Kassus could not believe the way things had turned out in a matter of a day. He was still able to remember Hephaestus' ichor on his hands, and the smile of pure satisfaction to see not just any God, but an Olympian, bleeding out and begging for his life. But that was in the past; now, the mortal hunter was somehow guiding the worst of menaces to his home, to the place he was supposed to be safe. All because of his annoying sympathy. To be a man that had endured the worst of fates, he still had a heart, but he was not going to let Aphrodite take advantage of it. As soon as she was healed, he was going to fight her and kill her, right?
"This rocky road is hurting my feet. Cannot you cast a chariot? Oh, right. You're a mortal." Aphrodite said with a cocky smirk, making Kassus lose focus of his own thoughts.
He hated her with all his heart— even worse, with all his soul. He was ready to turn around and stab her right in the stomach to let her bleed, but his damned empathy kept his patience on check. She was testing his limits, she was playing with fire, not afraid to burn in flames. Kassus turned his head to look at the goddess, admiring her beauty, but finding it disgusting since it was masked underneath layers and layers of greed and stubbornness. Worst part was that he knew perfectly the effects of the poison his armor held. With a smile that mirrored hers, he spoke up, feigning a respectful and kind tone.
"Just keep your distance from me, you might feel nauseous soon and I do not want you to throw up in my armor, you divine clod."
Aphrodite had to force herself to keep her distance from the hunter, her mind still feeling angry and hurt due to how badly hurt the man had left her friend Hermes. But despite that, she walked behind him, keeping her distance and trying not to get too close to him for both of their sakes. As he mentioned that she might feel nauseous, she felt a twinge of worry and fear. If she did, there was no telling what would happen.
"I'll try to keep my distance, 'Kassus'." She replied with a tone of sarcasm, almost mocking the strange name the hunter had, before continuing, her tone changing to genuine concern. "How long until I feel sick?"
Kassus could only shrug at her question, before he turned back to the road ahead and sped up his pace a little bit, almost as if his instincts were telling him that Aphrodite was going to get sick sooner or later. In the end, venom flowed fast through the veins, and he started to notice the goddess' veins in her arm turning dark purple. After doing some mental mathematics and looking up at the sun to check the time, he let out a soft laugh.
"What's so funny, mortal?" Aphrodite asked, her voice showing annoyance, thinking she was probably being laughed at.
Kassus stopped his tracks, and turned his body around, admiring the goddess with a smile; though it wasn't a smile of admiration to her infinite beauty. He was amused of what was about to happen. It was always good to see a god suffering every now and then. His silence was enough to respond for Aphrodite. He tilted his head to the left, gesturing at a nearby bush for her to vomit. Aphrodite let out a soft gasp at the smirk on the hunter's face, and just as he tilted his head, she started to feel a wave of nausea wash over her. She doubled over slightly, one hand clutching her stomach as she began to feel ill. After a moment, she leaned over to the side he had pointed to, and began to release the ambrosia she had for breakfast in the morning.
"I am not stopping, you know." Kassus said as he watched Aphrodite throwing up. He started to walk again, but keeping a way slower pace, not really making any distance in order to annoy Aphrodite.
Aphrodite groaned weakly as she saw from the corner of her eye the hunter starting to walk away again. As she finished throwing up, she took a moment to try and collect herself, wiping her mouth clean as she slowly stood back up. Her body felt weak and she had to take a deep breath before following after the hunter. She was starting to feel the effects of the poison more now, and she already felt weak. With each step, she felt more nauseous and lightheaded. For the first time in a long time, she felt defied and vulnerable in front of a mortal. She tried to catch up to Kassus, until she started to stumble over and over again every two minutes or so. The poison was starting to take effect on her body in the worst way possible, and she felt fear of dying in front of a stranger for the first time. Of course, she had the opportunity to look for an antidote with her 'friends' back in Olympus, but that meant facing Zeus after letting one of his children to die in a random garden. She had to admit it: she left Hermes to die, unless he had a way back home he was probably dead by now and Zeus was probably enraged. She had no chance to go home at the moment, meaning that Kassus was her only chance to survive.
Kassus, on the other hand, continued to walk in a slow speed, until he gave Aphrodite a side glance, some guilt and empathy grew in him. He took off his armor and grabbed it with his left hand just so he could get closer to Aphrodite. Silently, he wrapped his right arm around the goddess' waist in order to provide her some support so she could walk properly. She immediately leaned against his body, relying reluctantly on the hunter to continue their way to the man's shack that was not that far now.
