Chapter Text
"Ajax, please! Reconsider your decision," his mother grabbed his hand, her eyes teary. "You can't possibly travel to The Tsaritsa’s palace, at least let me go with you-" His entire family stood beside her, whispering amongst themselves.
Except for Tonia.
His sister had caught a horrible sickness, and he feared she would pass sooner or later to it. He had prayed to the Archon of their land to save her, to spare her.
Yet noone had answered.
So he would force them to.
His younger brother, Teucer, was clinging onto his thick coat, his eyes watery. "Please brother, don't go." He sobbed, burying his face into Ajax's winter clothing, hugging his leg. Ajax stifled a chuckle. Teucer could barely reach his thighs, and he was already wiser than him. He ruffled his hair, smiling down at him.
But while Ajax's mother was a healer, she was only one woman.
She couldn't save everyone in their village, and she herself was beginning to get weary. The villagers knew that aching truth, but yet all the same they relied only on her, clawing and begging at her feet to save their dying friend, or heal a sick mother.
But he knew he had to something to help, even something as foolish and trivial as this.
He looked back at the rest of his family, his smile faltering. "Mother, we both know you can’t. The village needs you, you’re the only one who knows how to treat the sickness," He grabbed her hands with his own, squeezing them as a miserable, failed attempt at comfort.
"I'll get help. I promise." Ajax hugged his mother, tightly wrapping his arms around her. "I'll be back," he whispered. "I swear." He released his grip, moving to look back at Teucer, crouching on one knee. "Hey, bud. Listen, I'll be back before you know it, okay?"
He cupped his younger brother's cheeks with his hands. "I still have to teach you how to properly go ice-fishing, don't I?" Ajax laughed, wiping Teucer’s falling tears with his thumb.
"You pinkie promise?"
"I pinkie promise." He intertwined his little finger with the younger, squeezing it slightly. Teucer nodded, wiping his tears with his palms. Ajax stood up again, and looked at his father.
His father, cross-armed, hadn't said anything at all. But now he nodded, a slight smile on his face. 'Come back home safe, Son.' was what his expression was saying.
"Okay, then I'm off," he turned with a sigh, exiting his warm, comfortable home. With one finale glance and wave at his family, Ajax left the safety of his town.
Ajax had been walking for a couple hours now. So far, everything had gone well.
He stopped for a while, taking a small little break to catch his barings and figure out what he wanted to do from here.
Just as he was about to leave with his bag, he heard a branch crack behind him, and he whipped his head around quickly.
Spoke too soon, he thought, chuckling to himself.
Shadows- No, people emerged, and surrounded him in a circle, all armed with weapons except for one man right in front of him. The leader?
"Listen, I don't have anything valuable on me." And that was true. All Ajax had was water and food, along with a knife or two on his person.
"Yeah, okay. But'cha have a pretty face, y'know. I wonder, does your body match with it?" Ajax clenched his fist at that. How dare you, he thought, disgusted.
The aggressors voice was a horrible sound to hear. Ajax felt like he wanted to tear his ears off. He faked a laugh. "You flatter me, but I really must be going now. I have places to be and people to see," he said, letting out a sigh. "Work things , I'm sure you understand."
The man let out a chuckle. "Yes, yes, of course. But I'm sure you can stick around for a bit of fun, yes?"
The people behind Ajax moved closer, and so did their leader, basically only a foot away from Ajax.
"C'mon, pretty boy...stay a while," he got even closer, putting a hand on his waist.
"Big fucking mistake." Ajax snarled, pulling out one of the leaders knives from his belt, jabbing it in the man's side. He twisted it, digging it even deeper so that the man let out a gasp followed by a sickening crunch.
"You fucking- Get him!" He screeched, pushing Ajax away from him. Kicking the stranger in the stomach, he only turned around when he knew the leader was down and on the verge of death, looking and calculating what he was up against, shoving off his bag from his back.
Okay, three people. One woman, two men. All seemingly looked well trained.
"Otto!" The woman let out a scream, extending a hand towards the bleeding man behind him.
Adrenaline corsed through Ajax's veins. He felt excited, and hadn't fought anyone in a long, long time. Even though he was outnumbered, he would see this fight to finish.
"Come and get it!" A man yelled, rushing towards him. As he used his fist instead of his bat, he swung a powerful right, and Ajax was met by a flash of pain his jaw, stumbling backwards and touching the painful mark with his fingers.
