anyway The Horse and the Infant still gives me major feels over Troy being Rome's dad. And I've come to the conclusion that Mycenae showed up in Italy at some point after hearing Troy had fled there. He arrives, finds out Troy is dead, but had a son. Now for whatever reason, Mycenae assumes Rome to be older, somewhere between 12-17, I haven't decided what brought him to that conclusion exactly but...
instead, he shows up with the intention to kill The Son of Troy. He gets near Rome, and realizes from his hiding spot watching, Troy's son is only about 2 years old. He proceeds to have the 'hold on, hold on, am I really going to kill a toddler??' moment, and even debates grabbing the kid and raising him himself, bc he won't know then and then I can avoid this whole thing and not have to kill a baby.
(The Prophetic Vision btw was of Rome taking over Greece)
He looses the chance to do anything when Eutria turns away from whatever she was doing picks Rome up and walks away; Mycenae is like "well! Guess that means I shouldn't do it, oh well, so sad, maybe I'll come back when he's older" and then hops back to Greece with a "yeah, yeah this kid is never going to hear about his dads grudge and how I'm technically responsible for his death. Yeah it'll be fine"
Here it is folks, it's all oc's (minus rome and Greece but they barely show up) it's unfinished, it's based off the Aeneid. it's almost 4000 words long, and it is in fact accurate to my hc I just don't have motivation for it. The poll demanded I post it.
—-----------------------------------
Staying awake had been hard enough throughout the war, peaceful sleep was a rare commodity especially when you can feel all the fighting. When we had broken into the Greek camp and there was no one there I had the foolish thought that it was over, they had given up and everything could finally return to normal.
I'm laying on the deck of a ship, at least I think I am. Everyone around me is yelling, a certain voice rising above the rest ordering everyone to hurry. What's going on? The last thing I remembered was the boy, he was a sacrifice to Athena he told us he was; we had pitied him. Priam had said to bring the horse as well, if we gained the favor of the goddess we would never lose to the Greeks again, that's what they said. I had gone to bed, everything was ending, I could finally rest again...
"Miltiades!" I blinked trying desperately to respond to whoever was calling my name, mostly to tell them to shut up. My head was pounding, it felt like someone was sitting on my chest preventing me from taking a full breath. Where was I? "Miltiades, wake up!"
The voice repeated the command a few times, I finally saw whoever it was kneel over me, bringing his face fully into my view.
I stared up at the man for a moment, there were a lot of people I was hoping it was, someone to explain what was going on but, "who in hades are you?"
The man looked extremely concerned and mumbled something about it being worse than he thought, "It's me, Aeneas don't you remember?"
I could swear I had heard the name before but I still had no clue who he actually was. All I could do was make a face and shake my head a little bit, he then took it upon himself to check my memory.
"Do you know your own name?"
"Miltiades" why is he asking me this? Out of all the things I need explained, like to start with why are we on a boat, and he's asking my name even though he already knows it.
He mumbled something else under his breath "Do you know who Priam is? What about Hector? Do you remember the names of anyone on the other side?"
"Yes, I know my own king's name; Hector is Priam's son, and what do you want me to say? Achilles?"
He finally went quiet, just staring at me. "So, you don't know who I am?"
"No." I could be more apologetic about it, but I am in too much pain at the moment to care. "Please explain what is going on"
"How to say this easily..." He went completely quiet, looking from side to side like he didn't want to say whatever it was. It was annoying me greatly, was the war over? Or did the Greeks return, how had I ended up on this boat, where were we going, why did I think I heard children a little while ago: Because if this is a war ship there should not be children on board.
Aeneas stood holding his hand out to help me up, I stood, but almost fell to my knees as a horrible wave of nausea hit. I quickly leaned against the side, trying to keep myself together.
I looked across the horizon, I was taken aback by the boats surrounding us. And the lack of... anything really, where were we?
"Troy fell" I heard Aeneas next to me, his voice bittersweet as he made his next statement "We should have listened to Cassandra"
I tried to process his words. He had to be wrong, a coward that had fled too early to know what was really going on. If the city had fallen I would be dead, but Aeneas continued on.
"We escaped," he gestured to the small fleet we were part of "I think we're the only Trojans left"
The only Trojans left?
