I was led through the massive throng of warriors towards the far side of the beach and to the Myrmidon camp. The ship had been transformed into a barracks of sorts- not for sleeping but as storage for food, weapons and everything else. There was but one hut erected- Achilles no doubt. The other men seemed to sleep in groups of ten or twenty around fires of varying sizes. I stared at this set up strangely but said nothing. Being a mercenary, I had been spoiled into always sleeping in a room in an inn when in town, and only slept under the stars when I was traveling by night and had to sleep outside. Although I did not ask for an explanation, I did not care for the traditions of the Myrmidons, Eudorus told me anyway.

'Each group is a unit. Ten to the older more experienced groups, twenty to the less experienced groups. They live, sleep, eat, and die together. You can stay with me up here if you so desire, otherwise find yourself a spot, and build your own fire.'

The thought of collecting firewood bored me so I followed him to his fire, a small way off where he slept alone and left my horse there, removing his gear and placing it in a pile while I left Hades to stand and roam about to chew the grass.

'Thank you.'

I said, the words sticking in my throat, they were so foreign to me that I had trouble using them, but a hint of the past urged me to use manners. Eudorus gave an eccentric smile and nodded.

'That's okay. Make yourself at home; you will see fairly easily when we are readying ourselves for battle.'

He turned to leave but froze and glanced over his shoulder, 'I don't see any armour on you- where is it?' I laughed and smiled, a friendly smile, something that I had not done in years,

'I have none. I fight in hardened leather mostly, armour just becomes a nuisance, restricts movement.'

I could see him fight inside himself to tell me that what I was doing was not safe but he merely nodded and continued away.

I sat there alone for a long time- day passed into night and I merely sat alone cleaning and preparing my weapons for battle. I fought with 'strange and foreign weapons' or so I was told. I fought with a mace, with a large spiked ball on the end- for when I fought alone. A bastard sword that was almost as long as I was tall for battles with space, I used a two and a half sword for horseback battles and for close quarter fighting- the type of fighting at Troy I used two curved blades- scimitars given to me as part of my payment by the Sheik of somewhere for protecting his daughter. Masterfully crafted and amazingly sharp they proved to be the greatest weapons I had ever seen.

I was cleaning them and sharpening them when Eudorus returned and sat opposite me, two bowls of stew in his hand.

'You have not moved all day Ekkaia; do you not wish to get to know those that you fight amongst?'

I shook my head, still unused to someone calling me by my real name,

'I don't care who I'm fighting around, that knowledge means that I may form some opinion towards them, and then I will not be able to fight to my best. I may like someone as a person and if that happens, I will become upset if they are killed. I prefer not to care, so that I may focus solely on the task at hand.'

I knew that what I said was harsh and almost inhumane, but that was how I had found it easiest to live, alone. I desperately wanted a companion to share my days with, humans are after all pack animals, but the few people that I had known had always been killed around me and the grief that I had felt had been too much to bare. I resolved to live purely as a mercenary with no social life or care for the rest of my race. Eudorus shook his head in shock staring at me in surprise,

'How old are you Ekkaia?'

He was the first person I knew that could make me feel so isolated and unprotected with a simple question,

'Is it of any matter to you?'

I asked defensively, scolding myself for being so harsh to the man who was trying to reach out to me, Eudorus seemed to take no notice of my rudeness.

'It is of no matter other than curiosity. Although you act strong and pretend to be mature, I feel that you are only young. Appearance is difficult to use as a guide for your body is… fit, strong, that of a warrior and yet somehow you remain feminine, which makes me think that you are still young and only newly to this line of work not a seasoned warrior. Your face, though covered by your hair and tattoos and scars is soft and free of lines… I see you to be no older than twenty-five at the most.'

I stared at him, not knowing how to react.

'I'm twenty-two.'

I said, unable to think of any more to say in response to Eudorus' discriminatory evaluation of myself. Eudorus shook his head,

'That is young to be so cold and calculating. You started mercenary work when you were how old?'

