The world was coming to and end and Valens decided to go to the baths. The small band of men sent to repel the Saxons had been defeated and refugees from Londinium and other cities to the south and east had spread the word that the barbarians were on the way. Panic griped the ancient city of Verulam, and hundreds fled to the north and west, hoping that the wilderness of Wales would afford some protection.
The baths were almost empty, except for a few men, most of whom were old friends. The water still ran and the men who stoked the furnace had not fled yet, and the warm water seemed to invite Valens to relax. He stripped in the changing room and walked naked into the caladarium, and got in the water next to Julian, the smith. Julian was sitting in a cluster of four bearded men, three blond, one dark haired.
Julian was his best friend. They weren't lovers anymore, but they still knew how to have a good time, and enjoyed each others company as friends and playmates. "We who are about to die salute you!" exclaimed Valens. Julian was not impressed. " You haven't fled yet?"asked Julian.
" No the master and his family have left for the Pict Land where they have relatives. "They took the servants they liked and left me to deal with the Saxons." Answered Valens.
"I bet the Saxons would find you attractive. They say that Saxons like any thing they can fuck." bantered Julian.
Valens replied " They may, but I can't figure out how to get their cocks up my ass before the chop off my head." There was a titter of laughter at the end of the pool.
" Maybe we could label you as a guy who likes cock?" Suggested Julian.
"I am afraid that they can't read." answered Valens, " You know I don't care who is fucking me as long as it is big. And I have sampled barbarian cock in my time, but I am afraid that I had better get on my way to a safer locale."
"Been thinking the same thing my self, but I don't know where to go. The Boys don't seem to have any thoughts themselves." Julian retained his bantering tone, but there was a tinge of desperation in his voice. The Boys were men who worked with Julian, the men that sat next to him in the pool. He referred to them as his harem, not in their presence . Valens knew them only as Wolf, Fox , Badger and Otter, all Britons, very different from the middle eastern Julian or the Italian Valens. None of the men were native to this part of Briton, and none had family near by.
Valens laid back in the warm water and fondled Julian to his right and Otter to his left. Julian was used to the touch, but Otter responded well, and began to play with Valens' cock and with Wolf, who was on the other side. Every one's cock responded immediately to the stimulation, but the conversation, above the water continued.
"Do you think there is any chance the Saxons would let us live?" Asked Wolf.
"They seem to like young children whom they can adopt and young women they can fuck, but a tall, mustached, hairy British man has no chance. The only question will be whether they kill you slow or fast." Volunteered Otter. Otter relocated in the pool dipped under the water for a second and emerged for a breathe of air. At the same time he worked a finger into Wolf and Valens ass. Soon they were having a hard time carrying on the conversation without moaning in pleasure.
"We need to go somewhere, I am not going to stay here and get slaughtered." Everyone agreed with Fox, who, since he wasn't being fondled or finger fucked seemed to have a clearer view of the situation.
"I know a place!" Valens stood up so fast that he trapped Otter's finger in his ass. "A villa, on the sea!" He was fully erect, and while Julian had seem him many times , the Boys were interested. Otter pushed his finger in deeper, and made contact with Valens prostate, and left the older man speechless for a moment. At the other end of the pool the Presbyter Maximus and the Magistrate Optimus took notice of the sexual drama at the other end. They were engaged in their own sexual exploration. They rose from the pool, both were half erect and joined the small group at the other end.
Valens admired big men, and the cocks he saw walking toward him were every thing he liked in a cock. He sat down and greeted the two men. They all knew each other by sight, and so they were familiar, but had been unaware that they shared common interests. "Join us friends!" exclaimed Julian. " We are plotting our escape from this fair city." He beckoned to the men, inviting them to sit between him and Valens. They took the offer, sat and immediately grabbed their neighbor's cocks. " What place?" asked Maximus.
Valens had lost his thoughts as the firm hand of the Presbyter took hold of his cock, and Otter massaged his prostate. "The Villa! Tell us about the villa!" cried Julian trying to get him to resume his earlier thought.
"On the sea, about three days from here, very secluded, almost hidden." Valens tried to sound calm as his cock and ass responded to the stimulation.
" Who lives there?" asked Maximus.
"Been abandoned about two or three years I think, Ever since the southern slave insurrection. I worked there about twenty years ago. I was a wonderful villa, filled with secret compartments, chambers and grottoes. Even if it is destroyed, I know the country side well. It's filled with caves. There will be someplace to hide." answered Valens.
