The Tempest

[Chevi]

"Just hurry up."  

She was scared and in pain, so he let the orders slide. Not that he could do anything differently, even if he did heed her orders. He was already doing the best he could. At the suggestion of pulling on her dress, however, she snapped around to give him an utterly horrified look. Oh, gods.

"No. If you need to bandage it, bandage it over my dress, if you need the material, use your own tunic. Or- Actually just leave it - just leave it, the bleeding will stop and y-you have your own wounds to tend." 

"Are you serious?" he blinked at her, shaking his head. The moss was still wet in his hand. "Look here, girl, I can either bandage you properly, or I can wait till you pass out from the blood loss and then bandage you properly. Your call. Make it quick." 

@Sara

 

[Sara]

"I'm not a girl," She snapped and then it came to her in a fit of panic and the words tumbled over her lips before she had a chance to think of the implications; "I'm your better and my husband will hear of this." A husband. An ominous shadowy figure to threaten him with. A father might have done the trick but she needed him to believe her both mature and spoken for. A slight against a fictitious man that owned her body and mind might do better than reminding him she was the daughter of one of the most important men in Rome. 

"So no," She said stubbornly and still clung to the shoulder of her dress, although he was right and she was feeling fainter by the moment, "I'm not going to b-bare myself to you. Pass me the bandage and I can do it myself-" She held out her good hand for the fabric, if she could tuck it under her dress out of his sight, then he could tie it at the back. That was the problem with slaves and plebs - they just didn't use their minds.

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"I'm not a girl. I'm your better and my husband will hear of this."

Oh, for fuck's sake.

Better? Really? The girl likely couldn't even swim. Fucking patricians. 

"Your husband won't hear shit if you bleed out."

"So no, I'm not going to b-bare myself to you. Pass me the bandage and I can do it myself-" 

Option B it was, then. Lucius sighed, handing her the end of the strip of fabric. Twisting herself around like that, none of it was going to hold well. But he kept pressure on the moss anyway. Gods, this was ridiculous.

@Sara

[Sara]

She snatched the fabric and didn't dignify his words with a response. A fictitious husband had seemed a good idea at the time but now felt like a foolish mistake, but she'd said it now and there was no way to take it back. Instead she concentrated on the task with as much dignity and grace as she could muster. Which was absolutely none.

She held the front of her dress apart from her skin as best as she could and slipped the fabric inside - wrapping it over her breast and then under her arm, trying her best to work the fabric strip around so he could grab it, under her dress on her back from where the chiton had ripped around the wound. She managed it - just - but she was shaking by the time she was finished, breathless and pale as a ghost. Everything hurt and she leant her head down on her knees, trying to stop the nausea and concentrate on staying awake. She couldn't faint - she didn't want to give him the satisfaction. 

"Just please  hurry up," She murmured although whether he could hear her from her head in her knees was another question, "I just want to sleep." And have a bath, and wrap herself in blankets and brush her hair and find her slaves and eat something and drink. A drink. She'd swim to Athens for a glass of wine. 

 

TAG: @Chevi

 

[Chevi]

"Just please  hurry up. I just want to sleep." 

Lucius huffed. She was not sleepy, she was faint from the blood loss. He did his best to work with what she allowed him, tying the bandages as much as he could to hold pressure on the wound, but it was awkward at best. But maybe...

"Yes, alright. You should lie down. On your back." That way, she'd be still, and the moss would stay in place, pressing on the wound. Making the best of a bad situation. Lucius touched her shoulder, hoping to help with the process.

@Sara

[Sara]

She flinched and moved a hand to bat off his fingers from her shoulder. The fear of being stranded here was being rapidly outweighed by her growing discomfort at being stranded with him. Still, she knew he was right and she did need to lie down...before she fell down. She nodded and pushed herself to stand - wobbling from side to side like a piece of fabric caught in a breeze. 

She took a few tentative steps to a grass patch a hundred or so yards up the beach near a small crop of trees. It seemed to take an age for her to get there - but she stubbornly asked for no help, instead just concentrating on each single step as she took it. When her toes finally curled into the grass she let out a sob of relief and lowered herself to sit, before lying out. The shade cooled her down again though - although she was no longer trembling. She swallowed and cast her eyes about to see if he'd followed, calling out; "What is your plan, Lucius? Now you have tended me like a medicus? Y-you're bleeding yourself." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

She shook off his hand, and then walked herself to a patch of grass nearby. She had chosen the most difficult option, but at least finally she was lying down. Lucius followed her.

