The Allure of Darkness

1

Azia

"There are four kingdoms surrounding us but none of them know it. None of them can sense the war approaching. They don't know we've been preparing for a war for the last five years. Before the war between the the Kingdom of Arsher and the Kingdom of Nichle there was a balance in the kingdoms but now...," I quickly drop the book that's in my hands. It lands sprawl out letting all the dirt and mud cover the pages. It tells the story of our kingdom, the Kingdom of Ploy and now the book will be forgotten here, destroyed by the mud.

The horn started to blow the ringing can be heard all through out the caves. It's a warning for us and tells us it's time to bring the kids towards the tents.

The horn is the only constant thing in our camp and the horn makes the people start to fret. The horn has saved all our lives countless times. Letting us know when danger is near but it tells the danger right where to find us. It tells us the guard is coming and all we can do is hide and fight.

The ground is covered with frost from the recent drop in the temperature. We haven't had this early of winter since two years ago. Causing our soil to be terrible for planting but that doesn't matter when we don't have enough seeds to plant anyway. We survive off of the stolen food and cattle.

I hurry over to my fire and start to put it out with the last of my water in my canteen. We do this so the guard thinks we already moved on to another camp.

I look to my right and see Cree doing the same. His hair as red as the fire, he just cut his hair causing it to fall to the top of the eyebrow. I look over Cree and notice his clothes keep getting more torn up again and again. No matter how many times I sew it, it never stays in one piece. There's a massive whole on the right side of the shirt causing me to see the bruises all over his shoulder. What did he do this time?

Cree looks up at me after scrambling to make the ground look like there was never a fire. He quickly puts his foot over the hot embers to move them apart. I quickly do the same to my fire.

The embers only do so much against the cold. When I back away from the ground I see Cree standing next to me.

"Azia I will hope to see you still intact after all this madness ends," Cree winks. He always has a way to make a terrible moment seem laughable. It's who he is but it never helps with the real problem.

"And for you i hope the same, Cree," I say trying to not to sound scared for him.

He takes a step back holding my stare just long enough for me to see the blue shine in his eyes. He backs away turning into a jog. I will see Cree again, I tell myself. It's always good to have hope.

Women can't fight according to everyone, they say it like it's a known fact but no one has tried to prove them wrong. You can't stand up for yourself when no one is willing to hold you up. Of course all the accomplishments done by woman gets taken credit by the men. It's how I got stuck with taking care of the kids.

I'm jogging towards the tent I've been assigned in case we've ever get attacked.

The guard should be a few minutes out from the camp, we still has time to make it look like there was never a camp stationed here but we've been here for months and making it look spotless won't happen. So all we can do is hide. That's what the Kingdom of Ploy is best at.

Some kingdoms think that they killed off the last of the Kingdom of Ploy but we are still hiding out in tiny camps, surviving of off  stolen goods and luck.

We are waiting for the right time the king says everytime someone brings up a word about fighting but what do we do when we don't have enough time and endless enemies?