With firm ground beneath my feet I felt as if I had been liberated! No more boring ships, from now on we were on foot!

We walked on a dirt road that lead past the Forbidden Forest, which was to be our mysterious neighbor for the next few days. The weather grow colder, but at least we were spared of rain and chill autumn winds.

The first night we camped I hurried with setting up my tent and went to look for Marius. He was finishing unloading the cart and got an order to fetch some fire wood from the sinister forest.

“Will you help me?” he asked with a fearful voice.

“You’re afraid?” I laughed.

“Not at all!” he boasted, but then lowered his shoulders and grinned: “Well, a little bit.”

So I accompanied him into the forest and helped him gather the fire wood which we threw into two large bags. One carried by Marius and one by me.

“After we’re done with this I have orders to set up some tribute snacks for Gnomes,” said Marius.

“What? But... Gnomes are an empty fairy tale! This has to be a joke of some kind!”

“No, our commander was quite serious about it.”

My grandmother used to talk to me about Gnomes. They were tiny creatures that lived only in the Forbidden Forest. When travelers were passing by they had to set up snacks for these little creatures. If not, they’d steal things from camps, or sang annoying songs in front of the tents through the night. Supposedly they looked similar to us. At Academy we did learn about them, but more as a myth than actual beings.

And so Marius and I left the tribute bag at the edge of the camp, right where the forest ended. The bag was full of sweets, raw potatoes, carrots and some bread.

“What a waste,” I sighed.

“Perhaps, perhaps not,” Marius said as a true philosopher.

A few hours later, after the sun had set, all of the company was sitting around fires. We ate, drank and told funny stories. Cecilia took a liking to Marius and after dinner they disappeared somewhere, as did Otho and Atia. Flavia, who always went to bed early, was gone as well, so I was left with an older legionary, Julia and Tiberius. I asked Tiberius about the Gnomes and he, with a smirk on his face, confirmed their existence. Still I suspected they were pulling a prank. After a while the beer, the tobacco sticks and the warm fire made me sleepy. I said goodnight and headed to the nearby creek to wash up and drink some water. There I decided I needed to unburden my bowels, so I stepped into the forest, gathered some leaves and went about my business. Right in the middle of it something pinched my behind and giggled. The hair on my neck stood up, but I remained calm. Again, a pinch and a distinct giggle. I hurried with the wiping, pulled up my pants and ran, while being besieged by strange laughter. By the time I got to the camp I got my senses back and chuckled at the absurdity of the experience I’d just had. Near my tent I saw Atia and Otho kissing. They both glanced towards my direction and I awkwardly raised my hand in hello.

“Good for you,” I blabbed, still a bit drunk form the beer I drank at dinner. Otho laughed and I could swear Atia blushed! But I meant what I said. They were both orphaned and lonely, so I was glad they found some comfort in each other’s company.

The next week it started to rain, which made our voyage quite tedious. Then one day rain turned to snow, which was a bit more bearable. On the last part of our journey, when we were one hundred leagues away from Dwarvenlands, the glorious sun reappeared, lifting our spirits. We were walking through a narrow passage surrounded with steep bushy hills. Pleasant country, but I felt like something was wrong. It was too quiet. I wasn’t the only one who sensed something odd as the whole party went from chatty to completely silent. Then, all of a sudden, the commander of the legionaries yelled: “SHIELDS!”

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Legionaries dropped to their knees. They raised their rectangular shields above their heads, protecting their whole bodies. An arm grabbed me and pulled me towards one of the legionaries. I lay there, on my belly, while arrows started hitting the shields. I glanced towards the carts and saw donkeys fall to their knees, arrows piercing their bodies. They screamed almost as a person would scream and it made my blood go cold. Two legionaries didn’t succeed in jumping off the cart in time and fell to the ground dead or wounded. I was relieved when I saw Marius hiding beneath the cart. He was close enough I could see his wide, frightened blue eyes. But the very next moment he came back to his senses! He climbed from under the cart, got up to his feet while holding his shield up to the sky. He joined the legionaries who by now formed a square defensive perimeter.

