OF WAR Anthology Novels 1-3

by Lisa Beth Darling

  Raven coughed, choked, ran a hand down his face, and then started to laugh. “Yeah, ok. Do it again!”

  Her little Commander of Ice was also going to be a Water Baby; that made sense to her. Maybe if he stayed down here where it was warm and things grew, his frigid powers would turn warmer and so would his attitude. Besides, he should learn to swim or at least float. “All right, but listen to me first, if you open your eyes the salt in the water will sting but it will be ok. Don’t swallow the water; this kind of water isn’t good for you. Don’t try to breathe through your nose or you’ll choke…got it?”

  “Got it,” Raven agreed and held up his arms for his mother to pick him up.

  “Pinch your nose,” Alena advised as she picked him up and made ready to toss him a small way. Raven turned his head and looked at her in confusion. She put his thumb and forefinger on either side of his nose to hold his nostrils tight. “Close your eyes. Ready?”

  “Ready!”

  With a grin, she tossed him all of two feet so that his body submerged in the cool waters and he popped up again like a cork, screaming for more.

  Standing high atop the cliff, Ares looked down at the scene with a smile and teleported to the shore, not wanting to miss out on the fun.

  “Everything all right?” Alena asked when she saw him standing on the shore.

  “Just fine,” Ares returned with a warm smile and stripped off his belt, laying his weapons in the sand. His vest went next and then he made to remove the leather pants she loved so much.

  “Do you think that’s wise?” Alena asked, wanting him to strip naked and see him standing in all his glory under the hot afternoon sun, but thinking of Raven and modesty’s sake perhaps it was best if Ares should find some type of bathing trunks.

  Standing there half-naked with the buckle and ties of his pants undone, Ares raised a devilish eyebrow at his Wife. “It’s just us here. Why don’t you get rid of that dress?” She was up to her waist as it was; if she retreated from the water Raven and he would clearly see all of the loveliness the Gods had given her. “You can’t teach him to swim if you’re constricted by that gown.”

  “You’re horrible,” Alena whispered playfully. She would like to have a bathing suit of her own and she had searched her memory for the stores in Boston but it seemed they were all gone, so she couldn’t find one. “Think of Raven.”

  “The first woman a boy should see naked is his mother,” Ares encouraged, “she is the woman by which he will gauge all others, and if she isn’t sensual then what will his Wife be?”

  “Absolutely horrible,” Alena chided with a smile as she watched Ares let the leather pants fall to the sand and then step out of them. “So delectably horrible.”

  Raven had taken to wading in the water and reaching in to pick crabs that were so fast they weren’t always where he thought they were, when he looked up to see his Father naked and standing on the shore. The hermit crabs he’d managed to collect fell out of the palm of his hand and splashed into the water as his gray and amber eyes blinked, then grew wide. Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at his mother and then he looked down at himself, he even stood on his tiptoes so that he could peer downward for the best possible view. The thing flopping around down there that wasn’t useful for anything other than peeing was considerably smaller than his Father’s peeing-thing. When he looked up at Ares, there was no mistaking the question and disappointment in his young eyes.

  Ares let out a hearty laugh as he dove into the water. “You’ll get there, boy, don’t worry about it. All of the women will be glad for it.”

  “Yep, you’re horrible all right,” Alena huffed and rolled her eyes as she let out a little laugh.

  “Throw me, Daddy!” Raven screamed with glee as his fists balled up and he grabbed his nose with one hand.

  “Not too far,” Alena advised as she laid a gentle hand on Ares’ bulging arm. “He’s just learning.”

  Ares didn’t heed his Wife’s warning and let the boy stand on his shoulders. “Go on, Raven, jump. Show your mother what you can do.”

  Standing seven feet in the air, one hand clamped on his nose, Raven settled back on his haunches and then flew through the air. His knees tucked up under his body in a perfect cannon ball and he shouted out with sheer delight as he hit the water and splashed his parents. Ares went to retrieve the boy and looked back at Alena, who was now soaked head to toe. “The dress isn’t hiding anything now, take it off.”

