Another Point of View
Disclaimer: I do not own the Bartimaeus Trilogy, but I do own Nero.
All right people the first thing I want to say is REVIEW. I'm not a person who's crazy for reviews but it pisses me off that I put this on and no one reads it. And for those who have seen this before, that's because I deleted that one and this is a revamped one. And now, here is a djinni's story.
Chapter One
A forest somewhere near the Dunbar River, 445 A.D
Nero
The four horses ran silently in the snow, leaving tracks fresh on the ground. On the horses were four Hunnish men, on a hunting trip. Two of the men were Bleda and Attila, stepbrothers, also co-kings of all the Hun tribes. They had bows, swords and other weapons all having some type of silver on it, mostly against the djinn. This annoyed me a lot as I was an insect hidden in my master's boot, Attila's boot where he had a dagger sheathed in.
I had been summoned to murder Bleda during this hunting trip. I was surprised that my master had me to do this and not some other more experienced spirit; I was only a few hundred years old and my first summons being with Caesar. After him, Attila was only my second master. Maybe he heard what I did for Caesar in Gaul; I masterminded the siege of Alesia. Now most spirit commanders are afrits; he had put a fourth level djinn to siege an important city and not some afrit. Now that's what I call trust. Not that he wasn't mean; I mean he was a dictator…
But enough of that, I'll tell you that later. Now the four horsemen came to a stop. The man called Bleda said, "This is the spot where the boar lives. Leave the horses here. Strike swift and with caution. We need to attack the Romans again and this is just for a feast, which we do not have time for,"
Attila was in the lead, with the two bodyguards behind him, and Bleda was in the rear. About ten minutes past when they saw the huge boar that had killed many strong and brave men (though not as brave as me). Attila pointed the two men to opposite sides. Then he murmured to me, "Get ready to act when we have killed the boar" I said nothing.
Bleda let off an arrow with a silver tip. It hit the boar right in the left eye. The beast stumbled a little and then turned to see its attacker. It charged at Bleda though he easily step sided it. One of the bodyguard let loose two arrows, both hitting the boar's backside. It let off a shriek and charged once again at Bleda. All four men released an arrow. One of the arrows hit the other eye and thus it went blind and went to tackle any one. It hit one of the bodyguards from behind. The man shouted a curse in Hunnish and ripped out his dagger though it knocked out from him as the boar hit him again. The beast knew that it had its prey.
Bleda had shot a few arrows into it but there really was nothing they could do. And when the boar was finished, it left a bloody mess. Suspicious, I peeked out and checked the seven planes. It was a boar on all planes. Well this was a tough boar. Then the boar collapsed from the pain and exhaustion.
The other two didn't make a move to get the boar.
"Why don't you get the boar?" My master asked.
Bleda laughed out loud. After a minute of mirth, he wiped a tear from his eye and said to Attila "My foolish brother, we didn't come here to get the boar we just wanted it to kill you. And now that it didn't we will! Men, attack!"
Out of the forest, four more men in leather came out armored and with long curved swords. Now the six traitors made their move to kill Attila. My master pulled out his sword and tried to make his own by slicing at them to keep them away. One of the men had enough of this advance and retreat. He let loose an arrow.
Before he shot that, I was still in Attila's boot thinking what to do, seeing I had some time. But now that the arrow came in, there was only one thing to do, protect Attila, for that was the secondary charge. I jumped out and turned into a similar Hun warrior and grabbed the arrow out of the air and threw it to the side, ignoring the cold feeling of the silver.
I tackled the nearest man to me taking him down. I threw him at the archer and they both impaled themselves in Attila's sword. Two down, four to go.
I let loose a Detonation at a bodyguard that had been there during the boar's attack. He disappeared in smoke leaving with an expression of surprise.
Everyone stopped and stood a little shocked. The ashes of the man blew into my face. Bleda caution asked, " You're a magician, brother?" He certainly looked shaken.
Attila smiled smugly. "You bet brother" Then he threw his sword at Bleda and it impaled his stomach coming out the other side. As blood flowed out and he was on his knees, Attila ran back to where the horses were. Seeing this, I left with him too. The two archers were furious at the murder of their leader and ran after us. After five minutes of solid running, we reached where the horses obediently waited. I rode a horse and Attila his. We took the other two horses since they were hard to come by. As we turned a corner, I saw the two men, still chasing us. I fired a Detonation and that last I saw of them, they were ashes.
We returned to the bivouac after twenty minutes of hard riding. The men and peasants were curious on where Bleda and the "other" bodyguard were (I took the form of the dead bodyguard killed by the boar). Like all magicians, Attila over exaggerated it purely from hunger for power. He retold how the boar killed the other man (apparently his "best" man), and how he took revenge by killing it with his bare hands, and then how Bleda ambushed him with my help (or in his story his dumb bodyguard) and then how he killed all of the rest of the turncoats with only a dagger (he didn't mention how I killed most even though he could have owned them all. Oh and he ditched his bow and arrows to make an effect on how he used all the arrows on the boar). After drinking wine and telling his "heroic" tale, the cavalry commander made a speech.
"You see, Bleda was hungry for power and to king us on his own. But if he were to succeed, we would have lost our legends on how we ravaged Constantinople and other great tales. So he was not fit to king. But Attila wants us to prosper and take over more land so we become just as powerful as the Romans. And what's better is that, he is the best swordsman here and that's what we also need. So I propose that Attila be our Supreme king, alone!" That raised cheers and within a few hours, he was given that title.
But right after the ceremony, a sheepherder came with a massive silver sword, the Sword of Mars!
"Dear Lord, I present you with the legendary sword I humbly found on my pasture as you have no sword and this fits you,"
Attila dismissed the sheepherder with disgust and tested the blade and sword. I flinched as he swung it near me, as bits of iron were molded in the blade and the handle had circles of silver. Then, King Arthur style, he pointed the sword high in the air and cheers sounded. It sounded like a medieval castle instead of a barbaric town.
Thus started the cruel reign of Attila the Hun and my long famous career.
So how do you like it? Bartimaeus by the way will appear occasionally and some of the summons of Nero with relate with Bartimaeus like in the Siege of Prague. REVIEW.
