Hunched in the darkness of the Colosseum’s tunnels, Leyna prepared to die. Calmly considering her end, Leyna reflected on how grateful she was to at least have company. In front of her she could see the broad, muscled back of her mentor, Adalgisa. Each giantess wore a leather cuirass that offered protection while not hindering their freedom of movement. While Leyna’s arms were decorated with a simple torc around each wrist, Adalgisa’s arms proudly bore the blue ritual tattoos that marked her as a valuable warrior of their tribe. Adalgisa’s slightly-graying brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, while Leyna had elected to shave the sides of her head and gather her remaining auburn hair in one long braid.

Leyna closed her eyes, remembering the Triumph where she had been paraded through the streets of Rome like a trophy. She smiled despite herself as she remembered how her throwing axe, so long that two carts could barely drag it, caused the citizens to gasp in shock.  Leyna had been chained and drugged— those damn Roman physicians had seen to that-- but she had still been aware enough to notice their fear. Since that day, Leyna had participated in several gladiatorial combats, and her axe had served her well (she still kept several tiger skins looped around her belt as trophies). Curiously, the Romans had also recently gifted her a trident hewn out of several ship masts, and a team of artists had come to apply blue kohl around her eyes. The Colosseum was a dirt arena caked with the blood of countless fallen, though, so why a trident? Heaving a sigh, Leyna gripped the handle of the unfamiliar weapon so tightly that her knuckles went white.

Leyna, make sure you focus your thoughts. I promise we’re

going to get out of here, you’ll see, Adalgisa growled in her head. Leyna once again praised the gods for blessing Adalgisa with The Gift that allowed her to speak without moving her lips, because the Roman guards kept a close eye on them at all times. Not that the human guards could have understood the subsonic rumblings of our Kolossi language anyway, she thought to herself.   

        Leyna looked down at the guards by her feet, noticing that the tallest among them was barely the length of her hand. Even kneeling, she inspired terror in them. Leyna marveled, not for the first time, how small these Romans looked, how weak and fragile they were individually... And yet, had they not captured her alive and killed many others of her kind with their damned legions? Had they not annexed and built forts on some of her people’s lands far in the North? Leyna gazed around at the tunnel that dwarfed her, admitting that these Romans were nothing if not singularly tenacious and dangerous when united in purpose.

Beyond the heavy wooden gate that led to the arena, the noise of the crowd grew from the buzzing of a swarm of angry bees to the roar of a ravenous beast. As she was goaded forward with spears, Leyna noticed that the once dry, dusty dirt beneath her sandaled feet gradually was turning into mud.

Then she heard it: the lapping of waves.

No… they couldn’t have, Leyna thought to herself. Both she and Adalgisa had overheard other gladiators talking about the Colosseum being flooded to celebrate the Emperor’s birthday, but they had dismissed such gossip as the ramblings of scared men. Had these idiots truly flooded the Colosseum? Why? To prove that they could? To entertain their Emperor?

As the salty smell of ocean water wafted through the tunnels, one of the senior guards stationed on a balcony near Leyna’s head barked an order. At once, the other guards quickly ran towards the opening of the tunnel behind the giant women. The groaning of a huge crank being turned filled the tunnel as the gate lifted and water flooded the space. The giantesses had no choice but to quickly wade into the arena to avoid drowning. Blinking in the bright Mediterranean sunlight, they were assaulted by a wall of sound. Thousands of spectators crowded along the stands in a circle above their heads; people had come from throughout the Empire to watch the emperor’s naumachia.   

High, high above, Leyna could see the Emperor glowering down with a self-satisfied smirk on his lips, eating and whispering conspiratorially to his esteemed guests.

“Focus, Leyna,” Adalgisa hissed. “These people paid good money to see their fellow countrymen die at our hands. Let’s give them a show they’ll never forget.”

Leyna tore her gaze from the tumult of the stands, and looked out over the water. At least ten warships were converging towards them, banks of knife-like oars slicing the water again and again. The vessels seemed to be manned by a ragtag combination of soldiers, convicts, and slaves, and some of the oarsmen seemed hesitant as they paddled. Good, Leyna thought, we can use that to our advantage. Still, there were hundreds of armed men on those ships. Trained fighters or no, Leyna knew that enough spears or arrows would kill them. And they were fighting with a handicap, she grimly reminded herself, as she looked down at the water lapping up past her waist.

