Roma Invitca III
Written by MikhailTheTiger
Edited by Cimar/WildeHopps
Artwork by CJCO on DA, (AKA aureliano276 on Tumblr)
The next morning, the fields were empty. There was no more hustle and bustle, no rabbits getting up at dawn to tirelessly work the fields and vineyards, no sounds of the squeaking wheels, no tools clattering.
The same could be said about the city. The marvelous city of marble, a testament to Roman architecture, which had food stalls opening first thing in the morning, artists and dancers performing in the Forum, much to the joy of anyone doing morning shopping or anyone going to work early. The baths heating up in the morning, friends going there to invigorate themselves for a long day and to catch up on the latest gossip. The Arena workers beginning to organise the games for the day, going throughout the city to gather the supplies.
None of it could be found today on the streets.
However, there was but one building which was active. In fact, even more active than usual.
The flames from the Temple of Mars burned bright, pitch and coal keeping the flames from within the giant brass bowls alive. The imposing God of War, a massive bull with golden horns and a spear which reached for the sky, his eyes made out of ruby, giving him the impression of the god's furious nature.
A massive crowd of mammals was gathered in front of the imposing marble structure. However, everything was changed even now. There were no cheers, praising the God of War for Rome's victories, no sacrifices of chicken, no offerings to pray for their legionary sons who were fighting for Rome in faraway lands.
The crowd was dead-silent, only a few quiet sobs and sniffles being heard from the mothers, fathers and siblings of the dead.
There were mostly bunnies, nearly the entire outside village coming to honor their dead who had fought with savage, horrifying predators to save their children and their elderly. However, two Cohorts were also behind the rabbits, their helmets removed, heads bowed down and fist upon their chest in respect for their fallen brothers.
In the massive garden of the temple were a few hundred pyres, each with one fallen Legionary or Town Watch inside of them. Soldiers. Brothers. Mammals who had thrown themselves into the jaws of savages in place of their loved ones.
Nick's heart ached under his Centurion armour, his fist pressing upon it seeming only to add to the pain. He glanced at the soldiers from his Cohort. Foxes, wolves, rabbits, still in their armor, arms crossed over their chest.
They all looked as if they were still alive. The armor and the treatment of the priests made their wounds virtually invisible. Except for one…
A gray rabbit, quite a new addition to his cohort, barely out of his twenties, had one of his ears severed. Bitten off…. He had heard his screams of agony behind him, not paying attention to him, too busy avoiding axe swings from mammals twice his size.
Just another soul lost on the field of battle…
How many comrades had he lost? Dozens? Hundreds? Hundreds it was…. And he could remember each and every one of them. Even if not by name, he could have brief glances of their faces, small snippets of their personality, a whisper of their voice. All were now shadows floating in the Plains of Elysium, where all righteous warriors rested.
The fox decided however, that someone needed comforting more than he did.
He signalled to his cohort and left them, going through the crowd of citizens, each mammal giving him a small sad smile of gratefulness for what he had done for them. They all heard of what their cowardly and corrupt governor wanted to do, and knew that if it weren't for Wildicus and Mikhailus's bravery and quick thinking, it would have been nothing short of a massacre.
His keen toxic green eyes scanned the crowd, eventually finding his target: two flopped down, black-pointed bunny ears.
Judy continued processing what was going on. She still tried to convince herself that it was Albinus in that pyre, that he was among the soldiers who had died protecting their people. That when she would return home, he wouldn't greet her, proposing a sparring match for the umptenth time which she would win easily, to share his overly-exaggerated tales of stopping dozens of drunkards from robbing a poor doe, or outperforming all his peers in spear manuverability…
She had had many brothers dying. In a rabbit family, that was inevitable. But she had never held one as he was dying, watching him bleed out and sputter blood, the light of his eyes slowly dying out…
Him telling her to admit her feelings towards a certain fox…
Just then, an brown-orange paw rested on her shoulder. Sure enough, Centurion Nicolaus was behind her, his crested helmet on his side, having taken it off to pay his respects.
"I lost brothers too here…" he whispered.
"I watched them get eaten and mangled. You'd think that after so many years, it would get easier…. It never does…" he said lowly.
Judy remained silent, her heartbeat quickening as the fox Centurion gripped her shoulder. She loved him…. It took her brother to die for her to realize it.
