—OOO—

Note on the Action:— Nobody knows what really occurred during the prolonged fighting at Teutoburg, so I have plotted a version of my own which takes account of the known facts. Of course, with Xena's presence, my story should not be regarded as reflecting what actually happened.

This chapter, as will be most of the following chapters, is openly violent and bloodthirsty; so those of a delicate or timid nature should read no further in this story.

—OOO—

Chapter 5. Day Three.

'Attack in the Forest'

The Army Column

General Varus climbed down from the wagon fitted up as his personal vehicle where, having long expressed a keen dislike to sleeping on the hard ground, he regularly spent the nights in comfort. Another attitude which did not endear him to his officers or men.

"Damned raw morning." He looked around, at the thick patches of chill wet mist curling between the trees in the early dawn. "What's all this confusion, Ceionius? Looks like market day in a country village."

"Just everyone sorting themselves out, sir." The young Tribune felt a little as if he was the butt of all his master's grumbling; but as he was well-used to this after two years he let the General's tone pass almost un-noticed. "Remember, you ordered the column to camp where they were in the line."

"Yes-yes! No doubt!" Varus was not impressed by the quiet rebuke. "If I'd set out the usual defensive palisades and ditches for the Legions we'd have still been awake at midnight, putting the finishing touches to it. This is really nothing more than a stroll in the country, Ceionius. No need for the full panoply of military tactics against a handful of charcoal-burners, eh! Let's not become paranoid about a muddy, cold walk in the woods; which is all, when you come down to it, that this sorry journey amounts to."

"No, sir."

In the early morning mist and slight drizzle there was a great deal of noise and activity up and down the straggling line as people woke, milling around while they sorted themselves out for the coming day's trek. Many of the main company busied themselves with preparations for the first meal of the day. As was the custom in Roman society this did not consist of anything much; normally just a light snack of flour-cakes and wine; or perhaps cuts of cold meat if such was available. No fires were lit for cooking; that would come just after noon, when they stopped for one of the two main meals of the day.

"Just a couple of glasses of wine, Ceionius." General Varus waved a supercilious hand at his Tribune as he considered his own breakfast. "Nothing too heavy this early in the morning. I'll eat in the afternoon."

Within an hour they were ready once more to set out through the steadily encroaching trees. The middle and rear of the long extended column had to wait for the vanguard to start forward, then follow in their wake. But eventually all the men and women, carts, wagons, mules, asses, horses, and ponies were in motion. The column now stretched well over a parasang through the undulating countryside; with the rear having no idea what the front of the winding line was up to. There were also wide spaces developing between the various groups; some people on foot, with bags and bundles; some with carts and horses; some a mixture of civilians and soldiers: all moving at relatively different speeds. So a system seemed to naturally develop where each group went at its own pace; with sometimes a considerable area of open ground between them. The column was by no means a solid mass of people and animals moving as a single entity.

"Send some messengers along the line with instructions, Ceionius." Varus mused as he rode slowly forward, keeping a jaundiced eye on the groups of mixed legionaries and civilians nearest to him as they began the march. "Let them all go at their own pace. I know the camp-followers at the rear will probably go slower than anyone else; what with the baggage and all. If some space develops between sections as we move along during the morning, it's no big deal. Tell the messengers to watch out for lurking Amazons as they go too, ha-ha! If what the Centurion Aius told me yesterday is true, we are already surrounded by an army of them. I'm sure Legatus Vala had something to do with spreading such a ridiculous story. He appears to have Amazons constantly on his mind; what there is of it! I must make my displeasure clear to him when I see him next. At least I sent Aius away with a flea in his ear! Come, let's get moving. I want to reach those rebels in the East before they melt into the forest and disappear. Damned waste of my time if they do!"

The trees had thickened to such an extent that now the travellers found themselves, as the morning progressed, in almost constant shade. There were also few chances to catch a wide panoramic view, showing where they were in the general landscape surrounding them. Everything rapidly took on the look of an ever-similar terrain, with nothing but trees and thick undergrowth wherever the eye glanced. At the centre of this meandering column, seated uncomfortably on his grey horse and grumbling quietly at his subordinates as usual, General Varus prepared for another boring day.

—OOO—

The Fight Begins

"Those signal fires we thought'a using ain't goin' to work." Xena brought her gaze back from the near horizon to where she and Serilda sat their horses on a low wooded ridge. "This rain and mist looks like it's set in for the day. No chance of a fire's smoke being seen in the distance. We'll just have to hope Otrera realises what's going on when we start the attack."

