"It was only when I crested the mountain that I realized that I didn't want to climb."
- Thrarin Ironhammer
Junia's thighs ached. She had been riding for many hours and the sun was beginning to set. Thessa was still flopped like a sack of flour in front of her in the saddle. She gnced backwards at the road where they had come from. There was nothing. Just like there had been nothing the st time she had checked, and the time before that. She prayed that Aurelia would miraculously appear from behind and that everything would be alright, but the sinking pit in her stomach just kept getting deeper. Even if it was the orks which appeared out of the gloom she might be relieved, as awful as that felt to think. Anything was better than not knowing.
The st glimpses of Aurelia that Thessa had caught in their mad flight were nothing more than impressions of colours and fears. Visions of a great white form streaking away followed by rays of gold, looking small and weak compared to the host of howling bck which came after like darkness chasing a shooting star. Subconsciously, unnoticed by anyone else, even her, Thessa rested her hand on her lower abdomen as she thought of Aurelia.
Gregorios led in front. They had crossed the edges of his map not long after the orks had broken off, and he had stuffed it into his back disdainfully. He still carried his sword openly, the naked bde shining in the dying light. Occasionally he would look down at it, as though he couldn't believe that it was clean and pristine while there was peril about. They were all growing weary and irritable, shoulders slumping and frowns growing. The only one who seemed unaffected by their plight was Comak, who scowled all the time anyway.
Eventually Gregorios gave the order to stop for the night in a small clearing by the road. There were no firepits or log benches to greet them, it was as if the road was the only sign of man's dominion to be found. They set up their tents quickly and lit no fire that night, eating only dried meats and rations. Thessa and Junia shared Aurelia's tent that night, the tter leaving her own in her pack. There was plenty of space now, though it brought them no added comfort. As they y together, Thessa began to weep. Slowly at first, only a tear and a sniffle. But when Junia wrapper her arms around her she couldn't help herself from burying her face into the crook of her neck. Though Junia was more stoic, tears fell from her eyes too. Dripping and mixing together with her Tauren companions. Though it would be a long night, they wouldn't wake feeling very rested.
A woman wearing fine robes of white and pink strode through high stone halls. They were as magnificent as they were grand, with busts and mosaics interspersed tastefully. The woman knew how much presentation mattered, as should any who were born in the majesty of this particur vil near the top of the Patine hill. To the servants and sves she passed she appeared to be the image of feminine Roman dignity. Her face was serene, her pace quick but measured. The only crack in this armor of appearance was the slight turn in the corner of her lip which betrayed her irritation.
As she reached the threshold from the hall to a garden courtyard outside, she came upon a spartanly adorned wooden cabinet. She paused in her tracks and gnced from the light of the afternoon sun outside, and then to the cabinet, her frown deepening. She turned and opened the cabinet. Inside were wax facemasks, cast in the likeness of previous members of the gens. Some were new, clean and almost shiny. Others, closer to the back were older, beginning to crack and fade. Their surfaces worn with time. She reached out and traced a finger down the centre of a new mask. It's aquiline features regal and stern despite the simplicity of the medium.
SpoilerNotable families usually had something called imagines maiorum, when an important/notable person died, their face was cast in wax to capture their appearance in life. This was an immensely important practice to Patricians and other high ranking families. In death Roman's believed that the dead watched on from a parallel existence, watching over the living. If they were properly venerated, they would be benevolent spirits, but if proper rights weren't observed they were believed to become malevolent wights. At funerals, children would wear the masks of their dead retives and try to act as they would. Thus Romans had immense pressure to live up to the standards of their ancestors, who were believed to watch their deeds closely.
[colpse]"Why did you have to leave us so soon." Said the woman softly. "Never before has a star shined so bright, and I fear that none will again. Were you here, none of the other pompous bastards would have dared to move so openly. But as, it is the greatest among us who are taken first. I can only hope that you watch on with pride. Your son has become everything you had feared, and I shudder at what the coming days may hold if we cannot leash him tightly. He even has started to-"
She paused. Behind her from the outside gardens walked a sve. She turned and gred at the disturber of her peace, the man, tanned by many hours in the sun, shuddered and kept his head down as he scurried by. Her contemption interrupted, she withdrew her hands and shut the cabinet door. As she closed them and walked away, their design was revealed. Carved out of the same wood as the doors themselves, were two images, one on each of the doors. One bore two infants nursing from a she wolf, and the other a snake.
