Chapter Text
The loud footsteps of a whole legion of roman soldiers' caligae were echoing in loud thuds on the coarse and dusty road that led them step by step further away from the glorious city of Rome. In the frontline riding on his mighty black stallion was their leader, legatus Octavius head held high and glorious as ever leading his men to the serenity and welcoming arms of the countryside. The land was filled with meadows, fields and olive orchards as far as ones eyes could see and even the blue and glittering sea could be seen in the horizon if one looked far enough. The day was beautiful and warm with only few silky clouds roaming in the sky and a gentle wind blowing the sweat away from the marching weary soldiers' brows with its cool breeze. It was like most days in Rome were when the sky wasn't covered in grey clouds and crying. Octavius looked at the marching soldiers at the back and noticed that some of his men were starting to look tired, their footsteps getting slower and more cumbersome from marching hours on end with the heavy lorica segmentata wearing them down. He stopped his horse and gently pulled the reins to turn around and spoke with his strong voice of a mighty roman general.
- "Dread not my men! I know you are weary, but we shall only be marching for a
few hours more before our apparent destination!"
Then he turned around and gestured with his right hand for his soldiers to continue marching and they obeyed without guestion. His horse let out a loud huff and shook its head, being clearly quite weary too from galloping all the way from the city to the countryside. Octavius patted its neck and mumbled a soft ”It is alright, my boy” to console his faithul ride as they continued on their journey. In the beautiful landscape of the countryside that opened up before his eyes he could see various eyes of the locals staring into him and his soldiers as they walked past. There was an old farmer working on his field cutting the wheat with a sickle and a hay hat on his head, shielding him from the burning sun shining from above. He raised his head to look at Octavius and his army as they passed him by. The farmer only raised his other brow looking lazily and with a hint of disdain at the roman soldiers marching by. The old farmer's hair was grey, but Octavius could see that it had once been blonde in the man's younger days and his eyes were blue. Clearly a gaul, Octavius thought to himself and shrugged the old farmer from his thoughts. As his army continued marching deeper into the countryside a handful of other locals crossed their way. Like two young women picking flowers in a meadow. They were most likely sisters judging by the way their faces looked quite similar, their hair being blonde and eyes blue as well. They looked at Octavius and his marching soldiers with focused eyes. He gave the two young women a polite nod with his head as he passed them by. The other one of them who was a little shorter, stepped in front of her sister and gave him a deathglare in turn. Octavius was a little surprised by the young woman's hostility towards him, but he took no offense in her act, since it looked like the young lady only wanted to protect her sister, so he just kept on walking with his horse. After a while they came across a woman and her child who were standing in the side of the road waiting for the soldiers to pass by. She was holding her child's hand and like the mother, her child also had blonde hair and blue eyes. When the small child saw the soldiers passing by she started to babble happily to herself pointing at them. The child's mother however became very anxious when her child started ”talking” to the soldiers, clearly not wanting to draw their attention towards them so she picked her child up in her arms and tried to shush her while the child just kept happily babbling and pointing at the soldiers, most likely being fascinated by their armor and the red plume in Octavius' galea. At this point Octavius was certain of two things: one being that his father, Julius Caesar had ordered him to go train his army in the countryside inhabited completely by plebeian gauls, it seems and two being that the gauls clearly weren't happy about the presence of him and his army. While riding on his horse Octavius wondered just what had his father done that made the gauls dislike him so much, but deep down he thought that he might already know the answer.