I sighed and put down my sword and looked at Eudorus.

'I was eighteen when I decided to become a mercenary.'

I knew that he expected more information about the strange choice of a career but I could not bring myself to tell a stranger my story- not yet. I expected at this stage for Eudorus to give up on asking me about myself. Instead, he moved closer towards me, and handed me a second bowl of stew that he had.

'You should eat Ekkaia- try the stew. It is good.'

I took the bowl from him astounded and ate, the glorious taste of hot food melting in my mouth as I realised that I had not eaten in two days. I swallowed and looked to Eudorus-

'How old are you, Eudorus?'

It was a cheeky question and I knew this, but I did not expect the large booming laugh that came from Eudorus upon my asking him.

'I'm thirty-seven, and beginning to feel the past twenty-two years of fighting take its toll on my body. So many old injuries that all form together in painful knots and cramps.'

He chuckled and smiled at me,

'So you were fifteen when you first began fighting?'

I asked shocked at the young age. Eudorus nodded,

'I started as a horseback messenger and scout at the age of fifteen yes. I was not allowed to be a foot soldier until I had stopped growing and had developed enough muscle mass- that was when I was eighteen. Never before have I felt such exhilaration as when I marched into my first battle. I was twelve when I made my first kill, but as a scout and messenger, I made no kills. Therefore, I knew not how I would handle the power of having another person's life in my hands and knowing that I was the one to end the weaving threads of their lives and cut them short. I do not like to kill, but the power, the adrenalin is something so addictive that I do not know how warriors can retire. It is more of a narcotic to me than anything I have ever tried.'

I chuckled at this because I knew the feeling well. I swallowed before speaking,

'In my country we call it bloodlust.'

Eudorus tilted his head sideways and looked at me in surprise,

'Was that just spoken without any remorse, bitterness, contempt, and hatred?'

I laughed and looked at him in shock,

'It was though now I'm beginning to think that may have been a mistake!'

Eudorus laughed and shook his head,

'Do you drink Ekkaia? There is some good ale being served at the moment.'

I nodded and Eudorus left to fetch two mugs of ale, and in the back of my head a voice began crying to be noticed, warning me about what I was doing- I pushed it aside and silenced it.

It was much later, the fire had been stoked and almost all the firewood had disappeared, Eudorus and I had gone through almost an entire barrel of ale to ourselves and Eudorus again asked me of my life before being a mercenary,

'How, I mean why does such a beautiful young woman become a mercenary, I have trouble understanding why you would decide to have such a career.'

I could tell that this upset him, not knowing about my past and so, in my intoxicated state revealed to him the past, which I had never told another living creature. I sniffed and stared into the flickering flames and I realised that my voice took on a haunted, hollow tone- it was the only way that I could tell my story for to my great surprise the pain still burnt up inside me as I thought back.

'My home, I have not seen it since I left, is about a six or so months journey north. It snows very frequently. My mother and father were well to do in society; father was the head warrior. I was betrothed to a man from a neighboring village, their finest warrior, and a man that I had known almost all my life. I loved him dearly. He went out on a hunting party the day before our wedding to fetch a stag for the banquet. Some Sumerian raiders were lurking nearby and attacked the small party- killing everybody, including my betrothed and my betrothed's best friend- my younger brother.

I have never felt such cold aloneness as I did that day when I heard the news… Women in my village are taught to fight so that they may protect themselves against invaders, so I took weapons and my fathers best mount, as much gold as I deemed necessary and went in search of the raiders. I found them sleeping, there were ten of them. I killed the three scouts and then silently as possible slit the throats of those who slept. I took from their bodies that which belonged to my brother, betrothed, and left the bodies there. I continued riding south, stopping in towns to do the odd jobs and then one day I was hired as a mercenary. I have been one ever since.'

Eudorus for once did not have a reply to my tale, the pair of us sat in silence staring at the leaping flames in front of us and contemplating our morality. I let out a long sigh and tilted my head sideways to look at Eudorus.

