Amelia's Serpent

Chapter 6. The March of War

Later that day I was prepared for battle. Sam had a handsome pointed helmet and plated armor and my dads rusty old armor was cleaned and given red sashes so the others would easily
Spot me.

I didn't see much point in the red sashes though, our target was a flying snake on fire. Its hard to miss.

I had the bow and leather quiver with the arrows Darla had given me and my old mace strapped to my side.

We lined up to the general, leading our horses behind us ready for our instructions.

The general had a harsh and sturdy voice, and introduced himself as General Orwin,
"News has reached that the Beast has wondered closer to our neighboring kingdom Caprideia.
As you may know they are our main import of fish and gold. It is in our best interest that we protect them and any other Kingdom from this Monster."
I was looking around and realized Darla was suited up and ready to fight. Then quickly noticed The General had turned to me and seemed to be rather annoyed.
"Do you understand?"

I said the truth along with everyone else,
"Yes Sir."

General Orwin finally broke his stare and walked to his pure white steed.

"Mount your horses and follow my lead."

I mounted Sam and fell to the back of the puny little army our small kingdom conjured up and found myself with Darla, even though I didn't exactly want to talk.

We were traveling for a while when she broke the silence,
"So, how's everything?
... You know,
At home and stuff."

I simply replied with, "If you want to pry into how I'm coping you can just say it bluntly."

"No no no that's not what I-"

I gave her the glare of the century.

"Okay that's what I meant." She said, kind of embarrassed.

"Fine, I guess. I don't know."

"...

Do you miss him?" She replied

"I don't know"

I was staring at Sam's mountain colored coat now.

"Why?"

I gritted my teeth for a while when it all just came out.

"He never paid attention."

...

"Before he entered the war, Before he got caught up in all this shit,
He was a great dad. He taught me so much,
I don't know what happened, he just ... changed.
Something got to him, every time I saw him all he'd talk about was money and tax, money and tax, money and tax.
I just wanted him to be proud but it seemed as impossible as winning this war.
It felt like he turned into a monster."

Darla was thinking for a while and stared me straight in the eyes,
"Sometimes people make bad choices.
Your dad was scared. No one can blame him for that."

"I know." I replied

"But the part that gets me the most, The part I cry about, is that he was taken away from me before I could show him how much I loved him. That I-
I just wanted to fix everything and say that we could be starving on a street corner and I'd be fine as long as he would tell me how much he loved me. And that I could tell him I love him too.
That as long as he accepted me I wouldn't care."

Darla just stared at me and mumbled a small "I'm sorry." when everyone came to a halt and General Orwin started shouting,
"This is where the beast was last seen.
Keep your eyes pealed soldiers.
He's here somewhere."

Suddenly the serpent flew into the air,
Leaving a trail of fire that turned into smoke.

All the soldiers just stared as it came down and lit the ground ablaze.

Horses where throwing riders off, arrows were fired in no particular direction and I only managed to let one arrow loose when I suddenly realized why we needed the red sashes,

To find the people who died.

Some were on fire, others were crushed by stray horses, and some fainted from the smoke. So I took Sam away from the fires and found myself separated from the group.
I weaved my way in the trees a while and found myself watching the horror with front row seats.
It seemed the Serpent wasn't even trying.

General Orwin had made it past the fires and was shooting at the Beast, then I realized I wasn't here to hide. So I took some iron arrows and started firing too. I wanted to save the diamonds for when I had a good shot.
Aropeia's main export is diamonds but they're still hard to come by.

When the beast disappeared further into the woods and farther away from civilization we took some of the dead soldiers and fell back to camp.

I was happy to find out that Darla had gotten out alive as well as many others,
but I still felt bad thinking of all the families that lost a brave soul that day.