Assyrian Attack

*Author's note* 

Hello! This was one of my old projects from school, and I thought, "Hey! Why don't I put this on Wattpad?" So I did, annnd.. yeah. It might not be that good, and I'm not quite sure how to split up big chunks of text, so please give me feedback!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mesopotamia - Creative Writing 

Child's POV

I awoke with a start. I was in my room, and it was in the middle of the night. Papa was not in bed. I could hear a lot of yelling somewhere outside, off in the distance. It was time to investigate. As I searched around the house, I realized that Mama was gone, too. I looked in the main room of our home, where Papa's work things usually were.

Papa was a soldier, and he fights other soldiers, from far away cities. My mother said that the most frightening army was from Assyria. I asked her about the differences between the Assyrian army and other armies. She answered me, saying that they were very harsh and brutal, so if they caught us doing things that they did not want us to do, their soldiers would harm us very severely. Papa added that they has used iron weapons, while we used copper weapons and tools. This material is very durable, even more effective than copper. When I questioned about why we don't use the more superior metal, he answered that we didn't know how to extract iron. I didn't really understand what that meant, but I concluded that I would probably find out, because I'm a quick learner. Mama also stated that iron was very easy to find. "Find." Right! I needed to find Mama and Papa! I hoped that finding my parents would be as effortless as finding iron.

Stepping outside, I realized that the whole area was deserted. Where was everybody? I could hear some shouting, from the south side of the city. I stared in the direction that the yelling came from. A fire! I saw a fire. Was it a bonfire? At the time, I thought that there was a celebration going on. I wanted to join in, too! Maybe Papa was in a parade, that's why his weapons were gone! It was foolish of me to think that.

I ran to the fire, but as I approached my destination, I realized that I was wrong. The sky was painted a crimson red, the air smelled of ashes. The whole site was draped in a dark, ominous atmosphere. There was no parade, no bonfire, and no celebration. However, there were strange men dressed in armor, and they were holding weapons made of... Iron! Those were Assyrian soldiers setting the huts on fire! They were knocking over vases, destroying everything in their path. Those brutes! It seemed they hadn't spotted me yet. Mama said that Assyrian soldiers were very dangerous men. She said that they would do horrible things if they caught us doing something that they don't want. My parents were discussing something about some rebels. Papa told Mama that those rebels were caught by the Assyrians, and the group of them were tortured, and sent to somewhere very, very far away.

The fire was catching up. I had to go, but... BAM! What was that sound? I was frightened. I peeked out around the corner of the wall that I was hiding behind. The situation that I had witnessed could've scarred me for life. Those Assyrians, those monsters, they were dragging a body around. It was a woman. She was covered in bruises, cuts all over. She was splattered in a deep shade of scarlet. She was my mother.

I ran, fearing for my life, and grieving for my mother. I sprinted in the opposite direction, north. Funny, I was originally running to the fire, but then, it had started to chase me. I hurried as fast as I could until I ran out of breath. I was exhausted. My head was hanging down, but I had to know where I was. I took a glance up. I'd sprinted all the way to the city wall. I thought I had seen something. I peeked back up again, this time, I paid more attention. There was a sphere hanging from the wall. What was that? It was... a head. That was my papa's head. He is dead. Everything went black, I fainted.

That was several years ago. I now live in a small village, not far from my birthplace. It turns out that these villagers were told to find any survivors, and bring them back here. They found me, and carried me back here, using the enemy's chariot that the men had stolen. They had rescued several groups of people, and another young girl named Marie. She is two years younger than me. I hadn't known her in my old home, but now, she follows me around everywhere. She is my friend. Life is peaceful now; we haven't been bothered by those Assyrian brutes yet. Mama and Papa are dead, but now I have Marie to keep me company, and a close community to watch each other's back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Fun facts*

Mesopotamia was located around modern day Iraq.

Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Akkad were all different empires. Akkad is the least known. IDK why. I forgot.

Hitites taught Assyrians how to extract iron from stone.

Assyrians invented the chariot and the battering ram.

Assyrian kings decided to take over nearby city-states to create safer trade routes.

To deal with rebellions, Assyrians tortured, whipped people to death, burnt down villages, and hung the heads of villagers onto the city walls as an example of what happens to rebels. If this was not enough, they would send the group of rebels to a far corner of the empire, and thy would lose their will to fight.