~~~~~~Approximately Six Years Later~~~~~~
"We still have no clue where Italy is, IF it even exists"
Aeneas rolled his eyes at me as we pulled into the Phoenician port "We're getting close I can feel it"
"That's what you've been saying for six years!" I looked over the city, leaning against the side of the boat I thought of Phoenicia, Ashtoreth the personification of Phoenicia, not the actual city. I wondered if she thought I was dead like so many others did; I can't blame anyone. By all accounts I should be long gone. I spent a full year convincing myself I was gone, and Aeneas isn't the best at cheering people up. I heard a splash and looked over to see some of the children looking over the edge; then I heard yelling from below, correction Aeneas isn't the best at anything. I would get him, but someone else will.
What did amuse me though was watching the kids, it had always been odd to me how the older kids got the more they thought others' misfortune was funny; meanwhile younger kids were helplessly concerned. Once we had been a safe distance from Troy–or the ruins of it–we took a headcount. Seven full families, parents and kids all who had survived somehow. About thirty men, most of whom had seen which way the battle was going and fled with Aeneas instead of dying; whether they were smart or cowards depended on who you asked. Most of our crew was made up of widowed women and their children though, not that surprising, sad, but not surprising.
Then there was the last group, eleven children all under the age of six who didn't have any adults who claimed them. Six years later the eldest of the group was a twelve year old boy and the youngest a seven year old girl: there had been one younger then her but he didn't make it past the second year. Years earlier I had thought of having children of my own, but it's not that easy for personifications you can't just decide to have a kid. There needs to be the need for one. And the universe never had the need for me to have one. There were plenty of other children between all the boats, but these ten left were mine for the time being.
I heard men from the docks below saying something, I couldn't hear them but I knew close to what they were asking. "Awn, Simmias, help me with the ropes"
The two eldest boys came over quickly unwinding and throwing them down to the men on the docks. They were better at it then most, but most hadn't grown up on a boat. I waited for something else but then realized Aeneas had fallen overboard and was more than likely still waiting for someone to get him out of the water; I sighed loudly.
"Everyone!" I yelled to anyone on the top deck, "We're going to stop here for a while, but just incase for the time being stay close; keep track of each other, Aeneas, I, and some of the other men will go try to find accommodations for everyone"
There were mumbled responses, most not quite paying attention to what I was saying just anxious to get onto dry land.
I got off the boat just as Aeneas got to the dock. "How was your swim?"
He pulled himself up, "You didn't come help me why?!"
"Not my problem, you survived" I walked away to go look for Ashtoreth. I left for the city, I didn't know where she was, but she has to be around here somewhere I can feel her. As I walked through the streets, trying to follow my gut feeling and find her; and you know not to get miserably lost, I looked around. We had stopped in plenty of cities, but none had seemed as big as this one. I looked around at the buildings, the city was unusually large for one this new.
I wandered some more taking everything in, she must be doing well for herself if her influence has made its way all the way over here. I had heard rumors saying she was more powerful than any of the greek cities, I would have to make sure to throw that in Mycenae's face if I ever saw him again.
Every time we stopped in a city I had a moment, ever since my land fell to the Greeks I've been weaker physically, it took awhile but I got used to it, to my new limits. What I never got used to was the empty feeling in my chest, sometimes it felt as if my heart had stopped beating. When we were in cities like this and I saw people going about their days, everything normal for them, I got jealous. I wanted my land back, I wanted the rest of my people. Italy, I had said it a million times over trying to get used to the idea of somewhere new. I needed somewhere new.
"Miltiades!" I turned seeing Aeneas coming behind me, looking a mix of smugly proud and exasperated. "Hurry! We have an audience with the queen!"
—------------
I stood in front of Queen Dido, or more accurately I stood off to the side, behind Aeneas as he explained–poorly–what we were doing here. I tried to not let my eyes wander too much, Ashtoreth should be somewhere around here; I'm surprised I haven't already seen her. It used to be that she would find me the moment I appeared in one of her ports, where could she be?
"You should join us for dinner tonight" I looked up, as Queen Dido extended the invitation to Aeneas; I was almost confused. There was no way after tonight she would be able to stomach the absolute stupidity of the man standing next to me.
I needed to stop him from accepting this, "Thank you bu-"
"We would love to!" ... we're going to get kicked out of another place. Aeneas smiled at her and I watched something I never thought could happen: she sincerely smiled back. I left following Aeneas out of the palace, going back to the docks.
"What was that?" I finally asked after a while of silence,
"What was what?"
"The smile" I told him, it was obvious. The usual response to Aeneas from women was less than enthusiastic. Sure he was good looking enough but he was as smart as a fly, and his lack of brains was too obvious to ignore. How a queen is apparently falling for him we'll never know.
He shrugged as we got back to the dock. "She just likes me" He waved up to someone on the dock, then got up onto the boat. I blinked a few times, I needed to coach him on how to not embarrass us all at dinner tonight.
