The Colchian air was tense with the promise of war and even on this blustery morning in the early spring, the chilled wind seemed to be whispering promises of glory in the ears of men of all ages. From the bravest of generals, examining battle plans on final time to even the smallest of children, running about with wooden swords; this was a day of anticipation for all who called the rocky kingdom home.
All through the previous night, sailors worked tirelessly to load the last of the ships that would be taking these courageous soldiers off to a far off land to fight. Little Babis of Eliades could almost see them from his bedroom window, moving about like little ants down on the docks as the early dawn began to settle over the city. The six-year-old had practically glued to this vantage point for hours as he watched with a clear sense of childish wonder in his eyes, his brilliant mind imagining what it would be like if he were preparing to get on those ships and have adventures of his own. A small sniffle could be heard in the room, seemingly unnoticed by the sleeping form of his twin brother just a few feet away.
If this sniffle was from the weather or if it was the last remnants of last night’s tantrum of when his father had told him very firmly that he would not be going, Babis would not admit.
Though his reddened cheeks made the truth plainly obvious to anyone who was paying attention to him. As childish as it was for him to be upset over something that would clearly never happen, Babis felt as if he was entirely justified in the fit he had thrown the night before. After all, it was hardly fair that he wasn’t allowed to follow the other men off to lands afar. He was already six! He was halfway to becoming an adult! Plus he knew how to swing a sword and he almost nearly hit the bullseye in his archery lesson yesterday. There was no reason that he could see as to why he shouldn’t be allowed to go too! However, his parents had been firm. The answer was no and that was final.
As logical as his parents were, Babis didn’t agree with it and as the sun grew brighter, the sense of injustice within him expanded as well too. It took almost no time at all for the boy who had never learned how to listen to a “No” in his life had resolved that by Hades or high water, he would be on that ship and he would get to have all the adventures he had read about all his life.
So, quietly, so that he might not disturb his sleeping brother, Babis pulled himself away from the window and made his way back over to his bed. Reaching beneath the wooden frame, he pulled out a small leather knapsack that was given to him for adventures just like this. He moved about the room, grabbing a few clothes and his favorite toys before shoving them into the bag. A gentle snore from his other half caused him to pause for a moment, wondering if he should rouse his twin and drag him along on this too, but surely the war would be done soon, even before dinner if he was lucky! Aras could sleep, for now, Babis would tell him of all of his adventures later.
With that, Babis grabbed a wooden sword the boys often used in their games along with a child-sized bow and quiver of blunt arrows that would never stick in a tree, let alone anything else. Slinging these over his back, Babis glanced around the room one last time with a smile plastered on his face as he crept out of the chamber, ready and eager for all the adventures that the day would bring.
It also didn’t take him much effort to sneak out of the manor itself as he had become an expert in doing so long before this day. After exiting the manor, he made his way to the back of the house where there was a tree with quite a few low hanging branches that Babis used to haul himself into the air until he was level with the large wall surrounding the estate. With a bit of careful footwork, Babis was able to leap from a stronger branch onto the stone structure with hardly anything more than a small thud from his landing. Once he was on the edge of the wall, he was able to quickly jump into a pile of dead leaves that had fallen from the overhanging branches extending past the wall. These cushioned his fall and prevent him from getting anything more than a nasty bruise on his leg, a small price to pay for the unsupervised freedom the boys were always trying to secure through their schemes.
Once he was free from the danger of being caught, Babis ran towards the docks of the city. He dashed through the upper and lower levels as well as the center of the city. Shortly, in almost no time at all, Babis found himself staring down a ship with a flag decorated in Kotas symbols with nothing more than his small bag and toys. The ports were almost deserted as the men he had seen earlier were now focusing on other ships, giving the boy a clear chance to make this childish dream of him becoming a soldier a reality. There was no one to stop him as he confidently walked up to the gangplank as if he was meant to be there even though he should have been tucked up in bed, fast asleep and far away from any of these ships.