All of the men were alone, far from their families, tribes or clans. They had few options for escape. Most of the Britons were notoriously clannish, and were unlikely to give shelter to strangers. Most of the country families to the north and west were over whelmed by distant cousins and uncles fleeing from the barbarian advance. They had no room for others.
And the men gathered in the warm pool were also linked by common sexual interests. Perhaps the civilized world was coming to an end and Rome was falling, as the barbarians advanced on the minor provincial city in Britannia, but at least the men could all maintain an erection.
There were screams out side the bath. An attendant ran in and said that smoke could be seen on the horizon. "I guess it is time to go" Julian stood, his erection had not survived the immanent threat of death. " To the Villa?" asked Wolf. They all ran to the dressing room, quickly dressed and left the bath. Outside all was disorder, panic everywhere. There was the smell of smoke. The time for discussion was over and the eight men ran to the northern gate to the city and then into the country side.
They ran north, then began a slow turn that left then headed to the southern coast of Britain At first there had been hundreds of panicking refugees, but the numbers diminished. All of the bathers were strong men, and they continued to push ahead as the weaker fell behind. They also fled with little more than the clothes on their backs, so they weren't burdened with possessions, wives or children.
The land had once been fertile and prosperous, but the slow decline of the last decades had taken its toll. Abandoned farms, villas and fields covered the area. Second growth vegetation choked the fields and made travel slow. It also must have slowed the Saxons, who were nowhere evident. Otter, Fox and Wolf were good hunters, And the Presbyter had a knack for finding edible food.
After three days they were well away from the city, and were able to relax a little. It was early summer, the weather was good. Oddly the sense that every thing they had known for their entire lives was gone, and they were stranded, alone and isolated, seemed liberating.
The nearness of death and the physical exertion of the flight, drove the thoughts of sexual adventure from Valens' mind for the first time in years. He was consumed by fears and anxieties. He was the default leader, since he had a plan and a destination, but he really didn't know if the villa still existed, was still occupied by its patrician residents, or might be the stronghold of a Saxon chieftain. Furthermore, the depopulation of the countryside and the creeping underbrush made it difficult to fine old familiar landmarks.
He figured that if he went south they eventually would encounter the sea, and the villas would necessarily be to the east or west. He felt great relief when they encountered a burned villa that he recognized as being about a half days travel from the Villa by the sea. It was burned and abandoned, human remains, scattered about by dogs made it clear the original residents had either all been killed or fled too far to return. There was no sign of any more recent residents, Roman, British or barbarian.
Valens relaxed knowing that at least he was in the right district. He had spent a week in the house serving his master who was a house guest. He remembered the fields, filled with vegetables , fruits and vines, and the location of the wine cellar. He sent most of the group of men off to scavenge, something mst have remained, a fruit tree or berry patch; he and Optimus went looking for the wine. "It only gets better with age" he thought.
The cellar was hidden deep inside the house with a concealed entrance, known only by the owner, his wife and the chief butler. The owner was obsessed with the fear that the slaves would rob him, so had taken exceptional precautions. Valens had discovered it when the chief butler conceived a great passion for him, (he looked younger than his age at the time, and did a superb imitation of a innocent virgin boy just discovering his sexual interests and looking for a teacher.)
The butler needed some uninterrupted training time, and the cellar was the best place, far away from his wife or lovers. The entrance was under the mosaic of Mars and Venus in the dining room. Valens looked for the room, but could not find it at first. The heavy tile roof had collapsed in the fire that destroyed the villa, and every room seemed to look alike, and Valens tried to retrace his steps of twenty years earlier. A pile of glass tiles on the floor indicated the site of the ruined mosaic, and the two men cleared away the burned beams of the ceiling to gain access to the cellar entrance.
Valens pushed the hidden door; it resisted then creaked open. The appalling stench of rotted and decayed flesh surged into the air. Valens closed the door. He knew the fate of the Villa's residents. Optimus wanted to investigate further, a scientific curiosity took charge of his common sense. But Valens would not stay in the room, and as Optimus did not want to be alone in the room possibly inhabited by the spirits of the dead, they both left.
The two men had never been alone together, and had only know each other by sight in the baths. As often happened in the baths, they had seen each other naked, and on that last day, erect, but had never been introduced. "Do you know these men?" asked Optimus.
