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Defender of Tarraco | Wolk | 1

 

Gently rolling hills, a vast lush-green flatland ahead. On it is but a few hundred men in shiny iron helmets and red cloaks. They are tired and scared, but their ranks are straight. Behind them is a small Roman colony of Tarraco. Ahead of them is a huge, unwashed, unshaven and undisciplined mass of bodies, keen on killing every single Roman and looting their town. Thousands of barbarians have been trying to make something that looks like a battle formation since morning, but they clearly lack discipline and are still no more than a chaotic mass of almost naked bodies. The legionnaires are nervous; I can see it from here. Unless a miracle happens, they will be surrounded and killed. Every last one of them.

Of course, we have such a miracle up our sleeve. My cavaleria centuria, one hundred elite horsemen, led by me, General , hidden in thick woods just off the field.

"General, are you sure we will be enough?"

This young Sicilian is my brother-in-arms and friend Marcus. If he is nervous, I can only imagine what the other men must feel. I speak slowly without turning my head from the battlefield: "You doubt me, Marcus?"

"No, no sir, I just..."

"Good."

In the meantime, the barbarians gave up on organizing and charged ahead, confident they will crush the puny Roman force and finally proceed to rape and plunder the town. Even from here, I can see growing fear in the legionnaires' eyes. They are only still here because their wives and daughters are behind them, but now even this may not be enough to keep them.

"Sire..."

"Sound the attack, Marcus."

I draw my sword and charge ahead. Accompanied by loud sounds of horns and shouts, the centuria follows me, forming a perfect double line on the fly. The savages are clearly surprised. Many stop to look and are bumped down by those behind them. They stumble, piling up, crushing each other's bones with feet and mass of their bodies. Many must be dead already. Good.

We crush into their unprepared screaming mass like... well, like an elite cavaleria centuria, seeding death and panic all around us. On the other end, the city defenders were turning up the heat as well. "Not feeling so doomed now, are we", I laughed to myself as another savage caught my sword in his naked chest.

In less than twenty minutes, the enemy was routed. Few survived to flee. Even less escaped our chase.

As we approached the lucky legionnaires, they removed their helmets and hailed. "Yes", I thought with a smile, "most of you wouldn't live to this moment if we didn't show up."

Their leader came forward and spoke: "I am Ruleus Generus, the Quaestor of Tarraco. I deeply thank you for saving our town and defeating the enemies of Rome. You are our heroes. Please come to Tarraco as our guests and take part in our festival in honour of great Mars, who gave us victory today. You are all welcome to stay as long as you wish. The town really isn't as dull as you might think." Quaestor smiles and winks to me as he finishes his speech.

Of course, we join him. Hails, fanfares, women blowing kisses and eyeing our shiny elite uniforms in awe. Surprisingly, most of them are really beautiful. "Look at this, General!" Marcus was awestruck by the beauty of a busty goddess in the crowd. "I love this town already!"

After we finished our victory parade, the Quaestor quartered us in houses of those who volunteered. I was surprised to see, that my host was a single woman. Her name was Olivia. She was a junior priestess of Venus in a local temple. She was around 30, give or take. Her long dark hair was beautiful and silky and her dark eyes were deep enough to drown in. Her breasts were rather big, pushing high and proud on her white toga. Looking at her, one could never tell she lost her husband and her father only two years ago. Lost to those cursed barbarians. Perhaps that is why she was very sympathetic to me.

She showed me to my room, saying something along the way, but I was too busy sinking in her dark eyes and admiring her perfect figure to understand anything. "If you need anything, just find Martha or Gabriella. They are my slave girls. And please don't hesitate if you want something. You are our hero. What's mine is yours." She smiled at me, showing her honesty. "Now, I will leave you to rest, you must be really tired. Remember, the festival will start at sunset."

"Yes, thank you." was all I could produce. She just smiled and left the room.

Being slightly tired, I fell onto the soft bed. I'm a hero. I'm famous, I'm loved and I'm rich. Yes, rich too. We captured many fleeing enemies and the Quaestor paid us a hefty sum for them. As a General, my cut was a lot bigger than anyone else's and by any standards I am rich. Famous, loved and rich. And to think that only hours ago I had a good chance of lying cold on that green, sun-flooded field, while this beautiful town was looted and burned and its people raped and murdered. And beautiful Olivia would be among them...

I put my fist over my heart. "Thank you, great Mars. Thank you for giving us victory." I thought about it for a second and added: "If you see Venus, would you ask her to make Olivia desire me?" With that I laughed, and I fell into slumber.

I woke up after a short nap. There was still time left until sunset, so I decided to get cleaned before going to the festival. Should I go to a local bathhouse or get one of the slave girls to help me clean?

 

Bathhouse or home-clean?


          Off to the bathhouse.

          Get a Slave Girl to Help

          Bathe in the sea.

 
 

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