would, but I had a thought of using such a uniform and imposing such a uniform onto our elite soldiers, as you have already done, but taking it a step further and adding colour. We would rename the various guard after colours, the colours of which would be closely linked with their duties, and would be an instant signifier to the people of the role of such a guard."

Ares remained silent. He still had very little idea of what Rori was exactly talking about. Though from what he could tell, he wasn’t being dethroned, yet.

"You want to… rename and re-equip the guard?" Ares asked, narrowing his eyes further.

"Yes."

“Right…”

"I would like to discuss a standard uniform that would be almost identical throughout the ranks, save for some minor decorations between the various ranks, and perhaps minor alterations between those of different colours as well, though would prefer if they were all identical outside of rank." Rori's face remained stone faced throughout.

"What designs did you have in mind?"

"That was a question that I would impose to you," Rori said. "We know some small details about the humans and how they work with flags, and Rivea has yet to have a flag. The colours of which would be important as it would signify our national identity."

"So you want to talk about a flag first?” Ares said. That was actually a good point, and he had been daydreaming of such things for a while. There had been so much going on that he wasn’t really able to make much progress on it. “What colour dyes do we have access to?"

"For dyes we have access to red, blue, yellow and orange.”

"What about greys and blacks?" Ares asked. Those were the colours he was most excited about. "Purple?"

"Greys and blacks we could have access too, though they require a little more effort. Purple is rare, though if we can raise sylwyrms, we could procure a stable source of it. We could use the scales of drakes to dye our clothes as well, though the use of such items in making armour is far more important."

"You're right, of course…" Ares nodded. "Then our flag will be white with a blue circle in the middle. We are but a nation, a singular blue dot that implies our unity, and white because that's what the material will probably start off as, but we'll say it's something about…" Ares stopped. "White and blue, to denote our master of the skies and seas.” Ares puffed out his chest. He was rather proud of that, even if he did steal the design of the flag from one of the most powerful and prosperous nations from his own world, just changing the colour of it.

Rori had made to speak, but paused when he saw Ares fall into thought. Rivea, being a fairly new nation still, and what with it’s military victories so far, and the need to expand into the further regions.

“We need a war flag too,” Ares said. “Either we invert the colour scheme, or we keep the colour scheme but change the circle to a pair of crossed sword.”

Rori nodded. “That sounds reasonable, if it pleases you.”

“So white and blue for the national colours of Rivea,” Ares said.

"Then the elite guard should be white, as the colour of white is much easier to produce and will stand out well. Those with more particular tasks, such as those tasked with the protection of the King or the Consul, they may have different colours."

"What of red for Ares?" Lana asked. "To remind him that he bleeds too much for his people."

Her words were of course a cheeky quip, but Ares noted the point she made. "The red guard shall be my warriors then, and what about yellow for the Consul? Your wisdom is like the sun, to the might of the sea."

"If it would please you so. I believe that the royal family, outside the ruler, should have a guard as well. In this manner, I would like to ask, we currently have you as the supreme monarch. There are some tribes where the oldest woman inherits the tribe, and I have heard that you intend to make Runar your heir. Is it your intention that your oldest child should rule?"

"Runar is my heir, though…" Ares thought. "I think that the most suited for the job should rule. Runar is my oldest, my first child, and I have named her my heir for now. Such a thing may change, and indeed, maybe I shouldn't call her my heir yet."

"There is also a question of the length of your rule," Rori said.

"I intend to rule as long as I am needed," Ares said. "And…" Ares whispered quieter. "My plan is to give the title away as quickly as I can.” Ares chuckled. “I would hope that I rule only for two decades. Twenty years per King or Queen, about a generation. Or maybe twenty five years, four rulers over a century? I still haven't decided the final status of such a thing, and even now, I'm not sure whether I want to be the supreme ruler, or if I should also give more power to my wife, or rather, wives…" Ares’ eyes darted to Lana quickly, who was brushing Runar’s hair gently.

"We will need to speak on the matter of your future wives once you are healed,” Rori said.

Ares frowned. "Yes, I'm sure…" He sighed. "Anyway, back to colours. Red for the ruler, yellow for the Consul, blue for the royal family?"

"What of the officials?"

"That's a good idea. Grey? Oh, actually… should I have yellow?" Ares asked. "Yellow would match my flames."

Lana almost laughed. She held her hand up to her face and then snorted into it. "You have the queerest of thoughts. Yellow, for your flames."

