Roma Invicta Chapter 2
Written by Mikhail the tiger
Edited by Cimar
Artwork by CJCO on DA, (AKA aureliano276 on Tumblr)
"DON'T BREAK LINE!" Judy heard her valiant brother yelling. Her heart skipped a beat as she was afraid of turning around to see what was going on.
Sure enough, the canine barbarians clashed with the guards. The barricades had slowed them down, the sharpened wooden stakes even claiming a few of them thanks to their chaotic charging, but it was not enough…
The bunny guards interlocked their shields together and thrust wildly, desperately trying to use their reach advantage before the barbarians could get in close with their massive axes, swords and teeth and claws….
The barbarians' eyes were completely bloodshot, fixing on their prey. The rabbits couldn't suppress the shudder of primal fear going through them as the final few feet between them finally closed in. This close to them, they saw with horror that the barbarians' crude leather armour was made out of actual leather.
They all thrust their spears forward, while not rhythmically, they did manage to do it somewhat on cue and it skewered much of the front line. While other wolves simply shook off the blow like it was nothing and smiled sadistically at their prey…
One of them in particular, a massive, coal-black wolf with a large gold-encrusted war-axe swinging above his head. He swung it at the spearmen to the right of Albinus. Three of them braced for impact with shields held high. The axe cleaved straight through the shields and through them.
If he had been only a few rows to the right, he would have been cut in half. He watched in disbelief as a single swing from their monstrous leader carved three of his comrades to ribbons.
That had been Aspestos, his black spot over his white fur always making others joke that he "had a black eye". Now, he would become meat for the barbarians…
That had been the old Cornelius, who had been at the Hoppsus Villa just three nights ago, eating veggie stew and drinking wine sweetened with carrots. Now, he had died protecting his children…
Time itself slowed, dust particles falling onto the ground slowly and massive blades and claws that were aimed for his throat were moving like a lazy river.
Albinus was simply covering himself up with his shield as much as he could, thrusting his spear forward repeatedly unknowingly, squeezing his eyes shut to be spared of the sights of the horrors. His spear occasionally found flesh or was deflected by a shield, but he didn't bother looking. He wished there was a way to also close his ears.
The screams of pain of his comrades, the lapin cry for help, the sounds of war axes cleaving their prey were all heard clearly.
Many of the rabbits fled, preferring a life of shame than to end up in a wolf's jaws. He saw several of them dropping their spears and shields, fleeing towards the town walls.
That had been a grave mistake.
They were instantly tackled by coyotes who had been hiding in the bushes, ready to take out any stragglers. Lacking any kind of weapons, the rabbits were defenseless against the massive beasts. To his surprise, the canines dropped their weapons as they tackled the two bunnies. He realized with horror that they were going to take them apart with bare claws, to enjoy it like a predator of the old…
Albinus felt like collapsing, dropping to his knees, curling up into a ball until this was over. He wanted to be home, he wanted to run around the carrot fields with his siblings again, he wanted to be a kit in his mother's arms again…
Memories of his childhood flashed before his eyes as the battlefield morphed out of view. The deathly screams of his comrades, and the spine-freezing bellowing howls of the predators left him.
He could remain in his mother's warm bosom, in the cool river at which he and Judy used to swim when they were kits, with his fellow students at the Academy making morbid jokes as they dissected defeated Gladiators from the Arena. . . would they survive? Would the Legion save them? Because he had failed them…
Centurion Mikhailus ran with his troops straight towards the almost broken spearline. The rabbits were managing to hold for a surprisingly long time, despite heavy casualties and being completely outclassed and outnumbered.
Wildicus with his smaller Legionaries was right behind.
The fox raised his paw, signaling his men to stop, the disciplined Legionaries doing so almost immediately.
His fellow Centurion did the same.
Nicolaus Wildicus looked toward the towering golden eagle standard of the cohort, standing proudly above all of them, as if it watched over them, the scarlet red SPQR[8] straight below it.
He filled his chest with air before he began.