'Do you have a bride Eudorus?'

I asked, and regretted the question immediately for Eudorus' head fell forward and he placed his large, worn hands over his face to hide his pain. I knew not how to react, I placed my shaking hand on his large shoulder, hoping that the light comforting gesture would help him; he reached over with his furthest hand and clasped mine tightly. He sat up and ran his free hand through his hair,

'I apologise. I do not have a bride. I had a lover once- a long time ago. When I was still a normal soldier, only nineteen in fact. I had met her when delivering a message to a village. A simple peasant girl with charming yet plain looks. Brown hair tied in a plait; she worked for the farmer caring for the cattle. She was with child, my child, when I left to fight the Thracians one day, I kissed her forehead as she slept and left. The Thracians, they never met us on the battlefield, confused the army uneasily stood at the plains trying to understand why they had not shown up when one of our men turned around and noticed the smoke… The Thracians had snuck past us the night before and once we had left the village, they had attacked it, raping and killing all the women and children and hanging them from the eaves of the buildings while they set fire to everything… My lover had her stomach cut open and our son was ripped from her, then they hung her from the building and let her bleed to death… My son, alive somehow after being ripped from his mother was thrown to the hounds and ripped apart… We chased the Thracians down and killed every one of them with such anger and contempt but it did not take any of the pain away…'

Here Eudorus paused, as if unable to go on, his hand still clasped mine and he was shaking violently,

'I have not taken a woman to my bed since. Since that day I have never looked at another woman in a way as to have her as my own.'

Here he released my hand and took a long swig of his ale, I felt cold and upset by the story,

'I'm sorry to hear that you have had to endure such a painful experience.'

Was all that I could say, Eudorus smiled at me, I nearly died in shock to see the man smile after sharing such a story,

'Thank you Ekkaia, I too am sorry for what you have had to live through. Though it seems the gods love to test us and make our lives painful, all we can do is live to the best of our abilities and prove to them that nothing they can do can stop us from living our lives.'

I gave a small smile and raised my mug,

'That I will drink to.'

Eudorus laughed and we raised our mugs together before drinking deeply from our mugs of ale.

A light rain woke me the next morning, I groaned as my head began to protest about the excessive amounts of alcohol consumed the previous night and I sat up groggily, and looked around. The remains of the fire were at my feet and there was no sign of Eudorus. My horse stood nearby chewing some hay that had been given to him and the sounds of the Greeks going about there day bought a searing pain to my already sore head. I stood up and shook my head before looking around; I spied Eudorus close by and strode up to him.

'Morning.'

I said to him, he raised an eyebrow and looked at me,

'Afternoon Ekkaia.'

He said, I snorted and glanced upwards at the sun,

'Is not. I say it's around ten.'

He laughed and smiled,

'About that. What can I do for you this morning?'

He asked, emphasizing the morning part, I smiled,

'I was wondering if there was anything that I could help with or do, there is nothing I need to do and I don't particularly like being bored.'

Eudorus crossed his arms and leant back on one leg to look at me quizzically,

'A mercenary that wants to do work; now I have seen everything. I believe that at the moment we are about to start readying ourselves for battle. Go and get ready and then return to me so that I can inform you about where you will be fighting.'

I nodded and returned to my gear to ready myself for battle.

Eudorus' campsite was set on top of the hill in order for him to be able to watch his men. That was great for him but with me needing to change into my fighting gear, as confident and large ego-ed as I was, I would not change before an entire Greek army. Therefore, I grabbed my gear and vaulted on my horse to gallop to the other sides of the dunes. Here I removed the strip of leather that I had tied around my breasts and pulled on my white cloth blouse, putting my hardened leather vest over the top, tightening it about myself whilst whistling a tune I did not know. I then pulled on my knee length leather shoes over my skin like leather trousers, doing up the laces on those, and standing happily. Next I pulled on my elbow length gloves, with their hardened knuckles and finally picked up my helmet, a bronze helmet of oval shape with a pointed helm and a nose piece that was a horses head, a stream of horse hair streamed from the top and it made me every part the warrior I so desired to be inside. I repacked my belongings, all my special items being carefully wrapped in cloth, placed in the bag ever so gently, and cantered back to Eudorus' fire to leave my stuff. My two curved blades crossed in their harness across my back and a stolen short sword shoved in my sheath. I sighed and patted my horse, realising that it would have to be left behind and, with helmet in hand, went off in search of Eudorus.