"If you still want to enlist, there is another transport coming the next month to Rome for new recruits. Well, there's one more next week, but I think you should stay and mourn-"
"Next week." she cut him off, her purple eyes finally turning towards his, the amethyst fires burning bright.
"I'm going with you to Rome next week." she said, squeezing his forearm tighter than any barbarian warrior ever did.
The next few days blended into each other. She found herself often sitting in the middle of the field until the sun was once again at its peak, not even being able to tell if night had passed or not.
She would often find herself packing up food and water for her brother and taking it to his usual, empty spot, leaving it there to rot. She talked to him there, wishing him an easy working day and good luck at the Academy later on in the day.
Then she would sob herself dry.
This hadn't been the first time she lost a brother. In rabbit families, deaths were frequent and inevitable, given their sheer size. But she had never had one of her brothers die in her own paws… watching him cough blood out, trying desperately to hold her hand one last time, and even as the light was fading and the Ferryman was readying his boat for him, Albinus still gave his sister one last piece of advice…. One last service for his older sister, whom had carried him throughout life, who had taught him all she knew, how to plow a field, how to protect himself, how to have confidence in himself.
Telling her to admit her love to the Centurion.
The one who would now lead her into battle.
She knew that the moment she told her parents that she would join the Legion would be difficult. At first, it was denial. How could she leave them now? How could she risk her life after they had lost a son in battle? Then anger. Shouts and accusations thrown at her with the accuracy and power of javelins. That she was abandoning her family simply for revenge. That she wanted to die. Even that she wanted to run away with the fox Centurion…Then came bargaining. Begging her to stay home, at least until the harvest season was done, that just one more soldier would make no difference in a war, that her brother wouldn't want her to throw her life away. But neither begging, nor promises, or threats convinced Judy to abandon her duty to her brother and to her empire.
And to her Centurion…
Then, came the heartbreaking sobs and rants. Her smaller siblings coming to her, asking her where and why she left. Asking her if she was going out to search for brother Albinus…
But then, after an entire night of shouts and tears from both sides, her parents embraced her daughter and gave her their blessings.
Before she knew it, as her and her family were quietly having breakfast, a knock on the door came.
Judy couldn't look her parents in the eye as she knew that it was Centurion Wildicus to come pick her up.
She casted her eyes down, avoiding their gaze. Just as she was getting up to answer the door however, an embrace came from behind. Her mother had slowly and warmly hugged her, whispering a prayer of good luck.
"Don't worry, Judica…. You have our blessings…" she whispered, tears pooling at her eyes. Her father joined her. Not bawling his eyes out as he was usually doing, but simply silently comforting his daughter for what would come…. She had made a bold decision. To honor her brother and fight for her Empire.
Judy hugged her parents and all the siblings that had joined them tightly. It didn't take long for first one of her sisters, Alexa, a brown bunny who was 10 years old- just young enough to figure out what was truly happening, to begin bawling her eyes out. She couldn't stay here anymore. Lest she'd show up in the training barracks as a bawling mess.
She patted her head and rubbed it while repeating over and over that everything would be alright. That sister would be back home soon…
Nicholaus let himself in after hearing the small kit bawling. Dozens of rabbit eyes all fell upon the ironclad Centurion, the sobs turning only into silent sniffles as the rabbit farmers tried to make themselves presentable in front of an Officer of the Empire.
None said a thing. Not the fox Centurion. Not Judy. Not her little sister hanging onto her leg. Not any of the almost hundreds of bunnies who had all come into the massive main room.
The conversation had lasted for two whole minutes, without a single word uttered. Gazes and bowed heads were symbollic enough. The staunch Centurion, the veteran of two campaigns, the hero of the city, was speechless at bunnies saying their last goodbyes.
Judy, after the untempth hug and and empty promise, arranged her tunic and dusted off all the tears and wrinkles, picked up her Furca[2] and wordlessly went outside with Centurion Nicholaus, towards the port…
The night was cold and her textile tunic did little to alleviate that. She wrapped it around herself tighter, pulling on the laces at her neck. She felt a warm cloth wash over her. Wildicus had put his red cape over her, walking with her like that.
"It's okay, Judica…. You'll make a fine Legionary. I will be proud to be your Centurion." said Wildicus soothingly, wrapping himself more around her to… warm her up. Yes, nothing else….
