The Argive Ch. 066-070

The Argive -- Chapters 066-070

*****

Chapter 66: The Morning After

It was both a shock and a blessing that morning arrived at all.

Praxis cracked his eyes to see the first rays of the sun beginning to illuminate their small cave, casting away the darkness and melting the snow that had gathered near the entrance. With the sun came warmth--a welcome reprieve from a night of shivering.

"Lysandra, wake up. Lysandra, we made it to the morning."

Praxis gently rocked her but became concerned that she looked almost too pale. Her lips were still bluish in color and she showed no signs of responsiveness.

"Lysandra, you can't die," whispered Praxis, shaking her more vigorously. "Not now, not when we've finally done it."

She didn't respond to that, and her head hung lifelessly to the side. Praxis started to fear the worst. How could he go on without Lysandra in his life? How would he live with himself knowing that he couldn't save her?

It was as the lump was growing in his throat that he heard the first sounds of life. A low, guttural groan erupted from her lips and her body shifted.

"Lysandra? Can you hear me?"

Slowly, she opened her eyes, testing them as if she was using them for the first time.

"Praxis?"

Upon hearing his name, he couldn't help but squeeze her tight.

"Thank the gods you're alive," he whispered. "I was beginning to really worry."

"I might not be alive for much longer if you don't loosen your grip," she replied.

He laughed and let go, allowing her to sit upright. Using her hands, she rubbed her arms in an effort to return heat to her body.

"I don't think I've ever been that cold before," she said before stepping into the sunlight. "And I never want to be that cold again."

"Well, there are no more trials for us to complete. So we don't have to be cold like this ever again. We made it, Lysandra. We really made it."

Those words made her smile. She beckoned him from the cave where they could enjoy the full weight of the sun's attention.

"I don't know about you but I think we've spent enough time on this mountain," said Lysandra after a moment. "Should we head back to the village?"

"I'd love nothing more."

*****

While Praxis and Lysandra were about to start descending the mountain, another creature was on his way up.

Orcus was having a terrible time getting up Mt. Oligyrtos. It was the kind of work he wasn't made for, hating everything to do with strenuous exertion. He much preferred his life of leisure, where everything was taken care of for him by his father.

Even still, it wasn't hatred of the mountain that drove him forward but instead hatred of Demetrios and his two precious Argives. With the promise of a house in his future, he would see to it that they failed the trials and forfeited their lives in the process.

That was why Orcus even bothered climbing toward the top. He suspected the two Argives would survive the forty-eight hours on the mountain, especially seeing as they got past the first two trials so easily. If that was the case, he was going to make sure they didn't reappear in the village when they tried to come down.

Patting his belt, Orcus' sling was still firmly secured. A few well-placed tosses would end any possibility of the Argives getting back to the village alive.

Although, there was the chance that he might save the woman for himself. He enjoyed watching her lean and tight body as she moved around. Maybe it was time to start thinking about having little Orcuses of his own.

Laughing to himself, Orcus managed to quietly slip past the guard posted near the pass to the summit. Chilon's son, Evios, had fallen asleep sometime in the night, and he didn't witness Orcus' nimble feet stalk past him.

After he put some distance between himself and Evios, Orcus found a rocky hiding spot that had a perfect vantage point of the pass. It would allow him the stealth that he needed to take out the male Argive while allowing enough time to sling another rock before taking out the female (if he even took her out at all, that is).

Loving the plan, all he had to do was wait. As the sun started to rise against the mountain, he knew his prey would appear shortly.

That house was as good as his.

*****

Coming down the pass was a lot easier than going up. Praxis couldn't help but enjoy himself as they moved, thankful that they'd proven themselves and saved their lives in the process (alongside the lives of Demetrios and Rastus). Lysandra was in a great mood as well, as evidenced by the way she sang as they walked.

"I didn't realize you had such a great singing voice," joked Praxis as they moved.

"There's lots of things you don't know about me yet," she teased, elbowing him in the ribs. "I like to sing when I'm happy but life hasn't given me many reasons to be happy lately."

"But today you are definitely happy?"

Lysandra grinned. "Today has gotten off to the right start."

"Then maybe once we get back to the village, we can really keep the good times rolling."

Lysandra raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to fuck me?"

