We learn new things about ourselves every day, and today I figured out I might have a thing for men in tight, skimpy clothing. Shirtless Caius with leather straps on, was both a welcome sight and a curse. Usually we trained in our normal clothes or just shirtless, which was hard to manage for me but not too much of a pain in the ass. But the slight armor he wore right now made him seem even more handsome than usual. I knew this sparring would mean my loss from the second I saw him.
Normally I’d not be handed a weapon until a couple of months in, but neither me or Caius were real recruits, so we came here for fun. Our wooden gladiuses were as heavy as a real sword, so I had a bit of trouble at first, but after two weeks of an “on and off” training with Caius and his friends, and two sessions at the training grounds, I was finally able to use it rather effectively. That is if it was fighting with a mostly static target, like a pile of straw.
Training with someone else was much different than that, especially considering that Caius wanted to look good in front of Cestius. I was pretty sure he’d be ready to skewer me with his wooden sword if it weren’t for Cestius’s comment about showing him how well he taught me. I mentally thanked the old general and got into the position I trained last week. I hid behind my shield and tried to poke Caius, whose entire job for now was to deflect my attacks. It was tiring and a bit stressful. Both me and him kept looking at Cestius’s stoic face, trying to figure out what he thought.
“A-ya!” I felt the clank of his sword on my shield, as I pushed the wooden edge away. Quick look and I saw him hiding behind his shield again, not leaving any spot to attack back. Nonetheless I tried to poke him, if only to make him move more, so he’d lose energy. Unfortunately for me, he didn’t yet move his sword away and used my charge as an opportunity for a slash at my wrist.
The handle fell out of my hand, to the sand as I felt a rather strong pain in my wrist. The fighting spirit that made Caius look like a serious threat disappeared almost instantly. He put his weapon away, coming closer to make sure I’m okay. So did his father and Cestius.
Caius apologized and the general commended him on teaching me the basics in such a short time. My friend seemed to glow with pride, but he dimmed a bit after he got reprimanded for acting too rough during a sparring. He hung his head a bit lower than usual, but once again returned to his cheerful self when I grabbed him by his shoulder, to congratulate a good disarming move.
My hand was hurting, but I was ready to continue the training, this time under Cestius’s command. Which all three agreed to and the workout continued.
We’ve spent the first hour or so revising everything that went wrong in our first fight, which apparently was a lot. But that didn’t discourage us, we listened to the general’s critique, taking every word to heart, and what normally would seem like a boring “how to properly stand” lesson, turned out to be more about tactics and psychology. And despite still being just theory - was almost as exciting as the fight we had beforehand.
“Okay boys, now onto something more practical!” Ordered Cestius, telling us to stand up. Unfortunately before he could do anything a soldier approached us.
“Oh Aquilla! Good to see you, to what do I owe your presence here?” Asked the general, signing to us with his hand to keep quiet and not disturb them.
Aquilla’s voice was clear and melodic. “Ave Cestius. Good seeing you here, I was about to leave in search of you. I come with official business.” She handed him an Egyptian papyrus, tied with a string. He looked a bit confused and unhappy looking at it.
“I’m off duty now.”
“I understand but I was told it’s important.” Answered the tall, tanned woman. She also seemed unhappy about being here. She kept fixing her dark, curly hair, which seemingly to spite her kept being tossed by the wind. There was a little flower petal stuck in between the strands. “I was getting ready to go home when it came.”
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Cestius looked at her with raised eyebrow, pocketing the scroll. “Home? Were you meeting her today?” He smiled when she turned bright pink, once again fixing her hair. “It really must be important then. You are free to go, soldier.”
“Thank you Cestius.” She answered, quickly scuttling away, as if ashamed.
“Ah they grow up so quick.” Commented the general, finally turning back to us. “Can you believe that Quill’s dad was one of my best students as a teenager?” He shook his head slowly, seemingly reminiscing about the past. “Well…” He patted his pouch, sighing. “I better go read it, I’m worried this scroll may mean the end of my free time. It was a pleasure spending time with you boys. Continue your training soldiers.” He smiled at both of us and quickly left, heading towards a tall building off to the side of the training grounds.
“I wonder what they need him for.” Wondered Rufus, picking up one of the swords that me and Caius used. “I doubt we’ll get to know that.” He pointed the wooden gladius at me. “But I want to see if you learned anything from that lecture. I sure did.” He started jumping a bit in place, waiting for me to pick up my shield and weapon. His son moved a bit back to give us some space.
He attacked first, demonstrating one of the techniques Cestius mentioned. I acted accordingly, moving to my right and guarding. I tried deflecting his sword with my shield, but every hit cost me lots of effort. Two weeks of training were definitely too little time to gain sufficient muscle to use the gear I was handed. At least when I fought with Caius I had his muscles motivating me and I wasn’t too tired, now however.
“Mistake!” Yelled Rufus, pushing me further away. I heard his son cheering me up. The exercise made me breathe heavily and the sound of blood rushing to my head caused every sound to be muffled, but I pushed on, trying to strike him with the point of my gladius. Aiming right at his head. Everything I tried was however quickly blocked and soon I started to feel fatigued, as if walking through oil. “Just once more! Come on Nero!” I heard him.
I yelled out, rushing him, forgetting completely everything Cestius told us and soon after I layed on the dirt, sword in hand, with pain in the back of my head. Nothing substantial, just the feeling of being slightly grazed by a branch. It took me a couple of seconds to turn around. “You thought I was dead huh?” I saw Rufus and Caius, towering above me, looking right at me extremely concerned. It looked a bit funny, at least funny enough to make my winded self laugh.
They both joined in, Rufus in his deep, masculine laughter and his son in a slightly higher tone. Hearing and seeing them laugh together was heartwarming. They both had almost the same way of giggling and moving, it was obvious that they are related.
Caius reached out to me, still laughing and picked me up to my feet with barely any effort. “You almost had him!” he commented, helping me dust off my clothes. “You just have to remember not to fall into a berserk rage.” Added his father. “Keep your eyes open and on the enemy.”
“I know, I know, I just… am still not used to fighting.” I felt a bit ashamed of myself.
“Oh don’t worry, you’ve been here only for a month.” Rufus hugged me and patted my back. “We’ll train you to be a great soldier one day.” He pulled in his son for a group hug. “Caius has a lot to learn too!” He added and started tickling the young man. “You must remember not to trust anyone on the battlefield!”
Caius quickly fell over, I didn’t know he was so ticklish, but apparently his dad was aware and from what I later heard - was very fond of annoying his son this way.
***
We spent the entire day at the training grounds, later joined by a guard named Felix. They were also very kind to me and helped with the training. Despite being tired I managed to fight three more duels, each more successful than the last. Eventually I was able to stand my own for a couple of minutes, which felt incredibly satisfying but ultimately made me barely able to stand. I didn’t even notice when the shadows lengthened and the sun came down to rest.
As we were walking home, Caius jokingly suggested that he could carry me there, and even though my heart screamed yes, I wanted to prove myself and actually manage to reach the house. Barely alive and with burning feet, but I did it.
Dinner tasted incredible that evening, maybe because of the spices I suggested Lucia or because I was so tired and hungry. We talked a lot about the training and Rufus even mentioned changing the schedule from once a week to twice a week at least, but both me and Caius had enough, at least for now. I even saw a smile or two from Lucia, as she joined her husband, son and their guest in drinking and joking.
It wasn’t even fully dark when both me and Caius went to our beds, exhausted but satisfied. For the first time since I got here, I didn’t spend hours laying awake, I fell asleep almost instantly, happy.