Miscellaneous

With Open Eyes

The night was still. Nothing stirred as if everything were waiting for something to happen, or hiding from something terrible. The pitch black darkness of the night didn’t scare Esme like it probably should have. She had been scared of the dark when she was little but realizing her mind was her own buggy-man, she stopped being scared. And now she walked forth amongst her father’s crops, looking for the cleared field where her father was waiting a season to replenish the field’s nutrient values in the earth.

When she reached the opened ground, her hardened soles sinking into the soft, cool soil, she signed in contemptment. She felt at ease especially with the knowledge of what she was going to do in the next few minutes. She unbuckled the oversized belt around her skinny frame and set it down. She was careful as she took hold of the hilt of the sword, sheathed inside the belt. Slowly pulling the heavy sword out, she got it out of its protected skin, and Esme looked at it admiring it in the moonlight as the metal gleamed softly.

Her heart thumped in her chest as she fantasized of killing enemies and protecting innocent people. She really couldn’t wait to be in her kingdom’s army, fighting alongside people just like her, protecting the kingdom she loved so much.

She slowly began to move the sword around, getting use to the weight in her hand as she got her stance. When she was ready, her mind took over, creating images in the dark and she hacked at them with the sword. Swing around and taking on more enemies behind her and from the sides. She kept fighting, her heart racing as her breath came in fast, short, gasps. The blood raced through her veins, and she could feel the power she possessed inside her as well as with her since the sword gave her an advantage.

She continued to engage her imaginative enemies before she suddenly saw a light out of the corner of her vision. She stopped, breathing roughly, as she looked at the light in the distance. It wasn’t far but the dark made it harder to see and she squinted trying to see further. What she saw made her gasp and her blood boil. Men were setting fire to her father’s hard worked crops, and fields. The fire could damage the field for a long time and it could harm the farm animals as well as the buildings on the farm. The land was her father’s only way of making money and providing for her family. She gripped her sword, as she glared at the men in the distant. She couldn’t believe people did such things these days. She only wished she could stop them, but she couldn’t. She was only a girl, the baby of the family, the useless runt.

She gripped the sword hilt tighter to only realize she was still holding it. She looked down at her brother’s sword. It was almost bigger than her but she had out grown it this year, about two inches. Couldn’t she fight them off? She had a sword…She trained for things like this why couldn’t she prove herself now? She bit her bottom lip as she picked the sword up and slide it back into its shelter before picking the belt up and slipping it around her waist. Once it was tightened as far as it would go, and she had a secure hold on it, she took off, running toward the blazing flames of her father’s land burning.

-        -   -

Esme was hidden under a bush, checking out her enemies and how they were positioned. She had always dreamed of silently assassinating someone, but she knew this wouldn’t be silently or much of assassination, but more of a fight.

There were three men. One was very muscular and tall, his body thundered against the earth as he stomped around, lighting fires to her land. Another was very skinny and short, but his posture and the way he walked and talked, suggested he was the leader of the group. The last one was big too but more fat and chubby than muscular. He wasn’t tall though nor short but averagely tall. He carried a big rag sack on his back that looked heavy and in some places wet. They all carried swords on them of all different sizes and length.