You watched with wide and wet eyes as he fought sweat slicked and bloodied.
He never got a break- he toiled against each opponent. First three wolves, then a group of monkeys, then a lion and so on.
The lion was the hardest one to witness. The beast had left deep scars in his back, making crimson trickle down his back and stain his pathetic excuse for armour.
They did not care for him. None of the people in the crowd did. They cheered as the lion snapped at his face, just mere inches away. It's maw kept at bay only by a wooden staff that could snap at any moment.
Your heart felt like a heavy stone in your chest, your eyes immoveable as you watched him fight for his life.
He managed to kill the lion. Gruesomely. His right horn went through its neck, it's hot scarlet essence ran down like a river across his face and down his neck.
The crowd cheered once more, but most patrons seemed disappointed he had made it thus far.
He looked tired. You could tell even as you were standing so far away. His legs trembled as if threatening to buckle at the knee, but he stood tall. His chest rose like a ship in the waves, violent and unsteady.
You stood to the railing, finally moving after so long. Your hand found the stone railing, feeling the dust cling to your clammy hands.
You looked at him in awe, in hope. He had survived your father's challenges.
Your father looked at him in rage, blood rushing to his head and bile rising up his throat.
Your father grabbed you by your arm and took you away. You fought against him, pulling away,
"No- No, Father, let go of me!" You yelled.
Agapios recognised your voice. He'd know it anywhere. Even if he were deaf he'd remember the curve of your lips.
His head raised at the sound to see you dragged away by your father, whose glare froze his hooves from moving. But it could not stop his voice.
"(Name!)" He shouted, hand outstretched as if he could reach you from the tall stand.
You head snapped back to look at him, catching one last look into his eyes before you were torn away by the iron grip of your father's palm.
He dragged you through the corridors, spewing curses,
"I raise you to be pure- saintly, to revere the gods so they may grant us mortal pleasures in return, but you go behind my back and taint yourself with that vile abomination! I should wish Athena to put some sense into you and Hera to give you a proper marriage, but I see you yourself have been touched by Hecate."
Your breath caught at his words, never having heard such heinous things directed at you. No less from your father.
"Father- how, how could you-"
"How could I?" He stops in the middle of the hallway, looking into your eyes that boil with a sort of madness you'd only heard in tales.
You felt your eyes water again, and your throat become tight as you heard him continue on.
"I give you more than any girl in this kingdom has. I give you treasures that even dragons do not hold and foods Queens eat! I toil in the day to give you a good life, and you turn and scorn me by rolling with that bull in the hay! Shame! Shame on you and shame on me for not having noticed sooner!"
His shouts echo through the corridor, and faintly, you can hear your heart shatter alongside it. You feel like a favourite vase that has fallen. A thing once beautiful and revered now scorned and swept aside like nothing but a mess.
You could barely see him through the tears you tried to keep at bay.
"Father," you choked out, shoulders falling and face pulling as you held back a sob. Your hands clutched his shoulders as you felt your knees weak.
"Please, I love you- I never- I never wished to have shamed you," you looked up at him pleadingly and for a moment you think he may listen in the way the creases in his face soften.
"Please, forgive me. Forgive him- he has done nothing," you cry and then the anger comes back to his face. He pushes you to the ground and looks down upon you with disdain.
"You are no daughter of mine. Eileithyia made a mistake when she crafted you in your mother's womb." His words felt like a dagger to the heart which he slowly sank in.
"She would be ashamed of you," the knife twisted, and a sob escaped from your lips, cheeks becoming slick with tears.
He began speaking again, as if undeterred at all by your state.
"Myles is a good fighter...I shall ship him overseas so he may continue fighting and filling my pockets. And you, (Name) will spend your time in Athena's temple to serve her. Maybe then you will learn better. This decision is final."
His voice was as firm as iron. He began walking away and you called to him,
"Father, Father no, please- don't do this! Please- Father!" Your body felt like stone and your throat like ash, the fire in your soul wilting to meek flickers.
You watched his figure dwindle and turn around a corner, disappearing completely from view.
Your chest heaved, and your mind felt like water. But you could not stay here and weep forever.
Strengthening yourself, you stood and hauled your way to the maids chambers in the arena.
Cultivated out of urgency and not proper strategy, your plan was risky and full of holes. But if you didn't try, you'd regret it for the rest of your life.
You dressed like one of them, stealing the cloth from their chambers. You followed the whispers of the guards, followed carriages and tradesmen.
You would get on that boat with him. You'd give up everything for him- you had given up everything for him.
It was nightfall when you finally found the ship he had been docked onto.
You paid with your golden cuff for safe passage and crept your way inside, evading the curious looks from the crewmen.
You scurried inside the bow of the ship like a rat, scouring through the darkness to find him.
"Agapios....Agapios!" You whispered. The bow was shrouded in darkness. It seems cargo didn't receive light like the crewmen did.
Still, you found him by the soft grunt he produced at the sound of your voice.
In the dark, you knelt beside what you believed was him. As soon as you touched him, you knew you were right.
"You came," he rasped, rousing from sleep. He almost didn't believe you were here, thinking it merely something his mind conjured up.
When he felt your hands slide up to cup his face, he melted into you palms.
"(Name)" He sighed softly, relief evident in his voice to realise you really were here.
His thick, burly arms wrapped around your waist.
"What are you doing here? It's not safe- you should be home," his drowsiness was cut when it registered once more. You were here. With him. On a ship heading, Zeus knows where.
Although it was a pleasure to touch you again- to hear your voice once more. The fear that rattled inside him at your presence couldn't be ignored.
"You have to go back, (Name). It's not safe," he reiterates, trying to push you up onto your feet as he stays lying down.
You bat his arm gently,
"As if I could ever leave you, Agapios. My father has scorned me, I have no home to go to but you. And I would be damned if I let you go from me," you hushed him.
Despite the fact that the two of you couldn't see each other in the dark. That all you were to each other in this moment were disembodied voices and fleeting touches, the two of you had the surety that the other would never leave again. That the two of you were here for the long journey.
"Oh my heart," his large hand sprawled itself up your back and pulled you in.
The two of you embraced in the bow of the ship, covered and held in secret by the night as you had countless previously.
He stank of sweat and copper of blood. Yet underneath it all was him, and you drowned yourself in it. He was safe and in your arms, as were you in his.
In the quiet of the night, you two vowed to keep it such way until Atropos decided otherwise. And even afterwards, you would find each other again. In the next life and the next.
Wanted to try out a new art technique I learnt of recently (block out colours with shapes via lasso tool then copy and Gaussian blur to easily make lineart around them) and @duckinpink’s fabulous Agapios was calling to me as a muse.
I think he turned out very pretty, and I might keep the coloured lineart now (I really like how it looks so yay!)
i'm starting with my artfight references, but I got lazy and ended up not doing a proper character sheet hahaha, I still have time so maybe I'll do it later !
This is my boy Agapios, I love his stupid aaa 🙂↕️
anyways, twst sona based on the golden fleece - kreios the third year student ft their tiny guard dragon agapios
technically a scarabia student but they keep getting lost and often are found wandering around other dorms u u,, somehow they also keep ending up at rsa.... someone please teach them how to find their way to classes :[
