Battavian tribal territories east of the Rhine River in the Germanian wilds at the northern borders of the Roman Empire, Europe
Mari smiled at the merriment in her sister's talking. Ignoring the dull pinch in her upper arms and lower back due to the strain of carrying a berry laden basket for close to three miles, she switched the basket to her other side and kept walking through the needle covered forest floor. She knew Danea was tiring too, but excited over the time they had spent talking with Geterian, she trudged on without the slightest complaint. Mari smiled again, because on any other day, she would have ended up carrying both baskets for the last stretch of deep forest. She hated when her sister whined and carried on, but in the end, she knew Danea was just being herself. By the time they reached their hut, nestled in the farthest woods that made Battavia, the sisters were silent and tired, but happy.
After dumping the heavy baskets on the rough hewn table at the center of their home and making sure the fire was building in the hearth, Mari and Danea took the giant clay pots to the western side of the surrounding forest to draw water. Enjoying the fragrant smell of evergreens and the cold air that filled their lungs despite the afternoon sun, the girls walked silently to their stream.
The stream was not very big or deep outside of spring, when the mountain snow swelled it to four times its size, but the brook was enough to always supply them with enough to drink. Snapping off a sprig of pine as they walked the well worn path, Mari took a deep sniff of its essence before handing it to Danea. The younger girl took it with a smile and twirling it lightly in her pale, slender fingers, offered her older sister a shy smile.
They had already reached the rushing brook and too scared of the rushing water, Danea always stood on the edge, while Mari ventured in. Giving her a smug smile that showed how much of a baby she thought Danea was, Mari hopped precariously from one wet boulder to another, until she was well inside the rushing stream. Her oiled deerskin boots were watertight, but not wanting to risk falling in, Mari crouched over the largest boulder gingerly to keep her balance and carefully filled the earthen pot. Walking back considerably slower, she deposited the full water jug in Danea's arms before taking the empty one and venturing back into the water. When she stepped foot on the mossy bank of the stream once again, Mari flashed Danea a tired, but triumphant smile.
"Show off."
Mari responded without a second's hesitation.
"Baby."
Giggling enough to almost lose hold of the earthen pot she was hugging, Danea rolled her eyes and started on the path home. Mari followed with a smirk of her own and reached their hut five minutes later, they set to rinsing and boiling the currant berries they picked earlier to make preserves. Working silently side by side, it was only after everything was done and they were tidying up the house that Danea finally spoke about what was on her mind.
"What will you do when I move away?"
Mari set down the flax she was rolling into thread and looked at her sister pointedly.
"Is that what you've been thinking about?"
Danea glanced up from the roll of thread she was winding and looked at Mari sheepishly.
"It's just that you'll be all alone."
"Uncle……"
"Uncle nothing, he spends more time at the post than anything else."
Mari resumed her task and swallowed deeply before answering.
"I'll be fine Danea. You deserve to be happy with Geterian and you shouldn't waste your time worrying about me."
Danea settled back down again and thought that over with moist eyes. After a few moments of silent working, she looked up at her sister again.
"Just promise me you'll come visit as often as you could."
Mari smiled tightly and continued pulling the thready fibers between her fingers.
"Of course I will, but I'm sure you'll want to be alone."
Like expected, Danea turned a bright shade of red and Mari smiled even wider as she ducked a ball of string that went sailing past her head. .
"Ma-ri!, Shut-up!"
"You're the one kissing around every corner, don't act like you won't."
"I am not!"
Mari stopped her work and looked at her sister with a raised eyebrow.
"So what were you doing in the field the minute I left this morning? Huh?"
Danea crossed her arms and to Mari's amazement turned even redder.
"I've only kissed him twice. It's not like you think, Mari!"
"Well, that's already twice more than I've been kissed."
It was Mari's turn to blush as Danea's jaw dropped.
"I thought you said Herriun kissed you before he left."
Mari looked at her sister in exasperation.
"How would he when we weren't alone even for a second? You were always in the way! And I was just trying to make you jealous. He tried, but he never did."
The sisters held a moment of awkward silence before Danea started giggling. Eventually, Mari joined her and the two chuckled until the irony of it all swept over them, leaving them mute once again. Feeling awful that she was laughing at the expense of her sister's unfortunate loss, Danea stood from where she was and went to hug Mari. Mari hugged her back and after a minute they went back to their work.
"Maybe you should start dinner. Geterian should be here soon."
Danea smiled despite herself and jumped up.
"You're right, he promised to moss the hut and the least we can do is feed him. Maybe Uncle will come early too. I'll start right away."
Half skipping to the now cooling currant preserve, Danea replaced the metal pot with another and excitedly starting taking out the things needed to make their meal. Mari went back to finish the thread she was making when a distant sound caught her attention.
"Did you hear that, Danea?"
