Reincarnated to the Past Interlude: Bodi 1

Bodi stared at the gawking man responsible for the death of his former chief and couldn’t help but wonder.

That donkey-looking braying weirdo was his master now?

‘Ugh, at least the horse fuckers let me wield a sword,’ he thought in dismay. 

The plains tribes and his new master - they were trying to hand him the end of the rope tying him and four others together - bickered. 

“Anyone know what they’re saying?” he asked the others.

He was the only slave to have survived the battle, but his status as a slave no longer mattered nor did anyone else with him here knew about his former - and then renewed - status. 

One of the warriors grunted. “Something about the bowmaster not wanting us as slaves.”

“That’s … good?” Bodi asked quietly.

The warrior who’d replied to him grunted. “Don’t know. He might be an ass licker or the greatest warrior. I don’t care either way, I ain’t becoming a slave.”

With that, he broke the thick - but ultimately fragile looking - ropes keeping his wrists bound with a single outward snap of his hand. He reached for the sword at the hip of the guard behind him in a rush and pulled it out. 

He roared as he moved to strike down the now panicking guard.

Crack

And then keeled over with a rock embedded in his head.

Everyone turned to the one the dead warrior called the bowmaster and saw him with an outstretched hand, kneeling on the ground. 

Bodi paled as he realized what the “bowmaster” had just done; in the span of time it took for the dead warrior to free himself and steal a sword, the bowmaster had crouched down, grabbed a rock, and threw it so hard and so accurately that he killed the would-be-rampant slave in an instance.

Cold.

That’s what Bodi thought about his new master. 

‘Fuck,’ he thought to himself in horror. ‘I’m going to be whipped to death, aren’t I?’

-VB-

Reincarnated to the Past
Interlude: Bodi 1

-VB-

Under the morning sun the next day, Bodi found himself standing in front of his new master with a single iron clamp on his left ankle just like three others. Their master looked … ashamed. It was clear that he wasn’t comfortable in his place, but why wouldn’t he be? 

Bodi remembered facing off against the bowmaster. He led a group of women into battle and won against the right’s charge, who should have overrun the bowmaster and his women warriors due to their numerical advantage.

But they hadn’t, and Bodi had seen - even as the center army he was part of pushed deep - the right flank fall apart. It still confused him. How did the bowmaster achieve such a thing? But by that point in the battle, he’d been knocked out by his own ally’s attack from behind, so he knew not what happened between that point and when he woke up inside a prison cell.

He looked over his shoulder briefly and saw at least half a dozen guards just waiting to skewer him and his fellow slaves if they made any threatening move.

But why did they stay so far away? Some of them didn’t even look bothered. 

And then Bodi remembered what happened to the idiot warrior from last night and how quickly his new master had dispatched a warrior slave as if a warrior slave was worth nothing. 

His new master said something… but it was completely unintelligible to Bodi.

“We can’t understand you, master,” Bodi replied subserviently. The three ignored him.

Master grinned and gestured for me to speak again, but he pointed to … the ground? No, he was pointing to the grass.

“Grass?”

“Krass?” 

Was their master mimicking him? 

Bodi blinked as master pointed to the dirt.

“Earth?”

“Arth?”

His accent was horrendous.

“Earth,” Bodi said again.

“Ea...rth.”

What in the underworld was the master trying to do?

For hours, they played this “follow the leader speak” game. The guards in the distance - maybe a stone’s throw away - cackled.

“So speak this?” 

Bodi stumbled back in surprise when his new master spoke his language. Badly mangled it may have been, but his master just … spoke his tongue.

“What…?” 

The cackling of the guards grew louder.

“New word. ‘What’ that?”

Bodi opened his mouth and closed it. 

What?

-VB-

For a week, the four slaves did nothing but talk to their new master. They talked endlessly for half of the day each day, and with each passing day, they saw a frightening level of progression from their master’s understanding and speech of their tongue. 

At the end of the week…

They sat around a small campfire at dusk, still talking while the master shared his meat with them. To Bodi, this was the best he’s been treated since he was sold from Sparta all those years ago. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he had freshly cooked meat, nevermind a fresh and hot meal. 

His master served them food instead of the other way around. 

“I think this is enough,” the master spoke after setting down an empty bowl next to him. Their master spoke their language as well as they did. He grinned cheekily. “So I got to learn your language and got to know a little bit more about all of you, but I think we haven’t had a formal introduction yet, have we?”

Bodi looked at his master for a moment before he glanced at his fellow slaves. They all looked at each other before they all turned to master as one.

The eldest of them spoke.

“I am Tohal, master. I am a warrior, though old, and most of my skills are known to the clans that roam the plains.”

Master nodded.

The next slave spoke. “I am Yossin. I am a warrior like Tohal, though not as good as he is.”

Bodi spoke up then as he was the second to last in age. “I am Bodi. I come from a city called Sparta in the south. I know how to fight, but not well, and I know how to farm and hunt.”

And the youngest spoke up. “I do not have a name… I followed my former master into battle but … well, I saw how easily you killed him, master. I consider myself lucky that I haven’t died in that battle.”

Master nodded again. “I am Alan of Marris,” he introduced himself. “I am the Wiseman of the Kettin, but I also work as carpenter, blacksmith, crafter, and hunter. I will give you jobs, and if you feel that the job I gave you does not suit you or your experience, speak up.”

And like that, the nameless slave - now named by master as “Karr” - and Bodi became master’s house servants while master volunteered Tohal and Yossin as guards for the tribe. 

Master’s first job for Bodi and Karr?

“Collect poop?”