They tossed her around among them. "Who wants the little slave girl," they shouted. As they toyed with her, ripping her robes and pulling her hair. One of the cruel Roman soldiers struck her on the cheek with a closed hand, bringing blood from her dark Mediterranean skin.
The five soldiers groped her, and she began to cry to them for mercy. Her cries echoed through the dark woods where they had brought her to play their cruel game, and to have their sick fun.
He heard them from the darkness of the trees, and as he approached he saw the outlines of the soldiers and the young slave woman in the shimmering moonlight. He came down upon the soldiers with the fury of the wolf. His sword flashed in the light of the pale, heavenly orb. Their blood reached the ground before a scream could even pass their lips, and in an instant he stood alone with the young woman and the bodies of the men littered at his feet.
He too was a soldier, but he was moved by compassion for the beautiful slave, he could not help himself for he had seen her many times walking through the city, and he remembered her eyes more than anything else, eyes of blue fire lighting up the skies. That, he thought, was true beauty.