Aelius, the little spherical ball of light slowly orbited around Maximus’s shoulders. Whether or not the blue sun was inspecting him was up to interpretation.
Aelius himself, however, was considering the concept of injury. Himself, somewhat of an intangible ghostly apparition, did not himself experience this same quandary that his flesh-bodied friend encountered.
The injuries on the gladiator had healed and left pale patches of new skin in thin lines to match the once-battered man.
“So, Aelius, how is it you’ve come to be here?” Maximus inquired.
The small sun paused a moment before responding, as though giving the question some thought. “As I’ve said before, I do not know. This experience is… Different for me in many ways. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I do not look like you. Are you sure you do not recognize me?”
“I’m sure. In fact, you’re not like anything I have ever witnessed before. Yet, here you are, interacting with the world around you. It is very strange.” Maximus said with his own pensive pause. Surely, this unnamed creature was a god. Yet, this was not how gods were believed to act… Very strange indeed.
At that, Maximus had led the charge, they’d arrived on this realm together in an open field. They needed to gather intel, was it safe? No, the question remained on where was the danger? So far, no one had been around, Maximus had chosen a direction and led the duo straight across the golden field.
Eventually, they found a dirt road and began to walk upon it. Not knowing where it would take them, or who they would encounter on it. Maximus, at this insight, looked down at his blade and shield. Would it be enough to battle anything they came across? To protect the both of them?
The answer… It would have to be.
It could have been worse, so much worse. The gods could’ve blasted him into oblivion. Yet Maximus remained himself with his body and memory intact. Instead, the land they had appeared upon were much like ones that carried him to the threatening euphoria of nostalgia. He pushed this thought away, while the conversation continued and Maximus instinctively picked a direction on the dirt road to take.
“So, Maximus, are you from this land?” Aelius inquired as his floating gaze interpreted the holy sky above and the waves of barley below.
“I… Do not believe so. It does not smell of Rome, the air is different, it does not feel of Rome either. Though, I am familiar with farmland. This is not home to me.” Maximus announced with a pang of remorse.
“Smell… And… You search for home?” Aelius persisted, unaware he may have stricken a very human nerve.
Maximus’s expression faltered. After a while he answered, “My home was taken from me long ago. It is lost.”
“I see, so you too are seeking. Perhaps we shall find it together, as we arrived.” Aelius proposed. His voice remained calm and hummed in a chimy monotone.
Aelius and Maximus both took in the sprawling land before them. There was a forest nearing the horizon line, above the treeline lay the visage of a mystical mountain with a snow-crested peak. Maximus whistled in awe. “It seems this road will take us directly up there if we keep going straight. So far, there have been no maps, no road posts… With the sun in the sky, I daresay we have but a few hours til sundown. We could go back, make camp in the field or create a structure here.”
Aelius buzzed as though in consideration, however he was unfamiliar with the many concepts of the choices the human posed. “If you are curious, I shall find the closest life form and see if I can’t ask. However, I am aware the direction I need to go is quite a distance away, sometimes the direct shot is not always the best.” Aelius did not imply that traveling with someone who was limited by feet was less than ideal, and was rather happy to have a companion for his travels. In fact, it seemed as though it were meant to be this way. Fated, one might say.
“Ask? Just who are you going to ask?” Maximus laughed a bit, they’d been traveling for at least several miles. The day was coming to a close.
“Why, those beings coming through the road there,” Aelius tilted his spherical shape forward with indication.
Immediately, Maximus perked up his ears and heard the distant rumble of multiple somethings dredging up much of the dirt into a cloud of sediment. Maximus quickly dipped out of sight with a splash of leafage, the man hid within the brambles and behind the side of a large tree.
Aelius, however, was not familiar with the concept of danger and remained floating in the road. Maximus saw that the little orb’s glow had not followed and it was too late to ‘psst’ him down. Instead, the man watched very closely at what happened next.
The barrage of a few different vehicles and means of transport, a large caravan continued down the road. Aelius took off with them, following their momentum and speed. The blue light buzzed a few more times and then swirled back to Maximus in a comet-like fashion, whilst the group of beings that Maximus hadn’t been able to get a good look at continued down the road at racing speeds. Too far in the distance to flag them down now.
“I have returned!” Aelius jubilantly announced. “They did not want me to disturb them, but offered a few morsels of information. We are in a land called the Hinterlands. It seems that beyond this forest is a settlement, which is where they came from. They did not say how far it was, however, nor where they were going.”
Maximus raised his brows. This information was useful. His eyes shone with consideration. “I think it best to follow their tracks. They appeared well-stocked. The town cannot be that far away. We shall find answers there.”
Aelius’s light dimmed a bit, the starlike god did not feel he needed answers in the same way a human’s rationale might work. However, Aelius nodded as though his entire spherical form were his disembodied head.
“I must ask, Maximus, what answers do you intend to find at their settlement?” Aelius inquired.
“We’ll find out where we are, what type of people are here… The survivability of the land… General information. If this is land at war, or host to hateful people. We will be able to find out all about it. Based on the hearsay of what people say in town, by seeing how they act. We will find out who they are.” Maximus pronounced in a way he hoped helped the amnesiac spirit.
“I see…” Aelius considered this.
Maximus gazed up at the sky, now smothered in the shade of twilight. “It is night now. Seems our decision has been made for us. We will make camp here and maybe create a small shelter.”
“Shelter?” Aelius felt his mind perk up at the thought. “If it is that you desire, we are fortunate. If we venture about a hundred yards that way, we shall find some.”
“How is it you know this?” The gladiator inquired, recalling back to the moments before the road’s rumble indicated the rampage of travelers upon it.
“Do you not see that far in the distance?” Aelius inquired curiously.
“Uh… It is growing dark and there are many trees blocking my path.” Maximus surmised, eyeing what he knew to be a god curiously. Perhaps, it was a gods’ duty to come to that realization on their own. A dilemma Maximus didn’t have time to ponder as he made his way through the forest, snapping on branches, gnarled roots under his feet and leaves swishing beneath his stride.
At last, right as complete darkness shrouded them and Aelius became the only light casting on the ruins of a once strong structure. The decrepit shelter appeared in a parting of the forest made up of different sized stones stacked upon one another, now fallen inward in a tumble of time.
Aelius bubbled around the structure, weaving in between a hollowed window and a few of the walls that now had partial holes in them. “My apologies. I thought it might offer more refuge than it seems to. There is at least what remains of a ceiling?”
Maximus looked up at the rotting wood quizzically then down at the blue sun. “It is far better than we could’ve done on any short notice, thank you.”
The gladiator looked around, finding a cozy looking spot in the corner of the building and after gathering a few supplies of wood and dry brush he sat down, putting to rest his aches after a day of travel in his armor and on his feet. He exhaled a grand sigh and began to spark stone against stone hoping that a spark would dance into fire.
