Chapter 1
(note: The Italic text below are some paragraphs of the ancient KND documents mentioned in the prologue, which will serve to help narrate this story)
I do not know how long it would be when this story will be found, if it would be found, but I had to keep this secret even from Cato, the boy that made a decision that changed the world, a great leader and a faithful friend. He wrote only a small amount of this story in what is now (and probubly will still be generations later, if what Cato believes is true, but I will get to that much later) known as the first chapter of The Book of Kids Next Door. Why? It was a rather harsher journey than Cato would have wanted, and there were a good amount of things he would have wanted to put behind him completely. So why am I writing this? Simple really, I firmly believe that the whole story, for good or ill, has to be told. I won't let what Gaius Julius Caesar did to the past with the Libarary of Alexandria happen to the past of the Kids Next Door, there is a good reason why it was risen the way it has, and it is only right that that reason becomes known.
It started just days after Cato turned 7.
Over a thousand years ago, during the time of the Roman Empire, there was a lavishly built country villa just miles outside the city of Rome, it was home to a wealthy Roman Senator named Priscus Herminius, his wife, and his 2 children.
One of these children was Cato, a young Roman boy who just recently turned 7, he had short black hair, olive skin common among Mediterraneans, wore a red sleeveless tunic and regular Roman sandals. It was a warm summer afternoon when young Cato was sitting in the main room on a roman couch playing a board game with his older sister, Varinia, who was in her late teens, had long black hair tied to a bun, and wore a long-sleeved dark blue tunic and plain white sorta.
Varinia rolled a pair of dice, moved a game piece, and said, "Well, that cuts off your wheat supply with me taking Egypt."
An impressed Cato said in astonishment, but he noticed an opening and pretended not to notice, he said, "You know, I sometimes wonder why I keep hearing from Father that fighting in war is a man's job alone."
"Well there have been some rare occasions where women fought," Varinia said, "Most recent I heard was that one in Britannia, gave our Legions a run for their money, But why it's so rare? my guess is to keep any would-be babies from facing the tip of a sword, But personally, I could care less."
Cato scoffed, "Maybe there's another reason*," He rolled the dice and had few of his game pieces surround Varinia's pieces, but the only thing that seem caught Varinina by surprise was how one of his pieces land on Persia.
(*If that seemed politically incorrect to you, keep in mind I'm doing a time period where that stuff was fairly common, so historical license is obviously being taken in this fanfic, also bear in mind that it is a canon fact that the KND did not offically allow girls in their ranks until the start of the 7th Age, but for good measure and to keep in good taste, I'll be keeping it as minimal as I can from this point on)
"My, my," Varinia said with slight sarcasm to hide how she was slightly impressed, "Little Cato has taken Persia, not even during Julius Caesar's or Emperor Claudius' reigns has that happened, No doubt if you were a general you could single-handedly take the whole world under Roman rule."
"You know, I sometimes wonder why these outside-people, these 'barbarians' fight so hard to keep themselves out of Roman rule," Cato wondered, "I mean, haven't they learned what we've accomplished? our Aquaducts, our roads, I see no reason why they wouldn't look at us and think of being in Roman soil as just an improvement and nothing else."
"Some people don't like change, Cato," Varinia said, "And let's be fair, some things aren't meant to change, people like, for example, the Persians probubly don't like the idea of us invading them for the same reason we wouldn't like to trade our gods for that single one that growing religous group is so fond of."
"I guess that makes sense," Cato said, "But change does happen, right?"
"Yes, for good or ill," Varinia said, "Sometimes it happens because it's unavoidable, other times people make it so themselves, but should or shouldn't change you could argue is just a matter of perspective. Besides, alot of these peoples the Roman Empire have conquered consider us to have only brought bad changes."
"Why," A confused and slightly worried Cato asked, "What have we done wrong?"
