Summer Showers

[Sharpie]

"Now, why would anyone call you shy?" Rufus asked, lightly. "I mean, you can see why I was named Rufus - it means redhead." He ran a hand through the dark red of the hair he'd been named for as he spoke. "But of course you prefer your own name."

It worked, in Latin, the way any other feminine noun worked, after all. But some Romans just had to go and prove who was in charge, even to the extent of renaming a slave who had nothing else they could claim as their own.

He glanced up at the sky as Erea mentioned that the rain had stopped. It had, and he hadn't even noticed.

"It'll rain again. Jupiter willing, we might even get a thunderstorm to break this awful heat," he said, and wondered which of her gods was responsible for the weather.

She was jostled against him and he put his arm around her again to steady her. "I can walk with you, if you like - even a little way, if you want company. These crowds are... Horrible."

He swallowed the vulgarity he'd wanted to use as they stepped away from the stall, allowing others to take their place at the counter.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

"A thunderstorm..." She grinned, "Taranis willing!" She nudged him with her hip with a smile. Taranis had always been one of her favourite Gods and Goddesses, and she'd always delighted in the howling winds and bright bursts of lightening from her home.  She'd missed it sorely in Rome and the rumble in the distance made her breathe more easily. 

She blinked, distracted by the crowds and the promise of a storm, until he placed an arm around her waist and she offered a light smile at his offer. "As long as you promise it no take you out your way." She glanced around and stepped back, but moved away from his supportive hand. Her newfound relationship with Tertius was sore enough for her, and she certainly didn't want word getting back to him that a man was seen touching her body in the market - even if it was utterly innocent. 

She gestured with her head to lead them away from the throng of people and began walking the familiar route back to the domus, invigorated by this chance encounter and her hour in the thermae earlier that day. She was in a good mood, for once. "Does your dominus not want you near to him all the time?" She asked with an arched brow, "Domine's body slave Hector is always with him..." Unless I take his place in bed, she thought sourly.

 

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[Sharpie]

"I told you I don't get out much," Rufus said, allowing her to duck out from under his arm. "My master wants me with him nearly all the time, so it's nice to get out when he lets me - it won't harm me to have a walk around Rome a bit. I'm with him all the time when I'm at home, unless he's out somewhere."

It was nice to have a walk, though the streets of Rome weren't the groves and countryside around his old master's villa.

"Taranis? I don't think I know of him - my mother liked Sulis, that the Romans call Minerva. That's Minerva's temple, up there." He indicated one of the temples above them on the Capitoline.  "I told you about my mother, I think - she came from Britannia, like you. I got my hair from her." He grinned. "I look British, and sound Roman!"

 

@Sara

[Sara]

"God of thunder," Charis explained afterwards but glanced up to follow his hand up to one of the monstrously large temples the Romans seemed intent on building everywhere. She shook her head, "I do not know Sulis," She clarified, "We have lots of Gods and Goddesses, and different tribes like different ones." She explained. Hadn't he said his mother's tribe at some point? It escaped her, but she knew it wasn't her own. "Condatis my favourite, he is God of our rivers." And she always felt his power, at home (their tribe and settlement near the shores of the Humber). 

She looked him over at his description of himself and laughed as they walked the quieter streets. The rumble of thunder in the distance raised the hairs on her neck. 

Grinning, she arched a brow; "Maybe I should teach you our words, so if any Britons try and talk to you, thinking you one of us, you understand." She had found Latin surprisingly easy to master but had no idea if her own words would be difficult to learn. Evidently not too difficult, as the Romans that were encamped at Petuar had picked up a few from memory. Glancing at him she smiled, "There lots of Britons here, I made good friend with one - she's from tribe next to mine." Actually, from the tribe that encircled hers but the Parisii had bigger fish to fry now than the expansion of the Brigantes. "If we had free time to ourselves, I'd introduce you." But what slave could reasonably say they did?

 

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[Sharpie]

A slave belonged to their master, therefore the slave's time belonged to their master. Rufus had time to himself today, but probably would not have a similar opportunity again soon. He gave a one-shouldered shrug at Erea's last words, which could be nothing more than wishful thinking.

"I would have the worst accent," he said lightly, making a joke at his own expense. He glanced at the sky as another rumble of thunder indicated the coming storm. 

