Fight and Flight
"Tonight we will take back our North from the supposed god, Raekana-ka-lik. I shall reclaim the throne and that abomination shall disgrace the village no more." Taleko told his supporters.
The Decisions Hut and other royal huts were about thirty minutes away to discourage constant visitors; it worked almost too well because the king and his advisors were often unaware of what was occurring in the village for days at a time.
Taleko and his men comprised mostly of the village army and friends of Taleko. They were waiting just outside the royal grounds and would attack at midnight. Taleko was signaling his men to move, when he heard someone running in their direction.
"Taleko, its horrible, we need your help, the village has been attacked by the South village warriors. They are burning down huts and killing everybody in sight, we are badly outnumbered!" An army member who stayed behind reported.
"Damn it, men we must make haste. Back to the village we shall deal with the impostor later."
Thirty something minutes later when Taleko and his men finally made it to the village, all of it was up in flames and there were hardly any North village men alive. Taleko and his men attacked with ferocity and the South village men battled back even harder. Taleko's men had the advantage of being fresh, but they were badly outnumbered. Still his men battled through though early morning while their numbers slowly dwindled. Neither side quit even though more and more bodies continued to blanket the sand. By sunrise only Taleko and ten of his men were standing for the Northern forces and twenty or thirty for the Southerners.
Finally after hours of unending battle the South army leader ordered a retreat even though Taleko's men had not been wiped out. Taleko and his men rested for a half hour before Taleko ordered them to search for any survivors. The men searched each hut looking for people who might have survived the vicious attack by the South village army. Several minutes later they all returned to report.
"Only four women and eleven children have been found. Everyone else has died in the fire or by the hand of the Southerners. There are no more men alive, they have all...perished." One soldier reported.
At that same time Ra had just woken up and was oblivious to all that had happened in the village.
"Ugh, I slept way too long."
Ra stretched before he splashed some water on his face and ate some fruit to freshen his breath and then finally headed to the Decisions Hut.
"Why is the hut empty, where are my advisors? I doubt that they overslept, but I should still check their huts."
He checked both of their huts and found each of them to be empty.
"Did they go to the village to pray? Usually they tell me before they do so, however maybe they didn't want to disturb my sleep. Without them here I have nothing to do so I may as well head into the village."
As Ra was approaching the last half mile he could see the ruined village up ahead, even from that far the dead bodies and charred huts were strikingly evident.
"What the hell? When were we attacked and why wasn't I alerted?"
Ra ran back to his hut and retrieved a key from its hiding place. He used the key to open up a trunk in the corner of the hut. He took a sword from the trunk and locked it again and then sped off toward the village. Meanwhile in the village Taleko's men were surrounding the advisors; who they had snatched a while before Ra had awoken. The advisors were on their knees and Taleko stood in front of them, with a haughty smile spread across his face.
"Do you traitors have any words to say before I kill you?"
"Traitors? You betrayed the entire village, where was your army when we were attacked? You could have stopped this, now look at what is left of North. King Raekana-ka-lik is our true king why wouldn't you support him instead of letting your petty feelings of jealousy get in the way. Your jealousy has cost many people their lives and has stolen our homes from us. Stop your foolishness before anymore damage is done," the older advisor, Aran pleaded.
Taleko kicked his jaw, which knocked him over and caused his lip to bleed.
"You will not speak to your king that way you fool!"
"I am not afraid of you. Men with the ruthlessness and cowardliness you possess are destroyed by their actions and those that they've wronged. Oh yes, I am sure of it your end shall come soon because men like you do not live long."
"And neither will you, old man!"
Suddenly Taleko was handed pike and he thrust it through Aran's neck.
"What about you? Surely you are smarter than that fool was and will beg for your king's forgiveness."
"It should be you on your knees begging to the gods to forgive you right now, I need not to beg for anything. I know no that no matter what I might say you will still kill me."
"You're right."
Taleko was preparing to kill Kakut, but was interrupted by one of his men.
"Sir he is here!"
There was Ra with his sword and glaring fiercely at Taleko.
"Ah so our mighty 'king' is finally shows his cowardly self. What took you so long sleepy-head? Do you see what you have allowed to happen? Thanks to you the village has been wiped out completely. Men attack him!"
Ra would have been at a disadvantage, but he had a superior weapon and they were not attacking a group. Someone jumped forward and Ra rolled away, quickly got back to his feet and then plunged his sword into the lower back of his attacker. He pulled the sword out quickly and saw who was coming next. Two soldiers came at him from opposite sides, he shoved one of them back and kicked the other. Before the lackey could defend himself Ra slashed his belly and kicked him to the ground. As soon as the man had fallen the latter half of the "duo" returned to attack.
