Swords of Rome Read Online Free PDF Page A

arms held wi de to his side as he knelt down on one knee, waiting for her to run into his embrace.
    The uncooperative Helen leaped from the fence. As she hurried over toward Achilles, she pushed him out of the way, which forced him down onto his backside before she hurried over to Gaius, who finally managed to get back to his feet, tying to brush the drying mud off from his tunic and bare legs.
    Throwing her arms around Gaius, the girl looked back at Achilles, the boy who was actually her brother, and proclaimed, “I choose Gaius as my husband. He is my hero, and I shall marry him!” she cried out as she looked up into Gaius’ boyish eyes with a wide smile on her young face.
    Her grip on his leg was firm, not caring about the dirt that stuck to his body, as long as she had him in her arms.
    “Hey! You can’t do that. He is supposed to be Hector. And he is dead!” the pretender who played Achilles yelled with a frustrated expression, bitter as he watched once again his sister ruined his game.
    “And besides, Helen is supposed to be in love with Paris,” Gaius said as he looked down at the little girl.
    “I can marry whoever I want!”
    “No you can’t, Julia!” Antony, her older brother screamed. “You can’t just go and change the story. Can’t she, Gaius?”
    Gaius looked down at Julia as she stared back up at him with her big, dark-green eyes, seemingly asking him without words that he should agree with her and not her brother.
    “It d oesn’t really matter, I guess. Pretty much everyone dies in the end,” Gaius answered as diplomatically as he could – setting the historical facts straight.
    “Well, that isn’t very fun. Why can’t we just change it?” Julia asked.
    “Because, it isn’t our story to change,” he answered.
    “Yeah, so strop trying to marry him already,” Antony said as he walked over to his sister and smacked her upside her head. Julia turned, yelling at her brother as she started to swing at him.
    Gaius looked on, watching his two friends as they fought, as they normally did. For the moment, he was thankful that he was the only child in the family.
    As Antony and his younger sister fought in the middle of the road, Gaius looked over his shoulder and gazed upon the falling sun, which in fewer than two hours would be gone, ending his day with his two best friends.
    He sighed as he had to start his way home. If he didn’t, his father would be angry with him. He still felt the effects of the last time he had made the mistake of getting back home after nightfall.
    “I have to go home before it is too dark,” Gaius said, but he wasn’t sure if his friends actually heard him, as Antony, taller than his six-year-old  sister, was mocking her foolish attempts to beat him with her tiny fists.
    Julia, while four years younger than her brother, held her own. She never backed down from a challenge, or let her brother bully her. So she would fight him, confront any attempt to demean her, especially when she was with Gaius. He figured that Julia felt she had to prove herself worthy to play with the boys, or risk being cast out if she should back down.
    For all the talk and physical torment that Antony committed against his sister, it was clear to Gaius that he loved and looked out for her as any good brother should. He simply wasn’t accustomed to having to share his friends with a girl, who demanded daily to play with the two boys, namely because she desired to be around Gaius as much as she could.
    Julia followed them day after day, like a little mascot as the two filled the afternoon with fantastical wonders, pretending to be warriors or acting classical stories, as champions defending Greece from Troy, or the Persians, or battling the fearsome Cyclops, the Hydra, or the frightful snake-haired Medusa. On occasion the two found use for her, such as their need for a girl to play the part of Helen of Troy. However, stubbornly, Julia was always more interested in the here and now – being