For a few moments, he had free rein of the main deck which in itself excited him until he realized that there was nothing there that would be of interest to the boy. Already quickly growing bored, Babis began took notice of a nearby door that when he tested the knob, he was pleased to see was unlocked. Without a second thought, he went inside and found himself in some sort of planning room, meant for the leaders of the campaign to prepare for the task ahead of them. Being too short to see what was on the table itself, Babis dragged a nearby chest to the far end of the table and scampered up onto it, caring little for the scraping noises it was making that could be heard outside of the room.
His expression lit up in excitement as he realized the whole thing was a map complete with carved pieces to represent the forces of men that the army was bringing with them. Babis could see bears and dragons, dogs and snakes. Without thinking, he reached out for one of the pieces close to him, a small golden dog that represented his own house. He accidentally knocked over a bear and snake in the process, but Babis didn’t care all that much as he sat back down on the edge of the chest and inspected his treasure.
For a moment, he marched it around the map, gleefully shouting about leading an army of his own in his own game of pretending when the sound of nearby boots approaching the room gave him pause. With eyes wide with the fear of being caught, he watched as the boots stopped just outside the door and the handle turned slowly.
Squealing in fear, Babis kicked the chest back a bit as he dove under the table, counting on the room’s darkness to hide him. However, he had done nothing to fix the mess he made nor did he try to hide the noises he made as he watched the boots belonging to a scary, unseen man enter the room.
Knowing full well that all the man had to do in order to find him and send him home was glance beneath the table, Babis silently whimpered as he clutched the small dog to his chest. He was too afraid to do anything as the boots came closer and closer...
Vangelis was tired. The good kind of tired that only sunk bone deep after hours of labour for a good cause. And securing cargo, supplies and resources for a trip abroad to defend your kingdoms national boundaries? There was no better cause. Nor such an important one. As such, Vangelis had spent an excessive amount of time, over the course of the day, personally inspecting the goods and supplies and checking their numbers and specifications with the administrative scribes all day long.
It wasn't his normal routine. Normally, Vangelis would leave such matters in the hands of Nike, one of his Captains. He had been trusting her more and more recently with responsibilities of import and testing to see how far she might progress up the ranking ladder of the army despite her disadvantage of being female beneath all that armour.
This particular trip, however, was a standard supply run. Made to ensure that the King had ample restock of his men's basic needs in the Northern Lands. And it had tied in with Nike's short period of annual leave. In such a case, Vangelis had insisted the woman stay in Midas, find herself some lodgings, for once, and take time for herself, before returning at full strength. Vangelis might not have believed everyone's advice regarding the benefit of regular leisure time and rest periods were, in any way, designed or desired for himself (for he hadn't had a break from his triple responsibilities as prince, baron and general in years) but he was aware enough to recognise that it was good general advice and that he might as well spout it once and while to his subordinates.
As such, Vangelis had spent the day handling both his own responsibilities and that of his Captain Nike, attending to the minutia of the plans and loading of the ships, as well as performing the role of leader and instructor. Over the course of the day, a half dozen ships had been prepared for launch, their bellies full with cargo: food stock, wood and fabrics, weaponry and mended armour... and their sails drawn and ready for release once further out at sea.
Every ship had had its infrastructure and own features triple checked as well. For it would do them little good to have a perfect supply of goods in each vessel only to see half of them sink into the Northern Straite. The health of the skips themselves were of equal importance to the appropriate quantity of resources or the way those resources were attached in the cargo holds of each boat.
All in all, the day had been long and full of minor issues or hiccups that had had to be dealt with one after another in painstaking fashion. As such, by the time the sun had set and evening had progressed strongly into night, Vangelis was tired. And whether it was a good tired or not, it made him grouchy and ready for his bed back up in the Kotas manor. For he would be staying there one final night and the ships would set out in the morning.
By this time, most of the men had left to return home to do the exact same thing. The only soldiers still around were those on guard, watching to ensure no ships were sabotaged or displayed signs of issue that were not previously caught during the preparation stages for launch. Come morning, the docks would be littered with people once more, all scrambling to get on deck, secure sails and haul anchor, ready to head to the North and to their King.
Vangelis had some final checks to make on his own vanguard vessel, however, and - with three bodyguards in toe, he ascended the gangplank of his own ship, turning on his heel upon hitting the deck and heading straight down to his captain's quarters where he knew he had left some of his personal possessions and documents that needed to be secured.
