"Markos, have you seen Dionysus? The Malaka is nowhere to be found." Demanded General Demeter.
"No sir, I haven't seen Dionysus since he walked away from me a few days ago." Remarked Markos in return.
"We march tomorrow, if he's not back then, tough luck." Barked General Demeter.
As the wind howled through the trees Dionysus walked and walked. It began to get cold and gloomy. Dionysus knew what was coming. He began to build a shelter, finding and gathering all the branches and sticks he could find as well as all the rocks and stones he could use to support the branches at their bases. Dionysus began to lay out the size of his quite small shelter, when the wind stopped, and the temperature dropped even more. With a crack from thunder, it began to downpour and hail, he was stuck in it until his shelter was up. Eventually he began to hold the branches up against each other while placing the rocks and stones on the muddied end of the branches making sure they were held in and solid. Soon enough he finished his shelter, but his night was far from over.
After a while as Dionysus lay there and began to fall asleep in the dark and very stormy night, he began to hear something not too far away. Dionysus beginning to feel hungry at this point decided to get out and hoped it was a deer that he could hunt. Dionysus got out of his shelter and began to walk in the direction that he heard it from. After a little bit of time of walking Dionysus still couldn't find what he hoped to be a deer, he was getting quite bothered at this point. Dionysus frustrated with his inability to find what he thought he heard turned back around. Walking back to his shelter he began to wonder if it really was a deer or any other type of animal that he could have hunted or if it was something else entirely.
Dionysus had almost made it back to his shelter when he noticed a ton of footsteps around the area. He bent down to look at the footsteps and realized they were human. Someone or a bunch of people were following Dionysus or at the very least watching him. As he stood up, he was grabbed from behind. Dionysus fought and fought to get out of this person's grip, but he couldn't. Dionysus looked up and saw an unfathomable amount of Corinthian soldiers collapsing down on him. He couldn't do anything; all he could truly do is watch as they started to beat on him and make him bleed and ultimately put him to sleep.
Dionysus awoke but wasn't sure where he was or really who he was. He took a walk around the location he was until he found a man, he walked up to the man and asked, "who are you, and where am I? Who am I even?".
The man looked at Dionysus and said in a husky voice, "I'm Nikos, you're in a Corinthian forward camp. Me and my men found you along the road not too far from here."
"Okay, but who am I? What do you know about me?", demanded Dionysus.
"As for that, we don't know much about you. All we know is that you're a soldier, and that one of my men said he knows you and that your name is Alexandros." Replied Nikos, "is there anything else you want to know, I'm sure we can figure more out about you."
"Alexandros? You're positive that's my name? Like he could come over here and look me in the eye and tell me my name is Alexandros with no doubt?" Inquired Dionysus, "and there is more I'd like to know. How did you know I was a soldier if you just found me down the road?"
"I can go get him if you want to be certain. And we believe you're a soldier since we found you with a xiphos, as well as a helmet and a chest plate." Responded Nikos in an instant.
"That'll do, you can get him, and I'd like my gear as well." Responded Dionysus dealing with a killer headache from the beating he sustained.
"Will do Alexandros, I shall return with him as well as your gear." Nikos said with a smile. Dionysus was in a complete state of confusion. He had no idea where he was or what had happened. He wasn't even aware of all the cuts and bruises on his body at this point. He got up once again to find some water or even some food.
Eventually he found the camp cook. "Excuse me sir, do you have any water?" Dionysus asked.
"Alexandros, of course I have water. I assume you need some based on how you look at the moment." The camp cook said after looking at Dionysus, "here, now lets get you back to the infirmary so you can recover fully."
"Thanks..?" Dionysus said after receiving the water from the camp cook. Eventually Dionysus and the cook made it back to where he was being taken care of just in time for Nikos to come back with the soldier, who identified Dionysus as Alexandros as well as Dionysus' armor.
"Yes sir, I'd recognize my friend anywhere no matter how battered he looks. That's Alexandros." The soldier who identified Dionysus said.
"Perfect, Athanasios, thank you." Nikos said, "here Alexandros, this is the armor we found with you and the xiphos."
"So, I'm a Corinthian soldier? What even happened to me?" Dionysus asked with more confusion than ever, "can you take me to where you guys found me as well?"
Nikos said with a smile, "yes, you are a Corinthian. And it looks like you were ambushed and beaten. Don't worry once you're in a better state of health we can take you to where we found you. Unless you feel you are in good enough health to make the trek there?"
"I'm a Corinthian. Take me there as soon as you can, I want to see where I was attacked and left for dead." Dionysus barked.
"Very well. We'll leave for the trip at day break." Nikos remarked. That morning, as soon as they could see the sun rise over the hills and had enough light to make their way down the roads and paths, they met up at the camp entrance and began the decent trek to Dionysus' camp from the night before.
"This is where my men and I found you last night. It looks like you were scouting when you were attacked." Nikos said with a smirk, "so why did you want to come out here to where we found you anyway?".
"I wanted to see if we could find where the attackers came from." Dionysus said in a convincing tone to hide his lie, "if it was muddy last night like you said, we should be able to see their footprints in the dirt."
"That's a great idea Alexandros." Athanasios announced. Dionysus was feeling a little suspicious about the whole situation. They searched and searched for some footprints that no longer existed thanks to Nikos and his men after they attacked him. They came back and smeared everything. They made sure there was no sign of where the attackers came from. Dionysus pulled Athanasios aside so he could talk to his "friend".
"Athanasios, what the fuck is going on? I don't remember a single fucking thing from before I awoke in that camp." Dionysus exclaimed in a panicked but quiet tone.
"Alexandros, Nikos told you everything we know, you were sent out to scout by a different commander in the army and we stumbled upon you when doing our guard duties around the camp." Athanasios calmly replied.
"Fine, I just can't shake this thought that I'm being lied to by Nikos and everyone else including yourself." Dionysus hurriedly said to get back to the search. Which they did, but to no avail. They continued to search, they even searched caves for any sign of the attackers. Yet no matter what they did or where they searched they were never going to find anything, Nikos' men were smart and hid any evidence of their involvement in the attack.
Athanasios questioned Dionysus, "why do you think we're all lying to you Alexandros? I can assure you I'm not, and I don't see a reason for Nikos and the others to lie to you."
"It's his constant smiling when talking to me or about me or the situation around me." Dionysus huffed, "it feels like Nikos knows something about me that changes everything."
"That is a very reasonable judgement to make, but I assure you that's a normal occurrence with Nikos. He often smiles about things." Athanasios replied, "I wouldn't worry too much about him."
Dionysus uncomfortably stated, "I won't worry too much then, but that doesn't mean I'll believe everything that comes out of his mouth, at least if it's about me." Dionysus, Nikos and his men finally decided to go back to the camp and get prepared for the upcoming battles with the Athenians. Dionysus overheard Nikos talking about how he wanted to start pushing towards Attika and Athens to finally finish the Athenians for once. But the Spartans didn't want to do so yet, they felt the Athenians weren't ready to fall and it would be some time before they were.
The next morning Dionysus and Athanasios trained and sparred together. Athanasios wasn't ready for what Dionysus was capable of. Most were not to be fair. Dionysus bullied Athanasios all day. He put him on his ass all the time, he parried and blocked every strike that Athanasios threw at him. He was getting tired of sparring with Dionysus, so he quit, he walked away. Athanasios was very competitive and one of the best soldiers on the Corinthian side, he was even at the battle that Dionysus fought and fell off the cliff with his father. Yet that was it for the day. Dionysus went to his tent and went to bed for the night. Prepared for the next battle to come, only this time he was fighting on the opposite side of the battle from which he usually did.