"W-What?" she asked out loud weakly, before continuing. "Why are you helping me?"
Kassus gave her another side glance, before rolling his eyes. He could not believe she was forcing him to speak his truth out.
"Because I am a fool that feels pity for your greedy, little soul."
He continued to provide her support until the sun began to set, the remaining rays of light illuminating a wooden shack with a campfire in front, right next to a forest and the Apolakkia lake. He pointed with his armor at the shack, and Aphrodite's face lit up with both hope and fear. Maybe this man was telling the truth, but maybe, just maybe, he brought her to his home to finish her off. All her doubts diminished immediately the moment she heard Kassus' husky voice speak again.
"That is my home."
He continued supporting Aphrodite's weight, until they got to the entrance of his shack. Kassus reacted with some heroism and empathy, throwing his armor to the grassy ground and rushing inside the shack. He started to look for the antidote in the shelf of medicine, and grabbed a small bottle with a thick liquid inside of it. He rushed back to Aphrodite and handed it to her.
"Drink it all at once."
"Will it... really help?" Aphrodite asked back, her voice growing tired and weak with every passing moment. Her eyes had dark circles around them, her veins started to pop up in a dark purple color, and she was incredibly pale. She was not sure why she even asked, perhaps a part of her still held some of her usual stubborn behavior to not take the antidote immediately.
"Yes, I have been poisoned by my own armor once as well, and it helped me." He responded, before opening the bottle directly from her hands and giving her an approving nod. "If you do not trust me, I understand. But you will die if you do not drink it."
Aphrodite took a deep breath as she looked down at the liquid again. She thought of Hermes, and how she had failed to save him. She did not want to die like this. So despite the uncertainty and slight fear, she trusted the hunter and raised the bottle to her lips.
"I mean— I have to trust you at this point, don't I?" She said, before squeezing her nostrils to avoid smelling the thick and mysterious liquid.
She drank all of the antidote at once, feeling how the liquid was not only hard to swallow, but horrible when it came to taste. She was used to enjoy the richest of wines and nectar, not some strange liquid that failed to have all the cleanliness she is used to. As soon as the antidote entered her system, she began to feel slightly better. Maybe it was a good placebo effect, but it was also the fact that the hunter did not lie to her what made her feel better. She was forced to swallow her initial prejudgement the second she noticed Kassus acquiring his armor from the ground and taking it inside. Once he walked out of his shack, he was completely unnarmed and vulnerable, as a sign to show their silent truce until Aphrodite feels better. The gesture made the goddess let out a soft gasp of surprise, shocked at how the warrior was making himself vulnerable for her.
"Now that you are healing, you are free to go." Kassus said immediately, as he started a fire in his small fireplace, ready to give himself some warmth before sitting down on the grass. He was not just sparing Aphrodite's life, he was letting her go and he even started his night routine.
Initially, Aphrodite was puzzled, thinking that there had to be a trick, a trap for her or a divine reason why he was letting her go just like that. She could just escape, but then again, Zeus was probably mad at her and her curiosity was getting the best of her. She scanned the hunter silently, trying to read his mind or at least get a hint of why he was so kind out of nowhere. Everything made sense when she took a closer look at the man's clothing, noticing that the cloth covering his torso had fresh blood on the right side. Hermes must had managed to hurt Kassus, and left a good injury on the man's side. Concern filled her mind as she walked over to him, sitting down beside him on the grass next to his shack.
"You're bleeding..." She said softly, her eyes filled with worry and empathy.
"Please do not pretend to worry. We are not friends. My only purpose is to end your race." Kassus replied with a cold tone, covering his wound instinctively with his hand.
Aphrodite flinched at his cold words, but she could not deny the truth in them. They were not friends... in fact, they were pretty much enemies. That did not stop her from worrying about him, however. She pursed her lips in slight frustration before speaking up again.
"I'm not pretending to worry. Maybe we are enemies, but... I can't just ignore you when you're bleeding like this."
"You are the goddess of love, not the goddess of medicine. You know nothing about treating wounds anyway. You are useless." He snapped coldly, looking back at the river in front of him.
Aphrodite let out a soft huff of annoyance at his comment. She might not have been the goddess of medicine, but she was not useless either. She was the goddess of love and beauty, and that included healing too, even if that man was too stupid in her eyes to understand it. In the end, he was just a mere mortal, uncapable of understanding that life went beyond his poor knowledge.
