Slave Girl: Chapter 76 (Patreon)

Back on a proper road again is not only much easier to traverse it also brings with it other travelers once more.  For a piece of silver we manage to purchase some food off of a group heading to Potentia.  A loaf of bread and some cheese for a dinarii, highway robbery by any measure but absolutely worth it to feel our bellies full again.  With each mile the area swiftly became less wild and more settled.  It is only an hour before we come across another village.

Remaining as inconspicuous as we could given our rough appearance we make a few purchases of food and clothing then move right on through to find a secluded place to get changed.  Rosa didn’t like the idea of buying premade clothes as she usually made her own, but we hadn’t the time today to be choosy.  I wanted to be presentable for arriving in Grumentum.  For myself I buy another good wool tunic to replace the one I’d lost, this one was red.  Rosa we spend a bit more on, at last buying her proper sandals along with a stola and a blue palla.  We find a small clearing behind some bushes and try on our garments.  Simple as they were, being commoner clothes, the dress and shawl completely transformed my adorable slave girl into a lady of beauty and refinement.  She even goes the extra step of, with a bit of twine and the hairpin we’d found, putting her long hair up into a topknot which accentuated her willowy neck and showed off her lovely ears.  It was the first time I had seen her in clothing she had not borrowed or cobbled together or her hair in anything but naturally flowing locks and the effect magnified her natural elegance tenfold.  Seeing her like this was a sudden reminder that Rosa was no simple peasant as I was.  Her gestures, her movement, even the way she stood simply oozed a grace and sophistication that could not be missed.  If not for the brand on her hand anybody looking at us would have assumed I was the slave and she the master.  Wow!  I couldn’t even imagine how stunning she must have looked in her fine silk Alexandrian gowns of her previous life.

“You look…incredible!”

“Thank you Master.”  She curtsies.  “We need to make a good impression, right?”

“Right.”  I look her up and down one more time.  “Wow.”

Once back on the road we notice an immediate difference.  Folks smiled at us again.  We would nod and say hello and move along with far fewer suspicious looks or sour faces.  I soon realized that Rosa’s dress cloaked her Amazon heritage much better than her capelet ever did.  We are even invited to join a picnic, which we accept with apologies that we could not stay for long.  We eat and drink and enjoy the casual company of others in a way I hadn’t felt in quite some time.  It just felt…normal.  It had been awhile since I felt like anything in my life was simply normal.  It was nice.  Rosa regales them with the tale of the harpy, even showing them our old bloodstained clothes as proof, as well as a vastly exaggerated account of me doing battle with three men and two dogs.  The group is duly impressed even as I blush at the attention.  As soon as we could excuse ourselves we are back on the road again.

“I kinda miss seeing your legs.”  I quip at one point.

“I don’t think you’ll see me in an outfit like that ever again.  Not on the road at least.”

“I guess not.”  I say.  “Things are already changing.  Everything feels…different today.”

“We’re so close.”  She then giggles as she looks down at her new dress.  “I can’t believe I walked halfway across Italy in those short shorts!”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.  Very unladylike.  So unbecoming.”  I tease and I am instantly punished with a pinch and twist to my nipple.  “Ah!”

“Behave.”

“Ooo.  Yes my Lady.”  I say rubbing my chest, all smiles.

The mountains get lower and more rounded, the forests thin out, the traffic along the road gradually increases, and more and more we see homes and settlements along the way.  It is just past midday when round the peak of a hill to see a wondrous sight unfurl before us.

Under a cerulean sky painted with white wisps of cloud stretches a vast bucolic valley.  Surrounded by hills and mountains on three sides it stretches off out of sight to the Southeast.  The flat floor of the valley is painted greens and ambers with farms and fields and forests and through the center winds a sinuous river fed by the Appenines.  Huts and villas and tiny villages speckle the pastoral landscape.  That old martyr we met on the road spoke to me about heaven.  If this wasn’t it I don’t know what was.

“Home.”  I sigh.

Rosa hugs my arm tight and presses in close as she takes in the incredible valley.

“Come on.”  I say, hurrying forward.  Rosa follows me off of the road across a rocky expanse so that we could look around an outcropping that blocked our view to the Southeast.  Once we clear the obstruction I stop and point to the city in the distance that sat upon a hill along the river.  “Grumentum!”

“Oh Quin!”

“Ha ha!”  I grab my Lady at the hips and lift her high into the air and start to spin around.  “HA HA HA!”

“HEEEEE!”  Rosa extends her body and spreads her arms like a bird and laughs with me as she twirls through the air.

I let go of her hips and let her slide down into my embrace.  We kiss and laugh and share this monumental moment.  “There’s the Aciris.”  I point along the twisting river.  “I wonder if we can see our place from here?”

“Home!”  Rosa cheers.  Slipping from my arms she runs to the edge of a steep drop off and throws her arms in the air as she cries out.  “WE MADE IT!”

I glance over my shoulder to see that we were getting a few looks from the road.  Not that I cared.  I chuckle and call after her.  “We’re not there yet.”

Onward we push, following the road down into the rich valley with its crops of grain and plum trees and olives.  Herds of goats and sheep dapple the dry hills that surround us.  We greet the people that pass us by a bit more attentively now as any one of them may prove to be a neighbor or a future friend.  We look at the villas as we walk by and take in the streets and businesses of the smaller communities we pass through.  There is much of interest but our stride never slows, we were too close now to dally.

We reach the river Aciris and follow a road that wended along its stony bank.  Aciris.  It wasn’t just a word anymore, or a squiggly line on a map.  It was real.  This was all real.  After dreaming about it for so long I was still having trouble believing this place really existed.  Rosa seems to sense my dumbfounded feeling as she reaches over to take my hand, helping to anchor me to this wonderful moment.

Our feet aching, our legs weary, our bodies sweaty from the summer heat, we cross a stone bridge to arrive at the foot of the hill upon which sat the raised city of Grumentum.  We look up the slope to the pale stone walls part way up and the buildings beyond.  At the highest point stood the grand columns of the city’s forum.  I nod.  This place had a good feeling about it.  Like Beneventum did.  A city big enough for anything we may want without being overwhelming to my rural sensibilities.  I look to the South, my eyes following the twisting ribbon that marked the river’s path.  I prayed the land was close.  I look back up to the city above us and nod.

Turning to the right we follow the road along the base of the hill then turn again to start climbing the grade that lead to Grumentum’s Southern gate.  Once there we pause yet again just to take in the bustling activity moving in and out of the city.  Rosa’s eyes are wide with excitement as she peers through the wide gate.  Brimming with nervous joy I step forward, my slave girl falling in just behind me.

Chapter 77