"Oh, definitely. Any problems with that?"

She started to giggle. "I suppose not. After all, it's a shame that I've had your naked body against mine for the past two days without getting to do anything about it."

"A shame? Horn of Hades, it's been a catastrophe, Lysandra."

She laughed even harder. "Well, here's to hoping that Demetrios won't mind giving us a little privacy when we get there."

"I think he could be persuaded to do--"

Before Praxis could finish the sentence, something became noticeable out of the corner of his eye. It occurred so quickly that he barely had time to turn his head before he saw something small and round coming right for him. Ducking out of the way, Praxis watched as a rock sliced through the air where his head had just been.

It was moving so fast that a direct hit would have knocked him out for sure, or perhaps even killed him.

Turning his head to where it came from, he saw a pair of foul-looking eyes glaring back at him.

"Hera's fiery ass, I'm going to kill you, Orcus!"

Praxis launched himself at full speed as Orcus' eyes went wide in a panic-induced fear. It only made Praxis angrier to know that Orcus waited untilafter the trials had been completed to launch his attack, the vicious creature never wanting them to survive in the first place.

Orcus' hands fumbled with his sling as Praxis closed the distance, but because of the terrain between them, Praxis wasn't able to reach him before the sling was loaded once again. This time, Orcus took aim at him and unleashed another decent-sized rock.

If only his aim had been true. Praxis felt the movement of air as the rock sailed within inches of his head. At this distance, Orcus shouldn't have missed but Praxis suspected it was his trembling hands that did him in.

Finally, Praxis managed to reach the beady-eyed man. He smashed Orcus' hand against the rock, releasing the sling to disarm him. In the process, Orcus resorted to the last weapon he had.

A small, wicked-looking dagger.

"I cannot permit you to live!" raged Orcus. "You will die on this mountain, Argive!"

With nothing to protect him from the dagger, Praxis used all his strength to hold off Orcus' hand from bringing the blade against his flesh. But Orcus was stronger than he looked. His deformed body still managed to have more upper body strength than any other man his size. And Praxis was still weak from not eating for two days.

The blade inched ever closer to Praxis' gut. No matter what he tried, he just didn't have the strength to push it away.

Orcus' mad eyes looked on with grim satisfaction as the tip of the blade began to penetrate his skin.

"You're going to Hades, Argive!" growled Orcus.

"Hey, Orcus!"

The beady-eyed man looked to his right, finding that Lysandra was only standing a few feet away. She had a small rock in her hand.

"You first," she quipped before throwing the rock.

Praxis watched it sail through the air until it hit Orcus directly in the mouth. At that moment, his concentration shattered and he dropped the dagger to attend to the bloody mess that became his face. It was all the time that Praxis needed. He rushed forward and grabbed Orcus by the collar and used what remained of his strength to toss him off the mountain.

"No, no, no!" yelled Orcus as fell, his cries never stopping until his body splattered against the valley floor far below.

Taking a deep breath, both Praxis and Lysandra looked over the edge, watching to make sure that he was really dead. When he didn't move for several minutes, Lysandra turned toward him.

"Are you hurt? He didn't get you, did he?"

Praxis shook his head. "No but it was close. If he managed to contain his fear, he might have had me but he didn't get that chance. Thanks in large part to you."

"Nasty way to go though," replied Lysandra, looking over the edge. "I can't imagine a fate like that."

Praxis smirked as he looked over the edge. "It has been a long time coming for that one. You can say he fell from grace."

Lysandra rolled her eyes and nudged him. "No more puns please."

Chuckling to themselves, they pulled away from the ledge and came back to the path.

"This might make things more difficult for us," noted Lysandra. "We've completed the trials but now we've killed Medios' son. What are we going to do now?"

"It wasn't a fight that we sought out though," argued Praxis. "He did that on his own, and he suffered the consequences."

"We know that but Medios doesn't," replied Lysandra. "I fear for our situation."

Before Praxis could respond to that, he heard a noise from lower down the path. Looking downward, he saw Evios trying hard to get their attention by waving his hands and yelling.

"That doesn't look good," noted Lysandra.

"Maybe it's the opposite," replied Praxis. "I wonder how much Evios saw of that encounter."

As it turned out, Evios was too far away to see anything.

