A disastrous Day

The Roman centurion, Aurelius Seneca, crept through the bushes, trying to be as silent as possible; he knew his men were behind him, ready to support him. He knew that he represented the most powerful, the mightiest nation on the planet. He knew that no army had ever defeated them; they were the best, the strongest, the most powerful.

Still, he was scared, he could feel his knees shaking, the cold sweat was running down his spine, clammy, unpleasant and a constant reminder of what living in this hell-hole was like. You were scared all the time. It was all right when you were in your barracks, even when you were holed up in the towns. Londinium was a great place to be, civilised, happy, clean.

But here, out in the woods and hills of haunted, violent Britannia, the fear returned. His commander had sent him and his troop of seasoned, skilled fighters to search out any druids that were still around. Most druids had moved away, gone into the hills or the deep forests where the beasts and monsters still lived. The ones that lead to the disappearances and destruction.

No-one knew what had happened to the tenth legion. A whole legion just vanished with nothing to show for it. No bodies, no remains. Just gone. That was less than five years ago and not too far from this place. Everyone blamed the druids of course.

It didn’t help, when Aurelius read his family history, one of his ancestors has been in the original army sent over to pacify Britannia, to make it civilised, Roman. His ancestor was one of the few to make it back to the ships and to escape this hell hole. The tales of the howling Druids and the local men, women and children who had no fear, how the women and children threw themselves on the spears to slow the Romans down, in time for the men to come through with their swords and axes.

Naked, daubed in blue paint, covered in tattoos, howling like wild animals as they slashed and hacked their way through the Romans. Killing ten or twelve Romans for each one that died. The Roman phalanx was useless against people dropping from the trees, or those who would impale themselves simply to lever open a gap in the defences.

And then, of course, the Druids themselves, commanding monsters from the past, great dark wolves bigger than horses, bears that could soak up immense amounts of punishment, flocks of birds that spun and flew, pecking eyes and blinding the soldiers. The Druids themselves, standing on the hills and directing the mayhem, the carnage and laughing. It was the laughter that did it, the sheer enjoyment and pleasure they got from the slaughter.

And, of course, you never allowed yourself to be captured alive. The sacrifices were something beyond even a hardened Roman. Someone who enjoyed the gladiatorial games. Being tied to a tree by his own intestines, while still alive, and then flayed slowly in celebration of some god he knew nothing about. Finally, his flesh given to the beasts.

Not the way for a Roman soldier to die. Even though many had done so. He remembered that it took three full invasions forces, the final the largest ever created, to finally get a foothold on the island. And that was just the start of the troubles.

Aurelius shook his head, he needed all his concentration. He hated being a scout, being out front, especially here. He knew his men were behind him, but too far to do any good. One scream and they would come running, but for him it would be too late. He’d be hanging from a tree, his guts around his ankles, screaming his last breath to the cruel, taunting laughter of a druid, or a woman, or a child. No, it won’t happen to him. Never. He had a small, sharp knife in his boot.

He crept forward, silently, careful not to disturb anything and peered through the roots of a large bush, he could see the clearing in the woods, no-one could see him. He felt nearly safe. It was a strange bush, all sorts of flowers and leaves from different plants clung to the branches, in the depths of the bush claws glinted. Aurelius did not notice, so intent was he on the scene in front of him.

In the clearing he could see four men, druids by their clothes and mistletoe crowns, standing around a fifth, they were obviously teaching him, but there was a surprising respect and even fear in the way they interacted with the fifth man. Aurelius could feel it from here and, to some extent, understand it.

The druids were nothing special, he had seen their like before, but the fifth man, massive and bare chested, his trousers in a blood red tartan he had never seen before, his belt heavy and thick, dark leather with gold bosses hammered into it. The man was all rawhide and massive bone, tendon and rippling muscle. His long, waist length hair was packed with clay, so much so that he couldn’t tell what colour it had been.

But worse were the tattoos, he knew druidic tattoos, but this man’s were darker, more disturbing, of a much finer quality than normal tattoos, but he had never seen the language or designs before. They seemed to crawl across his skin, changing patterns as he moved, sometimes there, sometimes not, they seemed alive and malevolent.

Aurelius could swear he saw flickers of flame in the man’s eyes when he turned round. No, of course not, it must be his imagination. Aurelius settled down to watch, even though he was getting more and more scared every moment. There was power crawling around the clearing, Aurelius hated it, he feared it, but he know his duty. He strained to hear what was being said.

“...excellent work on the elemental” he heard the older druid saying “highly imaginative and a beautiful piece of work, I would never have imagined doing that”

“Thanks” the big man said, pride in his voice

“Why did you choose that form?”

