Sand Serpents

Chapter 3

It had all hit him so quickly. Going back years in seconds, only to pop back into his dreadful reality. He held onto the reigns of his mount tighter, nearly falling off. He was still dizzy. All movements and sounds seemed distorted until it suddenly clicked. The clashing of swords. Metal against metal. Yelling. People collapsing all around him. It was a war. And he had somehow gotten himself into the middle of it as for his steed was speeding hastily into groups of men. He tugged on the reigns for it to stop, yet the steed never obeyed him. He was overwhelmed at first with anxiety that he could be plunged to his death. What had his retrainers taught him all these years? "If I cannot make my beast obey my command, I shall pierce into my foes!" Is what he thought. He could feel the breeze swarming around him. Tension. Determination and fear. He could feel it all. He took out his sword and raised it high as it gleamed beautifully above his head with the rays of the sun. A soldier began running towards him to throw him off; to throw him to his final breath. He had only noticed him at the right moment. Salah pierced into the weakest part of his armor, unable to look into his eyes. He would feel less remorse this way.  He yanked out his sword and pierced into the next, pulling it out without mercy despite the pain they felt. He began to feel like a completely different person. Is this what war does to a boy? The will to live settles within, the feeling that he must go on or lose everything. This is what motivates a person when death is knocking at the door. It can make anyone go insane.  They kept coming and more of them; it seemed endless. An army of thousands fighting what seemed like a million souls. They would not survive. This would be suicide if they were to continue here. 

"We have to retreat! Now!" Someone shouted distantly. Horns began to ring out in a different pitch; this sound was different. It sounded like a high pitched scream in his ears, yet it sent the majority running back and some stayed behind to finish off what they had started. Some decided to stay and tried to finish the fight so that their brethren could return home in their place; to return to their families waiting for them.

Some time had passed since his horse seemed to calm down a little, but the tension was still clearly high. Salah was just finishing off as he was pulled off guard. He felt someone grab his cloak and forcefully yank him off. Salah looked up and raised his arm to see who yanked him off to see his horse was already gone. He looked around frantically trying to get up, yet he was pulled down again. He turned his head to see a soldier pulling on him, to get on top of him as he raised his sword above his head merely to hurdle it down to his stomach. Salah pushed him off in time to pull out his dagger to swiftly cut him, yet not killing him since the cut wasn't deep since it was a mere warning. As he looked closer he noticed this person must have at least been twelve or eleven. He seemed young and very tall for his age if his assumption was right.

"Child, how old are you?" Salah asked, piercing his gaze. The boy looked at him and tried to stab him with his sword, yet Salah tightly gripped his wrists to restrain him. He didn't seem scared, instead, this person tried to resist. "Why should I answer you?" The boy asked, continuing his response "I do not answer to your kind!" The boy began pulling and eventually dropped his sword on the ground, slightly bucking in pain to reveal a horrible gash on his arm, followed by cuts and bruises. This boy seemed nearly beaten to death and yet he still had the spirit of a powerful animal.

They both stared in silence for a moment then a face of realization sprung on them. "My duty to my liege is to kill you, so allow me to kill you already!" He immediately sprung up and took his sword to charge at him, missing him. Salah quickly dodged in the opposite direction and gently pushed him back, yet the boy charged at him full speed.

"I have no intention to harm you, you are too young to be out here!" Salah snapped and then the boy stood there, staring at him in anger as if about to release every bit of anger he had.  "I can and I will use this against you." The boy mumbled beneath his breath as he pushed him toward the ground, seeming to try to not yell. Salah yelped as a sudden pain troubled him and the boy noticed this as he once again tried to stab him for this would be his chance. Salah began to question where his father was or whether or not he had already retreated with the others. It wouldn't be likely. He questioned the same for his retrainers since they seem to have been separated. Salah kept trying to deal with the child as another lunged out when he wasn't entirely aware, piercing a blade into his shoulder. Salah now faced two. He wasn't concerned about the child, rather he was more concerned about the adult since he wasn't stopping for anything. Salah kept trying to hold him off while the child only stood there in disbelief.  "He is your enemy! Ye aren't becoming soft-hearted eh? Are ye boy?" The man hissed at the boy, whining away saliva from his mouth, "Kill him or I will!" The boy stuttered and tilted his head, shrugging his shoulders. "Tis pointless, he has not even hurt me ye-"  he paused and the boy screamed in shock to see one of Salah's retainers, Khalil coming in their direction. Running at full speed, Khalil rammed a lance into the man's chest without hesitation. When he was done, he slowly turned his head to look at the boy with pure rage. "Nobody dare lays a threatening hand upon milord!" He began to charge at full force when Salah intervened, pulling the boy behind him to stop the lance with both of his hands, gripping it tightly. "Milord!" Khalil looked rather surprised and rather shocked that Salah would even do this. "Milord, you better have a very good explanation for this!" Salah looked down at the man who just tried to slaughter him moments ago, now being a corpse that would decay amongst the many others. "Khalil," Salah began "This boy. He is too young to even be out here and I'm taking him with me. Not as a prisoner, but rather let him remain with me for I shall be responsible for this boy. I see potential in him and a lot of it." Khalil appeared even more shocked and confused than he already was. Salah and Khalil exchanged glances as he kept the child close to his side, making sure to not pressure him too much. They began making way off the battlefield in a quick-paced run as a man began running towards Salah. "Look out!" The child yelled. Two men began charging towards them, then came a third. "We have to get out of here! Right now!" Khalil shouted as he swiftly spun around to strike the man with his lance. Men began to surround the three in a circle as more began to join the enclosing group of men. Nearly sixteen souls and more gradually coming. Salah pulled out his dagger and held the child closely while Khalil circled them in a protective stance while the men who carried curved swords and axes began closing in more. Slowly, coming to a pause and about to charge all at once. That was the plan. Khalil burned with rage. The first to make a move would set him off, any move. The tallest tried to pierce a sword while another tried to pierce in-between. Khalil dodged them both, pulling Salah and the child to the side. Khalil swiftly moved his dagger, appearing like a storm out on an open sea, a storm that would engulf all for those men who opposed his lord were slaughtered rather quickly. Lifeless without a soul.

