The rest of Chapter One

Tais, 1668
          Shrieks of the terrified people echoed in the night. Their screams bounced off of every surface as people of the valley lay dying. Their blood pooled on the ground, flooding around the bodies of the ones already dead.
          My head spun with the chaos of the slaughter surrounding me. The large bodies of the army’s men ran back and forth slaying everyone in their path. Men, women, and children. The villagers had no chance against such brutality.
          My ears bled with the agonizing sounds of death and never-ending pain. The ground was being layered with the bodies of the dead. The dying quickly falling to join their numbers.
          Flames from the fires the army had set crept up the walls of the homes enclosing me in dancing shadows. The smell of burning wood filled the air as the flames ravished the wooden doors and roofs. Soon black burn marks stained the surface of the stones. The uncontrollable flames began to leap into the sky creating a sickly rainbow of red, orange, and gold. The heat they cast into the air made it difficult to breathe. The smoke soon choked my lungs as it made the air hazy with ashes and soot.
          I could feel the ground trembling. The earth quaking as if in fear. Feet, what seemed like hundreds, pounded the blood soaked dirt. The war drums thumped through the night air, their echoing carried in on the evening’s gentle winds.
          Why is this happening? I thought. Why are they here? 
          Such questions filled my head as my body shook with my racking sobs. My lungs burned as I tried to purge my body of the smoke that seemed to fill it. I knew not who the men were. I had never seen any like them before. Their muscles bulged, as if made of hard stones trapped beneath the surface of their skin. Their eyes were aglow with hunger and blood lust. Their legs as round as tree stumps. They appeared more monster than man. They started this fight, this slaughter of innocent life.
          My safe existence was being destroyed by demonized men. What had we done to deserve such a fate? I had never been subjected to such violence in the five short years of my life. Life had always been peaceful and happy in the valley. Now I was surrounded by death.
          I watched as blood stained steel swung through the air. I tried to move, to run, but my feet couldn’t hear me over the pounding of my own heart. Bloodied forms of people stumbled into my warped line of sight. My heart beat out a rhythm of fear as terror held me locked in its tight grip. I may have stood there frozen forever had it not been for a familiar sound reaching my ears. I looked up, through the haze in front of my eyes, seeing nothing but her. My mother. Her voice called to me through the storm clouds of chaos raging around me.
          "Run Rhya! Run!" my mother screamed.
          The shout ripped it's way passed her sun dried lips. She was racing across the village toward me. My eyes locked with hers as I tried so desperately to make my feet carry me to her. She moved as if in slow motion, her tangled brown hair streaming behind her. Even at a distance, I could see her wool apron was coated crimson and I knew her blood-splattered image would haunt my nightmares forever.
          Screaming sliced the air like a warm knife through butter. It took me a moment to realize that it was my own voice. The smoke had added a crackle to my throat, making me sound hoarse. Frightened beyond any fear I had ever felt, I called out to her.
          "Mother! Mother!"
          Tears stung the backs of my eyes causing me to blink away the smoke. My feet seemed to jolt with feeling as they came free of the invisible hold my terror had locked them in. I started running across the village toward her. The world slid lazily by me as I worked on winding my way through the sea of bodies.
          My lungs felt near to bursting as I fell short. So focused on my mother was I, that I failed to see the collision course I had been on. A pair of dark figures suddenly appeared before me, locked in a battle of strength. As I tried to slide to a stop, I rammed into the fighting bodies. I hit the packed dirt hard, knocking the air from my lungs. I looked up to see a neighbor fighting with a huge northern beast. A tall man with hair as black as night and blood shot eyes, a demon in human form. I screamed and tried to scramble away from their dancing feet.
          I stared frozenly, watching the battle rage before my eyes. The beast sprang forward swinging his massive sword with only one hand, piercing the body of the villager who screamed in agony as he tried to maneuver away. The villager swung his wood axe above his head and slashed down into the shoulder of the beast. Blood from both men pooled at my feet turning the ground into a river of foul smelling mud. I cried fresh tears as my breath caught in my throat.
          The beast shoved away the villager and positioned his sword for his next attack. It came quickly as the villager tried one last effort to fight off the stronger man. He was no match for the raised sword that soon buried itself in his chest.
          I watched as my best friend's father slowly crumpled to the earth. His last breath taken as his vision fell on me. His body coming to rest at the giant’s booted feet. The seconds it took him to fall seemed like hours, as if time itself had also frozen at the sight of such violence and death.
