Kissed by Chaos

Kissed by Chaos (8) - Battle

A/N Yeah, it's pretty dark now, but bear with me and you'll see more of the quirkiness of Raafi and Claire's personalities. Now, however, they're both in bad states of mind. And it's about to get worse...

DUN DUN DUN...

By the way, the image one the side is of a jambiya dagger.

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Kissed by Chaos

Chapter 8 - Battle

Jinn. It was now, as Raafi fastened a double edged jambiya dagger to his belt, that the word crossed his mind. It brushed through his thoughts like a gust of wind, unsettling everything in its path. With a shiver, he finally realised that his father had been too readily dismissing his nightmares, laughing too easily at his cowardice. Jinn were not something to be laughed at and if Zahir knew what Raafi now knew, he would be cowering in his leather boots.

The illusive creatures existed in a parallel world, but legends claimed that they constantly invaded that of humans. Jinn did not comprise of the clay that humans were originally created from, instead from a smokeless flame. They were creatures of Allah that had been granted freewill and with that freewill, could be benevolent, malicious or positively indifferent. It was clear though that Dunya, the Jinni that constantly terrorized Raafi, was far from benevolent.

Now was not the time to be thinking about Jinn, though. Raafi smiled reassuringly down at Susannah as she gazed up at him, fear and dread clouding her unnaturally light eyes. She had overcome the hysteric fear for her daughters as it was now replaced by fear for him. It's alright, he wanted to say, but as hard as he tried he could not choke the words out. There was something about this battle that unnerved him too. There was something about Badra that was not like all the other submissive kingdoms. Raafi knew that somehow Susannah also felt the thick, nauseating feeling of dark foreboding in her gut.

He bent his head down to let Susannah softly kiss his brow. He fondly remembered a time when he was so much smaller than her. He used to stare up at her kind figure towering over him. Now, their roles had been reversed and Raafi was at least a head taller than her. He wished he could take away the tight, edgy smile and the tears welling in her eyes, but all he could do was fight this battle and get it over and done with. "God bless you," he barely heard her murmur as he walked off to join Adnan waiting outside the tents. 

As Raafi emerged from the protective reclusiveness of the tents, he finally realised the severity of the battle he and his men were about to fight. Their camp was situated up on a hill, looking down on the flat, dusty Valley of Usman. Behind the valley was the kingdom that was causing Mirzan so much trouble. As he approached, Raafi watched the naturally tall warriors of Badra lining up on the other side of the dusty plain separating them and Mirzan's army. In a formidable, armoured line, the Badran warriors jeered and loudly yelled curses at them. All around him, Raafi could hear an impenetrable din of noise. His head throbbed with pain from the relentless noise.

"Come to join me, brother?" muttered Adnan as he heard Raafi walking up behind him. His usual mischievous streak was masked by black fear. It bothered Raafi that his older brother was afraid. If Adnan was afraid, then what was stopping Raafi from being the same?

"Unfortunately, yes," Raafi replied. "Why can't they just give up?"

"Why can't we just show them mercy?" Adnan mumbled tiredly, so quietly that Raafi almost didn't hear him. Shocked, he asked for clarification, because surely Adnan could not be on his side over their father's?

"Mercy? Are you saying that you agree with me?"

Adnan fixed him with a strange look that made him feel very self conscious. After a moment's silence passed by, Adnan said, "Yes, Raafi, I agree with you. You are younger than me but you are so much wiser."