The Children // ASSASSINS CREED ODYSSEY // DEIMOS

C28: The Bounty

The Champion had crossed over to Messenia just moments before he had decided to turn back around.

The party of Athenian soldiers he'd come across, no matter how much fearful admiration they had for him, was just making him all the more pissed. Their words were so mindless, so babbled, all it did was annoy him more.

Deimos had ridden on, swinging his horse around once he was out of sight and taking a lesser path back. He had glimpsed the Athenians through the trees as he passed them by. On foot, they were slow. If things went  to plan, he'd make it to the Athenian camp before they did. No one would none the wiser and, his life would be all that little less chaotic.

Because, he had no choice, not any more, he had to do this.

All he'd been able to think about since leaving Exekias at the fort was that he would never be able to find the 'peace' he needed to live his destiny, if he was never sure that Exekias got the job done. What if, like before, they did only half, leaving her to wait in the shadows, ready to strike again. The cult had almost - almost - destroyed her multiple time already but, they hadn't been able too. Perhaps they never would, not really.

But he could. Deimos could.

The world, the people, Deimos did not see the point in her fighting for them - he could not see that anything would ever change what would be... the damage had already done... the betrayal of a life lost... the want for a different one... how could it ever be different... after everything that had happened...

He did not think he wanted it. He did not need it. He had everything he wanted, right there, ready to take it but...

Eos was in his way. She had always been in his way and... he'd never even seen it... he hadn't wanted to.

That chaos she held inside of her, it might have killed her eventually but, he could make it quick, painless.

She deserved that at least. Not the pathetic mercy of a mercenary.

And, despite where the outcome may lead, perhaps it was time for one of her pursuers to pay off a debt they'd been avoiding.

*

Eos had not meant for it to happen.

She'd tried her luck and, she had tripped.

Falling atop a sleeping cultist guard with their extravagant armour and masks hurt enough without tearing open the small wound on her leg. Although she had managed to kill them with her dagger, the others converged like crows to a corpse and, after taking out another who'd ran in to the pitch black of the room, Eos had no choice but to run herself.

If she had learned anything in her time away from the cult - because it was definitely not seeing in the dark or a lessened dependency on the lycaon - it was that running from people who were trying to kill you, was a lot different from running from people she cared about and, she'd accepted that.

And, she didn't want to take her chances, not in her state, not with Laelaps in his. She hadn't slept properly in over a week and, the adrenalin that would course through her veins felt as if it wavered with every moment.

Finally loosing her masked assailants, Eos had doubled back to the abandoned farmhouse.

Laelaps was better, much better but, Eos had noticed that far away look in his eye, the way he would still shudder in his sleep. Some times, it was so bad, he would not move for hours afterwards, awake but, not really awake.

And, she could do nothing but watch. She would never know what it felt like, would never know if the shudders he felt was from the pain or a terrible dream. To have been so close with the Gods, to be literally at the end of their hand. Was there something far worse troubling him than the aches in his feet, the burning sensation in his back.