"Mimoza," Granit said, "please tell your flying rat that the dog ten times its size will devour it when given the chance."

They walked up the hill together, letting the dusk descend as the forest lines became harder to see. The albino bat sat inside Mimoza's satchel. It looked over to the side, and hissed towards the dog following them. The dog tilted its head in confusion.

Mimoza only petted Nikki as it gnawed her satchel strap like a newborn baby would. "She knows your mutt is all growl and no bite. Just like its owner."

Astrin yelled from behind them both, "burn!"

Granit grumbled. The dog walked closer to the satchel, sniffing the bat like it were inspecting it. Granit said, "your rat will be dead in a week if it keeps hissing at Brutus."

Mimoza replied, "you keep saying that, but I'm beginning to think Brutus sees Nikki as part of his own litter."

Right on queue, Brutus licked the albino bat on the face. Nikki licked the dog back in response, even nibbling on an ear when given the chance. Granit said, "Brutus, its going to eat your eyeballs out."

Brutus whined a bit, but allowed the bat to continue nibbling. Eventually, the bat leaped out of the satchel and landed on Brutus' head, making a nest out of the large dog's head. "Good girl," Mimoza said, "teach Granit to eat his own words."

"Why do you ruin everything I love?"

Doing missions together was nothing new to the three of them. Granit was a Scythian slave that had been adopted as a child and raised in Athens for most of his life. He'd come to like life as an Athenian mercenary. Ten years Mimoza's senior, he was perfectly content with delegating responsibilities to Mimoza if it meant making things easier for himself. Despite being an older man, his body was wide and muscular. He had a lifetime to hone in on his physical prowess, and it made him intimidating as a guardsman.

Astrin was a bit more of a drifter. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, Astrin never knew how handsome he truly was. He'd make a fine husband and warrior if he was willing to apply himself, but he was too lazy to do so. 'Path to least resistance' was how he approached life. It allowed for his intelligence to truly shine, but at the cost of other skill sets.

"Dances of lights in the night forests," Astrin hummed warmly. "I know we're investigating kidnappings, but I half expect we'll be facing ghosts once we get there."

Granit shivered, "bad omens then. I say we turn back before we piss off a spirit."

Mimoza said, "you know we can't do that. We would be terrible slaves if we did that."

Granit said, "speak for yourself, I'm only in this job to beat up poor people."

Astrin commented, "I envy your commendable fortitude." "

Granit said, "it's not the work I dislike, it's angering spirits that I'll want to avoid. I can swing my sword at some bandits anytime, but I can't do the same against spirits."

Mimoza rolled her eyes, "well, from what I heard, you could just dance the spirits away."

"It doesn't really work that way," Granit grumbled, "I'm on good terms with all the gods from Greece to Babylon, I don't want to start angering any of them now."

"He has a point though," Astrin commented. "Never in history has angering a God helped anyone. Just ask Odysseus."

"They're probably not spirits," Mimoza said more casually. "It's more likely slavers luring children away from their homes. Using lanterns of lights to attract them to the forest, only to take them away on slave ships north from here.

Astrin shrugged, "I'm still with the theory that the kids just ran away. Dumb little bugs don't know the difference between home and the bottom of the ocean."

They reached the end of the forest clearing. Dusk finished settling in, the tree leaves became night as they left the brush said and faced the clear hilltops at the end of their destination. The air was cool. There was a slim chance some animal could come and disturb them, but that was what Brutus was brought along for.

Mimoza said, "we're here now. Lower your voices. We scout around first to see who's in the area, and only close in after we're sure we can't be surprised. If it's bandits, let's hope they don't recognize us as guardsman. We want the element of surprise on our side no matter what."

"Guardsman and guards woman," Granit commented. "Seriously Mimoza, you mistake yourself for a man far too much. Are you sure there isn't a sack hanging in between your legs?"

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Mimoza tossed her bat at him. To which it quickly scratched at his nose before bouncing back into Mimoza satchel.

"Aye!" He yelled loudly.

"Shush," Astrin and Mimoza hushed back at them.

Granit rubbed at his face, but stayed quiet as they spread out. The tall grass bristled against their movements but the strong wind carried any noise away through the array of moving grass. Brutus followed behind Granit while Mimoza and Astrin moved away from them. Brutus grumbled a bit, signaling that he was putting away his playful attitude.

They snuck near the forest clearing to avoid immediate detection and blended into the forest like animals. They checked the edges and brushes surrounding the hill, looking for any traps and scouts that might've been in place to guard the area. Mimoza's bat flew away, disappearing again like a stray cat.

"Do you really think there aren't ghosts there?" Astrin asked trailing behind Mimoza. It seemed that fear of spirits was very real to Astrin as well. Mimoza couldn't blame him. With all the unexplainable anomalies in the world, falling back on Gods and spirits for answers was typical for the men and women of Greece.