“Well, if nothing else, she’ll be a companion for me and she will live for a long, long time”

The druid shook his head in admiration. “Well” he said “Today we will look at portals”

“Portals?” the big man asked

“You should know this Merlin, gateways into other places and other realms”

“Yes, of course, I have always called them doors, I didn’t know the proper term, so, portals”

The older druid continued “The theory is simple, you fold space and time, bringing two points together then open the space between them. You can go anywhere and to any time, view anything, even interact with the people you see. Here, we’ll show you”

The druids grouped together, hands on shoulders and concentrating, feeding power through the lead druid. Gently and, oh so slowly, the air started to shimmer, like a heat haze Aurelius thought, fascinated by what was happening. The shimmer started to stabilise and flatten out until it looked like a mirror. Slowly an image began to form. From where he was Aurelius could see the docks at Dubris, the Roman galleys tied up, slaves carrying bales from the ships and carts of tin and gold being carried back on.

Aurelius was getting more scared by the moment. These people had the powers of the gods. How could they ever defeat them. In his panic Aurelius grabbed the fish medallion under his tunic.

In front of him, the image collapsed and Aurelius was happy to note that the four druids were sweating and panting as if they had run a long distance.

“It is hard” said the older druid, “Why don’t you try?”

“All right” said Merlin. Aurelius to could see the big man, Merlin, bring his hands together and close his eyes, power started crawling around the clearing, concentrating on this Merlin, Aurelius was trembling even harder now, praying under his breath to the Lamb for salvation, he hadn’t noticed that he had soiled himself.

Merlin stood up straight, eyes wide open and spitting flame, he thrust his hands forward and slowly started dragging them apart, as if opening curtains made of lead, the muscles in his back were bunched and straining to force open the gap. Aurelius saw what was inside and started to relax, then realised that he had never seen this before. Soldiers on horses and in armour, but what armour, it covered their entire body, polished steel with a cloth over the front, strange pointed helmets that covered the whole head, massive swords and axes and the horses were much, much bigger than he had ever seen...

The portal collapsed and Merlin let out a whoosh of air. The older druid looked impressed

“What was that?” he asked

“About nine hundred years into the future, I think”

The older druid just stared at him “We’ve never been able to open the future portals, how?”

“Well” said Merlin “You did say any place, any time”

“You have more power than even you know”

Merlin just shrugged

“But” said the druid “You are sloppy, that took more energy than it should. If you can do that, it should be easy. I have another idea, here, take this”

The druid called up a silver dagger into his hand, long, razor sharp and covered with runes. “Try this to open another one, have a go at something a bit more distant this time”

Aurelius watched as Merlin concentrated again, this time focussing on the dagger. He suddenly slashed across the air in front of him, cutting open a broad view into another world. Aurelius could only just make out the details through his tears. The sky was blood red and cold and directly in front was a massive mound of earth and rock, studded with holes, through which humans crawled and scuttled, just like insects. Aurelius was sick, throwing up, but quietly so as not to be noticed. The bush above him shook and trembled, but he didn’t notice.

Merlin waved his hand and the gap closed. “What was that?” he asked.

“Oh, that is interesting” said the druid “that is another world where the insect is the master”

Merlin cocked his head, questioning

“You know that humans have the same ancestors as bears and wolves?

“Yes, you go back far enough”

“Well, there it is insects, what you saw was not human”

“What are they?”

“Well, when they come through a portal into this world, we call them fairies, vicious little beasts, we kill them as soon as we can”

“Ah, right” Merlin seemed to be at a loss what to say

“Tell you what” said the druid “try another one, try and go further this time”

Merlin concentrated harder, lifted the dagger and slashed again. Pure bright white light came hammering into the clearing, colder and purer than anything Aurelius had even seen. He was close to catatonic now and beyond caring. Barely seen spectral figures were slowly turning, beginning to face toward the gap. Terrifying in their awesome power and beauty.

“CLOSE IT, CLOSE IT” the druid screamed, the panic evident in his voice.

Merlin waved his hand again and the gap closed

“What was that?” Merlin asked, obviously a little shaken by the panic

“You opened a gate into the Courts of the Holy, the place the gods live, what the followers of the Lamb call Heaven; you do not want to attract their attention”

“Yes, I see what you mean.”

The druids looked around the clearing “I think we have had enough for today, we’ll go back to camp and rest for the evening”

“I am tired” said Merlin, he looked over his shoulder to the area Aurelius was hiding “Flower Girl, come along”

The bush Aurelius was hiding under stood up and walked away, leaving him open and exposed, lying in a pool of vomit and other, less pleasant, bodily fluids. He raised his head to see a pretty, big chested dark haired girl walk toward Merlin. Her dress was composed of leaves and flowers, her boots looked like bark. Aurelius blinked in confusion, his mind no longer working properly.

“Did you see what he did to me?” the girl yelled “Lying on my roots and all that mess!”

Merlin glared at Aurelius who lay, paralysed, unable to move.

“Can I have him?” she asked

“Of course, my dear, plants need food after all” said Merlin

The last thing Aurelius saw, which, fortunately, broke his mind, was the Flower Girl coming apart and the claws of eagles and owls flying toward him, just before they ripped him apart. His little knife would not be needed after all.