Here's an excerpt from our next Wendigo Tale, Aaron Rosenberg's "Utmost Dispatch," a tale for Weird Wars Rome that asks the terrible question--what would you do if your best friend deserted?
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“Senecus, don’t!” Titus Aetius whispered. “For the love of Jove, think about what you’re doing!”
Barely an arm span away, his oldest friend Senecus Drusus paused only a second before resuming. “I have thought about it,” he whispered back, his fingers continuing to work at the ties, his broad, ruddy face pale in the dim moonlight filtering down through the clouds. “Have you, Titus? Have you really stopped to consider where we are, what we are doing, and what it will likely do to us?”
“I know my duty,” Titus replied sharply, his voice raising enough that, behind him, Martus and Flavius both stirred slightly. The glare he got from Senecus was half scolding and half pleading. For a second Titus considered increasing his volume still further, until the others had no choice but to wake and intrude upon this little scene. Then at least it would be out of his hands. But he could not. He and Titus had known each other too long.
“Duty!” his friend scoffed, even as he undid the leather strap across his breast and pulled the halves of his lorica segmentata apart. “Where has duty ever gotten us, my friend? Here?” With a sweeping hand he encompassed their tent, with its shared millstone and cook pot, the others still asleep on their bedrolls, the castrum beyond, and the dark woods and hills past that. “Is this what we signed on for, years ago?” Senecus demanded, tugging off the armor shirt and laying it gently, quietly upon the ground at his feet. “Was this what we expected when we left home to become legionaries?”
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AARON ROSENBERG is the author of the best-selling DuckBob series, including the novels "No Small Bills" and "Too Small for Tall." He has written children’s books, including the award-winning "Bandslam: The Junior Novel," and the #1 best-selling "42: The Jackie Robinson Story."
