The General and I

TINA

They're coming...

For more than twenty five years of peaceful reign without any external disturbance or any raid, my father has prided himself of being the only village chief to have this record under his belt. He boasted he would take it to forty years or till his last breath. Unknown to him and to us, on the very twenty fifth anniversary of his ascension as chief, they would come.

And they came with everything hell hath to offer. And then more. They came with him. Their leader, the devil himself.

The day had started like every other day, filled with laughter in our kitchen with mother baking pancakes and father and Ben engaged in deep conversations that they laughed about. I usually sat with my nose buried in the novel for the day after so many attempt by my mother to make me ditch the paperback. But I wouldn't have it. Books were the only world I understood and I dove into those worlds at any chance I get.

Mother was making her special turkey sauce she always made on special occasions like today. The twenty fifth anniversary of my father being the village chief of Sultra.

The sound of pans hitting surfaces while mother walked around in her meal preparation and the deep baritones of Father and Ben was all familiar and comfortable. Until hell broke loose...

We first heard the loud bang of a bomb exploding in a not so far location from the main manor. With the explosion came a deafening silence as father exchanged looks with Ben, me and mother before chaos erupted and the painful scream of men sounded in the distance.

Pots forgotten, mother dove for me and we both collided to the floor, taking coverage under our dining table. Ben jumped from his chair, knocking the thing back while heading to the wall on the far corner to retrieve a hunting gun that has always hung up there for as long as I could remember. It seemed dad kept it there for easy reach should there be an urgency for a quick arm. Like he expected something to happen. Something like this?

"Stay here. I'll check what it's about" Dad commanded, while he took the gun from Ben's hand before running outside.

As the door shut, Ben ran upstairs and came back a split second later, cocking a rifle in his hands. The look of fight in his eyes. In all my years of being his little sister, I had never seen Ben look so fierce before.

Although I knew he trained with father the moment he turned sixteen ten years ago, I was never allowed on the training ground. My father believed in keeping the women of the house away from battle and anything that looked like blood.

"Ben, Ben, listen to me. Let's wait for your father. He says to stay here till he comes back, okay? Don't do anything stupid now"

"Mother, it's fine. I'll just go check and give assistance if there's any needed. I can't hide in here like a scared little girl, that's not what my trainings are for"

"I know but..."

Another loud explosion sounded and this time, it sounded so close like it was outside our door. I heard the barn shattering and the hooves of horses scampering and whining in pain. Wails of pain from both men and women filtered into my ears as a full blown battle ensued outside.

"I'll be back in a few minutes to take you to safety. I have to join the men outside"

With that, Ben dashed outside.

"Benjamin!" Mother called after him in one last attempt. As we watched his back disappear behind the door, my mother jumped from her crouching position to run towards the door and bolted it.

"Come on, Tina. Come"

She raised me up by my arms and started walking me towards the stairs. This was War Safety 101. Whenever there was any war, each household had a hiding spot for their women and children that they were supposed to hide till everything settled down, and on autopilot my mother was currently leading me to that direction.

As we hurried towards the stairs with my mother dragging me along, I tripped on the hem of my flowing gown and my knee smashed the wooden floor of the stairs. Red blood instantly began to trickle down my leg.

I doubled down as I cried out in pain, the nerves from my leg giving out from under me.

"Come on Argentina, you gotta be a brave girl. We don't have time to clean the blood, let's get to safety, come on"

Tears dropped from my eyes from the pain on my leg, mother's finger biting into soft flesh and from the screams outside getting worse and more intense.

"It's the General!"

We hear from a voice screaming outside as clangs of knives and swords hit each other in a fight.

That stopped my mother in her frantic rush upstairs as her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

The General!

The General was not someone you would wish on even your enemy. He was the father of the devil himself and like the devil he came looking for who to destroy and devour, leaving chaos in his wake.

So Sultra had finally got a taste of destruction after so many years. Father had made so many efforts to stay under the radar. Never doing anything that would draw any attention of any sort to the village.

Where there was attention, the General came sniffing. Conquering villages and taking over. Turning their men to slaves and the women to nothing more than harlots to service his warriors.

Words have it that he even ate new borns for some supernatural power that made him unbeatable and undefeated.

The struggle on the knob of our door outside finally broke my mother out of her freeze. Someone outside struggled and rattled the door, banging vigorously trying to gain entrance.

We rushed upstairs and were about to enter the study that hid the secret door to a hidden room for hiding, when all of a sudden the person kicked down the doors and we could hear how the hinges gave way under the force of the kick.