The woman stepped out into the day, and strode to a nearby building. The scent of flowers and earth filled her lungs. Fitting, she thought. That underneath such beauty was buried nothing but shit and dirt. She only wished that there was more to help her clear the shit out.
She waved Demetrius, the captain of their house guard, over to her side. The man was pinly busy with something or another, but her purpose could not be deyed any longer. The man was one of the few allowed to openly allowed to wear weapons in the safety of their vil. The weight bound to the inside of her thigh felt heavy as lead in that moment. She felt shamed that she felt the need to take such precautions, but such were the needs of her gens. With her muscle in tow, she led on into a pilred building which provided excellent views of the surrounding city below.
She emerged onto a wide stone balcony. A long table spread with a feast was id out, but only the meats and sweets had been touched. Out near the edge, a tall man leaned over the balustrade. He wore robes of a finer cut and colour than her, though not by much. And he had a sheath belted onto his side. She noted with contempt that his hands bore no callouses of a man who was used to such an implement. He did not turn when she stopped a few paces behind, though his shoulders shifted. She sighed, so he was going to drag this out.
"Augustus." She said. "Sister." He replied, still not turning. Her frown deepened into a scowl.
"I've traveled many miles to speak with you, brother, will you not face me, at the least."
Augustus turned petuntly, facing her though still leaning back on the balustrade. Though he was slightly taller physically than her, in that moment he seemed very small as he slouched and she stood proud. To an onlooker it might look like a mother confronting an unruly child, though they were near enough in age.
"Happy now, sister?" He said with a smile that was too sweet. "Has the Pater sent you to remind me of my duties? To lecture me on what is becoming of one of our station? That we are the shepherds of the masses, and have a duty to guide them faithfully?"
"No." She said simply. "Many have tried and failed on that account. I have come to tell you that the shadow you have sent, the one allotted to you as one of the rightful blood has been taken. You are no longer trusted to wield the powers of death in secrecy."
His smile disappeared in an instant, repced with a twisted visage of anger. He opened his mouth to speak, but she continued.
"Furthermore, your recent actions of taking a common plebian into the service of our household, and trusting her with the duties of one of the blood or someone trusted as such, has not gone unnoticed. Though no harm has come of it yet."
He began to interrupt her, but she was having none of it. "I AM NOT FINISHED!" She boomed over him. "Your fascination with some nonhuman has been noted as unbecoming. And you are to stop foolishly dallying with these matters upon pain of additional privileges being revoked."
She took a deep breath, and looked at him pointedly. He glowered at her with embers smouldering in his eyes.
"You come here, and lecture me about my duty." He said softly, with venom in his words. "I have been tasked with acquiring fresh swords to bolster our forces, and now you criticize me? I use the tools allotted to me, and you JUDGE ME! I will not stand her and be lectured by some woman with some jumped up sense of importance because of the favour of a dead man."
As he snarled, he looked her deep in her eyes.
"If you had seen the nonhuman as I have, you would not speak to me so. If you were burdened with real purpose, as I have, you would not speak to me so. You speak to me of dereliction of my duties to the gens and to Rome, I AM THE ONLY ONE WITH THE WILL TO SIEZE WHAT SHOULD BE OURS!" He took a deep breath, still not breaking eye contact, then spoke softer again. "Rome is changing, dear sister. Those who act quickly and decisively will be the ones who stand on top tomorrow. Those who live in the days of the past will be swept away, caught up and bound by the riggings of the past."
She found herself almost agreeing with him. His words made sense. The other Patrician gens were their constant rivals, anything which would put them ahead should at least be considered. She blinked, and the spell was broken. She gasped in outrage and struck him openhanded across the face. He reeled and cried out, reaching up to where he had been struck. Angrily, he reached for his waist where his scabbard hung empty. Before the violence could escate any further, Demetrius appeared and stood between them, one hand on the pommel of his heavy sword.
