The journey to Rome was long and tedious. The army conquered servile other villages before the trip back. It didn't matter weather they fought or not, the Romans always won, and they always took a handful of slaves.
By the time they were boarding the boat to Sicily, Daniel was thin, weak and constantly tired. Festus could always cheer him up though. He made good on his promise to teach Daniel Latin. Not only did he teach Daniel spoken Latin, but also written Latin and Roman poems and songs. Daniel would often entertain himself by singing.
Rumors spread that in Sicily they would be sold. None of the soldiers would reveal what they would be expected to do, but some of the other slaves told Daniel that they would most likely work in the salt mines. They said the salt mines were these awful places, where people would sometimes only live a few months or less. Daniel was terrified to go, but Festus and him kept singing, so he forgot his fears.
In the boat they had been expected to row, after he got used to it, Daniel thought it wasn't so bad. But they got a smaller food ration while on the boat, and that made the work harder. Daniel was relieved to finally get off the boat and see the sun.
They were walked, in chains, though a large city. Daniel had never seen such big buildings, or so many people. Latin was spoken here, but he heard many languages he didn't understand as well. Many of the buildings were a beautiful white marble. There were also small sheds almost, that were made of wood and cloth. People stood in these stalls and shouted out their wares.
"This is the Marketplace. Those people are merchants, you might be bought by one to run errands." Festus, who was walking behind Daniel, said.
"What if the same person bough us? Then we could stay friends." Daniels words were hopeful, even though that was unlikely. He knew that soon it would be time to say goodbye to Festus. He would miss Festus dearly.
They were lead to a huge Marble building, there was a man standing on a box, speaking loudly, but too quickly for Daniel to understand. It was Latin, though, he sure of that. The man kept gesturing around him, to the people standing there in chains. Other people, who were not in chains, or any kind of restraint, were standing in front of him.
"He's auctioning slaves. They will go to the person who can pay the most money for them." Festus explained.
They were lead to a door toward the back of that building. General Blandus knocked on the door, and a stout man, with expensive looking clothes opened the door. Blandus went in, and maybe an hour later, came out. The nervous energy that had picked up among Daniels group of slaves, diminished slightly when Blandus came out again, looking quite proud of himself.
With a bright smile on his face and his head held high, Blandus walked to one of the soldiers who had followed them to shore to as a guard. They, and two other guards who walked over there, whispered for a few minutes while gesturing to the slaves. After, the guards picked out a few slaves among Daniels group, including many of the people chosen from his hometown, and brought them to the large group of slaves surrounding the auctioneer. The remaining slaves, including Daniel and Festus, were lead out of the building and though town.
"What's going to happen to them? Where are they taking us?" Daniels voice was high and fast with fear. But Festus didn't answer. His expression became unusually blank and he walked with suddenly stiff motions.
Daniels fear spiked. Festus was never like this. Yes, he had always been a little sad, but he was also always a little happy. And he always cheered Daniel up. But not now, now he was dark and unresponsive. And that put a knot of terror in Daniel stomach like he had never felt before. He felt hot tears running down his face, but sobbed silently. His motions were stiff too, except that Daniel was shaking.
They walked most of that day and the next, and as the hours past Daniel slowly calmed down. The fear was still there, but he wasn't crying anymore. He felt drained, like there weren't anymore tears left in him to cry. So instead Daniel sang softly, under his breath. Festus, though, didn't seem to calm at all. He walked still, with empty stiff movements.
When they arrived they were far from town. The ground was hard, and had many loose rocks, where vegetation should be.
The were people pulling and lifting, and breaking, rocks. The rocks that they worked with were a bright white color, they hurt Daniels eyes to look at. A man in a dirty red tunic was barking orders at them. Daniel was startled by the sound of Festus's voice.
"Daniel, we were bought by the same person. And we were sold to the mines."