Quintus said, “Keep that steaming thing away from my horse will you? I don’t want you getting any ideas and ruining her mind. If she catches sight of that mouldy little maggot, I may never get her to breed again.”
Decimus half turned, “Ha-ha don’t worry I wouldn’t want my fleshy sword going where yours has been anyway, it may never work again afterwards and imagine how upset all the females would be?”
They all laughed as the others got to their feet still wrapped in their cloaks. They prepared a bowl of lentils and chestnuts sweetened with honey and warmed themselves around the fire.
“It’s going to be near impossible to track those fuckers in this snow.” Quintus said blowing on a hot spoon full of food.
“The only way to do it is to keep clearing the snow and checking the tracks underneath. If we knew this area and where the tracks went, it wouldn’t be too bad but as it is we’re as good as lost.” Tevelgus said adding, “The winters in Britannia don’t always provide snow but when they do, it can be here for days, weeks even. Crops are buried and people die if they wander far from their homes, we always stay close when this happens and stay by our fires.”
Varro finished his bowl of food, “Well one thing is certain, our friend Caratacus isn’t staying by the fire but I agree with what you say. The other thing is that if the snow stops falling and the skies clear we’ll be seen for miles in this white blanket if we’re caught out in the open. Anyone would see us coming from miles away.” He stood up and rinsed his wooden spoon using a leather water skin.
“The question now then is what do we do? If we can’t risk going forward, dare we risk trying to find our way back to the fort, things look totally different normally when you try and retrace your steps but when they’re covered in snow it’s a different thing altogether.” Decimus said.
Quintus put in, “How do you think we would be received if we did go back and we had no information about the enemy position. I know the good General Vespasian is a fair man but I don’t think he’d take too kindly to us turning up empty handed and with no information.”
“I think your right,” Varro said, “but I also believe he would understand given the circumstances.” He returned to his upturned tree log and sat down. “The other alternative is to wait a while and see if it clears,” He added looking up at the sky through the branches of the trees, “we’ve got food enough to last two more days but after that we’d have to find our own or another settlement.”
“And we’d be out of fresh clothes but that I can deal with for a while,” Added Quintus, “after that I don’t want my balls rotting and swelling like some stinky Briton.”
Tevelgus laughed, “Ha-ha, and I wouldn’t want the small round rotten berries that you carry about down there anyway.” He said pointing to Quintus’ groin, they all chuckled.
“Right,” Varro said, “we’ll wait here another day and see what things look like tomorrow, if it’s still snowing we’ll think about heading back. In the meantime let’s make a better shelter and see if we can find anything nearby worth hunting.” He walked to where he’d left his bow, “Quintus, you look after things here, I’ll take Brenna, Decimus, Lucius and Marcus and see if we can find anything better for dinner.” He looked at Tevelgus, “If you stay here with Quintus and his men in case any Britons turn up and do the talking.” He nodded in agreement.
“Good, let’s get cleaned up and see if there’s anything out there.” he said as they prepared to move.
Sometime later and north of their temporary camp, the five hunters dismounted from their horses. They hadn’t seen anything so far, nothing moved in the snow it seemed.
“We’ll leave them here” he said referring to the horses, “and go on foot for a while, tie them to these trees if we kick the snow away at least they can get something to eat.” He said brushing the deep snow aside with his boot where he had tied Staro, they all did the same. Having secured their mounts they moved off following Varro, he and two others carrying bows. They crunched through the snow and entered a wooded area and eventually came to a clearing. They stood still for a moment and listened but all that achieved was tingling feet. Varro was about to give up when the briefest of movement caught his eye.
“There,” He whispered crouching, the others following his gaze, “can you see anything?” He asked. Brenna strained her eyes looking in the direction he was now pointing towards, “What was it, I can’t see anything moving?”
“A deer, I just caught it’s white tail against its back as it moved away to the left.” He said now whispering. “Follow me slowly.” He lifted his feet carefully and walked forward, the virgin snow was softer here but still made a slight crunching noise in their footfalls. Instinctively they all began crouching as they moved searching the cold white woods. Varro found the deer’s hoof prints and waved the others on grinning. A short time later he saw that the prints got longer with more space between the front and rear hooves.
“It looks like it started to run here.” He looked around. “Something may have startled it, maybe it picked up our scent.”
Brenna examined the prints and whispered, “It’s the only thing we’ve seen since we left.” She looked up following the direction of their quarries travel. “If it sensed us, it will be long gone, if it was something else that startled it,” she looked around, “we could be in trouble.”
Varro looked into her dark eyes and then about at the ground around them, he indicated with his hand for them to crouch lower. Pointing to his eyes he looked at Decimus and directed that he should advance to an outcrop where a tall oak stood with Marcus and to see if they could find anything. As the rest of them crouched lower still into the snow, they watched as the two soldiers moved to the area that Varro had indicated.
The woods were quiet, very quiet and Varro noticed that it had just stopped snowing. He kept his eyes on the men as they carefully made their way over fallen branches and through the grounded snow. Something wasn’t right, he didn’t know what it was but sensed something, as if he should be able to see what it was that had spooked the deer.
“This isn’t right.” He whispered to Brenna who was at his side. She didn’t look at him but kept scanning the woods to the front.
“There,” she said, pointing, “there’s something ahead of your men.” He looked to the direction indicated and frowned, Decimus and Marcus were still slowly moving away from them.
“I can’t see a thing I think this snow has……”
“Shhhhh,” she replied. “Look at Decimus and then go right and up, there’s something darker in the trees on the bank near that outcrop.” He moved his head towards her to try and get a better view.
“It’s not natural, not a part of the wood.” She said slowly placing an arrow on her bow.
He moved his head forward and strained, “I can’t see a……wait, yes I can see it now.” He looked at Decimus and Marcus who were oblivious to the danger. They still had their backs to them but had reached the oak and had gone to ground. Whatever was waiting there in the trees must have had a clear view of them as they had approached.
“I can hit it from here.” Brenna said sighting the arrow to the small target about eighty paces ahead of them. Varro looked at his men Decimus turned and saw that he was holding a fist up. He angled his wrist to the right and Decimus tapped Marcus on the shoulder and both of them got as low as they could. Decimus had recognised the signal and knew there was danger ahead of them to the right.
“Wait we don’t know what it is, there could be more hidden beyond the trees.” He said but she didn’t lower the bow, he realised he was now talking as if the mysterious object were the enemy. He turned to Lucius, “Go back and come around to the left,” he said pointing, “let’s see if we can surprise whoever or whatever it is. Take my bow just in case.” Lucius nodded and picked up the weapon and quiver and moved off. Varro looked back to the front and saw that Brenna had released the pressure on the bow string but still held the arrow ready. He could hardly see Decimus and Marcus now, they must be lying flat he thought.