Octavius POV

Chapter 6: The two names

I looked amazed at the barbarian who lay relax on my fountain. I shook my head, could it be any weirder? But this time I would go to him. It wasn't the first time that I saw him there, but all those times I decided to do nothing. First I wanted to know why he came here and how he got here. One time I saw him crawling out of the tunnel, so the last question had a answer. And when I saw him laying there on my fountain, doing nothing, it was obvious he hadn't much of a plan.

I held my sword hilt very tight when I walked out of the shadows towards him. He noticed me faster then I hoped he would and before I knew it two pistols were aimed at me.

"Put those pistols away," I said with a calm, but demanding voice. "I'm here to talk to you."

He did and said nothing. I couldn't see his eyes, because the brim of his head lay before his eyes. It made me nervous, but I did not show it.

"Put those things away, I don't want a fight," I replied.

"If you don't want to fight," he said monotonous. "Then why do you hold your sword so tight?" Immediately I took my sword out of my sheath, slowly laid my sword on the ground and walked a few steps away from it. After a while Jedediah also laid his pistols on the ground.

"I don't know what we have to talk about," Jedediah said still looking at me. "But talk." Even though I still couldn't see his eyes I got the feeling he could see everything. That and his monotonous voice made me a little bit nervous.

But I stayed calm and started to talk: "We both have a big problem. The giants keep asking us to stand up before those lions. And honestly I'm sick of them calling me names and their tortures. My army is big, strong and disciplined, but it can not fight against three giants." I waited for a replied, but I didn't saw any change in the other man so I continued: "And your army can't fight them either."

"And?" he finally replied.

"I wasn't finished, barbarian," I said like his replied annoyed me. "I spoke about this in the Senate, but everyone his against it. But they don't have to go through the things we have to go through when the giants take us away from here. When they lift me up and throw me away again. Call me names and offend me all the time. I'm definitely sick of doing nothing and just let it happen. But I know there is nothing I can do against them. But maybe we can… Together…"

His head lifted up. Finally I could see his eyes and the astonishment you could read in them.

"Hold on, hold on, hold on," he said suddenly with a high voice. "What did you just say?"

"Not so loud, if my men hear you I have to arrest you," I said, but I honestly felt better after his outburst. "I want a secret alliance." For a few seconds we just looked at each other.

"Forget it! Goodbye stupid Roman," he said while he turned around and walked towards the wall.

"Before you leave I want to know why not," I said quickly.

Surprised and relieved I saw he turned around again and he replied: "First, I don't trust you. Second reason, I think this is just a trap. And, if you want a third reason, I can fight against those giants alone."

"I don't trust you either," I said honestly. "This doesn't mean peace. I just want to get rid of those giants first and after that I conquer you. And why would I make a difficult trap when I could send all my men to you when you were laying on my fountain. And no, you can't fight against those giants without help." He looked at me and kept his head a little skewed.

"Aren't peace and an alliance almost the same things?" he asked after some time.

"No, definitely not," I said immediately. "When you have peace you need to trust each other, but in an alliance you just work together, but you don't have to trust one another."

"That doesn't make sense at all," was the only thing he said. I saw he needed to think, so I didn't replied and waited for a moment.

But then I thought about something very important: "And peace applies on the whole country, this alliance is only for the two of us." He just stared at me with two dark blue eyes, like he tried to read my mind. I forced myself to keep looking at him. I had to look into his eyes. I had to! For Jupiter's sake, why did he wait so long before he replied.

"So you mean…" Finally. "We only have an alliance when we're staying before the giants? And when the giants are gone, we are still in war and we can just attack each other? That's the whole idea?" I nodded one time.

"Yes," I replied. "We work together as allies against the giants, but we are still in war."

"So when do I know when we have an alliance and when we're in war?" he asked calm when he took his pistols of the ground and putted them back at their place. "We need a signal or something to avoid misunderstandings." I went quiet, I had never thought of that before.

"That could be a good idea," I said and was already thinking about something. "But what could it be?"

"Nice plan you make, idiot," he said irritated.

"I'm sorry I missed a little detail, cyclone," I said back in a irritated way.

He wanted to say something unkind, but then his facial expression changed and he said: "That's it! That's the signal!" I looked at him amazed. So it could be even weirder.

"Think about it, Roman," he said then. "We always call each other something bad and we never call each other by name."

"So every time when we call the other by name we're allies," I said and nodded happily. "A fine plan, Jedediah."

"That's what I thought, what-was-your-name-again," he replied.

"Octavius."

"Octavius."

I got a strange feeling inside when we spoke out those two names. He held out a gloved hand to me.

"I am your ally when you're in danger," I said when I took his hand in mine. "Just call my name."

"I am your ally when you're in danger," Jedediah said when he shook my hand. "Just call my name."

Yes, this is definitely my favourite part this far! Wow, really hope you enjoy this chapter half as I do, cause I'm pretty proud of it. (And I'm not often proud of something I wrote... =S)

Anyway, thank you for reading my story this far. Please, leave a comment (whenever you like it or not =P) and please give me some tips. Always appreciated! ^^

(And yes, I like smileys! ^^)