Forbidden

Chapter 5

Aeliana woke with a pounding headache and found her left eye to be almost fully swollen shut, her right eye vision tainted from dried blood on the eyelid. Her stomach rumbled barbarically and she could not help but think of the face her mother would have made if she had heard it. The afflictions had not stopped there, though. Aeliana's wrists and ankles felt as if they were permanently held back, though she knew this feeling came from the amount of time her limbs had been tied. She looked to her legs and gasped aloud at the amount of bruises and cuts in her once immaculate skin. The gasp she emitted made attention to Atilius, she noticed, as he turned abruptly with a soaked rag in his hands. Kneeling down, he brought it to her face and she hissed as the wounds joyfully burned more and more harshly. "Calm, Princess. It is but a cloth and it will help." he spoke in a way that startled Aeliana; almost kindly. He pulled away the rag and her eyes widened at the mass of blood soaked into it. Atilius came back once more with the same rag, only cleaned out. She could not refrain from the moan she emitted as he pressed the cloth against her bloodied head, and her breath hitched to stop the tears from pouring out in the abundance of pain that coursed through her body. Aeliana watched as Atilius' eyes as he gazed over her broken body with what seemed as concerned eyes, but the look faded as quickly as it came.

His stare moved to her lips and she flushed red after several moments of staring. He moved so close to her own face that she could feel his breath on her neck. Atilius raised the cloth to her lip, and as a stinging feeling is brought to her lip she realizes that it had also been cut. Aeliana releases a breath she had not noticed that she had been holding, and Atilius held an ignorant smirk, moving away at what seemed to be too soon for Aeliana. "Pardon my asking, princess," he spoke facetiously, "but what were you thinking and why were you thinking it?" She glared at him harshly. "I was thinking that I must fulfill my royal duties and I did so because of my people and the safety of their being." This made Atilius laugh loudly in her face and Aeliana was about prepared to strike his face with her hand. "The safety of your people's being? Liar. Tell me, royal one, what were you attempting to achieve? Death, it seems!" he laughed again. Aeliana stood, angered by his condescension. "I was told by my brother that the Greecians were declaring war on my father's army, the army of Rome." Atilius' eyes were widened, staring at her madly as he took another step closer, "So naturally, you search for the army whom the general ordered you to stay away from! Stupid girl."

Aeliana could take the haughtiness no longer, and she stepped forward so that now their chests almost touched. "I am not a stupid girl! I wanted no quarrel with those Spartan men, I spoke no harm and enticed not one man forward, and yet they chose to do- to do those things with me." Atilius seemed surprised by her boldness but intrigued all the less. "Well you are very enticing." he retorted and his hand grazed her face lightly; his eyes locked on hers. Slowly, his face seemed to glide towards hers, her eyes becoming so heavy that they closed. In a moment, she could feel his rough lips against her soft ones, and the hunger that had arisen between the two of them grew stronger. Atilius' hands moved from her face to her waist and she held her hands on the strong arms that wrapped around her. They stood for a matter of moments this way before a man came bursting in, his hands shooting upright to cover his opened mouth. "In the name of the gods.." he spoke lightly, as if finding the princess and a slave gladiator together was an everyday matter. Aeliana quickly pulled away from Atilius, but he kept his grip on her. "My, my, my, Atilius. I suppose royal pompousness must fade away in the act of osculation." The man Aeliana knew as Dilios spoke, making Atilius glare. Dilios laughed loudly and grinned maniacally towards Aeliana, taking her hand in his and kissing it. "Lovely nonetheless, Atilius." This dialogue made her turn to Atilius with a sadness in her eyes. "Pompous royal? I had not thought myself to be egotistical." Atilius frowned, "I had not known you yet, Aeliana." She only nodded, swallowing a lump that had formed in her throat.

"How was it that the two of you joined the Roman army?" she asked thoughtfully as she sat again, the two men across from her. "We were given a proposal." Dilios started, smiling as per usual. Atilius continued, "We would receive better food and clothing if we fought against the Greecian uprising." "Speaking of clothing," Dilios laughed lightly while pointing to Aeliana's once beautiful gown that had ended up as a rather short slip, "where is yours?" Atilius glared at his friend, looking back to Aeliana with saddened eyes. "He has just arrived with a soldier named Astinos, and he is unaware of what has happened." he explained, but Aeliana froze. "Astinos? I am friends with him. He must not know of my staying here." she spoke strongly, coercing Atilius and Dilios to look at each other. "Our group is leaving. If you would like, princess, we could leave you here in hopes that he would find you and bring you home." Dilios suggested, and Aeliana nodded in appreciation. It was then that Atilius grunted angrily, and walked out of the hut with self-importance. Aeliana was annoyed at Atilius' behavior- it was as if he thought their affection was to be found appropriate by the soldier Astinos- but she need not have looked to Dilios to know he was laughing.

*****

"Eat, and do so plentifully, for it might take more than a night for them to take sight of you." Atilius instructed Aeliana, having finished being neglecting towards her. Only nodding in response, she took bread and ate it non-forcefully, she found, and remembered how long it had been since she had last eaten. She reminisced of the night about a week ago, before she had been captured, when Terentius had kissed her cheek possessively- 'As if my family would steal me from you,' she had thought- and told her to stay. Yes, seven days in length it had been, but it seemed as if it had truly been decades from her kind older brother, Caius; her amusing maids; her beautiful and proud cloths; and most importantly of all, the wondrous food she had most often pushed aside. How she longed for the remains of her roast, that she forced away all those weeks ago. Or the oils and breads she left to warm and spoil on her vanity. But those delights were worlds away, it seemed, and she was more than excited to know that she would be brought back soon. "If a man had never met you before," Dilios started. "It would not be of a surprise to me that he did not think you royalty." Aeliana realized that the gladiator had referred to her eating manner, but she refused to stop and instead indulged into a leg of meat that had been handed to her by Atilius. He but laughed as Dilios looked to him, as if she were mad. "Quite a maiden you have on your hands, Atilius." Dilios spoke in an amused tone, his words making Aeliana almost choke on the meat which she ate. She swallowed, "I suppose I will be resting now." With that, she walked off to the hut and lied down on her straw bed.

"Princess." Atilius stated rather then questioned, but Aeliana remained facing the opposite direction, her eyes still wide open. She had not responded, either, though she knew her tenseness made it impossibly seem she were awake. Aeliana could not help but ponder the amount of women that the gladiator had shared intimacy with, the number of girls he had pretended to love and shattered their hearts, for Aeliana knew the type of man Atilius was and she knew the ways of this type of man. Though she knew this, she found herself unwillingly feeling attracted to the man. She felt his presence close to hers, and found herself slamming her eyes shut. It was then that Atilius pressed his lips to her temple, and Aeliana found herself smiling.