         Trumpets blared somewhere above them, and the battle commenced.

Adalgisa lunged at the biggest craft, a quinquereme, and hoisted it over her head. Dozens of tiny sailors tumbled down her back and powerful arms as the five-banks’ worth of oars waved in the air like the legs of a wounded animal. Leyna couldn’t help but marvel at the corded muscles of the older giantess’ back as Adalgisa snapped the ship in half with a sharp crack.

Adalgisa’s maneuver had the desired effect: panic. Whatever plans the other 

ships had, these ideas started quickly unraveling as the men aboard saw some of their own get pulled under the waves by the weight of their armor. Still, the archers on several ships fired volley after volley of arrows at the pair of women. Adalgisa grabbed half of the ship she had hoisted overhead and brought it down in front of her and her protégé, using it as a shield to block the bolts from the ship-mounted ballistae and archers.

         Leyna waited for a lull in the barrage of arrows before exploding from beside her mentor and stabbing her trident clear through the hull of the closest ship. Then, as if the vessel were a fish on the end of a spear, she lifted the craft out of the water and hurled it at a nearby bireme, causing a spray of shrapnel, splinters, and limbs.

Taking advantage of the chaos, both giantesses waded forward, barely even noticing the dozens of men caught in the wake caused by their powerful thighs. Leyna hefted her axe and split a ship in two with a single blow, while Adalgisa hacked another two ships apart with her short sword. The sounds of snapping timber blended with the cries of drowning men and the crashing of the waves as the giantesses performed their grim work. High above them, the Emperor leaned forward nervously, feeling a twinge of awe and fear.

Thunk thunk thunk. Several arrows found Adalgisa’s exposed shoulders, and she let out a howl of pain that morphed into a roar of anger as she broke the arrows and wrapped her hand around the chain restraining her. She pulled the chain underneath an oncoming ship and then yanked it up in one fluid motion, snapping the boat in two like a toy and sending oars and men flying into the air.

The crowd screamed and cheered even louder.

Seeing an opening, Leyna attempted to pull her own chain out of the wall. Despite all of her strength, the chain held fast. “Adalgisa, I need help!” Adalgisa strode to Leyna, brushing aside some drowning soldiers as she did so, and then wrapped her hand around Leyna’s chain and heaved. The heavy iron chain was no match for the combined strength of the giantesses, and it tore loose from the wall in a tumble of stone and concrete.  

For a heartbeat, neither of the women could see past the cloud of debris.  

The next second, Adalgisa cried out in pain and dropped her sword as the biggest remaining ship, a trireme, plunged its metal ram deep into her abdomen. With tremendous effort, the older giantess gripped the ship fast with her massive hands and began to squeeze. 

Leyna was unable to speak; Adalgisa looked at her wide-eyed protégé and roared, “Go! Now!”

“Not without you, Adalgisa!”

“I’ll be right behind you! Now for our Goddess’ sake, GO!!”

Leyna turned and stared up at the wall of the arena. Jumping with her arms extended, she grabbed the edge of the stands and pulled herself up. As the looming form of the giantess rose from the battlefield, the spectators trampled each other in a frenzied attempt to not be crushed themselves. Dripping wet and exhausted, Leyna bounded over the stands to avoid the arrows of the guards posted along the arena’s rim. Down below, she could hear Adalgisa crumple the ship in a titanic bear-hug.

Just before vaulting over the walls of the Colosseum, Leyna looked behind her one last time. She searched desperately for her mentor, but there was no sign of Adalgisa. Leyna wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline or not, but she swore she heard one last Go! Now! in her head before she jumped down into the city and sprinted toward the tree line.

______________________________________________________________________

Deep in a forest hundreds of miles from the capital, Leyna rested her hand against the side of a tree to catch her breath. It had been several days since she’d escaped the madness of the Colosseum. As long as she stayed away from civilized areas and large troop movements, she’d live. She knew enough to survive in the wild; Adalgisa had seen to that. As she once again thought of her mentor, Leyna’s heart sank and she choked back a sob. Adalgisa’s last moments had been spent urging her on and saving her life. Leyna truly had thought the other giantess had been right behind her, but now…

How could I have been so… selfish? she thought angrily.

She looked out over green hills in the direction she had come, towards the thrice-cursed city of Rome. Then, with a howl in Kolossi that sounded like the grinding of stones, she swore revenge.

She would be back. And next time, she would not be alone.