As soon as arrows stopped raining, war screams came from the hills and the commander yelled:

“ORCS! ALL AROUND! HOLD THE LINE! HOLD THE LINE!”

The Orc chants became louder and louder and soon they crashed into the legionaries. Our soldiers held their ground. One moment they were stabbing the enemy, the other taking cover behind the shield. I couldn’t see anything as I was still lying on my belly behind a legionary. I was filled with terror. I could smell Orcs and see their dirty animal-like feet with white-gray skin. Their growls were terrifying and filled with – what I interpreted – hate. After what felt like an hour, a scream came from one of the legionaries behind my back:

“LINE BROKEN! LINE BRO - …” I turned around and saw the legionary falling to the ground with a slit throat. The blood was coming out of his mouth and his neck wound. The one Orc who managed to break the line killed two more soldiers, one on his right and one on his left. When he finished the left one, he glanced in my direction and our eyes met. We stared at each other for a few moments as if we were old friends who, after ages had passed, were once again reunited. But then the Orc snapped out of it and started running towards me with full speed. He was holding a large black sword in his hand. While running he growled with hate. At first I panicked and said my goodbyes to this world. But then, in dread, I realized he might very well strike down a few legionaries on my side of the square. That would open another gap which would most certainly be the end of us all. So my fear morphed into anger and determination and I stepped up to my knees. As he was a few steps away from me, I lunched towards him, knocking him down to the ground.

“LINE BROKEN! REASSEMBLE THE SQUARE!” yelled the commander. As soon as he finished the order every seventh legionary stepped out of the line. Others who still formed the empty square formation, stepped closer together.

Orc saw the gap closing and after a bit of confusion my knock had given him, he stood up and started walking towards me. This time I felt like I was done for. I didn’t have a sword in my hands, nor a shield, and everyone else were occupied with holding the line. My whole being was screaming for my warm bed in Vetulonia and for my mother’s safe and warm arms. Then, out of nowhere, Julia jumped next to me and stabbed the creature in its chest. But it didn’t fall! It growled at her and then started swinging its sword left and right. He succeeded in striking Julia’s blade out of her hands and then stabbing her in her chest. By now one of the legionaries came running to us, finishing off the beast with many quick stabs. The legionary, after he finished off the Orc, ran away, while I crawled towards Julia, taking her head in my arms. And I cried. Oh, how I cried. Soon after that the remaining Orcs retreated. Everything went quiet again, but this time it was normal kind of quiet. Tiberius, covered in blood, still holding a sword in his hand, ran towards Julia. She was still alive, but dying. He dropped to his knees, took her head from my arms into his and whispered:

“Come on now, fight!” Tears were coming out of his eyes like two waterfalls.

“Dwarvenlands are not far away, we’ll patch you up there. Don’t leave me! Not you too…” he whispered, broken. She didn’t have the strength to answer him. She gave him a warm smile, the last one, and then she died. The growl full of agony came out of Tiberius throat. It brought tears to my eyes. I never heard a scream of that sort. It felt like a tallest mountain in the world was splitting in half. He held her head in his arms for a few moments, caressing her brown hair. Then he closed her green eyes and kissed her forehead. He gently put her head onto the bloody snowy ground. He stood up. This was no time for mourning.

“Count the dead, Orcs as well and do it swiftly,” he told the commander who at that moment was standing next to him. “Light the torches. We’re on a march until we get to the Northern Plains. There we’ll have at least some safety.”

We killed one hundred and six Orcs, while we lost twelve people. Five were wounded. I was relieved when I saw my friends alive. Otho was holding together, but Atia was a mess. She was shaking and couldn’t talk. Flavia and Cecilia both cried over Julia. Marius was angry. He spat curses at the Orc bodies, kicking them until an older knighted legionary told him to stop.

We didn’t burn or bury the bodies. There was no time for that. More Orcs could attack us at any moment. So we continued our voyage with a fast pace, leaving Julia’s body, as well as most of our supplies, behind. I felt great shame. Shame for her dying while defending me and shame for leaving her body lying out there in the bloody snow.