***

They had made it out of the conflict. Most of it anyway. Everyone began running for they knew that they wouldn't survive the fight. The three had eventually run into Ammar who was laying on the ground unresponsive with horrible gashes and wounds all while the man he was against had beaten him nearly to death. How long had Khalil's brother been laying here in the blazing heat? Hours it must have been. That same person who did such cruelty was lifeless right by his feet all while Ammar's very own sword had been used against him. Khalil picked up his motionless brother and carried him, cradling him closely as they were now in search of Salah's father. Altair. Salah fled into the depths of his mind for something to grasp on to, serenity in that matter, though all he could find was a still ocean that was deceiving to the eye. Dark overcast in the midst of all his troubles is all he received. He retrieved no answer for his troubles and remorse. 

His feet pattered against the sand as his sore feet ached him, the stab wound in his shoulder throbbing intensely with each passing moment. He sullenly teared up as multiple thoughts and emotions rushed into his head. Everything he had seen and heard troubled him greatly. As he was walking away from the fight he was in, he could hear the battering feet of his men as they tried to run or if not run then fend for themselves. It was as if nobody cared to notice his presence for a moment, a moment of invisibility it seemed; hidden away from society. As he walked in silence, he looked up at Khalil with tears in his eyes, feeling the young part of him come to the surface amidst the chaos. Khalil gave him no mind just a blank, emotionless stare. "Khalil?" Salah spoke with a low stutter, "Why must we be this way?" Khalil sighed and shrugged his shoulders, "This world is a brutal place that even our minds cannot comprehend, but as your father himself has said before. Kings are not born: They are born of universal hallucinations. Your father is a wise one despite his flaws; eventually, you shall venture down his same alleyways." He then fell in silence once more as he pondered the sand with his brother in his arms, feeling similar to how Salah had felt. Failure and disappointment in oneself. "Khalil... We must go back. My people rely on me and the ruling of my father, we must go back-" he was immediately cut off by Khalil's low, and intense growl of words that immediately quiet Salah, sending a slight shiver down his spine. "I do not know how you do it Khalil, but your tongue tends to frighten me rather than soothe." Khalil gave one last response to the young prince "And yet you expect everyone and everything to be subject to your will, young prince? I am here to serve you, but I serve in logic and reason. No foul play of any sort and as I believe you shall be subject to what the world offers unto you which is brutal and where no child's play of sorts is accepted. Do you understand?... Prince." He scoffed, "You are about to enter into something which even a mind as delicate and fragile as yours simply cannot understand." Salah went quiet for a moment as the wind picked up, sending grains of sand to his skin that stung fiercely, blinding his view momentarily. 

After some time of pondering amongst themselves, the young boy which had accompanied Salah eventually gave a word of his own. Feeling a slight tug, Salah turned down his gaze towards the child. "I beg a pardon, but I believe to have seen something lying amongst the sand in the distance. Unfortunately, I am uncertain of what it might be." Khalil only kept walking onwards, paying the child no mind except for Salah. "And where is it?" The boy paused momentarily and pointed his finger outwards to what he saw in the distance. Though, at first glance, it didn't catch the prince's eye. The boy then described it as some sort of cloak which appeared to be grey in color, along with black and silver lining. "Do you see?" "Yes... I do see." At first, Salah's heart felt as if it had ruptured with the most intense pain, sudden emotions taking hold of anything possible. He tried to hold on, yet sudden impulsiveness was too strong for him to handle. He ran towards the cloak and once he got to it, he immediately fell on his knees; wailing at the sight. A blood-drenched cloak, nearly identical to what he's always seen in the palace. An identical look and feel. Yet no owner. Only a trail of spilled essence dotting the sand where it was left behind. Allowing the cloak to flow ever so graciously amongst his fingertips, feeling the fine texture as he embraced it. He gripped the cloak once more with tears in his eyes, swiftly pulling it over his shoulders to be overwhelmed by a scent he is so familiar with. Now with this immediate thought in mind, the young prince now knew who it once belonged to.