Apologies for the late post; I feel asleep early last night!

Title: From the Depths of His Heart
Fandom: The Eagle (2011 movie), Eagle of the Ninth (Rosemary Sutcliff book)
Pairing: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac Cunoval
Categories: AU, Drama, Romance, Creature (Werewolves)
Length: Long (31,308 words)
Warnings: per author: "Some ableist attitudes. For those especially sensitive to animal harm, there is some animal peril/injury, but nothing permanently bad happens to non-food animals unless you count references to past character death and a mentioned animal sacrifice."

Author on LJ: sineala / sineala
Author Website: Sineala

Summary:
After his injury at Isca Dumnoniorum and subsequent discharge from the army, Marcus moves to Calleva, learns to live with himself again, and happens to fall in love with a young British man on the way. Also, Esca is a werewolf.

Review:
In this canon-era AU, Marcus never goes on a quest for the Eagle and Esca is not a slave, but a hunter living on the edges of Calleva society. Marcus, coping with his injury and loss, is lonely and at odds with his situation. When he runs into Esca in the market he's intrigued by the angry man with the sad eyes. Later, he saves a wolf and Cottia's gossip that Esca is a shifter proves true. There follows the slow build up of a friendship and romance between the two isolated men, despite their differences, including Marcus's fear of skin-changer from Roman lore, Esca's hardened heart from past grief.

Written for eagle_bigbang 2012, this long story sinks us into daily life in Calleva and into Marcus's point-of-view: his loneliness and floundering after all the changes to his life, and his increasing interest in Esca. We see Esca through his eyes, and the changes in both of them through the story. A sweet romance and enjoyable read.

"What do you know?"

"The same things everyone else knows," she says, giving another shrug. "He has lived here several years, but I was too little to remember when he came. He lives alone outside town, and comes every so often to bring furs and game he has caught, and trade with the merchants. He keeps to himself, so I do not know much more."

"That's it?" He cannot help but feel disappointed, though, if that is all she knows, there is nothing to be done. Perhaps he will see if he can buy her a piece of cake at the market tomorrow. After all, she did know a few things.

"Well." Cottia draws out the word, looking pleased with herself. "There are the rumors, of course, but they are only rumors, and you are Roman, so I do not know if you want me to tell you—"

Rumors? Marcus jumps on the idea. Finally, an explanation! "Yes, please," he says, fervently, and he does not care that she looks a little askance at his enthusiasm. "I want to know everything. What do they say about him?"

"Oh, they say he is a skin-changer," Cottia says, in that careful way that suggests she means it to sound off-handed, but secretly relishes the tale. "But that cannot possibly be true."

Of course it cannot. It would be... unlikely. Though there are, naturally, stories of the gods changing men into animals, cursing them for their hubris. And everyone knows someone who swears that his companion, on a darkened road, became some ravenous creature, and later that night a wolf savaged the village, but in the morning there was only a man with the same wounds as the animal—

But those are stories, of course. They are meant to entertain guests at dinner-parties. That is not to say they are not true, but he has never seen such a thing with his own eyes.

From the Depths of His Heart