God of War: Daughter of War

When morning arrived, as Kratos had been serious about wanting some rest since it had been some time since both he and Flurry had taken a break from the constant fighting, he emerged from his room and returned to the deck without delay, allowing him to see that the merged crew was hard at work ensuring the ship moved as intended. Flurry, as he expected, was already up and about, as he could see his daughter training with Deimos, away from the rest of the crew since neither of them wanted to interrupt anyone else, just like he had taught her over the years. He then had to remind himself that there was one more addition to the family now, as Pandora wanted to be adopted into the family and, since Aphrodite was fine with it, he had fulfilled her wish without wasting time, and right now his newest child was training with her new sister and her new uncle. Of course he noticed that she had been true to her word, someone had granted her a mark that was nearly identical to his iconic red mark, not to mention Deimos' birthmark, with the blue coloration she desired, giving her a mark of hope like she wanted, though her hair remained intact, as no one messed with it.

As he watched for a few moments he noticed that Flurry and Deimos were already teaching Pandora the routine that they had grown used to doing every morning, when they weren't busy fighting for days on end, and while it was perfectly clear that Pandora would need some time before these became second nature, she didn't seem to mind, rather she seemed happy with her new life.

"She seems to be enjoying herself." Athena commented, as she had been standing near the door that allowed the crew and the passengers to come and go from the insides of the ship, simply waiting for Kratos to emerge as she thought about the goshawk and what it's message meant for them, causing her to turn towards the God of War, "Kratos, have you come to a decision on what to do about the message that was delivered to us?"

"Yes. While it is strange to receive such a thing, it lines up with our current plan." Kratos replied, because before the bird had arrived he and the others had been planning on leaving Greece, to allow the titans to rebuild and fix the world without their interference on things, so having instructions on what landmarks to look for, to find this 'bridge', made their original quest that much easier, even if he was wary of shortcuts.

"Flurry and I thought you might say that, so we told the captains to remain on course for the time being... we have yet to find the first marker, but we'll locate it eventually." Athena said, as she had taken a few moments to commit the list to her memory, even though she was sure that the gods knew every inch of Greece and had to wonder what this 'bridge' was, as it was unknown to her and the others, even Apollo didn't seem to know about it, "Artemis has sent out a few of her birds to see if they can find the path that was mentioned... she and her brother just want to make sure we're not sailing into a trap of some kind."

Kratos nodded as he thought about the message for a time, as it didn't seem like something someone would send if they wanted to kill someone, especially a large group like their fleet, especially with the fact that the goshawk had the icon of an olive branch with it, showing that it came in peace.

"I appreciate their concern, even though the bird came in peace." Kratos stated, as some gods hesitated to trust the olive branch, and who could blame them after everything Zeus had done over the many years they knew him, but Flurry held no such opinions, she trusted both the goshawk and whoever sent it, and while he trusted everyone else he trusted his daughter far more than everyone else, causing him to sigh, "One thing does concern me: with all the people we have, do we have enough food for everyone?"

"Yes, thanks to some special storerooms we created before you and Flurry went to war with Zeus." another voice said, to which he and Athena found Artemis walking over to them, though she seemed happy that people were accepting her and her brother more than they had in the past, as now everyone knew about their more animal forms and seemed to have accepted how their gods looked, "Hecate helped us magically preserve and protect them, and since we had no idea which direction you would decide to sail in we stashed them all over Greece... she's been helping the recovery group head to all of the locations, though we're looking for an area to bring them to so the fleet can stop for a time."

Such a thing caused him to think about the information he was being given, as while he knew the layout of the islands that made up Greece, thanks to his many years as Sparta's youngest general, most of those islands were now underwater for the most part, so determining an area for the recovery group to teleport to was hard for him to figure out as well.

I might be able to help. a third voice said, where they found that someone new arrived, a lady who looked like she was a phantom and wore a robe of sorts that seemed to be made of flexible stone, before Kratos realized who she was as he looked at her face, one he recognized.

"Gaia?" Kratos inquired, though as the others looked at the earthen specter he realized what they were seeing, the titan had likely found a place to settle in, so her magic could be used to stabilize and help Greece heal from their war with Zeus and his corrupted allies, and a small amount of her power must have been used to keep an eye on them in case she could aid them in leaving Greece.

Yes, Kratos, it is I. I can't spare too much of my power, but there is an island near you that has a magical bubble that I can raise for you. Gaia replied, where Kratos realized that it couldn't be one of Poseidon's, since the God of the Seas was dead, meaning it was either one of Hecate's or it belonged to another god or goddess who wasn't aware of what was about to happen between the Olympians, You should be able to use it as a gathering point for your supplies, and for anyone else who isn't part of your fleet.

