Day-1
“Hey max. You ready for the war?” I asked and boarded him. I rode him to the gathering point and Bella followed. I went to the front of the army and joined Eva. She patted Bella and boarded her. The swordsmen were already arranged. The horsemen were getting arranged. I saw ten spears in everyone’s hand. The weapon yard had done it. The ten artillery machines were being loaded. Drums blared from back of the army. Now the swordsmen were in position, the horsemen were in position, the giants were totally missing. I asked Eva
“Where are the giants?
“The giants always come at the last minute. They do not come here and arrange. They arrange back at the camp and march here. They’ll be here soon. Don’t worry. Nervous?”
“A lot.” Then I felt the earth shake. I thought it was an earthquake. Then I saw the giants, 1000 of them. They were arranged perfectly in a pack but they were not marching uniformly. They reached the back of the army and stood for a while like they were thinking of a way to get to the front. I thought they would push the whole army aside and reach the front. But instead they split into two packs and reached the front. I didn’t know the giants were this disciplined. Now the whole army was in position. The last slot of the last artillery was filled and the man saluted us indicating that the artillery was also ready. There was complete silence. The wind whistled in my ears. Why should there be such a silence before a serious task? I hated that silence. That silence was like the silence you would feel before you are going to start an exam. I lost my patience.
“What do we do now?” I whispered to Eva.
“Wait. There’s a little commanders’ talk. They’ll blow a horn and we should…” before she finished her sentence the horns blew. “, go now.” She finished. So I and Eva went to the centre of the field. From here I could see the opponent’s army. I saw two men standing there. They were also on their horse and were in full armor.
“They are William and Amelia.” Eva said. When we reached them William said
“Hey, Eva. You’re back, huh? Were you hiding like a coward these many days? Amelia is eagerly waiting to kill you.” Amelia gave Eva a crooked, evil smile.
“Let’s see who gets killed today.”
“And who is this little fella? Is he your brother? Please don’t tell me he’s here instead of that stupid Carlo.” Eva began to protest but I interrupted her and said
“I am here instead of Carlo.” William laughed.
“Look Amelia. This puny little boy has come here as a commander. That’s all you could offer, huh? Do you know what is happening here, little baby?” I thought of saying ‘Foggs’ happening’ but resisted it.
“I know your strategy.” I said plainly. The laughter drained away from his face.
“You know?”
“Yes I do” I said and turned towards our army. Eva followed.
“What is their strategy?”
“I don’t know.” I said casually.
“Then why did you tell him like that?”
“Now his concentration will be in thinking whether to change the strategy or not? He won’t concentrate in war.”
“Oh my God, Oliver you are so brilliant.”
Then we went and stood in front of our army. William was certainly collapsed. He gave the wrong command so that their swordsmen started running towards us. When they were in the range of our artillery I shouted
“Fuco di artigleira.” Arrows flew and the swordsmen went down. Then I shouted
“Cavalerie Criza.” The horsemen threw one of their spears. Now William had come to his senses. He commanded the giants to attack. Now our whole army charged. The giants took on our giants. The horsemen helped the swordsmen in breaking the wall. The artillery flew in like once in a five minutes. I fought with total anger. I wanted to kill them and defeat them. The king had insulted me. I wanted to take revenge on the king by defeating this army. Spears flew everywhere piercing each and every soldier on its way. Hammers clashed. Our giants were powerful. I ought with William and Eva fought with Amelia. Our swordsmen killed theirs. I saw a giant tearing a man into two pieces. Everything was going on smoothly. Almost half a day was over. It was noon and the sun was shining. I felt a little bit of victory on our side. But suddenly William yelled
“Recular. Recular.” On hearing that command their army backed off. I thought their army was retreating and asked
“That’s all you’ve got William.” But he didn’t answer and he went away. Eva came running towards me and said
“Oliver we need to defend the army.”
“But why? They are retreating, aren’t they?”