"Miltiades!" I heard yelling from behind me, this though was a woman's voice. I turned around seeing Ashtoreth coming towards me. I smiled, waving to acknowledge that I saw her. "Miltiades, gosh I thought I was going to miss you"
I tried not to laugh "Even if you did we're joining you for dinner tonight Ash"
"I heard, he's an idiot"
"Yes!" I finally let go, laughing hard. "He is," We both went quiet for a moment just happy to be in the company of someone like the other. Being a personification is hard, humans are draining, they don't understand immortality.
"I thought you were dead" She finally said, "Everyone did"
I shook my head a little, "Trust me, I thought I was dead too" I took a step back spreading my arms, "As you can see though, I'm here somehow"
"Oh" she mocked disappointment, even though a smirk was prominent on her face "I was hoping I wouldn't have to put up with you"
I nodded seriously "The gods are cruel sometimes"
I went to say something else but before I could, I heard a voice from the boat; "Miltiades!" I looked up to see one of the children waving to me, "Can we get off?" She asked half bouncing, obviously tired of being on the boat.
I was going to tell her no when I heard Ashtoreth gasp behind me, then yell up "Of course you all can!"
I eyed her, I knew she loved children but what was she doing. The kids standing on the edge looking over all looked at me, hesitant to get off being given permission by a stranger. I sighed, but nodded and waved them down. They all left from the side coming quickly going to get to the dock.
"Are they yours?" I heard Ashtoreth ask me, as she watched some of the younger ones almost stumbling over their own feet trying to be quick.
I was quiet for a moment watching them. For six years I had watched over all of them, I had named half of them because they were too little to remember their own; more than once a few had slipped up and called me dad, I wanted to think they were mine. All I remembered though was a warning from my own father "They had no one else" Is all I said.
—-----------
"Marriage?" I looked at Aeneas shocked, "She wanted you to marry her?"
"I know!" He sounded just as shocked as I was about it, "I told her no, cause I was told I have to leave"
We had only been here for two months and we already were getting kicked out–there is no way Aeneas would leave otherwise–. I couldn't say I was surprised. This happened at most places we went to, I just thought we had more time here. When Aeneas had said he wanted to leave some had protested saying they were going to stay; then he told them that the Queen would probably kill any Trojans left in the city if we weren't gone soon. Everyone didn't mind leaving so much after that. That left us here, repacking the boats and getting ready to go back out and search for 'Italy' even though still none knew where it was.
"Have you told your girlfriend you're leaving?" Aeneus asked me, an odd tone to his voice. It took me a moment to realize he was talking about Ash,
I shook my head, "Ashtoreth isn't romantically involved with men, ever, and she has a wife. You met her"
"I did?" he looked confused, I tried not to sigh too heavily. He was truly useless sometimes, I sat down on the dock for a moment taking a break. I still hadn't told Ash that we were leaving, I didn't know how to. I'm sure she knows, there is no way she couldn't. I would tell her formally though when I go to get the children later, they had been spending an awful lot of time with her and she was happy to watch them. Ash had always loved children, but over the years none of her wives had seemed too thrilled at the idea of adopting some of their own. This one though... She seemed to want children just as much as her wife and had been thrilled to help watch them.
"We thought about children" she had told me a week or so before watching Naaila–her wife–with my children. She sighed, "With the new city and all, adopting isn't really an option right now, and we're both so busy anyway..."
I watched my friend, she was always considered odd. Ash had repeatedly fallen in love and spent her life married to a human. Personifications didn't do that, most of us couldn't handle the heartache after they died; Ashtoreth had always told me though that it was worse to not have anyone and watch humans die anyway. Point is, she wasn't scared to get close to humans and lose them, most of our kind were. I had only heard of one other that wasn't, supposedly there was a man far east who raised housefulls of orphaned children. I was just terrified of losing any of these ten, I couldn't imagine dozens.
"When do we leave?" I asked Aeneas, hoping he had a day or time in mind instead of just 'whenever we're ready'.
"In the morning" he said it with more certainty than I had heard from him ever before. But... So soon? I thought I had more time, more time to say goodbye to Ashtoreth, to give everyone just a little more time to get ready. I nodded though, there was no point in arguing if he said in the morning; then we would leave in the morning.
"Why did you wake me in the middle of the night to do this all?" I gestured around to everyone bustling about getting things ready, "Couldn't we have done it earlier?"
"I had a dream. They said we have to go in the morning" Damn Aeneas and his dreams, can't the gods communicate in different ways? By letter maybe? Messenger boy? Not dreams and random visions?