"From their point of view," Varinia answered, "Alot of things, but at your age, I think I'd only catch the fires of the Underworld from our father and mother telling you what they think, but someday you might find that out yourself. But in the meantime, let's continue the game."
Yes, Cato back then was quite naive, He lived happily and comfortably to a wealthy family, and was for most of his life unaware of what life was like outside the villa he called home, what fates awaited the less fortunate. He did not know what a good amount of us... non-Romans thought about what his people have done. But that started to change when he and I first met...
Before Cato and Varinia could finish their game, the front door opened and Cato's father, Priscus Herminius went inside, he was a middle-aged man that had short black hair that appeared to be graying out, and he wore a Roman senatorial tunic and toga with Roman sandals. Following him was a dark-skinned boy who seemed to be around Cato's age, he wore an Egyptian skirt and Egyptian eyeliner and had a shaven head.
Herminius said with a mild smile, "I'm home!" both Cato and Varinina practically jumped off their couches to move over to him and both hug him lovingly, "So, where's your mother?"
"She's over in your and her room, getting massaged by one of the slaves," Varinia answered.
The 3 Romans continued their group hug for afew seconds until the Egyptian boy looked at them and, thinking them to be distracted, he was about to walk off only to be quickly stopped by a feminine yet authoratively-sounding voice that said, "Don't even think about it, slave."
The Egyptian boy turned to see a middle-aged Roman woman who wore her hair in an elaborately braided ponytail, a pale green ankle-length tunic, and a plain white sorta.
Cato noticed the Egyptian boy and decided to let go of his father to look at him. Cato was fasinated by the dark-skinned child and the way he looked, but the Egyptian boy simply ignored him, as he had bigger things to worry about.
Herminius was greeted by the middle-aged Roman woman with them giving each other a brief kiss, he said, "It always makes me content to see myself greeted by my family, perhaps foremost by you, Hilaria."
Varinia approached the middle aged Roman woman, named Hilaria, and said, "Very timely arrival, but how'd you know that dark-skinned boy here is a slave? he just came here with Father."
"A mother's instinct," Hilaria answered, but everyone in the room could tell it was an obvious lie, even Cato, but he was too polite to say anything about it, so he assumed his mother simply gave a wild guess.
"Indeed, today's session in the Forum finished early," Herminius said, "So I decided to take a detour in Rome's marketplace, I saw this young Egyptian in the slave market for sale at a good price, so I decided we could use an extra pair of hands in this household."
"Do all Egyptians look like him?" Cato asked.
"A good amount of them," Cato's father answered, "I've been here afew times myself, the current Governor of Egypt is even a friend of mine if you can believe it. They used to be part of their own kingdom, until we Romans changed that. Anyway, before I forget, I better have this new slave prepared for work."
Herminius clapped his hands and one of the adult household slaves entered the room.
Herminus said to the adult slave, "Put this boy to work in the gardens out back, but first," Herminus took a knife from the table in the middle of the room and briefly placed the blade of it at the Egyptian boy's neck, the boy stood stiffly but looked extremely nervous, as if he thought Herminius planned on cutting his throat. This caught Cato by surprise, he never saw his dad do something like that, not even to the other household slaves. But Herminius moved the blade away from the Egyptian boy's neck and swiftly sliced off his skirt, rendering the boy naked and covering himself in embaressment. Herminius then said, "Get him some proper clothes."
The adult slave nudged his head to the room behind him, motioning the dark-skinned boy to follow him, which he did.
Around half an hour later, Cato came to the villa gardens to see the Egyptian Boy now wearing a grey, sleeveless, and cheaply made tunic, he was picking dates and placing them in a basket.
Cato approached the Egyptian boy, but before he said say anything, the dark-skinned boy said in a sarcastic tone without looking at Cato, "Oh my, I am approached by one of my mighty Roman masters, how might I serve you, oh great one? would you like a message? or maybe you'd like me to rub on you that olive oil stuff you Romans seem to like so much?"
