The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 2

ALEX SURFACED INTO something resembling consciousness. She was still filthy and hurting, but now warm. Her eyes didn't focus properly when she opened them and she just saw smears of colors, mostly white and mud brown, with almost familiar shapes. One of the shapes moved closer and she felt a strong hand lift her head slightly. She fought weakly, not even moving the arm the hand was attached to, and then something wooden pressed on her bottom lip and a sip of broth poured into her mouth.

        She stopped fighting and focused on swallowing without choking. She could taste the deer meat and garlic and vegetables. Alex closed her eyes and disappeared into memories.

        She was twelve and had left the foster house weeks before. She'd used the trapline at the cabin, but being winter now there wasn't much to trap. The larger game needed the big bow and she wasn't strong enough. Her dad, her gigno she called him, had been four months drunk the first time she'd come back from a foster house just a year ago. This time she'd been gone six months and didn't know if he was going to be there or not. Maybe he'd left for good, thinking that she couldn't get to him.

        The weeks turned into a couple of months, and the stores in their cabin were used up. The trapline had been bare that morning, and the fresh tracks showed a few wolves had made it that way during the night. Alexandria stored up water and wood. If she was going to make it, she needed to be hydrated and warm, otherwise the winter would kill her much quicker than starvation ever could.

        A week's worth of water later, she'd woken up bleary and exhausted to a strong hand cradling her head and broth warming her mouth. The small fire she'd been keeping was a roaring, crackling blaze, and the whole cabin smelled like hides. She'd cried, her hands wrapping around her gigno's wrist. He'd let her drink a bit like that, then kissed her forehead and lifted her into his arms.

        He smelled like leather and hangover, and cried into her hair for a long time, speaking in some language he hadn't taught her yet. She caught the gist of it though. She wrapped her arms around his neck and cuddled his rough shirt.

        "I love you, too, Gigno," she told him. Then she passed out, warm and safe.

She came back to the now as the broth was gently taken away and her head laid back on the fur she was lying on. Still not seeing well, she reached blindly for where the person attached to the arm should have been. A hand caught hers, comfortingly.

"Gigno?" she asked, her whisper harsh, and the person shushed her. "Gigno?" Alex rasped again, falling back asleep.

                                                                              ***

        The Centurion, Ixillius Traversi, untangled his fingers from the strange woman he had found in the pit. She was resting peacefully now, but he still made sure there was nothing sharp or lethally heavy within her reach.

        It had rattled him to the bones that such a frightening creature had just asked for her father in his native language, so he took a moment to study her features. It was impossible to see anything defining under the blood, mud, swelling and starvation that cloaked her.

        The people from the village were obviously terrified of this woman who was now resting on the ground in his tent. The woman he had found more than half dead, but had then saved his life and ended the fighting that may or may not have caused more casualties to his century, also scared him. But she hadn't threatened him. In fact, he thought, she had seemed to reach out to him.

        He shook his head clear of the confusing thoughts and stood up, walking to his table to finish his survey of the latest orders. It was time for some slaves to be brought back to Rome, and his century had been one of the few selected to return them. They were to then escort the born Roman Legionnaires back to Bonna, in Germania Inferior, to strengthen the Imperial presence in town. The total trip was expected to take less than four months, meaning the minimum amount of time at home.

        Ixillius had been hoping to court and marry during his next time in Rome, there were some good prospects for an established officer in the Legions, even one of a low equestrian social class, however this short stay would leave him lucky to have time to really even visit with his father, his father's latest wife, Annia, and their daughter, Ixillius's young sister, Theodora. In his mind, he started composing a letter to send ahead. Perhaps Annia would be able to align a match for him and he could simply wed on this return to Rome, saving him the trouble of courting.

        The woman on the ground moved in her sleep, drawing his eye back to her. She would have to be moved in with the slaves. He had no good reason for having her in here in the first place, aside from that she'd saved his life from the club-wielding barbarian woman earlier today.

        He called for his Optio, Brasus Nazario Albus, his second in command and his friend, and relayed the orders that the century would be returning to Bonna starting tomorrow morning, and from there traveling to Rome. Brasus had broken into a large grin, clapped Ixillius on the shoulders, and immediately taken the orders out to the men. A general din of higher morale rose up after an hour or so. The men were glad to return home, even if it was briefly.

        After arranging orders and ensuring those orders were issued, Ixillius eventually ate his meal in semi-solitude, letting his thoughts organize themselves as the woman continued to sleep. He decided to write the letter requesting Annia to find a suitable wife once he'd returned to Bonna. Not much point in having it out here, three days out, just to carry it there so it could be sent. They'd have about a week in Bonna, arranging the slave groups and preparing for the journey, so there should be some time to waste once he was there.

        He found his gaze was again drawn back to the woman on the ground. Whenever his thoughts had drifted back to the battle today, he remembered her grin and the flash of his knife as she'd pulled herself from the pit, then the dogged way she'd climbed to her feet, quelling the villagers just by standing up.

        He called for Brasus again.