Book of Kings

Chapter 03

We ventured deeper into the forest. I didn't know where I was going, there was nothing to guide us, not at the moment at least. I had no map nor a compass, and I was sure that he also didn't. If we find a river, we could follow it out of here, that would be fortunate.

The forest was enormous, that much I knew but I have no idea how long it's going to take us to clear it on foot. Going around it on the roads to a city would take days on horseback if you have a reasonable pace but on foot, it could take us much longer, maybe a whole week, less if we get lucky and quickly find an exit out of here.

We must have already been walking for some time, four to five hours I'd guess because dawn was already approaching. I was exhausted, he must have been too, so we searched for a good place to rest for a bit and then sat down on the grass. We still haven't spoken to each other. I didn't really look at him in all these hours. He has dirty light middle-length hair, and he is tall, much taller than me, at least a heads worth was between us. He seemed strong, I bet he could have lifted the debris I couldn't back at my house. I thought back, could he have been under one? No, stop, calm yourself, look what's in front of you, you can't afford to be an emotional wreck at the moment.

I didn't wait until my stomach started to growl. I need to keep my strength up these next few days so I took out some meat from the bag. I gave some of it to the boy too, drank a bit from the water skin, and then handed it to him. He had no supplies of his own, at least nothing I could see, would he be so stupid that he would run away without any food or water? I took him with me; he was under my care. I had enough misery around me. I wouldn't let him go starving or die of dehydration. He mumbled thanks while chewing on the meat. I wondered what he was thinking of me.

After eating in silence for a bit, he began to talk, "What do you think those guys would have done with us if we stayed? We could have been slaves or maybe they wanted to conscript us. They own this land now, so we may be their citizens, I think? They didn't seem like the friendliest bunch, though. Crazy that they just attacked the village all of a sudden."

I knew a bit about geography and politics but even the dumbest person would have known that living in a village near the border, it would have been only a matter of time until something happened. But seeing what I saw I couldn't understand their reasoning. Why burn down a part of it and kill the inhabitants?
It didn't matter, I don't think I ever want to return there, "I don't know," I said dismissively. "It doesn't matter now."

While lying on the grass, I looked up. I couldn't see the sky because of the trees.
He then lay next to me and began to talk, "sorry if I upset your plans when I woke you, but you don't have to worry about me. I can look after myself. There's plenty I can eat here and I know how not to die of thirst."
He sounded cheery, maybe he was even smiling. I didn't look over nor did I respond.

After resting for a while, he went on, "I think I met the leader of the soldiers that attacked us."
"What?" I said shocked, "surely you can't be serious"
"No, no, I'm serious. He approached me and my friends."
So many questions were popping into my head I didn't know what to ask first, "What did he want? What did he look like? Did you catch his name?" I asked eagerly.
"I'm not sure what he wanted from our village, but at the time he wanted to talk to the village chief"
"We don't have a chief," I interrupted.
"That's what I told him," he agreed with me, "I took him to my father who told us that he would band together some people he could talk to and then later in the day when the soldiers caught me. He gave other soldiers orders, and I'm sure anyone can do that. If he was just another soldier, the other ones would have just told him to fuck off."
He put it crudely but still was correct. I assume that the majority of men in the army are not friends with each other and if you try to give orders when you're not a higher rank most would just not obey or even react hostile.
"He also looked weird, he has this weird armor with curly gold stripes,"
"Flowers," I interrupted again but he didn't react and just went on talking, "and that ugly beard, nothing on the sides, just a bit in the middle. Did he forget how to shave while he was doing it?" he said while giggling.
I chuckled a bit too, "It's called a mustache. It's meant to look like that."
My desire to know more relented. At the moment I didn't have to know everything, I had time, days even.