F/D Ch33

Fate/Defiance

Chapter 33 [Grub]

By theMadLad

Most of the children in the camp were wary of the larger boy with dense muscles tightly wrapping his smaller frame, after all, they had heard about how he had brutally killed his previous mentor in a sudden bout of anger.

…All except two.

“Hey Heracles, come punch the shit out of this wall I built, I want to see how strong it is!” Icarus shouted out at the large boy with excitement in his eyes.

“Oh! I want to see!” Jason yelled out from nearby as he ran over to Icarus with his eyes tracking his idol, who was slowly walking towards them in confusion.

Heracles walked over hesitantly, unused to be interacted with so suddenly, especially in such a friendly way. “…You want me to hit your wall…?” He asked in confusion.

Icarus nodded in quick repetitions with excitement blatantly worn on his face, “Yes, yes—punch it as hard as you can!”

“…Why?” He asked nervously, Heracles had watched the effort Icarus had put into that wall, it was days worth of effort only partially completed even nights after him and the others had already finished their cabins.

Heracles was well aware of his own absurd strength, and the connotations that came with it.

Others were afraid of him, and not without reason. The memory of the mangled corpse belonging to his former mentor would never allow him to think otherwise.

He had even noticed how his mortal parents would hide the fear in their eyes when he came near, and although he knew that they cared for him deep down—it didn’t change the phantom ache that would linger in his heart.

It was subtle alienation, but even then, it was still a comfort to the direct alienation given to him by everyone else.

People feared what they could not understand, was it any wonder that he, a boy feared by all those he came across, couldn’t even understand himself?

The current Heracles was far from the Hero of Legend he would one day become, and not just in body—but in mind as well.

…Because right now, he was just a lonely boy with a lowered sense of self worth, who was nervous about making friends.

“Why? So I can see if it is strong enough.” Icarus spoke while looking at him with a strange expression, as if asking, ‘Didn’t I say that in the first place?’

Heracles was speechless, and although he had many questions he wanted to ask such as ‘Aren’t you afraid of me?’ or ‘What if it breaks?’ they all died on his tongue as Icarus interrupted him.

“Remember, maximum effort! Punch it with all your strength!” Icarus shouted as he directed Heracles to the large white brick wall in front of him… before retreating to the distance while dragging Jason with him.

…So with no other choice, Heracles squared his toes, brought up his hands—and punched with all of his strength!

Instantly, the clearing exploded with dirt and dust that was torn from the ground from the sheer force of his punch! A loud crash rang out as the wall was blown into the ground while the uprooted earth was thrown into the surroundings.

Icarus watched carefully as it happened with narrowed eyes from behind a tree next to Jason, who was huddled beside him with stars in his eyes.

Soon enough, the dust cleared, and Icarus quickly walked over to get a better look. Other than the uprooted dirt due to Heracles’ punch forcing the wall out of the ground, the wall was fine.

Perfectly fine even.

Icarus smiled as he dramatically brought up his hands before kissing his fingers in a dramatic fashion, “Haha! It’s perfect! c'est magnifique!”

They didn’t understand.

But Icarus didn’t quite care, he was too exhilarated at seeing how strong his wall was. Even though Heracles was far from his prime, it was still a staggering achievement for it to take his punch unscathed.

But even young, he shouldn’t be underestimated, as Heracles, who was heavily injured, had almost killed Icarus on the spot with a single blow when they first met—yet even then, the wall was not left with even a single scratch!

“…Now I just have to build the rest of it.” Icarus murmured to himself.

It was a tedious prospect, but quality did not compromise!

“…I could help, if you want?” Heracles spoke hesitantly from the side. He was nervous about Icarus accepting, as although they had a semblance of rivalry and comradery from their previous battle… they hadn’t really interacted since.

Icarus looked at Heracles in surprise, before a genuine smile pierced through the excitement written on his face, “Oh? …That would be much appreciated.”

For the first time in a long time, Heracles could say he responded with the same kind of smile—a genuine one.

