26 Beginning of Journey

Misty Mountains

Tiberius POV

It's been three days since the barbarians joined the legions as auxiliaries, every day they trained with great difficulty as they had a hard time adapting to the legions strict formations and tactics. Garen and the centurions had headaches as they see the auxiliaries tripping down or getting separated from the formations.

The chieftains were promoted to centurions to lead their people in cohorts while the shamans were captains, their shamans were thought to hold the Aquila as eagle bearers. The eagle was extremely important to the Roman military, beyond merely being a symbol of a legion. A lost standard was considered an extremely grave occurrence, and the Roman military often went to great lengths to both protect a standard and to recover it if lost.

Garen along with other officers equipped the auxiliaries with the spare gears we have that were taken from our dead comrades. The auxiliaries wore the armors but it barely fitted them, the sleeves were too short and the armor too small, but still, they wore it, if not they will be like those goblins, unprotected from arrows and swords.

After three days we were ready to leave the misty mountains after shortly training the auxiliary legions, they still needed more training but we have limited rations left, we needed to go to Esgaroth to resupply. When we prepared to set off we burned the camp so that no goblins or orcs can use them, the wounded were placed in carts where they will be pulled by horses. Thorin mentioned that there are herbs near Mirkwood that can treat our wounded giving hope to our physicians to save the critically wounded.

I looked at the legions behind me, I see five long lines that stretched over the horizon, we have two legions again after recruiting the barbarians, though they are still undisciplined and need more training we don't have the time for it. I raised my right hand to begin the march.

"Wooooooooooo"

I heard the sound of trumpets and urged my horse forward, the horse trot as we finally begin our journey, to my right is Darius who is riding a white warg, we questioned him about it and he said something about him taming it, Thorin looks at the warg warily and the warg growls when it noticed his stare, Darius hits its head and the warg yelped and behaved while looking scared at Darius. Thorin questioned him about the warg and Darius replied something about Romans being the masters of the art of slavery.

To my left is Garen riding a brown horse, I see him having a conversation with one of the auxiliaries, a young teenage boy with a bow and quiver behind him and seems to be timid. After a few hours of marching, I have conversation with the other dwarves asking me about Rome and it's military, I explained the ranks of the legions and how Darius and Garen's father reformed the military during their time in the senate, Darius father was a militaristic man and doubled the size of a legion while Garen father simplified the ranking officers saying that it was easier to control the army and common soldiers and aristocrats does not need to be divided in the military.

After five days of marching and camping we can see tall trees from the distance, they are the tallest trees I've ever seen if they can bee seen from here. I praised it's beauty and also wary at the danger within it's forest. The auxiliary barbarians kept praising the forest how they felt like home. As we near the forest I see a giant bear walking towards us.

"Wedge formations!"

The auxiliary barbarians at the front of the army were about to bow down saying it's the bear spirit but rush to the front when Garen threatened them, they stumbled while running forward but quickly recovers after being shouted at by their centurions. The bear sees us and growls threateningly, seeing that we were still slowly marching towards it in wedge formation the bear stands.

The bear standing up overshadows the legionnaires at the front and roars.

"ROOOAR!!"

Saliva splashed at the legionnaires and they quickly try wipe it when the giant bear charged at them.

"Javelins!"

Just as the legionnaires were about to throw their javelins when suddenly Gandalf screamed. "WAIT!" He shouts as he looked at the giant bear.

The legionnaires ignores him and threw their javelins, the javelins flies through air was about to hit the giant bear when suddenly a brown light covered the bear, the javelins hits the light and bounces as they were deflected by the brown light.

Everyone looked in shock except for Gandalf, just as the archers were about to release their arrows, we see something coming out from the forest.

We see an old man that looks like a shaman riding a sled made of sticks being pulled by rabbits I looked in shock seeing the weird old man wearing dirty brown robe with a brown hat and a messy long beard as long as Gandalf.

"Halt!" I shouted a command and the archers lowered their bow and arrows. The brown light covering the bear slowly disappears while the bear stopped charging just a few meters away before it slams into the formation. I looked at Gandalf and he smiled at me knowing that I made a wise decision.

The old man riding the strange sled arrives right beside the bear and touched it's side and whispered something to the giant bear ears. We looked in shocked the bear getting smaller and morphing into a hairy man wearing brown clothes like what the barbarians used to wear.

"Radagast!" Gandalf shouts and urged his horse towards the man named Radagast.

"Gandalf its nice to see you again!"

The two old men shake hands before having a conversation, I waited patiently as the auxiliary soldiers looked at the man who can morph into a bear and the old man that looks like a shaman having conversation with Gandalf with shining eyes and reverence. Their culture has thought them that spirits are all around them and when they saw the morphing bear and shaman using magic they worshipped them.

After a few minutes they stopped their conversation and walked towards the legions while the morphing man looks in wary at the soldiers as he walked with them.