I hope you enjoy Mamm and Alaric as much as I've enjoyed the time I've 'spent' with them! They choose their Destiny, knowing it will bring them pain and loss ... and bittersweet triumph ...
*Stilicho and Alaric are rival 'Getae' (essentially Celt, Stilicho is Vandal and Alaric Visigoth in background) Generals who command vast numbers of the Roman Empire's military.*
...
‘Why do I not believe you, Stilicho?’
‘Would I lie to you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, I’m not.
‘Honorius fears you and trusts me. I am doing my job. Disturbing your peace is part of it – the only part I really enjoy, come to think of it.
‘Also remember this, Alaric. I might work for Honorius but I serve the Mother. In my own way.
‘Honorius is afraid you might go to work for Arcadius. Let’s make his nightmare a reality.
‘Take Greece, Alaric. They love you there. Arcadius will take it as a sign of your military prowess and put Illyria into your hands, and his armories. He will think to use you against me and Honorius.
‘For brothers, those two sure don’t get along very well, do they? Though Rufinus plays Arcadius with a puppet’s strings and Honorius depends on me and others . . . still, if those two brothers ever took it into their heads to be brother to one another . . . but they do not and they will not.’
‘No, they don’t and they won’t – and thank the Mother for that. Between the two of them they’ll bring the empire down even without our help.
‘Okay then. Greece it is for me and mine. You go on and tend to the seeds you’ve planted, Stilicho – and stay out of Greece for a while.’
He looks over to Mamm, remembering.
‘Innocent bystanders might get hurt if we meet in public, and my wife might get mad.’
Stilicho gives Mamm a long look, also remembering.
‘Indeed.’
And so into Greece they go and they take it by storm.
There are a few places where they have to do a little fighting but . . . well . . . after the Frigidus there’s not much of anything that’s going to intimidate these Warriors and it shows.
Something about them . . . the way they ride, their walk, their eyes, their posture . . . whatever it is, they unconsciously present themselves as someone you don’t want to tangle with. Nobody wants to take them on.
Besides, Stilicho is right: Greece does love Alaric. He could tromp them at will but chooses not to, and they love him for it.
When entering a city or town, he brandishes his sword and shouts:
‘Here is the sword of Alaric! Her name is Kindness and with her will I smite you!’
Roars of cheers meet these words and the people of Greece fall before him.
When they stop to camp along the way one evening, Mamm looks at Alaric. Half in jest and half serious, she asks him a question.
‘Am I crazy or is it the Greeks? I thought this was supposed to be an invasion.’
‘Well it is, Mamm.’
‘Alaric.’
‘What?’
‘This is not an invasion.’
‘Sure it is.’
‘How can you call it an invasion? We should leave these people alone, Alaric. They’re all soft in the head. We can’t just keep on taking their stuff – it isn’t right.’
‘Who are we to say what’s right and what’s wrong? If they want to give us their stuff I say take it, tell them thank you, and go on our way.’
‘Alaric!’
‘Well what am I supposed to do, Mamm? Give it all back and turn around to go back to Illyria? It would be an insult to every self-respecting Greek in the land. I’m supposed to be conquering Greece here, am I not? Can I help it if they like us and want to give us stuff? No, I cannot.’
‘Do you know what I overheard in the last place we stopped, Alaric? A little old gramma lady come to visit her sister was upset, upset Alaric, that we had skipped by her village!’
Here Mamm squinches her eyes mostly closed, wrinkles up her face as best she can, and waves her arms around as she skreeks out her next words.
‘They skipped us, sister! Just breezed on by like we didn’t exist! I tell you, we were some disappointed. All of us wanted to set eyes on that handsome Alaric and that adorable little wife of his, but they passed us right by! When I heard they were here I says to myself, Self, you haven’t seen your sister in a long while, and hurried myself right over here for a visit I did! Just to see you, y’know. Oh and there they were! I almost fainted dead away and me a little old gramma lady already! Did you see them dark blue eyes on that man, sister? Oh my! And his deeeear little wife! I’ve had this tunic ready to give her, just waitin’ for them to come along to sack our village doncha know – and they never came!’
Alaric is laughing but Mamm’s face is serious now.
‘And later she found me, Alaric. She found me and gave me a lovely tunic. A little old gramma lady, Alaric, whose own tunic was far less fine than the one she gave to me.’
‘So. What did you do?’
‘What could I do? I accepted it and gave her a kiss on her forehead in thanks.’
‘Well there you have it, Mamm. We have to conquer Greece. As long as we make it look good and nobody tells on us, we may as well enjoy it.’
‘Shouldn’t we at least maybe feel a little bit guilty?’
‘Nope.’
...
This gives you just a bit of an idea about the relationship these two share.
Truth be told, I had a difficult time writing much of their story.
I was either laughing or weeping most of the time and some parts I flat out just didn't want to write.
Still, the Story must be told ...
