Legio Patra Nostra Chapter 5
All characters are my intellectual property.
Ddraig 2011.
I walked out of the Town Hall and into the square. I saw Len by the cart tending to the horses, whilst Allie was over by the well in the centre of the square. I could not see the soldiers who escorted us to the town. I nodded to Len who grunted in return. I left my backpack and rifle next to the cart. I remembered to unload it to prevent a repeat of the previous evening. Len regarded it with trepidation as if it was scorpion about to sting him.
I then walked towards the well where Allie was so I could fill up my canteen. Allie grunted as she was having difficulty lifting the bucket onto the stone wall that encircled the well.
"Here" I said to her gently, "Let me help you."
She smiled at me, "Thank you." She said to me, her black tipped ears flicked a little.
I grasped the pail and lifted it on to the stone around the well. She dipped a piece of cloth and dipped it into the cool clear water. She then dabbed it on her throat and her neck to cool herself down. The droplets rolled down the fur on her neck into her blouse.
"So" she enquired "How did it go?"
I thought on how to reply as I removed my canteen from my belt unscrewed the top and submerged it into the bucket.
"I believe they like me" Allie smiled
"But" I said her ears flattened to the sides of her skull " I got a feeling that the one called Aseroth doesn't seem too happy about my presence."
I decided to change the subject as it seemed to upset Allie I pulled my canteen out of the bucket, sealed the lid an returned it to my belt next to my bayonet.
"So what is this town called?" I asked Allie.
Her ears zipped up straight and her tail wagged a little.
"Oh this city is called Hirstude. It's the largest city in the country and the Capital of Cladfael" She replied proudly.
I looked around the architecture seemed consistent with the late 16th and early 17th Century with buildings with timber frames, thatched roofs, and a white rendering on the walls they were mostly two storeys high. The Town Hall or City Hall as I now knew it to be was the only building that was made out of red brick and was 5 storeys high with a bronze bell tower that was just starting to oxidise.
"It looks very nice a bit smaller to what I am used to." I mused
Allie looked a little bit perplexed at my statement
"What do you mean by small?" She asked in a slightly annoyed tone "Hirstude has at least ten thousand souls of all shapes and sizes living within its boundaries."
She turned to back to the cart in a bit of a huff she carried the bucket of water for the horses
I chuckled as I walked beside her. She gave the bucket to Len
"I'm sorry I didn't intend to be rude, it's just that where I come from there are cities that have tens of millions of people living in them" Len and Allie looked shocked at first.
The Len spluttered
"How can so many people live in one place"?
I struggled to give an easy explanation to this difficult question.
" Well...... Uh.... Its tricky to explain its mostly due to people moving to those cities from the countryside when work was scarce in farming."
That seems to satisfy their curiosity on that matter.
Len then asked
"You say you are a soldier is that FAMAS weapon the best your people posses?"
Allie's ear then pricked up with interest at this.
I sighed, picking up my rifle I sat propped up against a wheel of the cart and I started to clean the rifle as it had gathered some dust by being in the cart.
"No my weapon is one of many weapons that my people have developed but it is not the best, our weapons range from a simple knife to and atomic bomb."
I answered the question as if I was talking to another person from my time, I looked up and I saw that Len had his head tilted to the side in confusion.
"What is an Atomic bomb?"
I realised that these people were at least 400 years behind mine. They were blissfully unaware of the horrors of nuclear weapons.
"You don't want to know" I said abruptly.
"Please tell us" Allie pleaded throwing puppy dog eyes.
"Ok an atomic bomb is a weapon that can destroy a whole city in an fireball as hot as the sun and a wind 10 times stronger than any storm nature can make"
I answered curtly
Allie and Len's jaws dropped like stones
"That's not all it does the material that it uses to explode poisons the land which lasts for at least 30 years."
Allie was aghast
"Why would a sentient nation build such a terrible weapon?"
I stood up and put my rifle back in the cart with my pack and chute, and straightened my beret.
"As a Legionnaire it is not my place to reason why they are made, all I know is that it was only used in anger twice and that was many years ago."
Len shrugged his shoulders and went to the give the horses some food and water. Allie stood next to me as I sorted through my rations as I was getting a bit hungry. She eyed the half dozen silver packets I had spread out on the floor of the cart. One was chicken and noodle soup the others were god knows what but when you had been on a 50km speed march your too hungry to even care.
"Is that your food?" Allie asked incredulously.
"Yes do you know of somewhere I can make fire to boil some water? I don't think it would be polite of me to do it in the square."
"You don't need to do that Lewis" Allie giggled.
She continued
"We can have a meal at the inn."
She pointed to a building across the street on the left hand corner of the square. It had a thatched roof, a white lime exterior with black beams showing and smoke was lazily climbing out of the clay chimney pot on the top of a read brick chimney.
Allie called over to Len
"Father! We're going to he inn for something to eat"
"Ok Allie be careful in there though" he replied
"See you later Monsieur Len" I called again he grunted in reply to me. He still didn't seem to trust me fully. I left my pack and rifle in the back of the cart.
We walked towards the Inn while Len walked back over to the well to get more water for the horses.
Whilst we were doing this a cloaked shadowy figure was lurking in a nearby alleyway. He crept over to the cart and began to examine the contents of my pack, my rations and orders which were in French, he sniffed with his black feline muzzle the items of clothing. He examined the FAMAS but he didn't dawdle with it he had to return and report to his superior. He hastily put the things he took out of my pack and disappeared back into the shadows that the alleys provide in great abundance as Len returned with water.
Allie and I entered the Inn and sat down in a quiet corner. It wasn't very busy as it was still morning but I drew a few stares from the handful of patrons within. A portly canine male a black Labrador propped up the bar, whilst a tabby cat sat at a table across from us she was quietly smoking a clay pipe. Finally a surly looking Zebra with a scar running the length down his muzzle from his left eye to his nostril looked like he's been on the wrong end of a broken bottle.
"What do you want?" he asked in a rough gravelly voice.
Allie answered
"Can we have two specials please landlord?"
He yelled to the kitchen for the cook or whoever was out there to get the specials ready.
Shortly we were presented with something that looked like stew but after eating Legion food I found it quite palatable.
Meanwhile in Aseroth's office
"I examined the legion hoo-man's possession sir; there are many strange items in his sack. His weapon is strange also I didn't take long as I had something important to tell you."
The Panthers yellow eyes glowed with delight.
"Well what do you have to tell me?"
Asteroth asked. The Captain of the Guard stood next to Asteroths desk arms crossed.
"Well Elder Aseroth and Captain Ryan he talked of a weapon that his people posses; a weapon so powerful it give a mortal the powers of a god."
"Do tell" said Aseroth intrigued
He calls it an Atomic bomb. The panther said with a toothy grin.
TO BE CONTINUED.................