"Julian and I are old friends." Answered Valens, "He has described the boys, but I had never met them. How long have you and the Presbyter been friends?"
"Fox seems particularly attractive to me." said Optimus, " but I don't know if he is Julian's lover."
"I'm sure he is, but Julian is a big man with many passions, and imaginative too. I can't believe that they aren't all his lovers, nor that there isn't any combination of cock, asshole and mouth that hasn't been explored. When we were lovers he used to search out big cocks to fuck me, so he could watch me squirm. He loved groups, no holes bared, and I will say, he could always take anything or anyone in the room." explained Valens. "And what about the Presbyter? You haven't answered my question."
" I met him eight or so years ago. At the baths, we enjoyed each others company. Seeing a clergyman naked was exciting. He was the first and only man to fuck me, I couldn't believe the feelings. I had believed that a man of my rank should always be the top, that is was disgraceful to take a cock in the ass. At one time I thought I was doing my bit for God as Maximilian screwed me. Now I know I am doing it for me." Valens reached down and rubbed the doctors crotch, and discovered he had an erection,; He was not at all surprised. "But lately, I seem to be obsessed with dreams of common men, and common cocks." concluded Optimus. He did not object to his companion rubbing his member.
"If we live through this, let me promise you, you will have had every man in the group in you ass sometime in the near future." Valens spoke confidently. They heard the rustling of leaves and the scavenging part returned.
"Fruits and nuts!" exclaimed Wolf . "Enough for a week!" Valens confessed his failure at finding the wine cellar, but the group settled down to wolfing of the food.
Good food brought back old feelings of lust to Valens. He had been surprised as the size of the magistrate's equipment, as he had been three days earlier at the bath by the erect Presbyter. Even in his excited state as Otter squeezed the juice out of his prostate he had been impressed. He had a lots of experience with common men, and some with men of rank, mostly officers in the Legions, but none with scholars and priests. If they lived there were many opportunities to explore.
The men ate then went to sleep, with two keeping watch as the others slept. They had tried having one man watching, but discovered it was too easy to fall into sleep. Two could keep each other awake. Maximus and Badger were the first watch.
Maximus was tall and impressive, with dark thinning hair. The robes he wore made him look thin but that was because his shoulders were wider than his waist, and the clothes tended to hang on him. Badger was short, reddish blond and bearded. Quite muscular, and with his old clothes in tatters after the three days of running through briars and brambles, much of his body was visible. He was a Briton, but from the East Coast. He had never spoken to a man of the Presbyter's rank before.
After a long period of silence the bigger mans head nodded forward, and then jerked up again. This happened several times then he whispered "Badger".
"Yes Sire?"
"Are you awake?"
"Yes sire, no problem."
"How do you do it? How do you stay awake? I am exhausted" Maximus added. Badger came closer. He whispered, "Do you want the secret?"
"I need something, are you accustomed to keeping watch?" Asked Maximus.
Badger came even closer, rubbing against the bigger man's leg. "No, but you might not approve of my method of keeping alert; it was taught to me by a Pictish boy I knew."
"Why wouldn't I approve? How can staying awake on watch be a matter of approval?" Maximus was annoyed, but noticed that the little man was humping his leg with a full sized erection.
"Keep your self excited; keep your cock up and dripping. But don't shoot. Just keep o the edge."
The Presbyter was going to say something sharp, when he realized that the erect cock rubbing is leg had woken him up, and is own cock was following. " Shit, you're right. It does wake you up."
"Sure does, and can keep you awake. Just don't shoot. Keep it all in the balls." Badger smiled. "Pop when you go off watch and you will sleep like a baby." He felt and rubbed the presbyter's cock. The sexual tension had eliminated all of the drowsiness.
"How long can you go? I have never gone long before going over the edge."
" Julian, the boys and I can go for a whole evening or all night without losing interest." We stay awake and at least half erect." Answered Badger. He unloosened his belt and lets the tatters of his clothes fall open , Maximus reached down and felt the hard cock and the big cock head oozing pre-cum. It was bigger than he had expected in the small man. In the moonlight Badgers well muscled body was visible below the thick coat of blond hair that covered it. Badger reached to his own cock, ran his finger around the head and collected pre-cum, then raised it to his mouth and tasted it. "If you get tired, take a lick of your juice and you will wake again." he volunteered.
"I can't believe that!" the priest seemed shocked. Badger reached down again, collected a second batch of the slippery ooze, and raised it to Maximus's mouth. He forced the finger into the unwilling mouth.
