Daughter of War

The day was a beautiful sunny day and the woods were buzzing with life. The birds were singing and the animals were going about their daily life. They seemed unaware of the two figures in the woods a few feet from them. I crept silently through the leaves careful not to make any sounds. I could see the rabbit a few feet in front of me. As I raised my dagger the leaves beside me rustled and I qurickly turned to block the sword before it could connect with my skin. I pushed the assailant off and moved away from the guy. He had a stunned look on his face.

"I was sure I had you that time Izzy," the guy said.

"As if Ian," I said smirking at the young man. "Besides if you are going to sneak up on me don't rustle the leaves in the bushes."

"Your father taught you well," Ian says sheathing his sword.

"Yea well, with the war looming ever closer I will do everything I can to protect those close to me," I say sitting on a fallen log. I open my pack and pull out two peaches I hand one to Ian and I take a bite out of mine.

"What are you gonna do if the enemy comes here?" Ian asked he was looking at his peach.

"Everything I can to protect my family," I say a little surprised by the question. "Ian whats..."

Off in the distance the village warning bells could be heard. The two of us rushed through the forest towards the village. I was still stunned by Ian's question but I wouldn't let it affect me till after we figured out why the bells were ringing. As we got closer to the village I could see smoke rising and I pushed myself to run faster. The enemy army couldnt have gotten here that fast they were suppose to be in the south region. Once we passed through the village gate, we were greeted by a horrible sight niether of us were expecting. The enemy army was all over the town and tearing the villagers apart. One of the guys noticed us enter and charged at us. I took out my sword and blocked his attacks. His moves were easy to read since he attacked so openly. After his third attempt to strike I quickly side-stepped him and cut him in the back. The man dropped instantly. I turned to see if Ian was ok but he was no where to be found. I wondered where he could have been till I remembered I had to get home. As I rushed to my house a few more people tried to take me on and each one just ended up losing. I sheathed my sword once I got to the front door. Thankfully it did not seem like they had started to burn the houses in this area yet.

Slowly I opened the door and stepped inside. The inside of the house looked like it had been ransacked, or at least thats what someone wanted you to believe. Carefully, I went through each room and checked to see if anyone was in the house. I went to my bedroom and as I entered the door I heard a noise from the closet, and I reached for my dagger when a little boy jumped out of my closet holding a kitchen knife.

"Tristan!" I cried releasing my dagger and wrapping the little boy in my arms. He dropped his knife and wrapped his arms around me.

"Izzy! Where have you been?" He cried into my stomach.

"I was out practising with Ian when we heard the bells." I said as I bent down to check and make sure he was ok. "Are you ok?"

"Yea, dad told me to hide, but I decided to make the house messy to make sure they thought someone had already been through the house," Tristan said smiling.

"That was a very good idea." I say standing up. "Where is dad?"'

"I don't know," he said looking around. "He ran out a while ago and has not come back."

"Ok I am going to try and find him, I want you to run to the woods and I will meet you there."

"But I want to help!" He exclaimed picking his knife back up.

"I know you do but please I do not want to lose anyone else precious to me because of this war." I say cupping his face.

"Fine," Tristan says dropping the knife again.

"Okay, lets go!" I say grabbing his hand.

We headed to the front of and as we stepped out I quickly hid him behind me. We were surrounded by what seemed to be the entire enemy army. I placed my hand on my sword ready to attack. I would take down as many as I could to let Tristan escape.

"Now now," a man who seemed to be in charge said coming through the group. "There is no need for you to draw that little sword of yours. Besides you draw it and we will have to hurt our guest." The group parted in the middle and they were bringing someone towards her. she feared it was her father but nothing prepared her for who was actually the one being dragged in front of her.

The horses were running full speed trying to make it to the next village as soon as possible. There was no time to waste! They had heard the warning bells and knew that the enemy had attacked while they regrouped. The last battle had taken the lives of several of the men from both armies. They needed to get there before any more souls were lost. The general rode in front of everyone else and he kept pushing his horse to go faster.  As they got closer to the village they started to see bodies on the side of the road with arrows in their backs, because they were caught while fleeing.

