Vespasian shrugged, “Valius is a good man sir I hope not. His horses are quick and he’s experienced. If he did get into any difficulties I’m sure he could get out of them. However, without knowing what’s happened to him and his men, we can’t afford to send anymore forward for the time being. We don’t know what’s beyond the trees except marsh and we don’t know how far it extends.
I would suggest sending scouts ahead first. Centurion Varro and his men are available but if we send them on, I want them to be wary and return to our lines at the first sign of trouble. It will also give the rest of the men an opportunity to rest for a while and get some food.” Vespasian said changing his decision as he spoke, war was one thing, unpredictable.
Plautius didn’t hesitate, “Excellent, have the men take a well-earned break. If we’re no further forward with the reconnaissance by the time it starts to get dark, we’ll dig in properly and have the usual defences completed. I can’t see them coming back after the beating they took but you never know. How many men does Valius have in his cohort by the way, is it at full strength?”
“Yes sir four hundred. I’m concerned that we’ve had no sign of them it’s not like Valius at all, he can always be relied on, he’s one of my best commanders. I’ve known him for years and would have expected him to send a runner back by now if all was well. I’ll send the scouts forward and see what they can find.”
“Good,” Plautius replied, “I’ll be here if you need anything further.” Dismissed Vespasian and the other senior officers left the tent.
Varro had been summoned and given his orders and sometime later he found himself under the trees heading north into the marshes. He was accompanied by Decimus, Lucius and Marcus. Brenna and her brother had gone to try and drum up support for the Romans from local villages and settlements.
It wasn’t long before Varro and his men found signs of trouble. A Batavian horse was calmly feeding on the long grass about four hundred paces after the marshes edge, it looked up at them as they approached, then continued chewing quite happily at the long grass. Varro dismounted and walked towards it.
“Hello boy.” He said quietly, “Where’s your master then?” The horse jerked his head up shaking away flies but didn’t bolt as Varro stroked his head.
“Are you alright then, no cuts?” He looked at the horse’s flanks but could see no sign of injury or tell-tale signs of battle but looking closer in the long mane he found blood. He looked around, it was quiet, the marsh unwelcoming lay ahead.
“We’ll leave him here for now, we don’t want him tied to our own mounts in case we need to move fast, come on lets go.” He climbed aboard his own horse and walked slowly towards the muddy marsh.
“Okay let’s not stay too close, twenty paces at least between each horse.” He ordered as the others began to drop back. He guided his horse into the water and felt it wet and cold on his feet and legs, ‘fucking country’ he thought to himself.
It wasn’t long before they found the first ambush site. Pushing further into the marsh they started to find bodies. Corpses floated in shallow red water, bits of equipment also, here and there was the body of a dead horse. Varro dismounted slowly and examined the men, crouching over bodies. Together with sword and arrow wounds and the occasional puncture from a spear, he found that some of them had flesh missing. Bite marks were clearly visible on the exposed skin.
“What in the god’s names happened here?” Decimus asked standing at the side of his commander, he felt chills running through his skin.
“I haven’t got the first fucking idea, maybe dogs perhaps they used dogs to hunt them down. We know they are famous for them and before the invasion they traded their hunting dogs with the Empire. Some are waist high and used to hunt deer and even larger prey, they could even be used to bring a horse down.” Varro replied. “They’re heads are like this.” he held his hands out nearly a foot wide showing Decimus who frowned.”
“Jupiter’s fucking cunt, well I don’t want to come across any of them.” Was all Decimus said jumping back on his horse as if being a few feet higher would be safer. Varro stood slowly, his nerves on edge even more now than he’d expected, he imagined seeing some of the large beasts advancing towards him.
“Come on.” He said ordering his scouting party forward. He and his men preferred to be miles ahead of the main army or even days ahead but when battle had been joined this kind of reconnaissance was what they were used for and it was deadly.
Some miles ahead and to the north Valius and the remainder of his cohort ambled through the thick forest. They had eventually managed to get clear of the marshland but had yet to find the Second Augusta. He looked up at the sky again trying to get his bearings through the canopy of trees.
If he was correct he they were now heading in the right direction. He had led the survivors clear of the deadly bog and north initially. It wasn’t so much of a tactical decision he thought to himself but one of survival and it had been the only route out of the ambush area. They had maintained their course until he was convinced as best as he could be that they weren’t being followed.
Although the ground was dry now it was still slow going through the thick trees and exhausting. Since the attack he and his men had expected another ambush at any time and in the forest it could come from any direction. He scanned forward and to the side constantly on the alert for some movement or noise, he almost wished for it to cut the suspense.
The only sound was that from their horse’s movement, there was no breeze which he was thankful for as they walked slowly forward. In open ground they could have covered miles already and probably would have been back behind friendly lines but here it was impossible, he cursed every step.
Images of the ambush were still raw in his mind, the men he had lost to the dogs especially. It was unbelievable yet it had happened, men and horses torn apart. The Britons were truly barbarians and reluctantly he admitted a worthy enemy as he acknowledged that they were using everything at their disposal to fight a superior force. Just as he realised that he had stopped sweating from his exertions earlier, but was now cold through damp, he heard a cry and the sound of breaking branches. He whipped his horse around and saw that Britons were jumping out of trees onto his men behind him, spears and swords in hand. Shouts of alarm also broke the silence as soldiers were jerked from horses and fell violently to the ground. How had he missed them in the branches of the trees?
“Advance, advance.” He ordered as he turned again and kicked his horse forward. He knew that if he had tried to help those to the rear, he would have been cut down as well. He turned his head as two half naked bodies jumped onto each man and horse.
He shuddered as he urged his mount through the thick trees realising that this patrol was turning into a nightmare. Images of his family flashed through his mind and he briefly wondered if he would ever see their faces again.
‘Faster,’ he mentally coaxed his horse almost pleading for clear ground ahead but seeing none. Movement in front him, up in the trees almost made him pull up and his blood ran cold, he saw more warriors preparing to jump. Pulling his sword free of its scabbard he charged through the trunks of the trees, his horse veering this way and that. Another rider shot passed him to his right kicking up soil and mud in its panic to get clear, the rider didn’t even turn to acknowledge his commander. Just as he got about twenty paces ahead a body dropped from above and landed on the horse’s neck, the rider stabbed out with his spatha, striking the attacker somewhere on the upper body and he fell away to the ground.
Valius grinned in satisfaction as his horse raced past the stricken wounded Briton clutching at a hole in his chest. Looking forward he saw others emerge from behind trees with bows fifty paces ahead. He started to steer his horse at awkward angles through the trees trying to make them both a more difficult target as arrows were launched. Within seconds he was amongst the bow carriers and at first tried to hack out at them with his weapon but they merely jerked out of the way and moved aside. He clenched the hilt of his sword and just tried to concentrate on riding as he quickly realised it was virtually impossible to hit any of them.