Twins of Egypt

Chapter 24: Anglesay || Part 1

{A/N: ATTENTION: It may not be graphic, but GET READY FOR SOME VIOLENCE and some QUESTIONS! ENJOY!!]]

[[December 11 B.C.E || Helios || Anglesay (aka Wales)]]

It had been scarcely over a year since I have seen Selene, and I wondered if the Kingdom still prospered without me. It most likely is, as Juba and Selene - despite having four children now - have a vast knowledge of what goes around in their kingdom. They have acquired the use of spies. My sons prospered in the Druid stronghold of Anglesay, or Mona is what these Celts called it. They hate me, I can feel it in their stares and most dislike my children, despite most look similar to them. I did not bring Lysander because his future did not ever need to know of this place, and this angered Gwen's LIVING father.

Lysander stayed in Rome in Julia's household, much to the envy of my elder sons. Gwen had a difficult time accepting that Lysander could not go with us, but it seemed now, she had learned that it is for the best that she began estranging herself from him. She seemingly convinced her father the same thing, and continued to coax him to accept me. He attempted, but after the wars with Romans, I doubt he could ever look at me the same.

That is fine, however, because I do not have to see them every day anyway.

As was a daily routine, I woke up at the break of dawn to gray drizzling sky and muddy land. I waddled my way over to the small house where the hens were stored. I had a woven basket in my hand and was dressed heavily in furs and wool. I more effectively entered the house and stole the chicken's eggs from their nests before strolling back home. Everything about this whole ordeal was primitive and I would rather much be on my desk scribbling. Gwen would have none of it.

As I walked towards my family's little - although it is considered luxury to the Celts - mud house I cringed. All the wealth and marble, we left... for a primitive house. I most similarly slept in the same area as a barn animal. I suffered for Gwen; however, as all suffering is rewarded, I accepted it. My children had become so accustomed to wealth that these homes shocked them initially, however, they learned to love it, slightly less than their overjoyed mother.

Inside the large mud house, bricked with round gray stones and hatted with wooden sticks carefully mended for no leakage, my children sat, on large wooden logs, around an enormous fire where a stew pot was boiling. My wife was on the far left of the biggest room in the entire home. She stood behind the wooden table beside a kiln where fresh bread was baking. I walked to a spot beside her and set the basket of eggs beside her before briefly kissing her.

No longer in the Roman fashion, my wife let her thick blonde hair cascade below her waist. She covered herself with a scarlet and blue patterned cloak, held together by a brooch at her shoulder. Underneath her cloak was a sky blue cotton gown that was belted at the waist with twistable leather. She wore beautiful earrings, the color of the gloomy channel between Gaul and Britannia. Her father had given it to her, but it did nothing to shadow the beauty of the diamond wedding band I'd customized for her.

Returning my kiss, she looked away from me and began blabbering in the broken Latin of when I first met her. I shrugged it away and walked to my children. I kissed Caden and Nik's heads; they had become men here. Standing at five feet and three inches, Caden has long dark blonde hair and a menacing glare. From fighting so often he earned a small scar down his jawline nearest his chin, which he wore with great honor. Nik who had his hair frequently cut, was the same height and build as his twin. He was groomed - by force - to be a warrior, and for the entire year his eyes remained jaded.

My children had all morphed into someone different, and I felt myself growing old, watching them age. Sighing I sat beside my grown daughter and hugged her tightly.