He was fully armed, his helmet sitting loosely in his hand resting on his hip as he ordered the men about. 'Eudorus.'

I said politely as I watched the men organize themselves. Eudorus glanced at me and frowned,

'No shield?'

I shook my head. I knew that this would come up sooner or later, I wore no metal protection bar my helmet and with the Greeks that always posed a dilemma as they rode out to battle with metal chest plates, greaves, bucklers, helmets and more.

'After this battle we are getting the blacksmith to make you fitted bronze armor to match your helmet. Light, but strong enough to deflect arrows and such.'

The tone in his voice left nothing up to question- that was a statement not an option. I sighed but said nothing, I bowed my head defeated and wiped under my nose- it was itchy from the sand that was being kicked up by the soldiers. There was no wind, the day was so hot that I could have sworn that I could smell Agamemnon begin to cook in his huge armour. I waited patiently for Eudorus as he began lining up his men, leaving his spot at the front vacant.

'Ekkaia! You fight here by me. Achilles feels the need to keep an eye on you- fears you'll betray us for gold.'

His voice was cold and filled with a strange sound I had not heard before, I bit my lip but said nothing, pulling on my helmet and lining up, I knew that I looked amazingly out of place in brown amongst the black and silver of Achilles' Myrmidons.

It was not long after this that we began our long march out towards the plains where we intended to meet the Trojans in battle. We could not get too close to the city walls for then the Trojans would be able to shoot us with their arrows- like the cowardly dogs they were. All we could hope for was that they were as eager for a fight as we were and that they too would send an army out to meet us on this fine day.

Sure enough, when we reached the plains there in front of us stretched the Trojan army. Foot soldiers first, than chariots and the mounted equestrians lined at the back. The army that the Trojans had massed was huge- yet it was dwarfed by the combined Greek army. The centre was Agamemnon's men, and two their left Ajax's with us Myrmidons on the right. I care not where anyone else was, nor do I actually know. All I know is that never before have I felt so small and insignificant, never before have I realised how small a part I play in this world… Although a mercenary for the past five years, my experience with battles only consisted in small battles, never amounting to more than 500 soldiers combined so to stand amongst this mass – it chilled me to the bone.

The battle began and I knew not what was going on, I was overwhelmed. The large armies raced forwards and I was caught up in the flow of soldiers. The fight was… bad. There was no room for skill and so it came down to brute strength, as the two armies slugged out against each other. I have never fought worse in my life. It was not long before I was bleeding from many wounds and stumbling about on my leg, which was now numb. I sliced through the throat of a man in front of me and glanced down to see a broken off spear sticking out of my leg. I blinked and shook my head, the blood loss beginning to make me feel ill. I knew not how much longer I could last and I began to realise that I was a poorly qualified mercenary in terms of large battles. I was more for retrieving objects or evening out fields of about 20. I was not good for fighting in a war so large that almost the entire population was involved. I stumbled over a dead body and fell forward, a heavy, darkness overtaking me as I lay on the ground, which was wet from blood. The sand was a strange reddish orange and the sun was hot on my back as I lay face first on the ground. A shadow let me know that someone stood over me, I rolled over and stared up at the attacker with pained eyes, it was Hector. He stared down at me with a snarl on his face, raising his foot and slamming it into my head, knocking me unconscious…

I awoke in a blaze of pain. I could not fully identify from where the most intense pain was coming so I assumed that I was about to die. My eyes opened and I stared blearily out at the tent around me. I could smell the sickness and knew immediately I was in the hospital. I sat up groggily and stared down to see some shoddy bandage work. Obviously I wasn't important enough to be looked after well, I was curious as to why I was being looked after at all. The blood was seeping through the bandages so I pulled myself up dragging my painfully numb leg behind me to grab some more bandages; I sat down and began redoing them. As I was doing this I could hear some voices, Achilles and Eudorus.