"We have river gods too, but where I lived, we just had a stream. I wish I could show you - Italia is a very pretty place, not like Rome." He missed the sea, and the hills with their umbrella pines. Maybe his new master would have a villa in the country and would take Rufus with him when he went there. If he went there.

"I would like to learn. I could teach you some Greek? Though I know you're still learning Latin, so maybe that would be too much?"

 

@Sara

[Sara]

She wrinkled her nose at the idea this country was pretty. She'd been too tired and ill to really appreciate the surroundings of her journey much once she had lost the child in Gaul. Still, she nodded with a little sigh; "I miss pretty. Britannia very pretty." She asserted with a little shrug, "More in north where I from than south where your mother from," She said with a good natured grin: "Lots of forests and mountains and lakes, and beautiful sea." Granted the coast of her tribe wasn't the most beautiful but she'd been fortunate that in her youth her father had taken the family to visit his cousins (and potential trading partners) to the North with the Textoverdi and south with the Iceni, whose coasts were both majestic. 

At his suggestion she should learn Greek she scoffed with a little smile but then added proudly: "Still learning yes, but it is much better." She enunciated the words carefully, trying to limit her accent. It really had come on in leaps and bounds, and her vocabulary was excellent although her grasp of the grammar left a bit to be desired. 

The heavens cracked with thunder a little way off and Charis breathed deeply before continuing the conversation as rains tarted to drizzle and then pour: "You see," She pulled the plain but serviceable tunic from her waist and then touched her hair in its up-do, "They making me into perfect Roman lady." The rain was pouring now, threatening to drench them and she gasped as a drop rolled down her back. "We should go," She glanced up. The sky had darkened to an ominous grey, "Otherwise we drown." She grinned.

 

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[Sharpie]

"I suppose we all think of our own home as being the best and most beautiful place," Rufus mused. How he missed his own! "And miss it even more because we didn't have a choice about leaving it."

He hadn't been brought here as a prisoner from wherever, having lived his former life as a free man, so he hadn't had that added trauma on top as Erea had, but he could sympathise with her over the loss of her family and having been brought here against her will.

"The hills and their umbrella pines, and the beautiful blue of the Mare Nostrum," he said, starting to feel maudlin. He might see all of those again; his new master most certainly had a country villa somewhere, maybe even at Baiae, which was very nearly home, and with Rufus now in the position of body slave, he wasn't likely to be left behind when Octavius Flavius Alexander decided to go to his country villa. 

He was not mean and did not say so to Erea, who was much less likely to return to the vicinity of her own home.

He pulled her into the slim shelter of a nearby wall. "I can't walk all the way home with you," he told her, wishing that he could. "Will you find it all right?"

 

@Sara

[Sara]

She listened with an appreciative smile to his description. How similar it sounded, although one one would need to swap out pine trees for grand old oak trees and the beautiful blue of the sea to the slightly dark waters of the Humber, but it was her home and it would always be beautiful to her. 

She glanced up at the sky though, with an impish grin. "Yes, yes I finally learnt how to get back." The first few months she'd largely spent wandering around in trial and error until she found the domus, but she'd perfected it now. The crack of lightening produced a few shrieks and screeches from children sprinting past them, cowering from the rain and she grinned, letting go of a tightly held breath. It felt like home.

But she knew she needed to get back and quickly, before she could think, she had wrapped Rufus in a hug. He had been sweet, he was sweet and Fortuna had smiled on her today to bring him into her path. "Be safe Rufus, and maybe I see you again." She said as she pulled back, before wagging a finger at him, "And don't forget to write if you get chance." 

Before he could say much more, however, she had left. People were barreling down the streets at full pelt trying to get out of the biblical rain but Charis too her time, savouring it. She must have looked quite mad, and quite drowned by the time she reached the domus.

 

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[Sharpie]

Rufus returned her hug, but allowed her to step back without clinging to her.

"Stay well, Erea, Charis. And I will," he said, and swept wet hair out of his face as she left. He watched her go before turning to find his own way home, sure that he looked like a drowned rat. He just hoped he could get into a dry tunic and get the worst of the wet out of his hair before his master needed him 

It had been good to see Erea again,  and he hoped that he might have some good news for her the next time they met.

 

End