KING OF BEASTS (Hiatus)

A few days had passed since the training for the soldiers began. He had slowly involved others into the process, his goal was to make sure that almost everyone worked out a little everyday. It was not just the soldiers that had to fight, everyone would need to do something if push came to shove. 

They soon found that they didn't have the space to do so, so Ares began to terraform the area using his ring. He had shifted away many trees for the farmers already, but continued to remove more and more to create an area for more fields, as well as an area for a few hundred to come together and train, as well as creating a large enough area for the tribe to gather. He was careful to not deforest too much though, and relied on the pair of dragonfolk to keep him in check. 

Once he had created the various areas, he went about to formulate a plan on where the various buildings would go. He flattened large pieces of land for the carpenters, and then dropped the various trees into piles so that they could get about to business. 

A carpenter had walked up to him during the process, rubbing her chin. She was an older woman, probably in her fifties, and was one of the wolffolk. "King, we have a few issues. Tools, they're not going to last long. We're doing a lot of work quickly, and we don't have enough resources to replenish our tools when they chip or break." 

Ares paused to think for a moment, eyeing up the area. He had created enough space for them to work for a while, and had already laid the foundations for the first few buildings which should come to fruition over the next few weeks. He bowed his head. "I'll see to it." He turned to Asyllia and then motioned for her to walk with him. 

"There are a few caves that one could explore for ore." She had said as she woke beside her King.

"Is there… is there any way we could make a mine? I would like a steady stream of various ores and gems, then our future would be more secure." 

Asyllia did not reply for some time, though Ares didn't mind. She often went deep into thought as he did, though he wasn't sure exactly what she was thinking.

"Very well. I will ask the first dragon." With that she left Ares.

The first dragon was the older dragon he had seen when he had bathed a few days ago. They were a fountain of knowledge and wisdom, and Asyllia had often gone to them for advice. Ares had yet to address the relationship between the Riveans and dragonfolk as of yet, but he was planning on meeting with them later with gifts in hand to see what their future would hold.

Until then, however, Ares needed to get his people situated. There were so many things to do. The training of the soldiers were going well, though he had split their times into quarters. Each quarter had two hours of training, with about half an hour in between for the next quarter to prepare. Two hours was fine for now, though eventually he would want them to focus on training longer, and he wanted to introduce many more elements of training, but for now running and weapon training would be enough. 

A few of the crafters had already begun work on making shields, and he had also gotten to work on making spears and bows. With his ring he was able to cut things with ease, so he had cut many pieces of wood to appropriate lengths for the crafters, with hundreds of blocks of woods for them to form bows and spears out of. Some had gotten to work on making arrows, though they really only had gone and stone to work with for the arrowheads. 

They were making spears of two lengths, and bows of four different lengths. Eventually he would decrease or increase these lengths after enough experimentation, but for now these would have to do. 

"My King, we shall feast tonight!" Called out Jin, one of Heria's relatives that was in charge of hunting. He was short but well built. His hair went down to his shoulders, with a thick beard that was cut at the chin. His eyes were narrow, dark blue in colour, and his nose was short and flat. His crew were about thirty or so, all of whom had been hunters for the tribe before they joined him, and were eager to help.

They had been hunting the mountain creatures, for many birds and drakes remained around the area that posed small dangers to the tribe. It seemed that they had hunted three drakes today, as well as several large birds. The drakes could feed a few hundred a piece, especially the drakes that were twice the size of oxen. None of his people had to grow hungry, though there was much left to be desired when it came to their taste. 

"Well done, Jin. Get to work on the butchering. Since you hunted quite the large one, go ahead and take an extra share of hide, or if you would prefer, an extra share of meat. One or the other." Ares shrugged and Jin nodded, leaving to go and delegate the butchering of the drakes.

Ares let out a soft sigh as he walked back to his tent, but then veered off to go and see his children. They had already begun walking more often, and Ares had encouraged the milk mothers and their protectors to let the children walk around. They had fallen a few times already, but after soothing the little ones, they were set off to walk once more. 

Ares would play with them for a short while each day. Since they would often spend time with others he was afraid they wouldn't become attached to him, so he made sure that he was one of the very few that would play with them, and he also made sure to sleep near them. It was difficult since Lana would arrive in the evening, though he had welcomed her to sleep in the same tent. It wasn't quite the way she had wanted to sleep with Ares, but he figured it would make it easier since she was the most likely candidate for being… He tried not to think about that for now. 

He hoisted Runar up and swayed with her before carrying her in such a way that she was flying through the air. She would giggle with joy often at the motion and the pair of twins would often come by, rather envious of their sister. He carried them like so as well, until they were tired of playing and wished to rest. 

How he could live like this every day and not get bored. He was rather glad that the days were so peaceful, he hoped that they would last. 

Torak called out to him. "Ares. Could we talk?" 

"Yes, what is it that you need?" Ares asked, motioning a hand to the milk mothers and the other protectors to leave. 

Yet as they had stepped out, there was shouting from the distance. Ares' ears perked up as he heard the soft footfalls of the wolves as they ran up the pathway towards the fountain. Ares stepped out of the tent to see a wolffolk riding on a wolf, rushing over towards him. It was a wolffolk that had left to deliver the demands to the humans. 

The wolf was panting and heaving with breath by the time they had collapsed a dozen metres away, and the wolffolk stumbled off of them.

"Inta! Inta's been captured!" The wolffolk managed to yell out before they dropped to their knees.