Seething with rage, affronted by the audacity, she brought her voice under control. "Our father used to stand tall in the forum and give himself to any who would listen, whether they were rge or small. He would paint a tapestry of words and feelings so that all might share his vision, and they loved him for it. You spit on his image every time you use his gifts to take and dominate with what should be used to give. You are nothing but childish plebian standing in the slippers of their betters. I live and pray every day that you learn to change, but I have all but lost hope."
She turned to leave, her message delivered. But he just had to get the st word in. "When I am building the world of tomorrow, sister, you will be crushed and used in the foundations. I will make sure of it."
Demetrius followed in her footsteps as she left. The smallest tear threatened to spill from her eyes, but appearances were everything, so she walked with her back straight, away from her greatest failure.
It was almost exiting, plummeting to certain death. If she ignored the pit in her stomach from free fall, she felt floaty and weightless. Granted, she was screaming at the to of her lungs and plummeting downwards fast, but it was the little things that mattered. She felt a light tugging on her hair as she fell, she hadn't noticed it at first in the rush, but it was insistent and urging and unlike her other body parts which were, mhm, flopping in the wind. She forced her eyes to open and looked up. There, grabbing onto strands of her golden hair like reins, was Iri. She was fluttering her wings and scrunching her face with all her might, but for all her toil it didn't make a difference. Aurelia was many times bigger and heavier than the sprite. If she was going to survive this fall, it would have to be under her own power.
She knew she was being oddly serene in that moment, as though she were looking through a window at someone else. Though she was still very much present in the moment, she felt as if she was guided by strong hands. She wasn't falling as fast as the ork and his beast, her spread wings and wild fpping was doing something. Indeed if she looked down she could no longer see them below, their fate surely sealed by now. Thinking back to the sensations Iri had impnted into her mind during her flight up the mountain, she tried to act on them. At first she struggled, Iri's feelings of flying dependent on wings which fluttered, like that of a humingbird's or perhaps a butterfly. Aurelia saw clearly now in her moment of peril that she was no creature to flutter or buzz, but to soar. Her wings were never meant to fp rapidly up and down, she was too big, and they protruded out many times her height when fully extended.
She gritted her teeth, and began to use muscles which had been long ignored since youth. her chest and back burned with exertion as the strain of air rushing over her wings was measured against her strength. She felt as though her shoulders would rip from their sockets, her screams changed from those of terror, to those of pain. The sensation she had begun to associate with the use of her "Let There be Light" filled her being, though she grew no more radiant than normal. Looking down the ground was awfully close now, and getting closer. On the other side of the bare mountain she had ascended was a deep gorge through which ran a sullen stream gurgling menacingly. The wind wasn't rushing by her ears as quickly as it had, and the tranquility which had overtaken her before was repced with genuine readiness.
Her breakneck downward momentum began to slow with her new understanding and resolve, and she began to move forward rapidly, judging by the ground below. She was nearly upon the stream now, and could feel cool mist rushing past her skin. Iri was still tugging on her hair, though now it was a constant pull. She didn't think it was doing much, but she'd need every little bit to not spt on the ground. Gradually, her straight downward plummet turned into a curve, and began to level out. But the water and rocks of the stream had never been closer, and she was still falling. Her shoulders no longer ached like they would be torn from her body, but she would be cutting it close. As she leveled out, her trailing foot grazed the surface of the water and sprayed water in her wake like a geyser, such was her speed. She felt a tug, though this time much weaker than the one delivered to her by the ork. She couldn't pay too much attention to it though, both she and Iri were doing everything in their power to keep her from touching the waters any further. Like a sudden raiment of weight had been lifted from her shoulders, she began to rise upwards along the path of the river through the gorge. She soared upwards and began to ugh with etion. She was flying, flying! With every moment she wasn't falling to her death she grew more at ease in the air. She felt when to beat her wings and when to soar, how tiny shifts of small, hitherto unknown muscles in her upper back allowed her to change direction. Iri, who before had been struggling to keep Aurelia in the air, now held on to her golden strands to not be left behind.
