Coretta
The remnant of the electric compulsion was wearing off my body as I felt the last zing of electricity exit through my fingers and toes.
It felt as if I'd slept for the longest time as I stretched my arms, my body stiff, a yawn escaping me. It was then I realized that the air was different around me.
The whiff of roots and wet mud. With the hint of something, I couldn't point because I was experiencing it for the first time. Something beautifully raw and ancient.
Ancient.
I snapped my eyes open, despite the sleep's grip, met by that ethereal silence which only proved one thing.
We reached.
Staggering, I stood with the support of a tree trunk, raising my head to see the sky was turning orange. By the quietness around, it seemed like we'd have to wait a little more to figure out if it was dusk or dawn.
We. The thought made me hastily look around to see my teammates gathered around another tree a couple of steps away. Clutching onto my linen draping that was now smudged with mud, and my AI book, I walked over to them.
"Get down! Yeah, you can do it Mr Swarwoski!" Cheryl shouted, standing on the mossy floor of the forest. Dunkin and Aarmen stood with their arms flailed in a helpless attempt to catch him.
I rubbed my eyes, looking up to see the most comical sight.
"Oh Lord, why me?" Lorenzo laughed nervously as he clasped the nearest branch of the tree he was stuck to.
Among us, he was the one to land on a thirteen feet tall willow tree. Its droopy dense leaves obscuring him from us. A slithery creature peeked its head a few feet from where he stood and I froze.
"Damn bro is that a snake," Dunkin muttered, passing a sly grin towards Lorenzo.
"Hey, don't alert him. If he'd know there is a snake, chances are he'll leap without a choice and end up breaking a bone or two. We don't have hospitals here," Aarmen mumbled, all while gesturing for Lorenzo to climb downwards.
Suddenly, what felt like an uprising revolt reverberated around us. We whirled around to hear the distinct, deep accented voices emanating within the forest. Cheryl leered.
"Sexy barbarians! Yesss!" she hooted, her grey eyes brightening.
"She'll have a noose around her neck in no time if she doesn't tone down," Aarmen sighed, "does she even know what the heck barbarians can do if she is captured?"
"She would love all that. Last week she was dying to be Briseis from Troy," Dunkin added, "anyhow, by the looks of it, those guys must be Egyptians. I'm assuming by the willow trees and the acacia I spotted in the far corner," he said, swivelling around. "Typical Egyptian trees."
"Yes, but they are speaking Persian, not Egyptian," I interjected.
"Yes, Coretta is correct. The accent is heavily Persian, but then these trees..." Cheryl looked around.
"We've still got to figure out the era, but by what we have found now, we are somewhere between Arabia or upper Egypt," Aarmen concluded.
"Yo, mates! The wild men are coming!" Lorenzo shrieked from the tree. The snake above his head hissed, finally catching his attention.
After quickly telling him what to do, we hid behind the large trees. Undoing the fine cloth wrapped tightly onto my body, I loosened it considerably.
We draped it in one of the fashions the ancient woman wore. Uncrossing the two corners of the cloth in front to tie them at the back for which I and Cheryl helped each other. Then we knotted the leftover ends of the cloth around our waist. Wooden sandals were already worn.
Walking out, we found the two had draped their linen piece in apron-like appendages. They were arguing with Lorenzo, who was now down and differently styled.
"Military corselet was reserved for the warrior King! Change this attire asap," Aarmen yelled at Lorenzo, who had no intention of changing his style.
"That's draping like a pro and probably hot. Am I not looking hot, Cheryl?" he asked when he spotted us.
Lorenzo was the tallest among us. Girls didn't pant after him just for the muscles, but for that Hollywood-like face. His eyes narrowed in on Cheryl, making her look away, biting her lip.
"Totally!" she agreed with a wide smile, probably hiding her blush. "He's not changing. It could be a benefit for us," she shushed us down when the crowd neared. We clutched our AI book under our robes.
Their voices were faint but heavy as we listened with an utmost concentration in the distance.
"I knew it, mate, that king of slaves is a loser himself. I can't be more embarrassed at the fact that he fucking fled the war!" A man spoke in Persian, walking with an unlit fire torch.
"My decision to leave his court was correct. If only I had acted upon my instinct, we wouldn't have to face this!" another man grumbled, as two women walked behind him. The entire crowd talked about the supposed king of slaves.
"Well, wasn't Darius III called the king of slaves?" Lorenzo asked, "And given their talks, it seems he has done something to piss them off."
"They are talking about him fleeing a war." When I realized further, I hurried, "Yes! Remember, he fled two battles with- with Alexander the great! One in 333 BCE and the other in 331 BCE, which means-"
"We have landed in the fourth century BCE, as stated by the department, the resonance period!" Cheryl completed me.
Gosh, we really landed in Alexander's time period.
