No further

A light rain has fallen all day. Everyone is wet and our cloths are cool against our skin. No one minds though, It's much needed relieve from the scouching sun and heat of yesterday's march. The heavy air of this land seems less noticable to me now. Breathing seems easier now than it was a few weeks ago. The rain must have helped a bit but the air in this wooded land is still hard to breath. I hate it and long to go home.



It's late afternoon, the rain is only a fine mist now. The clouds have broke and the sun is fighting to take over what's left of the day. The warm air feels good but it makes me sleepy, I have to concentrate to keep pace with the man infront of me. A few of the large flies that infest this place have come out to annoy us but the mist seems to be keeping them from swarming up out of the grass, like yesterday. What are we doing out here. It's not even worth taking. Rome would do better to leave this shithole of a place to the animals that live in it.



I check the sun for the time and close my eyes against it. Tonight will be a good camp, but we still have another hour before dusk.



I losen my facale from around my neck. It's damp but feels good on my face. The taste of salt is left on my lips.



The man infront of me, as if understanding my thirst passes me a wine skin over his shoulder. A good soldier. I know him well. His name is Panthera. Sometimes he is our standard bearer. From some eastern province, I forget where and smaller than most but a great fighter. His actions in battle have allowed him the honor to carry it and he gets good wine from the officers.



"None of the hunting parties have come back" He says as I hand the wine back up to him. "That's not good."



I hadn't noticed but he was right. They had left early in the morning and should have been back with something for the cohort by now. These German forests teamed with large deer and strange birds.



"Maybe they all got lucky and got carried off by all the filthy flies in this god forsacken place" the man marching beside me quiped. "Maybe they got lucky and flew them all the way back to fucking Rome, eh these fucking flies?"

he laughed at his joke as he slapped Pantheras back and flashed his stupid toothless grin but I still felt uneasy about what Panthera had brought to my attention. The hunters should have been back. Not good at all.

We knew our army was being watched and that these Germans were not just going to let us march in here and take them but so far we had ment no form of resistance and it had been a month of marching inside this unknown part of the world. Pockets of them had been spotted by our scouts but no large army had bee set against us. Is was only a matter of time.

  I now noticed that a scout was returning to our colume from a clearing in the woods. A calvery officer was riding out to meet him. It made me relax a bit.

"How about some of the wine back here Panthy?" the soldier with no teeth said still laughing at himself.

Panthera passed the wineskin back over his shoulder to him as he had for me but he never took it. His laugher had turned into a slilent choking sound.

I looked over at him and was struck in the chest and shoulders with the blood spurting in a pulsing wave from his neck were a long straight arrow pertruded from the other side and had peirced straight through. His mad attempt at cluching at the arrow and his now crimson throat ended before it began. He landed dead at my feet in the grass.