AD USQUE FIDELIS

[♔Old Dragoon♔]

Long overdue update will be forthcoming!

[♔Old Dragoon♔]

“So, what’s our next move sir?”

Uliaris glared at the Persian, who was wetting himself, and spoke, “Why thank you for asking Andreas. I think we torture this prisoner until he gives us vital information, or we turn him into a eunuch and then let him wander around the wilderness until the jackals feast on his flesh.”

“My thoughts exactly!” growled Andreas as he withdrew his dagger.

“No! Please! I will tell you where the Persians are! I swear on your god!” cried the Persian.

“You see how that is done Andreas?”

“Yes sir, captain sir!”

“Alright, Persian....”

“I’m not Persian, sire!” cried the prisoner.

“No...Then what the hell are you?”

“I’m Judean. Forced by the Persians to fight. I’m their prisoner.”

“Judean huh?” Uliaris asked the prisoner his name and place of birth in Hebrew. The prisoner stood there with his mouth open with no words projecting from his windbag. “No bother! The way you are pissing and caccing yourself, I know the answer.”

“How close is the Persian army?” demanded Uliaris. “And by the way. You are no more Judean than I am Abraham!” Uliaris with his armored fist punched the fake Judean right in his lightly armored gut causing the prisoner to double over and gasping for air. “Now tell me!!!” Demanded Uliaris.

Gasping for air, the prisoner pointed to the ridge that was behind them. The prisoner stated with labored breath, “They are only two parasangs away (Persian measurement of distance equal to 3 miles per parasang), and want to kill Romans very much.” They looked where the prisoner pointed.

“What do we do now, sir?” enquired Andreas.

“Well, Andreas we will scout out the Persian army. We must find out where they are.”

“What about this prisoner?”

“Take his shoes then release him. We got what we want from him...”

Thwack!! This was the sound of Uliaris’s bow as he quickly shot an arrow right into the prisoner’s right eye, as he made a move toward Andreas. Andreas had turned his back for a just a second. “So much for worry over a prisoner...” The prisoner appeared to be struggling for life.

“Don’t ever turn your back on a prisoner!... Ever!” barked Uliaris.

The prisoner struggled for life as he contorted in pain but dared not to remove the arrow. After a few minutes of struggle he went limp. He either passed from this world or lost consciousness.

“Yes sir!” replied Andreas. “What should we do with him?”

“Leave him for jackals or the carrion birds!” barked Uliaris.

“Andreas, they came from that ridge right over there,” pointed Uliaris, “Now soldier! Follow me!”

They rode just before the top of the ridge, and Uliaris told Andreas to follow him up as Uliaris snuck up to the apex of the ridge.

They both gasped at the shear size of the Persian force. Uliaris quickly sized up the long lines of the Persian army headed for Dara, and then crept away unseen back to his horse with Andreas close behind. Uliaris spoke with volume nearly of a whisper, “We go to Dara to make our report to Belisarius! They are a days march away now!”

By the time they got back, the seemingly dead Persian had vanished with one of the horses that the Persians had left behind as they entered the afterlife.

“Shite!” Bellowed Uliaris cursing to himself. Andreas noted, “Mother of Christ! You shot that Persian in the eye, and he was all but gone. How?!”

“War, Andreas...War! Incredible things can happen in war, and people can survive where others would surely die. Now, I will have to go on through life watching my backside for this one eyed Persian and God knows what else. I should have made sure he was dead! Hopefully that snake will die before he gets back to his own army.”

Andreas was annoyed at the Persian’s escape, but he had never seen Uliaris in such a state. They rode back to Dara fuming over their carelessness with the prisoner.

Arriving at Belisarius’s command tent was not as intimidating as one would think unless you were Andreas. He was technically allowed to accompany Uliaris, but it was supposedly for intelligence gathering and not for martial training. It would have been better for him if they had the prisoner. Uliaris told him not to be concerned, but he was not Armenian like Andreas (Armenians during this time were not as trusted as older cultures within the Roman Empire. Some of their feelings bordered on racist motivations and others were more based on mistrust and ignorance. They felt they were more inclined to rebel from the empire than other provinces.)

Chorsamantis and Draxos had already greeted them with a skin of some fermented Hunnic concoction. “Of all things holy! You two smell like a rotten cheese shop,” bellowed Uliaris. They both raised their skins. Uliaris announced jokingly, “We have important matters with ‘the man’ and not drinking rotten milk with you two heathens.” Chorsamantis and Draxos both gave him the sign of the phallus as they continued to drink their brew.

[Alwyn]

Welcome back, it's good to see you, and to find out what happened next.

That's a very unexpected event involving the prisoner. Maybe Uliaris didn't draw his bow fully, because he was firing so quickly?