  Now it was just a detriment trying to bring her under the water, and with a bit of hesitation she stripped it over her head and then swam toward the shore to toss it to the sand without exposing herself. Ducking under the water, she swam over to them and resurfaced near Ares, squatting down to keep her breasts covered. Ares found it very funny and then Raven began to laugh. “Your mother doesn’t want you to know she’s a girl,” Ares teased.

  “Girl!” Raven pointed at Alena as though he were accusing her of a crime before squealing for Ares to toss him through the air again.

  Shedding the last bit of modesty she was holding onto, Alena stood up to reveal her breasts to the sun and Raven’s eyes grew wide. It had been a few months since he’d last nursed and seeing them now seemed to have a whole new meaning. Rising up to his tiptoes again and looking out, he tried to see what his mother looked like under the water. His Father had a thick patch of hair over his peeing-thing, but his mother didn’t seem to have any hair or any peeing-thing.

  Ares looked down on the scene from over Raven’s small shoulder. “Looking for her cock, boy?”

  “Ares!” Alena admonished but he didn’t pay her any attention as he rose from his knees to pull himself out of the water and expose himself to the sun. “Cock,” he said again and grabbed a handful of his own tool. “Penis, that’s what your mother wants me to say.”

  “ARES!”

  The way she blushed was priceless and he drank it in as he held onto his cock dripping with seawater. “She doesn’t have one because she’s a woman. You and I are men.”

  Being a girl meant you had big tits and no cock; it also meant you didn’t have any fur down there. Raven wasn’t sure why that should be, but it seemed obvious enough. He looked from his mother to his Father, continuing to size up the differences between their bodies; she didn’t have any hair on her round firm tits and Ares’ chest was covered with it. She looked soft in places where Ares appeared hard. Ares didn’t have curves at his waist and his hip the way his mother did. Then, of course, there was that cock-issue a little further down the bodily line. “Does it hurt?” Raven asked in innocence as he pointed to the place that gave his Father so much pleasure. To him it looked as though someone sliced her open with a very large knife.

  Alena understood the lesson Ares was trying to teach but that didn’t mean she liked the way he was going about it. “No,” she answered with as much honesty, “this is the way all girls…all women, are made by the gods. We are different from men yet very much the same.”

  Raven looked back over his shoulder at his Father, “She’s pretty, huh?”

  Ares looked over at his Wife standing there hip deep in seawater, letting the sun cover the rest of her. “No,” he whispered, “she’s not pretty. She’s beautiful.”

  “Beautiful,” Raven muttered. Yeah, she looked ok to him. Maybe not all girls sucked. Maybe mom was ok. Raven’s curiosity on the matter only lasted a few more moments and then he was crying for Ares to throw him again.

  By the end of the day, Raven was swimming like a fish. He put his face in the water and opened his eyes even though it stung; he held his breath and swam through their legs like an obstacle course. Alena showed him how to do back flips and they soon competed to see who could do the most.

  As the sun set Ares built a big bonfire on the sand and laid out blankets. “I’m hungry,” Alena said and rubbed her flat stomach.

  “Me too,” Ares agreed and called out to Raven, who was wandering along the shore chasing after sidewinder crabs. “How about I teach
you to catch a fish, boy?”

  Raven looked back at his Father, his eyes shining and his belly empty. “Ok!”

  “This should be good,” Alena grumbled as she watched Ares get up and a trident appeared in his hand. “Spear fishing? You’re going to teach him to spear fish?”

  “Is there another way to catch a fish?” Ares asked before walking off and down to the shoreline where he taught Raven that he had to stand very still if he wanted the fish to come within striking distance. When the puppy came to live in the Fortress, Ares hoped Raven would remember this lesson in patience when it peed on the floor.

  “Be careful of his feet, will you?” Alena called after him. “I’d like him to go back home with two!” Nestled against the soft pillows by the bonfire, she sat back to watch Father teach Son how to fish.