"What is your plan, Lucius? Now you have tended me like a medicus? Y-you're bleeding yourself." 

"I'll be fine." he had scrapes and cuts, but nothing too serious. Once Ovinia was settled on the grass by a grove of trees, Lucius undid his belt and shrugged out of his soaked tunica, hanging it on the branches. It left him in nothing but his subligaculum, but he honestly did not care. "My plan is to go down to the shore and see if anyone else has made it. And then I'll start a fire, and see if I can find some food. What's your plan?"

@Sara

 

[Sara]

Her eyes found him as he drew nearer and muttered that he was fine. "You had better be." she remarked blandly, peering up at him. She didn't want him here - he made her feel deeply uncomfortable, but she also needed him. Just as she was a burden to him, she'd be dead in days without him. She had no idea what to do. 

"I-" she slammed her mouth shut as he started to undress. And then it happened. She let out the most un-virtuous, embarrassing squeak as he pulled the tunic up over his head. She turned her face away, blushing furiously and staring up into the canopy of the trees. Undignified brute. He seemed more intent on needling her though, than acting on her in his state of undress which was something of a relief. She still shifted a little bit further away from him and resolutely refused to look in his direction. She'd seen plenty of shirtless men before; family members, slaves, gladiators, naked slaves at the market...but never this close and never alone. "I would think water would take precedence over food." She shot back and her fingers fiddled awkwardly in the grass, twisting bunches up and snapping them off, "I'll find some when...I feel less tired." How one found water was anybody's guess but she at least knew you weren't supposed to drink sea water. Thank Gods the man on the first boat had told her that. 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

The sound she made before she turned red and looked away from him was amusing. Lucius, despite being hurt and exhausted, grinned. It was half a miracle she still had enough blood to blush like that.

"Relax, Ovinia Camilla. We are in Greece. Being naked is normal around here." And he was not completely naked anyway. Gods, these patrician girls.

"I would think water would take precedence over food... I'll find some when...I feel less tired." 

"You are actually right" he arched an eyebrow at her. "I'll try to find some. You stay here and try not to bleed out."

The sun was high in the sky before he returned. He'd gone down to the beach, but found no one else living; a few bodies, some wreckage. Part of a sail. He carried the latter, and some dry driftwood, back to the small clearing.

@Sara

[Sara]

"For people like you, perhaps. I don't think even the Greeks let women as respectable as me walk around naked." She shot back with a glare at the trees overhead. Idiot. He was doing it to provoke her and make her feel embarrassed, she was sure of it. Or...or maybe he was doing it to see her reaction. A married woman would have been intimate with a man and so not nearly as provoked as a maiden. She furiously looked his way and met his eyes with a challenging glare of her own. It didn't occur to her that he had undressed simply because he was soaked through. 

"I can go-" She protested but he was already striding off down the beach as she called out. She had wanted to be useful but almost immediately as he strutted off, her eyes had drifted shut and she fell into a fitful slumber. She only woke up again at the clattering sound of wood being deposited down seriously close to her head. The cooler had returned to her cheeks by the time he drew closer and the bleeding and trembling had stopped - instead a whole body ache replaced it. She blinked twice to try and clear her vision and then tentatively pushed herself to sit. Gods her back hurt. 

"Success?" She asked and glanced his way only very briefly before adding; "Your tunica will be dry by now." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"For people like you, perhaps. I don't think even the Greeks let women as respectable as me walk around naked." 

"Suit yourself." If they really were on an uninhabited rock, politeness and customs were not going to matter much either way. He did not even ask what she meant by people like you.

When he returned, she seemed to be just waking up. She looked healthier, although not less worn.

"Success? Your tunica will be dry by now." 

"No one else alive" Lucius frowned. He put the firewood down and laid out the sheet of sail. He walked over to her to check the bandages; the blood seemed to have dried. "My tunica might be half dry, but yours is still wet. You're going to catch a cold. I'll go find some water and kindling... the rest is your call."