The younger girl stopped and cocked her head for a moment before resuming her work of peeling potatoes.
"No, you're imagining things. How does my hair look?"
Mari smirked and expertly wound the thread between her fingers.
"You look fine, just make sure you behave yourself."
"Just make sure you're not the one that tells Uncle."
Mari giggled at her sister's blush and was about to counter when the sound reached them again. This time they both heard it and Mari distinctly made it out to be a yell. A panicked yell. She stood quickly from the table and ran to open the door. Her jaw dropped and scared it was their father returning from the battle, Danea ran after her, but Mari put her hand out.
"Stay inside, Danea!"
Looking back to see if she would listen, Mari ran out the door just as the yelling reached them again. Taking large strides, she ran to meet Jutland, the middle son of her closest neighbor over a mile down the forest path. He was a young boy of nine, but the fear in his eyes spoke volumes. He had his baby sister strapped to his back and Mari's gaze switched from his sooty face to the darkening sky from the direction of the Battavian village. Gasping at the realization that something was on fire, Mari skidded to a stop just as the tearful boy reached her. On her knees instantly and smoothing back clumps of his reddish hair to calm him, she tried to understand his mumbled words as he held his side tightly and looked back frantically.
"The…came and…momma…"
"Jutland, tell me, calm down, please tell me what happened!"
The boy gasped for breath in between coughing and for the first time, Mari wondered why the baby wasn't crying. Bringing the boy to the ground with her, she reached for the infant strapped tightly to his back and almost choked when her head lolled to the side and her glassy, half-lidded eyes stared blankly into the sky. Hit with a powerful wave of nausea, Mari held her stomach and fell back on her behind. Jutland was still gasping for breath from his run. On all fours on the ground, his panic was easing away as horror set in. He started sobbing and unsure of what to do, Mari reached out to him when a scream tore through the chilly air.
Turning suddenly to see Danea at the doorway crying and pointing at the billows of black smoke rising from the not so distant treeline, Mari fully came to understand what was happening. There was a fire, but there was also more. The faint smell of burning was growing and Jutland's babbling suddenly made sense and solidified her realization. Her uncle spoke often of how the Romans burned everything in their wake when they swept into an area. Still clutching the boy tightly, Mari shook him to get him to look at her, as her own dread began to grip her.
"Jutland! Jutland! Please tell me what happened!"
The boy shook his head as a coughing spell left him breathless and feeling him starting to whither in her grasp, Mari let out a whine of desperation. Jutland spit up blood as he fell on his side completely and feeling terrible for not having asked if he was injured, Mari reached for his wolf-skin coat with cold, trembling fingers. Summoning all the courage she had, she tore it open and gasped when she saw the shaft of a broken arrow protruding from below the boy's ribcage. The tears that failed to fall so far, came rushing forward and hearing that Danea had stepped closer, Mari turned around and barked at her in a gravelly voice.
"Stay inside!!"
Turning back to the boy that always asked to know when she was going to make pumpkin pies, Mari wiped at the foamy blood slowly dribbling out of his mouth with her frock.
"Romans…momma said…to take……"
Mari smoothed back the outlandish red hair dreadlocked around Jutland's face as her mind raced with implications.
"You did good, you did good Juttland, but did you see Cloarin, my Uncle? Are they fighting?"
"Yes……I took the baby……she's hurt, Mari"
Mari sobbed harder when the boy coughed again and the same glassy look that his sister had, started to overcome his young features. She could hear Danea crying in the doorway and just under her voice, all the subtle sounds that typically made up life in the forest. They were strangely hushed and that was never good. Knowing she could do nothing else, Mari held the boy to her chest and rocked him a little, trying hard to forget that she had played with the baby and promised Jutland a pie of his very own that same morning on their way to the village.
"It's okay Jutland, she's okay, it's okay, it's okay."
Mari held him and cried silently until Danea's voice grew louder and the smell of burning grew thicker. Knowing Battavia was under attack and that her uncle was most likely dead and that she was Danea's only chance to stay alive, Mari closed her eyes and let go of Jutland and his baby sister. Laying him down on the carpet of brownish needles that covered the path to their house carefully so as not to look at their faces, Mari untied her blood stained frock and spread it out over the young siblings.
With broken sobs, she turned and ran to their hut, where Danea was in a heap in the doorway. Picking her up by the shoulders, Mari shook her a little, like she had done to Jutland and smoothed the messy blondish hair like she did almost every morning.
"Look Danea, I have to see about Uncle, but you have to leave. You have to go into the mountains."
The younger girl wiped at her nose and shook her head furiously. Mari felt all hope vanish when she saw her sister's refusal, but their father and uncle always told them to go to the mountains if their was ever trouble. It was the only way.
"No! I can't leave you! You can't make me!"