"Honestly? No. Gods don't kidnap children with such trickery. I'm certain there's a bandit camp settled here, and they're just using scare tactics to hide their intent"

Granit met with them at the other side of the treeline, finishing the scouting of the perimeter. "There's a cottage on the far side from here. It has a grape vineyard and everything. No doubt they're the ones behind the reports."

Mimoza asked, "Was anyone in there?"

"I didn't see anyone, but we won't know for sure until we knock. I'm pretty sure someone has to live there, the garden needs to be tended by someone."

"See Astrin? Not ghosts, just people. Just another kidnapper hiding at the outskirts of the city."

"Well that's a relief," Granit commented. "I was worried I'd have to start dancing like an ass to scare spirits away."

"By the Gods. Now I'm hoping spirits will come."

Astrin asked, "does anyone own property here? It could be a clue as to who the kidnappers are."

Granit shook his head, "Not that I know of. Thing is, the cottage itself looks absolutely harmless, and I wouldn't be surprised if some elderly couple lives there. It would make sense that the kids all disappeared there, but hard to believe such a harmless little thing could stir up trouble."

Mimoza shook her head. "We go over, ask the residents questions. If no one's there, we break in to search the house and search for clues. Keep your guard up just in case."

XXX

Granit knocked on the door. He called inside a few times, and when no one answered, he broke the door open. Granit waved at Mimoza and Astrin to follow him inside. Brutus sat near the front door, waiting calmly like the well-trained dog that it was.

"Ladies first," Granit said grinning kindly at Mimoza. She stepped in front of him and said back to him, "asses last."

Granit's lips curled, but he left it at that.

The cottage was small, typical for any type of desolate home that it was built for. Clay walls with a dirt floor. Typical architecture for a Greek building. The owner of the house obviously wanted isolation, so the size and scale of the building wasn't at all impressive. Mimoza, Astrin, and Granit all began searching the objects inside the house. Even Brutus sniffed around for any strange scents he might find.

Mimoza found a piece of sheepskin with writing in it. Its contents read: "now and forever, we are free."

She raised an eyebrow. "Mimoza," Astrin said, "come take a look at this."

She stepped into the other room. A table with strange elixir vials surrounded the sight. Stone pots were carefully organized as though serving a greater purpose. Astrin pointed to the stone tablets next to the table. They were carefully stacked, with clay writings on them. "Hieroglyphs," Astrin said.

Granit asked, "Hierowhats?"

"They're from Egypt. Whoever lives here is either from Egypt or studies Egyptian science."

"Ugh," Granit shivered, "those backward southerners give me the creeps."

"I'll say," Astrin said picking up one of the tablets. He paid close attention to the picture of the Egyptian gods, "I hear they all worship cats. I like that cats keep the pests away, but there's a stark difference between feeding cats food and building monuments in their honor."

Mimoza picked up another tablet from the stack, "to be fair, cats are adorable. If I were rich and had nothing to do, I'd probably worship cats in my spare time too. "

Granit commented, "you're a gem, you know that Mimoza?"

Mimoza began reading it to herself. She held it up against the candlelight to read it better. "They're ingredients. Ingredients to... Spells and rituals of some sort."

He raised an eyebrow, "wait, can you read Egyptian?"

"A little," she squinted. "These tablets are definitely from Egypt. But whoever lives here also added their own scripture onto them, as though building up from the recipes they were given."

"Recipes? Recipes for what?"

"Good question."

Mimoza put the clay tablets down and pulled the table back. She stomped on the floorboard, and eventually broke her foot through the floor. Once the floorboard cracked, she lifted the piece of wood up to reveal an entryway to an underground tunnel.

There was a steep mist inside the tunnel's darkness. A trail of lit torches could be seen inside.

"What the Hades?" Granit said.

"Ladies first," Mimoza said walking inside.

"It's about time I clobber some bandits," Granit followed behind her. "Egyptians might creep me out, but at least I can handle slavers all the same."

"Hold on," Astrin said. "Alright, you were right Mimoza. Those kids didn't run away, they were clearly kidnapped by... Whatever's down there. But shouldn't we go back and get reinforcements? There's no telling where this tunnel leads to."

The two of them stared back at him. Mimoza said, "We are the rescue party. Now that we have a lead, we can't just keep waiting until things are perfectly in our favor."

"Pussy," Granit said bluntly.

Astrin glared back at him. "Fine, I'm a fucking pussy. But I'd rather be alive and a coward than brave and dead for nothing. I'm not leaping into danger without knowing what's down there."

"Astrin," Mimoza started, "whether you're scared or not doesn't matter. You can't keep avoiding your duties as a slave."

Astrin curled his lips, "you both go ahead. We're scouts, not an army. I'll get reinforcements to bring more guards to explore this. But if you want my advice, don't go in there. This place is clearly a death sentence."

He turned away from them and headed out the cabin. Granit and Mimoza glanced at each other and nodded in silent agreement. They descended deeper into the tunnels of the cottage hill.