Maximus was appalled, then he found himself sucking the finger as if it were his mother breast. He felt wild with excitement. "My god," he exclaimed, unbelievable!" The diminutive
Badger looked up and smiled. Maximus felt warm and excited, he felt driven. "Can I have more?" he asked. Badger smiled again. Maximus suddenly realized that another drip on a finger was not enough, he wanted more; he needed more. He was on his knees, and engulfed the small man's cock in one movement. His tongue searched out the ooze where ever it was, on the head, in the foreskin, trying to get deep in the piss slit.
Badger was amused at first, but amusement soon changed to intense excitement. He started to pump. Maximus held onto his balls to steady himself, and Badger let loose three days of over ripe British cum. Maximus had his tongue in the piss slit and felt the cum trying to escape from the balls and held it back briefly. It felt as if something was trying to tickle his tongue inside the slit. Badger was twitching as the cum was trapped between the balls and the head. Max relaxed the pressure and this mouth was flooded with warm salty man juice. Badger was almost crying with passion and release. Maximus had never felt anything like this in his years of playing with Optimus.
Here Max was sucking the life juice from a common blacksmith's apprentice. The Presbyter's lips had never touched another man's cock. "I'm sorry,' said Badger, I told you not to shoot and I just did."
The Priest almost said "I forgive you my son",but suddenly wasn't sure that forgiveness was needed. They were alone, fleeing from the barbarian hoards, not knowing it anything survived of
hundreds of years of Roman civilization. Was giving pleasure to another man a sin? They were not children, being exploited and used. He could not imagine that Badger could have felt more pleasure, and he certainly felt more pure enjoyment than he had ever felt before.
He continued his rather confused musings as they resumed their watch. The moon had risen high and was beginning to set. He looked over to Badger and saw his head slump, then jerk up alert. Maximus quietly moved nearer, reached into his robe and ran his finger over the pre-cum coating his cock head. He took the finger and touched Badger's mouth, and stuck it in. Badger sucked it greedily. Their watch was up, but they would be many more watches in the future.
Julian and Wolf were on the next watch. They were playmates rather than lovers. Indeed all of the Boys were playmates. The two men were physical opposites . Wolf was tall, lean and lank, with black hair streaked with white. His long hair merged with his beard and then mingled with his hairy chest and shoulders. Julian was short, stocky and muscular as befit a blacksmith who spent every working hour exercising his upper body with the heavy hammers and ironwork of his trade.
He had close cropped grey hair and a similarly short beard. His body was covered with a tightly curled coating of hair. His balls were like hens eggs, tightly held against his body; the cock head was the same size, sitting directly on the balls. The cock head always was half way visible stretching open the foreskin. Wolfs balls were the same size, but hung low, free swinging and the cock was long and thin and fully hidden by his thick foreskin. When relaxed the head seem to be in the middle of the skin, but fully erect, the cock still remained fully sheathed.
Wold's long foreskin had driven his mother crazy, trying to keep him from pissing on himself as a baby. Wolf's father had threatened to chop it off when he was a child, and he had lived in terror for years. He had been embarrassed, and humiliated by his brothers and father. But Julian saw the extra skin as having recreational potential. Julian was attracted to blond or red haired men, as Fox, Otter and Badger, Wolf was the exception in the group.
Both of them the were groggy with sleep, but Julian felt Wolf's balls and both men became alert with the potential for sexual play. He liked to stretch Wolf's ball sack and skin, trying to still further elongate them. Wolf was an unemotional, cold man, but he liked the attention Julian gave him, and especially Julian's fascination with his foreskin. He couldn't believe that anyone found him attractive, not to mentions his foreskin. Julian also gave him a home a regular meals, and the friendship of the other boys.
Julian quickly discovered that Wolf leaked incredible amounts of pre-cum when he got excited, and since this was all trapped inside the skin, the inside of the half empty sheath was wonderfully lubricated. Julian loved the taste, and but also loved the feel of the skin as he slipped his cock in it. His thick cock, and huge cock head stretched Wolf's skin to the limit, and excited both of the men. It looked as if any thing else in the sheath would make it explode. In reality there was room for both men's cum. Wolf had only joined the Harem six months earlier, and the group had only barely begun to explore the sexual potential of the man. Julian had been thinking that the hairy man and his long, empty skin, might be the ideal storage place for lube and cum, that otherwise would quickly dry out.