Mari let her go in defeat and ran inside the hut, grabbing all the dried food and water she could. Dumping them onto the table, she opened her father's trunk to fetch a suede pack. Throwing everything in with stiff fingers from having been outside without a coat or mittens, she turned to her sister once more, much calmer than the previous minute as her mind wrapped itself carefully around the situation.
"You have to. Uncle has told us where to hide and you have to go now!"
"Mari…"
"No!! Do as I say, Danea. This isn't a game. These are Romans! I'll come for you once I know and…"
Mari stopped and swallowed hard as she heard a tree crash in the distance. Closing the bag she held, she tossed it to Danea and ran to the door again. She was surprised to see it less bright than it was just a minute ago. The sky was twirling with black smoke in several directions now, which meant the forest was on fire. She had heard her uncle's stories often and knew that fire could sweep a forest in only moments. Coughing in the suddenly increasingly unbreathable air, Mari turned to her sister once more.
"W-w-what's going on?"
"The trees are on fire! Danea, put on your second coat and put on the pack, now!!"
Seeing the alarm on Danea's face, Mari ran to get the coats and grab the short knife her uncle kept under his cot. Danea wouldn't go alone, so she would have to take her as far as she could and return for her uncle. Meeting Danea at the door, Mari took her hand and started on the path that led to the mountains and away from Battavia. Unfortunately, it took her only a few moments to realize that the chipmunks and squirrels were crossing them in the opposite direction and Mari understood that to mean that the path ahead was already being consumed by fire.
Being much more tomboyish than her sister, her uncle had taught her many things about the land in the hunting excursions he took during the summer and if Mari learned one thing, it was that the animals always sensed things before people. Stopping in her run so suddenly that Danea bumped into her from behind, Mari looked around for another way out. Danea was sobbing again and coughing, but intent on keeping her alive, Mari looked around frantically for what to do. Finally, she heard panicked sounds from high above and seeing the geese that frequented the lake at the foot of the hills weave through the twirling smoke in the sky, Mari found her answer.
Grabbing Danea's hand, she headed in the direction that the V the geese formed was pointing to. Regrettably, it was straight towards the southern side of the forest, just below Battavia. But they had no choice. If there was a battle going on in the fields around the village, it was still a safer bet than staying in a forest being devoured by flames. Mari had wanted to get Danea to safety, but that was impossible now. Focusing hard to weave through the darkening forest safely, Mari tried to forget the fact that the people she knew and loved were dying and instead thought only of how to get her sister out of their precarious situation.
Making their way through the woods they played in all their life, Mari and Danea ran semi-blindly and as the sounds of screaming and metal clashing grew louder, Mari's heart turned in its place, as it became clear that they were stuck between a battle and a fire. Thankfully, Danea had stopped sobbing, more out of the difficulty of breathing in the thickening smoke than anything else, but Mari made sure they slowed down their pace nevertheless. When they were only a few yards from the forest edge that bordered the fields Battavia rested on, Mari brought them both down to the ground. Her nightmares were always filled with Roman soldiers swathed in blood and finery, but nothing in her wildest imagination prepared her for the scene before her.
From their vantage point nestled among the trees on a slight incline, both Mari and Danea held their breath at the incredible sight of the red and gold shimmering army sweeping everything they knew. Their highly polished shields and tall swords made short work of the opposition and to their horror, bodies of men, women and children they knew littered the fields and roads. There was still significant fighting going on in the center of the village and the clashing of swords and screaming of men was deafening. Remembering her uncle, Mari scanned along the collapsed sections of log fencing that once protected their village up to the watchtower they visited everyday.
"Oh gods."
Eyes filling with tears and heart constricting with sorrow, Mari took in the sight of her beloved uncle pinned with a dozen long arrows up against the post he worked so hard to build. Rivulets of blood matted his fur cloak and bushy beard and pooled onto the ground under him. Mari wanted nothing more than to run to him and throw her arms around his enormous frame like she always did as a child, but she couldn't. Danea was sobbing by her side, and seeing him would destroy the younger girl. Swallowing her grief and gathering what hope she had left in her broken heart, Mari pulled at her sister and dragged her to her feet.
"We have to go now!"
"Mari, no! What about Uncle and Gete…"
Despite the tiredness of having worked all day and the horror of seeing her uncle dead, Mari ignored her sister's pleas and tried to move as quick as she could along the forest edge back towards the mountain pass. It was their only hope. Having lived far from the village gave them an advantage their friends didn't have, but if they stayed, they would join them for sure.
Praying the darkness that settled prematurely over the land aided in disguising them, Mari pulled at her younger sister, who babbled on about finding Geterian and going back. Mari cried bitterly and urged her to move faster while ignoring her own instinct that told her to leave the blazing forest for the open ground. But she reasoned that it was their best cover and half running and half trotting along the outline of the forest edge, desperately hoped no one would spot them. But it was already too late.
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