The man charged yet again, hurling himself at Ajax, but this time he moved out of the way, watching the man fall into the snow and dropping his weapon. Ajax leaned over, picking it up, putting a foot on the fallen man's back. He let out a cough, attempting to stand. Ajax raised the bat above his head, bringing it down with heavy force.
When it connected with its target, the man let out an agonizing scream. Ajax raised it again.
Blood sprayed all over the snow. Another scream.
And he raised the bat again, the sounds of the man crying and begging for mercy echoing in his ears.
He felt the bat break through flesh and mush, and with a vomit inducing squelch, raised the bat and flung the gore onto the now ruined snow.
Under him was a horrible scene. A dead man, with his face bashed in, a bloody and still connected eyeball a few steps away from its owner, blood pooling around his head.
And Ajax adored the sight.
A heavy weight hit his side, shoving him off of the man. The wind was knocked out of his lungs as he hit the soft snowy ground, blood trickling down his forehead when the back of his head hit a tree behind him. The man above Ajax placed his foot on his chest, putting pressure onto it.
Fuck, shitshitshit-
"You sick bastard," he heard the man's sobs and grief in his voice. "You killed my brother. You killed my fucking brother!"
He heard the wails of the woman, who was sitting beside the corpse of the man whose head he smashed in.
But Ajax didn't feel any remorse.
The only thing he felt was the need to survive.
His eyes gazed at the side, spotting the bloodied bat on the ground not far away. Looking back at his opponent, Ajax reached into his own jacket quicky and before the man could react, stabbed a knife in his leg.
The man let out an ear-splitting scream, stumbling off of him and falling to the ground, clenching his bleedng thigh.
Ajax scrambled to his feet, running towards the bat and quickly grabbing it, turning back to the man who was still on the ground on one knee.
"I'm gonna fucking...kill you!"
The man pulled out the knife from his leg, turning his head, only to see Ajax swinging the bat.
Wham!
A thud of corpse sounded throughout the area.
Ajax dropped the bat, breathing heavily. Blood was on his clothing, his hands, and he himself was bleeding from the forehead, and it ran down all the way to his eyebrow.
He leaned over, picking up his knife from the dead man's grasp. Going over to 'Otto,' he took the knife from him too, grabbing onto it and with a disgusting sound, dragged it out of the man's skin.
He looked at Otto's face, which was paler now. And his eyes were dead now, devoid of any spark of life.
Ajax turned away, now heading towards the grieving woman. She looked up at him, her face absolutely devoid of any happiness, her makeup running. He kneeled next to her, opening his mouth to say something.
But he was interrupted by the sense of somebody watching him. Ajax turned his head to look in the direction, but nobody was there.
He looked back at the woman, and again opened his mouth to speak. But this time, she was holding a knife.
He felt a seering pain jolt throughout his body, and looked down. The woman had stabbed him with his own knife, and had let go, and resumed her tears, her hands clamped over her mouth.
"I-" he began, but blood spilled from his lips onto the snow under him. He shakingly stood up, staring at the woman. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath. I gotta get out of here, he turned and tried to run, but he was limping.
Turning his head to look back at the woman, he was faced with two choices.
Kill her in cold blood, or spare her and get the fuck out of there.
Ajax looked back ahead. He had decided he would take his chances. He placed his hand on the knife handle, gripping it and whimpering slightly as he pulled it out. He felt air hit his wound, and he let out a pained gasp. Ajax threw the knife faraway from him, placing his hand on the injury and applying as much pressure as he could.
"Not good," he winced. He felt blood begin to pour out, and he tripped on his own two feet. "Not here, not today, don't let me die today." Ajax extended his hand towards the snow infront of him.
He closed his eyes shut, hoping, praying to the God's above that someone would be passing by and help him.
Ajax heard the sound of footsteps sinking in the snow.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a man kneeling in front of him, dressed in...
...silk?
"Fascinating," the strangers voice echoed in his ears. "You could have easily killed that woman. But you chose to spare her," the voice was soothing. Deep and smooth. "despite the fact she fataly wounded you."
He attempted to look up at the owner of the voice, but he had a hood which covered his face. Ajax's arm hit the cold, snowy ground, going limp. His strength was fading, just like everything else he could see or feel.
Everything went dark.
"And for that, you shall live another day."