"You did it!" yelled Evios. "You survived the third trial!"

"We almost didn't survive," replied Praxis. "Orcus tried to kill us. He must have slipped past you and he tried to ambush us. Here's his sling and his dagger."

Evios looked over the two items as his enthusiasm cooled. "I don't know how he could have gotten past me but this won't bode well with Medios. I take it you killed him then?"

Praxis nodded. "His remains are on the floor of the valley hundreds of feet below."

Evios whistled. "Terrible way to go. I fear what happens when we get back and we break the news to Medios."

Praxis and Lysandra looked at each other. "Nothing we can do about it now," said Praxis. "But we ought to head back. If I'm going to have to defend myself again, I'd rather do it sooner than later."

Lysandra swallowed heavily. "Do you really think we're going to be in trouble?"

"I really don't know, Lysandra. I really don't know."

Chapter 67: The Legacy of Orcus

The trip back to the village was fraught with more anxiety than it had been when they first departed. Evios went on ahead, leaving Praxis and Lysandra to their thoughts as the harshness of the mountain started to give way to the lush valleys of central Arcadia.

Lysandra seemed to be the one most distraught at what they might find back in the village.

"We've spent this whole week being on the cusp of death and now that we've earned a little bit of freedom, we need to be worried again about someone trying to kill us," she said, kicking a few rocks out of her path in frustration.

"I don't think Medios will try to kill us," replied Praxis. "At least not directly. And it's no secret that Orcus wasn't the most honorable of men. My guess is that his death will only be met with hostility from Medios and that's it. The rest of the village will be happy he's gone."

"He deserved what he got," said Lysandra fiercely. "I just hope that we don't have to pay the consequences of it."

Praxis hoped so too but he still wondered what Medios would do when he found out. With the trials now over, perhaps it was a good time to start thinking about leaving the village? But to where? Where would they go next?

Messenia?

He was interrupted from his thoughts as they spotted the village for the first time that morning. Evios had raised the cheer amongst the villagers and by the time Praxis and Lysandra arrived, there was a small crowd waiting to see them. At the very front of the crowd was Demetrios and Rastus, neither of whom could contain their excitement for very long.

"You did it! You absolutely did it! You completed all three trials!" said a joyous Demetrios. "For the first time in generations, we have someone who's finished the ultimate test!"

"We knew you could do it all along," added Rastus with a typical young man's bravado. "You two are heroes!"

Luckily for them, Demetrios and Rastus brought along their clothes, which allowed Praxis and Lysandra to regain a measure of modesty before they confronted the rest of the village.

"Job well done! Simply splendid," said Lasos, who followed it up with warm embraces. He was joined by his daughter as well, the same woman they'd rescued from the warrior-priests at the temple of Ares.

Even Medios managed to look grudgingly pleased. The white-haired man offered his respect to Praxis when it was his turn.

"True to our word, you've completed the hardest trials we could think to give you," said Medios, shaking his hands vigorously. "To that end, you're allowed to stay in our village for as long as you please. You've earned it with your show of courage, skill, and intelligence."

Praxis tried not to let his anxiety show on his face as he shook Medios' hand. "There is something we need to discuss first--"

"Bah," replied Medios, waving his free hand. "Not today. Today we will celebrate you like the rightful heroes you are. You will want for nothing now, my young friend."

Unfortunately, their newfound respect wasn't bound to last, especially once Evios shared the news of what happened on the descent, telling all of them what Orcus tried to do as well as his fate at the bottom of the mountain.

Praxis watched as Medios' mood changed from muted exhalation to sheer fury in a matter of moments.

"They killed my son!" he raged, pointing his finger at Praxis and Lysandra. "They're murderers! I knew we shouldn't have let them go through the trials!"

By this point, Demetrios and Lasos stepped in to mediate the situation further.

"Did you see what happened, Evios?" asked Lasos. "Did you see Orcus try to attack them on the way down?"

Evios shook his head sadly. "I did not because I was too far away."

"See!" yelled Medios to the crowd. "There are no witnesses! Just the word of these two Argives! How do we know they're not lying?"

"Have they lied to us yet?" asked Demetrios. "They've been nothing but honest with us this entire time."

