At noon on Monday, the village market was eerily quiet; as opposed to bustling with conversations and music-filled market, as was usual. Markos strolled down the village walkway surprisingly nonchalantly. It looked and sounded like a ghost town, only a few meekly squirrels were present. Unsettling. 

Ever since the capitulation of the village and surrounding settlements to the Athenians a few weeks ago, no one dared to leave their houses. Most men were slaughtered brutally or enslaved to work the fields around Athens; only women, children and the elderly remained. There remained Markos however, the son of a farmer whose land was unjustly seized from him and his family by the Athenians. They took his whole family but he managed to covertly slip away; he wanted revenge. Markos knew he couldn’t fight them on his own however, so he was looking for: food, weapons, and fighters. 

It’s been almost an hour since Markos left the alleyway he now lives in to search the streets but he had no luck in finding anything. The blistering sun was still beaming on the skin of Markos and he was losing hope. He suddenly heard something… 

“Markos!” the voice of an old man shrieked. 

“What? Who is that!” Markos demanded, gripping his old, rusty sword. 

“Over here Markos! Quickly!” suggested the old man. 

Markos cautiously made his way over to the abandoned house where he had heard the voice, preparing for an altercation with an Athenian spy. As he got closer he recognized the man’s familiar face… It was his father. He was covered in dry blood and scars, had a long gray beard and was wearing Athenian armour. 

“Father” Markos stuttered, “H-How could this be, I saw them take you.”. 

“There’s no time to explain now son, we must get your Mother” his father urged. 

The two made their way through the city all the way to the Athenian camp just outside the city. They approached the menacing camp, it was made of wood, and well guarded. Their plan was to take out the Athenian soldiers quietly one-by-one and then rescue Markos’ mother. They waited snuck by the entrance and used the bushes to take cover; there were two guards waiting there on the lookout. They took them out at the same time, then cleared the camp one soldier at a time until they got to the makeshift prison they were keeping village natives.