"You think that just because I'm not the goddess of medicine that I can't help? You would be surprised at how much I know. And as for being useless... I could give you a list of things I'm capable of." She responded with her own bit of coldness, igniting the fire of her pride once again.
But somehow, she did not feel satisfied with her own pride. She was trying to prove wrong a wounded man, one that just saved her life. And she was back to being a careless goddess. She sighed, and before she could speak to apologize, she watched as Kassus lied down on the grass, and lifted the cloth over his torso to expose the deep wound on his right side. It was hard for Aphrodite to not stare at his body, but also at the way he was filled with scars that held hundreds of stories. It was clear that he had been through a lot, and that there had probably been times where he had been left to fend for himself. She took a deep breath before focusing her attention on the wound. She placed her hands gently over it, closing her eyes as she began to concentrate.
"This might hurt a bit..." She said softly, before sending her healing energies into the wound.
Kassus remained silent and completely still while Aphrodite was healing his wound, it seemed that he was used to feel pain. He only sighed once he felt his wound had healed, and sat back on the grass. He was trying his very best to keep a straight face and not be amazed by how easy it was for gods to cure wounds, to heal diseases. Part of him was amazed, and the rest of him was angrier of the fact that, with such healing powers, the gods never cared for the ill or the men dying of unfair reasons like poison or a monster created by the olympians themselves.
"Thanks. I will not kill you, at least not for now." he muttered between his teeth while looking away, as an attempt to sound cold, but his tone betrayed genuine gratitude.
Aphrodite let out a small sigh of relief once the wound was healed, her hands retracting back from his side as she got to a sitting position next to him. She listened to his next words with a mix of emotions. Although he said he would not kill her, his tone of gratefulness betrayed the coldness he was trying to display. Aphrodite was quiet for a moment, before she spoke up again, her voice softer this time.
"How would a man like you create a dangerous armor like that? I'm curious, no hard feelings."
Kassus was impressed by the sudden curiosity ignited inside of Aphrodite, let alone the fact that she mentioned no resentment towards him. As he continued to keep his eyes on the lake in front of him and the way the water flew calmly, he sighed. He was sure that sharing information would get him in danger, but he owed her the truth after saving his life.
"The people in Rhodes helped me forge it. I just collected the ingredients with some help of a few witches." he responded quietly, before continuing, now his eyes turning from the lake to Aphrodite. "A man like me has suffered a lot from your race, Aphrodite. It is common for your kind to create a couple of enemies on the way."
Aphrodite couldn't help but frown slightly. She was concerned, but not because of her own safety. She was concerned that the man had suffered so much in his life to feel hatred and nothing more towards the olympians. She could see it in his eyes, despite being as blue as the ocean, they were dim, lacking brightness at all. She was the responsible of that, and even if she did not care in the past, seeing it first hand started to pull at her heartstrings.
"I must confess... I never wanted things to turn out this way." She admitted quietly, her gaze on the ground, unable to look up at the hunter. "I cannot go back to Olympus and look at my friends with the same eyes. I've hurt so, so many people that..."
"That you feel guilty?" Kassus interrupted her, his voice doubtful. He leaned a little closer to her, his eyes looking for hers. "Hm. Perhaps you are not as disgusting as I thought."
Aphrodite's eyes widened at Kassus' confession. That comment was out of place, but it did not feel bad at all. She felt somehow relieved and grateful that the mortal man was starting to see her not as the greedy goddess she was, but as the soul that was underneath. She looked up at Kassus, and offered him a gentle smile.
"Thank you. You're not so bad yourself." She replied, her voice slightly playful.
Kassus raised an eyebrow, not ready to show her a smile of his own, but understanding the natural playfulness in the goddess. He rolled his eyes and got up from the grass, as he began to walk inside the shack. He left Aphrodite alone for a couple minutes, before he walked out of his home with a leather blanket and a cloak rolled and tightened to simulate a pillow. He threw them on the ground, and gestured with his head for the goddess to enter his home.
"Just be careful not to touch my blade nor my armor. Good night." He said as he dropped his knees on top of the leather piece and then lied down, shifting on the grass until he found the perfect position to sleep. He was offering Aphrodite a temporary bed until she felt confident enough to go back to Olympus.
Aphrodite was at a loss of words. Kassus did not only save her life, he was giving her his home to sleep. She felt strange, her stomach twisting into knots but in a good way. Despite her initial cautiousness, she got up from the grass and offered Kassus a smile.
"Thank you, Kassus. Good night to you, too."