@Sara

[Sara]

Ovinia let out a sad sigh and swallowed. "They likely  got washed onto another part of wherever this is...or maybe not the whole boat sank? They could still be on it." She nodded to herself as if that was a likely conclusion. She was terribly naive sometimes and also desperate to preserve some sort of hope. If they found bodies floating in the water then they may very well conclude that nobody else had survived and cease their search...nobody would find them nobody would...Stop it, Ovinia! 

"Everything is my call." She mumbled but watched him go, disappearing into the trees behind them. It was summer and the heat was already burning what parts of her were exposed to the sun, but those bits in the shade were causing goosebumps on her arms. He was right - her tunica was soaked. She could either sit in the sun and let it dry off or...She cast a furtive glance at his tunica - hanging up on the tree. She bit her lip. It was unlikely water would be anywhere near here in her professional estimation of precisely zero experience, and so quickly - before she could lose her nerve she pushed herself up and wobbled to the tree, snatching down his tunica. She cast a glance into the trees. No sight of him. She did so three or four times before she was suitably convinced he was nowhere near and then hurriedly slipped down the shoulders of her chiton, watching it pool at her feet before dragging his tunica over her head. It swamped her and only came down just below her knees but it was warm and dry. She moved to hang her own sodden gown over a tree branch in the sun. She gasped at the pain in her shoulder.

By the time he returned she was sat on the grass, running her fingers through her hair as a makeshift comb as she began to braid it in one long plait. "Did you find water or are we to die of thirst?" She still didn't quite look at him as she spoke. She'd give his tunic back...eventually. When hers dried.

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"No it's not!" he called back over his shoulder. Honestly, until she proved herself to be useful to their immediate survival, none of it was her call. 

He returned some time later again, with kindling and smaller pieces of wood, to find Ovinia sitting on the grass, wearing his tunic.

"I am not putting on your dress" he noted with a smirk, settling down next to her. At least she was up, and drying now.

"Did you find water or are we to die of thirst?" 

"There is a spring further into the woods. We might move there since we have no pitcher to carry the water in." he nodded. "But I wanted to start a fire here first. Maybe someone will see the smoke before sunset."

@Sara

[Sara]

"It wouldn't fit you." She mumbled petulantly as she started to braid her hair into a neat plait. She made quick work of it, nimble fingers straightening out the strands until it was neat and presentable. Ovinia was nothing if not vain and she might be stranded on an island, half-drowned and in agony but she was still herself. She used a loop of fabric she'd torn from her dress to tie her braid and then threw it back over her shoulder. In the absence of a bath, this would have to do.

"They will." She offered and couldn't keep the hope out of her voice. She couldn't spiral. "Will your dominus' business not send ships looking for us?" She asked. Surely that was good business sense. "But as I said, my father or my husband will come searching I'm sure of it. There can't be that many places people would end up stranded, I'm sure they'll come." Naive. That was what she was. She moved to wrap her good arm around her knees and let out a soft sigh. She still didn't look at him properly. "What did you do on the ship?" It was polite to make conversation. 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"They will. Will your dominus' business not send ships looking for us?"

"I don't have a dominus." Did she think he was a slave? That would have explained the attitude. Lucius settled down, piling up kindling and dry grass, working on starting a fire. "And they won't look until we are due back. Maybe a few days later." Which was... more days than he cared to spend here alone with her.

"But as I said, my father or my husband will come searching I'm sure of it. There can't be that many places people would end up stranded, I'm sure they'll come."

Lucius huffed. He did not believe the same, but also did not want to shatter her hopes. So, he focused on selecting sticks to start a fire instead.

"What did you do on the ship?"

"I'm a sailor. Always have been. My whole family works on ships." he answered, concentrating on the kindling. "And you? Where were you headed? Without your father or husband?"

@Sara

[Sara]

Ovinia blinked. Oh. A pleb. Or a freedman, perhaps but they were almost one and the same. He didn't seem Greek though - still, for the benefit of him she switched to flawless Greek just in case; "Well then, we'll just have to wait." She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Besides, sooner or later I'm sure some fisherman will come along and help us." She was clinging, by a very, very small thread and she didn't want him to snap it. 

