Free Swords of Rome by Christopher Lee Buckner Page A

time that his father had instructed him before he left for the city. While he wished his time in Rome could have lasted longer, he did not want to overextend his experience quite yet. Now, with his head swelled with memories of the past two days, he regretted having to leave so soon when he was just starting to see all the wonders the capital had to offer.
    Gaius h ad seen death before, mostly animals he and his father hunted in north. He even saw a man die once; well, a man who was still a boy, only three years older than he was now.
    A season ago, Julius had been called north by a former soldier friend to help hunt down a pack of wolves that had been terrorizing the local farmers. Since leaving the military his father took dozens of such jobs. However, this was the first job he had taken since Gaius’ mother had died, and with no one else to look after him, Julius decided to bring him along; a journey Gaius had looked forward to as much as he had for Rome.
    On the third day of the hunt, after they had come back with four dead wolves, their pelts hanging over th e side of one horse, a boy named Claudius, the son of Julius’ friend fell suddenly from his horse as it was spooked by a snake which lay along the side of the road.
    Gaius remembered watching the boy’s horse rear up, throwing Claudius off its back. He had no chance to recover. It all happened so quickly that when he hit the ground, his head cracked open against a rock. Claudius was gone, just like that.
    He remembered watching the boy’s father cry to the heavens, smashing the snake to little pieces of bloodied flesh, even slicing the horse’s throat for it panicking. Even so, like yesterday, Gaius stood, watching, not mortified by seeing the boys’ brain and blood splattered across the dusty road. He had assumed that after his mother’s long-suffering illness that anything related to death would ever bother him again, and so far, it hadn’t.
    The fates were strange beings, his fa ther had once said. One moment a boy was with his father chasing down wolves, riding home to celebrate, and the next moment his ashes were being spread across the earth after a quick and pointless end.
    Gaius hoped that like those five gladiators, he might be able to see his death coming, and perhaps fight to prolong his life. Staring death down, shaking a fist in its face, that was how he hoped he would go, not meaningless because a snake just had to lay in the road and spooked a young mare.
    For the moment, Gaius tried to block the memories of what he had seen yesterday and years before, and enjoy the time he had now with his friends.
    Julia ran up beside Gaius and pushed into his hands several flowers that she had plucked from the side of the road.
    “For crying out loud, w ould you leave him alone already!” Antony blurted as he reached to smack his sister, but she ran off, giggling as she darted behind the older woman who followed them closely.
    Gaius smiled as he couldn’t help but smell the flowers he now held in his hand. He looked back at Julia, who was fast at work once more, as she filled her hands yet again with another arrangement of summer flowers, lost in her own little world.
    “Gosh! She can be such as pain in the ass,” Antony moaned.
    “It’s okay, really. I don’t mind at all. She is in her own world without a care.” Gaius looked back at Julia, enjoying her carefree exploration of his lands, not carrying about the sorry state it was in. Something about her spirit always seemed to lift his. He hoped she stayed this way, innocent and fearless. He couldn’t help but wonder what the future might hold for the two of them as they grew older. He found himself thinking more and more about that with each new day, a question that was starting to haunt him that at times, he was eager to grow so he may have his answer: would her affection always be this strong toward him, or would it lessen as her world revealed more to her than a simple farm boy could ever