The trip home.

Orelius grunted as the healers worked over him. While he himself wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things, his cousin was an up-and-coming military commander and his father was brother to a senator. That made him important to the other commanders. He was one of their own after all.

They gave him a sleeping drought and his pain drifted away.

*a day or so later*

Orelius woke. His body shifting on the makeshift stretcher as it was carried by two legionaries.

“What day is it?”

His voice came out a croak. He soldiers didn’t hear him.

He coughed. “What day is it You fucks?”

The legionnaire carrying his feet looked down.

“Ah centurion! You’re awake! We weren’t sure when or if you’d wake up.”

Orelius coughed once more. “Water.”

“Oh...ya!” The legionnaire called to his brother in arms, walking nearby. “Junias, give him some water from your bottle.”

Juntas shuffled over, his hands reaching into his packed gear to grab his bottle. He shortly walked over to Orelius and held it out.

Orelius struggles to move. His hands wouldn’t follow his commands to lift.

“You can’t move you know.” The voice came from his other side. Orelius turned his head and stared up at one of the healers, a middle-aged man with a paunch and a clean shaven face. His white robes barely moving as he walked. “At least not yet. We will see what, if any movement you get back.”

“I’ll move again? I’m not a fucking cripple?”

“Time will tell centurion. The knife that pierced you did significant damage, but from what we can tell it wasn’t complete. The angle of the puncture and the depth of the cut suggest that it was caused at an awkward angle by someone with minimal strength. Does my hypothesis seem accurate?”

Orelius wasn’t about to admit being stabbed while **** a woman. His brothers would have remained silent.

“Fuck off. It was a lucky strike by a dying man. He had plenty of strength before I cut him.”

“Of course. Regardless, you may get all, some, or none of your control of your body back. Rest, and we will continue to monitor you.”

Orelius couldn’t argue with that.

“Where’s the babe?”

“The child your men found?” Being suckled by a whore currently. He will be given to you upon return.”