The soldier swung his pike like a club, but Ra easily blocked the attack. The soldier pushed Ra backward and then followed up with a punch to Ra's chest plate. The blow was not too strong and Ra continued fighting. Ra held his sword with both hands and swung furiously hitting the soldier's side. Although the move did prove to be painful the desired effect was not reached so Ra swung again. This time the sword cut through the skin and the soldier could not take any more pain and passed out.
Three more soldiers approached him ready to fight and each one carried a pike. The formed a large triangle around him and did nothing. Ra stood motionless waiting for them to strike first. One of them nodded and they were about to attack in unison. They charged toward him, with their pikes outstretched and as they drew closer Ra was counting to himself. At the last second he dove out of their way and luckily remained unharmed. He had escaped so close before they were near that two of them had stabbed each other and crumpled to the ground. The remaining attacker rushed at Ra as he had done before. Just as the soldier was immediately in front of him, Ra sidestepped and snatched the pike in the same motion. Ra ran after him and swung at his head and the soldier dropped instantly.
"Damn, you are all useless! I'll deal with this fake myself."
Taleko dropped his pike and motioned for Ra to do the same with his weapons.
"Why should I do what you want?"
"Because if you do not the survivors of the invasion will be tortured so mercilessly they will wish that either the fire or the Southerners had killed them. Besides it is fair this way."
"What do you know about being fair?"
Taleko grinned devilishly, knowing that Ra would obey him. Ra dropped the pike where he stood and tossed his sword away from Taleko and the few soldiers still standing. Taleko dropped his weapon as well and they both advanced until they were only an arm's length apart. Ra initiated the battle with a right cross to Taleko jaw. He didn't budge, rather he countered with a jumping kick to Ra's gut. Ra fell backward and Taleko sprang forward to assault Ra while he was defenseless. He stomped on Ra's face a few times before caught his foot and pushed him away.
Ra got to his feet quickly and he and Taleko began trading punches. Taleko interrupted the rhythm when he paused slightly because of the brutal aching of his knuckles. The next thing he knew something green hit him in the face hard and then something green hit him worse than before. However he quickly returned to his senses and kneed Ra in the gut. Ra winced a bit, but he was determined to battle on. He leapt at Taleko and landed two strong kicks to his chest.
"Damn enough of this, the games end now," Taleko said while clutching his chest.
Taleko darted back to where he had left his pike and picked it up.
"I do not know why I expected that you would fight fair."
"The end justifies the means, what does it matter if I kill you with or without a weapon?"
Ra just shook his head in disgust, unable to respond to Taleko's cowardice. Taleko rushed forward to strike, but his attack was thwarted, Ra blocked his clubbing assault with his forearms. He flipped backward to avoid getting hit again, but Taleko ran to him and slashed upward, gashing his left shoulder.
"Shit!"
Ra felt the pain shooting through his shoulder, but knew if he stopped fighting for even a little bit he'd be hurting much worse than he was now. Before Taleko could react Ra retaliated with a great uppercut to make Taleko fall. Ra ran to where he had thrown the sword and picked it up and saw that Taleko was already standing. They walked slowly until the distance between them was miniscule. Both began blocking the other's weapon attacks, neither was able to gain the upper hand. Taleko swung his pike so forcefully that he knocked Ra off of his feet. He was only off of his feet for a moment or two, but in that time he grabbed a clump of sand and then stood.
Before Taleko could do anything Ra threw sand into his eyes and blinded him. Ra swung his sword as hard as possible and his blade found Taleko's neck, slicing through the vulnerable skin in that area. Taleko clasped his hand around his neck and took two wobbly steps before collapsing.
"Are you all going to fight me as well?"
"Taleko is gone there is no need." One of the soldiers answered.
"Explain."
"There were not many of us that opposed your rule. Most of us were fighting because we were ordered to fight or die, we never thought that... all of this would happen. We considered attacking Taleko but he is extremely skilled compared to us."
"Because you wanted to save your own lives the lives of many were lost, you can't be afraid to fight for what you support."
He turned and walked toward the trail to the royal grounds. When he made it to his hut he tied up his shoulder to prevent anymore blood leakage.
"I think that it is time that I leave... there is nothing on this island that is truly important to me."
Ra went over to where the chest was and retrieved some sais from it. He tucked two of them into the sides of his belt and the third into the back.