Reaching the door and intent on barring and locking it against intruder, Vangelis froze with his hand on the wrought iron handle when he heard a noise from inside. A hurried scuffling. As if someone was shifting around the room at a quickened pace.
With a call to his men, his voice no doubt booming through the door - at least in tone if not in clear words - Vangelis snapped at those behind him.
"Who left this door unsecured?" He wanted to know, before reaching to unsheathe one of his long knives from his waist. His swords were too long for so confined a space.
With a shove of his shoulder, Vangelis pushed the door wide with a loud thwack as it ricocheted against the wall behind and shook on its hinges, his boots carrying him into the cabin with heavy, stomping strides. Due to the hollow spaces of the chambers below - the cargo holds of the vessel - each of his steps seemed to echo and boom through the floorboards.
With a sweeping and sudden look around the room, Vangelis was instantly able to recognise a lack of danger. There was no leaping attacker, no-one poised to strike. His men behind him seemed to visibly relax a little at that but this did nothing to diminish their alertness for what had intruded upon the room.
With a young nephew only about six years old in age, not to mention his younger sister and brothers - the youngest of which were significantly his junior - it was neither unfamiliar nor difficult for Vangelis to piece together the shifted trunk, the pieces that now lay scattered across his map (some still fallen where they were clearly following one of its lines) and the swaying of the curled ends of parchment against the side of the table - where someone had clearly darted beneath it, setting the paper rocking back and forth.
Surprising as it was that a child had breached his private domain on the ship, given the size of the room, its lack of hiding spots and the size of the space beneath the table, the only conclusion Vangelis could make was that their trespasser was, indeed, a juvenile.
Taking two quick steps across the rest of the small room, Vangelis - still holding the knife in hand, squatted down suddenly, the blade rested against his knee as he glared down at the little boy who came immediately into view.
"What-" Vangelis demanding in a dark and domineering voice. "-do you think you are doing on my ship?"
Babis had been smart to immediately duck under the table when he heard the crown prince of Colchis approach the cabin door. Even from his hiding spot, shielded from the rest of the room by the cloth above him and the natural darkness of the space, he could hear the angry tone outside of the door. The words themselves were muffled to the scared boy just wanting a taste of adventure, but he basically understood what the man was saying.
He knew that Babis was in the room and he was not happy about that fact.
More nervous than he had ever been in his life up until this point, curled his arms around his knees that were now tucked up against his chest. Babis buried his face in the fabric of his tunic, almost as if he was trying to hide within his hiding spot, as he whimpered slightly. His fingers held onto the little dog figurine so tightly that his knuckles turned white as tears threatened to overflow his eyes. His slight sniffle returned as he could hear other men approach the closed door as well. For a moment, a singular second in time, there was a blissful silence and Babis hoped that it was a sign that the men were not going to come in….
THWACK
The boom echoed throughout the room, almost hiding the boy’s shriek of fear as the prince entered the room with strides that shook the ground that Babis was curled up against. The man, who could instantly tell where the young boy, quickly marched over to his hiding space. To the Eliades child, this seemed to be as if the man already knew that he was there. He didn’t need to survey the room. It was almost like as if he had just simply smelled the air and found the boy.
This only added to the terror pooling in Babis' chest which came out in short raspy breaths and small tears at the corner of his eyes. When the man came to a stop in front of the table and squatted down to get a look at this intruder, Babis instantly scooted back. His eyes widened in a panicked terror as he saw the unmistakable glint of a knife in his hand. Both his breath and his heart quickened their pace at the sight of the blade. The blood rushing past his ears roared so loudly that Babis almost missed the statement from Vangelis that was meant to scare the boy.
Oh, did it work.
To Babis, this sounded like a monster. No one in his life ever spoke to him in a deliberately menacing way. Not even Uncle Mikael whenever he told scary stories of the selkies who roamed the seas or the hundred-handed ones, hiding somewhere in Greece. He didn’t know how to comprehend the tone itself, never mind the words. Yes, Babis understood that Vangelis was asking him why he was on the ship. However, the young boy couldn’t string together a single thought of how to respond. The words just jumbled together in his mind instead, forming incoherent phrases that not even he could decipher. He was so terrified that the usually talkative boy was stunned absolutely speechless.
