The dawn arrived, Matea fitted the saddle on Arete's horse. She was still tired and feeling heavy in her head. Commoner's wine were normally diluted with water. But Agave gave her some concentrated sweet wine mulled with honey, in exchange for some *Syracusean cuisine*. Acorn nuts was not a Syracusean speciality, it was just what she would normally eat due to the abundance of it in the oak forest.

Aethon was Arete's golden beige stallion which brought both of them to Thebes. It was the best Thessalian strain with Arabian mix. It had a balanced physique, compared to the other Arravani horses in the Theban stable. They were bulkier in shape. Those were good working horses, but they might not be as good as Aethon on the battlefield.

She walked Aethon out of the stable, and found that a servant had prepared another two Arabian horses. One all black and another brown with black hair. She sure loved those two, darker coat meant lower maintenance. Aethon jolted lightly, he did not wish to be left in Thebes.

They brought the horses to the city-gate, where Arete and Vitellus were already there. Agave was within them, wearing a traveller's cloak and carrying a golden thyrsus at her back.

"I already have a person accompany me! I don't need her to follow me!" Arete complained.

"Oh my dear Arete. The more people you have the merrier your journey will be!" Vittelus replied with a big smile.

"Oh, look, cuzie, our horses had arrived!" Agave was excited to see Matea and the horses. She dashed towards them and leaped onto the brown horse.

"Let's go! Cuzie! It's going to be late if we delay further!" Agave was excited! Her behaviour towards Arete was completely different compared to the previous day. Which was something strange, as if she was eager to leave Thebes.

"Stop calling me cuszie!" Arete knew she must not delay further. She was reluctant to let Agave followed her, but there was no time for argument, she got another plan in her mind.

Arete jumped onto her horse. The servant handed Matea the black horse. They left Thebes immediately.

Vitellius walked back to the temple of Dionysus, he gazed at the grand kitchen, where a butcher was waving his huge machete. In seconds, he chopped down a huge live bull without giving it a chance to struggle. Another chef was waving a mace-like utensil towards the beef, smashing it to make ground meat.

“Messenger!” Vitellius shouted.

“Yes, my Lord!” A servant replied.

“Order our blacksmith to get ready and hire more chefs and butchers! In case Caesar Nero gives us a surprise visit. Our kitchen is going to need more tools and manpower to prepare a great feast.”

Thebes never had an armed force; they simply loved food. They trained their chefs and butchers very well. It is almost a miracle for a city-state without armed forces to survive in the times where every other city-states were trying to take over one another. However, no one dared to attack Thebes for several reasons, partly that Thebes was known to be blessed by Dionysus. The mad god known for turning people into a mad man.

“Eretria, a city-state of Aphrodite, the Goddess of beauty. The people there are all good looking. Rumour says that the Teleios of Eretria was a living Aphrodite herself! She is extremely beautiful, a cut on her flesh will instantly be healed on its own…”

“Rumor? How are you sure she even existed?” Arete questioned in disbelief. The contents of the scrolls had been inscribed in her mind. She was a logical thinker, and she had never seen anything supernatural. Even though she was taught to believe in the existence of Gods and Goddesses, she never saw any miraculous signs throughout her life.

Arete began to rearrange the information in her mind. She decided to continue what her father had left. She must head to Eretria and find their Teleios before Nero’s men got their hands on her. They had been riding all day towards the Calchis side. And they had to cross the waters to another side of the land. It would take them weeks before they arrived at Calchis. They were still in the middle of the forest, while the dusk arrived.

“Hey, Cuzie! Look! A river! Let’s build a camp here for tonight!” Agave shouted in excitement.

“I’m Arete! Stop calling me cuzie!” Arete replied with her eyes rolled. Agave’s high pitch voice disturbed her thoughts on some important clues from the scrolls she read in the secret room.

“Let’s go fishing! Mate! I’ll set up a fire for the barbecue! Yummy!” Agave shouted and grabbed Matea to the river.

Arete’s annoyance intensified with Agave. She just met Matea a day ago but she acted as if they were close to each other. Although Agave appeared to be lively, cheerful, and full of energy, Arete wasn’t used to how she behaved. She knew Matea was not a person who was able to easily make friends with. Consider Matea’s bad relationship with her seniors, Petraeus and Arctus.

Agave took her thyrsus and pulled out a piece of its golden leaves. The leaf was attached with a golden string to the thymus head. She then took some bread from her pocket, and hooked it to the sharp head of the leaf. She then threw it to the river, stabbing the other end of the thyrsus to the ground, and her thyrsus had turned into a fishing rod. Agave sat by the riverside, next to Arete, while Matea was trying to catch fish in the river with a spear.

Arete looked at the twilight sky, and the image of Mount Caucasus flowed into her mind. She never had time for grieving the death of her father. She had been spending most of her time reading the scrolls and finding a purpose in her own life after losing Amiran and Syracuse.