"I guess this is everything." Ra headed back to the beach and then followed the trail that led into the forest; the fishing canoes were hidden somewhere around there. Not far from where he was standing he saw something sticking out of the bushes. Sure enough when he raced over and pulled the object out it was indeed a canoe. He dragged it over to the beach and then fell to the ground. Kakut, who was nearby raced over and sat him upright.
"Are you all right my lord?
"I'm still exhausted from my battle, it nothing to lose sleep about."
"If you say you are fine then I believe you. May I ask what you are planning to do with that canoe?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm leaving the island and starting my life over someplace that I can be seen as normal."
"But we need you to lead us sire."
"No you don't the village was decimated under my rule, North will be in far more capable hands if you rule. You would know what the village needs and you would be enthusiastic about your role, I lacked enthusiasm and knowledge while I reigned, these survivors need you. However one bit of advice I know I can give is that, you should move the village west and hopefully the Southerners will think everyone has been killed and you all won't have to live in fear of future attacks."
Kakut wanted to say something, but he could not find the right words so he walked away. At the same time Ra got to his feet and grabbed a pike from the beach and placed it into the canoe and did the same with his remaining weapons. He went back into the forest and grabbed an armful of large rocks and returned to the beach and put them on top of the weapons.
"This should be enough to weigh them down."
Ra began pushing the canoe toward the ocean until he was knee deep in water. He hopped into the canoe and began rowing west. He wasn't sure where he was headed, but he didn't care either, right now he just wanted to be gone.
"Tonight we will take back our North from the supposed god, Raekana-ka-lik. I shall reclaim the throne and that abomination shall disgrace the village no more." Taleko told his supporters.
The Decisions Hut and other royal huts were about thirty minutes away to discourage constant visitors; it worked almost too well because the king and his advisors were often unaware of what was occurring in the village for days at a time.
Taleko and his men comprised mostly of the village army and friends of Taleko. They were waiting just outside the royal grounds and would attack at midnight. Taleko was signaling his men to move, when he heard someone running in their direction.
"Taleko, its horrible, we need your help, the village has been attacked by the South village warriors. They are burning down huts and killing everybody in sight, we are badly outnumbered!" An army member who stayed behind reported.
"Damn it, men we must make haste. Back to the village we shall deal with the impostor later."
Thirty something minutes later when Taleko and his men finally made it to the village, all of it was up in flames and there were hardly any North village men alive. Taleko and his men attacked with ferocity and the South village men battled back even harder. Taleko's men had the advantage of being fresh, but they were badly outnumbered. Still his men battled through though early morning while their numbers slowly dwindled. Neither side quit even though more and more bodies continued to blanket the sand. By sunrise only Taleko and ten of his men were standing for the Northern forces and twenty or thirty for the Southerners.
Finally after hours of unending battle the South army leader ordered a retreat even though Taleko's men had not been wiped out. Taleko and his men rested for a half hour before Taleko ordered them to search for any survivors. The men searched each hut looking for people who might have survived the vicious attack by the South village army. Several minutes later they all returned to report.
"Only four women and eleven children have been found. Everyone else has died in the fire or by the hand of the Southerners. There are no more men alive, they have all...perished." One soldier reported.
At that same time Ra had just woken up and was oblivious to all that had happened in the village.
"Ugh, I slept way too long."
Ra stretched before he splashed some water on his face and ate some fruit to freshen his breath and then finally headed to the Decisions Hut.
"Why is the hut empty, where are my advisors? I doubt that they overslept, but I should still check their huts."
He checked both of their huts and found each of them to be empty.
"Did they go to the village to pray? Usually they tell me before they do so, however maybe they didn't want to disturb my sleep. Without them here I have nothing to do so I may as well head into the village."
As Ra was approaching the last half mile he could see the ruined village up ahead, even from that far the dead bodies and charred huts were strikingly evident.
"What the hell? When were we attacked and why wasn't I alerted?"
Ra ran back to his hut and retrieved a key from its hiding place. He used the key to open up a trunk in the corner of the hut. He took a sword from the trunk and locked it again and then sped off toward the village. Meanwhile in the village Taleko's men were surrounding the advisors; who they had snatched a while before Ra had awoken. The advisors were on their knees and Taleko stood in front of them, with a haughty smile spread across his face.
"Do you traitors have any words to say before I kill you?"
"Traitors? You betrayed the entire village, where was your army when we were attacked? You could have stopped this, now look at what is left of North. King Raekana-ka-lik is our true king why wouldn't you support him instead of letting your petty feelings of jealousy get in the way. Your jealousy has cost many people their lives and has stolen our homes from us. Stop your foolishness before anymore damage is done," the older advisor, Aran pleaded.
