Introduction
There was a loud thundering as the invasion hit the city of Mai. Some parents rushed to save their children, while others fled, leaving their children to be trampled by the hooves of a hundred horses. One man grabbed his two daughters as he ran to a nearby tree, which was a burgeoning green contrary to the waning of life all around it. He spoke to them softly, but with lacking breath.
"Stay here. I'm just going to get your mother. Climb the tree and do not move," he told them kissing them both tenderly on their foreheads. His face was pale with a fear the girls had never before seen in their father. But, even though his super-hero image was shattered, a superhuman strength seemed to overtake him.
Swiftly, he ran across the dirt street before the invaders could see him. The girls climbed the tree and watched their father maneuver through the small city. Crying people rushed by him attempting to escape the flames but the boisterous red and orange dancers that were the flames did not scare them as did their murderers. They saw him sneak around corners and through burning buildings, once in a while pulling out small children and mothers, then he reached his home only to find a dreadful scene. The girls watched confused, scared, but, somehow, not crying. The invaders had found their fair mother and were ravaging her outside the family's home, the "Home Sweet Home" sign swinging back and forth in the wind right along with the dancer of flame upon it.
The two young girls could hear her screaming for her husband. He grabbed her from one of the bastards and ran. Her ashen hair matched the sky as smoke filtered through the thatched roofs of the city. Her green eyes stood out, even from a distance, for everything else was either gray with ash, red with blood, or white with fear. Their mother, who was beaten, scratched, and her clothes tattered, could hardly move. Their father headed back to them, but, as he reached the dirt street in front of the tree, he was stopped by a large band of the unwelcome barbarians. The two children heard the leader of the barbarians yell in a foreign tongue. Then they saw him reach to his side and, in one swift movement, sliced off their father's head with a large machete, unusual to his race. More red …and more meaningful than even their mother's vibrant eyes. The blood was that of an honest man. Several of the invaders dismounted their horses and grabbed the girls' mother, tied her up, and put her on the leader's horse.
Still the girls sat within the grand tree and did not cry, watching as the smoke rose above the city as if to swallow it. They watched as hoof after hoof trampled the dead and yet their father was unharmed… anymore than he'd already been. His body was untrampled and unimpaled. They watched the invaders ride off with their mother, just watched. Their minds were either elsewhere or they were too shocked, but either way, they descended from the tree, walked over to their father, picked up his head, and his body, and dragged it to their home. There they buried him in a deep grave below the floorboards.
There was a loud thundering as the invasion hit the city of Mai. Some parents rushed to save their children, while others fled, leaving their children to be trampled by the hooves of a hundred horses. One man grabbed his two daughters as he ran to a nearby tree, which was a burgeoning green contrary to the waning of life all around it. He spoke to them softly, but with lacking breath.
"Stay here. I'm just going to get your mother. Climb the tree and do not move," he told them kissing them both tenderly on their foreheads. His face was pale with a fear the girls had never before seen in their father. But, even though his super-hero image was shattered, a superhuman strength seemed to overtake him.
Swiftly, he ran across the dirt street before the invaders could see him. The girls climbed the tree and watched their father maneuver through the small city. Crying people rushed by him attempting to escape the flames but the boisterous red and orange dancers that were the flames did not scare them as did their murderers. They saw him sneak around corners and through burning buildings, once in a while pulling out small children and mothers, then he reached his home only to find a dreadful scene. The girls watched confused, scared, but, somehow, not crying. The invaders had found their fair mother and were ravaging her outside the family's home, the "Home Sweet Home" sign swinging back and forth in the wind right along with the dancer of flame upon it.
The two young girls could hear her screaming for her husband. He grabbed her from one of the bastards and ran. Her ashen hair matched the sky as smoke filtered through the thatched roofs of the city. Her green eyes stood out, even from a distance, for everything else was either gray with ash, red with blood, or white with fear. Their mother, who was beaten, scratched, and her clothes tattered, could hardly move. Their father headed back to them, but, as he reached the dirt street in front of the tree, he was stopped by a large band of the unwelcome barbarians. The two children heard the leader of the barbarians yell in a foreign tongue. Then they saw him reach to his side and, in one swift movement, sliced off their father's head with a large machete, unusual to his race. More red …and more meaningful than even their mother's vibrant eyes. The blood was that of an honest man. Several of the invaders dismounted their horses and grabbed the girls' mother, tied her up, and put her on the leader's horse.
Still the girls sat within the grand tree and did not cry, watching as the smoke rose above the city as if to swallow it. They watched as hoof after hoof trampled the dead and yet their father was unharmed… anymore than he'd already been. His body was untrampled and unimpaled. They watched the invaders ride off with their mother, just watched. Their minds were either elsewhere or they were too shocked, but either way, they descended from the tree, walked over to their father, picked up his head, and his body, and dragged it to their home. There they buried him in a deep grave below the floorboards.