Duty and Honour (a 300 fan fiction)

A New Friend

After this day, Filomela returned to her place beside the wheat fields almost daily, in hope of seeing her new friend again. But every time she is there, she is alone. She is almost glad that she is alone, she needs and wants the solitude once in a while, but she also hopes to see Dilios again.

Today she is particularly angry with her father because he is still not listening to her and began to search for a suitable husband for her.  Despite her only being 11 years old. She is angry and wants nothing more than to be alone. She sprints through the heavy rainfall towards her retreat only to be surprised, because there is already someone sitting in her usual place, as she approaches she notices that it is a boy who is sitting on her stone. The boy looks to be completely drenched from the rain. She isn't brave enough to approach him, and so she just stands behind him for a few minutes. The warm rain feels nice on her heated skin, and she just lets the rain drench her as well. After gathering all her bravery she decides to make herself known "Hello", she says in a soft voice that is easily overpowered by the noise of the rain.  She carefully takes a step forward and tries it again with a stronger voice: "Hello". 

The boy instantly whips his head around and looks at her with a startled look on his face. Filomela immediately recognizes the icy-blue eyes, it is Dilios! As she starts to take a closer look at his face, her initial joy changes to worry. His face looks to be completely beaten up. His lip has a bad cut, and he has some other nasty wounds all over his beautiful face. Filomela joins him, and thus takes a seat next to him on the big stone, without uttering a single word. "Hello, Filomela," Dilios quietly says without taking his eyes off her, as she sits down. Filomela doesn't reply, she just looks at him while he returns to look at the wheat fields. "What are you doing here?", he wants to know after a few minutes of silence. "I could ask you the same thing!" she replies softly before she continues, "my father wants to marry me off to some stranger, he already began to search for worthy suitors. He always says that I have to marry in order to secure Sparta's future. But I don't want to know or hear about it... I just want to be left alone", she sighs after finishing with her rant and turns to Dilios who looks at her with an unreadable expression on his face. "What happened to your face?", she softly asks while reaching for his face and gently caressing it with her fingertips, he winces as she accidentally touches one of the wounds. "Warrior training!", Filomela just nods to encourage him to keep talking, as he just seems to struggle to find the right words. "I am a good warrior. But the others keep picking on me, and I don't even know why. Today, Theron agitated me so much that I lost my temper, so I gave him a leg up. Our instructor saw it and made me fight against one of the older boys, and needless to say: I lost!" He drops his head in shame as he ends his explanation. "He told me that I am not good enough to be a warrior." He seems beaten down and disheartened. Filomela puts her hand over his, as to encourage him, "That is not true! You will become the greatest warrior in Spartan history! You will show everyone that you are worthy to fight in the army, to fight next to the king, to fight great battles!" He lifts his head up and looks at her with hope in his eyes, "Do you really think so?" "I am sure of it!", she reassures him, while a massive grin spreads over her face. "And when you return from your battles, you have to tell me all about your experiences." Now his face glows with happiness and courage, and he extends his hand towards Filomela "I Promise", he says while they enthusiastically shake their hands. 

From this day onwards they met each other every day. He tells her about his warrior training, and she always listens intently. And Filomela was right. He seems to be getting stronger every day and all the others start to finally respect him. Despite their differences, their friendship blossomed.  But as time passed, Filomela's worry about her best friend grows. The dreaded Warrior Tests are now in plain sight for Dilios. Many young men die each year during these cruel tests. The tests truly show who is fit to serve in the Spartan army and who is not.