  Ares told Raven that the water was deceptive, that it made something appear to be where it wasn’t and so Raven had to compensate for that fact if he hoped to spear a fish. In order to illustrate, he tossed a gold coin into the water and had Raven practice throwing the trident at it. After a few tries Raven got the hang of it and hit the coin dead on with each toss. “Good,” Ares encouraged and tousled his Son’s growing locks. “Now, you have to stand very still and quiet if you want a fish to come within striking distance.”

  Raven, still naked as a jaybird, stood knee deep in warm seawater, trident held at the ready, eyes scanning the area around his feet sunk deep into the sand. “I don’t see any fish,” he grumbled.

  “Quiet, they can hear you,” Ares whispered, standing behind him with one hand loosely on the top of the trident to keep it balanced.

  “Fish don’t have ears, Dad,” Raven groused and let out a grunt known to every parent as standing-in for; What are you? Stupid?

  Ares could contradict his Son but there was no point as it would only prolong a conversation he was trying to quell. One hand on his Son’s shoulder to keep him still, Ares gently guided the tip of the trident from the rear so that it followed along with their scanning eyes.

  Raven stood on his tiptoes waiting for a fish to come by but when one didn’t within three minutes, he began to complain. “I know a better way,” he whispered over his shoulder to his Father. “I can freeze the water.”

  “Poseidon wouldn’t like that,” Ares advised. “Besides, what would you learn from that? You already know you can do it.” Movement flashed out of the corner of his left eye and Ares quickly followed it, guiding Raven as he went. “There! Look!”

  Raven turned his attention to the water off to his left and took in the sight of a rather large fish swimming around a nearby rock. “How do I get it to come over here?”

  “Just be still. If you’re lucky, he’ll think you’re food and come up to investigate.”

  “Stupid fish,” Raven huffed. Why were all the creatures down here so dumb? The crabs and sea creatures his mother introduced him to were curious and fascinating, but insignificant. They weren’t big or powerful, they didn’t have any magick, and they didn’t even talk. “It’s ugly,” he remarked in a quiet voice as he watched it look in his direction. Their eyes met, and Raven could almost hear it wondering if it should venture further and have a little look-see at the legs in the water. It decided that it should and swam a little closer, but not close enough. It was big—over two feet—and brown. It had spots and thick fat lips drawn down in a never-ending frown. “Bet it tastes nasty.” Raven stood up on his tiptoes to peer down at the fish that was now fixedly staring back at him.

  “Now,” Ares whispered firmly and let go of the trident so that Raven could throw it.

  The boy’s aim was straight, true, and strong. The trident pierced through the meaty body of the Dusky Grouper and sunk deep into the sand below. “Got it!” Raven shouted out as he raised his arms high over his head to pump his fists in victory.

  “Excellent!” Ares said proudly. “Go get it.”

  Raven walked a few feet away from his Father, gave the trident a yank and hauled out the fish, still flopping on the end of the spikes. He looked up at the shore to see his mother staring back at him. She was smiling and clapping as she stood up to grab the hem of the flimsy gauze dress and then rushed towards the shore, beaming with pride.

  “Good job!” Alena praised him as Raven held out the trident to her. “Wonderful!”

  “Unstick it and clean it,” Raven told his mother, “cook it, and I’ll get more.”

  Ares didn’t like the tone of arrogance in his Son’s voice. “A little overconfident, aren’t you, boy?”

  While Alena tried to grab hold of the flopping fish and pull it off the spikes, Raven turned to his Father. “No.”

  “Don’t you think you should say ‘please’ to your mother?”

  Now the boy turned his eyes to her, only to see her still wrestling with the wriggling fish gasping its very last breaths. “Just pull it,” he demanded, and then reconsidered. “Please.”

  Alena managed to pull the bloody fish off the trident and let it flop into the material of her dress held out like a basket. She would take six more fish to shore before the sun set and they would eat very well under the stars.