"Men! Romans! Our people are now under attack by the most merciless tribe of the unconquered lands! They came here to feast on Roman citizens! They defy our power! If they manage to break the line of the town guard before we reach them, your daughters will be enslaved, your sons will be butchered and end up on their tables! Shall we stand by as barbarians plunder our lands!?"
Both cohorts yelled out in a "NOOO!" as their shields clattered and eagle standards raised high.
"Shall we let them think that they can come here and do as they please without any repercussions from us, like our cowardly governor wanted to!?" The response was the same.
"Or will we stand together, as Romans, with dignity and courage? Remember: we are the sons of Mars! Rome has a destiny to rule the world! Now… MARCH!" The fox Centurion ordered, and after one last Hurrah, his troops followed. Mikhailus watched in awe as his joker friend took on an entirely new face. Every time he held speeches to his Cohort, he would crack a joke about him stealing the barbarians' chickens or that he and all the other foxes would sneak over to them and steal all of their steel before the battle started. This time however, there was no smirk. No wiggle of the eyebrows and an overly confident smile on the muzzle.
Only anger and pure determination.
But, the tiger was not surprised for too long by his friend's change. He knew how much Wildicus loved his Empire. His city. The people. He even saw him come down to the farms of mostly bunnies and chatting them up, laughing and drinking with them.
Particularly with a certain grey-furred, purple-eyed doe.
"Alright, Nicolaus! My men and I will take them on in the front! You flank them around in the woods, and thus, we will encircle them! Remember to pepper them with pila[9] from there! Both pila before charging!" said Mikhailus Junius, leading his men forward at a running pace.
The untrained bunny guards were few in number, most of them dead, or routed. Their Caligae kicked up dust as they ran toward the massive horde.
The howls and snarls of the canines was nothing new to the Legionaries. Battle with savages was an old friend to them, to be welcomed and cherished. The eagle standard held up high was noticed by the barricaded villagers who began cheering for their soldiers as the rumbling of their rhythmic marching was mere feet away from their burrows.
Judica looked through an opening in the deep burrow she was in with her family. Tigers, lions, deer and other brave legionaries of similar size were running through the farms, determined to take on the carnivores.
Her heart swelled with joy, knowing that there was finally hope for Albinus. But… where was he? There were now only a handful of their own town watch, and Albinus was not among them…
"Here come the mini-skirts!" one of the hyenas of the barbarians laughed out, clattering his shield right after he had ripped apart another hapless town watch.
"Javelins out, lads!" ordered the giant wolf. All of the barbarians sheathed their melee weapons and took out their throwing javelins, aiming them at the charging Romans.
Mikhailus's heart was hammering, the dying sunlight burning his Lorica Segmentata making him sweat even more. They would throw the javelins any moment… "Not now… wait for it…" He said to himself.
The first row began throwing the javelins.
"TESTUDO!" ordered the tiger, placing his shield in front of him. All the mammals next to him did the same, creating an impenetrable wall. Those behind him raised their shields above them, and those on the sides protected the flanks. Their Cohort was now a single, impenetrable tank.
The tiger winced as he felt heavy javelins pepper his large shield, the lion next to him gritting his teeth as a javelin's tip peeked through the solid shield, nearly hitting his paw.
Mikhail peeked his sword through the tiny gaps between the Scutums, his men doing the same.
A veteran of dozens of battles, Mikhailus knew exactly when to advance. "BREAK TESTUDO! ADVANCE!" He ordered. The Legionaries got back into standard formation, forming a line and advancing at a steady pace.
He looked to the forest on the right. The fox must have been there by now. He knew how Wildicus was able to keep an iron discipline without resorting to the draconic techniques of other superior officers. He was definitely there by now.
Now was the time to end the defensive and go on the offensive. . .
"PILA READY!" The tiger ordered, taking one of his large pila from his shield, arching his bulging arm backwards, the other Legionaries doing the same. The wolves, hyenas and the coyotes of the opposing, far larger army, raised their shields to defend from the heavy javelins.
