The Woods

Eurytus rode out of the forest. "No engineering the flag! Disqualified! And no blowing up the Ares children, even though we don't really object," he muttered. "So no dessert!"

Linos simply cut the top of the flag off and kept running. He made it all the way to the creek and was about to jump over when a huge wall of red force knocked him back. A roar cut through the air, drawing everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, towards it. Prochorus and Sophia felt themselves drawn to it. Eurytus sunk to his knees by the creek, his eyes fearful. The Ares children found themselves conscious, invigorated. Up in the sky, lighting flashed and the wind picked up. The trees started to creek, tearing at the ground, and the rain which started to fall dissolved in a flash of heat.

The Ares children found themselves being led to the flag, Stelios before any of them. Iason dropped to the ground, shaking.

"To free the Goddess, from all of her woes," he muttered, his voice harsh.

Eurytus shook his head, terrified. "Nature is at war with itself. The gods guide our steps. It appears, with all that has happened, we need a quest," he admitted. "We need to decide on a leader, who shall go to the Oracle for advice. Let us move out of these woods, to the border. We can decide there. Usually we'd head to the Amphitheatre, but someone," he glanced at the Hephaestus children, "turned it into a killer automaton, so it's still be fixed."

Eurytus proceeded to lead all the demigods out of the woods, the game forgotten. Once they were outside, he turned to them as they crawled to sit down on a variety of broken ancient Greek pillars and benches that littered the path towards the woods.

"So, who would like to put their name forward to lead this quest? The nature of which is unknown as of yet, however we do know a goddess has gone missing. I shall reveal the full details to the final members of this quest."

Iason's mind snapped back as he walked. The other Apollo kids were watching him warily.

'Sounds like a prophecy,' Aros muttered. Iason nodded. He had realised that. Even though he partially predicted it Iason realised he had no desire to lead. He waited to see who would put themselves forward. Maybe the new son of Ares? He had figured out Stelios was a son of Ares but it was interesting nonetheless.

(OOC: Fine, let;s redo this. It's better anyway.)

All the assembled demigods turned to Prochorus as she stepped forward, but just as quickly their eyes were drawn to Stelios. A fiery helmet appeared above his head, rippling and roaring into the air. The old centaur, who may or may have been a rapist, sighed fearfully. All of this was Ares' doing, to proclaim his son. Maybe linked to the prophecy uttered by Iason?

Eurytus cleared his throat to go through the old rites. Demigods inclined their heads.

"The bloodline is determined," he said, moving up to Stelios.

"Ares! Master of Slaughter, Lord of Civil Order, Destroyer.
Hail, Stylianos Giannakopoulos, son of the War God!"

Stelios looked around, completely mortified. He had absolutely no idea how to respond to this. He'd reckoned that Poseidon was his godly parent, not Ares, though it did explain a few things. Still though, what had his father meant then when he told him he was a gift from Poseidon? Had his father simply got it wrong? Did he mean something else? Either way it didn't matter any more, he had been claimed as a son of Ares and that was that. Stelios just looked around at everyone present, grumbling to himself, his features looking quite menacing.

Stelios shuffled back into the crowd. The attention seemed to have shifted to who should lead this quest and he'd like it to stay that way. He was unsure if whether or not he should get involved anyway. As Stelios moved back, Alkimos took a huge stride forward and planted his spear into the ground as if he were a conquering hero.

"I will lead this quest!" He proclaimed, "as head of the house of Ares, I am the best warrior and the strongest amongst us! If anyone is to save the goddess, it'll be me!"

Stelios just continued to look around, grumbling to himself as everyone else argued.

"I fought monsters for twenty three years whilst going through my Agoge!" Alkimos roared, "I am Spartan born! Descended from Hercules himself! A son of Ares! I am the strongest! I should lead!"

"Ha! Resorting to personal insults are we boy!?" Alkimos scoffed, his tone quite threatening, "what would make you a better leader than I? Nothing. You don't have more experience, nor are you as skilled as me in combat! You're just a boy! A lost, unclaimed boy! Even the mercenary has been claimed!" Alkimos shot a look over Stelios who glared back at the brute, tensing slightly, worried attention would be drawn to him.