Somewhere in the Iceni tribe.

He had been laying in bed for over a week now. All the other boys where out playing with their wooden swords and helping their parents but he had to be stuck inside their hut again. But he was used to it. His whole life Lonan body had acted up from time to time. His mother was worried how to get by as she had to take care of him and work. His father had died three years prior fighting the invaders.

His mother had many druids looking at him to see what was wrong with his body but none had found out what it was. The only thing they were able to tell them was that it was no natural illness.

This morning marked the 9th day since he was sent to bed, but unlike the other days where he was lying in his bed listening to the silence he heard screams and the sound of metal coming from outside. He tried to get up but fell on the floor as his legs gave in.

Suddenly the door flew out of its angles, crashing down right next to him. He couldn't really see what was going on as he was lying face down on the floor, but he heard steps coming in through the now open door. They stopped right next to his face "Hey Quintus, why did we choose this house look at that cripple." was all that he heard before something hard hit his stomach. Lonan curled together to protect his stomach and head. Then he heard a second pair of footsteps come in through the door. Then a short break.

"Leave him there. He won't sell for much anyway. He'll probably die in the flames."

Apparently the men didn't even think him good enough to be a slave, as he heard the footsteps distancing themselves from him.

For the next minutes he heard the fighting from outside slowly getting less and less until the screams and clashing of metal was replaced by the cackling of fire.

Lonan tried to get up again, he had to escape the flames. He tried and tried but kept failing. Lastly he started crawling over the floor to reach the doorframe but as he reached it and he could see the rest of his village, he couldn't believe his eyes anymore. Dead bodies were lying everywhere and heat hit his face as his sight got up to the burning huts. The sweet smell of burning human flesh hit his nose and an uncontrollable urge to vomit hit him. He emptied himself on the floor.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Lonan was ripped out of his shock and horror by a familiar scream. His mothers voice. He frantically started to search for her with eyes and lastly found her being handled by the two soldiers that were in the hut before. Rage started flooding his veins with boiling hot blood. Fueled by rage and desperation he managed to stand up and started to stumble over to them. But before he could reach them, he heard a voice shouting "Man gather up! We march back to Camulodunum!" and the two soldiers threw his mother into a burning hut and walked away laughing and smiling.

Lonan continued stumbling towards her but as he reached her the flames had built up further and fiery hot flames started spreading towards him. But Lonan disregarded the heat and the pain that started hitting his face and body and stumbled into the flames.

His eyes started tearing from the smoke and his skin was burning to crisp but he kept going. He couldn't recognize much through the tears but lastly found his mother. She was lying on the floor, her clothes burning and eyes open in horror.

"Mo..." he couldn't finish talking as he immediately started coughing. He got down to her and tried to lift her up but his legs kept failing him and he couldn't get up with the additional weight. He tried again and again but it was futile. His clothes had started burning, he couldn't see anything anymore and the pain had long since given away to numbness as his nerves had burned away.

As he was laying there, surrounded by fire, next to his dead mother he couldn't believe that it was going to end this way. He had always kept hope that everything would work out for the best and now he was dying, not even a young man yet.

A loud screech interrupted his thoughts. It was a high pitched note but it sounded beautiful. 'This must be the sound of the afterlife' he thought to himself and finally closed his burning eyes in peace.

Through his closed eye lids he could still see the bright light of the surrounding fire, but to his surprise that brightness was soon replaced with an even brighter light, that kept coming closer and closer until it was right before him. The surrounding heat seemed to subside, replaced by a even greater heat which weirdly felt incredibly good as it hit his skin. His eyes seemed to be able to see again as he opened them. Before him stood a majestic bird, it's feathers seemed to shine in the most beautiful red he'd ever seen. The bird cocked its head as it looked him in the eye and as Lonan looked back all the surrounding tragedy seemed to vanish from his thoughts. He thought to recognize intelligence in the fiery eyes.

Then a weird sensation spread in his head, it felt like the bird was somehow connected to him and was reading his emotions. But it didn't feel intrusive but quite natural as if they were talking. A tear rolled down the bird eyes and suddenly its wings started burning from their tips slowly spreading towards his main body until its whole body was burning. The bird transformed into a being of pure flame and that slowly started to burn down until only an ashy substance remained in the air. The ash hovered there for a second until it flew towards him and he lost consciousness.