Inside the village it was worse. There were civilian bodies everywhere. The group stopped and hopped off their horses to survey the area. A private came back from scouting and said that the enemy group was surrounding a little house on the edge of town. The group of soldiers crept close to the massive enemy army. There were a couple of guards on the edge of the group, but they were quickly silenced them so that an alarm would not be raised. Once the men got closer they could see a young woman and a little boy were surrounded by the group and that someone was being carried to the center in front of the woman. From the look on her face, she had a lot of emotions running through her, sadness, shock, scared and the most prominent one was anger and what looked like the man in charge.

"Let Ian go!" I screamed at the man.

"Izzy!" Ian said weakly. "He is...ugh!" The man punched him in the stomach before he could finish.

"Now you won't be taking all the fun out of this," he said as he leaned his head close to Ian's.

"I will say it one more time let Ian go or you will lose all your men," I say drawing my sword and pointing it at the man.

"Oh ho! She has some nerve." The man laughs and the entire army laughs.

"Izzy! Dont he is your father! Ian yells!

"What? How is that possible my father is a kind man not this monster," I say confused and looking between and and the man who was starring at Ian with complete hatred.

"Why you little! I told you to stay quiet," the man says as he grabs Ian's neck. Ian head butts him in the stomach and the man doubles over and loses his helmet in the process.

"Dad?!? Its true?" I say stumbling back a little.

"Dad!" Tristan says happily and starts to head in his direction but I grab his arm and pull him back. "Whats wrong izzy? Its dad he is ok!"

"That man is not our father." I say through clentched teeth. He had decieved me all my life and was hurting my best friend.

"Yea Izzy I am ok," the man laughs. "Let my son come to me."

"Tristan that man is the leader of the bad guys the ones who hurt mom," I say to the little boy but never taking my eyes off my father. Tristan just stops and stares between me and my father.

"See I would have kept it a secret from you but this young man had to go and run his mouth," my father says touching Ians head.

"Don't you hurt him!" I yell.

"Or what?" He says turning to me. "Dont you wonder how he knew it was me."

"Ian..." I say lowering my sword slightly.

"It was by mistake," He says weakly. "I was in the woods one day before our practice sessions and I saw him talking to some men from the army. He sensed my pressence and cornered me. He said if I told you then he would kill me. I have been trying to tell you for a few years. But everytime I tried I couldnt."

"So you kept this from me for so long?!" I say raising my swor deven higher.

"Well I just needed to lay low for awhile so I married your mom. No one suspected that the man who started this war was a f kindly family man. Didnt you find your mother's death weird. She was just a doctor and somehow died on the battle field." He says pulling out his sword.

"You had her killed?!" I says gritting my teeth?

"Oh no, that really was an accident but there is less of you to convince now." He points his sword at me. "Before we fight though I have a little mess to clean up." He turns and plunges his sword into Ian's stomach.

"IAN!!!!!" I yell. I don't know what came over me but I could no longer stand there I charged at the man who was my father. I fought the men that blocked my path. Quickly I realised the government's army was there and attacking as well. I lost sight of my father in the chaos and when I turned to get Tristan I saw him being picked up by my father. "NO!!!" I said charging at him. Then in a blink of an eye they were gone. The enemy took this as their sign to leave. The few that had not been over taken by the army fled quickly to the forest. The army followed them as far as they could. I just sank to the ground. In a matter of minutes I had lost everything. And to top things off it was starting to getting very cloudy like a storm was about to hit.

I knew nothing would be the same any more. The rain was coming down hard as I stared after where the enemy had vanished. The man I had called my father had killed my best friend and taken my little brother. They were the only things that mattered in my life anymore. I went over to Ian’s body. I was so shocked that he wasn’t laughing at me or calling me ‘Izzy’ anymore. I cried as I hugged his lifeless body. He was my best friend. We had been together since we were kids. My ‘father’ taught us how to fight together and he was there for me when my mother passed. Now I had no one. I am still in shock that he knew about my father and did nothing to warn me. I would have protected him and my brother with all I had.  I laid him back on the ground, and before leaving him there, I kissed him on the cheek and whispered, “He will pay for what he did today.”

The general came over and asked, “Are you ok?” I hate when people ask that question. Honestly after what had just happened, did he really think I was gonna say yes. I just shook my head as he led me to their horses on the edge of town. He helped me onto a horse. They formed a group around me and we headed out of my little village. I just stared straight ahead. I could not bear to look at the bodies of friends and neighbors, who just this morning were smiling and laughing. I said a quiet prayer  as we rode away, so that the souls of those that perished would be guided to the right place.

Posted in: Daughter