Daydream1- I love u, u made such a lame day sooo much nicer w/ ur review. I do know Sarmatians and Amazons are connected (e-mail me to chat about it!). Damara was just this name I liked, but now I'm trying to find more names that are more celtic.
Sorry to those reviewers who I don't respond to. I AM mentally retarded in that direction.
Magnus ate up the ground in front him with gigantic strides that would be hard to match by any standards. Damara pushed, kneading her hands along his neck to urge him to a faster pace. She barely believed it, but Magnus' legs moved even faster along the dirt with her urgings. She loved her horse, especially when he could carry her away from unpleasant encounters such as the one she'd just had with Arturius.
Finally, after going through in her mind all that had transpired since she had arrived at Hadrian's Wall, Damara looked up to find she had passed the boundaries and walls of the fort and was now riding past a thickly misted forest.
Pulling on Magnus' reins, she managed to slow him down to a minor walk, although she could feel that he still had more energy by the way he kept pulling on the reins.
"Stop that" she scolded him. He stopped, only to start chewing on the bit, getting his slimy green saliva all over his muzzle.
Looking to the woods, she felt an eerie sensation at the back of her neck. Scanning the trees, she relaxed, not visibly, when she found nothing. Still, considering that her horse was white and spotted, not to mention gargantuan, she didn't let her guard down for a second.
Focusing her body towards Magnus, she stroked and petted his neck to appear to be soothing his abounding energy.
A bush rustled softly, almost too softly for Damara to hear. But she did. She was not some second-rate scout from Rome. She was an Amazon, with all the skills and prowess that that word entailed. She had been mentored by Bremusa, one of the most feared and powerful women she had ever known. Bremusa had been the fighting queen of her nation, while Damara's mother had been the Amazonian queen of commerce, as was the custom of the matriarchy.
She smiled quietly to herself, waiting for her appraiser to show themselves. Without even a whisper, she moved her hand back to her saddle in an inconspicuous manner. Arthur might not have known it, but she had hidden daggers concealed within the leather of her saddle.
Another whisper of leaves, the sound of woven leather.
Damara froze, hope bursting in her chest at the recognition of that sound. Barely daring to breathe, she slowly turned Magnus until they both faced the forest head on. She scanned the forest again, this time closer than before.
Closing her eyes and taking a breath, she called a greeting in British.
The bushes straight in front of Damara shook violently.
Damara threw her eyes open, focusing on the figure that had leaped out from behind the foliage.
"Annuska?' she said hesitantly. She wasn't able to make her out because of the blue paint she wore.
"Damara!" came the exultant cry from forest. Damara's older sister came bounding out of the woods, stopping at the forest's edge to say hello to Magnus.
Damara slid off Magnus' back and grabbed her sister in a huge hug.
"Ana, I was so worried" she said softly into her sister's hair, "I thought the Romans had killed you. I had no idea where you were!".
She grabbed her sister by the shoulders and held her back so as to look at Annuska' face.
Ana's face was beaming as she looked at her sister. Damara felt the same.
"Ana, I thought they had killed you!" Damara said, her voice almost breaking.
"No! I wouldn't let those Roman pigs disgrace me with a death at their hands!" Annuska said with disgust, "They are not worthy of ever touching you or I".
Damara laughed shortly.
"Then what happened to you?" Damara asked with fervor, her curiosity piqued by her sister's vehement disgust at the Romans.
"Well, I had gone scouting, as you had suggested, when I heard shouts from the campsite. Well, no, that is not true, I heard the dog first. Nissa's dog howling. Then came the shouts," Annuska paused for breath, gulping air before she continued, " I tied my horse to a tree near where I was, then I ran back to the campsite as fast as I could without making a lot of noise. It was then that I saw you being held at sword point by a filthy Roman pig".
Annuska paused here to spit at the word "Roman". Damara spat at it with her.
"I listened to what they were saying to you, and I saw them put you on Magnus' back. Then I saw the girls".
Damara closed her eyes, pained at the memory of her girls' treacherous deaths. They hadn't deserved to die like that.