By riding all through the preceding afternoon and well into the night Arminius and Xena had managed, after their successful attack on the outlying fort yesterday, to bring their triumphant force back onto the trail behind Varus's army. Braced by their first success both Arminius and his band were in excellent spirits; only Xena keeping a cautious note as they returned to make contact with Varus's column.

"It'll be some time before the effects of our attack reach Otrera." Serilda brushed a strand of brown hair from her brow. "We can send messengers, of course. She must be well over a parasang further East along the trail; possibly some way ahead of the marching line, even. But when the fleeing rearguard push forward into the centre of the army, trying to escape our attack, they'll cause enough confusion to wake the rest of the column up!"

"Yeah, then Otrera chivvies them on along the trail; before Varus has enough time to think about defensive plans." Xena nodded. "That'll help to put pressure on him. Hopefully he'll realise the best initial strategy is to move forward, away from the attacking German warriors."

As had long been planned before-hand Arminius meant to attack the very rear of the column; thus pushing those affected further on along the trail in their efforts to escape. This would put pressure on the centre of the column, making them move forward, as the only possible way of easing the strain on the embattled rear forces. The disorganised nature of the Roman legionaries would play right into Arminius's hands; allowing him to make strategic gains at little cost.

"And Varus probably won't understand the strength of the forces ranged against him yet." Serilda grinned as she sat her horse beside Xena. "By the time he realises it's a planned assault, with massive forces, he'll be in too much of a mess to do anything else but go on; trying to escape by fleeing along the trail."

"Just what Arminius wants." Xena turned her horse's head back down the low ridge, towards the group of mixed men and women warriors waiting in the shade of the trees; all equipped with swords and the lethal spears with which they were such experts. "We have a pretty fair chance of success, I think."

Xena and Serilda had spent the first of the morning hours quietly following the rear of the column as it wended its way through the ever thicker trees. While still a little watchful, Xena was nonetheless confident about the outcome of this first offensive against the column, and was preparing to lead the Germanic warriors who would be attacking from the right-hand side of the trail; while Arminius brought his forces in on the left-hand side.

Now as the sun rose high in the sky, though nothing could be seen of its orb but a whitish glow in the thick overcast cloud-cover, Xena was waiting for the first sight of flying arrows from Arminius's side of the trail before launching her own force's volley. At a certain point a spring bubbled out beneath a large boulder by the trail-side, forming a small meandering pool under the willows on the left-hand side, and extending for some distance along the edge of the trail; thus forming another hindrance to the marchers. It was here that Arminius had decided to launch the initial attack, as the rear of the column approached it.

Although cloudy, with a steady rain descending in misty swathes, the morning light still reflected from the small pond's surface in bright flickering scintillations that dazzled the eye. It was as Xena was blinking in response to one of these sharp flashes of light that she saw something else in the dull sky overhead.

For an instant it looked almost like a grey cloud skimming past at incredible speed; then it seemed to pause before descending in a scything curtain—a fusillade of arrows nearly 120 feet in breadth and so numerous they were like a monstrous flight of birds swooping low to the ground.

As Xena watched, the arrows sliced into the far side of the moving column of humans and animals. There was a sudden cloud of rising dust as the missiles hit home, then a curious pause—filled with an ominous silence. At Xena's side Serilda rose and waved a signal with upraised arm. As Xena turned to look at the forest trees behind her she was just in time to see the flight of arrows from her group as they were fired by archers well hidden in the bushy undergrowth. She actually felt the wind of their passage above her head, there were so many, and a dark shadow passed across as they soared over. Again there was a cloud of dust as they hit their targets along the extended length of the visible column—then silence once more. Neither Xena on this side of the column, nor Arminius on the far side, gave the victims any time to understand what had occurred; Xena jumped up with a scream, waving her sword over her head, and from their hiding places all along the edge of the trail rushed some three hundred German warriors with long-hafted spears: and in an instant they had engaged with the stragglers on the edge of the column in a bloody slaughter.

Arminius's forces, of equal strength, had done the same at exactly the same moment; so the individual members of the column now found themselves assaulted from both sides by bearded screaming German men, and a fair number of shrieking women, all stabbing with vicious sharp spears that seemed to slice through the Romans poor defences and cut savagely at every point.

Xena knew the German attackers were not going to use swords for close-contact fighting at this stage, but even she was amazed at how swift and precisely they used their eight-foot long spears. With her experience she instantly saw their method, which was to attack as small groups of three or four. Two would harass a defendant, while the other warrior or warriors came in behind or under the terrified victim's inadequate response. The spear blades were sharp as razors and the victim stood no chance. Xena was also impressed with the speed of attack by the Germans. Though apparently complicated the German manoeuvres were timed to perfection and Xena saw one group of three men and a woman going through the assorted Romans on the edge of the column like a cloud of locusts descending on a wheatfield. They attacked a man by feinting at his head, and while he reflexively raised hands to protect himself the woman came in underneath and skewered his belly with her blade. She twisted it savagely before jerking it free with a high scream of triumph as the group dashed forward to trap their next victim; the Roman meanwhile sinking to his knees on the ground, with blood-covered hands clutching his stomach and a look of surprise on his white face.

