A dream:

Its cold, dark, a constant pain from the burns on your hands and face. There is no fire going and while you have a bed roll, without any other heat source even with the blackened shield on top of you for added warmth the cold passes right through you and seems to go all the way to your bones. Sleep does not come as swiftly as you would like as exhaustion breathes heavy in your mind. Every sound of the forest brings with it a striking fear, every rustle of leaves brings with it an impending sense of dread. The moon has been up for quite some time before the embrace of sleep finds you. Your eyes shoot open and you jolt upright. The sun is coming up and there is enough light to see clearly. Every part of you hurts, muscles sore and bones ache from the constant cold of the night. And sleeping in armor didn’t do you any good either. You quickly break down camp, load your pack, and start moving. The gnawing pains of hunger fill your belly and sips from your water skin do little to satiate them.

Half a day of walking seems to pass in a moment as you stop to rest at the side of a small stream of water coming down from the hills above. You try to keep close to the trees but the stream itself is fairly open. You make your way over to the water and drop the water skin in, the water feels cool against the blisters on the backs of your hands as the vessel begins to fill with water. You take some water and splash it on your face and try your best to gently wash the burned skin on your face and hands. You hear a noise in the distance and you turn quickly toward it. There is a crunching sound and a sick wet sound as you feel a sharp pain in your thigh. You look down and see the shaft of an arrow sticking out of the side of it at a slight angle. You hold the screams of pain in quickly pull the shield from the ground to guard the side that the arrow came from. There is now recognizable thwack of the release of the string as another arrow is set loose. You are kneeling behind the shield as another arrow makes impact with it. You painfully stretch out your leg to get a good look at the wound. It appears to have pierced through your armor and imbedded itself in the bulk of the side of the leg. You grab ahold of the arrow and as you do another streak of pain courses through you causing you to instinctively release the arrow. You shake it off and once more grab ahold of the shaft, the pain come again but you push through and quickly snap off the end of the shaft that is sticking out. Leaving only a small nub of wood sticking out. Another arrow impacts the wood of the shield with a crack. It won’t stand up to this kind of punishment forever. You slowly start to limp back towards the treeline. You are talking loudly to yourself as you shuffle backwards. You move until you come to rest on a tree and using it and the shield are able block most of the front and side of you. You take out a small dagger from your side and start to lift up the layers of armor trying to jostle the arrow as little as possible. Little winces of pain still shoot through you causing your hands to shake and jump a little with each such movement. You cut a slit in the cloth of your pants and start to feel around the bleeding wound with your fingers. The crimson liquid feeling almost sticky as it pours out around your fingers as they dig around to either side of the shaft. You can’t feel the arrowhead with the fingers and revert to using the blade of the dagger stuck into your own leg to try to understand the shape and side of the arrowhead lodged in you. You run the blade carefully along the shat trying to do no more damage, although you know for sure that undoubtedly it is causing you harm. But leaving it in just isn’t an option you can’t move like this without it tearing up the muscle. A few more excruciating seconds and you find that there don’t appear to be any barbs on the arrow. That explains how it so easily made it through the armor but it wouldn't be too difficult to remove. Not difficult but painful beyond your wildest imaginings as you very quickly found out. With one quick movement you pulled the damned thing free, a muffled scream escaping your lips as stared at it for a second before tossing it aside. You stand, a bit easier than when you shuffled your way over here but the pain wasn’t stopping and neither was the small stream of blood dripping steadily out of you. You take up the shield and start backing away from the direction that the arrows had come from originally. You have to hide. The canopy of the trees quickly gives you cover from view and you can hear noise coming from the distance as your attacker starts to close the distance. You can see the trail of blood that you are leaving, drawing a straight line from the waters edge right up to where you are currently standing. That isn’t gonna be hard to track.