-
It was afternoon by the time they finally reached their destination and his soldiers had started to immediatly build the military camp. Tents were being raised and soldiers were hurrying around in every direction, eager to get the military camp erected so they could get their well deserved rest after their mandatory duties. Octavius looked around pride surging in his chest for his men. Even though they obviously lacked the professional training of a good soldier they were already strong-willed and self sufficient and that was a good base for a man on his way to become a soldier in the glorious army of Rome. A gentle wind blew on his face caressing him with its cool breeze and made the plume of his galea swing. He looked up into the distance and saw the silhouette of a shepherd in a meadow herding the sheep with their staff, guiding them where the grass was greener. Octavius was pulled off from staring into the distance in his thoughts when a young soldier hurriedly carrying his belongings almost collided with him. Octavius moved swiftly over before an accident could happen. The young soldier started anxiously apologizing, but Octavius assured him that no harm was done and simply dismissed the young man back to his work. After all the marching and ordering around his men Octavius had started to feel drained from all the hassle, it was true that he was a mighty man with an even mightier army to command, but even he needed his own time alone in silence without any interruptions from anyone, so he slipped away from the military camp to go explore the area around it to get his much needed privacy. He walked into a nearby forest to see what secrets it might hold even though he knew that an ordinary forest most likely didn't hold much secrets if any in it. He walked in there anyway. The grass flattened under his caligae as he walked around in the forest admiring the old trees and singing of the birds around him until he came across a relatively small pond. Its water was surprisingly clean and clear, which made Octavius think that there was most likely a spring at the bottom of the pond where the water was flowing there that made it clean enought to drink and clear to see the bottom. He hunched down and took the galea off his head, scooped some of that water in his palms and drank. For a moment it was just silence and the sounds of nature surrounding him until he suddenly heard a faint high pitched ”baa” coming not too far behind him. He turned around and saw a small lamb staring at him curiously.
- ”What are you doing here all alone? Where is your mother, little one?” He asked the little lamb, but it just kept baaing at him and coming closer to inspect the gladius on his waist.
- ”Did your mother not warn you of strangers, little one? Especially when said stranger is armed with a lethal weapon.” But the lamb didn't care about Octavius' attempts to lecture it.
His attention snapped away from the little lamb when he heard rustling coming from the woods in front of them. Octavius stood up and placed his hand on his gladius ready to face whatever was coming towards them: perhaps a hungry wolf looking to devour a little lamb lost from its mother. The rustling grew louder and now Octavius was able to see what exactly was coming closer towards them, or rather who. It was a shepherd with his staff, looking incredibly worried. His eyes widened when he saw the lamb and he looked overcome with relief.
- ”Penelope! Thank the gods, I'm so happy you're alright! I've been looking for you everywhere!” He sunk to his knees and the lamb whose name was apparently Penelope ran straight into his embrace baaing happily to him and wagging her short tail like a dog happy to see its master. The shepherd had been so happy to find his lost lamb that he hadn't even noticed Octavius despite him having been standing right beside his lamb, Penelope.
Octavius cleared his throat to make his presence known and when the shepherd turned his head towards the noise his eyes widened in shock. He quickly rose up to his feet and looked straight into Octavius' eyes, concern coloring his face. For a moment Octavius was left speechless. Never in his life had he seen such blue eyes; like the raging waves of the sea itself that were staring right into his very soul making him sink into that beautiful shade of blue. The shepherd's hair was as blonde as the wheat when it was ready to be harvested for winter and the gentle wind was swirling around those locks that looked almost golden when the sunlight was shining into them. For a moment Octavius was just staring at the beautiful man before him until he realized that it was quite rude to just stare without saying anything at all, so he bowed politely and cleared his throat to speak.
- ”My sincerest apologies, I can assure you that I mean no harm and I certainly did not intend to frighten you.”
The shepherd had relaxed a bit hearing Octavius say he had no ill intents towards him, but he was avoiding his gaze and leaned onto his other foot awkwardly.
- ”It's okay. Thank's for taking care of Penelope. I'm sorry, I should really go now. My sheep need to be watched so they won't run off again.”
After voicing his gratitude towards Octavius, the shepherd started hastily walking off to the direction where he had come from with Penelope following close behind him. The lamb took one glance at Octavius and baaed at him before continuing with the shepherd, leaving Octavius standing there all alone with many thoughts plaguing his head. He wondered if his path would ever be crossed with the beautiful blue eyed man again, and what his name might be.