Though this wasn’t just because the boy had been caught. No, instead it was a bit deeper than that. You see, because of Babis' position under the table, he couldn’t quite make out the features of Vangelis as his face was cloaked in shadow. All Babis could make out was that there was a large looming creature in front of him, holding a knife, and speaking in a tone so dark and menacing that Babis couldn’t even respond. The shadowy figure before him was more monster than man.
What made things even worse was that after a moment, Babis recognized the voice as belonging to Vangelis, the Crown Prince. He had heard the man speak at events before, so it wasn’t unfamiliar to him. However, didn’t know what it was capable of, only adding to the boy’s confusion as it didn’t sound like the Vangelis he knew.
All of these things combined at once in the boy’s mind as he continued to stare wide-eyed at the man, light sobs racking his chest. His over-active imagination began to fill in the gaps that Babis didn’t understand with the things that he knew. Suddenly, within only his mind, the shadowy figure came into focus, not as a man, but as a beast.
He could see green skin form as the man’s fingernails turned into claws, sharpened at the edge and ready to rip poor Babis apart. If Vangelis smiled, he was sure he could see crooked teeth that would glint evilly at the boy. The knife was no longer a weapon drawn to protect the room’s secrets when the men believed that there was another adult in the space. Instead, now it was a carving knife, meant to help tear the boy apart and serve him for dinner.
In an instant, there was no longer a man before him.
Vangelis had become an ogre.
Given Babis’s young age, this terrified the living daylights out of him. He needed to get away from this monster fast. Glancing down at the small dog still in his hand, instead of answering the prince’s question, Babis threw the figurine at the man. Taking advantage of the distraction, the boy scurried to the other side of the table, pulling on the cloth to help himself up. The room was filled with a deafening clattering noise as all the other little statues topped from their carefully arranged places. Babis didn’t go as far as pulling the tablecloth off completely, but the damage had been done. The pieces were everywhere and any careful plans that had been laid out on them would have to be redone.
Scrambling to his feet, Babis tried to bolt for the door, but instantly skidded to a stop when he saw the three burly bodyguards blocking his way. His own fear kept him from seeing them as men too, they were ogres just like Vangelis. Backing up to get away from the knives, Babis pulled his wooden sword from the belt loop on his tunic, made to mimic his own father’s sheath and started swinging wildly, luckily not hitting anything in the process to keep the four men away.
“No!” The scared boy screamed at the top of his lungs. “I won’t let you eat me!”
In the shadows beneath the table, it was impossible for Vangelis to see who the small child beneath the piece of furniture actually was. With darkness masking his finer features, he could tell only that the child had short hair which meant he assumed the kid to be a boy. Other than that, there was nothing distinctive that could be identified from his hollow of a hiding spot. No way of knowing if the child was rich, poor or even homeless. Which meant he had no idea as to the motivations of the boy invading his ship and personal cabin.
Having hunkered down beside the table and having no clue of the impressions he was making in the darkened room, as his guards - having identified that the issue was not of a great threat - moved to light a few of the candles beside the door. His features were instantly thrown into mutating light, spurring the young boy's secret thoughts. Unbeknownst to such assumptions, Vangelis took the hand that was free of the blade and reached in beneath the table.
"Come..." He stated, about to insist that this was not the play for small boys to play. But the gesture clearly frightened the child as Vangelis was suddenly hit in the neck with a small wooden projectile. He had seen the little dog figurine coming and so didn't react to its impact - though it smarted a little as the Eliades sigil scratch at his skin. Instead, he was already reaching for the boy.
As the child scrambled beneath the table, trying to use the minimal attack as something of a diversion, Vangelis reached for the kid, half blind beneath the desk. His fingers managed to brush the soft and supple leather of a boot but the boy was crawling the wrong way for him to latch on or secure a stronger hold. Instead, he was already at the other side of the table, forcing Vangelis to stand back up to try and address the kid as he appeared out the far side. It was as he was getting to his feet that he saw the table cloth go. Reaching for it, it was too slow, his large fingers a little clumsy on the linen, the force of a small boy's entire weight, no match for the pressing of his palm against the table top.