He alone had cum in Wolf's sheath, and Julian would like to have Fox, Otter and Badger make similar deposits. Since Wolf rarely spoke , and never showed emotions, Julian was unaware that he loved the attention the overlong skin was receiving.
There was a rustling. Both men became alert, straining to hear. Silence, and then another noise. They could hear a low sound, and then a repetitive sound, that soon was clearly something moving through the underbrush. There was a snap, and then a thunk and a man swore. And to Julian and Wolf's surprise and relief, the man swore in Latin.
Not good Latin, but street Latin, crude and vulgar." We're lost!" a voice said.
"They must be near by, they can't have gotten that far ahead of us." Said another voice. Julian recognized something in the voice, but could not place it, but it was slightly familiar.
" I had to rest, I couldn't go any further!" whined the first voice. The whine clarified it all for Julian. It was the latrine attendant from the bath. "You shit eating fool!" Boomed Julian. " What in hell are you doing here?"
" We mean no harm! Is that you Julian?" Whined Fulvius, the attendant. By this time all of the group was up, and had come to meet the newcomers. They were blundering through the underbrush toward Julian.
The sun had almost risen, and the forms of two men emerged, one the small and sickly form of Fulvius, the Latrine attendant, and the second of a giant. The men knew Fulvius, of course, it had always been suspected that his interest in shit was more than professional, always peaking at the men slyly, even though everyone in the baths was naked anyway, but no one knew the giant.
"How did you get here?" demanded Valens, assuming his usual leadership role. He had been the chief butler in a distinguished house was accustomed to ordering underlings about. "And who is he?" pointing to the giant.
We were in the baths when you fled. We had no where to go, so we decided to flee. I thought that starvation in the countryside was preferable to torture and death with the Saxons. So we ran. We saw you, and Bembo saw the Presbyter, and he figured that you might know where to go." Fulvius talked quickly in a high voice. "Bembo thought we would be safe with a priest."
"And who is Bembo?"
"Bembo is a stoker in the furnace room. He works beside the hypocausts."answered Fulvius. That explained why no one had seen the man, he had been in the bowels of the public baths keeping the heating system going. Bembo just stood there saying nothing He was all but naked, with a small rag around is waist. Thick black curly hair, with a matching beard, white shin, he obviously did not see the sun much, his body was hairless and muscular. He was built like Julian but was a full head taller, and was pale compared to the olive skin and deep tan of the smith.
"Bembo is my friend, I can talk to him" said Fulvius. The Presbyter understood. He alone had seen the Giant at church. Most of the men who worked in hell holes like the furnace room of the baths were dumb or afflicted some way. Bembo must be one of those poor creatures. But unlike most, he was an impressive physical specimen. "Bembo will do anything I tell him" added Fulvius.
For a group of men on the run, trying to escape from a barbarian onslaught, the latrine attendant was useless, But Bembo was an ox of a man. He was no stranger to heavy physical labor, he was a third bigger than any man there, he could be useful. Fulvius was offering himself as a translator to the dim giant. They were a pair.
No one in the group particularly wanted the latrine attendant, but everyone could see the usefulness of Bembo, and both Valens and Julian were eager to see under the loin cloth. "Everyone pulls his own weight you know?" snarled Valens. "Everyone."
"Certainly! If we could attach ourselves to such a distinguished party, you would find us to be of infinite usefulness." proclaimed the attendant. There was the look of doubt in the faces of most of the men. The sum had risen and the ill matched pair could be clearly seen now. Even after three days of flight, dirty and scratched and scraped Bembo looked almost like a statue. Fulvius was downright grey; like death warned over. There was a tense silence.
The Presbyter stepped forward. " They might be a help. If they can't keep up, we can leave them." There was no enthusiastic support for the statement from the other men, but no one contradicted the official. By default, he carried the day and the two men joined the party.
The remains of the food gathered the day before was distributed, Bembo ate heartily, but Fulvius refused to eat, saying he wasn't feeling well. Julian assumed that his was to reinforce his statements that he would not be a problem for the group. The ruins of the villa yielded up some treasures that had been missed by the looters. Thy had been after treasure but the refugees needed useful things, since they had left to old city with little more than the clothes on their backs. Soon baskets and kitchen implements were found, as well as a knife.
They also found more fruits in the garden, and collected these.