'Why did you bother to bring her back Eudorus? The mercenary isn't important- you should have left her out there to die.'

Achilles sounded angrier than he usually was, but that was not a surprise as I already knew that he felt little apathy towards me. What surprised me was what I heard next.

'She's only young Achilles! I won't leave a young woman out on that field to die in a puddle of her own blood from heat and blood loss purely because we couldn't be bothered to help her! She's a sound fighter, I don't know what happened out there, I'll give her some tips and next time she'll be fine.'

I could almost see the look of utter shock on Achilles face, Eudorus often spoke up against his leader in private, but never before in public like this. I myself was shocked that Eudorus would care enough to have saved me from the fate which he had described. I stood on my legs shakily and walked out of the hospital and found that the pair was standing outside the door. I looked from Achilles to Eudorus and cleared my throat,

'I'm sorry about err… the fight.'

I knew not how long I had been unconscious. I sniffed, the embarrassment burning into me as neither of them spoke but merely stared at me,

'It won't happen again.'

I ventured lamely, cursing myself for how badly I had fought. Achilles shook his head,

'You are right, it will not happen again because I am not letting you fight. You are a weakness to my army. Instead you will look after our wounded and ensure that my cousin Patroclus does not disobey me by trying to sneak off to the battle. Is that understood mercenary?'

I nodded solemnly,

'Good, you are lucky that you have people here that are fond of you, should it have purely been up to me you would be in Hades right now.'

With that he turned and left me standing there in shame. I stared at the ground and was shocked to feel Eudorus place his hand on my shoulder,

'How are you feeling?'

he asked his voice quiet and calm, reassuring in its soft gruffness.

'I'm fine. A little sore but I suppose that that is to be expected after that shocking performance…'

I trailed off unable to make as much of a joke from the situation as I had wished to, Eudorus chuckled none-the-less.

'You are alive, and in that you have done better than many others did last week.'

I stared at him in shock, had I been out for a week? He noticed my look and smiled kindly,

'You've been in a fever for five days Kaia, but you have pulled through.'

I felt a strange feeling in my stomach as he called me Kaia, a nickname; he had given me a pet name. A slight fear flashed in Eudorus' eyes and he walked away after telling me to return inside where I was sheltered from the sun. For once I did as I was told.

I was sitting on the hospital cot reading a piece of parchment given to me by my mother when Eudorus next entered. I could tell the day outside had been hot and was thankful for the coolness of the tent. Eudorus handed me some fresh fruit- although I am unsure of how he came about it in the first place. He sat on the ground and we ate the glorious fruit in silence I sighed and looked to him, slowly taking in the older man, attempting to discover why he was being so nice to me, and wondering what I would be entitled to do in return.

'How are you feeling?'

Eudorus asked quietly without looking away from his fruit, I smiled,

'Well. Thank you, the physicians tell me that you brought me in here, that you saved my life.'

Eudorus shrugged,

'I didn't want…'

Here he paused and looked at me, standing and stroking my hair with his hand,

'I did not want to lose you.'

He gave a small sad smile and then left the tent. I sat and stared at the spot where the man had stood and shook my head. Pushing aside the thoughts that had sprung to my mind upon him saying such a thing and I returned to my fruit."

The woman stopped talking here and pulled her cloak tighter around her body. She knew that no one realised that she was finished.

'Get up and leave! It is late my bones are heavy, my body weary and my throat hoarse. I will continue this story tomorrow. Off with you!'

Slowly, without much enthusiasm the large crowd dissipated and the old woman wandered back into her home to sleep.