The Imperial Blade(ON HOLD)

The New Legion

Colin's grandfather was famous apparently, the man had fought hordes of the Pict alone and had won, when he was finally killed by the Pict, he had been covering his soldiers retreat and had been cut off from them. He saved roughly three hundred lives that day and he had defeated the biggest army of the Pict ever assembled, that exact number isn't known, only that the number exceeded two thousand.

 His grandfather had been brought down by the Pict leader, Talorc, he shot Colins grandfather in the head with an arrow tipped with a pictish beast's tooth. That was the end of Centurion Levantes.

 When he had died, Colin's father was a rookie soldier, but peace had spread across the land after that, only Talorc hadn't been killed, but he was found later, sacrificed on the Old Man on the Moon's Altar. His father met his mother after he was released from service and farmed his life happily.

Colin had been shown a bed earlier, that morning and slept soundly the whole day and night.

When he awoke he took the time to examine his surroundings more closely, Colin appeared to be in an armoury, rows and rows of armour, shields, helmets, pilums and gladius. a narrow window, filtered light into the room. Colin abruptly stood when he released the bed he was sleeping in, really was two benches pushed together with dirty clothes piled on top of each other. Marcus entered the room with a grin on his face, chuckling at the joke that Colin had been sleeping on the dirty clothes of the legion.

"Marcus, this isn't funny" Colin said, his face red.

 "Really? I thought it hilarious" said Marcus mockingly.

"Now get up and head down to breakfast, Cook has been waiting for you." Marcus said

"Why has Cook been waiting for me?" asked Colin confused

"Every soldier has to start somewhere" replied Marcus as he left the room.

Colin was going to clean some pots, a job at home that he didn't mind doing, but for an entire army, this wasn't going to be fun at all.

Colin emerged from the armoury, he wore the red tunic and braccae (trousers) that had been neatly folded on the floor next to him. He still wore the leather boots, he'd received on his birthday last year. As he emerged, the sun blinded him for a second before his eyes adjusted, and he beheld the rest of the fort. 

The fort had once been made of stone, but only small parts of it remained now, so the majority of the fort was made of wood. Several buildings stood in the centre of the fort, and soldiers practiced formations, patrolled the walls and what seemed to be cleaning clothes, but they were certainly making a large mess of it.

Colin spotted a covered pavilion, on which many soldiers were in line, and large pots hung above roaring fires. Colin headed toward it, when got near it, a large soldier blocked his path.

"No cuts! We all want to eat" he said loudly

"I'm not cutting, I have clean the pots" Colin said up to him.

"I'm not interested, NO CUTS!" the large soldier roared.

By now all of the soldiers had noticed, and all weren't happy either.

"For the last time, I'm not cu-OOF"

The large soldier punched him in the stomach.

Colin staggered back, the air driven back from his lungs.

"APPIUS!" the cook had appeared from the pavilion, "I want my pots cleaned, how can the boy clean them, if he's got broken bones?"

"Uhhh.... maybe if....... I don't know." Appius said quietly.

"What was that?" the cook said

"I don't know" Appius said louder.

"Exactly!" the cook yelled, "Now apologize and get back in line."

"Sorry, sir" Appius said to Colin, his head bowed, like a ashamed dog.

"Its alright....I guess" Colin said nervously.

"Boy, get up here and ladle the porridge."

"Yes sir," Colin said as he jumped up onto the pavilion.

Colin managed to spill a lot of porridge as he served it to the soldiers, they weren't too happy about that. The soldiers besides getting a bowl of porridge, they got an egg, which most of them took.

By the time the line had ended, the lumpy porridge was looking really good.

Colin hungrily grabbed a bowl and started to ladle some porridge, until the Cook came over took his bowl, dumped his porridge back into the pot and slapped Colin.

"No eating until you wash the dishes, then make sure to throw my clothes into the laundry!"

scolded the Cook.

"But I'm hungry." Colin whined.

The Cook hit him in the head with ladle,

"Finish the dishes and then you can eat."

By the time Colin had finished washing the dishes, his stomach was singing a song, but he remembered the Cooks clothes and threw them into the laundry room. 

When he finally had sat down on one of the wooden benches, with a bowl of cold porridge and an egg in the other, Colin's breakfast probably only lasted for a couple of seconds as devoured it.

"Hey Colin" Colin looked up, it was Appius. He groaned. 

"Hey look I wasn't cutting the breakfast line, I was-"

" I know, Colin I actually came here to simply apologize about that and I was wondering if you wanted to go out on a patrol together, we're leaving in an hour."

"Oh....oh...Oh, that would be awesome. An hour that gives us a little while, huh" replied Colin surprised at the offer. 

"Cool man, meet me at the west gate in an hour." Appius said as he started walking away.

Colin ran back to the armoury which was where he had stored his things. Colin rummaged through the chest provided to him, courtesy of Marcus, pulling out his ruby sword and and the ring that gave him instant armour, Colin left the string of pearls inside the chest. Strangely though was that his ruby sword seemed to be darkened, like it was turning black from the inside. 

He sheathed it, tying it his belt. Colin put the ring on his finger, and almost immediately steel armour started to appear on him, starting at his feet and going up, until he was encased in a suit of roman armour. As he left he picked up a pilum (Javelin) and a scutum (Shield). Colin headed toward the west gate, when he arrived, he a was a little surprised it seemed like everybody was already there, they were only waiting for him. 

"Colin" Appius said appearing behind him,

"It seems everybody is eager to go on a patrol." said Colin.

"What, no actually, the last patrol found a Pict camp, and they ambushed them as they were leaving. Not one of ours was even wounded. It was a brilliant plan, made by Marcus. Marcus actually was just addressing the troops a while ago." explained Appius. 

"Okay are we leaving now?" asked Colin.

"Yeah totally, Let's go and make some stories of glory!" Appius roared enthusiastically. 

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