Tina Anderson
Stories
3
Chapters
77
Words
163.6 K
Comments
0
Reading
13 h, 37 m
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Vibrant tunics blanket the knoll, their owners busy chopping the forest. The harsh sun bakes the skin, leaving the Romans and their Gallic recruits slick with sweat. Muscles aching, the younger men imitate their elders and wrap their foreheads in rags before dusting their hands with more chalk. Each axe swing brings a grunt and the thump of metal on wood, and by midday, their labor silences the rolling ticks of lonely cicadas. Nearby, camp immunes, who are laborers forbidden to fight, keep things…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Night marches are treacherous without torch or stars. It is solitary work, and anxiety devours the hours. The hiss of wind-swept trees overpowers the cadence of infantry boots. No one utters a word, not even to their horses. Skipio leads his scouts ahead of the legions. Over a mile ahead, they meet a barricade of towering reeds and foxtails. Insects and amphibians cavort so wildly that their clamor drowns out his pounding heart. Amid the bobtails lurks water, and entering unfamiliar wetland courts…
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120.4 K • Ongoing
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This violent summer is the hottest in memory. Bitch Face, the pretty Roman, covers the dead farmer and her children while his brothers hack away at her barley field. He casts an anxious gaze across the field at the forest. Deep within the trees, Aedan the Owl squats on a high branch, his foot rising so his toe can scratch the itch behind his ear. He watches Bitch Face, whose rage over a slaughtered lover burns hot, and grins. This rare show of emotion unsettles his cadre of most loyal, awaiting him…
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120.4 K • Ongoing
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Roman victory kills more than those on the battlefield. Like locusts, the legions consume everything. No farm provides a haven to the starving, not with crops stolen and livestock slaughtered. The forest is gone, its slender boughs fueling barracks stoves, and its stoutest trunks now backbones for Caesar’s new fleet. Longhouses stretch across the white expanse. Half-built ships line the shore for miles. Skipio’s boots crunch over snow as frigid air lashes his wool pants. An irksome beard shields his…
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120.4 K • Ongoing
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Haze shrouds a sea that blazes silver beneath the midday sun. Silhouettes appear on the horizon, five, then ten, until there are too many ships to count. Tribal leaders who fled the mainland arrived on their island, recounting Prince Mandubracius and his pact with the Roman battle king, Kaiser. Fresh from the fight, they spoke of warlord Dumnorix ambushing the Romans with a concealed fleet. Alas, it’s now clear that Dumnorix is as dead as his fleet. The brutish driver grunts. Stocky, with brawn…
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120.4 K • Ongoing
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His name is Scipio Servius Lucius, or Skipio to those who call him a friend. He stands taller than most, with a powerful build, a sharply carved face, and a compelling mouth that no man resists. His shorn head gleams like ripe wheat, while his dark, moss-green eyes run deep. Vitus Servius, Skipio’s father, is bald like his son. A burly patrician, he owns a profitable apple and pear orchard and a thriving walnut grove near the Alps. His only son eagerly trades farm life for the sword, and Vitus allows…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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His life is defined by how much pain he brings his mother. Twenty-two years ago, she left her princely father’s house for a different life with a coastal Ancalite named Fintan. Despite his druidic prowess, Fintan never suspected she was already caught. Her pains began on the autumnal, and her unborn babe insisted on coming out ass first. The old druidess cut her belly—a trauma that Ciniod’s mother mentions whenever she must force a fart. Aedan the Ancalite is bony, with alabaster skin and a…
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120.4 K • Ongoing
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PAC Goruym - Ramx`atol1 Yubol 2249 - 2150 Hours The skua fought against the unyielding gale, its patchy down ruffled by a relentless midnight wind. Hope emerged beneath its hooked bill in the form of a radiant colossal turtle, itinerant on the powerful swells. Dox stepped clear when the beleaguered skua landed sloppily on the railing overhead—no good ever came from standing under a gull. She gazed at the flight deck as if it were her first day on the planet, still reeling from her commanding…-
10.0 K • Ongoing
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Surface Operational HousingDirtox’takal 1 Yubol 2249 1430 Hours Sofita woke to the sound of seal barks and piercing laughter. The sheer act of dozing off still unsettled her after so many years. Bouts of sleep plagued those who served between the poles, and luckily for her, such naps didn’t interfere with her ability to hibernate at the end of the year. Across the pool, a juvenile seal, its stubby whiskers dripping with wet ice, let out a farewell yelp and dove into the black water before…-
10.0 K • Ongoing
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Kuril Base NorthRaxuta`acarol (Pacific Ocean)1 Yubol 2249 0130 Hours Unlike the other young men before him, he didn’t dive for a dark corner when she entered the room, or collapse to the floor sobbing. Bare feet left a spotty trail over the dark polar tile, leading her to the room’s lone bench, where he lost himself in the hazy depths beyond the glass. She moved her fingertips over the climate-control pad, dulling the room’s oppressive heat. Red-blooded helovx ran cold under the sea, one…
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10.0 K • Ongoing
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