The tiger couldn't help but smile. They had no idea what was coming…
"FIRE!" all of the legionaries threw their pila at the horde on cue, the sky blackening with the pila thrown by his lions, tigers, deer and other large mammals.
Screams echoed from the canine horde as they were peppered with the heavy spears. Those that managed to block the spears with their shields were knocked backwards and attempted to yank the javelin out, but the no avail. The soft iron shaft bent on impact, making it impossible to yank them out. The pila skewered the entire front line, some going even through multiple canines, as the pila were tiger-sized.
"We still outnumber them, lads! Slaughter the traitorous preds!" yelled the giant black wolf, swinging his massive axe with incredible speed, deflecting a pilum.
The barbarians cried out, hurting the legionaries ears, the clattering of their weapons and shields creating a wave of noise which made them sick to their stomachs.
The massive carnivorous horde charged, with little care for holding line, each warrior seeking to prove himself and wanting to be the first to decapitate a Roman, hopefully one of the prey, so that they could feast on them after the battle. For them, eating their own enemies was the ultimate way of humiliating them.
"COUNTERCHARGE!" bellowed Mikhailus, the experienced Legionaries charging, still holding the line of shields somewhat, none going any further than the other, advancing at a fast pace like chess pieces.
The tiger gritted his teeth, covering himself up with the shield as the two armies collided.
For even the bravest soldiers, their knees wobble before the impact…
When he exhaled, he already had a rabid grey hyena before him, a hatchet in either hand, trying to pierce his armour.
Mikhail roared as he deflected with his shield, throwing the canine off balance, crushing his footpaw with the steel balls on the Caligae next, impaling him with the Gladius just as the eager, yet inexperienced hyena warrior was howling in pain.
He bashed two wolves and a fox with his Scutum, causing them to fall backwards, trampled to death by their own eager comrades straight afterwards.
No matter how many they slayed, though, they kept on coming. The deer next to him fell below 5 wolves jumping on her and biting on every single unarmoured part of her body they could find, including the young doe's throat.
If the lion behind her hadn't swapped positions with her in the next second, the savage bastards would have begun feasting on her…
Mikhail looked away from the horror, instead trying his best to fend off several canines at once, silently thanking the gods for the Scutum's massive size.
Not a moment too soon, Wildicus began his attack. He waited until the flanks of the carnivore warriors were just in their sights.
"PILA READY, MEN!" the fox shouted, taking out his javelin and flexing his arm backwards, aiming carefully.
"Hold…" he ordered, waiting for his wolves, foxes and rabbits to aim properly.
"FIRE!" he ordered, watching the pila blacken the sky once again, sailing toward their flank.
Haakon screamed in joy as he carved up another deer, cutting the young legionary clean in half with his battle axe, the smell of prey blood filling his nostrils. After they were done destroying the pathetic prey and traitorous predators, they would feast like true predator warriors, on the bodies of their enemies. . .
As he knocked back two deer with a single axe swing, he heard something coming in from the flank. Something that made his thick hide freeze.
Something which he hoped was done…
He dared look to the left, and another black sky of pila were flying from the forest uphill….
"SHIELDS OUT, WARRIORS! WATCH OUT!" the tiger-sized wolf yelled to his warriors, however, most of them were too busy fighting the Legion's impenetrable shield wall, being in a complete blood frenzy, determined to use their savagery and superior numbers to overwhelm the disciplined legionaries.
The few of them that heard him, turned their heads toward the pila, but it was already too late. The black sky had reached them. The initial pila attack had left many of them shieldless, so they could do nothing but watch as the heavy spears reached them, skewering many of them, most of them from the sides or the back.
As they heard their predator brothers screaming, many of the attacking Barbarians turned away from Mikhailus's Cohort to see their brothers getting mowed down by pila.
This was the opportunity the tiger was looking for.
"ADVANCE!" he ordered, slamming his shield onto three wolves, knocking them backwards.
"AYE!" the legionaries responded, pushing against the horde in perfect order, their shields interlocked, lions and deer alike pushing against the common foe.
