Between a Rock and a Hard Place (an Averni Story)

[woad&fangs]

Prasutagos eyed up his newest recruits. They were another group of Thracian spearmen. They didn’t have armor and were equipped with only a shield, javelins, and a short spear, but they were still well suited to the lighter style of combat he had encountered in the Balkans. Even better, these new recruits seemed to be more able bodied than the majority of their Thracian kinfolk. Only one thing could make him happier about his new recruits.

“Where do you men hail from?” greeted Prasutagos in his usual Gaelic.
“Que?” responded several of the Thracians.

‘sigh’, O well, he would just have Ivomagos translate for him as usual. Ivomagos repeated his question in the local dialect of Thracian.
“They say that they’re from east of Sarmisaguza.”

“Thank you for translating once again, Ivo. I really should learn the common dialects of these parts shouldn’t I. Please go find a captain to assign them to.”

“Don’t worry too much about it Prasuta. If you ever did learn them then I’d be out of a job, so take your time. Besides, a great leader such as yourself probably has more important things on his mind like things such as whether you think babies taste better boiled or roasted.” The last part Ivo said loudly and clearly in Thracian so all nearby could hear. Ivo then lead the new recruits away to find a captain. Many of them were looking oddly at Prasutagos.

Prasutagos chuckled softly. He knew that Ivo’s habit of switching languages mid sentence was just his idea of humor. While whatever he had said was probably in bad taste it was only in jest. If this was the price he had to pay for the best translator east of the Alps than he could live with it.

Hmmm, the sun is starting to set in the west. It might be time to set up camp for the evening….

To be continued….
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Okay, I didn’t get much of a response in the mead hall so I’m going to put the start of my story into my first post here and do any more updates in this thread. I tried writing the battle with the Sweboz but I did a rather dry job of it so I’ll have to try revising it before I consider it fit to post. I was originally planning on only going through the battle and its aftermath but now I think I’m going to do a dual story between Cocolitanos and Prasutagos, ending in a conclusion to the war with the Sweboz. I’m hoping that when I do finally get some battles written they will provide some interesting contrasts in the style of battles these two are fighting. I know that the Prasu piece is kind of short but I’m also trying to write an English essay so I’ll lengthen it over the weekend.

Quick question. How do you spell that city I was trying to spell? Sarmiguza or whatever. It's the city directly south east of Ak-Ink.

Encouragement and Criticism are both very much welcomed.

If a mod could change the thread title to 'Between A Rock and A Hard Place(an Averni story) ' I would appreciate it.