A/N: Thank you to everyone who has expressed an interest in the story! Just for a note, I want to point out that I will be changing character surnames to fit the time period and location. First names for our girls will be staying intact though. That's all for now and if you would like, let me know what you think. Enjoy!


Chapter 1: My Kingdom Awaits

July 27th, 79 AD

Stirring in her sleeping quarters, Brittany was awoken by the morning sunrise peeking its way through the window, the life on the outside streets of Oplontis waking alongside her. She had always liked mornings. The sounds of the locals commuting with large containers upon a donkey cart to collect water for their houses for the day; the smell of fresh food on the markets beginning to reach her nostrils and the sight of the morning sun seeking over the houses, lighting up the streets and dragging them graciously into the Gods-given shine of day.

Stretching out on her old sheets, Brittany felt the light tingles of a new days energy run up and down her spine before moving to her feet, the day's first sun rays hitting and reflecting off her golden blonde hair. Moving carefully across the room, Brittany tried not to disturb the slumber of her parents a few feet away, though it only took one glance to see that they had long since risen.

After all, today was anything from a normal day.

With her tunica now covering her slender body, Brittany made her way into the front room of the small house to find her parents sat around their table, a hunk of bread and a few scraps of cheese waiting for the blonde as she joined them.

"Good morning," Brittany greeted with a smile, piercing the pregnant silence of the household; a world away from the ever growing bustle of the streets a few feet away.

It wasn't as though Brittany was dumb. Actually, she was relatively far from it. Despite being from a poor family that next to no one even thought to give a second glance, she had a vast interest in the world around her. She could predict when the sun would set at the very start of sundown and she knew at what times of the year the migration patterns of the birds would be the most interesting to watch. She knew the stars, their constellations and their names. Brittany just knew things from absorbing every conversation she overheard while walking to the fullers to pick up clothing for the rich who lived at the villas for a few extra cooper coins for her family or even eavesdropping on the gladiators as they roughhoused down the street.

Even if Brittany may have forgotten about the day, the tired stares and audible nothingness of her mother and father would have jogged her memory. Her time in her childhood home and the town of Oplontis was over.

It was no secret that their family was poor. With her father a goat herder, money wasn't plentiful - with just enough produced with milk to put food on the table. Once a season, animals were sold for meat, which was usually enough to give them enough to get by with, but it wasn't the most comfortable way of life. With her parents verging on thirty, her father would not be able to work that much longer but Brittany knew she would never be around to see it.

In the morning, she was due in Pompeii. Her mother had told her she would be working for a rich man – a politician. Though the idea of having to go to another city without her parents to work as a slave for a stranger should be frightening, Brittany had come to terms with it. To her, it was an adventure. The Gods had a plan for her, and part of that was to move into the next chapter of her life. After all, there were worse lives to lead. She would have a roof over her head, a rich, knowledge filled environment to surround herself in, not to mention thermal baths and meat to eat.

A slave woman in Pompeii was a world away from being a poor child in Oplontis. Her parents only wished the best for her, and that's what she was getting.

"The cart will be arriving at Hora Quarta. I will be out of the town but your mother will be here," Her father spoke quietly, pulling a pang from Brittany's chest. Though she knew she was heading to a better life, she loved her parents more than there were words to express. She could see the hurt written over his face, knowing that he was holding back for her sake.

The rest of their morning meal was silent, accompanied with the soundtrack of the Oplontis streets before her father stood, moving around the table to his daughter.

"May the God's be with you, Brittany,"

Standing to embrace him, Brittany closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath of his scent, knowing that she would have to keep it with her as a replacement to him being in the flesh. After just a moment of being in his arms, he was leaving out of the door and disappearing out of sight.

xXx

Hora Quarta had appeared a lot more suddenly that Brittany would have anticipated. The outside streets were crowded. The market stalls were in full force, full of dealers and citizens looking for what they needed to buy, hustle and bustle through the main streets of the town. In every which way, groups of people were walking along, talking animatedly about the daily goings on.

Outside Brittany's house, a simple donkey pulled cart sat, the driver old and greyed, a patch of hair missing from the very crown of his head. His toga seemed to be made of finer fabrics; the finer fabrics that Brittany would be dressed in when she arrived at the place she would soon call her home.

"You be a good girl," Brittany's mother spoke softly, her throat thick with emotion as she brushed off the tattered shoulders of Brittany's cream tunica. "Make your father and I proud."

Nodding gently, Brittany moved to hug her, cementing the feel of it all into her brain. She would do her hardest to impress the Gods with both her work and being true to herself.

Hopping up into the back of the cart and nestling between two large sacks of what she assumed to be produce and fabrics, Brittany folded her legs beneath her. It wasn't going to be a quick trip and she was glad that her new master had sent someone for her, as opposed to making it all the way on foot.

He must be a great man.

With a click of the drivers tongue, the cart jerked into movement, the life on the streets dispersing to the side to allow the cart to pass. Children ran by the side, mothers shouting from a distance for them to keep their hands off the wheels.

With the sun high in the sky, Brittany let her eyes sweep over the streets and houses, getting in one last visual image of the place she had grown up in. She would miss it, but her destiny; whatever that was, would be found in Pompeii.

"Make sure you keep your seat," The man spoke up from the front of the cart, "We'll be picking up speed outside the city gates."

"I will, thank you," Brittany replied with a shining smile, catching his eye as he turned to smile back at her. "What is it like? Pompeii?" She asked, voice singing clearly over the dispersing sounds of the town crowds moving to go back to their afternoon work.

"There's nowhere like it," And Brittany believed him. She had heard gladiators talking of their times in Pompeii and fighting for the bigger crowds. They talked of vibrant markets, beautiful buildings and the wisest of people.

"And my new Master? Is he-.." Brittany trailed off.

It had been a few months since Brittany had heard that he expressed an interest in her. Her new master had visited Oplontis to view their gladiators and had gotten the word from a local villa owner who had been looking for more hands a few months previous. With Brittany being too young for his taste, she had been passed off but the Pompeii politician had found himself intrigued by her description.

After just one meet with her father, the deal was made.

"Master Loukas is a wise, generous man." The driver nodded, staring off into the streets as they got closer to the city walls. "He's well known by the people. They respect him; a man like him.. and his daughter too."

Brittany couldn't wait to meet him. If the people who worked for him thought so highly of such a man, he must be great and kind. She couldn't help but feel honored that he would want someone like Brittany to work for him. Sure, she was only a lowly slave worker but there were probably a vast amount to choose from in Pompeii; yet he had chosen her.

"I look forward to meeting him," Brittany chirped as they passed the great walls of the town, beginning on the long trip down the dusty road.

With nothing but the clothes on her back, Brittany was only a day away from starting her new life.