“No!” she yelled. “William said back off, not retreat. That means they are going to use some technique.” Then we raced towards the army. All were scattered here and there. We both yelled commands to make them a pack but they were in joy thinking that the enemy had retreated. With great difficulty we gathered them together. The giants were at the front.
“All of you, concentrate. We have not won yet. The enemy has not retreated. They are going to use some technique on us. This backing off is a part of it. I guess it would be arrows.” As soon I said it arrows flew in the sky. But they were shining at the front. I knew what they were.
“Protect the giants. They are fire arrows. All take cover.” I shouted. But that was too late. The arrows reached us before our army could take position. The fire arrows were deadly for the giants. I raised my shield. I was safe but Max was not. An arrow hit him in the leg and he fell. I jumped from him and I landed in front of him, trying to cover us both. But that was helpless. How could I cover a horse with my shield? Luckily no other arrows hit him. I turned and saw the army. The soldiers were trying hard to protect the giants. But that was hopeless. The giants died horribly. I saw how they died with my eyes. As soon as the arrow went into their muscles, they were burnt alive. Then slowly the rain of arrows stopped. But that did no good. Already our army was reduced to half. The thousands of giants were reduced to a hundreds. Many soldiers lay dead. Some were suffering in pain. Some were in a condition that they were neither able to live nor die. Then I heard their army coming towards us.
“Hey, Eva I think we should retreat now.” The sun was almost at the bottom of the sky. “Tell me Eva.”
“Oliver…” I heard Eva’s voice and turned to look at her. She was down and was not so lucky. An arrow had pierced her shoulder and the flame had not gone off. Bella was lying dead on her. I went over to her and said
“Hey hey hey. It’s alright. Everything’s fine. The infirmary can save. George will save you.” I freed her from Bella and made her stand. She took out the arrow from her shoulder. That scene was the most disgusting scene I’ve ever seen. She was ready to fight but I said
“Eva you take the injured back to the tents. I’ll hold the army until six.”
“But Oliver, you can’t fight with half an army. They’re too strong.”
“I can, Eva.” I said those two words and she went to help the injured. An injured giant came forward, took Max in his hands and he went away. Then I yelled at the top of my voice
“Armata cadpe linie” on hearing that the army responding so well.they fell in lines at once. Then I yelled “Obrana. Obrana.” They took the defense position. I took my shield and Sea Slicer from it. the soldiers locked shields. The horsemen took their spears and were ready to attack. The giants were the most furious ones. They were less in number but were more powerful as they were angry. Then I saw their army approaching us. William ran towards me yelling
“Told you knew our strategy, Oliver. Now you run like a coward?” then his sword clashed my shield and was deflected. Now I said
“I did not run, William. I am defending my army. Now come on. Let’s fight on ground.” He jumped from his horse and landed on the ground. This was what I wanted. I charged at him. He attacked and I deflected. I did the same until he became tired. When I got the gap my sword went straight through his right thigh and fell to the ground. I turned the sword and said
“That is my gift.” He yelled in pain. I kicked him in the chest and raised my sword to rip his head off. When my sword was inches away from his neck he deflected it and the horns blew. The war for the day was over. Both the armies began to retreat. William laid down motionless.
“I’ll kill you tomorrow,” I said and went back to the tents. The infirmary was full. No, no the correct word to describe the infirmary on that occasion was it was overflowing. I didn’t have to go there as I didn’t have any major cuts. Suddenly a soldier came over to me and said
“The king wants to see you, sir.” That was the first problem that I faced after returning from the war. I went to the king’s tent. He was walking here and there murmuring something to himself. He was at the peak of his anger. I could sense that. He was wearing the same purple tunics that he was wearing in the morning.
“My lord.” I said
“Oh, come in my dear commander. How did the day go?”
“um…it went well, my lord.”
“It went well! Then where is the one third of my army? Answer me commander.”
“My lord, actually the strategy went well but the fire…”
“I DO NOT WANT ANY EXPLANATION. You have killed my men. Only you. You are responsible for what you’ve done. Now go away. I don’t want to see you.” With great anger and frustration I went to my tent and lied down. After sometime Eva came in.
