The Strix That Offered Protection

Concilius Incensus.

I'm Akashia, the start of my story, I'll let the others tell you theirs as we go on, our formal titles will be introduced to you throughout the writings of our journey. My wife and I are two thousand year old immortals. These are the musings of the life, my wife and Fabia had.

It all began in the following year. My wife and I were sick of the Romans invading our homes, murdering our kin in the pursuit of taking over the planet. The year was 31BC, it was almost the end of that year, then Rome had its first emperor his name was Augustus, a powerful man that soon built up a strong militarised force, one to deal with what Rome called people outside of its borders Barbarians. It was a derogatory term, a term to insult people who lived differently, the world had many different people, with different beliefs, different cultures and a way of life.

The Roman Empire was growing fast, it had killed millions in pursuit of their goals. The people outside of the empire were becoming sick of new emperors rising, as they came to the throne, they had to show their military might to the Roman people to keep their support. The death of another emperor was what changed the warring tribes outside the Roman Empire borders, they knew they had eyes on their land, the new emperor proclaimed as much before he was given his new title.

Then all the tribes attributed their loss of land and death to one woman me, i unashamedly fell for another woman, this was only discovered after my father tried to marry me off to a tribal leader, the villagers blaming me for the encroachment of the Romans, I was banished along with my lover to the outskirts of our village, but it wasn't my fault. I had the gift of foresight, i tried over and over to warn my family and the villagers of the coming war, but the villagers cursed the gods, thinking they abandoned them. The gods were angry at the villagers for not trying harder. I tried to tell them, but they just blamed me and my lover.

The seasons came and went, Fabia and I had built refuge in a very secluded part of the forest, on land that was extremely fertile, we grew all the food and herbs we needed to eat and for my herbs for spells to the gods. I had the gods ears, they listened to me, I made a request that hadn't been made in millennia's, i wanted an army of Strix to descend on Rome. The gods listened, they told me they were sorry that our families ostracised us and they will make sure that we will be reinstated once the plan is put into action and it works.

The gods granted my request, they would send the Strix as soon as we had prepared for them, but we needed to be aware that the Strix fed on human blood, so we were to detain those that pass our home, we were to make it look like we were offering refuge. Fabia and i were to hide our tribal markings and our matching jewellery, we both decided on detaining passing tribespeople that have always been warring with ours, there wasn't many left, as most had joined with my fathers tribe to try and combat the Romans. There was one tribe that lived around thirty miles from ours that usually come near our home to hunt.

Fabia and i welcomed them into our home for the night, we had a large cage in the ground, every person we lured into it we fed them regularly, we had to keep them alive. Soon thereafter the Strix arrived, they feasted on the souls in the large cage. The Strix were under orders not to feed on us or their tribe, they were to feed along the Roman borders.

The Romans had military personnel on the borders, the Strix snuck upon them and feasted on them until there was none left to drain. The Strix retreated to the forests to feed on animals until the Romans encroached or began to march towards the lands they wished to conquer. They also knew that the Romans would send more men to the borders once they discover the others gone.

The Romans would think these men as deserters. It soon became apparent that the Strix wanted to go onto Roman land and feed until their hearts were content, but they knew they couldn't, so they had to make do with the dying from local villages until they could descend on the Romans as per their task. The Strix were wild creatures, but they stuck by the rules set to them by the gods. The gods retained total control over them, they could make their hunger decrease, the gods don't want entire villages fed on, so they decreased their hunger until the Romans began marching towards them.

The Romans discovered their men gone, they placed more until they were ready to attack militarily. The Strix fed on them again, this time their hunger soothed. The Romans were now wondering why these men were disappearing, the Strix looked human, they spoke in any language native to each tribe and land. the Romans wouldn't know who they were upon approaching them. They were fast and they couldn't die, nothing could kill them, not fire or any human weapon. The only thing that could happen, is the gods pulling them back.

The Romans began to blame the tribes for the disappearance of their men. They still weren't ready militarily. The word of the mens disappearance reached the emperor, the emperor declared them as deserters and took away their families privileges. The Romans were brutal to some families, they even placed some of these mens families into the gladiator arenas. It was a sickening way they acted, they were horrible people.

The tribes outside the borders of Rome, were a force to be reckoned with themselves, it's why most new emperors gathered hundreds of thousands of men for battle. The tribes didn't have that many men, but the Romans feared them, they too were hubristic, they believed firmly the gods were on their side at all times. I knew from my own connection to the gods that they despised the Romans. They hated how they believed they owned the earth, the gods would teach the Romans lessons throughout their empire and rulings. The gods understood the wars between the tribes over the years, they were people who didn't understand each other's differences or their ways.

The difference with the Romans was their inability to accept people for their differences. The Romans wanted people to be Roman, forsake their pasts, to forget their origins and their beliefs. The tribes often came together and had truces for many reasons, often for tribal leaders to amalgamate tribes that were closely or loosely blood related.

The Strix watched as two legions were sent towards the area where i and my tribe lived. The Strix completely descended on the men, they were smart, they fed on the bodies of around five hundred men. They took the bodies and buried them, their soldier friends were left wondering where five hundred men had disappeared to? The leader of the legion ordered one hundred men to set off and search for them? Many refusing to go, telling their commander that there's something monstrous in the thick forests.

The commander telling them if they refuse, that he would have them all treated as cowards and deserters and their families killed. One hundred men marched into the thick, dense woods, where the Strix lay in wait. The Strix again had their fill from the bodies of one hundred more men. The commander waited two days to see if the men would return, when they didn't they decided to return to Rome and discuss with the emperor what they next plan of action should be? The legions arrived back in Rome in four days, the emperor Concilius was incensed, he cared more about how the Romans viewed him, than the fact that over six hundred of his men were missing, feared dead. Concilius ordered another attempt at a different part of the border, but again the Strix knew from being battle hardened themselves, knew the emperor would try again in a different place.

The emperor sent a single man, a gladiator that was a mere slave, on a fact finding mission, to find out what was making his fierce soldiers disappear.