“Now then, help me dig this pit, it’s some good practice for scooping up shit.” Icarus spoke while patting Heracles on the shoulder encouragingly.

…Well maybe that smile became a little forced towards the end.

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Icarus had changed up his plans a bit. Instead of making his entire house out of the concrete bricks, he instead decided to use them to make his workshop into a basement while building a regular cabin over it.

He only had so much Volcanic Ash to make the bricks from, and without any volcanoes close enough to obtain more… he simply didn’t have enough of the material.

He could either choose to make his workshop or living area out of it, but not both. So, with the help of Heracles, he dug up a large enough pit to build a basement out of.

It took much less time than expected, almost entirely due to Heracles help in digging out the basement while he himself created more bricks and slowly laid them out.

Icarus also had Heracles move his previously made wall into one side of the basement before he laid out the floor and the rest of the walls with bricks.

The two of them worked for quite some time, but with Heracles’ strength and Icarus’ efficiency, they got it done by nightfall.

Icarus still had to make an entrance into the basement, as well as the cabin itself, but felt it was great progress and he was immensely satisfied.

“Thanks.” Icarus said with gratitude as he tiredly patted Heracles on the shoulder with a weary smile, “I appreciate it.”

Heracles smiled in response, with barely a hint of exhaustion shown on his face, “I’m glad I could help.”

“Now, let’s go get some grub!” Icarus shouted as he walked off, beckoning Heracles to follow.

“…Grub?” Heracles murmured to himself in confusion, before he soon followed along with a shake of his head.

They soon made it back to camp, where the others had started a bonfire as the sun finally set. Ivarus noted that the fire was strangely stable, lacking the usual flickering of light and cracking of wood.

It was… peaceful, especially with the stars dotting the sky above hanging as a backdrop to the heavenly bodies that were the planets in the sky.

Icarus couldn’t help but be tempted to stare at them, but merely glancing at them brought pain to his eyes… nevermind directly focusing on them, otherwise his eyes just might explode.

But even so, that passing glance did allow him to glean some insight, as they seemed to have had a similar feel, color… aura(?) to that of his fellow campers… bar Atalanta, and himself.

It was definitely something to look into.

But, at another time.

Icarus smiled as he heard the loud voices surrounding the bonfire, with Jason bragging about something to Castor while Pollox gave fleeting smiles to Atalanta, who was nibbling on a small leg of cooked meat at the side.

…Asclepius wasn’t there.

He couldn’t help but walk up to her and give her a nice pat on the head, seeing her nibble the meat like a rabbit instead of trying to savagely tear it apart and swallow it alongside the bones was a very much welcomed sight.

And very cute as well.

“She’s savoring it, you know.” Pollux’s voice spoke to him from the side, as Atalanta stopped leaning into his hand and instead puffered her chest up in pride in response to her words.

Icarus looked over in confusion as Pollux gave a cheerful smile that accentuated her dimples, “The food she’s eating, she hunted it herself using a bow!”

His eyes shot open in surprise as he shot Atalanta an incredulous glance. Although he had been training her to use the bow in his free time, he had yet to truly take her to apply that training.

He was simply too busy teaching her how to function as a human being.

He was sad that he missed it. It was a shame to miss the Chaste Huntress’ first true hunt. It was even more of a shame to miss such a moment with someone he saw as his little sister.

But he hid that tinge of sadness behind a smile as he quickly congratulated her, “Oh! And what was it?!”

Atalanta seemed to somehow puff herself up even higher as she broke her greasy lips from the cooked meat and replied with a prideful tone.

“A w-wabbit!”

Pollux couldn’t help but squeal at Atalanta’s adorableness and quickly pulled her into a tight hug… and to Icarus’ surprise, Atalanta didn’t fight against it.

He felt jealous! His little sister was being stolen away from him, and the thief didn’t even have to put up with her mangly claws and their scratches like he did!

…But seeing the small curl at the edge of her mouth as Pollux squeezed her, eased his heart.