She flinched slightly as the cold steel of his armor rubbed against her hide, yet she stayed right there. She didn't want to leave… She didn't protest when he wrapped himself up even more against her, the warm red cape protecting her bare fur from the biting cold until they reached the Trieme[3].
Judy stayed in her room, attempting to tune out the waves and the shaking of the wooden bowels of the ship. Her dinner was on the table, untouched, as she knew she wouldn't be able to keep any food down. The sea sickness was really getting to her. Just a few hours ago, she was marvelling at the endless rolling ocean, allowing the more powerful sunrays of the Mediterranean treat her fur as she was lounging on the wooden floor, munching carrots as all the other predator sailors were mostly eating fish they had caught themselves.
This had caused the Centurion to give her an absolutely infuriating nickname…
"Hey, there Carrots! Are you better?" Came his voice as the door creaked open.
She groaned as she rubbed her temple. Half at the pain, half at the newfound nickname. "Still hurts, huh? At least you didn't throw up anymore." he said, bringing in a bowl of cold seawater and a towel. He caringly set her back stretching on the bed, making sure that she didn't have a fever.
"Centurion…. Shouldn't one of your servants or sailors be doing this?" she murmured. Not that she didn't want him to do it, but she knew that he could have made any of his underlings do this with a snap of his fingers.
He seemed to tense for a second, but he continued to dip the rag in the cold water, squeezing the bulk out of it before wrapping it around her blazing forehead.
"It's just that…. They're all busy manning the ship. You know, I'm not much of a seamammal, but I know that just one of them missing may mean that we won't be ready if we run into a storm." he said quickly.
She felt a wooden rim brushing the edges of her lips. He was giving her a hot drink, which smelled strongly of parsley.
"Gulp it down and don't taste it. It'll help alleviate your nausea." he explained. She held her nose and gulped it all down. All she managed to feel, was a brief bitter taste.
"You'll feel better tomorrow, Judica." Nick explained, smiling.
"Don't worry. This is a short trip. The winds are favourable and, Neptune willing, they will continue to be so." he commented.
Judy continued her train of thought as Nick droned on. This wasn't a transport vessel. She was the only new recruit on board. The rest were just regular sailors, merchants or passengers who had bought passage from point A to B.
"Nicholaus…" she said, the Centurion having encouraged her several times to call him by his first name. "Wasn't I supposed to go with all the other recruits? You and I are the only soldiers here." she asked.
The fox smiled, finishing wrapping the cloth around Judy's forehead, his paw lingering a bit too much on her head afterwards.
"And what? After all you've been through, let you ride on one of those communal boats or carts? You know what it's like in there? Crammed together with 20 other mammals for a week before you arrive in Rome? No, m'am! And no, I couldn't let you train at the barracks in your town. Those drill sergeants are way too green. You need to get the best of the best!" he chuckled proudly, motioning a paw towards himself.
Judy herself couldn't help but snort, even as she still felt horrible.
"Really? A fox is the best Centurion in the Roman Army? Oh…. I see. You win by attrition: Steal all the enemy's chicken and let them starve!" she burst out in laughter, even as Nick frowned slightly, but his lips breaking into a sincere smile a mere second later.
"Dumb little bunny…" he whispered, not realizing her keen ears could pick up even the slightest of sighs. She did nothing but smile slightly, even as the temptation to respond in kind was itching at the back of her head like crazy. She would get him later…
"Just try to sleep now, bunny. You'll feel better in the morning. Trust me." he said, brushing her forehead slightly, yet retracting his paw almost as soon as he touched her. A slight shiver went down her spine starting from the point of contact all the way down her body.
Nicholaus covered her with an extra wool blanket and left her to sleep. Before he could get up, however, she grabbed his wrist, surprisingly strong for a sick bunny. Her fingers rubbed lazy circles in his fur and she looked at him straight in the eye. Her eyes, although half-lidded, still got straight into his heart.
"Don't you worry, Nicholaus… You can't keep a Hoppsen down for long." she said with a weak smile.
Nick moved his paw slightly away from her, nearly breathing heavily. Thankfully however, she was now fast asleep.
The fox sighed in relief, going back up to the deck, playing dice with the crewmen to forget about it all. But her face continued dancing on the sides of the die whenever it was thrown, half-lidded eyes the color of the Emperor's mantle looking back at him…