They thanked the phantom projection of Gaia, likely taking a smaller form to avoid causing panic, and when she vanished Kratos told his family and the other gods what was going to happen, while Athena and Artemis delivered the information to the rest of the ships. Flurry felt the change in the air a few moments later and watched as an area off in the distance started to shift, where she and everyone else found a magical bubble appearing where she was looking, confirming that Gaia was moving the island up to them, even though it was likely going to sink once they were done with it. It wasn't one of the massive settlements they were used to seeing, nothing like Sparta or even Olympia, but from what she could see there was plenty of room for everyone to move around and move the saved supplies to each of the ships, plus there seemed to be a smithy as well. Her father and the others stood by her as it emerged from the water, exactly as Gaia said, and once it was done moving they carefully directed the ships to what appeared to be a dock, which was perfect for them since that would make things easier for them.

Flurry decided to remain on the dock with several other individuals when the ships found places to dock, where she and the others watched as Hecate opened portals to the areas that the supplies had been stored in before directing those who came out of the portals to the various ships. She found that there were all sorts of supplies among the containers, such as meat, fruits, vegetables, and everything else that the survivors could have packed when their gods told them to get ready for the war between the gods, which was due to Apollo no doubt. While she stood there, nodding to people and quickly directing them to the ship that needed the supplies in question, it was easy for her and her father to see Pandora walking off into the settlement, no doubt to burn some time before they had to leave for the next part of the journey. Kratos stood there for a time and watched as she stopped at the smithy, no doubt someplace she knew fondly thanks to her time with her actual father, where she seemed to sigh for a moment as she touched the structure, which flared to life suddenly, a fact that caused her to pick up some loose material before hammering at it.

As the pair watched, however, the light shimmered around her and they were sure that an image of Hephaestus appeared near Pandora, who glanced up for a moment before seeming to talk to it as she worked, because while it looked like she had no true idea in mind, for what she was working on, that wasn't the main focus of her visit.

"Hephaestus must have infused a bit of himself into his essence... a final message for Pandora." Flurry commented, where it was easy for her to see what was going on, the Smith God had left something for his wonderful child that would only likely appear when she needed it the most, likely to help her calm down, and her father nodded for a moment, "Let's leave her be... she still needs some time alone."

Kratos said nothing as he joined Deimos and Albis in moving some of the supplies onto their ship, which was far too easy for him to do since his power allowed him to carry more than a mortal person, be they a soldier or a civilian, could, and all those they helped appreciated what they did for them. Eventually Flurry joined in as well, instead of focusing on just directing all of the supplies around to the various ships, though she did find that one group had a stone statue of Aphrodite that Artemis and the others wanted to add to the collection they had gathered beforehand. It was one of the smaller ones, similar to the statues they passed by when approaching the Fates' resting place, though Flurry did help those carrying the statue by taking into into the cargo hold of her ship, since that was where it was supposed to go, causing her to smile as she found the rest of the statues they had seen earlier. There was one for Aremis and Apollo, both in their true forms, one for her father and her uncle, the worthy and righteous gods of Sparta, there was one for Athena and Hecate, allied gods who did everything to aid them in their time of need, and now one for Aphrodite, seven statues for seven gods, soon to be eight with many realizing that Pandora was now a goddess herself.

As she turned to leave, however, something caught her eye and forced her to change the number when she decided to see what it was, only to be surprised when she discovered one of her statues, but not as a human, like Hera ordered, rather it was of her in her true form, just like the statues of Artemis and Apollo.

"Despite being told not to make any statues of your true form, some of the artists defied Hera and made this." Artemis said, as she had noticed the statue of Aphrodite being brought down here and followed after Flurry, knowing she would find her own statue and would no doubt have questions on why it was here, or why it existed in the first place, though she found that the huntress was happy to see her own statue, and her brother's, as well, "They said it didn't feel right, making a number of false statues for you, but they went along with Hera's unreasonable demands and then made this one while no one was looking... imagine their joy when Zeus smashed all of the false statues to rubble, since their true statue of you was safe and sound."

"I imagine they were overjoyed, even though their homes were lost." Flurry replied, because the artists who made the new statues of her father, her uncle, and her false human form had done well in capturing them in stone, where she knew that they would have a field day or week making Pandora one to cement herself in their history as a goddess.

Artemis nodded her head before the pair departed from the cargo hold and returned to the main deck, finding that most of the supplies had been collected and were accounted for, as Hecate was making sure of that, causing Flurry to return to her father's side as Pandora walked down to where he was standing.

"Are you okay, Pandora?" Kratos asked, because while he had given her the time to speak to the message Hephaestus had left for her, while simply hammering on something without the desire to shape it, he wanted to make sure that Pandora was fine and that the ordeal hadn't left her injured in some manner.

