My Hero

Unlike the day before when I regaled my ladies with memories of sights I was seeing, today I fall quieter with each step along the dusty rutted wagon trail despite the silver-green olive groves and sun-bleached stonewalls being even more familiar with each step. As I hold Catalus’ reins I wasn’t sure who was leading who as I shuffle along beside him lost in thought. What had happened back at Tiro’s was playing at my mind. How quickly that whole situation had turned from friendly to hostile was a sobering reminder of how bad things could go once somebody was labeled as ‘other’, as ‘stranger’. I now had Rosa’s magical bracelet in my pouch so that particular folly couldn’t happen again but we were hardly in the clear. That beautiful piece of flesh hanging between my Lady’s legs could cause just as much trouble as a flash of magic. We simply had to be more careful. Had Tiro and his clan not been my father’s family… I shake my head and push out the thoughts of what could have happened back there.

With Rosa still stung by the recent events and me brooding with worries never had I been more grateful for Colly and Cassie, who were both walking out in front today as Danae kept Rosa company at the horse’s side.

“You’re walking with a little extra bounce to your flounce today.” Cassie teases the goblin. “And I didn’t think it could get any bouncier.”

“Mathter made mad pathionate love to me latht night.” Colly says loudly and proudly, turning the heads of a couple of nearby shepherds. “He confethed hith true love for me. Thaid I wath hith one and only.” She chortles, with the usual accompanying jiggles. “He’th thuch a thoftie. I think he might have even cried a little. Don’t worry though, he thaid he’ll keep faking it for you two. But hith heart will alwayth be mine.”

I chuckle despite myself. “Colly, that was supposed to be our secret.”

“Oopth!” She winks. “Thorry, Thir. Didn’t mean to break any heart-th.”

Cassie smiles and rolls her eyes. “You’d abandon me and Rosa to just each other? Actually, now that I think about it…”

“You should get so lucky!” I quip. “You’re stuck with me. All of you!” As we crest a low ridge I gaze out over the familiar hills of home. With my eyes closed I could have mapped out the sprinkling of red terracotta roofs that dotted the terrain among the fields and forests and orchards I knew so well. I take in a deep breath. “I can just smell the sea. Brings back so many memories. I never even saw the sea until I was six but when the west wind Favonius drifted in for a visit, as he often did, I could smell the salty brine come with him. Always reminded me there was world out there beyond the fields.” After another deep breath through my nostrils to take in that very particular hint of sea salt blended with the dust and wild thyme of my native land I point ahead to a lone oak perched on the next rise in the distance. “That ridge marks the edge of my family’s land. It is just beyond.” After a pause I add, my voice a mix of anticipation and trepidation. “We’ll be there before dinner.”

“Quin.”

“My Lady?” I look back.

“It will be okay.” Staring blindly back she offers a weak smile. “It’s your Mama. It’s your Grandpa. It’s your close kin. They love you. It’s going to be okay.”

“Yeah.” I say back. “It will be okay.”

“And Quin?”

“Mm?”

“Let’s leave ‘My Lady’ until afterward?”

“Yes, my L…love.”

Her grin brightens, just a little.

After a light lunch seated with our backs against a lichen speckled stone wall I had distinct memories of running along in my childhood we continue to travel through the valley at a more relaxed pace than what we’d been setting up until now as I knew we’d arrive at our destination well before sundown. The slower stride is appreciated by all, Calatus particularly.

Beginning to relax and wanting to put Rosa at ease I once more take up a bit of my local guide persona and point out the Sacred Mountain of Hera to the South and regale them with tales of raiding Farmer Naso’s orchards every summer. And wouldn’t you know it, we end up meeting old Naso himself on the road. He gives me a crotchety nod and a gruff greeting as we pass, this time the curtness born as much from my past as his guard dog’s favorite chew toy than my traveling companions.

By mid-afternoon that oak I’d pointed out earlier was close enough to see the pattern of its bark. When we get to it I stop and tie Catalus to nearby shrub. As the others turn to look at me I say. “I need a moment.”

I hop the stone wall that skirted the road and walk under the sprawling shade of the tree I’d learned to climb on. My memory of this tree is of a grand old giant. But in my travels I’d now seen grander and older titans of bark and leaf. A lone pine sat upon this dry hill it was gnarled and twisted, stunted by its hard life as a lone sentinel. It was smaller than I remembered it, but with a dignity as deep as its roots. I walk to the West side of the trunk and look down upon the patch of stripped bark and the carving I had etched into the living wood.

It was from this spot, this very spot, I had begun my journey to Rome. Rome, the Appian Way, down to Grumentum, and now across the Appenines from there, I had circled back to the beginning. It was also from this spot that I last saw my father before he headed North to the fight a people called the Celts in a far away land.

We could not afford a monument or a tomb. But a twelve year old heart could not bear the thought of my father’s resting place being some unnamed field leagues away and so twelve year old hands had carved this effigy of him in hopes that his spirit would find its way home. I kneel and touch the carving of the proud warrior, the lines now smoothed with years of healing and wear.

I hear the ladies approaching and it is a welcome sound. I thought I’d want to be alone for this moment but having them here just felt right.

Rosa’s face brightens as she hears the whisper of the breeze through the oak’s boughs and feels the cool of it’s deep shade. Without a word she reaches her hands out for the tree. She breaks from Cassie’s arm, Danae close by her leg to give a silent guide, and comes to touch the coarse bark.

“Hello, old timer.” She whispers. “My. You’ve got some tales to tell.” Sensing my presence though I hadn’t made a sound she asks. “Is this…the tree?”

“This is it.” I say, reaching out my hand. “Come.”

Rosa feels for my hand and lets me pull her down to sit on my knee. I direct her hand with mine to touch the carving I’d made all those years ago.

Rosa smiles, her palm against the wood. “Oh. A strong man! Just like his son.” Her slender fingers trace the lines of his legs and arms and sword and shield. “A soldier. You carved him as a soldier, not a farmer.”

“I was so proud to see him in his armor. He was…” My voice trembles before I contain it again. “He was so regal. No noble. A hero of the Empire. My hero.”

“Yes. He was.” Rosa turns and kisses my cheek. “And is.”

“Dad.” I say. “This is Rosa. She bears your grandchild.” I reach out for Cassie’s hand. “And this is Cassia and Collywaddle. These are…family.”

Cassie bows her head and says a quiet prayer as Collywaddle squints down the slope behind me to house and buildings below.

Just then I stiffen as I hear a distant voice more familiar than even my own, for it was voice I’d heard since before I could speak. “Plautia! Plautia, there are strangers by the old oak. Find Attilius and Nonno.” Calls my mother’s voice. Up until recently it would have been my name first on her lips. “You there! Why have you jumped our fence?”

I run my fingers one last time across the carving of my father. Strangers by the old oak. Strangers. I prayed that wasn’t an omen.