"FORMATION! CHARGE!" yelled the fox centurion, leading his smaller, but equally brave cohort downhill to the barbarian horde. They all ran down as fast as they could, still managing to keep a tight formation as an unstoppable wall of massive red shields with yellow wings descended on the barbarians, the battle cries of the Romans replacing the savage bellows of the carnivores.
A few of the larger wolves attempted to charge, one of them being nearly as large as their leader. Nick saw a gigantic battleaxe sailing towards him, the wielder, an arctic wolf covered in blue tribal paint. The fox knew even the powerful Scutum had no chance of withstanding such a blow.
He rolled around him, ignoring the pain from the armour pressing on him and let the berserker sink his axe into the ground. The fox's Gladius found the wolf's unarmoured back and stabbed him before he even had the chance to get his axe out of the ground.
His second in command, a white rabbit with black stripes, held his ground as a hyena charged toward him with two Scimitars, definitely robbed from the Eastern Empires. The rabbit raised his shield the moment the hyena connected with him, sending the canine flying over him. A bash of the shield's edge over the neck while he was down snapped the predator's neck.
"SLAUGHTER THEM! WE ARE THE TRUE PREDATORS!" The Wolf Chieftan bellowed, sending two fox and three rabbit legionaries flying with a single swing of his mighty axe.
Judica was helping her mother calm the kits. Alexa, Alenia and Antonia, the three sisters from her mother's latest litter, all of them three years old, were clinging to Judy's skirts as she was carrying them. Judy held them close to her, shielding the kits with a piece of cloth from the falling dirt onto them. Brutus, her 10 year old brother, who was always playing tough with the other kids, was now hugging one of his sisters tightly, his other paw around Judy's ankle.
Her tiny siblings couldn't understand why they heard screaming, they couldn't understand why the older brothers were firing arrows through the tiny openings in the burrow's "windows", they couldn't understand why momma and papa were overturning tables, putting them around the entrance, sharpening wooden poles and forming a barricade around wherever it was possible to enter.
They couldn't understand why they heard howling and roars, they couldn't understand why they heard metal clanging against metal over and over again…
But they could understand that monsters approached. Monsters from the stories, the monsters momma and papa warned them about, who would come when they weren't good little kits. Had they come now? Were they the ones fighting the Legions? They didn't want to have the entire city pay for their tiny mistakes…
They continued sobbing on her big sister's toga, mumbling apologies for every time they teased her, every time they ran away from helping her on the farm, and instead playing their silly games in the forest, every time they snuck out during midnight into the city, putting their own lives at risk and getting her into trouble for not taking care of them…
Judy could hardly understand a word they said, but she continued assuring them that everything would be OK, rocking them while singing an old traditional rabbit lullaby, barely bothering with the lyrics and only humming the tone for them to calm down.
But what use was it? What if the Legions weren't enough? She had seen the barbarian horde, they must have outnumbered them at least 3 to 1. And she had never seen such bloodlust… such…. Primitive predators… that's what they were. . . Animals. Animals who rejected the olive branch and continued using prey as if they were just that: prey. Meat. A mere resource.
She looked down once again on her tiny siblings who were clinging to her toga as if it were their lifeline, which it would probably become, should the barbarians ever break the… no. Don't even think about that…
Her tears fell on them, staining their clothes. Those predators would have seen them as trophies, a meal at the end of the battle. . . What kind of monsters were they? Who could have ever looked at a bunny kit like that and want to harm them? How sick could they be?
"Don't worry…" she whispered.
"Big sister Judy won't let anything happen to any of you… I promise…" she soothed, holding them closer to her.
"They are winning!" She heard her father, Stumius, yell. Judging by his tone, he wasn't talking about the barbarians…
Judy placed the kits on the ground and rushed to the tiny "window".
Two Cohorts, one of larger mammals than the other, had managed to surround a larger army.
The barbarian predators were swinging wildly into the shield walls, howling and bellowing, some even biting at the prey, but the Romans were unflinching.
The lines were getting tighter and tighter as the two shield walls advanced slowly but surely, the unarmoured barbarians being easy targets for the stabbing Gladiuses.