"I was hoping to at least get you name before you snark me to death" Cato said, slightly wierd out.
"You approach a slave asking only for a name?" the dark-skinned boy asked, finally turning to Cato and crossing his arms, "When every other Roman moved their lips since I was pulled out of my own home, they come to me asking, no, demanding for almost everything except my name, they think simply labeling me 'slave' is sufficient enough."
"But I'm asking just for you name," Cato asked, "Is that, of all things, too much to ask?"
The dark-skinned boy sighed and said, "Alright, the name is Nebi, Roman, don't wear it out."
"My name is Cato," Cato said, "And be honest; what's your problem with Romans?"
"I believe I said a minute ago that I was pulled out of my home," Nebi said, "weeks ago I was minding my own business bringing a basin of Nile water to my house when a bunch of Roman soldiers came out of nowhere and grabbed me and several other children, next thing we knew we were on the backs of carts and being constantly called slaves."
"Just grabbing and enslaving kids out of the blue?" Cato asked, He was shocked by what Nebi said, he suddenly exclaimed angrily, "You have to be lying! Egypt's part of the Empire now, we'd never do such a thing to her citizens!"
Nebi chuckled slightly, "You don't get out much, do you? have you even been to this city called Rome that you Romans are so proud of?"
"Well, no," Cato said, "I've been in this Villa all my life, my father hired a Greek private tutor to educate me and I've spent much of my time playing either with myself, my sister, or the children of some of my parents' friends that occassionally come over."
"Well now," an intrigued Nebi said, then sarcastically added, "I take it you were taught that everywhere you Romans went all you did was come to us preaching about how marvellous your empire was and how we can all have fancy-schmancy houses, the best cooked food in the world, and watch all the best Greek plays all the time, were you?"
"But it's true, isn't it?" Cato asked, "Your lives in Egypt have radically improved because of us."
Nebi scoffed, though seemed to be somewhat enjoying this conversation, "You seriously think that's entirely true? Even putting aside how I among several other kids were suddenly grabbed and enslaved without any chance to protest, you Romans have had us treated like second class 'citizens' by giving us less rights and privileges than even the lesser-fortunate of you Romans get, you took from us our Monarchy, run by one of our gods; the Pharaoh! in favor of your Emperor. Not to mention if it weren't for your Gaius Julius Caesar, we'd still have the Library of Alexandria! One of the largest and greatest sources of infomation in the entire world! We Egyptians were just fine until you came along, but you clearly knew nothing about any of this.." Nebi paused for a moment, thinking, but before Cato could respond, Nebi continued, "though what if I were to tell you that you Romans have also been very nasty torward your own people?"
"I'm just gonna be blunt;" Cato said, not knowing what to make of what Nebi was telling him, "I'm finding everything you've said very far-fetched, and that last bit you said isn't even on top of my list."
"Hmm, I guess you're right," Nebi said, "Clearly I'm talking to someone who knows too little about the world in general, much less the truth about his own people, and right now I've got no way to prove it all, but maybe there is a way, Are you parents planning on going to Rome with you in tow at any point at all?"
"Actually, yes," Cato said but raised an eyebrow, wondering what Nebi was thinking, "My father has recently been invited by a friend of his to attend a dinner party tomarrow in his villa in the city, my father wants my mother, sister, and me to come along with him."
"Perfect!" Nebi exclaimed cheerfully, "If you can convince your father to bring me along as well, whatever he'd have me do, I should be able to prove to you precisely what your people really are..."
That was my very first meeting with Cato, neither of us would have guested we would shortly become best friends after that, though some have suspected that the sort of meeting we had was a sure sign we were bound to be friends, but I still don't see the logic behind that. But anyway, I expected to simply show him babies getting 'exposed', or maybe a slave being at the mercy of an abusive master, but what proof that was presented to Cato about the cruelty his people were known for had in effect I did not mean to happen, and would set both him and me though a chain of events that would change both our lives forever.