Matea poked the spear into the river water, she caught a fish, by the time she raised her spear, the struggling fish moved frantically, and its body jumped out of the sharp spearhead.

“Hey, Mate! That’s not going to work!” Agave took out her knife and went down to the river.

“You need the right tool to do fishing!” Agave tied the fillet knife next to the spearhead. She then stabbed it into the waters and caught the fish!

“Hahaha! Look! Now the spear is a bident! Best for catching fish! Just like how Hades catches souls! It’ll not escape no matter how hard it struggles… he he he…” Agave took out the fish.

“This is mine! He he he.” and she handed the ‘bident’ to Matea, and went back to the ground.

“Cuz, I’ll cook this one for you! He he…” She waved the fish in front of Arete.

Matea then stabbed into the river, she caught a fish, the fish struggling on the ‘bident’ but she didn’t take it out, staring at that fish… and Arete noticed about that.

“Yay, Mate, you caught a fish!” Agave clapped.

Arete went down to the river, took away the fish and detached the fillet knife. With a swift movement, she stabbed the spear to another swimming fish in the river, to its head, through its ikejime point, instantly stunting the fish.

“Behave yourself! Matea! Do your job right, or you won’t get any food tonight.” Arete said with an authoritative voice, giving Matea a serious stare.

“Yes, ma’am..” Matea replied and she took back that spear from Arete’s hand, repeated Arete’s technique and straight away caught another fish on its head.

Their interactions seemed strange in the eyes of Agave. She knew Arete was in charge and Matea was a hoplite under her command, but there were multiple ways to catch a fish. She did found Arete’s action a bit harsh.

“Gee cuzie, you’re mean! Everybody has their way of doing things!” Agave said.

“Shut up! You don’t know shit about anything! Do not try to act smart!” Arete replied to her with a stern voice. Her harsh replies built up an intense atmosphere.

“I know you were in grief, but why don’t you just express it properly?” Agave replied.

“Cry it out! You’re not made of steel!” she continued.

The words hit Arete straight to her nerves. She had been the only lady in Syracuse and nobody had talked to her like that other than her teacher Apollodorus and her father Amiran. She did not take it well when a lady who acted childish and peer of her age would dare to advise her anything regarding her own emotional well being.

“You never went through what I’ve been through! You would never understand my situation! All you know is your stupid Theban way, eat like a pig, play your stupid instrument, and do nothing meaningful! You are annoying! You assume you know everything, but YOU KNOW NOTHING! You’re a useless fat ass bitch!” Arete bursted out with anger.

Hearing her insults, Agave went all in rage:

“Oh you think you’re so great?! I heard you even dared to raise your voice to my grandpa! Who do you think you are? Just because you’re a noble doesn’t mean you can abuse it! You’re the worst over a thousand of my other cuzies! You are a snobbish conceited piece of skeleton!”

And the fiery exchange continues,

“Yeah! I can hardly tolerate idiotic Thebans like you! I’m tired of babysitting! Why don’t you go back to where you belong!” Arete shouted with her hand raised, asking Agave to leave.

Agave grabbed her thyrsus, and a stick with cooked fish, she took a bite aggressively.

“You’re lucky that you’re just bones! Else I’ll bite your ears off and swallow it like how I used to do it when I fought with my other cuzies!” She tried to calm herself with food.

“GO BACK! I say LEAVE!” Arete shouted.

Agave threw the half-eaten fish towards Arete and said, “I HATE YOU!”

Then, she unleashed her horse and rode away.

“If my mission is to find an Eretrian girl… Why do I need to have companions?” Arctus, Petraeus, Chlorus, her teacher Apollodorus and her father appeared in Arete’s mind. At that very moment, she wanted to be alone!

Agave was slowly riding on her way back to Thebes, the moonlight and lamp as her guide. The forest was dark… and she sensed someone following her.

“Why are you following me? Mate!” she asked.

“Ma’am's orders,” Matea replied.

“Oh, so she abandoned you too! That snob!” Agave said.

“Then it’s great, at least I have someone to talk to…” she continued.

“Hey Mate, I’m hungry now! What you like to eat…”

“I don’t know…” Matea replied.

“How does your cousin’s ear taste?”

Agave looked at her, and realized that there was something wrong with her. Agave smiled and replied, “Not my favourite! We have lots of better delicacies in Thebes…”

CRACK!!!

Suddenly, they fell into a huge trap hole.

Their horses panicked and kicking. They had to lean on the side of the hole to dodge the horses

“Oh yeah! All the digging has finally paid off!”

“Look what we got! Sweet sweet bounty!”

“The average dark haired servant and the…”

A man wielded the fire torch into the hole.

“Skinny blonde noblewoman?”

The hunters realised that Agave wasn’t the woman they expected to be.

“Hey, your eyesight has a problem! That’s a pig there!” The man hit the other bearded man at his right side.

“Seems like we got the wrong target!”

“Never mind! Look at that gold thyrsus on her back!”

“Yeah man, let’s rob her instead!”

To be continued…