          My frozen state broke and sound came rushing back to my ears. I tried to reach my feet only to fall several times before making it all the way up. Swaying as I stood, my heart seemed to stop all together as a blood-curdling scream ripped its way through the thick air, weaving toward me like magical hands of energy. With a ragged breath, I turned toward my mother.
        A big blood coated hand had snaked out from a shadowy doorway to tangle in her hair. The towering giant snatched her backwards off her feet. I saw the ocean of fear that filled my mother’s eyes. It seemed to flow out of her like waves of unstoppable force. They battered me again and again.
        I watched like a statue as the dark monster swung his blade in a high arc. My heart beat seemed in tune with the weapon as with each beat it lowered inch by agonizing inch. It aimed downward and I prayed time would stop. I gazed in utter horror as hard steel pierced my mother’s soft flesh.
        The world started to spin. My head throbbed and my throat clogged. My lungs seemed to empty of air as I bore witness to my mother’s death.
        Her scream of pain dropped to a mere gurgle in her throat. Her body slid from the giant’s blade and slumped in a pile on the blood soaked earth.
        As if in a trance, I blindly ran. My breath burned in my throat. Tears carved rivers down my cheeks.
      My eyes saw nothing of the battle still raging around me, saw nothing of the bodies on the ground. All I could see as I made my way across the wide middle street of the village was a motionless heap of flesh that was the mother I loved and trusted. The only one I had ever known.
        Reaching the place where she fell, I stopped my blind run and slowly inched forward. I reached her and collapsed at my mother's side.
        The battle faded around me as if I had entered a bubble of silence. All that existed in the world were the eyes that met mine. They were glazed over and empty, forever caught in a stare of death and pain. My body shook with tiny tremors that ran down my spine. Fat tears continued to flood my eyes and roll down my cheeks.
        I don’t know how long I sat there shrouded in a cloak of misery. I eventually tried to get up off the ground but my hands and feet slipped in my mother's still warm blood. It flowed over my skin like a warm caress. A part of me wanted to drown in it.
        Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime of tries, I managed to stand. My young body was filled with grief and fear. I was lost in a sea of pain.
        My vision was blurred by my waterfall of tears as I turned and ran. Violent battle cries tore from my lips as the silent bubble burst.  I threw myself at the nearest monster I could find, intent on causing as much pain as I felt.
        "I hate you! Go away you ugly beast!" I shouted, my ragged voice full of rage.
        Hair as deep crimson as the blood flowing beneath my soft boots, and watery emerald green eyes flashing with anger and sorrow, I appeared as a fairy child standing next to the giant. I pounded my tiny fists against his hard, muscled flesh.
        "You murderer! You foul, evil demon, I'll kill you! I swear it, I'll make you pay," I screamed with all my strength as I continued to beat the beast with all the power my small size could muster. The evil giant paid no notice to my attempts at harming him nor the words that poured from my mouth.
          Never sparing me a glance, he swatted my small frame away like I was just an annoying fly and turned to walk away, heading toward his next victim.
          I heaved a lungful of air as I got up from my sprawled position on the ground. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, my rage fueling my body to keep going.
          Seconds passed as my feet carried me after the demon. Suddenly a thick arm came from behind the ravished building closest to me and wrapped around my middle, jerking me away from the murderer. I gasped in surprise.
          The man held me tight against his right side as I attempted to struggle out of his grip. Heedless of the danger, I channeled all my remaining strength toward ripping that arm to pieces. My nails dug into sunburned skin, drawing blood. I twisted and turned my tiny body trying to escape the strong hold.
          Savage words exploded from my throat. "Let me go! You monster, you murderer! I hate all of you!"
          I continued my fight against such strength and muscle. My hands hammered out a beat equal to that of the war drums renting the air. My hands were bloody and sticky as they clawed at my enemy. I struggled with all the rage inside me until a familiar sound filled my range of hearing.
        "Hush my child," my father whispered in my ear.
          More tears filled my eyes. My anger released its hold on me, making me cease my struggles with a whoosh of movement.
          "I have you now. I will keep you safe but we must hurry and you must stop fighting me."
          His faint voice sounded ragged and rough. As if he had been shouting for hours
without end.
        Having abandoned my war against the arm holding me, I relaxed in my father's tight grip. I instantly felt safer even amidst the battlefield that was our village.
        Tightening his hold on me further, he carried me toward the back of the village in the direction of the highest mountains.
        Swinging his heavy blade, he fought his way through the sea of crushing bodies and burning buildings. The resounding clash of metal to metal pounded into my ears, over-powering the beating of the distant drums.
