Cataclysm

Punishment

I quickly push backwards with my feet and pull an arrow into my bow string. He grows closer, but I allow the arrow to soar. It hits him directly in the kneecap and the sound of his shrill cry sounds agonizing as he falls to his other knee. The moon outlines him in silver and his eyes bulge from his head in pain from the arrow that now penetrates his bone.

I scuffle in the leaves before standing up and running for the edge of the forest. My heart drums loudly in my chest as I sprint at full speed. I nearly trip on a fallen tree as I weave through the dark labyrinth. My head spins as fast as a spinning top and my eyes still appear to blur out the world around me. Focusing on anything besides the path in front of me is impossible.

The sight of the nearing edge is relieving as I push harder for the clearing until I feel my ankle snag on something. My head hits off the ground as my foot is pulled high into the air. I look up at the rope around my ankle and realize that I am caught in an animal trap. I dangle by my pained ankle as I look around upside down for an answer. I feel ready to pass out and the blood rushing to my head doesn't help. My desire to vomit mixes with the dizziness and causes my want to come true. Now, with the fled body fluids, I feel weak; weaker than I was two minutes ago when my head was throbbing from the forceful punch. I need to free myself before the strange man comes for me, but my bow has fallen to the ground and is out of reach. How am I going to get down?

I wriggle around until I hear the sound of footsteps. He is coming back for me to finish me off, but the footsteps aren't coming from the forest.

"Stay back." I state in a firm voice.

"Nora, is that you?"

"General?"

"Hang on. I'm going to get you down from there." I cover my head as he saws at the rope with his pocket knife from behind.

The rope snaps and I roll across the hard ground. My head spins rapidly as I reach up and tightly grab the General's wrist and drag him in the direction of the town. He doesn't say a single word to me while we race into the center of the town.

My head pounds while I lean down and press my hands to my dirt covered jeans. Breathing is a struggle now and my heart pounds louder than the ringing in my ears.

I then feel his hand grab my arm so tightly that it hurts. His eyes burn while he heaves me into the narrow alleyway. My back hits hard off of the stone wall and his eyes flicker in the moonlight while he glares at me.

"What happened?" He hisses.

"I decided to look for you in the forest, but I ran into a strange man instead. He attacked me, but I fired an arrow into his knee. I don't know if he gave chase to me, but on the way out of the woods I got caught in the trap and-"

"You got attacked by an outsider?" He interrupts loudly while grabbing me by both my shoulders. "Nora, you are lucky you made it out of there alive."

"I'm fine."

"Not in my eyes you're not." He says and I feel my anger balling up inside.

"Stop treating me like I'm a child! I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm stronger and smarter. I can take care of myself."

"If you could take care of yourself then you would've been able to get out of that trap by yourself."

"You need to give me the chance to prove it to you." I say loudly. "One day I will leave this place and I will become a Dumani soldier. Then, both you and my father will finally realize that I am capable of taking care of myself. I won't need to be escorted everyday to places. I won't need to be protected. I will be respected. I will be strong. I will be far from this place where poverty is an understatement. You and my father both had the opportunity to live there, but did I? No. I got to grow up in this wasteland of a shanty town!"