She looked downwards and saw the ground shrinking away again. Though she felt clumsy, like a toddler taking their first steps, she was truly flying. And she couldn't stop the grin from spreading across her face. How would she tell the girls? Oh Gods, the company probably thought she was as dead as the ork! She banked and turned sharply nearly losing her bance in the air as she whirled about. She had to find the company again, and that meant retrieving her stuff, if she could. She had lost her spear in the fall, and she prayed that it was still in one piece at the bottom. Surely it's stout wooden shaft would survive the fall if it nded in the water?
Then she noticed something else as she looked down. Where before she would have seen the blue and brown of her robes and leathers, now she saw only the pale olive of her skin. When had she lost her clothes!?
Regardless, she had best figure out how to nd, and then try and search the bottom of the gorge for her clothes and weapon.
Maybe the water wouldn't be too cold? She could even consider it an impromptu bath.
It turned out that nding was much harder than it looked, at least when birds did it. She had once seen a swan nd in a pond near Rome, it had smoothly descended before gracefully setting down it's paddle-like feet down in the water until it came to rest. Her nding was nothing like that. Hers was more of a spt sploosh, followed her her dragging herself out onto a rocky bank, soaking and shivering. The river, which was fed by mountain melt, was intensely cold and left her skin covered in goosebumps.
She set about walking along the edges of the river, looking for her stuff. It turned out her spear was easy to find. In a spot where the river curved, there was a small bank of silt. Her spear had been weighed down point first, and had buried itself into the softer ground with it's long haft standing upwards proudly. Lifting it out of the wet earth with a wet squelch, she was pleased to see that it was retively intact. The spear head was bent slightly, and the edges of the pointed bde had been dulled, but it was still intact. And besides, a spear was basically a long pointy stick, so long as the one end was sufficiently jabby, it would serve.
She next came upon the remains of the ork and his beast. There was nothing identifiable as distinct pieces, their mass had been enough to render their remains a wide sptter on the rocks of one bank. Some hard pieces of bone were sticking out, and she found a jagged axe which was so brutish it could only have belonged to the ork.
Iri had roused herself after the excitement of her fall, and had unentangled herself from Aurelia's hair. She flitted around the area, helping Aurelia find her lost items. It was her who spotted the remains of her clothes. They were barely more than tatters. The cloth robes had been reduced to ribbons, and the leathers were torn and useless. Trying to piece together both the clothes, and what had happened to them, this was the story she could come up with: Her clothes, which might have been loosened during her race to stay ahead of the orks, had been torn and yanked when the ork had grabbed her midair. The short cws which tipped the ends of harsh fingers were some of the few identifiable pieces left in the sludge of their remains. And now that she had time to think, she could remember her pursuer's dark countenances more clearly. Thus weakened, when she had dipped her foot in the water in her flight, it had shorn and pulled the remains from her body. Leaving the wrecks of her clothes to be caught by rocks further downstream and discovered by Iri.
Time had passed since her "nding" and the canyon's walls were high. Darkness fell in the bottom where Aurelia stood, which alerted her to a more present issue than finding her company.
The sun was setting, and she was naked and semi-alone in ork-infested wilds.
Taking off from a standing start was difficult, as her bruised and scrapped knees could attest. Now that she knew what she was doing with her wings, it was easier than when she had first tried outside of Rome's walls. Though it was less than a month ago, she felt as though years separated her and then. Iri was once again nested in her hair in the event that she succeed, and her arms were full of her cargo. One arm carrying a hastily tied bundle of her clothes, the other holding the haft of her "gorge honed" spear. Thoughts of how she had managed to fly the first time filled her mind. The sensations, the feel of it. She concentrated on the feeling of using her abilities, simir but different to how she could glow with radiance at will now. Noble's scions were trained from birth to be able to harness any abilities they might have as a result of their selective marriages. And many tutors were hired to ensure they perfected them by adulthood. Aurelia had none of that. She just had to go by feel.
The bottom of the gorge was in complete shadow when she whooped with delight, though the st rays of the day's light were still visible near the peak of the bald mountain to the one side. She had more scrapes to count now, but with a running start, a powerful beat of her wings, the help of a particurely ramp-shaped rock, and concentrating on using whatever internal ability she might have, she took flight once more. Slowly and precariously at first, but she quickly found the rhythm of flight once more and was speedily ascending from the bottom of the gorge up the sides.