The predator barbarians were all the more furious as they saw that the prey members of the cohorts hardly flinched in front of their roars and sharp teeth. They had never seen such defiance from meek prey…
Even when they managed to kill one of the prey, another one would take his place in the line, without even showing the slightest hint of fear at his dead comrade.
Just then, the barbarians heard another set of charging paws coming. Haakon turned around. Was it another Cohort? They were already having trouble holding back two of them, another one, cutting off their last route of escape would have meant the end.
No, it was what was left of the meek town guard. As bloodied and untrained as they were, they formed a spear wall and charged toward the last free flank of the barbarian horde, hoping to completely encircle them.
Judy's heart skipped a beat as she saw the town guard return. Her eyes scanned the line of rabbit guards, and her eyes watered slightly in joy as she saw a pair of white ears rise above the rest. Next, she saw his determined hazel eyes, chanting for victory alongside his brothers in arms.
She gasped and ran outside, much to the dismay of her parents.
The destruction around was unimaginable. Her farm had remained largely untouched, but the knocked down crops, the houses burning from their straw roofs being peppered by the barbarians' fire arrows, the bodies of the town guards, were all littering the battlefield.
There were still parents, on the open field, in spite of the danger, calling out for their kits desperately. Mothers were standing above bodies of town watch and civilians alike, weeping over their mangled bodies.
The dirt and sand was caked with blood, the smell of it combined with the burning buildings, created a sickening mixture of scents of death.
Despite the battle just a few hundred yards away, it seemed eerily quiet here. The mother was Cosconia, her and her son having visited them for dinner a mere week ago, to talk about him probably marrying on the Hoppsen girls. His blue eyes were only on her the entire evening, yet he was hardly her type. Even so, she had enjoyed his company, his enthusiasm with everything he did keeping her captivated, and his blue eyes constantly trying to look straight into her purple ones.
Now, those blue eyes were looking at nothing in particular, unblinking, as his mother, maddened with pain, was adding gauze to his slit throat, as if she thought that would help him.
Judica's upper lip trembled as she looked at her village, which was, only an hour ago, bustling with joyous farmers ending their day, proposing dances to one another, kits playing "Legionaries and Barbarians", couples walking to the Forum for a show before they went to bed… it was all replaced with blood, smoke and corpses.
Nevertheless, she continued advancing to where her brother was charging to. She didn't know why she threw herself in the frying pan like that. It must have been her stupid "big sister" instinct which had made her protect him no matter what. Like when she stood up to a fox bully who was pushing him around and she ended up getting clawed herself. Or when she viciously insisted that he not join the town guard, out of fear that he may get stabbed by a drunk someday. . . that threat seemed laughable now.
She saw Centurion Wildicus, the one who so often stopped by her stall, chatting her up for minutes at a time once he had bought his few vegetables and maybe a jug of Hoppsen wine. His joking wiggling eyebrows were now a thin line, caked in blood as he led his Cohort to protect his people from a massive horde of bloodthirsty carnivores.
The moment the predator barbarians saw the town guard, dismissed by them at first as only meek prey who fell before their axes like nothing, and ran off, leaving the Legion to deal with them, was now a true threat, which would be the last chess piece to completely encircle them.
She heard the barbarian leader let go of a savage bellow, hurting her sensitive ears and turning her spine to ice as her prey brain pulsated with fear, knowing what followed after such a predatory sound.
The warlord pointed his giant war axe to the coming town watch, and a few of the barbarians disengaged and went to meet the new threat, cocking their weapons backwards.
Albinus held tight. "STOP!" he yelled to the other rabbit defenders. They stopped and formed a shield wall, spears sticking out, bracing for impact. Now, there were more of them than there were charging barbarians, but the strength and experience advantage was on the side of the carnivores.
Still, they held the line once, they'll hold it again…
Judica grabbed a discarded javelin from the ground as she was running. She gasped and stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the barbarians colliding with the spear wall.
A few of the relentless chargers fell under the spears, but the rest closed in. The spear may have been a great defensive weapon, but not so much so in close quarters.