Although he may have missed her hunt, he was glad that Pollux was there for her in her stead. He didn’t want her to be dependent on him, as his greatest goal for her wasn’t to raise her into a hero, or anything like that.

But instead, to help her become a human being and not some feral child… and it seemed that she had finally taken her first step.

A friend.

Although that didn’t change the fact that he still felt a bit grumpy about her starting to spread her wings and leaving him.

…And now his thoughts jumped to his no longer functional wings, which only made him grumpier.

But then Chiron’s words about improving them through the use of Magic Circuits came to mind and he could feel his mood rise a bit. Although he couldn’t use them properly, it didn’t mean he couldn’t make them better while brushing up his skills which were lacking.

In the end he just tossed it out of his mind and grabbed a skewer of meat that was placed by the fire before aggressively chewing it with an aggrieved expression.

All the while Heracles watched from the side in amusement as he took another bite from his food… still pondering what was the ‘grub’ Icarus had been speaking of prior.

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“Your physical strength still needs some work.” Chiron commented from the side.

“Y-yeah.” Icarus stammered as he struggled to breath while sweat dripped freely from his pores.

He had been doing resistance running on a trail of sand that Chiron had set up, and it was especially draining for the tendons on his feet.

“Time for a cool down.” Chiron instructed as Icarus quickly followed his orders, collapsing on the ground with huff.

Chiron gave him a raised brow before he spoke up in a repetitive tone, “Remember to breat—“

“—Breathe, I know I know.” Icarus interrupted Chiron as he quickly began to control his breaths in the way that Chiron had instructed before.

He could feel the pumping of his heart slow as a relieving warmth seemed to permeate his body along as the air filled his lungs.

“…aah, Much better.” After some time he sighed in relief, before being interrupted by a gust of wind that knocked him to the ground, “Hey!”

Chiron used magic to create a gust of wind give him a heavy push while cleaning his body of all the sweat and sand stuck to his skin, “Now, go take a bath.”

“On it.”

It was a few minutes later that he submerged himself in a steaming bath, filled up in a large tub fit just for one person.

It had medical treatments that were experimented with by Asclepius. The medically obsessed guy would force them to write about everything they felt and thought of it, and if any of the campers were unlucky enough to catch him while he was out and about… they would be subjected to an examination.

Fortunately, Icarus was lucky this time around.

He felt the aches on his body start to dissipate as he submerged most of his head into the water, only keeping his face afloat as he was lost in his thoughts.

Training, Inventions, Cabins, Hatches, Wings, People… he had too much on his mind as of late, with so much work to get into and not enough stamina for his young body to bear it.

Although his strength had improved, he lacked the sheer weight of divinity he could feel and see from someone like Heracles or Castor, but that didn’t mean his own ‘essence’ was empty.

It was hard to look at them with his eyes, his vision always wanted to delve deeper into them, burning their metaphysical weight into his eyes… not to mention the connection lying beneath.

It was a struggle.

He lacked the same overwhelming color and weight when he looked down at himself, but that didn’t mean he was empty, no on the contrary.

He was full of something, it’s just that he couldn’t grasp what it was. It was like describing a color that didn’t exist, or a detailed memory from a distant dream.

He just couldn’t do it.

But that wasn’t to say it was only on himself—no, his eyes saw this unidentifiable thing… everywhere. It seeped into every essence, whether that be a blade of grass or the raw divinity contained within Chiron.

But it was especially pure within him.

It was… rather mysterious.

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Author’s Note

Hey.

How you doing?

Me? Not so well, but eh, it’s getting better.

Sorry for the lack of well… anything. I have been having a tough time, but like in the wise words of Johnathan Wick:

I’m thinkin’ i’m back!

Thanks to everyone who reached out, might take me a while to catch up to everything, but I am alive! Expect more updates soon, and I will be replying to all the PM’s and such soon, sorry for the wait.

This chapter is much shorter than I would have liked, but it was probably one of the toughest I’ve ever written.

It was such a bitch.

Things will pick up pace soon.

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