Owein begins the difficult journey to Rome with the other slaves and very attentive Master.
Gladiator - Part 15: All Roads Lead to Rome
by Amalaric
Series: Gladiator
The arduous march south seemed to go on forever. Slogging across the endless Cisalpine plain below needle sharp mountains that seemed to form the spine of the world, onward through rolling country of vast farming estates unimaginably rich; the vine and any number of crops flourished under the sun as if Italia were some kind of paradise...but it wasn't, at least not for the likes of Owein of the Atebates. Throughout the journey, the young barbarian rigidly observed an important habit- to carefully mark the way for his undoubted return trip home and (in his dreams) also the way back again...at the head of a pillaging army whooping blood lust for vengeance. Owein was young and strong and still full of visions. The Romans would pay dearly for what they had done to him...were still doing...and the brutal reality always intruded like a worm twisting rot in an otherwise healthy tree causing the blond barbarian to sob- wracking, desperate, nearly forlorn for the tattered shreds of his carefully hoarded dignity and, for that reason, his tears fell in utter silence. This was especially true on the evenings when the senator's eldest son ordered the presence of the muscular new slave in his tent.
And so the days numbering the long journey south sore on in dreary monotony; Owein usually kept buck naked by the oggling young master and walked like a dog attached to a leather leash. His golden tan deepened over the shifting suppleness of lithe muscles even as his fair hair blazed with a paler brightness. Sextus Varus amused himself with petty humiliations, not sparing the goad or lash even though neither was necessary. He enjoyed tormenting the young barbarian who had rapidly become his favorite slave and he secretly disapproved of his father's plan to train Owein as a gladiator, fearing the wasteful death of the handsome male animal. Well, in these last days before arriving in the City...he would have his enjoyment. Turning toward Owein, naked under the sun and glistening with a light sheen of sweat, the senator's son smiled broadly, 'I will have you this evening in my tent, boy...I think a bit earlier that usual.'