"Now, onto our next move, that's socializing," Aarmen cut to the point, "Because Lorenzo dressed this way, we'll use him as a chief of sorts," Lorenzo panicked at the plan but the deadly looks from Aarmen and Dunkin silenced him.
"Coretta and Cheryl will act as his wives, cause you know more than one wife was possible in this time period, and then-" He was panting by now, "You, Lorenzo will step forward and start the conversation, and agree to whatever viewpoint they have on Darius."
Aarmen Shallots didn't top the results of the QLAT major just like that.
"Man..." Lorenzo threw his hand up in the air, "You are making me a scapegoat, bro!" He yelped when Aarmem began pushing him out of the trees,
"Hurry up, folks! Onto testing our ancient human training we went through for the past six years!"
We rushed past the dense trees to reach a certain distance ahead of the approaching crowd. Finding a suitable position where the crowd could spot us, we stopped.
Lorenzo looked the most prominent as he stood out with his poles apart attire. I and Cheryl knelt beside him, and for more precaution, we covered our face till the nose with the extra linen hanging about our shoulders. Aarmen and Dunkin stood deeply bowed in front.
Thanks to the years of practice of all the ancient cultures.
"My Lord!" Aarmen started as he looked at Lorenzo in horror, "We are in the middle of nowhere! If... if Darius knows we have left his side, he will definitely find and kill us!" Aarmen shrieked loud enough in Persian.
"Well yeah, nice performance," Lorenzo said dryly. Dunkin And I broke into a laugh.
"Bloody fool!" Aarmen whispered a snarl, "Speak in Persian! And speak something relevant, goddamnit!"
"Uh, oh." Lorenzo looked through the corner of his eyes to see the crowd eagerly walking towards us. He crossed his arms defiantly against his chest and looked down at Aarmen, who had his head bowed.
Our heartbeat spiked up.
"I know. But what's concerning me is the safety of my dear wives." Lorenzo deepened his voice, making it resound in the area.
"Out of everything, that's what worries him?" Cheryl snickered beside me. I resisted a snort.
"They are so fragile," He continued, keeping a hand over my head. He's really kicking in that caveman instinct.
"Their safety is much more important than mine. But all fault is of that Darius! If not for him, we wouldn't have been stuck in this forest!"
I knew we were able to analyze the situation as correctly as possible when the crowd stopped by us. Sympathy laced on their faces.
"Sailing in the same boat as us, brother?" The man with the unlit torch asked sadly.
Yes!
"Who are you all?" Aarmen jumped away from them, scared. Everyone laughed a sorrowful laugh.
"We overheard you, so we could tell. We are the ministers from Darius' court. He barely listens to our advice and is continuously converting his subjects to slaves."
Another continued, "We couldn't take it anymore, so we have decided to leave his palace," the burly man sighed.
Lorenzo stepped forward. The confidence oozing out of him scared us a little, just so he doesn't do anything stupid in the heat of overconfidence.
"We are on the same boat, then. I was the chief of a village near Darius's palace. Been running with my family for two days to escape his men, because we left that King of slaves!" Lorenzo gritted his teeth.
"My Lord, please don't lose hope," Aarmen pleaded. "We have made it this far. We'll reach a safe place soon."
"Yes, you are right." Saying so, Lorenzo turned to the crowd, "It was nice meeting you gracious people, but it's time to go now," he audibly sighed and bent in front of Cheryl.
"My dear, would you be able to walk?" he asked softly, tilting her masked face up to look into her eyes. I didn't know how she managed to bring tears in her eyes.
The men oohed and aahed at the sight of the fake warrior king.
"Where are you headed to, dear brother?" They asked gently. Aarmen sprang into his mode,
"We need to reach the far end of the empire with our Lord- uh... Lord Fartaxerxes!"
Dunkin clamped his mouth helplessly before he could release a full-blown laughter. While I and Cheryl tried our darn hardest to not start rolling on the forest floor.
"Egypt would be the best for the ladies," Lorenzo stated, ignoring our suppressed laughs.
"But..." he turned to Aarmen, "Servant, we don't know how long it'll take to reach Egypt," The sarcasm laced in his voice told clearly how he was getting back at Aarmen for giving him such an out-of-the-world name.
"You are right, Lord Fartaxerxes," Aarmen shot back.
They should've made us practice how to control laughter in dead serious situations because Dunkin standing on one side was clearly failing.
"Nobleman, Egypt is right about the corner, as right now, we stand at the borders of the Achaemenid empire." The ancient Persian man informed.
Phew, at least we know our exact location now, Cheryl messaged.
Lorenzo nodded, "Then it would be good if we reach Egypt asap- ahem... as soon as possible."
But he couldn't help but shiver when Cheryl softly wrapped her hands around his knee and looked up to the men like a docile swan.
"That's great then!" The ancient man exclaimed, "We are leaving his empire anyway, also the carts are on the way. My brother, I'll be happy enough to provide your family with a carriage cart!"