Chapter Text
Odysseus breathed deeply as he stood as close to the Trojan walls along the balconied area as he could, holding Hector's son out, suspending him far above the ground below.
“I'm just a man…”
He dropped the infant, turning himself away to hide from the view of its now dead body below.
He took a step to walk away from the balcony, inside the palace once more and make his way down to the rest of the Greek men below. That is until he heard the flapping of wings above him and his body froze.
Oh, no. Not another god to have to interact with…
…
Grian was still in shock at the scene he'd bared witness to, as well as his new situation.
First, he woke up in a pretty dense forest on a hill — almost reminding him of Last Life and its plentiful and thick dark oak trees around the Southlands.
Second, he sees the smoke that can only come from a great fire over the treetops once he climbs his way up there.
Third, he flies over to investigate the fire and finds what looks to be a very decisive battle in a rather small kingdom.
(Though, the only kingdom the Lifers have made in the series wasn't exactly any larger than it, so who was he to say it was small?)
And finally, he sees a man, dressed in what looked to be the armor of ancient times, dropping an infant off a wall.
Grian knew now that he was definitely not on a Life server; there were no infants other than the baby villagers and they didn't look anything like the infant that had now died from fall damage.
His wings shook for a moment, still keeping him in the air, and he took the choice to glide down to the balcony the ancient-armored man was on.
When he landed, the man’s stature was tense, his back straight and his body facing away from Grian. He decided it would probably be a good idea to hide his wings…
“Hello,” Grian said, drawing out the "o".
His already small frame was curling in on itself just slightly. His fists were clenched into tight balls, not shaking just yet from the evident intensity he held within himself though.
“…Hi.”
There was a long pause between them. The still ongoing war raged on beneath them.
“So, uh… why exactly did you do that?
The man turned his head around after a moment. “What?”
Grian’s face fell from the nervous smile he wore. “You dropped an infant off a wall, dude. Why?”
“The gods foretold him destroying my family and kingdom. What else was I to do?”
The macaw avian froze for a moment at the mention of gods, soon forcing himself to relax so as to not alarm the man.
“Gods?” He inquired, hoping to all that was ever sacred that it wasn't the gods he was familiar with that the man was talking about. After all, it was very much like the watchers to tell someone to kill another just for the heck of it under the guise of protecting the person from danger…
The man paused, turning to fully face Grian.
…
Odysseus had probably never been more confused in his life.
A strange person with strange clothing had just appeared after the sound of beating wings above him and asked why he dropped the son of Hector off the wall. And it was worth mentioning that in place of his ears were small wings.
Were lesser known gods just out of the loop of fate and prophecy? Was this man a god? And if he wasn't, how did he get up to the Trojan wall so quickly? Why did he hear wings above him before the man appeared? And why were his ears replaced with wings?!
The questions were spinning around Odysseus’ head at high speeds, far too fast for him to rationalize any answers to them.
And the person had questioned about the gods themselves to boot.
Just who was this man?
“What do you mean?” He slowly asked the stranger.
The wings on either side of his head spread out and his face changed to a look of discomfort. He looked away slightly, fiddling with his hands as the wings on his head.
“Ah, well…” he cleared his throat, “Which gods do you mean, I suppose.” He looked back at Odysseus. “Who exactly foretold that?”
“Zeus,” he said almost immediately.
If this man was a god, or related to one (probably Hermes if that was the case), Odysseus wouldn't want to find out what other unique features or skills he had… He needs to be cautious with the gods he doesn't know.
The stranger's brows furrowed just under his dirty blond hair and his mouth pressed into a thin line.
…
He was… confused now. Immensely so.
Zeus? Like, as in the ancient god Zeus?
The man before him was wearing ancient armor and the city did seem to look rather… behind in its weaponry advancements.
There were no TNT minecarts — there was no TNT in the first place, it seemed, evidenced by the lack of explosion holes in the city — and there didn't seem to be enchantments at all!
No enchanting!
Grian paused his train of thought, having realized something very important.
At least it wasn't the watchers.
He blinked and took a deep breath.
Okay, so you've been transported into a different server and a different time. No biggie. You've gotten out of worse before.
He felt the wings on either side of his head curl inwards as he swallowed his emotions.
He smiled tightly. “Okay then.” He nodded, then took a full look around the city below them. His tight smile fell considerably, turning into a frown.
He was vaguely reminded of the first season, Third Life, and of the war between the Pizza Alliance and the Red Army that had ended so many lives. Almost every player had lost at least one life during it. Ah, Red Winter… Such a horrific time of death and loss.
Though, the war happening now had made the Red Winter seem like a small skirmish. There was fire burning the walls surrounding the city and he saw a massive wooden horse at the gates when he looked there. It was all overwhelming cries of anguish, of victory, and of mourning and the incredibly high temperature surrounding Grian, making him increasingly uncomfortable within the city.
He looked up at the storming clouds above him and the man, taking a deep breath in and letting it out as he closed his eyes.