Guard Duty—Cicero

In the depths of Bronus’ castle, a guard spent his afternoon patrolling the halls as he normally did. This particular guard, named Leon, was quite bored and restless with the same day-to-day activities he had become so accustomed to, so he decided that he’d patrol outside of his normal route. He wandered into a section of the castle that he had never seen before. It appeared to be a dungeon of sorts with about two dozen cells. All of these sat empty and abandoned, all but one. Leon arrived at the end of the hallway, where the dungeon connected with the rest of the castle and saw in the last cell a man who sat muttering to himself. The man was clad in a black shirt that was admittedly too short for him and tattered black pants. He was crouched in the back of the cell, whispering things about dragons, witches, goblins, and other fantastical creatures, some of which Leon hadn’t heard of. Suddenly, the man noticed Leon and let out a squeal. “Oh, please don’t hurt me, Mr. Guard sir! I’m small and I can’t handle any more torture from Bronus. Please have mercy!” The man was startled by this act of cowardice. What had Bronus done that made him cower so much? He squatted down to the cell door and saw the man shrinking back into a corner. He noticed something about this curious prisoner. His right arm had a crude metal arm attached to it. Well, to call it an arm would be an overstatement. It was only one long metal pole and four smaller claw-like attachments that allowed for very minimal usage.   “Don’t worry,” Leo responded, “I’m not going to harm you or take you to Bronus. Just come over here so I can talk to you.” After only a couple of seconds passing, the man stopped cowering, smiled, and crawled over to the door before sitting down on the ground.   “Oh good! You had me worried for a minute there! I’m not really fond of Bronus!”   Surprised at this complete change in character, Leon cautiously asked the man, “What’s your name?”   “Cicero! And yours?” he quickly responded from the cell. “Leon…” he paused for a second. Cicero sat with his hands under his chin, smiling like he was expecting more of a response. “How did you get in here… Cicero?” Leon asked. “Oh! Let me tell you! So, I was born at a particularly young age, and I was quite talented compared to most other children in my-” he started, before being interrupted by Leon.   “Wait,” he started, “I asked how you got here. Not for your life story.”   Cicero looked at him and turned his head slightly to the side, “But you must always know everything to truly appreciate the present! Wouldn’t you say?” he inquired. Leon nodded slightly. “Alright, as I was saying,” he began again, “I was much more special than the rest of my brothers and sisters. I lived in the mountains of Bergenstaat for about 5 years before my mother let me move out to explore the world! I was quite sad that she was letting me go so soon, but I pushed through the disappointment, waved goodbye with my shiny new arm that I had recently gotten and continued on my journey! I traveled the land for quite a long time, but I don’t seem to recall for how long exactly……” he trailed off, staring out into the distance as if seeing something that wasn’t there. Leon looked behind him but saw nothing and turned back to Cicero, who shook his head and continued talking, “Anyways! I was wondering through this particular part of Glandoria when I noticed that it was quite a lovely day. A man came walking along the road, and he told me that he had some food and a room for me to stay in, so I followed him home. He and his wife were quite lovely people. They fed me stew and let me sleep in their barn, but alas, I couldn’t stay long. One night, I was out for a lovely stroll in the woods of Middlemarch when all of a sudden, a sack flew over my head and I was swept off my feet! A day or two later I woke up here!” Cicero finished with a smile on his face. He acted like that was all there was to the story and was expecting a response again.   Leon stared at the prisoner, looking into his eyes. There was some glaze to them that confused him. They looked wise but foolish, old yet naïve, full of energy but calm at the same time He asked again, “But what about your arm? How did it get that way?”   Cicero perked up at this. “Oh yes!” he began, “My arm! Quite a funny story that one is! You see. I was sitting in my cell, eating a fresh bowl of stew, when a guard knocked on the bars and disturbed my suppertime! He led me out of my cell and into a room upstairs. In the room, I saw the man that had kidnapped me, and it turned out that he was someone called Bronus. Who would’ve thought? Anyways, he said to me,” Cicero put on a mock-impression with his hands on his sides, his chest puffed up, and his voice dropped down a couple octaves, “‘Now listen here Cicero! You are going to do what I want, and what I want is to replace your arm with a metal one!’ so he led me to another room and did just that! It was quite unpleasant, and it really made me want to go back to my home of Vachelous very much! Oh well! I suppose what’s done is done! I guess I should stay in this cell until someone comes to save me or let me go!”   Leon narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out this peculiar prisoner. Perhaps his mind was just twisted by Bronus and what once was a normal man was now only a lunatic. He felt pity for the poor fool, but he unfortunately had to resume his patrol before his commander scolded him for slacking off. “Well my friend, I’m afraid I must go now before I get in trouble with Bronus myself,” he told Cicero.   “Oh, that’s quite alright! You don’t want Bronus to get mad at you! Come visit again!” Cicero excitedly said as he waved enthusiastically to Leon. Leon got up, nodded to Cicero, and took his leave. A set of keys fell from his belt and onto the floor without him noticing. He walked out of the room and into the hall. He continued his normal route as usual, until he ran into a fellow guard.   The guard rushed up and berated him, “Where were you?! If Bronus, finds out that you were off your patrol, he’ll have your head!”   “Don’t worry! I was just talking with a prisoner in the cells over there! You will not believe the kind of things he said to me,” he reassured him.   “Which cells? Those cells?” he asked as he gestured to the door Leon had come out of a little while ago.   “Yes… Why?” Leon asked.   “Those cells have been empty for the last 20 years,” he answered. Realizing this, they both rushed back to the old dungeon and looked at the cell that Cicero was kept in. The door had been bashed open and Cicero was nowhere to be seen. “Do you think that we should report this or…” the guard started to say.   “No…” Leon interrupted, “We can let him go. I don’t think he will cause any trouble. Bronus isn’t going to have any problems because of one measly little prisoner.” They left the cell and returned to their patrol, leaving the empty room behind them.