Annuska's voice was choked a little bit as she finished her story in a rush. "Then, I saw them burn the bodies, and take you away. But no before they took you off the horses with Hana and Kiri and beat you all severely, as sick as those two were. I followed your journey, until you were transferred into the wagon and traveled beyond the wall. I couldn't follow you without being discovered, as I was dressed in full Woad paint, so I washed it off and followed as fast as I could. I was hoping that Arturius would see the wrong of what his soldiers did, and would free you, but I couldn't be sure." Annuska smiled, holding up a bundle that Damara hadn't noticed till now, "So I stole some Roman clothing and was going to search the fort for your prison cells. But I guess now I won't have to" Annuska finished, beaming again.
Damara grinned, unable to resist the joy she felt at seeing her older sister again.
When they had first met, a week ago, Damara had been anxious and uneasy at the same time. She was about to meet her long lost sister who didn't even know that she existed. She hadn't even known that if she was actually going to meet her sister. But she and the rest of her Amazons had used a little bit of sneaking, and bribery, to determine where her sister was.
They had searched for a month and a half, disguising themselves as Romans or Britons at different turns. Lillithia had taught Damara the language of the Celts, as well as Latin, so that she could converse with Britons and Romans alike, not to mention her father's family. They had bribed Romans for information on Woads, although not many of those tips had led her to her sister. They had only pointed to the north and said "there".
The Britons on the other hand, were beyond helpful. They had welcomed the amazons into their homes upon hearing their mission, and told them as much as they could of the Woad resistance. Once they had spoken to these families, they had been pointed in a real direction towards which they were told they could find resistance fighters.
They had walked their horses northward through the forest, slowly and sedately, not rushing, just listening and looking for signs of woads. They had been attacked by a group of blue people, all of the amazons on the defensive so as not to wound too many woads.
Damara had called for a stop to the fighting in Gaelic, which surprised the Britons so much that they did cease their attack. They had eyed her and the rest of her girls with apprehension and suspicion, fearful of Roman spies or tattles. They had questioned her viciously, demanding answers for their harsh questions. After ten minutes of this, Damara spoke of their real purpose. The woads had still been suspicious of them, even more so when she had mentioned the name of Merlin's niece. Damara had finally been so fed up that she pulled out the amulets her mother had given her.
"Mara, if you're going to find your sister, you're going to need this" Lillithia had said, only a month before her death. She held out a half circle of carved wood. It had swirling designs on it of owls and the goddess Athena. It had jagged teeth on the non-circular side.
Lillithia had explained that she and Damara's father had had them made for each other during the first few months of their marriage. Her father had a matching token that featured stags and hounds with the goddess Artemis.
"Your father worshipped Athena because of her wisdom. It was his own thirst for wisdom that brought us together, so he felt he owed her a deep debt. His token is of Artemis because he thought of me as the huntress, powerful and above men. That is why we have each other's amulets. To remind each other of our own love and memories." Lillithia had smiled sadly.
"But mother, if father has the other token, why would I be able to find Annuska?" Damara had said foolishly.
"That's just it αγάπη. When Annuska was born, we had a copy of our combined necklaces made. Hers does not separate, as ours do. It is one circle, completely joined, representing the union of our blood." Lillithia sighed, then continued, "Once you were born, I had another of the one combined circle made for you, because I still had the plans for the pendants in my personal records."
She reached to the table beside her, to a package that Damara had failed to notice before. Lillithia held it out to her daughter, smiling encouragingly when Damara faltered.
Her hands shaking, Damara picked up the package. She slowly unwrapped the fabric to reveal a large medallion, depicting just that which her mother had spoken of. On one side, the carvings were detailed wondrously, on the opposite side, there were the names of her parents, Arden carved in signs, and Lillithia carved in Greek.
"Now," Lillithia said, "You will need my pendant because your sister will know and recognize it as a match to that of your fathers, not to mention you will have a matching amulet to the complete circle that she has. Arden would never think of removing his own pendant."
She looked fondly at Damara.
"Don't worry αγάπη. Even if my plan fails you, you will be able to find your sister. I know you will." Lillithia had stated.
They had shared a moment of silence, both pondering a meeting with Annuska. Then Lillithia had begun to speak again.
"Damara there is one other matter that I need you to attend to when you go on your journey …"
The memory had faded as the woad fighters had begun to splutter.
"Where did you get that?" one man had said in a near-shout. From the way he was holding himself, Damara surmised that this was the leader of the group. He was painted in a thicker amount of dye than the others and he had several large tattoos. His hair was slicked in a tight clump of knots at the back of his head, and he was carrying a large, rough hewn axe.