She crested the top, and set down on the cliff edge where she had jumped. Landing was rough again, though she managed to stay on her feet. Going from a low glide to a stumbling run where she had nearly fallen ft on her face. She was just gd her caligae had stayed on her feet, otherwise she would have certainly sliced her feet open. She hadn't seen any sign of the other ork riders while she had been in the air, though they couldn't be too far off. She couldn't afford to hope that they had all simply gone home to the canyon near the ruins to the east. A gust of wind blew strands of her hair into her face and she shivered. Now that the sun was going down, her current state of going natural was proving to be a problem. The air was cooler in the highnds, and she had neither the time nor the skills to make a fire, even if she could risk it with the orks about.
She felt Iri rustling about in her hair.
"What are you doing up there?" She asked.
"Iri is getting comfortable. This one jostles and moves about very much, and Iri doesn't want to fall out and be left behind!" Came the reply.
After a few more moments of rustling Iri piped up again. "Iri requires binding. Iri requests this one to tear a strip of cloth for her."
"What do you need it for?" She asked.
"Iri said! Iri requires binding, she doesn't want to hold on with her hands anymore!"
Grumbling with protest, Aurelia obliged. Her clothes were ruined anyway, and a small strip wouldn't make any difference to her. She untied the bundle of cloth and leather she had made with her ragged clothes, and tore a small thin strip of blue cloth from the greater whole, if it could be called that. Even though it was already ruined, she felt sad damaging it further. These robes had been among the first things she had bought for herself, and had repced the drab smock the temple garbed all it's progeny in. Reaching up and to the back of her head, she offered the strip to Iri. She felt tiny hands tug it lightly out of her grasp. After reassembling her bundle, she reached up again to feel what Iri had done. The sprite had gathered Aurelia's hair back into two thick braids which met at the back of her head and joined into a long twisted ponytail and tied it using the strip like a ribbon. Iri herself was settled where the braids met, and was held firmly in pce. Aurelia could only feel with her fingertips, but if she had to guess she'd say that the little creature was quite pleased with herself.
"Are we good to go off then?" She asked.
"Mhm!" came the reply in the affirmative.
Though she had no rock to unch off of this time, she still managed to get into the air more gracefully than st time. With a leap she was in the air again, and began to search cliffs and other nearby areas for any sort of shelter away from the prying eyes of orks and beasts.
It was truly night when she found her resting spot. Nearby there was a rocky spine which snaked along the ndscape of hills and cliffs. She was fortunate that it was a cloudless night, otherwise she would not have had the light of the moon to aid her tired eyes. On the face of this rocky spine was a hole which had looked at first like nothing more than a pinprick from afar. In her desperation to not shack up in a tree that night, Aurelia had approached to see that the dark spot was a cave which carved into the shear side of the rock. There was no path or clear area to nd, which would be great for her safety if she could get there, but not if she became an Aurelia sized spt on the rock face next to the entrance. Once again taking inspiration from birds, she glided down so she was below the entrance, then rose sharply upwards. The action killed her forward momentum and allowed her to reach the entrance.
It would have been perfect if not for the mad scramble she had to do to keep from falling backwards back out into the open void. Dignity in tatters, and listening to Iri giggle, Aurelia mumbled some choice words under her breath and crouched down to enter the cave. She dropped her bundle of cloth and raised her hand before her, focusing a moment, her body began to glow and illuminate the inside of the cave. She had not dared to do so in the open air. It was deeper than it looked from the outside, and after a few crouched steps she found she could stand again without leaning. The cave was circur and domed, the sides seemed to be almost chiseled away. She froze a moment as she took in her surroundings, there were remains of dead animals interspersed, nothing more than white bone. They were gathered in clumps, and looking closer she saw that they were massive bird pellets. The indications were there of what used to be hair and fur gathered close around the bones. In the centre of the chamber was what looked like a rge nest. There were the shattered remains of rge eggs scattered in a circur cordon of sticks and branches.
