Bound

Chapter 3

                                   ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

"We men are wretched things."

-

When Achilles enters the king's tent, he is met with a scene that he cannot help but find comical. Agamemnon is being congratulated on his wonderful victory, despite the majority of the successes of the first battle being as a result of Achilles and his Myrmidons. Odysseus catches his eye and smirks, subtly placing his hand over his mouth as to conceal his smile as the two men silently observe Agamemnon's congratulations. Achilles smirks to himself, internally rolling his eyes at Agamemnon's unjustified arrogance. Once the king notices Achilles' presence, he raises his hand, ordering the rest of the men to leave. Odysseus slowly walks to Achilles,

"War is old men talking, and young men dying, you know this. Ignore the politics." He says as he comfortingly pats his arm before taking his leave.

The other men leave the tent, and now he is alone with Agamemnon as the Lord of men looks at him with a slight smirk on his face. "Apparently you won some great victory." Achilles says, slightly irritated by the fact Agamemnon is being praised for the work he and his soldiers did.

"Ah, perhaps you didn't notice, the Trojan beach belonged to Priam in the morning, it belongs to Agamemnon in the afternoon." He responds cockily.

"You can have the beach, I didn't come here for sand." Achilles replies in a cold tone as he walks into the center of the tent and stares at the king with annoyance in his eyes. "No, you came here because you want your name to last through the ages." Agamemnon says. Achilles clenches his jaw as he hears Agamemnon's words, there is truth to what he said.

"A name that will echo for eternity, that is exactly what I came here for." he says softly though it's clear that he is beginning to get more agitated now. The men continue to converse, Agamemnon continuing to get under Achilles' skin, making little digs and comments that portray the sense of superiority the king believes he has. The king sighs and drums his fingers along the side of his throne, "The men's morale is low after today." He says.

"Why is this?" Achilles asks, though he has an idea why this might be the case and he knows he won't like the answer, especially since he hasn't seen Agonemnon give him the respect he feels he rightly deserves. "The Trojan army is stronger than we anticipated, their defences are strong, their army capable. This should not pose as an issue, but the sheer unexpectedness of it has caused a slight decline in the morale of the soldiers." Agamemnon says coolly, "But fear not, I have found a way to keep them entertained." He says. "Keep them entertained?" Achilles says, his tone now has a hint of curiosity, as any other time, he'd suspect such a statement to mean more bloodshed.

"Yes, your gift..." Agamemnon smirks cruelly, "I gave her to the men to play with." Achilles clenches his fists and his expression turns cold once again, he can't believe he would do such a thing.

"You did what?" he asks in a cold and ruthless tone, it doesn't take him a moment longer to connect the dots to what Agamemnon meant. "You gave her to the soldiers to do what they wanted with her?" he says with a growing amount of anger in his voice. Agamemnon doesn't even try to deny it, he just smirks and says, "Do you have a problem with that?" He seems almost proud of himself, which disgusts Achilles to know end. He instantly leaves the tent, moving as quickly as he can through the camp. His mind is dominated by thoughts of finding Anastasia, the thought of what Agamemnon said fills him with rage as he storms towards the area where the soldiers live. He hears her cries as she's being roughly manhandled by the men, fighting back as best she can, hitting and scratching them to the best of her ability. They're groping her and treating her as though she is nothing but a piece of meat, and one of them has a red hot iron he's about to brand her with. Achilles grows increasingly furious as he hears her cries and sees what the men are doing to her, he has no restraint in this moment, he cannot allow such atrocities to continue.