"I received this from the hand of my mother, wife of my father, the Briton Arden" Damara said in her royal court voice.
The entire group of fighters' eyes had all rounded as large as ale mugs at her mentioning the name Arden.
"You are the daughter of Arden?" the man had said in astonishment.
"Yes" Damara had answered clearly. She was beginning to be bored by their astonishment.
The man had suddenly puffed up in rage, brandishing his axe at her as though to ward off a demon.
"Who are you? Roman spies! Where did you steal this!" he had screamed in fury.
His questioning of her credentials had not only set off Damara's temper, but also that of both opposing fighters. Damara could hear the growls and sounds of anger coming from behind her. The sound of a bowstring being stretched came from behind Damara. It made her glad that she knew that she could count on Kirima to always be prepared.
Her eyes blazing, Damara slid slowly from her seat on Magnus and handed the reins to Qatara very deliberately. Turning slowly until she faced the woad leader, she stretched to her full height of 10 hands (AN- measurement method of horses, or, if I'm being retarded, then she's 5'6" ½). She stood there for a few seconds, staring at the man who she could had killed seven times over in the past ten seconds without his squad even realizing he was dead.
"Sir," she began slowly, so as to not lose her control and just grab Beofre's spear and run the man through with it, "We are NOT friends of Rome, nor shall we EVER be. We are of the Amazon nation, merely on a journey to find a lost member of my family. The mere name of Rome makes me sick to hear it spoken."
The woad fighters had relaxed their grips on their weapons at her adamant refusal of connections with Rome, but hadn't sheathed them. Her girls hadn't even budged at her speech.
His eyes suspicious now, the leader asked Damara one question; "Whom do you seek?"
She had smirked slightly.
Damara was staring straight at his eyes when she replied "I seek my sister". Some of the Britons had opened their mouths as though to speak, but Damara had cut all of them off before they could.
"Her name is Annuska".
The clearing had erupted in shouts and yells of surprise.
From there, Damara had explained her entire journey to the troupe of woads. After that, she and her squad had been escorted through roman territory using secret trails made by the resistance fighters in order to evade the routine roman scouting groups.
It took only two weeks to travel to the area where her sister was stationed. The entire trip, Damara had progressed from being a cool, clear-headed leader to a twitching fool.
By the time they got to the camp, Damara was clutching her reins so tightly that she couldn't release her fingers from them.
They had been stopped by a scruffy looking woman tattooed heavily and covered in vicious looking throwing daggers. She had spoken viciously in Gaelic to their escort, apparently assuming that they wouldn't understand what she was saying. However, Damara and her company understood every word. Their escorts also knew this, although they failed to mention it, being far more content to simply sit back and smirk.
"Who the hell are these women, Antedios! What in Hedu's name were you thinking! Or were you not EVEN THINKING AT ALL?" She screamed at the leader.
"Well, he may have been thinking, although not too clearly I suppose" Hana said in a friendly Gaelic tone to the woman.
Now the woman was wearing an astonished gaze. Her mouth was even hanging open. Damara didn't even budge. She was too nervous.
The woad escort did however find Hana's comments tremendously funny. Many of them tried hard to hide smiles with a hand or disguise a laugh with a cough. One scout just bowed her head to the pommel of her saddle, and shook silently with laughter.
"What, how?.." the woman said, dumbfounded. She gazed at the women with a mixture of stupefaction and suspicion. If this was going to be the constant type of reception that she was going to get with her squad, Damara was simply going to don the attire of Britons.
"Itasca, these women are here to see Annuska." Antedios said, in a tone that didn't brook argument.
Itasca bristled at that one.
"What do you mean, they're here to see Annuska? They are obviously not Britons, so they are foreign to me, which means that they do not get to see my mistress. If they're foreign, they should not even know of her name. Why didn't you just kill them? Besides," she said, nostrils flaring at Hana, "she's busy".
"Enough, Itasca."
The command came quietly, but with such force behind it that all the Amazons immediately snapped to attention. Damara's head swung up so fast that she heard her neck crack. She scanned the crowd, almost disbelieving.
Mother's dead, Damara, so stop conjuring memories.
Her shoulders sagged slightly. But then, looking around, she saw all of her squad in a perfect row of pairs, sitting on their horses with their hands holding their reins and shield with the other hand clutching the lances they always had ready. Damara now resembled Itasca.