Ares couldn't help but smile in return. Even now Lana found ways of making him fall for her further. A terrifying woman indeed.

"Actually…" Ares thought. "We will use the white guards to look after the officials, as part of the general duties. Grey guards should be used to assist and escort beings like King Abdan and other foreigners and people of interest that aren't Rivean. If we need more colours, then we'll combine colours. Plus you mentioned orange, so maybe we could use orange as something else?"

"As long as the colour's duty remains consistent," Rori said.

"We'll gather as many elite warriors as we can. Those of the white guard need to be trained well, and each warrior should have a basic training regiment and minimum level of ability."

"We may carry the training with the guard, though there is a matter of equipment. I suggest the breastplate, helmet, shield, spear, and sword to be standard across all."

"What about the colour? Will the colour come from their capes?"

"It would be the easiest way to denote their colour, though their shields could also possess the colour."

"What if the shield had the flag of Rivea? So every single warrior would have the flag with them at all times."

"That may be useful for morale as well, to have a constant reminder of the reasons they fight," Rori said.

"How many elite warriors do we need?"

"Before we speak of the matter of the amount," Rori stared straight into Ares' eyes, "I would like to speak of certain duties. It is of our opinion that the elite guards, the yellow guard in your case, should be with you at all times."

"All times?" Ares asked. "Even if I want to go to the bathroom?"

"Yes."

"What about my nightly business with the Queen?"

"What nightly business?" Lana asked as she took Runar from Ares' arms, noting how the girl was waking up. "There is no nightly business due to a certain matter of the King almost dying."

"I can still get it up," Ares said, offended by her statement.

"It would do no good for you to die due to your lust," Lana snapped. She smirked. “I would hate to tell our children how their father died.”

"They would stand outside the tent, as usual," Rori remarked as he stared at Ares with his stone face.

"Isn't that the same as before?"

"It is, though from now one they will go with you on any expeditions. At least ten of them, though that will be discussed depending on the needs and wants of such an expedition."

"Ah," Ares said. "So basically I'll have someone babying me at all times." Ares was uncertain how he felt by that. He liked the expeditions and how casual they were, these guards would change the atmosphere.

"Someone to stop you from being cursed and almost dying," Lana replied back as she slapped him across his tricep.

"I guess you do bring up a good point," Ares said as he rubbed his arm.

"The same will be required of myself, Lana, and the children. They will be protected even when they are adults. It is to protect us, even if it does mean our freedom is limited.”

"No, no, I understand…" This was common, after all, even in the countries that boasted the most freedom, their leader would travel with guards at all times. Rulers and officials had responsibilities, and some would know of certain secrets that could cause much grief to the country if they were captured.

"So, what numbers are we thinking?" Ares asked. "A minimum of ten per squad, I assume? Every single unit should be at least ten, and should only increase by ten at a time, to keep it simple."

"Ten for each of us, more for the royal family as Lana and your three children would need to be protected. Sometimes they are separate, so a minimum of forty."

"It'll be fifty soon enough, so why not call that fifty?" Ares said noting the bump that was forming around Lana’s stomach. He hadn’t thought much about it, but the dread would seep in to him now, like a fever.

"That is seventy so far. Then there is the matter of the grey, as Abdan and his people are numerous."

"Twenty, for now, to match us." Ares was unsure of the number though. Abdan and his people were numerous, even if the King did have about a hundred of his own guard.

"Let us aim for a minimum of a hundred white guards at the very least," Rori said. "They should be the most numerous, as they will sometimes be called to fill in if we do not have enough of the specific colour."

"That's a good idea," Ares nodded. "Then, I suppose, I would prefer to increase the number of yellow and red guard. Some of them have done right by me, and I'm hoping to remain close with them still, or perhaps at the very least they should be considered to take the blue first."

"I will bring such a matter to their attention," Rori said. "First let us change everyone to white, and then we will introduce the other colours separately, to remove any stigma to the colours."

Ares' eyes lit up. "That's genius.” Ares then brushed his chin. “Of course every white guard should be Rivean,” he said. “Or, well, what if the white guard were those that were being trained to become coloured guards? They would be the first step.”

"I would not like to separate the rank of the white guard to the other colours. When a white guard steps into the role of a yellow guard, it is just that their duties have decreased and narrowed in focused, and when they return to being a white guard, the level of respect shouldn't change."

