I feel it. My breath is shortening. My heartbeat is slowing. I feel death
coming and I welcome it. My body is finally failing me, twenty years after
my heart had.
Twenty years, after that fateful day in the arena where I watched him fight for Rome, the Republic, loyalty of an Emperor, his family, and maybe even for me and the other gladiators.
My eyes are starting to glaze over and I know that I have not much longer in this world. Soon I'll be in Elysium – with him. Will I get to see him? Will he recognize me? Twenty years will do things to a body. I've aged – I'm no longer strong as I was then. I've lived – well, not elegantly, just well. And even living well can do things in twenty years.
Twenty years.
I don't regret them, I don't. Twenty years to spend with my wife and daughters. Twenty years of peace. Twenty years of being back in my homeland.
Twenty years of that niggling feeling in the back of my head that he should be here, should be alive to see the transformation that he fought so hard for - that he died for.
I push that thought out of my mind and search for my daughter. I can barely make out my surroundings and close my eyes. Golden fields of grain beckon me. I reach out slowly letting my hands drift across the top of the stalks, watching them sway gently in the wind but never touching them. Is this it? Is this Elysium?
I will my eyes to open but they can't. They too have failed me. I sink back into my bed and let out one last breath.
My eyes open and the field of grain surrounds me. Once again, I reach out and I feel the coarseness, the texture of the grain. I revel in the feeling. I search out looking frantically for some sign, some person, some being. It is then that I hear the sound of a bird chirp and ever so faintly the sound of swords clashing.
My feet move instinctively forward and I look down. My feet, legs and body look as they did twenty years ago. Even the scars are a bright pink instead of the crimson black that they had faded to. The ringing of swords bring me out of my reverie and once more I'm moving forward in search of the source of the sound.
Instinctively, I climb to the top of the crest before me, hoping to get a better perspective on my surroundings. I scan the horizon and see a villa in the east. Instantly, I recognize it from the many nights that we had spent in our cell discussing our homes, our friends, our lives before the Coliseum.
A small smile creeps over my face and I search him out. I know that he can't be far off and still the swords ring. I turn to face the west and the setting sun and that's when I see them. My breath catches as I watch the two of the fight. They dance so gracefully together, though I guess they should since they've had twenty years to practice.
A .
Twenty years, after that fateful day in the arena where I watched him fight for Rome, the Republic, loyalty of an Emperor, his family, and maybe even for me and the other gladiators.
My eyes are starting to glaze over and I know that I have not much longer in this world. Soon I'll be in Elysium – with him. Will I get to see him? Will he recognize me? Twenty years will do things to a body. I've aged – I'm no longer strong as I was then. I've lived – well, not elegantly, just well. And even living well can do things in twenty years.
Twenty years.
I don't regret them, I don't. Twenty years to spend with my wife and daughters. Twenty years of peace. Twenty years of being back in my homeland.
Twenty years of that niggling feeling in the back of my head that he should be here, should be alive to see the transformation that he fought so hard for - that he died for.
I push that thought out of my mind and search for my daughter. I can barely make out my surroundings and close my eyes. Golden fields of grain beckon me. I reach out slowly letting my hands drift across the top of the stalks, watching them sway gently in the wind but never touching them. Is this it? Is this Elysium?
I will my eyes to open but they can't. They too have failed me. I sink back into my bed and let out one last breath.
My eyes open and the field of grain surrounds me. Once again, I reach out and I feel the coarseness, the texture of the grain. I revel in the feeling. I search out looking frantically for some sign, some person, some being. It is then that I hear the sound of a bird chirp and ever so faintly the sound of swords clashing.
My feet move instinctively forward and I look down. My feet, legs and body look as they did twenty years ago. Even the scars are a bright pink instead of the crimson black that they had faded to. The ringing of swords bring me out of my reverie and once more I'm moving forward in search of the source of the sound.
Instinctively, I climb to the top of the crest before me, hoping to get a better perspective on my surroundings. I scan the horizon and see a villa in the east. Instantly, I recognize it from the many nights that we had spent in our cell discussing our homes, our friends, our lives before the Coliseum.
A small smile creeps over my face and I search him out. I know that he can't be far off and still the swords ring. I turn to face the west and the setting sun and that's when I see them. My breath catches as I watch the two of the fight. They dance so gracefully together, though I guess they should since they've had twenty years to practice.
A .
