“Help!”
Everyone remained fixed where they stood staring at the boy as if he was some strange creature that had dropped into their camp.
Damien ran towards the boy, holding him lightly on his shoulder as the boy continued breathing hard.
“What’s wrong?”
He only responded with the same word.
“Help!” Then he pointed outside the camp.
From the look on the boy’s face, whatever he had seen must have rendered him speechless.
Only sparing the rest a glance, Damien entwined his hand with the boy following him towards the direction he had pointed.
The boy looked back probably expecting more people to join them but no one did.
He folded his hand perfectly with Damien’s.
“Where are you going, leaving me all alone.”
Damien smirked.
She actually followed him.
Out of all the soldiers out there, she was the only one brave enough to follow him.
“Are you sure you want to go with me?” He asked.
She had fallen into step beside the little boy.
The boy stared at her with moist tears but no words.
Audrey sighed.
“I would rather know what’s happening to you than being pronounced a widow during the first month of my marriage.”
Damien almost smiled.
If that was the excuse she intended to give, he didn’t mind at all.
As long as she was by his side.
The further the walk away from the camp, he saw Audrey stared back.
But the camp only grew far from them.
There was no going back.
After walking a few more distance, the boy started pointing towards a distance.
“There.” Apart from the word, ‘help’ this was the only word he had uttered again.
Damien looked towards here he pointed.
Smoke filled the air as if something was burning, he looked at the boy, the tears were now flowing from his eyes.
He didn’t need to utter a word before Damien started running towards the direction the smoke was coming from.
Audrey ran after then, the last thing she wanted was to be left behind and become prey to some strange animals.
The closer they get, the more it became difficult to see anything beyond the smoke ahead of them.
Still holding the boy’s hand, Damien paused at the center of a small village.
Injured men support each other, while some lay dead on the floor.
The whole scene was unbelievable to Damien.
He knew things were bad, but he had no idea it was this bad.
The boy’s tears were flowing now, he dragged Damien past the villagers who were lost in their mourning to pay attention to the strangers in their village.
Then he stopped in front of a hut that looked detached as if it hadn’t been cared for, for long.
An elderly man lay on the floor – dead. New chapters come out on g.com first.
The boy ran to the man on his knee, shaking him aggressively.
“Papa.” Then tears.
Out of shock, Audrey couldn’t utter a word.
She knew the commoners were in no League with the nobles, but this was the first time she was seeing their suffering first handed.
She had always been sheltered by her father.
After shaking the man and seeing no reaction from him, he turned towards Damien.
“Please, save Papa. Save Papa.”
His scream was drown by the wailing and mourning in the village.
“What the heck happened here?” Damien twisted his hand in his dark long hair.
“Why haven’t I heard things like this is happening in the villages?”
Audrey folded her hand on her chest too speechless to say a word.
“Who are you?” A voice asked behind them.
They turned.
An old man with a sickle in hand pointed it at them.
His knees buckled, but he held it firmly with the other hand.
“Are you here to finish what your partners started?”
“Partners?”
“Don’t pretend as if you have no idea what I am talking about? Aren’t you the ones who sneaked up on us when we were sleeping and started burning up our houses?”
Damien hold his hand in a fist.
“Was that what happened here? You guys were ambushed.”
The man frown, trying to move forward with he sickle in his hand, but only ended up flat on the floor with his face kissing the ground.
Damien meant to rush towards him.
He wanted to help him up, but before he could take a step, Audrey was beside him.
She placed her hand right at the back of his waist, while pulling him up slowly.
The man tried pushing her away, but she held hers against him.
When the man was back up, the little boy ran in front of him to stop him from making another move.
“Sir, they are soldiers who came to help.” Though his words were muffled with tears, Damien heard every single word.
He was paying more attention here than he had ever done in his life.
The old man paused, his gaze moved to Audrey who had kept a bit of distance from him after helping him up to Damien who held nothing but his sword.
“Are you sure, Koko?” The old man asked.
The boy nodded.
“When the attack started, my father threw me out of the house, so I ran through the bushes.” He heaved, his eyes sliding towards the older man lying dead on the floor.
“Though I had no idea where to go, but I kept running away from the masked men I saw. I had ran a distance from here before I saw the Calvary and soldiers. At first, I hesitated going to them, but when I saw our country flag, I ran in to ask for help.”
The old man crumbled on the floor, making the sickle hit the ground with a low thud.
He bowed his head.
“I’m sorry. I had no idea you came to help, but I still attacked you.”
“No. I’m the one who’s sorry. We failed to protect you commoners. We have no idea something this vicious was happening right here.”
After the whole apology, Damien was led to the chief’s hut with Koko right by his side.
Some of the surviving villagers were with them while others went to pick up the dead.
They offered them a drink, but Damien refused.
He was more interested in how everything had happened.
“We aren’t the first village attacked in this manner.” The chief started.
He seemed to be the head of the village.
“We have been hearing of attacks like this in smaller villages and have sent help to our leader to help inform the Duke and probably the king what was happening, but every letter was met with silence.”
Damien breathed in.
“Are you sure you the letters were sent? There’s no way the king would no about what’s happening to his people and not react.”
“Tsw…” a woman hissed.
Damien turned to her.
“Do you not like the king?”
“What king?” She yelped.
“Is it the one that had no interest in the commoners? With everything happening, he was more interested in getting his sons married. The live of the commoner meant nothing to him.”
Annoyed, Audrey shot up, “Do you know…”
Damien pulled her down, making her stop in the middle of her sentence.
“It’s okay.” He told her, before turning to the woman.
“But do you know the marriage of the Prince is also to aid the commoners.”
This time before she could respond, the chief did.
“I don’t think so. The only ones who benefit from anything in this village is the nobles.”
The topic seemed to be a sensitive one for them as almost everyone hummed in agreement.
“I know you won’t understand much. You’re just a soldier who came to serve his country, I wouldn’t blame you for anything.”
Damien stood up and bowed to everyone.
“I’m sorry for the injustice this village had gone through. Though we were late to save you from the attack, I promise to do all I can to help before going back to camp.”
Everyone clapped their hands for him.
“Me too” Audrey asked when she saw their eyes lingered on her.
Just then a young man came into their midst.
“Chief, we were able to identify everyone who’s dead?”
The chief nodded, holding his knee to support himself up.
“Thanks. I think what we need do now is pay our last respect to the dead. Everyone here has lost someone dear to him or her this morning, and we all stand here as one body, willing to shoulder the lost together.”
Damien nodded.
Though he might not have lost anyone, but it felt like he had lost the most here.
Every one here is a citizen of the country he was born to protect, so to him, the lost felt personal than he let on.
This was a battle he was willing to fight.
It wasn’t until he felt Audrey hand on his before he remembered that, he wasn’t alone anymore.
Now, he had someone he hope would be willing to fight the battles with him.