Redsand Canyon viriliter

"perhaps you should."

the pain was eddying away to be replaced with a dryness. an emptiness. the eagle's lips quirked. it was not a smile. it was not even humorous. it was only a movement that suggested more than what he said.

"i did what i was trained to do."

mereo had succeeded. mereo had become more than soldiers marching and training. it was a home for many. it was his own, where his children and his wife resided. 

but the fact remained that germanicus had built a half-dozen outposts already and that while mereo belonged to him, the ease of it had not been all his own doing.

there was nothing more to say and so he was quiet, though he gathered slowly into himself and prepared to rise.