Dreams

Chapter 9



The ride to Sparta took a week, but we stopped at night to camp and rest. Artemis and Athena would show up every few days to see how things were going and to just spend some time with us.

As we approached the patrolled walls of Sparta, you could here the marching of the troops. Raine was here to talk to Pyranteus about making peace with Thebes. I know I wouldn’t want to be the one having to do that. Spartans aren’t known for their peacefulness. We approached the gates, and they opened as soon as we reached the entrance. Making our way through the town, we see some of the Spartan soldiers practicing the phalanx formation with their spears. Weaving through the soldiers, we made our way to the leading commander shouting out orders and correcting mistakes.

“Pyranteus, I’m Athena’s consort. I’d like to speak with you about the war you are about to start.”

“Athena does not rule here. Aries is our god. You come to speak of peace, do you not?”

“Yes, we come to talk of peace.”

“We are Spartans, and we will fight for what we believe in. What do we say to that Sparta!?” Raine and I give each other an odd look.

The soldiers start banging their spears on their shields with each uttered yell, “Aooo!!! Aooo!!! Aooo!!!” I give Raine a look that says, ‘good-luck’.

“Pyranteus, look at the facts here. The only thing Thebes did was slightly insult you. Why take your men to war and shed blood over something so little.”

“By insulting me, they insulted Sparta.”

“So, you are going to have some of your men die for that. What happens if something more urgent comes along and you have your warriors off on this stupid fight?”

“We… We will…” He lets out a sigh. “I’ll tell you what, if you can beat one of my best warriors in combat I will call off the war.” Raine looks at me.

“Would you care to do the honors Faith?” I look from her back to the Spartan king.

“I’ll fight your best warrior. If I win you will call off this pitiful war.” I say to Pyranteus.

He smirks at me, “You think that you can defeat one of my men. So be it. Protus, come here and bring your sword. You others, form a circle with your shields. That will be our fighting ring.” The soldiers line up forming a wall with their shields. Protus stands within the circle awaiting my presence with his shield and sword. I stand atop my horse and jump into the ring. I draw my swords.

“We will start on your word King Pyranteus.” Both Protus and I stand in our fighting stances.

“Begin.” Pyranteus takes his seat, and Protus begins circling me. I take this time to look him over and look for a hole in his defense. He is a large muscular man, but there are no holes in his defenses. I’m going to have to get around his shield someway. The Spartans use their shields as offensive weapons to, which is why there is a metal point located in the middle of them. Out of nowhere, he rushes at me. His sword slams down towards my head, but I block. He swings his shield around at me and hits me in the stomach. There is no way that I can block his huge shield with my other sword. I double over, but recover quickly seeing that he is about to take a chunk out of me with his sword. I slide between his legs as he comes towards me. He quickly turns around, but as he is turning I take and slice the strap holding his shield in place on his left arm. We both watch the shield fall to the ground. He rushes at me once again. I block his sword with both of mine. Then I wrap around and elbow him in the stomach. My swords still keeping his sword from reaching me.

The Spartan soldiers surrounding us are making a ruckus. They yell out for their favored victor, which is, of course, the Spartan that I am fighting. Standing against the tall Spartan and blocking his sword gives me an idea. If he lets up on the sword, he knows I will be able to knock it out of his hands. He can’t kick out at me with his feet because I am to close to his body. If I can take out his Achilles’ tendon, this fight will be over. I hate to wound a good soldier like that, but he’s in this to kill me. You can tell because it’s a bloodlust look that some warriors get in their eyes. They are just out for blood.

I, unexpectedly, drop to the ground. I quickly take my two swords and bring them behind my head and through his large legs. I swipe at his heels. My blades taking out one of his Achilles’ tendons. I roll out of the way to avoid his body collapsing to the ground and squishing me. Pyranteus stands up from where he was sitting and watching the fight. His hands turning into fists. Protus is laying on the ground holding the back of his heel to stop the bleeding. He can not stand up because of the tendon I sliced.

Raine looks up at Pyranteus on his perch. “Call the fight. You know that it’s over.” He looks at Raine and gives her a glare. Pyranteus raises his hand into the air and then lowered it in defeat. The soldiers making the ring ran over to their fallen comrade. Picking him up and taking him somewhere to be taken care of.

“You didn’t have to do that to him warrior of Artemis. You took a good soldier away from me today.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice considering he was coming at me with bloodlust in his eyes. I will not be killed if I can help it.” I say to him.

“So, you will keep your end of the bargain?” Raine asks.

“I have no choice. I will not go against our bargain. There will be no war with Thebes. You are welcome to stay or go as you please. I have some matters to attend to know. Goodbye.”

He walks away from us and most of the soldiers had dispersed by that point. “Well, thanks to you that went pretty smoothly. I was afraid we were going to have to do a lot worse to stop the war they were planning against Thebes.” Raine sits atop her horse and watches as I climb up to mine.

“Yeah, it was the least I could do. It had to get done. We don’t want Athena mad at you.” As I climb up a wince graces my face. Protus must have got me better than I thought he had. That shield did hit me pretty hard. I slump over in my saddle and lay my head against Kira’s neck.

“Are you alright Faith?”

“Yeah, for now. I want you to check my ribs for breaks when we make camp. I don’t think we should stay here tonight. I’m sure we made a few enemies by taking away their war from them.”

“Alright, I’ll do that. You’re right about that. We probably shouldn’t stay here tonight.”

We get out of Sparta quickly. Even though Pyranteus would keep his promise, it doesn’t meant that some of his other soldiers were happy with the outcome. Our horses make their way quickly down the trail. Kira is a very smooth ride, but by that point I knew I had broken something. Every jar in his step, I felt a pain on my front right side. We continued on for a few more hours. When we found a stream and a suitable spot for camping we took it. I took off my horse’s saddle and reins and hopped off of him and leaned back against a tree. I slide down the trunk until I am in a sitting position. Raine comes over and carefully feels around my torso. I wince at her touch when she touches a few ribs on my right side.

“You have some broken ones… One might be shattered. I can’t really do much for your broken ribs except call Artemis and Athena down here.”

“Do whatever you think best.” I close my eyes and rest against the trunk of the tree. In a few minutes, I feel hands feeling and touching me everywhere. I open my eyes and see Artemis telling Raine to tell her everything that had happened. Athena is standing over to the side watching the exchange. Raine explains the situation to Artemis. The next thing I know, she is yelling at me for doing something stupid like that. She picks me up gently and cradles me in her arms. “You can find that silver fox later, in a week or so. Right now you are coming home with me so I can take care of you. Athena, you should go ahead and bring Raine back up too. We’ll send them both back down in about a weeks time.”

“Alright Artemis. You take Faith, and I will make sure the horses and Raine get back.”

“Thank you sister.” Artemis vanishes, and we reappear in her bedroom. She strips off my clothes and winces at the shattered rib she feels.

“I don’t have time to wait for your human healing to fix you this time.” Her hands hover over the area and I feel a warmth coming out of them. Then it turns to extreme heat. The next thing I know all I am seeing is black.





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Sorry about the lapse of time. i had to take care of a few things with my girlie.



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Exile- i was planning on puttin it in there from the beginning. i was glad you thought about it and brought it up though. lol

Fogu-s_Tofu- glad you're liking it.

animereader1- thanks. hope you'll keep reading it as i update. i totally loved the movie 300. It's one of the best.