Loud footsteps pounded up the stairs and my mother shoved me into the secret room with so much force that I landed face first to the ground, while she jammed the door close. Ready to face our assailant all by herself...

TINA

Darkness greeted my eyes as soon as I regained myself in this room. Everything was pitch black and smelled stale and murky. No windows and only a single door that led in and out. The very door that blocked me from whoever must have entered the manor and engaged in heaven knows what with mother as we speak.

I rushed to the door and plastered my ears to it, trying to hear any noise that would be a sign of life and that my mother was still alive.

I might not have witnessed first hand the ugliness of war but I read a lot of books and had a bit of a wild imagination. From the stories Ben had told me of the General, it was better one killed himself than to cross paths with him. At least, an easy death was ensured, Ben had said. But if one met the General, he would make sure his prey suffered a slow painful death. He had creative ideas to kill a man depending on what his whim called for at that moment. A complete psychopath, Ben had said.

Ben had not met General Kai one on one before, I was sure of that, but he swore he had friends and even friends of Papa from neighboring villages who had crossed swords with the General and his men. Nobody had good stories to tell about the experience.

His men were just as evil as him. Mere extension of him.

After so many unbearable minutes that could have been hours, the door to the room moved and pulled forward. I ran back and folded myself in a corner, trying to make myself as small as possible. If one of the General's men thought they would carry me out of here easily, they better have another thought coming.

The door finally cracked open and bathed the room with lights from the rest of the house.

"Argentina, come outside baby. It's okay. Amro is here to take you out of here" the voice of my mother made me release a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

I flew out of hiding and my mother grabbed me into her hands. She smoothed the hair plastered on my forehead.

"We have to go now...one of the general's men may soon come here to search" Amro, Papa and Ben's most trusted friend and warrior said, the look of fear and resignation in his face. Amro has practically been an elder brother to me and a part of the family. I was not surprised to see that they sent him to come get us.

As my mother and I hurried through the dark passageway, Amro in front of us, leading us out, my mother stumbled on a fallen roof and cried out in pain.

"Who's there?" We heard a voice call out from the corner just behind us. "Halt in the name of the General!" he yelled again.

Before he could round the corner completely, Amro lunged forward and grabbed my mouth, drawing me into the next dark corner and out of sight as we spied the bulky warrior completely covered in iron plated armor, walked into view.

My heart skipped seeing my mother knelt in utter defeat and pain as the man drew closer. I struggled in Amro's hood, trying to break free so I could go to her.

"Shhhh. Calm down lady Argentina" he gently whispered in my ears.

The bulky warrior stopped in front of my mother and stared down at her with dead eyes.

"You're one flighty one, aren't you, woman? Thought you could run away? Do you have any accomplice?" He asked her and started walking towards our direction. Amro and I stopped breathing. He took two more steps closer before my mother spoke out, loudly.

"I'm all alone, I assure you. My husband and son have joined the fight outside and I thought I could take myself to safety" she spat out.

The man halted in his advancement, turned and glared at mother for a while before bending down to grab her by the arm, dragging her along with him as he walked back in the direction from which he came.

"The General will decide your fate"

I heard Amro release his breath as I watched mother being dragged along, without her giving any fight whatsoever. Something tells me she let him drag her so easily so as to save my life. Hot tears burned their tracks down my cheeks.

"It's too late now" Amro whispered again, this time taking his hands away from my mouth. "We need to get you to safety, miss. Come" he ushered.

From a small window cut into the wall of one of the dark passageways in which we traipsed in, I glanced the front yard of the main manor and the scene in the distance stopped me in my tracks and knocked the little strength I had left out of me.

Papa, Ben and mother, along with other familiar faces of mostly men and boys knelt in front of a large and powerful figure, clad in similar iron plated armor. This particular man was already so huge it was almost impossible. With the added weight and bulk of his armor, he cast the image of a giant out of this world.

Sword in hand, I saw him raise that mighty arm of his and I saw him swing it in Papa's direction, plucking his head off his shoulders. Papa's headless body gurgled for some seconds before finally slumping to the group. Life drained out of me and out of the eyes of my mother whose face and body was covered with splashes of father's blood.

I saw Ben stand up in rage and charged towards the beast who just killed my father, and just before Amro came to drag me away, the same hand that took off father's head, raised in Ben's direction.

