294 Wonderful lily park (4)

After the successful completion of our basic training with Titus, we join other wannabe Roman legionaries who have completed their basic training. We get assigned a centurion who leads us through various exercises.

We march, throw javelins and yes, we assume the tortoise formation which apparently is the reason most people are here. To test the tortoise formation we have a bunch of padded javelins thrown at us. That is the moment where most people discover that playing a Roman legionary has some not so fun parts. And while the javelins are padded, they hurt like hell judging by the dozen people lying on the ground, groaning in pain.

Well, the ones that got hit were mostly ordinary level one people who probably slacked off during basic training. Neither their stats nor their trainings could save them and with virtually no pain tolerance, our group has lost some legionaries.

Permanently, as it turns out. The minute they somewhat recover from the pain of getting hit, those people start to complain and leave.

With our numbers slightly reduced we continue. The centurion doesn't seem at all bothered by the fact that more than ten people just walked out on him.

After a some more marching and switching formations, we get to have a shoving match with another group in tortoise formation. It quickly becomes apparent that having large disparities in strength within each group is suboptimal.

As certain individuals with higher stats can push back an entire file of people by themselves, others can't. The formation quickly gets distorted as individual files succeed while others get shoved back.

With a hint of frustration in his voice, the centurion calls us back. He remarks that it's time for lunch and asks who wants to stay for a Roman lunch and who would rather head back to civilization as he puts it.

It takes all my persuasive prowess to keep Quinn from verbally ripping that centurion's head off for insinuating that Ancient Rome wasn't civilized. It gets a lot easier when most of the people are gone and the centurion declares.

"Now that the uncultured people are gone we can proceed to watch one of the greatest marvels of civilization!"

Seems this centurion just wanted to get rid of the people who didn't think Ancient Rome was all that great. Problem is, I am still here.

Ouch! Quinn pinched me!

"I can sense that you are thinking blasphemous thoughts. Stop that."

She knows!

I put on my best poker face as we march to another tent where we are allowed to put down our pila and the shields. They then bring out two stone hand mills and set them each on a white cloth.

Now the term hand mill sounds more sophisticated than this thing is. One such hand mill consists of nothing but two large, rounded stones sitting on top of one another and a short bit thick wooden stick that served as a handle. The upper stone has a hole in the middle and the lower one has a slight bump in the center that fits into the hole of the upper one. With that, the upper stone won't slip off the lower one when it's turning. The handle is then set into a indentation in the upper stone and used to rotate it. The name for this thing is mola manualis.

"Now, I'm sure most of you know this already, but we are not grinding the grain into white flour. We are grinding it just enough to break the outer shell of the grain and make it fit for consumption. Yes, you will be eating the outer shell too, it's a source of fiber."

We form two groups and start to use the mills. Some grain is dropped into the hole in the upper millstone and then it's grinded up as the millstone is rotated manually. The ground up result is slowly expelled from between the millstones as more follows after it. According to Quinn, it is best to pass the grain through the mill twice for optimum texture.

Not knowing anything on the subject and seeing no one contradict her, I just follow along. After the grain has been ground twice, the millstones are removed and the resulting mixture of the grinding process is left on the white cloth.

Lifting the cloth by the corners, the mixture of grains and hulls is carried above a cooking pot and dropped into boiling water. The centurion adds some chopped vegetables and dried sausage slices to make less bland. How many additional ingredients the Roman legionaries actually used can't be determined so they just add some stuff that legionaries might have had access to.

The end result is surprisingly palatable. It won't win any culinary prizes but it fills you up and the additional ingredients give it some much needed flavor.

Considering that this was food meant to be eaten by soldiers in enemy territory, where supply lines were sparse and you had to carry everything you used, this is quality food.

After lunch, the centurion asks who wants to continue but Quinn and I excuse ourselves. I could keep going like this with ease but Quinn can't lug all that equipment around with her stats. It's already an achievement for her to have lasted until now. She's probably going to be feeling sore tomorrow.

We visit a few more attractions of the ancient Romans before we head over to the dinosaur section. We find Cassidy, Melody and Valeria sitting on a picknick blanket. Cassidy is munching on a bunch of sandwiches while they all watch an athlete race a T-rex. As we approach, the athlete barely reaches the finishing line before the T-rex and a small fanfare announces his victory.

"Are you still waiting for your turn?If so that's some horribly long waiting time."

"It's actually rather short. Cassidy has had thirteen tries and she's waiting on her fourteenth now. She just can't get enough!"

"Mooom! It's just so cool! I get to outrun a T-rex. What's cooler than that? Also, I finally get to see big sis Valeria try too!"