"That's a very...noble profession. Skilled, I mean." That was a very Ovinia-esque compliment but that was all she could muster. Sailors weren't exactly known for their manners and that made her warier. She glanced up at him with a slightly startled look and swallowed; "To visit my brother, he's a Tribune in Patara. I-My husband is in Athens with his mother," A blatant lie, "So I was going to join him on my way home and I-I'm not alone, I have a slave and a guard." Now lost to the sea but she didn't want to dwell on that. They might still show up. 

She gave him a curious look as he stacked the fire, feeling awkward that she could offer nothing of value to help. "Can you fish?" She asked. "I can cook." Which was all she was going to offer him. She had never actually cooked before, but how hard could it be?

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"Well then, we'll just have to wait. Besides, sooner or later I'm sure some fisherman will come along and help us." 

Perhaps. Lucius once again allowed her to hope, because he did not want to deal with her melting down. And honestly, something was bound to happen, sooner or later. It was a good sign the island had water. Some people, pirates at the worst, were likely to know about it.

Lucius was from Italia, but he spoke Greek well enough, thanks to his profession. He smirked, a little amused, and let her babble on.

"That's a very...noble profession. Skilled, I mean."

Blatant lie. Lucius worked on fashioning a small bow with some string, for the fire.

"To visit my brother, he's a Tribune in Patara. I-My husband is in Athens with his mother. So I was going to join him on my way home and I-I'm not alone, I have a slave and a guard."

Both dead, most likely. But at least she did not lose a family member in the wreck.

"Can you fish? I can cook." 

"I can probably fish better than you cook" he answered in Greek, setting up the fire bow and working on twisting the stick against the kindling. Starting a fire from scratch was hard work, but all sailors knew how to do it. He glanced up at her, watching him warily. "I know what you are thinking. It's written all over your face."

@Sara

 

[Sara]

"You could be nicer to me perhaps." She muttered and focused on picking grass off of her legs and feet, depositing it in a neat pile as he did all of the hard work. "I am trying to help, wounded as I am." She gave him a look and then immediately regretted looking in his direction. He really should put on some clothes. Then again...she was wearing his clothes. She leant and reached for her own dress...still damp. Dammit. 

She gave him a curious expression though and tilted her head to the side, stealing a few furtive glances at him before switching back to Latin. "What am I thinking? I suspect it's not what you think it is." She was mainly thinking about how thirsty she was, and how uncomfortable he made her and how much she wished to be back in the comfort of her domus. And of the way the muscle of his arm curved as he worked the bow.

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"You could be nicer to me perhaps. I am trying to help, wounded as I am." 

She wasn't. Which was fine, there was not much Lucius expected from a girl like her on a deserted island. The best he could hope for was for her not to hinder him, so they could both survive.

"What am I thinking? I suspect it's not what you think it is." 

"You are alone with a man like me on an island." Lucius stated, switching back to Latin too. "You look like you are ready to bolt and try to swim back to the mainland."

@Sara

[Sara]

She swallowed and her blood ran cold. She glanced out to the sea - lapping at the shore, white peaks of waves in the distance - and fixed her eyes on it. Yes, she was very much ready to bolt and his turn of phrase wasn't helping. A man like him indeed. 

"I know men like you." She swallowed, her mouth turning as dry as a desert. The men at the docks who whistled after her or reached out to try and grab her waist. Those that peered into her litter as she was carried through the backstreets of Rome. Those that wrote her name on the walls with drawings so crude she couldn't even look at them, underneath. "If you so much as touch me you will be strung up in the Forum by your toes. Do you understand me?" Of course, the Forum was a very long way from this rocky outcrop and nobody would hear of her woes if he did try anything. Still - the threat remained. 

"And I can swim." She said in a mutter, back still arrow straight and still alert, "If you do try anything. It can't be far to the next island." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"I know men like you. If you so much as touch me you will be strung up in the Forum by your toes. Do you understand me?" 

Lucius looked up, abandoning the fire starting for a moment to stare at her. That was rich, making threats like that in her current state. She was dressed in his tunica, after all.

"And I can swim. If you do try anything. It can't be far to the next island." 

Lucius let out an incredulous little laugh.