TINA

"I have to go back!" I declared barely two days after Amro brought me to a wooden house secluded in the woods and far away from Sultra. We'd stopped here to rest and collect some needed supplies before embarking for the final destination. I didn't know where Amro intended to take me but he'd said it was a village far away from Sultra.

"That is a very foolish idea if I've ever heard one, young Miss. Your father would have my head if he were here"

"But he isn't here, is he?! He's dead!" I shouted at the top of my voice, tears rolling down my eyes. "He's dead, Amro, along with my brother and my mother. I watched that beast behead my father!"

"Which is why the whole idea of you going back is nonsense, don't you see? You've seen for yourself how ruthless he is, why on earth would you want to go back? I can not let you step a foot back in there" Amro deadpanned, hands cutting through the air.

I stopped my pacing about, burning a hole on the spot which I walked up and down, and looked straight into Amro's eyes as he sat cross legged on a chair, marking something in a parched notebook.

"It's either you help me, or I'll simply run away. With or without your help or your permission I am going back there. I have a plan, I refuse to run away while the beastly General takes over my village after ruining my family. No, I will not accept it"

Amro dropped the pen on the table and sighed heavily before turning his full body to face me.

"You're only one and twenty, young miss. What can you do? How do you expect you would gain entrance to the indoors of the manor without one of his men beheading you even before you meet the General himself?"

I stood straighter, spine stiff and jaws squared. "Like I said, I have a plan. Now, will you help me or not?"

**************

"Halt!"

From my hiding place tucked inside a sack bag and being hefted on Amro's shoulder, I heard a voice, probably a guard planted by the General, call out.

Amro stopped as I listened to their exchange.

"Where are ye going to and from whence are ye coming from?" The guard asked.

"I'm coming from the village and I'm looking for the general. I have a gift to present to him" Amro replied, surprisingly calm.

"What's in the bag?"

"A gift. For the General"

"Reveal it to me at once!"

Amro's voice dropped down a notch. "It's a very private gift for the General and meant for him and his eyes alone. If you understand what I mean"

Silence followed as I held my breath. Waiting for the guard to finally give us entrance.

At last the man conceded. "Very well. But be warned, if the General finds your gift displeasing, your head will go for it, understand me?"

I released my breath. "Thank ye" Amro bidded and continued walking. Then he stopped suddenly.

"Pray tell, where can I find the good General?"

The good General? My stomach churned. The General was anything but good.

"In the drawing room to the left"

From my hideout I could hear how busy the manor was. Voices of unknown people. This place used to be my home, the only home I ever knew, and one beast came from nowhere and swooped it from me.

"Is the General in?" Amro asked another guard, I guess we are now at the door of the drawing room.

"Who's asking?" The deeper voice of this guard asked. I made sure not to squirm or make any movement to indicate that it was a person in the sack bag that Amro was carrying. This was our little secret.

"I have something to present to him," Amro replied. I was pretty sure apprehension would be making him sweat. He was a good fighter, no doubt, but compared to these animalistic warriors and their number, Amro would be nothing but an inconveniencing fly on the wall.

"Wait here" the guard boomed after some minutes. I heard the door open and his voice sounded out. "A villager is here to present a gift to you, sire. Shall I let him in?"

Pause.

I held my breath. If he should refuse our entrance now then all these risks would be for nothing. My plan would be squashed at the inception stage.

"Let him." A deep voice replied from within.

I released my breath through my mouth and steeled myself for what's to come next. The next 5 minutes would determine if Amro and I lived or not and if I had just allowed my imaginations derived from reading too many books get over my head.

Amro proceeded deeper into the drawing room and instantly, the smell of cigars wafted the air. It seemed all the men in the room were smoking cigars, probably celebrating their recent conquest.

"State your business or lose your head!" The General barked.

At last, Amro dropped the sack bag that was me to the floor and as slowly as I could perform, I let my presence known to everyone in the room.

I gently let myself out of the bag and shimmied my body, kicking the bag to the side. My eyes went over the room and over every pair of eyes staring at me mouth agape.

I noticed how the current state of my father's drawing room was in disarray. Plush and comfortable chairs flung aside and a big long table brought to the center with wooden chairs lined up on each side of said table.

About fourteen men sat on these chairs and were previously staring at the big map spread out at the center of it, with the giant man who was the object of my attention standing at the head of the table, leading the men.

Eyes still staring and mouth still opened, the men stopped what they were doing and the cigar in their hands left unattended.

I called my beating heart and steadied my shaking hands. I batted my eyes at the men in the room before shifting the focus of my gaze to the one man in the room that really mattered. The General.

"Hello, General"