With an loud cacophony and clatter, Vangelis closed his eyes momentarily as he took a second to accept that three hours of the afternoon's work had just been lost at sea and that all of the set up for their future mission would need to be re-illustrated. Hopefully he would be able to remember all of the details.
A frustrated noise in his throat for a moment, however, was all the signs he gave of his internal frustration. He reminded himself in that second that children were children but it was hard not to be annoyed.
The scuffling on the other side of the table hadn't ceased, however, and when the boy finally stood back up, his features now more easily discernible. Indeed, he was male and - as Vangelis had already surmised from the soft expense of his little set of boots - he was of noble birth. In fact, Vangelis recognised him as one of two sons of the House of Eliades who had been rumoured to be particularly troublesome. Though he hadn't much encountered them on a personal level, and Vangelis certainly couldn't remember the faces of all the children of the royal and noble Houses, he could identify this one from the fact that it was normally accompanied by an identical duplicate. It was the only realised he recognised the boy to be one of Photis and Marisa of Eliades' sons. Which one, of course, he had no idea.
Whichever it was, he was spunky, as he jumped to his feet with a look of fear stamped all over his face - clearly holding in emotion and presenting a political mask had yet to be a lesson he mastered - and in a fairly fluid motion for a boy of his age, drew a wooden practice sword from his waist band.
Waving it around with more force than skill and more passion than strength, Vangelis noted his guardsman glance his way on what to do. Any man who raised a weapon towards the crown prince of the kingdom was at risk of immediate death by the guardsman that protected him. But this was a small child with a wooden toy and hardly a legitimate threat. So, what were they supposed to do?
With the wave of his hand to send them back out of the room and only the deck, Vangelis approached the boy personally. The last thing he wanted to do was have the two soldiers inadvertently hurt a member of the Colchian royal House. At least he would be outside of any retribution should the child's hyper activity get either of them into the territory of bruises.
With an exhale of patience, Vangelis strode towards the boy quickly, intent on disarming him of the weapon before he did any more damage to the room, the boy's cries that he wouldn't let them "eat" him, only making Vangelis' face twist and upper lip curl in amusement.
Reaching out as the boy struck forward, Vangelis caught the wooden sword, it's edge - dull from its material instead of the sharp blade of metal - hitting him square on the palm. Wrapping his long fingers around the blade, Vangelis simply lifted, the boy's arms behind forced about his head and his feet lifting from the floor.
Without a word, Vangelis turned and started to carry the boy from the room, stopping to pick something up along the way and then exiting the cabin. Before the child could drop to hide back inside, the prince shut the door firmly behind him with a heavy kick of his boots and ordered one of the men to stand guard over it this time.
Two strides had Vangelis at the other end of the ship’s little corridor, at the foot of the steps leading up to the deck and a quick jerk of the sword he held, had the juvenile intruder's grip unlatch and his feet hitting the floor in a stumble.
"Up." Vangelis ordered with the sharp jerk of his head up the stairway. "Move it."
As Babis wildly swung the sword in the darkened room, he was oblivious to how irrational the situation had become. Yes, he was a child, but by all means, he should have realized that these shadowy figures were not monsters intent on turning him into their next lunch. They were just men who needed to get this child off their ship before he ruined anything else. Any person with an ounce of logic and a pair of working eyes would be able to see that quite plainly.
However, this child was still young. The stories that he was told of Gorgons and demigods still seemed real to him. More real in fact, than the world of complex politics that he had been born into. He didn’t know that rooms like this were meant to be protected at any cost. The boy was just too young to understand that drawing a weapon in the same space as the ogre with Vangelis’s voice could easily have brought him a death sentence if he had a real sword instead of the wooden one. He didn’t grasp the concept that these rough and intimidating men were not intent on hurting him, they just wanted him off the ship. Babis was just a child. His mind couldn’t comprehend any of this and rationally explain to himself what was really happening. He needed his imagination to fill in the gaps and explain why everyone was reacting so badly to him being here.