"You should probably go get those kids now" I sighed and nodded, I stood and walked away without another word to anyone. Ash would be mad at me, waking her up this late but I needed to get the children.
I showed up at the house, looking at the house. All the children had been staying with Ash and her wife this whole time; both insisted they didn't mind and it was much more comfortable then on the boat. I hadn't considered if we had to leave at the last minute what I would do, especially if I was trying to avoid her. I took a few steps more forward, and raised my fist to knock on the door: it flew open though before I could.
"We heard" Instead of Ashtoreth, it was Naaila standing there.
"We haven't told anyone" I was confused, how word of a dream Aeneas had spread so quickly, he said himself he hadn't told anyone.
She rolled her eyes, Naaila was beautiful it was hard not to notice it. Ash and I had always joked that we had the same taste in women, it wasn't far from the truth. "Everyone knows, the queen is throwing a fit"
I sighed, knowing this would happen. There was no way we could stay here for long without Aeneas making someone mad, in this case it just so happened to be a queen of a quickly growing city who wanted to marry him. Wonderful. I'm starting to accept that if we even do find italy we'll be promptly kicked out by the next woman he disgusts in some way or another.
THERE'S SUPPOSED TO BE A LOT OF STUFF HERE BUT I NEVER WROTE IT :))))))))
I sat in the garden. My eyes barely scanning the area around me, always returning to rest on a specific spot. The game of hide and seek with my daughter had started almost ten minutes earlier. The girl had an affinity for hiding in the same spot time and time again, so I sat, and waited. I would go exactly to where she was, and make a big deal about how long it took for me to find her after a few more minutes.
My daughter, my Cassandra, was barely four years old; and I already knew I would raise hell and high water to keep her safe. Some thought it inappropriate, a curse that she was named after a seeress who was doomed to never be believed. I thought it was a fitting name, Cassie was born nine months after the fall of Troy, Cassandra the Trojan had warned them we were coming hadn't she? They hadn't listened, the moment she spoke that prophecy it was clear the gods favored our side.
I stood, deciding it was time to 'find' her, "Now where is my daughter?"
I said it loudly, waiting for the giggle that always gave her away. Just on cue from behind one of the bushes that lined the wall moved, a small burst of laughter coming from it before quickly being muffled. The girl shares more of my looks but the laugh, her laugh was her mothers. I walked over, purposefully making my steps fall heavier, so she would definitely hear me.
"Cassie?" I called in a sing-song voice, "Where are you?" I got close enough and reached behind the bush grabbing her. She laughed even harder as I held her up in the air. I couldn't help but start laughing as well, these are my favorite moments.
"Let's play again!!" she shouted, already trying to wiggle out of my arms, "You can hide, i'll find you!"
Some men came out of the palace calling for me, they had some news something to do... with Troy? At first I sighed, the war had been over centuries ago yet sometimes they still brought unnecessary news about it. I called the nursemaid over, she quickly rose from where she had been sitting on the other side of the garden and came over. Taking Cassandra from me without even having to be asked. I told her to take the child inside, that I would meet them in a few minutes. She nodded then disappeared.
"What is so pressing that you had to interrupt me while I was with my daughter?" I asked it pointedly to one of the advisors I knew. Everyone in the group shuffled at my tone, not wanting to deal with my anger.
"He brings word from the west" they half-pushed a boy to the front of the group, I looked him over, a commoner no doubt, not from here, and young, Yes, very young.
"What do you have to say?" I was already bored with the whole thing. Whatever it was could not be as important as everyone was claiming.
He was obviously very nervous, but started speaking, "Some of the trojans survived, and they escaped. This was decades ago, but a whole fleet of refugees went west, they stopped in many places; they angered many people including a queen who no longer lives." he stopped for a breath, I didn't believe a word he said. I couldn't, I had killed Troy. Miltiades could not have survived. It was impossible.
"They found refuge in a new land, the personification, one of your own kind, married not long after arriving to a woman named Thania; the personification of the Etruiscans. Not even a month ago she bore him a son"
anyway, instead of historical accuracy bc of 1 fanfic I can't not have Troy as Rome's dad it's impossible. But, Troy is Rome's dad, Mycenae is Ancient Greece's.
And I'm just listening to The Horse and the Infant and thinking about Mycenae hearing Troy escaped. Hearing he had a son, knowing he should go find the boy and get rid of him while he's still small, knowing it will be harder in the future. But then Greece comes running up to him, she's maybe three and he can't look his little Cassandra in the eyes and then make himself take the life of another child. He can't.