Xena made contact with the column and struck with her sword at a burly Roman legionary armed with the usual standard gladius. Caught by surprise, and faced with the female warrior's determined ruthless attack, the man hardly had time to register his opponent before he was lying on the ground with a wide chest wound spouting gouts of dark blood, his spirit already on its way to Charon's ferry on the Styx. Jumping forward Xena came up against two men, one a legionary, who stood together for protection. She yelled loudly and crashed her weapon through the legionary's defence with ease, cutting deeply into the side of his head and knocking him over like a puppet. Ducking low she swivelled on her hip with one foot slightly extended and sliced round with her sword; catching the other man on his left hip, biting deeply into flesh. As he fell sideways to the ground Xena rose smoothly and ran forward again, but along the edge of the straggling column, not into its midst.

The other German warriors were doing the same; snapping and biting at the perimeter of the column on both sides: carrying out numerous harassing assaults against the unprepared scores of men, and women, making up the now thoroughly terrified defendants. Knocking to the ground with a blow of her sword-hilt a legionary who was making some headway in retaliating against his attackers, Xena again screamed and sliced at another two men who appeared in front of her. Neither were in uniform, but had gladius's at the ready; not that these gave any chance of survival for them. Xena slashed her first opponent's sword aside with ridiculous ease and swept her own weapon round to catch him in the base of the throat; jumping sideways to confront the second man as a stream of hot dark blood splashed over her face, almost blinding her for a second. Without wasting a moment she cut at the man's chest, seeing her blade penetrate a handspan before she dragged it out and ducked under a feeble response that was hardly more than a weak wave of the man's gladius. Xena struck twice more, both times at his unprotected stomach; the first blow sliding into soft flesh at an angle and her second blow firmly thrust right into his lower belly: she feeling the grating as her sword-tip hit the back of his pelvic bone. She ripped the sword out with a sideways slice and leapt away to find other victim's while he fell to the ground, screaming agonisingly at the awful consequences of the wound Xena had given him.

All along the edge of the now wavering column German warriors, men and women, were engaged in what they had planned and thirsted for over the last several months. Finally faced with their despised enemies, at such a disadvantage, the warriors were taking sweet and merciless revenge for years of oppression. Xena saw a woman warrior facing a Roman legionary who threatened her with his gladius; she feinted at his head with the full eight foot length of her spear; then, as he impulsively raised his sword high, reached to her waist with one hand and taking a dagger from her belt threw it unerringly at his chest. It embedded itself to the hilt in his lower ribs, but before he barely realised what had happened she darted forward and impaled him under his breast-bone with the blade of her spear. Shouting something loudly in her native tongue she ripped her weapon free with ease and ran on along the line, grinning widely: the legionary meanwhile standing motionless for a moment, apparently paralysed as thick streams of blood poured from his chest, before falling backwards like a toppled statue.

"Nice work." Xena was impressed with the cold ruthlessness of the German woman warrior. "I like her!"

A great deal of noise was now audible along the length of this section of the column; which was showing signs of breaking up into separate clusters of fighting masses. Xena could also see various single individuals and small groups of Romans running for cover in the bushes and trees, but was not bothered about this. She knew the German back-up reserves stationed all along the trail would wipe them up without trouble.

There was a considerable amount of dust rising into the air from both sides of the besieged line of Romans, causing some difficulty in distinguishing a wide view of events. Xena ran a few yards forward and found herself splashing ankle-deep in the shallow pond running along one side of the trail; its surface now defaced by several bleeding bodies which had already turned the once crystal clear water a dull hideous crimson.

Before Xena could glance around to locate Serilda she was suddenly aware of three legionaries in front of her. One was truly massive, easily overtopping her in height, and built like a Minoan bull; while his two companions were only a trifle less physically endowed. Xena grinned savagely with bared teeth and crouched before her attackers; this was her native element and she felt that invigorating rush of something in her blood that made her almost scream in ecstasy at the coming fight. With a slicing motion of her sword she stepped towards the first huge man, impatient for the clash.

"Come on, ya bastard. Come an' get it!"

—OOO—

This fight will continue in Chapter Five Part Two, coming shortly.

—OOO—