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What had started as a silly bet had turned into a nightmare for General Fabius Nerius. Why had he given in to his pride? He should have just ignored that jealous snake, who had been insulting his family. Had been insulting him.
Fabius’ formerly purple toga, now bleached by the sun to an ugly shade of the gods know what, hung from his shoulders like an old bag. All that time on the sea with barely any food had made him thin, and the rest of his crew didn’t look any better.
”Damned plebs”, echoed the voice of the man in his head. ”They manage to win one battle and immediately dress up like royalty. As if the name Nerius meant anything, like it would ever mean anything! You’re nothing but a boy who had more luck than he deserved.”
An attack on one’s honor could not just be silently accepted, but Fabius hadn’t had given himself enough time to think about what to do, what to say. And so, he had said the only thing that came to his mind.
Something he had joked about during drunk nights with his friends while staring at the ships leaving the port of Berenice.
”No luck, only skill”, he had replied to the angry man taunting him. ”The men I lead are just as skilled as I am, and we succeed in every mission we take on. The gods are on our side! And to prove it, we will sail around Africa, till we arrive again in our beloved Rome.”
Cheers of surprise, determination and a bit of fear had followed his announcement. Nobody had dared to tell him that this might not be such a good idea, steering a ship far away from the outer borders of the Roman Empire. And his desire to silence his attacker was too great for Fabius to consider the dangers himself.
And now, they were lost. For several weeks.
”General?”
”What is it, Calvus?”
”I … I think we have found land.”
”Land? Are you sure? Are you really sure this time?” New energy flooded through Fabius’ emaciated body. Land! Food! Freshwater! Shelter from this burning sun!
Calvus had been correct. Only a few hours after the first sighting of land, they reached a coast with fine, white sand where they let their ship hit the ground. Several members of the crew jumped into the water and swam towards shore, giggling like children.
Fabius allowed himself a smile.
Not far away, he could see trees that seemed foreign, carrying fruit he didn’t recognize. The place they landed in resembled nothing he had ever seen and even the birds seemed weird. But it was land, there was food, and it didn’t look like there were any humans present, so there was no danger of being attacked. He decided that, for now, it would be a sufficient place to recover before eventually returning home.
Hopefully.
Fabius made his crew build makeshift huts out of wood they harvested from the nearby forest and bit by bit, they tasted the local fauna. Luckily, nothing they tried seemed toxic, but Fabius made sure he only ate fruit someone else had eaten before - and survived several hours after that.
After a while, night fell, and his men lit a fire, around which the ones holding watch gathered.
As the general, Fabius took the freedom of sleeping the first shift. He hadn’t had slept well in weeks, and it wasn’t right for a leader to be sleep-deprived. It didn’t take long until his eyes fell shut and he drifted to sleep …
”Lemures! Lemures! Ghosts! The vengeful spirits are here! We should have never come here!”
Screams ripped Fabius from a peaceful dream. Disoriented, he straightened up and looked around, just to see his crew running around like they lost their minds, hunted by a group of tiny …. things.
Some walked on four legs, some walked on two. They were so fast that Fabius could only see shadows of white and black. Until one stopped and looked at him out of big, orange eyes in which the flames of the campfire danced.
His men were right. They were attacked by Lemures, the vengeful spirits of the dead.
”To the boat!” Fabius screamed or tried to because his voice broke after the first word. ”We must leave here! This is a cursed land!”
The wind, previously a warm, soft breeze, had taken up speed. And as Fabius tried to desperately collect his men, it started to rain. Giant droplets of water smashed in the general’s face and obstructed his vision.
The spirits were still wreaking havoc among his crew.
”Everyone! To the boat!” He tried again and this time, his men reacted. Together they ran to their vehicle, pushed it back into the water, boarded it and used the ever increasing winds to sail away from the doomed beach.
”There goes the long-awaited land”, Fabius mumbled to himself. They would need to look a long time for another opportunity like this. But staying had been out of the question. There had to be a reason why this place was inhabited by ghosts, and he did not want to find out why.
A massive wave hit the ship and nearly threw him into the sea.
”What is going on?” He called out.
”We are sailing directly into a storm! There is no way to escape it!”
Fabius rubbed his eyes and stared towards the oncoming storm. Haunted by spirits, killed by a storm. What had he done to anger Neptune to the point that the god wanted him dead so badly?
But maybe … maybe he could save his crew through a sacrifice. Maybe that would make up for his hubris.
Determined, Fabius lifted one leg over the rail, then the other.
”General?” Someone called out.
But General Fabius Nerius had already given himself over to the raging waters.
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