A timberwolf's sword cut Albinus's spear clean in half, a slash to his chest following, knocking him down, and leaving him bleeding on the ground.
"NO!" Judica yelled, arching her arm backwards and throwing the spear just as the wolf laughed out, ready to finish him off.
The javelin travelled through the air, swooshing through it, the tip glimmering in the dying sunlight. The wolf's blade was approaching her prone brother, seeming almost to smile sadistically.
The javelin found the wolf's throat, hitting him with such force that it knocked him clean off his feet.
Wildicus noticed the wolf warrior getting downed, and instantly noticed that the javelin was not a pilum, but one of the Carnivore's throwing spears. And the only one in the area that was still standing was his old friend, Judica… A wave of relief washed over the fox as he saw his friend unscathed before he returned to his deadly work against the horde.
Judica rushed to her brother, dragging him away from the fighting. His weak moans of pain sent chills down her spine: he didn't even have the strength to scream anymore. She looked down at his stomach and her world froze. For a moment, not even the savage howls of the cannibals, or the orders of the brave legionaries could be heard anymore. The wolf's blade had gone through his textile armour like it was nothing. He was nearly cut in half…
"Albinus! Keep your eyes on me!" she begged, looking around for anything she could use to staunch the massive bleeding.
He coughed out blood as he weakly placed a paw on her chest. He was already going cold, she noted with horror…
"Heh… sis… I… I gave 'em hell. . . You know I'm kinda proud of myself… I held the line…" he coughed out. She barely listened as she ripped a piece of his clothing to bind his wounds tightly. He gritted his teeth in pain as she tied the cloth tightly around his stomach, but once again, no scream came out.
"SURGEON!" she screamed, yet she had no chance of being heard when the battle was ending just a few hundred yards away.
This time, she felt her hand getting gripped, incredibly strong for a dy- no. He wasn't dying. He was so strong, he would survive… he had fought too hard and come too far to die now.
"Sis… promise me one thing…. J-just don't beat yourself up over this. You did all you could... It was all my choice, my fault…. stupid… should have just stepped out of the damn way…" he said in a weaker and weaker voice.
"Albinus stop talking! Conserve your strength, a surgeon is gonna come soon!" she demanded, applying more and more pressure on the gaping wound, noticing some of her tears beginning to stain the already blood-soaked impromptu bandage.
"No… Judy, it's. . . ngh… it's important…" he struggled to say. Against her better judgement, Judy didn't advise him to not talk, figuring out that whatever he was going to say was important.
"D-don't be afraid to come clean with that fox…" he gurgled. Judy frowned in confusion. "W-what do you mean?" she asked, although she had a sneaking suspicion of what it was about.
"Aw, come on, Judes, you can't fool me. I've seen the way you look at him. The way you always volunteer to stay up late at the stall when he comes into the Forum to buy foodstuff… Don't worry…. you have my blessing…. and so does he…." he said in a barely audible whisper, which she only heard thanks to her sensitive lapin hearing.
Her heart skipped a beat, not even her realizing how much she appreciated that fox…
And Albinus truly had known that, all along, better than she did…
All too soon, Albinus's eyes closed and his arms went limp.
She blinked and did a double take. No, it couldn't be true. She couldn't lose him… Not after he had fought so hard.
Not after she had his blessing…
Most of the barbarians, including their hellish leader, began retreating, leaving only a few at the front to hold the Romans off while they ran away. It didn't take long for them to be encircled, most of them dropping their weapons and falling to their knees, their bloodlust and initial eagerness having worn off, especially as their "fearless leader" left them.
The cries of victory from the Legionaries went deaf on her ears as she broke down over the unmoving body of Albinus.
"Albinus please! Don't leave me! All the things we didn't do together, don't go! Think of all the mammals you will save as a surgeon!" she hiccuped, her speech eventually dissolving into nothing but sobs as she clung to his lifeless form.