His inability to truly understand what was happening easily worked off his own fear of being in trouble, keeping the nightmare alive as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. The child could clearly see that these so-called monsters had taken on the shape of humans. Seven hades, he could even almost see their amused and curious expressions as they glanced over at Vangelis, wondering what they could do. However, this did nothing to set the six-year-old at ease. In his world, he knew that monsters could look like people and Vangelis, in particular, was one of those creatures.
This was all that was on Babis' mind as he watched the crown prince climb to his feet and quickly dismiss the other guards -- which within itself was a terrifying feat as it meant he must be a really powerful ogre to chase off others from their lunch without a single word. That alone was enough to confirm the monster was dangerous and did nothing to stop Babis from wildly swinging the wooden weapon about, screaming all the while, trying to keep Vangelis at bay as he strode over to the boy, shaking the floor beneath Babis with his sheer weight. It was only made worse by the echoing of the hold below, a sound that Babis was not used to and only heightened the fear in his mind as the noises were louder than they actually were.
Amid the unintelligible nonsense that was leaving his mouth, a few phrases could be made out including, “No! Go away!” It was said with all the force of an order that Babis might have barked at a servant during the midst of a tantrum, only further confirming his status as a well-to-do member of society. Not that Vangelis needed it, already knowing that he was an Eliades child. Honestly, if Babis had known the thought process behind the Prince narrowing down his identity, he might have been a bit offended that it wasn’t clear to him that he was Babis and not Aras. Even at this young age, the boys were remarkably different in personality with the younger twin being more adventurous and impulsive than his brother. If Vangelis knew anything about the boys who could have been his sons if the fates hadn’t decided a different story for the child’s mother, he would be easily able to instantly which twin this was.
But then again, that alone was probably enough reason to not pay attention to the boys. In truth, Vangelis was probably thanking his lucky stars right now that Photis was the one who had to deal with this wild child and not him.
For a moment though, his shouts faltered as the young boy was able to catch in the candlelight Vangelis’s lips curling into a wicked smile. A new course of fear shot through him as in his mind, it only confirmed what Babis already believed to be true as he could only see malice in his expression and not the amusement that Vangelis was actually conveying.
However as the prince drew closer, he began wildly swinging again, hoping that the quick movements would be enough to deter the giant from getting close to him… as if anything would deter the stone prince.
When Babis swung again, Vangelis reached out and caught the blade faster than a viper attacking his prey. The boy couldn’t even react in time to get away before the man lifted the toy up into the air, bringing Babis with it. Within a moment, Babis was swinging about in the air, essentially being puppeteered by a man who was unbothered by the weight of the six-year-old. His shouts and screams reached a new ear-splitting crescendo as the boy kicked about wildly, trying to get this evil monster to drop him. However, he was held just out of reach of the Kotas man, meaning that the boy was achieving nothing, but becoming a larger nuisance than he already was.
Babis tried to drop from the sword several times, but every time he moved to unlatch his fingers, Vangelis would move the sword just enough to force the boy to stay on. After all, he was considerably high in the air for a child, thanks to Vangelis’s towering stature, and the momentum the boy was creating was only bound to hurt him if he was stupid enough to let go and try to find another hiding spot in the room… which of course, was what he was trying to do. He was a stupid, foolish child after all.
Somehow Vangelis managed to keep the child under control long enough to get him out of the room and lock the door behind them. Only then did he force the child to let go, sending poor Babis to the floor. As soon as the boy regained his balance, he tried to look for another means of escape, but the guards from earlier were in the hallway too. Even he knew that if he tried to run, there would be a least a half dozen people chasing after him. He may be quick, but he wasn’t fast enough to outrun all of them.
Especially if they were all monsters in disguise. He had heard scraps of legends from the north, how creatures could take the shape of other beings. Babis all but knew that Vangelis, who he could clearly see that he did not have the monstrous claws or green skin he originally saw beneath the table, was one such creature. He had heard his mother say it herself when he once overheard a conversation between her and his father.
