a place to rest, and old soldiers

Leaving Amuns we made our way back out into the crowded streets of Alexandria.

By now it had already started to get darker, but the number of people walking the streets seemed to have only grown.

So, leading the way, I expertly walked us through the throngs of people.

"So that was the Amun and Kebi you wrote about all those years ago," Julius asked me.

"Yup," I say, as I pass between a bunched up group of people.

"He doesn't seem like the person you wrote him to be back then, you said he was more confident and had an aura of power about him, but now he seems to lack all of that."

"That's because he's not the same man from then Julius, just like you're not the same person you were when we first met, you physically might be frozen in time, but that doesn't mean your mentally frozen, we accumulate more experiences, become wiser, more knowledgeable, and gain a deeper understanding of the world around us, changing us through time, into completely different people then who we were, he lost his whole coven, he feels guilty that he lived, changing him through the experience."

"I see," Julius said, behind me as we walked.

"What are we going to do now, head to the Volturi?" Jane asked.

"Not yet, we need to give Julius time to practice using his new ability so he can shield the both of you before we head that way."

Jane was more persistent about wanting to go to the volturi, and I knew why, it was for her brother Alec, but I knew without a doubt, that the Alec she knew was gone, his mind manipulated and morphed into a completely different person, a cold hearted lap dog made to follow the orders of Aro without hesitation or thought of his actions, the perfect vampire guard to do there dirty work.

After an hour of walking, we finally arrived back at the ship.

"Are we staying here again?" Jane complained.

"No, we are staying at a home I have, it's farther down the coast from here, it has some good wildlife there for the both of you to hunt," I said, Stepping onto the ship.

"Thank everything that is good, being stuck in that cabin was starting to make me go crazy." Jane said, raising her hands to the sky like she was praying to the gods.

Once we were all on the ship, the ship was pushed away from the dock, and we started to move.

As we left we all stood at the ship's railing, Jane and Julius still wearing their cloaks, watching the other ships that were leaving the harbor, after a few minutes the Alexandria lighthouse came into sight.

"That's incredible." Jane said as she looked at the large structure.

"Just wait until we go to Rome then you will see truly massive buildings." Julius said, standing next to Jane.

"You have told me stories about your home, but are there truly structures as big as you said?" Jane asked julius.

"Yes there is." I cut In.

Both Julius and Jane turned to look at me, as I leaned both elbows on the wooden railing of the ship.

"There once stood a structure called the Colossus of Rhodes, it was built in Greece, right by a harbor named Rhodes, it was a massive statue of the greek sun God, not as tall as the lighthouse, but this statue stood over 100 feet tall and had a copper crown that when the sun hit it just right, it shined bright, as if it was on fire, you could see it at great distances at sea."

"Really" Jane asked with excitement.

"Can we go and see it someday?" She asked.

"I wish we could, but it was destroyed many years ago."

"Aww." She said, with a frown.

"But there are still many things we could go and see someday, after everything is done with the volturi and the Romanian coven we can take a few years off to relax and explore."

"Like what." She asked.

"I call them the wonders of the world."

The wonders of the known world for me, at first would have been the 7 wonders of the ancient world, which I saw most of, but like most things, almost all of them were gone, destroyed by war, or natural disasters, like earthquakes. but there were still many things for them to see.

Like the horse race arena I had built, the "imperator herena" ( emperors arena), as it became known, was the largest structure in Rome, of course there was plenty of other large structures, but mine, was on a whole different level, and I'm sure in later years, it will be on the 7 wonders of the world list.

For the next few hours, as we stood on the deck of the ship, I told both Julius and Jane about the wonders of the ancient world, and how incredible they were to see with my own eyes.

Finally after I finished telling them about the hanging garden of the Byzantines, my small villa came into view.

the small villa was in the roman fashion, built during the rule of Rome, these kinds of villas were popular with the wealthy, compared to what I lived in back by London this was a small palace, it was a single story villa, square shaped with a courtyard in the middle, with the inside an open design, that allowed the cool breeze to come in, 7 bedrooms, and a wash pool.

It was perfect for me.

I've had it since the start of the construction on the gringotts bank in Alexandria, but I haven't come back since it finished, luckily I had employees that would come back every week to make sure it stayed clean, it also has a small group of guards here that made sure it wasn't robbed, or vandalized.

Slowly the ship approached the small dock that had a path up to the villa.

As the ship docked, I saw a group of people standing at the top of the bath, all men wearing swords and breast plates in the old legionaries fashion, as well as royal purple capes, signifying them as my bank guards.

Once the ship was tied to the dock, we stepped off the ship.

"Hmm, that's strange." Julius said to my side.

"What is?" I asked him.

"Not a one of them looks to be under the age 50." He said as he looked at the guards.

"That's because not one of them is under the age of 50." I said in response.

"Most of them are in there later years, some to oId to continue with their duties at the bank, and don't want to retire, and a few who sustained injuries, we continue to employ, so instead of throwing them out, without a job or anywhere to go, I have the older guards come to the property's I have all over the world and guard them, it's an easy job that pays, as well as a home for them to stay." I say as we walk up the path to the guards.

A few yards from the group of ten guards, one of them steps forward, "stop, who go's?".

He looked to be mid fifties with salt and pepper hair, clean shaven, around 6 feet tall, and in great shape for his age.

Reaching into one of my pockets I pull out my gold card, and hold it up so he could see the symbol on the card.

All the men, almost In sync, went to attention.

"Sir" said the man who had stepped forward to stop us.

Stepping forward I put out my hand to shake his.

"Nice to meet you, I'm adam." I say, as his meaty hand swallowed mine almost whole.

"Hello sir, I am Marcus Agusta." said the large man.

—----

Short chapter today.

"Merry christmas everyone"

Please let me know if there are any problems with this chapter it was rushed.