"This just total sucks!" Peander moaned again as he squatted down and gently poked the fading campfire with the tip of his sword. "Everyone else in the platoon got tonight off but us! If this is not the most ultimate fucked up screw job of all times than I do not know..."
"Why don't you just shut up about it for crying out loud!" Captain Leonidas barked as he interrupted his disgruntled young underling. "You have been bitching non-stop all night, so enough already!" Leaning up against the cold column of the small marble shrine they were guarding, he laid his spear down on the ground and sighed. "We all drew the short straws tonight Private, so we are the ones that get to be on guard duty this evening, not them. It could have just as easily been one of the others, so enough with your complaining and go out on point!" As they finished talking, both turned as a form walked out of the darkness towards their fire.
"Nothing to report Captain Leonidas," Atreus interrupted as he returned from his watch and sauntered over to join the other two. Shaking his head, he added "By the way, I could not help but overhear your conversation Leonidas, and you certainly appear to have no heart left in that old beaten down body of yours. I think you are being overly harsh on the boy."
"Oh?" Leonidas answered as he lifted his thick graying eyebrows up into a sharp arch. "How so? When we were his age we knew how to follow orders and not fucking run off at the mouth with a barrage of whining every time we had to do our duty." Smiling at his old friend he added "And who are you calling old and beaten down anyway? Why I could still beat down your senile old ass in a fight and best you at the Pankration any time you say." Standing up and assuming the stance of a wrestler he added "So come on old man. You think you can still take on your old Captain? I bet I smack that withered up broken down sack of rotting goat meat you call a body in two seconds flat once we hit the mat."
Waving him away dismissively Atreus smiled. "Keep your toga on gramps. I am too tired, and my back hurts too much for play fighting this morning. You know, I can still feel every scar and scrape of every battle we were ever in you know."
Laughing, Leonidas nodded. "So true..." Grinning he added "We certainly saw quite the amount of action in our day didn't we old friend. Why back in our day every man feared us and we certainly burned our way through quite the bevy of willing beauties I dare say." Sighing as he gripped his back in pain and winced he grinned even wider. "Ah, youth. Those were the days weren't they."
"Yes, they certainly were," Atreus answered with a laugh. "And that is my point. You see, you and I are old already. Our options for ideal entertainment on the Solstice is probably limited to enjoying a bit of roast lamb at home with the grandkids. Perhaps we will be lucky and enjoy an amphora of wine by the fire and hope we don't have to get up five times that night to pee." Pointing over at Peander he smirked. "Our young friend over there I bet had far more entertaining plans than that. Perhaps he had thoughts of enjoying the sexual favors of some top-heavy young servant girl whose cooch he could nuzzle his face into all night. Or maybe he and his buddies were planning to go out on a free-for-all drunken whore fest. Zeus knows we did our fair share of that when we were his age. Who knows what his plans were, but I am sure they were more exciting than hanging out on the side of Icy Mount Olympus with two old men all night."
Squinting his eyes, he smirked and added "But I can definitely say that the hairs on my head are not so gray that I can't remember what it was like to be young once. That being said, I think you need to be a bit more understanding of the boy." Closing his eyes and smiling as some distant erotic faded memory flooded into his mind he continued. "Mmmm, the Solstice is truly for the young."
"Yeah!" Peander yelled back, happy for the support of Atreus. He could not have put it better if he had said it himself. He, at just eighteen, was a vigorous, lusty, young recruit while the other two were far older grizzled veterans of the army, their pussy chasing days far in the distant past.
"Hey you! Be quiet and go out on point as I ordered!" Leonidas snapped as he glared at the outburst of Peander. Turning back to Atreus he frowned deeply and whispered. "You know; you are not helping me here. How will this boy learn discipline if you keep undermining my authority? Do you want him to stay weak and pitiful like a little girl? How would our Village survive an attack by the Persians, or the Northern Barbarians, or any number of enemies on our borders if we do not train the next generation of fighters properly? Already I can see our Greek civilization getting weaker and weaker as the youngsters today forget the glories of our past."