"Yes, just... processing things." Pandora replied, where it was clear that she was still saddened by the loss of her father, despite the fact that they had avenged him and likely made him happy with the death of both Zeus and the Evils that had been infecting some of the other gods, but her smile was still on her face, "Don't worry, though it'll take me a few days to get used to everything, I should be back to normal in no time Kratos... um, I mean, father."

"Take your time. We aren't rushing you to accept everything that's happening." Flurry said, as she fully understood what Pandora was going through, especially since she knew the girl was used to calling Hephaestus 'father' thanks to the many years she had with the Smith God, and her own father understood it as well.

"How did you do it so quickly? That's the part I still don't understand." Pandora asked, because she knew Flurry's story due to all of the tales she heard over the years, even listened to some while she was contained inside her prison in the heart of the Labyrinth, but even then there were some pieces of the puzzle that no one really knew about.

"When I appeared near father I had no memories, save for my name... kind of easy for me to build from that point." Flurry replied, as this was a question she knew people would ask, especially since it had come up a few times in the past, so she was able to answer it as quickly as she had in the past, though at the same time they started to board their ship as the rest of the crew finished floating the rest of the supplies.

Once everyone was accounted for, which was easy to do since there were no enemy monsters to worry about, Kratos and the rest of the gods got the ships underway, where Flurry kept an eye on the unnamed island as Gaia sensed that they were done with it and allowed it to sink into the water once more, at least until the water levels could shrink after some amount of time. After it was gone she and Pandora trained for a time, as she wanted to see just how skilled she was and how much the family had to teach her new sister, in the art of combat to be exact, though neither used their actual blades and weapons, since this was just a test of her current skills. Such a thing allowed her and Kratos to confirm what they had seen during the end of their war against Zeus, she had enough skills to keep herself safe, thanks to her self training, but it gave them something to work with for the entirety of their journey to the bridge that had been mentioned. At the same time Kratos pulled out the bow they acquired from Typhon, confirming that it still possessed it's power, before seeing how Pandora was with a bow, only to find that she really didn't have any skills, meaning Artemis had something to teach her, a fact that pleased the huntress.

Since he had two bows, as Apollo allowed him to hold onto the flaming bow he recovered while they were in the portion of the Underworld that one of his followers was in, Kratos figured that Pandora could have the wind one and he would hold onto the fire one, meaning she would have more teachers to learn from, instead of just one teacher.

Other than that there didn't seem to be more more for the group to do as they sailed, where Flurry spent some time with Artemis' birds, keeping an eye out for the first marker that was on the list that her father wanted them to follow, while also helping Pandora learn how to adapt to her new life. There were some sea creatures that decided to bother the ships, not that it overly mattered since the combined forces of everyone on the ships were able to bring them down without allowing them to endanger the civilians, and even Stheno's gorgons picked up weapons to aid them. It was different from how the various people of Greece used to live, their opinions on certain things clashing with each other, rather they were a united front that were working towards a common goal, causing Kratos and the other gods to nod in approval, as this was a step in the right direction. Even Aphrodite, someone who wasn't used to working hard, occasionally came out and helped them with their work, even though Kratos knew part of her was likely hoping to figure out a good time to help Flurry with one of the lessons Albis had been unable to teach her in the past.

On the third day after the end of their battle with the Olympians, however, Kratos stared at the area in front of them as he, Flurry, Pandora, and everyone else noticed a pair of large statues that reminded them of Apollo's from Delos, though none of the older gods knew what they were currently looking at.

"This must be the first marker." Kratos commented, because if even Athena was confused by what they were seeing, with all of the mist that seemed to be around the pair of odd warrior statues, the right one being a warrior that didn't exist in Greece at all since it looked ready to survive a wintry area with the furs over it's armor, then this had to be the start of the path that the goshawk's letter had revealed, "How do we activate it?"

Flurry stepped forward for a moment as she pulled out two artifacts, the Eyes of Truth and the Lantern of Helios, where she channeled the latter's power into the former for a few moments before loosing a burst of revealing magic that quickly washed over both statues, causing them to vanish as their magic was dispelled, leaving behind a faint yellow trail of dust or magic in the air.

"Of course she'd keep artifacts like the Eyes." Apollo remarked, though at the same time he nodded his head, because it seemed that Flurry, once again, happened to be the key to many strange things, and they had to appreciate her habit of stockpiling important items from all of her adventures.

"There's the path. Follow it and we should find the second in a couple of days." Flurry stated, speaking after landing near the others as she put the items away, causing her father to nod as he informed the captain of what they had to do, which caused the ships to get moving again as they started along the path that would bring them to the 'Land Between Realms', after following the path anyway.

Flurry kept her eyes on the path that was in front of them, as she had no idea how long it would take them to reach their destination, but she was happy to see new things, especially if the odd warrior statue was to be believed, and was eager to see what the future held in store for them and the fleet.