by
Azerath
» 12 Feb 2014, 02:36
Quintus glared at himself in the shard of a broken mirror. His face was caked in dark brown mud. The same color as his hair and eyes. "Mud brown," he said to himself. He scraped away the mud with his fingernails. His hand crept down the side of his face, past an old scar, to his angular chin, then up the other side to his ear lobe. He shook some of the mud free from his hand, and wiped the rest off on his leggings.
He raised the mirror shard to study his forehead. There was a fresh cut above his left eye. He dabbed at it with his finger. It was deep enough that it might require stitching. A new scar, and his first of this campaign. Quintus dropped the shard next to the body of the noblewoman it had belonged to, and sniffed the air. It smelled like blood, smoke, and shit...the scent of war. Only there was something else. Perfume. A flowery concoction. A bottle must have broken when his company attacked the supply train.
Quintus considered the corpse of the noblewoman. If Galonians didn't want their women to be put in harm's way, they shouldn't have them travel with military supplies. He rubbed his nose and snorted hard through his nostrils. He could still smell that perfume.
He started to walk away, but stopped. He went back and tore the dress from the woman. It was made of fine cloth and covered in gemstones, but it reeked of that perfume.
Quintus left the woman and returned to his comrades. They congratulated him on the treasure he had claimed. He complained about the scent, but they said they smelled nothing. He held the dress up for them, but they only responded with quisitive looks. He shoved it in their faces, and they began to mock him. They were jealous of his find, that's why they pretended not to smell the perfume.
That smell haunted Quintus every day and every night until he lay dying on the field of battle, and as the life drained from him, all he could think of was that smell and the woman he had murdered.
Caelitus Mihi Vires