  Raven slept like a sinking stone, exhausted from running naked and free all day under the rays of the warm sun, swimming, fishing, and generally just being a boy. Ares and Alena tucked him into one of the hammocks used by the women who once called the large cavernous room under the Master Bedroom home. “That’s better,” she whispered as she ran her hand across the sleeping boy’s tanned forehead and rested her head on Ares’ chest. “He just needs some room to run and to grow. All children do.”

  Alena had her points; there was no real interaction for Raven on Olympus and so it was no wonder he was spoiled and self-centered. Out here in the Mortal World his tune might change on its own as he encountered fascinating things that were larger than himself. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, Ares led them away from Raven and back to the bedroom. Closing the door, he looked over at her and didn’t have to ask what she was thinking. “Memories are good, aren’t they?”

  Alena turned around to put her hands on his chest and smiled up at him coyly. “The first night we shared this bed was magick.”

  “What about the nights after?” he teased.

  “All of them were magickal,” Alena cooed and buried her face between his pecs. “They still are.” No time was more magickal than the time they spent here on this small island. Not even Olympus with all of its power, history, and fading glory could compare.

  “Shall we see if it’s still good?”

  “Oh yes,” she slipped her fingers between his skin and waistband, “let’s.”

  II

  Early the next morning, Alena awoke to the feel of someone shaking her. She thought it might be Raven. He was already using the bathroom and didn’t know where it was here in the cave. Her sleepy eyes rolled open and there was a man standing by her. She let out a little cry but he just smiled as he hunched there as if waiting for her to recognize him and in a moment she did. She’d seen him before in a vision. “Raven,” she muttered.

  “I see you know who I am, mother. That’s good.” He reached out a strong young hand to brush it through her silver hair and exposed the new scar on her cheek. Remembering the day he’d put it there and what a brat he’d been all of his life, his heart dropped and desperation began setting in. “It’s not too late, if you grab him up right now and run to the Dark Kingdom, all will be well.”

  “No.”

  “They will shelter you, mother. They’re waiting for you to come home.” Raven turned his serpent-like eyes towards his sleeping Father. “You don’t belong with him.” Raven took hold of her hand. “Why don’t you believe me? Your love for him will destroy you. Mother, please, come with me. This is your last chance; I can’t come back again. Please?”

  Even though the hand clamped around hers was warm and strong, she turned away from him and toward Ares. “I’m dreaming,” she stuttered and closed her eyes, “that’s all, it
’s just a dream.”

  “Why do you love him, mother? He’s just as poisonous as Apollo.” He leaned in closer, knowing he wouldn’t win this fight and laid his forehead on the back of her silver head. The only thing that would ever part his mother from his Father was what was to come, and there was no stopping it now. The adult Raven resigned himself to that fact, even though it tore at his heart. “No matter what happens or how I hurt you, I want you to know that I’ve always remembered today and tomorrow. How proud you were of me. The way you smiled. I never forgot, never. I do love you, mother.”

  Alena felt lips on the back of her cheek. “I love you too.”

  Ares stirred and then grumbled, “Who are you talking to?”

  “No one,” she sighed and cuddled closer to her Husband. “Just…Raven.” The sound of her son’s name falling from her lips made her glance back over her shoulder to see the young boy standing there jumping from one leg to the next while holding his hand firmly between his legs.

  “Mom? Mom?” He shook her shoulder. “Mom, I gotta pee!”

  Confused for a few moments, Alena shook her head to clear it, certain she would see the older Raven there, but it was just her young son who had to pee in the middle of the night. She led him to the bathroom off the master bedroom and stood there while he did his business in the dim light of an oil lamp. “Are we still going ex-looore-eng tomorrow?”

  “Very good Raven, what a big word and you used it correctly. Excellent,” Alena praised him. “Yes, we’re still going exploring tomorrow.” Just as he finished up she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Alena took him back to the lower quarters and tucked him into the hammock. “I’m very proud of you; you’re so young and today you’ve already fed your family for the first time. You’re a good boy, Raven, and I love you.”