Aquilus

I

The heap of dead Gauls was richly filled when Legatus Aquilus wandered over the battlefield, in the heap someone had placed the banner which was raveled by battle but one could still read the letters S.P.Q.R..  His red cape was softly touched by the wind and his face had a grim expression. “These Gauls let themselves get slaughtered it appears.” Aquilus said to the centurio who was standing right behind him. The centurio looked in horror to the big pile of slaughtered enemies. “What are you looking at Marcus?” Aquilus asked. “Never seen a pile of dead Gauls before?” “Sir those men where begging for mercy.” The centurio replied. “Give no quarter and never compromise Marcus.”thus quoted Aquilus.
So far reaches the mercy of Aquilus, I’m his personal scribe Rochus Petamus appointed by the Senate of Rome to write down his memoral acts and quotes. We aren’t know to history, the men who wrote about epic battles just the victors of the battles are. And the short account I wrote above happened 3 weeks before Aquilus was discredited by the Senate and was removed from history. The only thing that remains are my words which might soon join the burning heap of scrolls but if not and you’re reading this then make note that all this really happened. But first let me tell you a bit about myself before I begin my story, so you will know your storyteller isn’t just some silly old man tired of the lustilus live in Rome.

II

Before I retired and became a scribe I had served twenty years as an Optio in the legion and much more years as legionair. Although I never was quite the soldier I have seen a lot of battles.I was born within a noble family in Milan, my mother was a slave with Greek origins and my father a rich wifeless merchant. Although I was technically a bastard my father reckognized me as his son. He set my mother free when I was born and she stayed with my father out of gratitude of granting her a son. Sadly they both passed away when I was 10 due to an epidemic. At the age of 14 I joined the legion not wanting to stay in the house of my parents and decided to see some of the world.

I fought as a young legionair under the banner of Marcus Licinius Crassus against the legions of slaves during the third servile war. I marched with Caesar through Gual where Caesar himself promoted me as Optio. I fought under the current Emperor Augustus at the battle of Atticum and now I found myself over 60 years of age closing to the age of 70 under the command of Aquilus. He was one of the best legates I’ve served under and although my fighting days where already over at the time. If Aquilus would have demanded it I would have taken up arms once more to face our foes. He wasn’t the best at strategies but his charisma and his coldness where effective and made him a force to be reckoned with.

So now you know I’ve seen a lot of battle and a lot of death and I feel my own one closing in after this life of war and slaughter. I’ve seen horrors for more than over 200 lifetimes but nothing could have prepared me for the horrors that Aquilus brought with him.

III

Aquilus was a strong and confident leader. His men followed him without question and he looked like the statue of a greek hero. Some legionnaires rumored that he was a direct descendant of Achilles himself which isn’t a weird assumption since Aquilus is Latin for Achilles. Although Aquilus would have been the model for some sculptures if it wasn’t that his body was filled with scars from all the battles he’d seen. He was always shady about his past but I could tell that he was a soldier since the day he was born. I once saw him getting struck by an arrow which he blindly ignored and continued fighting. He wasn’t a Legate who moves to high ground and sit on his horse to watch the battle. No he was a Legate who was always on the front lines fighting the enemy with his gladius in one hand and preferably the banner of Rome in the other.
We found ourselves in somewhere in Germania, I can not remember whence or where since my mind is slowly fading so I will write swiftly before madness consumes me. We had just campaigned against rebellious Gauls where the account happened I mentioned earlier. This was I believe between the Germanic-Gaul border during a pagan feast we aperently disrupted by marching through. Their elders, who where probably druids where shouting when Aquilus rode by on his black horse. Shouting words in an ancient tongue I’ve never heard before. Then the Gauls just started attacking us Aquilus laughed and jumped of his horse and started killing Gauls like he was slicing bread. Till there was nothing left but the scene I’ve described earlier. It might feel as I’m wandering off sometimes but believe me it’s all part of the story.

IV

In Germania we had set up camp. I was sitting around the campfire with some of the lower ranking officers discussing the events earlier today, Aquilus had already returned to his tent for the night when we heard a roaring sound from the woods.  Me and the officers stood up inmediatly reaching for their swords. I did too but I found none, old habbits die hard. Me and two optio’s walked to the legionair that was standing watch only to find out he wasn’t there. We looked quite a bit for him and we found him the next day. Well what was left of him, we found that somewhere in a tree near the camp.

The next morning Aquilus waved off the dreaded attack that happened that night. It frightened the men and I myself wasn’t that at ease either. My page that supported me carrying my scrolls et cetera, only 13 years of age orphaned and one year younger before I joined the legion. He was a young Gaulic boy by the name of Crixus. I try to be like a father for the boy but I was unable to calm him. He was terribly white of fear, almost like he had seen something gruesome. Something I don’t find unlikely because it was a night filled with horrors.

The five days that followed happened without any problems till the sixth day after the accident.  I was standing with Crixus at the field kitchen when we heard a similar noise. Crixus shivered with fear almost immediately. I on the other hand had drawn my sword (I took the sword of the dead legionair) and ran off to investigate. Unfortunately i felt my age when I was running so once I arrived I just saw the gruesomely dismembered corpse of a legionnaire. Tentions in the camp got high that night in the camp and some men spoke of desertion, Aquilus stayed in his tent all day he didn’t responded to the incident or anything.

