The Way Home
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the movie King Arthur.
Authors Note: This is my first King Arthur fanfiction. I used to write under CSI, CSI Miami and Van Helsing. I haven't written in a long time so… I'll try to make this something worth reading.
Crimea AD 175
We have been at war for too long. Longer than I can remember. I try to think back, back before the war, to times of peace, but cannot. What is peace? Were we ever at peace? If not fighting Rome we were fighting other nomadic tribes. I don't think peace has ever existed.
I was nine when our people, the Iazyges, sided with the Germanic tribes against Rome. We had been fighting long before that, but not together. The Romans were a well organized unit. They were a killing machine, destroying anyone in their way. They had burned two villages on the outskirts of our land before word reached us by way of a young man who had fled. I still remember the confusion as his horse galloped into the midst of our tents. The poor animal was slick with sweat, blood and foam collected at the corners of his mouth and had splattered onto his chest and shoulders. The young man leapt off, throwing his reins towards me. I caught them and looked at him, eyes wide, as he strode purposefully towards our clan leaders tent. My father patted my back and handed me a pail he had been carrying.
'Walk the man's horse out until he cools down Majjida. Give him only a few sips of water."
My father did not have to tell me. I had grown up around horses. Before Iazyge children could walk they were on the backs of horses with their mothers or fathers. Preparing to become a warrior began almost at birth. At age nine, like every other child my age in our village I was a good rider, and experienced using a bow and arrow. I was by no means the best in our whole village, but I also was not incapable of defending myself.
I walked the horse in lazy circles. He seemed glad to be done running, though he was excited at first. After a while he stopped snorting and rolling his eyes and followed me placidly. I gave him a sip of water, careful not to give him too much, and continued walking. It seemed I had walked for hours in endless circles through the tall grass, singing to myself and to the horse when finally my father came to take the horse from me. With a silent nod of approval I was dismissed to our tent for supper.
I do not remember exactly the conversation that night, but I do remember being very confused by what my father and a few of the other men in our village were talking about. From what I gathered an army called the Romans were coming to defeat us in hopes of spreading their territory. I felt confused, sitting there listening to my father trying desperately to understand and seem grown up and intelligent. I knew there was going to be a war, and this for some reason… excited me. I was getting old enough to fight. My father had teased me about it only a few days before.
"You know Majjida, you are getting to be quite the big girl!" he had said with a laugh.
"I'm very strong too!" I said proudly.
"Maybe soon there will be a battle and you will fight in it," Father had said with a sly grin. Mother just shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"Raspar do not get her started on that, she is too much of a ruffian already!" Father shook his head.
"Hah! All the better! Besides… You know that once you have killed an enemy you can marry, and once you have killed three you are allowed to bear children," he said with a wink. I wrinkled my nose in disgust.
"Then I won't kill a single one!" The thought of having children had no appeal at all to me. Once you became a mother, you could no longer fight. Father looked at me in mock surprise.
"Well what good will you be then? Not defending us from enemies just because you do not want to have sons and daughters?"
"Well…" I said, having second thoughts, "I will kill many enemies… but I won't get married or have children!"
If only life could be as simple as it was then, before the war, before I was forced to leave.