Her head turned at the exact moment that a ghost appeared.
Her mother stepped from the shadows of a tent canopy, young in body and movements. But something was wrong, something was, different, about her.
No, that's not right, Damara thought, everything's different about her.
She was dressed as a woad, with tightly bound leather boots, and pants, with a flowing green robe latched at her chest with a wooden toggle. She had the same black hair as Lillithia, but hers was loose and flowing, unlike her mothers. Lillithia always had hers coiled and twisted for court.
Damara had been so absorbed in taking in her mother's ghost that she didn't even realize that the woman was staring at her with an expression of curiosity, and wariness.
"Who are you, that you are asking after my name all over Briton, Lady?" she inquired of Damara.
Kirima snorted at that.
"I seek my sister" she replied simply, too stupefied to say anything more complicated.
"Lady, your sister cannot be here. You are in a camp that is completely made up of Britons. There are no foreigners here like yourself. You are mistaken." She said in a tone that made Damara faint with homesickness for her mother.
Be strong Mara. You cant' stop now, not when you're so close. Think Mara! Think!
"No, you are the one who is mistaken. I seek my sister, daughter of Lillithia and Arden." Damara said, staring piercingly at the woman who was her long lost sister.
Annuska's face lost all of it's color. She stammered, at a loss as to what she should say. Then, a firmness came over her features, although the color was not back in her face.
"That is impossible. I am the only child of Arden and Lillithia" Damara saw her falter, but only for a mere fraction of a second "Besides, you are dressed as a Sarmatian, and my mother was a Spartan".
Beofre threw back her head and laughed, her whole body shaking with the force of her humor.
Damara couldn't resist joining in either, joined closely by the rest of her squad.
The woads all stared at her in amazement. Annuska was staring slightly anxiously at her, although Damara knew that she would soon find out the failure of her test.
Gasping as an attempt to regain breath, Beofre wiped the tears of laughter from her face with a giggle.
"Da-damara! She lies as bad as you do!" Beofre collapsed into giggles again, holding onto her saddle for support.
Smiling, Damara turned to Annuska. Straightening her face, with the sounds of her comrades chuckles behind her, she addressed Annuska.
"That is impossible. My mother was no Greek, for you are fair of skin. Your mother was an Amazon, as was mine" She stated clearly, thankful that she was lucid enough to say things so eloquently.
With that, she withdrew her amulets from her robes.
From there, she and her sister, with just her comrades for company, had journeyed back in the direction of the Wall to recover a cache of gifts that the Amazons had buried for when Damara had met her sister. They had cut their former journey in half, the hurry that Damara and Annuska felt to get to know each other was that great.
Annuska had wanted no Britons with them, for the sake of privacy, and she wanted to meet Damara's closest friends.
Along the way, Hana had fallen and scraped her back badly, and Kirima had been hit in the head by a low slung branch when she was making fun of Damara. Both had been recovering when the Romans had struck. Damara had merely been delivering some salve to Hana and herbal tea to Kiri.
Damara looked sadly at Ana.
"They went out fighting at least"
Ana smiled back, just as sad.
"It's what they would have preferred."
Taking a deep breath, Ana looked at her sister with a sober face.
"Mara, we can have a party ready to get you back to camp by tomorrow morning. I sent off a messenger just before I came here. I told them bring medical supplies, in case you and the girls were injured further. Where are the girls anyway?"
Damara rolled her eyes.
"Probably off seeking some suitable bachelor to help me spawn, the wretches".
Ana laughed.
"They really took it to heart then? Mother's command to get you to further our family line?"
Mara groaned.
"They took as though it were a command from Artemis, Athena help me! But anyways, where do you need us to be tomorrow morning?"
"I think you should leave southwards, then you can circle around to the opposite direction and we'll take it from there."
"Good. We'll be there an hour after the sun rises."
"Be safe"
"Don't worry Ana, we're amazons, we can handle ourselves."
Giving her sister one last hug, she stood holding Magnus' reins as she watched her sister disappear into the underbrush, blending seamlessly with her surroundings.
Sighing, she turned and mounted Magnus.
"Come on boy, we have a few things to do"
Letting out an apprehensive breath, she turned Magnus back towards the wall.
AN- hope you enjoy! I've got some good stuff on the way!