"That's easy for you to say," retorted Medios. "Your son is not dead, Demetrios!"

"But I still know what it feels like to lose a child," shot Demetrios coolly before turning to Praxis. "Praxis, are you willing to swear to the gods that Orcus attacked you first? That you were only defending yourself?"

"I am," replied Praxis as he handed over Orcus' weapons. "These were found on Orcus before he fell from the mountain. He hid behind a rock and his plan was to sling rocks at our heads to knock us out. When that didn't work, he tried to use the dagger on me. He nearly succeeded at that."

"It's most unusual for Orcus to be in the mountains in the first place," said Lasos as he glared at Medios. "What was your son doing up there?"

"And how is it possible that my son didn't notice him?" asked Chilon, giving a long stare at Evios, who promptly turned red.

"It doesn't matter what he was doing up there!" replied Medios. "All that matters is that he is now dead, and his murderers stand in front of us!"

"I think there is more to the story than that," replied Lasos, shaking his head. "We all know the kind of man Orcus was. The story I've heard holds true with what I knew of the man. I do not believe these Argives killed him for no reason."

"He wanted us dead so he could take the house," added Praxis. "We all saw how much he coveted Demetrios' house. If we died on the trials, Demetrios would die as well, leaving the house to Orcus. My guess is that his desire for the house pushed him to take drastic action."

"Indeed," replied Chilon. "Well, we will still investigate this matter but I believe the version we heard just now to be the truth. It is my vote that Praxis and Lysandra will go free. They've completed their trials to my satisfaction."

"And mine as well," added Lasos.

The rest of the village elders added their approval as well, except for Medios who still stewed quietly. Once the matter had been settled, he pointed his finger at Praxis again.

"You'll get what's coming to you someday, Argive," he growled. "I'll personally make sure of that!"

Medios stormed off, leaving only the four of them alone together once more. Praxis turned to look at Lysandra.

"I think you were right. We're going to have to watch our backs from Medios moving forward. At least as long as we stay here."

Demetrios shook his head, looking upset. "I'm sorry, my friends. I've failed you. I hoped that with the trials being over, we could take the targets off your back but it looks like I can't even do that."

"You didn't fail us, Demetrios," replied Lysandra quietly. "Orcus got what he deserved but it looks like we've been dragged into his fate. Blessed Demeter, he tried to kill us first thing in the morning after all! There was nothing we could have done to avoid it."

"I agree with Lysandra," said Praxis. "Perhaps we should start thinking about moving on from the village. It looks like we might never be safe here."

That was the worst thing that Demetrios could have heard. His face became sullen.

"You don't have to go," he said. "Rastus and I enjoy your company. It's brought life and laughter back to my house. You don't need to let Medios scare you away."

"Perhaps not but we won't be able to live in peace as long as we're here," replied Praxis. "I also worry about you two. You're now tied to us. We almost got you killed once and I'll be damned if we have to do it again."

"Maybe we should sleep on it," suggested Demetrios. "I understand your reasoning but I think you ought to reconsider. We'll accept whatever you decide but you must still be tired. Why not get some rest?"

To Praxis' surprise, Lysandra beamed with a smile. "Now that's the best thing I've heard all week."

*****

"Oh, Praxis! Right there! Right there please! Keep going, keep going, keep going. Oh, fuck yes!"

Lysandra's moans echoed through the tiny house later that evening as their bodies moved in unison. Praxis was thankful the house was currently empty save for themselves, or it would have been hard to look Demetrios in the eye later. Rather, the two other housemates had given them some privacy after sleeping for most of the day, and Lysandra was quick to take advantage of it.

"Oh gods, what are you doing to me?" she moaned, thrusting her lower body back at him. "I love how you fill me. Please don't stop fucking me."

Praxis did his best to honor that request, pounding her body with long, deep strokes until she was writhing in pleasure. It was perhaps the best sex they ever had--a not-so-quiet celebration of all that they'd accomplished in completing the trials.

And it was very much long overdue.

"Cum in me, Praxis!" she urged, grabbing his hips. "Fill me with your cum! Shoot it all deep inside my body, baby!"

Praxis sped up his movements until he reached the point of no return, filling her with every drop of his seed. As his body was spent, he fell to her side, and Lysandra willingly cuddled against him.