She nearly turned around and left right then and there. This was clearly the den of some rge avians, and Aurelia didn't want to become their next snack by waiting for them in their own home. But the pellets were dried and old, and there were none of the smells which usually came with the homes of wild animals. She was desperately in need of shelter for the night, and it seemed pin enough to her that this nest had not been in use for many days at least. Iri extracted herself from Aurelia's hair and gnced about the cave. She flitted around a bit, looking at the walls closely. Aurelia was dead tired, and settled down for bed. Using the bundle as best she could as a pillow, she rested her feet on a circur rock and tried not to fret about the fate of her company. Did the orks turn around and catch them after she had escaped them? Would she be able to find them again? Was the pack that had chased her the only one? Had there been a second pack which had split off to follow the company while the first had chased her?
She would have to get those answers in the morning. There was simply nothing to do tonight. Using her wings like a mattress, the clothes like a pillow, and shame as a bnket, she began to drift off. But not before she felt Iri crawl in between her breasts. It was probably a damn sight more comfortable than the cave floor, she thought. And began to sleep to thoughts of resting on giant breasts, and of lovers being chased by howling orks.
She woke when the sun's rays began to penetrate the inside of the cave. She rose and groggily rose to a crossed legged position. She hear an eep! and started. She caught Iri, who had fallen from her position nestled in between her breasts, in her hands before she could hit the stone floor. After apologizing profusely to the indignant sprite, who marched dramatically along the ptform of her hands with tiny hands on tiny hips, she looked about herself once more. Now that it was day and she was no longer exhausted, she could see that the cave walls looked to have been carved with rge talons, at least that was what the regurly sized scratching suggested to her.
Well, whatever had lived here in the past hadn't come and eaten her in the night, for which she uttered a silent prayer to the Gods. As she cast about herself to gather her stuff, she saw Iri staring at a rock intently. Ordinarily she wouldn't think anything of it, she seemed to be constantly looking inquisitively at any number of things during the day. But the intensity of her stare made Aurelia take a second look at the rock she had rested her feet on st night.
It was circur, that she had known. But looking closely she saw that it was very regur in shape, almost as if...
Iri stepped forwards and began to run her hands over the rock. It's grey surface, which had matched the stone walls and floor, began to fke away like dried paste being cast off. Aurelia gasped as Iri's hands revealed a burnished brown-bronze underneath. Aurelia quickly joined in, her much rger hands speeding the process. Quickly the not-rock sat in Aurelia's hands, significantly smaller than it had been moments before. The grey outer surface had completely fked off under their hands, leaving a deep brown-bronze which looked rather pretty, Aurelia thought.
Exchanging looks between herself and Iri, they both knew pin enough what it was. An egg, surely. Looking around, now that she wasn't dead tired and looking only for safety, she could see remnants of other simir eggs. Their shells were in pieces, though whether that was because they had hatched, or because some predator had gotten in she couldn't tell. Their colour was simir in tone, but duller, as though the shade became more drab with time. Looking back to the egg in her hands, she could clearly feel that it was warm. Iri had hopped into her hands as well, and was tapping the surface gently with her ear pressed to it's surface.
"Iri thinks it is alive! Iri can hear a heartbeat!"
That confirmed it, if the heat hadn't been enough. That left the question: What was it?
"Do you have any idea what it is, Iri?" Aurelia asked.
She shook her head emphatically. "Iri is not of the hills and mountains, Iri is of the green and trees. Iri has much to learn!" She seemed excited at the prospect.
Looking around at the abandoned nest, Aurelia confirmed to herself that it had been vacant for many days. She didn't know how this species of great bird lived and nested, but surely it couldn't be normal to abandon the nest? She found herself commiserating with the abandoned egg, and nearly worked herself up to tears. The results of the previous day were getting to her, she decided. There was certainly no connection to her upbringing. None at all, she decred mentally.
But her next actions were clear: Gather her things (now including the egg!), and fly around until she found the road again and could try to find her company.
That just left her with one question, did she want to meet them naked, carrying a weirdly coloured rge egg, and her spear? Or did she want to do some good old fashioned Roman engineering?
SarcasticMisfit