He couldn’t remember all the words exactly, but he knew that his mother had said something along the lines of, “The North changed Vangelis, hasn’t it? He’s not the same anymore.” Babis didn’t hear his father’s reply as it was a snippet overheard by the twins during one of their late-night raids on the kitchen, but this coupled with the legends he had heard was enough to convince Babis that a monster had taken over Vangelis. He was an ogre now -- or whatever that word they had for the monster was.
So, even though this creature looked like Vangelis, he knew it wasn’t really the prince. It couldn’t be. All the logic Babis could muster told him it wasn’t. Instead, this was a monster, leading him right to the cooking pot to turn the young boy into dinner. He had to get away and he had to do it right now or he would find himself a bowl of stew. However, his options were limited. The door behind them was locked and the guards were too close for him to run past the stairs into the darkness of the hold. The only way he could go was the direction that Vangelis wanted him to go; up.
It wasn’t ideal, but if Babis could run fast enough it would have to do.
Without skipping a beat, Babis pulled himself back up to his feet and took off, bolting up the stairs with a speed that was certainly unexpected from a young child -- one of the perks of Babis focusing so much on athletic abilities. He very quickly bounded up the steps, running away from Vangelis and the guards, who would be foolish if they weren’t following closely behind.
It only took him a moment for him to reach the top of the steps and find himself back in the bright light of day. In a split second, he looked around the open deck and spied an open hatch that other workers were now using to fill the hold with the last few supplies that would be needed for the journey to the front. Perfect.
Babis made a beeline for the dark opening, hoping to duck inside and out of sight of the monster chasing him. If he was quick enough he could manage it too. He was smaller. he had speed on his side, but would it even hold a candle to the sheer divine-like strength of the crown prince who’s patience for this scared, defiant child was surely beginning to run out?
The boy's scrambling, yelling and general tantrum throwing phased Vangelis not a jot. He was a man used to handling battlefields, savages in the north, barbarian warriors and the gripes of his own men. He had managed to successfully fight down any man who came to him nose to nose and he had taken the heads of more men than he could count. A six-year-old in the middle of a random, fever-induced, temper tantrum was hardly a vicious force to be reckoned with in Vangelis' book.
He was, therefore, a little slow following the boy up the steps to the deck of the ship. He walked rather than ran as the Eliades boy did, but he did so in proficient moves that had him scaling the stairs two at a time. As such, he was close on the boy's heels when they reached the darkening sunshine above. It was nearly dark now, but the sun was offering its last few rays above the horizon that sparkled light across the sail over his head and the wooden planks of the open floor of the boat. With a surprisingly athletic stride for his age - Vangelis had seen Dion run and it was more a childish lollop than the sprint of their intruder - the kid set off across the boat, turning sharply and making a beeline for the open cargo hold.
With a stunted growl of frustration and a resisted roll of his eyes, Vangelis took off after him, able to read exactly his choice of plan and knowing it would be a pain in the rear end to try and tempt a small child from the inner recesses of the cargo hold if he reached the opening and dived in. Not to mention the injuries he might cause to himself by throwing himself bodily into the own chasm reserved for boxes and chests and sacks of cargo - a lot of which was armour and weapons and not exactly the soft landing of hay and corn.
Whilst the young boy was athletic and efficient in his movements, so too was Vangelis. And at six foot two, his limbs were significantly longer than that of a young child's. He broke the distance between them, ate up the difference in their speeds and was upon the Eliades child, just as he reached the open edge of the cargo hold and shot out a hand. His fingers tightened around the young boy's tunic and snatched him clean out of the air, mid-leap, before setting him down on the desk of the ship with a thumb.
"Run around like that and you'll hurt yourself on this ship." Vangelis said in a hard tone, his hand transferring to the boy's shoulder and giving him a hard shake. "This is not a playground, Babis of Eliades." This last he took as a guess that just happened to be right. He knew the twins of the Eliades house were different in personality. One was outspoken and adventurous, the other more quiet and thoughtful. He had heard others in the Colchian court talk of it. In all honesty, however, he couldn't remember which name belonged to which twin. But he had a fifty-fifty chance and he wasn't a man afraid of making a mistake. And, he needed the child to listen. Perhaps to realisation that Vangelis knew who he was would shock a little sense into him.