The Conqueror and the Rose

Chapter XXI - Diadochi Wars

Perdiccas, regent of Macedonia swivelled his gaze from right to left as he took absorbed Egypt into his eyes. There were two giant statues of pharaohs who sat on boulders as they entered the city. The pharaohs' eyes resembled a cat's while their long faces were framed by striped blue headdresses.

Perdiccas stared at these wonders as they slowly entered. He could now feel how Alexander had felt like when entering foreign lands, leading an army that stretched out behind him. Perdiccas glanced at Selecuos, whom he had asked to accompany him. He was marching on impassively.

Perdiccas raised up his hand. At this, the whole army stopped. He turned to his left, to the Egyptian who was passing by him on a camel.

"Do you know the way to the Nile?" Perdiccas asked him. The Egyptian kept passing by.

"Hey, do you know the way to the Nile?" Yelled Perdiccas more loudly up at him. The Egyptian turned and looked at him.

"Yes, yes," He said in broken Macedonian, "I know way to river Nile." He pointed to the direction they were heading in.

"You go go go go, He said," looking at the general to make sure that he was following him, and then jerked his arm to the right. Perdiccas nodded. Then the Egyptian jerked his arm to the left, then the right again, and then straight. He looked at Perdiccas again.

"I understand," Said Perdiccas with a stiff smile.

"Why is Macedonia army here?" Asked the Egyptian man.

"You must know that our great commander, Alexander has passed away. We are on a mission to avenge his body," Said Selecuos, speaking for the first time. The Egyptian man nodded.

"I wish you the best," He said, nodding, and continued passing by slowly on his camel.

Soon, the Macedonian army was at the south entrance of the city. Exiting it, they were met with a lush landscape. In the distance, they could see a blue stream snaking its way through the land.

"We have arrived!" Cried out Perdiccas. The army raised up their hands and cheered. Then they continued on, towards the banks of the Nile River. Below them were long tufts of grass, and the more they went on, they realized that the greenery was getting thicker. Thickets blocked their way so that they had to slash through them with their swords. The soil under them was also growing softer as they neared the water. When at last they were at the very edge of the Nile, they looked in awe before them. The water was abundant, flowing mildly and smoothly. Far in the distance, there rose the shapes of triangular pyramids, like shadows in a murky haze.

In the beauty of the foreign land, Perdiccas forgot what he was supposed to do for a moment. Then he began to shout out orders.

"Prepare to cross!" He said, and put on his golden helmet. The army raised up their spears. Promptly Perdiccas began to wade into the water. The water was cold but bearable. He was in waist deep, and looked beside him to see hundreds of his men wading in as well. Suddenly, he heard a scream.

"Help!" A soldier cried, and Perdiccas saw the face of a soldier, his arms lifted up above him, as the river current swept him backwards. He was trying to run back to them, but the current, which had looked innocent enough at first, now took him away in its clutches. Another scream sounded from behind him. A soldier was looking on, frozen in terror at a...rock. But as Perdiccas observed more closely, this rock had two eyes with slits in it, and it had a long face. It was dirt green, and was covered in scales and spikes. But it was not just one of these that slowly waded towards the soldier. It was two, no three, no four. All around them, they saw the beasts crawl from the banks and emerge from the waters.

It happened very fast. The upper portions of the crocodiles' bodies leapt out of the river, spraying water everywhere. Then they opened up their enormous mouths, showing all of their deadly teeth, and began to devour the soldiers whole. The Nile crocodiles were enormous and evil. Their eyes held smug looks as they attacked them. The army was terrified as they saw their comrades' bodies being torn before their very eyes. The remaining army behind them did not come into the water. Perdiccas made all haste to reach the bank. Desperately, he latched onto a branch and pulled himself out of the waters. But no one could save the others who had already gone too far.

"You failed us!" Cried a soldier.

"Look at what you've done to our men!" Cried another man. They were all looking at Perdiccas with eyes that hard turned savage in their desperation. Perdiccas backed up, frightened at the men that hemmed him in from every side.

"No, you must listen-" Perdiccas never finished his sentence as out of nowhere, a javelin sliced through the air and impaled itself into his back. He slumped forwards onto the ground. The soldiers looked at this in surprise, not knowing who had thrown the javelin. But they were too exhuasted to care. They turned their backs sadly.

"Assemble!" A man shouted. "We shall go back to our homeland, to Macedonia, and talk more reasonably about the transferring of Alexander's body there" With this they regrouped. They could not wait to get out of Egypt after encountering these horrors.

Once the army had wearily marched away, a general emerged from behind the coconut trees. All had calmed now, the river being nothing but a pool of red. His trudging could be heard as he made his way through the lush tufts of grass. When his feet stopped, it was beside the body of the fallen Perdiccas.

"Among the Diadochi, you have become too corrupt," Selecuos said, and he pulled the helmet from Perdiccas' head and and threw it far into the river.