“Hey, you alright?”
“Yeah, I think so. George healed my cut but it still hurts. I’ll be alright tomorrow. Okay, what did the king say?”
“um…he said that the strategy did not work and I was alone responsible for all the deaths that happened today and he scolded me.”
“It’s okay. Somehow you were able to hold the army until six. That has happened after a very long time.” She said. Suddenly her eyes went down. She asked
“Hey, what’s that?”
“What’s what?” I didn’t know what she was talking about.
“That thing under your cot, it looks like some sort of hilt.” Then I remembered.
“That’s nothing, Eva. That’s nothing.”
“Get up, Oliver. It is a sword, isn’t it?” I had no other choice other than to get up.
“Please, Eva you too don’t be mad at me.” She lifted my cot and took Carlo’s sword out.
“What is this?” she asked.
“It’s definitely a sword.” I blabbered.
“I know it. Whose sword is it?” she was becoming angry. So I decided to confess the truth.
“Please don’t be mad Eva.”
“I’m already mad. Why didn’t you use this, oliver?”
“Because it did not fit me, Eva. I may have Carlo’s qualities. But for that one goddamn reason why should his sword fit me? Sea Slicer fitted me well. If I had used this sword, I would not have been here. William would have killed me already. Do you want me to die? You said you would not let anything happen to me. You promised, Eva. You promised. But if I use this sword, everything bad will happen to me. Please understand.” I said with the most pleading expression. She seemed to be convinced but I was not sure because reading a girl’s expression was a thing I have never done before.
“Okay. Let’s go have dinner.”
“Are you not angry at me?”
“No. I’m not.”
“Will everyone be angry at me?”
“No, Oliver. Soldiers die every day and your strategy definitely worked. Those flaming arrows were not your fault. Now cheer up and come. I’m hungry.” When she said the word hungry, my stomach rumbled. I came to know how hungry I was. It was like all the anger in me had turned into hunger. Then we went to the dining tent, had some food (I ate a lot) and came back to the tent.
“Hey Eva, will we get the giant recruits tomorrow? Will there be again a thousand giants.”
“Yes, Oliver there will be a thousand giants tomorrow.”
“So we apply the same strategy tomorrow?”
“Okay. But the only flaw is we need some defensive plans. Offensive is okay, but our defense was not so good. We lost many of our soldiers because we didn’t have a defense plan. So think about it. But now go to sleep. You’ll need it because you would not have done anything like this in your century. So your body…” That’s all I heard because I was asleep before she could finish. I just heard walking to the nearby cot and crash down. Then I went to full deep sleep with a dream, but not a full dream. It was like many scenes were grouped together but not in an order. I knew where I was. I was in a war field but I did not understand what was happening. Both our soldiers and theirs were fighting furiously. Our giants were stampeding everyone. Suddenly a huge ball of light rose up. It was like the sun was falling towards the earth. I was blinded. After that there was fire everywhere. Thick and black smoke was coming from our side. Something was definitely burning. I heard William say ‘You lost, Oliver.’ Then I was chasing William. He led me straight into the forest and then disappeared. Suddenly someone came running in my direction. That someone was being chased by a ten soldiers. That was Eva. The soldiers were chasing her. She did not have any weapon in her hands and her armor was torn off. She came straight at me and crashed. We stood shoulder to shoulder. I quickly gave the cavalry sword to her and took out sea slicer. We were surrounded by ten soldiers and were ready to fight until death. Suddenly I couldn’t move my legs. I looked down. We were standing on quicksand and it was pulling us in. it was trap. The soldiers were not going to attack. They were standing there and were laughing at us. I tried to get out from it but in vain. Finally my head went in and I got up gasping for breath. Eva calmed me down. I was back in the real world. The sun was raising and the sky was orange in color.
“What happened, Oliver?”
“Nothing. Bad dream. I was drowning, in the quicksand.”
“Okay, now relax and get ready”
