As we drew the strings made of sinew back, all our bow’s limbs creaked from the strength of our pulls. Their sounds were a futile harmony, for no matter how many arrows of hope we showered the sky with, they never seemed to reach or phase our impenetrable targets.
Our enemy’s massive army began flanking our position. Lit only by their own fiery red torches, the soldiers appeared as demons pouring out endlessly from the depths of an evil darkness unknown to man. Their mass almost encompassed every inch of the field’s acres, swarming on us like Siafu ants converging on their prey.
We swiftly retreated down a small hill and gap between the legions of soldiers flanking us and reached an enormous, ancient wall of stone. On the other side, the Pine Forest and our escape. Only working together as links in a chain would we be able to scale it. Argus, sensing our need for time to climb it, turned and leapt towards the hordes approaching. His vicious bark and growls kept them at bay, all they could see was a glistening of their torches on his pitch black shiny fur as he streaked by them back and forth, dodging their spears and swords.
I laid flat on my stomach on the wall’s gritty top, my arm stretched until it’s bones almost separated, burning with pain, my hand quivering as I gripped the hand of the last young warrior, and slowly lowered her down the other side of the wall. I turned back towards the battlefield and whistled for my Argus to return but he was nowhere in sight. My heart sank with dread.
As I watched the main squad of soldiers come over the hill I spun my legs over the edge of the wall, holding my self up on it’s scraping top by my forearms. It was at that brief moment that I witnessed the blind blood-lust of our enemy. The main and flanking squads screaming, trampling over the earth’s innocent soil towards each other, failed to realize they were one and the same army. Just before I gripped the wall’s edge to drop to freedom, I caught a glimpse of our enemy destroying itself, drowning in it’s own blood.
We ran through the dark forest with only the moonlight guiding us. Trees flashed past us like sentries frozen in time. All we could hear was our heavy panting and the leaves rustling and sticks snapping below our swift pace. Argus darted along side of us and I clenched a choke of relief and happiness inside my gut. As we continued running in silence, my son, daughters, wife and I glanced at one another and felt each of our owns elation of being alive once again.
The dim light of a city ahead pushed us to continue farther. A path at the end of the forest led us to a cobblestone street, lined with oak trees, old fashion street lamps and three story brownstone houses decorated with small wrought iron fences and gates. All of their arched, elongated windows dark with the silence of a family’s peaceful sleep.
As we walked together, the smell of salt in the air permeated our senses and we smiled for the first time in a long while. When we reached the end of the street we could hear the sound of subtle waves splashing on the shore. We finally made it to the ocean as the sun began to rise from it’s horizon, and took our shoes off to feel the sand’s comfort on our bare skin.
