The next day was tense. Many of his soldiers were on edge, both to make sure the humans didn’t start anything, but also to not get on the bad side of their King.

Ares was still in a mood from the day before. He hadn’t expected his soldiers to react so unclear, so illogical, and yet he couldn’t blame them. In fact, he probably should have anticipated such a thing. Something like this was easy to figure out, people reacted weirdly to a number of things, and the stress of having five hundred humans, who looked the same as those that had killed their family and friends, well… perhaps he was being a little too harsh on his soldiers.

Ares sighed and Lana placed a hand onto his shoulder, squeezing it.

“I have warned you about thinking so much.” She said.

Ares sighed and nodded and then looked up at her. “You need a new catch phrase…”

Lana furrowed her brows in confusion, no doubt the term was new to her. Ares just shook his head and then chuckled lightly before he rubbed the back of his neck.

“One day thinking too hard will kill you.”

“That’s fine by me.” Ares laughed and then shook his head as they continued on.

The next day had passed by uneventfully, and on the third noon they had finally reached Rivea. The Roaring Tridents had waited at the entrance of the city for him, seemingly having their empty spots filled. Oron, a tall and strong oxfolk with long black hair that was braided down in front of him, was the Captain now. He and his Squad saluted their King and Ares returned a nod.

“These are the Roaring Tridents, an elite unit similar to your Hundred. Though I guess my other unit is much closer to the Hundred, but it’s best to think of them as such for now.”

Abdan nodded and then eyed the soldiers up before Ares led them onward as he explained the general sections of Rivea and also the daily routine. He then made his way around to where he had expected their accommodation to be. Ares had been away for a few days, but it seemed that Rivea had changed quite a bit. An entire new village had formed, even with it’s own farm, it’s own square and a large number of new homes and tents for the humans.

Ares almost whistled, but stopped himself. Rori walked by with his Marching Blades, who had also stocked up on soldiers. “Welcome back, Ares-kin.” Rori bowed his head and then looked to the dark-skinned King.

“Ah, Rori-kin.” Ares motioned a hand to the bearfolk. “This is Rori, he is my Consul. Imagine him to be a King of the land, he and I are equals.”

Abdan narrowed his eyes but nodded.

“Rori-kin, this is King Abdan of Otee.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, King Abdan.” Rori bowed his head and Abdan returned a similar greeting and a bow of his own head.

“I have to say I’m impressed, I didn’t expect you guys to do so much in three days…”

“The carpenters have had much practise, and part of it was already made for future expansion.”

“Damn… well, what do you think?” Ares turned to King Abdan.

“It is above our needs, Ahreez. We bless you for your hospitality.”

“Keep your blessings for when we reclaim your land.” Ares laughed. “Alright, I’ll let you get situated in your new homes. If you have any issues, come to Rori-kin or I and we’ll sort you out. We have meetings every few days, I’ll inform you of when the next one is. Pick a representative for your group and they can join us to discuss any issues or such that you are going through.” Ares paused. “I’m not sure how we’ll integrate you just yet, so we’ll have to play it by ear… sorry, I mean, we’ll have to take it day by day and see how our people warm up to you.”

Abdan bowed his head and then Ares left him to deal with moving in. Ares then motioned a hand to Oron. “Your duties now are to protect Abdan and his people, if anyone bothers them, deal with it as best as you can and send work to Rori-kin, Lana-kin or I.”

Oron saluted and then marched his soldiers towards the other King.

A random thought came to Ares and he chuckled. Lana looked over at him.

“What is so funny?”

“I just thought, Rivea is so amazing that we have two Kings, technically three.” Ares laughed and then he shook his head, heading out to grab some food.

Rori sat down nearby and then ate opposite Ares.

“You seem to be much better.” He said.

“Yeah, I think my fever is gone…” Ares said as Emerli appeared with an awful smelling concoction. “I am definitely healed, yeah.” He winced at the thought of being slathered in the weird, smelly nonsense that Emerli had concocted.

No wonder people were so suspicious of her…

When evening had come, Ares brought quite a few people to King Abdan to introduce them, including some of the master smiths, carpenters, farmers and such. They were a little confused as to why Ares brought them along, but they were happy with the honour.

Abdan broke the ice with a tale. A tale of the Flame Flies. A tale of love between a woman from the Dark Lands and a man from the Light Lands. The pair had fallen in love with one another, but they were from opposing Kingdoms. As such they would meet in secret, following the Flame Flies. They would follow the Flame Flies and were taken into the Void World.

One day the Flame Flies did not appear for the woman, for the darkness of the Dark Lands had overwhelmed the Flame Flies.

The man followed the Flame Flies to the Void World, but when she did not appear, he asked the Flame Flies to go and find her, but they were swallowed by the Void World as well.

So the man was trapped within the Void World until the end of time, but the woman went on a search to find a way to reduce the darkness of her land in order to revive the Flame Flies so she could return to her lover.

Then there was a long silence for Abdan to finish.

“So how does it end?” Ares asked.

“Has it ended?” Abdan asked.

“What does that mean?” Ares asked, though Abdan only smiled.