The pain from the disappointing departure from the place he was born in was still strong, a frustration that he couldn’t let go. The past was haunting him, even if it was the past from just a day ago. The path through the dark forest was terrifying for the ladies and old women, the children were unsettled by the noises, and yet, Hippos couldn’t focus on anything, he couldn’t care about any of it. The howling of the wolves was echoing as the wind provided the bass to this song of nature. While insects were the beat to which people were marching on through the forest with clenched teeth and sweat dripping down them in this cold night.

Adpetentia holding her small bow in one hand, and the other hand ready to reach for her quiver to shoot. Two by two, in a row, walking, without any light, except what crept down between leafs and branches, from the moon. Everything was too peaceful, too simple, she knew that. Ready for everything, expecting the worse of the worse, as with every step the danger was growing. Silence started to settle in as they went deeper and deeper into the night, the winds calmed down, the pace started slowing down too. Then it came to a stop, a few minutes passed, they didn’t start moving, a few more minutes passed, nothing. They started becoming unsettled by the fact that they were in the middle of a forest, at the feet of the mountain, in a place full of wild animals that could easily kill them all…

Word came down the row, saying that some of the elderly women and men were bitten by some bugs that buried their heads into their skin. While others were bitten by something red and small or something flying. And that they all needed treatment. Hearing this, they only worried more about their fate as they now were hindered even more. Adpetentia started to feel something on her skin, she started itching. It felt like a thousand slimy bugs crawling up her legs. She grabbed Hippos by the hand, squeezing him, yet he didn’t feel anything, having his mind still focused on having left Creetus behind. Her mother noticing something wrong with her, picked the girl up, the bugs started crawling on her too. Biting them both, but both blind to see them and fight them off. They couldn’t see, nor could the know if what they felt was real, but their skin was reacting to all and everything. The itching, the swelling, the feeling of icky disgusting creatures on you and the puss left in their path. Something had fallen on them from above. It was slimy, it started to feel like it was crawling down on them. And then, Hippos, with a small flame, had shown them that there was nothing.

And in the rest of Macedon and Greece…

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