"You are free to try. But let's get something straight, Ovinia Camilla. I do not give a shit if you are the daughter of the Emperor of Parthia and married to Jupiter himself. You do not know anything about me. And you thinking you are better than me, for whatever reason, doesn't make me an animal."

@Sara

[Sara]

His laugh sharpened her eye upon him and she fixed him with a slightly afraid stare. No, she didn't know anything about him, no, she didn't think he was an animal but..."Men don't have to be animals to touch a woman. It's just what you do." She offered. Even her brothers - high-flying, Senatorial boys treated their slaves and the women of the city like their personal playthings. Ovinia was under no illusions that a sailor would be any different. Indeed, he was probably a great deal worse.

"As long as you are clear," She continued with a little huff of annoyance, "That there will be repercussions if you do try, then that is fine. I shall stay an arms length away at all times and you shall do likewise." She nodded, content with her plan. "And if you wish to enlighten me about yourself, you're welcome to. Who are you then, Lucius?" 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"Men don't have to be animals to touch a woman. It's just what you do." 

Oh, gods. Lucius rolled his eyes. "What kind of men have you been spending time with?..."

Patricians, clearly. Lucius had enough friends and acquaintances who were born from slaves and their masters to know how common that was.

"As long as you are clear. That there will be repercussions if you do try, then that is fine. I shall stay an arms length away at all times and you shall do likewise. And if you wish to enlighten me about yourself, you're welcome to. Who are you then, Lucius?" 

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. If I am ever to touch you that way, you will be asking me to do it." he smirked, turning his attention back to the fire. Lucius was a lot of things, but he was confident in his abilities. "Men like me don't have to force women to do anything. Sorry if your husband's different." Many husbands probably were. It only occurred to him after he said the words that it might actually be true, and he had the decency to look sheepish about it. "I told you. I'm a sailor."

@Sara

[Sara]

Ovinia was grateful she didn't have a drink because she would have spat it out at his words. Instead she flushed read and snapped; "Mind your words!" She'd never spent an extended period of time with somebody quite so...frank. Or improper. And now she was stranded, for the Gods knew how long with only him for company. This was undoubtedly torture sent from the heavens. 

"I-" she choked at his words and couldn't even get out a sentence. Fury overtook her and she pushed herself to stand. His sheepish words and look of contrition didn't do much to help her feel better. Instead she wobbled as she stood and cast down a look of pure anger at him. "I'm going for a walk. I don't wish to spend time with a man who implies my husband forces me into his bed. Or even a man who thinks about me in bed. Finish the fire," She snapped, "And put on some clothes. Take a tunic from one of the dead." And with that she walked off. Her steps, until she disappeared into the treeline were a purposeful stride but after that she slowed to a shuffling gait, feeling pain inch everywhere across her body. She felt in agony, and wrung out. Maybe it would have been better to drown.

She found the spring a few paces later and sat down next to it with a groan of pain and a sniff as she tried to keep the tears in her eyes. It was a small shallow pool and a spring of fresh water dribbling into it. She cupped her hands and took a sip, and then another. She was parched. When she was satiated she moved to lie on her back and before she could stop it, she started to cry. 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"Mind your words!" 

Oh she was properly pissed now. Probably because of his words, but also because he did not listen to her orders at all.

"I- I'm going for a walk. I don't wish to spend time with a man who implies my husband forces me into his bed. Or even a man who thinks about me in bed. Finish the fire. And put on some clothes. Take a tunic from one of the dead."

"I do not take orders from you!" he called after her as she walked off into the grove. He was not a slave, and he was certainly not her servant. And he was also not the one blushing in all kinds of ways.

Lucius continued working on the fire. Eventually, smoke began to form, then small flames sprang up, and soon he had a proper campfire going. The sun was high and the weather was hot, so he did not need the warmth, but he did toss some green sticks on the flames to create more smoke. If they had clear weather for a few days, they had a better chance at being rescued.

Lucius looked down on the beach. Seagulls were gathering around the dead bodies. They were going to start decomposing in the heat. Ovinia was right about one thing; he had to take what he could, and then cover the bodies from the scavengers. He did not feel strong enough to do either. But he knew some of those people. So, he gathered his strength, and made himself walk back down to the beach.

@Sara