Aquilus spoke to the men the day after the incedent. He told the men that the forrests are filled with wolves and savage animals but a lot of the men disagreed with Aquilus claiming that animals would have dragged their prey’s into the forrest. After that I went to see Aquilus and when I entered his tent he wasn’t there. On his desk their where some scrolls written in Egyptian hieroglyphs and one scroll with Gaulic scribbles one just said “Trocador” over and over again. I couldn’t find Aquilus so I went to see Crixus and he told me that Trocador meant changer. I suddenly remembered some of the Gauls shouting that to Aquilus so I thought it would be a smart thing to go back to his tent and copy the Egyptian scrolls.

I went to see an legionair later that day that had served some time in Egypt and showed him the hieroglyps and asked if he knew what they meant. He told me that he only spoke a bit Egyptian but that his knowledge of the script was very basic. He told me he could probably translate it but it would take some time.

V

We didn’t march the following day so I went to see how the translation had gone only to find out that the legionair had hung himself to a tree on the far side of the camp. His face was filled with horror and in his dead hands where the pieces of scroll tightly clutched. So tight I had to remove them with force damaging most part of the scrolls. If I’d knew what was on those scrolls I would have probably hung myself too the poor fellow obviously had become insane. Me and some the junior officers decided to keep it quiet so we wouldn’t worry the rest of the legion. We took the corpse from its nuce and we buried him underneath the tree where he’d hung himself. That night I burned the copied scrolls.

We marched deeper and deeper into Germania and we found ourselves in a very dense forrest, Aquilus let us make camp at the foot of a hill which had old stone structures on them. Both me and the men where highly convinced it was some sort off Germanic holy place where rituals where held but it could be clearly seen that it hadn’t been used for a very long time.

I was sleeping the night after the arrival when I was awoken by a pulsing sound. With the memories of the recent horrors still in mind, I got out of my field bed not trying to wake up Crixus although my old body made that quite difficult. I got out of my tent and heard the pulsing sound clearer. Surprisingly the pulsing sound didn’t woke up any of the legionairs. And the pulsing seemed to be coming from the hill. In my mind it seemed unwise to go up and inspect the sound, but something deeper in my concenious urged me to go. So very quickly I found myself climbing the hill with both fear and curiousity going through my mind.

When I got to the top of the hill the ruins made an eary impression on me. Wishing I brought a torch I was stood in the mid of the ruins where the pulsing sound was starting to begin earnumbingly loud and from somewhere in the ruins I saw a shimmering light. I moved closer throughwards the light where the pulsing sound just kept growing. I sliced off a piece of my cape and wrapped it around my head dampening the noise and kept going closer. I saw that the light was coming from an opening within the ruins which lead downwards into the hill.

I stood next to the opening that lead down hill where the pulsing sound was going through my improvised earmufflers. Vaguely I heard a man chanting from down there and when I took a look down there all I saw was the silhouette of a cloacked man. As I slowly moved closer to hear the chanting better and I heard chanting in Egyptian. Since I served some time in Egypt I could understand some of the chanting and they will be engraved in my brain forever. “The black pharaoh… rise…lord… and son of Azathoth… will serve into death and in life… our lord Nyalathotep I welcome you.” That name filled me with horror and I saw how the silhouette started shaking like if it underwent some sort of transformation. When I moved back to go camp to tell Aquilus of this figure, the silhouette turned around and I saw that I did not needed to hurry myself. Aquilus himself was standing there watching me straight in the eyes. When I looked in his I saw nothing but empty space. “So the scribe has come to write history.” Aquilus said to me in a voice that seemed out of this world. “Tonight old man your world shall witness the destruction of a nation  and the rise of the old ones.” Horrified I looked at the shell of which I presumed was Aquilus. “This vessel will serve my purpose very neatly it is a shame you won’t be able to witness my powers.” The shell laughed a hollow laugh “Well I might be able to demonstrate it but I wouldn’t want to worry the men that much so lets see how you bleed.” The shell of Aquiles drew his sword and tried to strike me being the old soldier that I am I easily deflected the blow but it came with such immense force that it broke the bones in my sword arm. Quicly I switched arms with the sword  awaiting the next blow which came with the same force as the previous one. I was able to deflect it which gave my arm quite a beating but didn’t break it luckily enough. This time it was my turn to strike and with my left hand I struck, the shell of Aquilus easily deflected my strike and he raised the sword for the finishing blow. I dropped my sword and held my uninjured arm infront of me.
As I was waiting for the final blow that would end my life I heard a shreaking noise and felt a sudden heat as if flames where licking my body. When I lowerd my arm to look at Aquilus which seemed to be the source of the heat I saw nothing. I looked behind me and there was a frightened looking Crixus and two officers of which one was holding a bow which appeared had just been fired. They helped me up and asked me if I where alright, which I was besides the broken arm. I looked at the place where Aquilus had stood only to find a charred sword and breastplate. The man had burst into flames when one of the officers had hit him with an arrow and now his combusted remains where lying on the floor of the ruins.

The men later asked me, when I came back to the camp what had happened. Afraid of telling them the truth I told them Aquilus had gone insane. Centurio Marcus the second in command then inpounded all the possesions (including the scrolls that where still in the tent) of Aquilus and later handed them over to the Frumentarii. Where they translated the scrolls after they where handed over and a few weeks later the Roman senate erased the name Aquilus from Roman history. When they will come for my scrolls I do not know.

Epilogue

More of this episode I do not know, but the thing I do know is that my old age has saved me. My crooked motions had woken up poor Crixus who after my departure woke up the two officers whom I befriended. My old mind might be fading thanks to the horror I saw but the memory of the Gaulic boy Crixus who prevented my otherwise gruesome demise shall never be erased.