          His feet seemed to dance to that same rhythm as he swiveled here and there, sending his steel broadsword through the smoke filled air.
        Coming in contact with sweat slick skin, he drew his blade away and swung again, seeking more foreign flesh.
          Suddenly a monster emerged from a burning building to our left. My father’s grip on me loosened and I slid to my feet as he pushed me out of the way. The giant spotted us and moved in for the attack.
        He swung his blade upward, blades met midair, knocking my father back against a building. As he moved to slash, my father dodged to the side, rolling along the wall and out of reach. I had never seen my father with a weapon in his hand.
        I stood in awe as he swung the heavy metal toward his enemy and slashed into the man’s arm just before he stepped back out of reach of the monster’s own blade.  The battle lasted mere seconds but time had ceased to function on a normal scale. Making seconds seem like a lifetime.
        After plunging his blade into the giant’s chest with a grunt, my father yanked free and grabbed my hand to pull me away. The progress through the village was slow but steady. More men ran to engage my father in battle one by one. They all fell to his blade. We kept moving.
      Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we made it to the edge of the village near the base of a mountain. It was quieter here, the fighting being centered in the heart of the village near the square.
      Soaked in drying blood and gasping in a lungful of heated air, my father released his hold on me. Turning to face him, I waited for him to wrap his arms around me and pull me close.
          "Rhya," his voice shook as he spoke, "my princess, I need you to stay here child. Hide in the tiny cove up in the rocks. Stay as quiet as you can.”
          He looked into my eyes, his face so full of pain and worry. “Ok sweetheart? Daddy will be back to get you when it's safe."
          Skin the color of amber and shoulder length hair to match, my father resembled a
fallen god. He was always my pillar of strength. I knew he would protect me with his life.
          He swiped at the tears streaming down his aged face, and bent down to kiss my cheek. My own tears raged against me. I tried to choke on the words battling to spill out of my mouth. I couldn’t stop the fear from making me sound small and weak.
          I wanted to be strong, to stand on my own two feet but instead I caved. I begged my father not to leave me.
          "Daddy don't go! I need you!" I cried. "I won't be safe without you. Please don't go!"
          I hugged him to me as tightly as my small arms could and leaned my head against
his shoulder. I fought hard against the wave of fear and tears that threatened to pull me out to a sea of restless sorrow.
        I fought hard not to lose myself to it. I could feel the rock hard muscles of his back and shoulders trembling under my flushed cheek as he forced his voice to a tone of calm and collected control.
          "Of course you will be safe my child," he said. "I must go help the other villagers. They cannot fight those men alone."
          Rubbing the back of my head with his massive hand, he attempted to comfort me as he continued. "Please be strong my young one. You are all I have left now and I must know you are safe. Promise me you will not follow me. Promise you will stay hidden in the cove."
          Lifting my head, I peered into my father's grief riddled face. Seeing the
sorrow and pain in his eyes, I tried for bravery in my tone as I said the words I knew he needed to hear.
          "I promise Daddy. I will stay here and hide." Grabbing his hands in my own, I looked into his eyes, and said, "I will wait for you."
          Seeing his deep love for me etched among the grief, I knew I could not disobey. "I promise I will wait for you Daddy," my voice a little stronger now.
          My lower lip quivered as I held onto my tears, only a few slipping passed my guard and rolling down my pink cheeks.
          "That's my girl," he whispered. "I love you sweetheart. Now go. Hide yourself well".
          As he turned to go back to the village I called out to my father, a slight tremble caused my voice to shake. My gathered courage slipped as new fears invaded my mind.
          "But Daddy," I squeaked, "What if you don't come back to me? What if I'm left all
alone?!"
          "Don't worry honey," he said, pulling me close once more, "you are my life. I would never leave you, but I need you out of harm's way. So go and I promise I will come back for you soon."
        "I love you Daddy," in a strangled voice, I added, "tell Mommy I love her too."
          Turning away to start my journey to my hiding place, I did not see the tears my words had caused. Nor did I hear my father's whispered words as he watched me disappear from sight.
        "I love you too my child.….and I know your mother's angel always will too."
          Finding the tiny cove, I climbed in to await my father's return. I sat hidden for an eternity. The ground still vibrated to the beating of the drums of battle.
          The day's tension caught up with me as my body started to quake and grow cold. I rested my head on my drawn up knees as I drifted into a fitful sleep full of huge monsters and screams of the dead.