"No, that's a good point too. Though… how about we have a black guard, and they are the ones that are actually the elites, and can switch between colours? White guards could be those in training to be black guards, or the other colours. Since it requires effort dying, it could signal that once your white cloak has been dyed, you have been accepted to the next level?" Ares mused aloud. “It could be a ritual that they dye their cloaks and accept their new responsibility.”

Rori nodded.

"Should we first change all those currently on duty to becoming white?" Lana asked as she began to feed Runar.

"Yes, let's do that first. We'll have them be in training for about three months, and then once they're done and promoted, we could potentially have a larger pool with all those that will soon be joining Rivea."

"Heria should return by the end of the month with the surrounding villagers," Rori said.

"How many people do you think will join?"

"I believe Rivea will hold at least fifteen thousand people."

"Damn, that's a lot… won't that be the highest number so far?" Ares said as his eyebrows raised up in surprise.

"It will," Rori nodded. "That is not including the southern folk, which you said you'd be conquering soon?"

"Well, first I'll need to head east. Xan told me of a place with a demigod that could heal my wounds."

"Perhaps you should leave soon, then?" Rori asked. "Then when you return you will see how integrated the people will be."

"I want to stay here for now," Ares said as his eyes remained glued to Rori, feeling a deathly glare from his side. "My wife had missed me so."

"If he leaves again so quickly, he'll die. First a curse, and now inches away from death. The third galvanting expedition will be death." Lana reached up to slap Ares' arm again. Runar noticed and then held up her hand to try and hit Ares, but she was too far away and so returned back to sleepily drinking.

Ares couldn’t help but think perhaps Lana was having too much fun bullying him. He wondered if he should say something, though realised it wouldn’t be quite so fun if she’d stop.

"Anyway… what else did you want to talk about?"

"We will need to create various titles for the soldiers and their ranks. Some are hard to pronounce. I would also wish to speak to you about the Legates and how long you wish for them to be in charge of representing their people."

"Oh, yeah.” Ares cocked his head aside to think. “We'll make it five years at a time. We'll take one from each race first, and then also a person that gets the most votes from the burroughs we create. How quickly can the builders create one of the miniblocs we discussed?"

"They had estimated about a month per minibloc, if it is what I believe you are speaking of, as they are still creating new buildings to accommodate the Riveans already here, as well as the coliseum."

"That's fine. Have a separate team work on a minibloc and have them focus solely on creating them. I want them to master creating the blocs so that they will be able to create one as quickly as they can, all safety of course. Each one should accommodate about a hundred people, though if they really can only make one per month then…"

"We can create more if you are willing to level the earth and provide them with the materials already worked through your power. Then they will be able to create such blocs over a matter of a week. I suggest we pause the coliseum and create these blocs. We still have those various villages you had created earlier, we can re-purpose those to become a handful of blocks."

"Oh," Ares said with a nod, "that’s a good idea."

“Returning back to the officials, I believe you should become familiar with each of them.”

Ares remained silent for a moment and looked up to think. His stomach panged with pain before he returned his gaze back to Rori. “When it comes to official stuff, that’s the role for the Consul. If we ever want to pass an edict or a law, then it should be brought to me and we’ll see if we should implement it, but when it comes to dealing with issues, that is in the domain of the Consul. Anything where people need issues fixed, that’s all you, and you can just tell me what you have implemented, that’s all.”

Rori nodded his head. “I think we should leave that there for now. I will instruct the crafters with the task. Shall I inform the smiths you will see them about the design of the armour and equipment?”

“Yeah, I’ll do it tomorrow morning, just let them know about the general ideas. I’ll think about the titles of the army and the guards.”

“Very well,” Rori said, turning to Lana. “Is there anything pressing we should speak of?”

Lana shrugged. “You men have such boring talks, about colours of capes and weapons, and buildings.” She brushed Runar’s hair.

Ares smiled.

“Then I will leave the pair of you, as well as you, little Princess.” Rori poked Runar’s nose, who grabbed onto his finger and then bit it. He left after she had let go and returned back to her meal.

Ares lay down onto his blanket and then looked up at Lana. “What a tiring day it has been,” he said. “Drakes, politics…”

“You are equally as tiring,” Lana said.

Ares rolled his eyes and then reached up to poke Runar’s nose. “I’m not tiring am I?” Ares asked.

Runar bit his finger.

“This is the greatest betrayal.”

Runar stared into his eyes.