Her tear-filled gaze eventually shifted to the legion, who was bounding up the canine prisoners. They all kept their gazes low, the once proud savages acknowledging their shameful defeat, having been beaten by a numerically inferior and prey-filled foe. "BASTARDS! YOU MURDEROUS BARBARIAN BASTARDS!" she screamed, charging towards them, wanting nothing more than to kill every single last one of them with her bare paws.
Nicolaus noticed her in time and clamped his paws around her forearms tightly. He gazed with horror at the body of her brother. The Centurion barely knew Albinus, only having exchanged a couple of drinks with him at a Tavern, yet he already quite liked the lad, a fitting relative to the gracious Judica…
The barbarians looked at her grinning. Those bastards were grinning… He would make sure personally that every single one of them would end up in the Arena or in the slave markets.
Judica continued struggling, kicking and thrashing. The fox grit his teeth trying to keep her from reaching the bounded barbarians. By the gods, she had more strength than most of the savages he had fought today! A wolf and a ram closed in, holding Judica still, which judging by their gritted teeth, was no easy task.
"Centurion…" she said, finally dropping to her knees, exhausted from all the struggling. Nicolaus approached her, kneeling on her level. Before he knew what he was doing, he hugged her tightly, rubbing her back as she continued draining herself of her sorrow. This was the first time he saw her when she wasn't chuckling behind her stall, or playing with her little brothers in the field, or working the farm tirelessly, her charming bucktoothed smile and her purple gaze.
Now her chuckle was a sob. Her purple gaze was bloodshot.
A quick glance to the village revealed that Judica wasn't the only one. He saw mothers weeping over bodies of the hapless town guards, the sounds of weeping and rabbits begging to the gods, both Roman and the ones the village had worshipped decades past, begging them for a miracle to raise their sons once again.
Now what would Judica do? The Emperor would surely call for a campaign into Barbarian territory after this. And the way Judica had thrown the spear… such precision, such determination, such strength.
"Nicolaus…" she whispered. His heart skipped a beat. She had never called him that… Only "Centurion" or "Officer Wildicus", of course, with a tiny dose of sarcasm usual to her.
"Show them no mercy. They don't deserve to live. If you don't yank out this tree of evil, roots and all, it will continue growing like a cancer." she said, her two amethysts shining with vengeance.
"No one else deserves to experience what me… what my family… what everyone's family here experienced… This doesn't need to happen anymore…" she said with fury, yet rationality at the same time.
"Gods I wish I could avenge him myself…" she whispered more to herself, but the fox's keen ears picked up the line.
"Who said you can't?" he asked, his own emerald eyes shining as bright as the fires that started on the straw roofs of the village. Her own eyes lit up with hope. She had talents which would have been simply wasted on the carrot field… the battlefield needed more mammals of valor.
He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out an eagle jewel. It was the same Eagle, with a noticeably ruby-coloured beak, which was on the standards of the fox's Cohort. "Welcome to the Legion, Judica Hoppsen." said the fox, making the rabbit stand up.
0- Amphorae= Large clay pottery made for storing wine
1- Forum= The centre of any major Roman city, a combination between massive marketplace and city centre.
2- Coena= Roman supper/dinner
3-Gladius= The standard Roman shortsword wielded by all Legionaries
4- Toga= A Roman garment worn by most middle class or upper class men
5- Patrician= The Roman upper class.
6- Scutum= The Roman large square shield
7- Lorica Segmentata= The armor used by Legionaries since the 1st Century AD. Steel plates bound together by leather strips, it allowed great mobility as well as the best protection of its time
8- SPQR- Abbreviation for "Senatus Populusque Romanum" (Latin for Senate and the People of Rome)
Caligae- Roman military boots/sandals. It had a revolutionary design, its soles covered in steel balls, increasing the traction and grip of the foot, allowing the Legionaries to march great distances, run at quick speeds and be very difficult to knock down
9-Pilum (pl. "Pila")= Roman throwing javelin, each Legionary carried 2. They were thrown before a charge to shock and kill the enemy. The tip was extremely solid, but the shaft was made out of soft steel which bent on impact, making it impossible to yank out and throw back.