It had been a half days trip from this villa to the seaside villa that was the groups destination. Or at least it had been a half day as Valens remembered the trip twenty years earlier in peacetime. It might be a day or two distant now.
They set off. Badger went ahead scouting, And the Presbyter and Fulvius to the rear. Bembo carried the lions share of the materials they found in the villa, and immediately justified his inclusion in the group. The road, or more correctly the path, could still be discerned, but it was slow going. Fulvius talked incessantly and told the Presbyter his full life story. The priest was astounded that a man could send so much time describing such an uninteresting life. He ended his story with his meeting with Bembo.
Bembo was an orphan, the product of the union between a gladiator and a whore, raised on the streets and all but sold to the baths at age thirteen. Fulvius had befriended him, and they had been all but inseparable for the last few years. Fulvius purported to be like a father to him, but the priest knew enough about human nature to realize that fatherly feelings were not the only ones that influenced Fulvius. "I fed him, I trained him. You can't look like that on the swill they give to the stokers." A bit of fatherly pride crept into the mans voice. "He would have been dead with out me."
"Of course, he took advantage of me. I was his father and his wife" added Fulvius. "But I love him so, it was all worth it." The presbyter felt that he was learning more about the relationship than was desirable, but fortunately the man decided to sit down and rest. Maximus left the man alone and joined the main group of men sitting under a tree. Valens said that he thought the house was near, and they would get there by sundown. They all rested for a short period and Valens got up ans started getting the group underway.
The proceeded a few hundred paces and realized that Fulvius wasn't with them. Bembo and the Presbyter raced back to wake him up. They found him resting in the place they had left him, stone cold dead. "Get Magister Optimus, quickly!" Maximus ordered. Bembo ran back to the main group. Fulvius was cold, and even greyer than he had been in life.
When the group returned, the questions was how to burry the man; they had no implements. Valens suggested that they just leave him there, but there was a horrified look on Bembo's face, and Optimus suggested that they erect a pile of rocks over the body. That, at least would protect the body from animals. Maximus said something about Celtic warrior's burials, and that seems to calm Bembo down. It was a very rocky area, and they covered the body with a piece of cloth salvaged from the burned villa, and soon created a convincing pile of stones.
Maximus preformed the appropriate ceremonies over the pile, and the group set out again. They clearly would not get to their destination since it was already late afternoon, but no one wanted to stay by the body of the late latrine attendant. Valens and Fox were near the front of the line of men. "It delayed us, but it may have been a blessing in disguise, Fulvius was an unattractive character." Valens suggested in a low voice.
"And Bembo is the next best hting to a horse." added Fox. "He's one impressive piece of man meat. Do you think he will find our ways congenial?"
Valens laughed. "Fulvius was no monk. When that ugly monster of a man had that young Hercules fall into his lap I can't believe it was more that a week before someone's cock was in someone's ass. And I can't believe, given Fulvius' interests, that there wasn't piss and shit covering something."
"You think we may smell to good for him?" Fox laughed. "We will need to get Wolf smelling the way he did when Julian found him." Wolf had not been brought up in a Roman city, and the bath was a new experience to him. "Maybe Julian will need to retrain him. He did a great job with Wolf, and he was a hopeless case."
"I think there may be several men in the group who wouldn't mind educating the Giant." said Valens, and he included himself in that group.
At the rear of the group Bembo carried a heavy burden effortlessly and walked beside Maximus. My Lord", the Giant spoke, "I'm frightened."
"Why is that?"
"Fulvius was my only protector and friend." he explained.
"I wouldn't worry about that, you are in a group of strong men." Maximus said this more to reassure himself than the giant.
"That's not it..." the giant continued, "I don't think he was a Christian. Is he in hell now?"
This was a situation Maximus had encountered many times before, and he knew exactly what to say. "He confessed all to me, and he died at peace with the Lord." Bembo looked relieved.
A few hours later the group stopped at dusk in a clump of trees near a small stream. They ate the remains of the food from the burned Villa, and Otter caught some fish. Bembo slept at Maximus's feet. Valens nudged Fox, who was on watch with him, and whispered, " I think Bembo has found his teacher."
Valens was worried. He had almost located the villa, but still didn't know if the original owners had re-occupied it, or it might have become the stronghold of a Saxon chieftain. After the devastation of the burned villa, the first option seemed unlikely; the entire district was unpopulated. But the second was a real possibility. Maybe he and Badger would go ahead and investigate the situation.