You make your way back a short distance more and you look all around. There has to be some place to hide. Some way to get away. Whatever attacked you is coming to finish the job. You can hear heavy footfalls in the not so distance and you can feel your own heart beating, not only from the thudding in your ears but from the surging of blood from your leg. You think for a second then quickly make your way to a small stocky bush. If this is gonna work you have to work fast. You drop your pack and pull out your blanket from your bedroll and cut a large piece of it off. You leave your pack propped up against this bush and start to slam your shield down into the ground trying to get the bottom lip to sink just a little into the earth. You then lean it against the pack and bush and you let go of it. The large black rectangle stands freely without moving. You look it over, the red and yellow paint that had once graced the front were now only blackened char. You take your sword out and with the grip of it give the shield a good smack. It shakes slightly but stays upright, that will have to do. You take the blanket piece and quickly tie it around your leg to stop the bleeding or at least absorb the blood temporarily. You leave the items here and start moving at an angle towards the approaching sound. You duck behind a large tree just 40 feet or so from the shield and wait. A few seconds pass and two orcs appear out of the brush. Both have bows, they don’t appear to be wearing armor and one has the carcass of a rabbit tied to his waist, hunters maybe. They are following the blood trail not at all slowly and once they spot the shield in the distance they both lower themselves and start to walk slowly and quietly each readying an arrow. One is moving in your direction while the other is moving off in the other. Then all at once they both fire. The arrow impact and the shield once again stays standing, As they watch the impact and reach for another arrow you make your move. You jump out from behind the tree and in a few bounds you are nearly on top of the surprised orc. Before the second arrow even makes it to nock both your swords have found his belly, a quick twist on each and the creature begins to slump to the ground. The wounds aren’t instantly fatal and the creature begins to scream. His companion turns and once his ally falls sees you standing where he fell. You see the bow leveled in your direction. You start for the creature, He releases the arrow, and with a shock you feel it impact your shoulder. Again searing burning pain as it buries itself in your flesh. You take the shot in stride and do your best to press on, you have no choice if he gets a good shot you are done for. You keep after him the orc goes for another arrow and has it up at you just as you reach him. He releases the arrow and you are so close the shear movement back and forth in your stride is enough to cause the arrow to fly errant. A quick slash of the blade and the string is severed on the bow and the wood of it snaps apart. The creature is already going for a dagger at his waist. You stab again with your off hand but it doesn’t go as deep as you would like. You have pinned the creatures hand to its body, the dagger clasped in it’s grip. You go to pull the blade free to attack again and your arm doesn’t seem to respond to its full measure. The orc reaches out with his free hand and it finds your neck. You can feel your breath stuck in your throat as the creatures grip tightens. You left arm still holding the blade in his abdomen you try to cut at him with the other. The strength of the orc pulls you closer to him as is fingers wrap around your throat. You are too close you can’t get a good swing. Small pulling and pushing cuts are making some kind of impact on the side of the creature but they don’t appear to be diswading him at all. The world starts to shift to shades of grey and the edges of your vision start to disappear as if you are moving down a long hall. You lift the point up and start stabbing frantically. The world as a whole seems to start to fade. You keep stabbing or at least you think you are, you aren’t sure if any part of you is still moving. You feel yourself impact the ground. You gasp, air returns to you lungs and the world starts coming back into focus. You are looking up at the orc standing over you, You blade passing through his arm from underneath. His other arm being pinned keeps him from being able to remove it. You gasp once more, and again. You struggle to your feet and push the creature back against a tree, you slam your body into his driving the blade pinning his hand to his body further in. You back off and slam yourself into him again with all you have. You hear a crunch as the blade of the weapon finds wood. The body slowly begins to slump, pinned to the tree. You retrieve your weapons and make your way over to the first one, still rolling on the ground. A quick movement from your blade and its struggles cease. After returning to your pack you cut the blanket further and fashion a sling for yourself. Your left arm can still move but very painfully, and more movement risks more damage. You take the shield and sling it on your back once more.

Again time seems to slide by and you find yourself in front of a large set of wooden gates. You are just standing there not moving. The gates open. Several men in Imperial armor rush out move past you. Undoubtedly looking for others or in case you are the bait for an ambush. A man steps forward with a different color plumage on his helmet. With him several men in plain white robes. The robed men start to move up to you and look you over and try to remove your load and examine your wounds. You say nothing but instead shake them off. They back off. You struggle your feet together and remove your sling and let your left arm fall to your side. You push it in to your side and the other hand forms a fist and hold the fist to your chest. You try your best on your injured and still bleeding leg to stand up straight and struggle through the pain of forcing yourself into this position.

You face the one with the different helmet and with as much as you can muster, you speak firmly.

“ Trooper of the 4th legion, 1st cohort, 3rd contubernium, Julianus Natalis, reporting in, Sir. Permission to enter the fort?”

“Granted, legionnaire.” Came the answer in a similarly stern voice to the one you had used.

You move to step forward and the world begins to spin and fade as you fall to the ground.

You wake.