Fifty eight Romans, three hundred seventy two Valparta, and no way back. That’s what a quick head count had shown us. In addition, the scene before us lit the cavern in a ghastly scarlet light, and the cold of netherworld winds chilled us to the bone.
We were seriously lost without any real idea of how to get back to the tunnel we had so quickly departed. There was certainly no returning through what Tummi had called the Eye.
I, for one, had no real idea how the thing worked and Tummi was not giving out any more information on the subject. So there we stood; four hundred and thirty lost souls with the depths of damnation beckoning before us. Things couldn’t get any worse. Right?
As we stared at the alien scene spread out before us I began to notice subtle changes.
There was movement out there. Everyone else had caught on to the same fact as Titans and Valparta stood up en masse, grabbing weapons and shields.
Just great, I thought. Here we go again!
I signaled for a battle line and both groups formed up with surprising coordination. One would have thought that Romans and Furries had been doing this together all their lives.
On the red plain stretched out before us, scarlet warriors began to line up in their own formations. They appeared to be sporting serious body armor lined with spikes, and helms looking like something out of Pluto’s legions. A seemingly endless stream of warriors took their positions in the line and I began to wonder just how many we were facing. Thousands at the least.
Meanwhile, my troops were in position and ready for what was beginning to look like a last stand. Slowly, with ever increasing speed, the enemy lines began to move forward as we gripped our weapons and prayed to whatever gods we knew.
Then, just as the enemy horde began to march across the threshhold of the Eye, the scene went black.
Yup.
The whole scene with it’s advancing army just disappeared. There we were, staring at a rock wall, with the empty arch of the Eye standing against it. That’s when I saw the small figure of a Valparta standing over by a lower section of the Eye, waving happily in our direction. It was Tummi! I quickly stomped my way over to the Eye and gave the Furry my best basilisk glare.
“Why didn’t you turn this thing off earlier?”
Tummi gave me the best innocent look I’d ever seen.
“Not my job. Gate keeper missing. Saw, and did what I had to do.”
I nodded my head and ruffled his fur. Tummi had acted with surprising calm in the face of certain death. That army couldn’t have been more than a foot away from him when they began to come through. Meanwhile, the troops had begun to settle back down while warily eyeing the empty gate.
We had dodged another crisis in true Roman style.
There was still the matter, however, of what to do next. It was patently obvious that the only way we were going to find our lost comrades was to go forward through the cavern and into another unknown. I was sure Tummi and his people knew a lot of my missing answers, but it had become clear that they would tell us in their own good time. It wouldn’t be the only time I found myself missing Caesar and his common sense.
The Roman View 
[…] Chapter XXIII […]