Now insulted, Peander shot up straight as he overheard. "Listen here Captain. I do not want to be insubordinate, but I am not weak. I fear no man! But this shit tonight is just plain boring. All I have done since I joined this platoon is march and drill, march and drill. How am I supposed to learn the ways of war if all we do is talk about it?"
Not waiting for a response, he continued. "Plus, what are we guarding here tonight anyway?" Glancing over to the shrine, he pointed at the statue inside. "What fool would attack the shrine to the Goddess Euphrosyne?" Glancing further up the mountain towards the perpetually snow-capped peaks at the summit, he added. "Especially when she and her sister's palace is just right up there on Olympus! Would not she and her sisters, the other Divine Graces, come swooping down in all of their fury to defend their shrine if it were attacked? Is it really necessary for us to guard the shrine tonight? Fuck Captain, as you know, even her own Priests took the night off!"
Smirking, Captain Leonidas followed his gaze up to the peaks of Olympus. He knew in his gut that his young charge had a point, but he would not dare agree with him out loud. This was a bullshit detail, and he knew it, especially on the Solstice. The priests of the shrines to the Graces had long retired to their palaces for countless parties celebrating the coming of the new sun. They showed all by their actions that slackness was the actual order of the day. True though this may be, it was beside the point to his assignment. An order was an order, and if the King of Larissa wanted a guard for the shrine on the Solstice, it was his job to provide it.
Dropping his smirk into a blank authoritarian stare Leonidas said, "Perhaps you are right and the Graces would come and defend their shrine as you say, but that is not the issue son. Your job, and mine, and a job that is to be performed without question or complaint is to guard this shrine. It is none of your business what the priests of the Graces do with their time. They alone have to answer to the Goddess for their actions, not us." Pointing to himself he added "As for me, I have devoted my life and my honor to the Grace's service. If I were to be blessed enough to meet them in person, I would not want my duty or loyalty questioned."
Laughing from the side of the tiny shrine, Atreus looked over at Peander and added "You see boy, this is why he is an officer and we are not!"
Frowning, Peander looked down and grumbled. "That is easy for you to say. You have had your glory."
"What did you say?" Leonidas asked.
"I said, you two have had your glory, sir. You and Atreus have both lived full and exciting lives. You have killed many men. You have loved scores of women. You have both done great things. Without being disrespectful sir, but..."
"But what?"
"But I am just losing my mind here in boredom here. I need some... excitement! You know what I am saying?"
"Oh? Excitement eh? So you want to feel the thrill of battle? You want to experience the charge that a man can only feel when he takes the life of one of the enemy, right? Do I understand what you are saying correctly?"
"Well... yeah!"
"It looks like we have a real killer on our hands here Leonidas!" Atreus called out from the side. "Those Persians won't have a chance with the likes of him."
Frowning, Leonidas stepped forward and stood nose to nose with Peander. "You don't know what the fuck you are talking about boy! War is not all the stupendous glory that you make it out to be. It is a bloody stinking fucked up mess that is best avoided if possible. Trust me, once you have seen the head of your best friend sliced off in front of your eyes, you will change your tune. The minute you smell the coppery warm odor of your own life force oozing out of your gut from a stab wound, you won't feel so romantic about glory son. Life is a short and brutal affair, and you should fall to your knees every night and thank the Gods and Goddesses on Olympus that their divine protection keeps such ugliness at bay."
"But why are you such a hard ass about drills then sir? If you hate war so much, why do you seem to live it constantly?"
"Because only those who truly know and fear war, know that the best way to avoid it is to constantly prepare for it. You see, throughout history...."
"Shhhh!!!" Atreus yelled out as he interrupted them. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Leonidas and Peander asked as they turned over and looked at Atreus.
"Thunder... or something. I don't know what, but I definitely hear it. Can't you guys hear anything?"