I woke up to the rumbling and jouncing associated with a cart or wagon, and opened my eyes to a cloudy, drizzling sky. I could feel at least two people, maybe three near where I had apparently been flopped against the side of the cart. I moved a bit, feeling the stiffness related to injuries and tried to figure out what was hurt, and how well it had been bandaged. It surprised me, my wounds had been attended to...so my new master must at least know basic health or have a slave that did.

"Hey, have you awoken?" Someone spoke in a Celtic dialect. I froze for a moment, then slowly sat up, trying to avoid making my torn up shoulder hurt any more than it already did. Sitting in front of me was a brunette with hair that all stuck up in one direction, reminding me of a blade or stag's horn. "When they tossed you in they said you were from Celtica too. You understand me, Son of the Wolf Chief?"

"Ah, I know your speech. Of what province are you?"

"Of northern Britannica, My family once went to a festival that yours hosted, though we never formally met, man." The brunette looked rather overjoyed to have found another who at least spoke his language. He began to chatter on about the festival, and a girl he'd met at the festival that drew Jou's attention.

"You met a girl named Serenity? One with long reddish-hair, green eyes, and the apprentice to the potion healer?"

"Yeah, I never saw her eyes, but that's her! How do you know her?"

"That's my younger half-sibling! Her mother wanted to have her learn from the master she learned from, so they went away! I didn't know they'd gone to that festival!" In his surprise and happiness about hearing from his sister, he forgot to speak quietly, and the sudden stinging of a green willow twig across his and the other man's back reminded him.

"No talking back there, you'll get to socialize and make friends in the training ring. Heh." The young man driving the cart looked to be a normally cheerful one, though right now his face was contorted into an annoyed sneer. "I'm sure your plotting back there will come to nothing anyways."

Behind the cart, a trailing servant-guard in armor spoke up. "Master Mokuba, if they have so much energy to talk, mayhap they should walk."

The cart lurched to a halt, and the blue robed Roman boy stood from his seat. "Kemo, come here."

Eyes wide in the realization that he'd been a bit to relaxed around his younger master, Kemo slunk forward, kneeling below the long haired boy. "Yes, Master?"

"Kemo, who gives orders around here?"

"You do, sir."

"Good. And what does that mean you do?"

"Follow those orders, sir."

"Go-o-od. Now, resume your place, and don't expect dinner tonight."

"Yes, Master Mokuba!" And the guard hustled back to the small column of guards following the cart the Roman boy rode in, while said boy settled back in his seat, and cracked the whip over the mules heads.

Still stinging from the crack from the willow lash, Jou murmured a "sorry" to the brunette and settled back down on the floor of the cart- he'd might as well sleep while he could...