Black Dawn

Chapter 6

He awoke with a start as the bone chilling water slapped his face.

"Wake up you lazy lug" a loud rough voice called out, awakening him.

"How long are you going to be out? You just took a tap to the head. Come on Lucius wake up," another voice rang out, this time sweeter and much more soothing.

As the haze slowly lifted from his eyes, he looked around groggily, wondering where he was.

"Lucius?" He asked, sleep and pain clouding his mind. "Who's Lucius?" he asked, not understanding what was going on around him.

The two figures who stood before him looked at each other for a moment before the female on the right replied, "oh dear".

It took another moment before he realized that he was lying on a straw pike mattress under a thatched wooden shelter. As he blinked furiously to clear his vision, the two individuals before him started to discuss something. It suddenly struck him that the two were dressed differently, in armor which could only described as roman. The name fit in as well. The male was clad in standard roman legionary armor with a red cape and carried a spatha in a sheath on his right hip.

As he struggled to sit up, the woman moved over and helped him.

"Lucius, that's your name," she prompted. As far as he could remember his name was not remembered and he most certainly did not live in the Roman Empire. He had been alive in the 21st century and those were his last memories.

"My name..." he muttered as he looked at the woman who knelt beside him, clad in a flowing white flowing dress clasped at the waist with a eagle shaped golden clasp.

"Yes, your name is Lucius, Lucius Valerian, a soldier of the third cohort. Do you remember?"

He had no choice but to go with it, he did not know what was happening but he would find out soon he swore to himself as he nodded slowly to the woman's question. Upon seeing that he was starting to remember, the woman smiled and looked up at the other man who offered a grin.

But for some reason, the smile struck a chord in him. It was so similar to hers. He winced as he thought about the past, or the future technically. How was it that he had somehow been thrown into the past from a hospital bed. It might have been a dream except for the pain he felt throughout his body.

As he looked at the woman again he asked, "Who are you?"

Looking back into his eyes, she replied that she was Minerva.

"And I'm your Decanus Lucius, remember me? Cassius Brutus."

Again he stared on dumbly and nodded in mock recognition. He was still a solider, he thought to himself. It was like a curse he, his profession, a bane and a boom but in recent times more of a bane than anything else.

As he pulled off the cloth that was covering him, he noticed that his body was scarred and battered, wrapped in several bandages; some of which were stained with blood.

As he unsteadily stood up with the support of Minerva, he looked around at his surroundings. The shelter he was in was only one of many surrounding him, most of which were flimsy looking white tents. But the most magnificent structure was the cohort eagle which stood in tall in the middle of the camp, the cohort banner flapping under the gentle wind.

As he moved out of the shelter slowly on his own strength, he slowly started to regain control of all his senses. The air was musty and damp and the sun overhead was dimmed by the heavy fog which covered the entire camp. The ground too was grassy and wet with early morning dew.

Where was he? He tried to remember about his history lessons in college. The Romans had always fought in dry terrain, very rarely did they play in temperate climates. As he wracked his brains, the Decanus must have seen the puzzled expression on his face.

"We were fighting the Britons the savage beasts, and you were knocked off your feet by a horseman" he started.

Britain, that's where he was. The fight against Boudicca and the various tribes. He wondered again how he had landed in this time and age. Answers however was much less visible than the question.

Lucius, that's who he was now and that's what he had to be. A soldier again in a time where war was everything. Power and greed was all that mattered he thought to himself as he stared at the bronze eagle on the banner.

As the pair of them walked past several men training with wooden swords and shields, Decanus stopped and looked on at them, before turning to Lucius and saying, "I know this is asking much from you but you will have to continue training today since you are up and walking. Our contubernium is down to 6 men including me and we are going on patrol tomorrow. We need every man."

Lucius stood still for a moment digesting the words before moving towards the training ground and picking up a wooden sword from a rack which held several such practice weapons. One of the immunes talked briefly to the Decanus before moving towards Lucius.

This was the first time he had picked up a sword. He was more used to his rifle and his side arm. This was a new experience for him. But he had handled knives before and he thought to himself that the spatha was just a bigger knife.

As the immunes walked forwards, he kicked a large square shield towards Lucius before arming himself similarly.

As Lucius picked up the shield, he tested the straps on his shield and swung the sword awkwardly, slicing the air ahead of him.

The instructor however was not one to waste time, in a voice that demanded respect, he ordered Lucius to attack him.

Bracing his arm against his shield, he moved forward, his bare feet scraping against the grass and small stones on the ground. Gripping his spatha he pulled back his shield and brought down his sword. But the instructor had already brought up his shield and covered his body, before pushing forward from the balls of his feet and pushing Lucius back with his shield. Not expecting the move, Lucius stumbled backwards and barely brought up his shield to block the follow through blow.

Lucius pulled back to catch his breath and analyze his situation. He was leaving himself too open when he attacked and he was telegraphing his moves. The fact the the immunes was an experienced fighter did not help. He thought about how the swordsman before him fought and realized that the shield was as much a weapon as his sword was.

Gripping his shield strap again, he advanced slowly, careful not to expose his body. This time, the immunes took the initiative and pushed forward with his front foot, ramming the shield against Lucius'. Lucius reacted just a moment slowly when side stepping and caught the instructors shield at the edge. Despite this being completely unintentional it had the effect of pushing the shield away from the instructor's body and exposing his bare arm.

Slashing downwards, he tried to disarm the instructor, who was too fast for him. He had immediately pulled back and turned to face Lucius, shield blocking the strike with seeming ease.

Grunting in frustration, Lucius tried again several times to gain the upper hand but was beat back every time, his inexperience proving to be his downfall.

Irritated at his failure to even land a single blow at the immunes, Lucius decided to trying something ludicrous. As the two fighters reset behind their shields, he charged the instructor shield on, intent on ramming with his shield. As the immunes braced for impact, Lucius lifted his shield and brought it down hard on his opponent's. With his shield trapped and his sword arm in an awkward position unable to defend, Lucius thruster his sword into the gap between the shields into the instructor's flesh.

As he pulled back, the instructor gave a grim sign of respect before resetting and asking him to charge again. They continued to spar for the rest of the afternoon until the bugle sounded for the patrol to set out. As the tired and battered Lucius staggered away from the training grounds, the sudden thought that he did not know where to go struck him.

As he stared around at the flickering lamps which surrounded camp, he looked for either the Decanus or Minerva to lead him back. But he could find neither, instead wandered around the thick wooden walls looking for someone.

After about 10 minutes of walking, he finally arrived back at the shelter he had first awoken in. He peeked in hoping that Minerva would be present to guide him on where to go. But he found no one there. Tiredness overtook his body and he gave in, opting to sleep on the bed he has awoken instead of finding someone he knew.