Taleko kicked his jaw, which knocked him over and caused his lip to bleed.
"You will not speak to your king that way you fool!"
"I am not afraid of you. Men with the ruthlessness and cowardliness you possess are destroyed by their actions and those that they've wronged. Oh yes, I am sure of it your end shall come soon because men like you do not live long."
"And neither will you, old man!"
Suddenly Taleko was handed pike and he thrust it through Aran's neck.
"What about you? Surely you are smarter than that fool was and will beg for your king's forgiveness."
"It should be you on your knees begging to the gods to forgive you right now, I need not to beg for anything. I know no that no matter what I might say you will still kill me."
"You're right."
Taleko was preparing to kill Kakut, but was interrupted by one of his men.
"Sir he is here!"
There was Ra with his sword and glaring fiercely at Taleko.
"Ah so our mighty 'king' is finally shows his cowardly self. What took you so long sleepy-head? Do you see what you have allowed to happen? Thanks to you the village has been wiped out completely. Men attack him!"
Ra would have been at a disadvantage, but he had a superior weapon and they were not attacking a group. Someone jumped forward and Ra rolled away, quickly got back to his feet and then plunged his sword into the lower back of his attacker. He pulled the sword out quickly and saw who was coming next. Two soldiers came at him from opposite sides, he shoved one of them back and kicked the other. Before the lackey could defend himself Ra slashed his belly and kicked him to the ground. As soon as the man had fallen the latter half of the "duo" returned to attack.
The soldier swung his pike like a club, but Ra easily blocked the attack. The soldier pushed Ra backward and then followed up with a punch to Ra's chest plate. The blow was not too strong and Ra continued fighting. Ra held his sword with both hands and swung furiously hitting the soldier's side. Although the move did prove to be painful the desired effect was not reached so Ra swung again. This time the sword cut through the skin and the soldier could not take any more pain and passed out.
Three more soldiers approached him ready to fight and each one carried a pike. The formed a large triangle around him and did nothing. Ra stood motionless waiting for them to strike first. One of them nodded and they were about to attack in unison. They charged toward him, with their pikes outstretched and as they drew closer Ra was counting to himself. At the last second he dove out of their way and luckily remained unharmed. He had escaped so close before they were near that two of them had stabbed each other and crumpled to the ground. The remaining attacker rushed at Ra as he had done before. Just as the soldier was immediately in front of him, Ra sidestepped and snatched the pike in the same motion. Ra ran after him and swung at his head and the soldier dropped instantly.
"Damn, you are all useless! I'll deal with this fake myself."
Taleko dropped his pike and motioned for Ra to do the same with his weapons.
"Why should I do what you want?"
"Because if you do not the survivors of the invasion will be tortured so mercilessly they will wish that either the fire or the Southerners had killed them. Besides it is fair this way."
"What do you know about being fair?"
Taleko grinned devilishly, knowing that Ra would obey him. Ra dropped the pike where he stood and tossed his sword away from Taleko and the few soldiers still standing. Taleko dropped his weapon as well and they both advanced until they were only an arm's length apart. Ra initiated the battle with a right cross to Taleko jaw. He didn't budge, rather he countered with a jumping kick to Ra's gut. Ra fell backward and Taleko sprang forward to assault Ra while he was defenseless. He stomped on Ra's face a few times before caught his foot and pushed him away.
Ra got to his feet quickly and he and Taleko began trading punches. Taleko interrupted the rhythm when he paused slightly because of the brutal aching of his knuckles. The next thing he knew something green hit him in the face hard and then something green hit him worse than before. However he quickly returned to his senses and kneed Ra in the gut. Ra winced a bit, but he was determined to battle on. He leapt at Taleko and landed two strong kicks to his chest.
"Damn enough of this, the games end now," Taleko said while clutching his chest.
Taleko darted back to where he had left his pike and picked it up.
"I do not know why I expected that you would fight fair."
"The end justifies the means, what does it matter if I kill you with or without a weapon?"
Ra just shook his head in disgust, unable to respond to Taleko's cowardice. Taleko rushed forward to strike, but his attack was thwarted, Ra blocked his clubbing assault with his forearms. He flipped backward to avoid getting hit again, but Taleko ran to him and slashed upward, gashing his left shoulder.
"Shit!"
Ra felt the pain shooting through his shoulder, but knew if he stopped fighting for even a little bit he'd be hurting much worse than he was now. Before Taleko could react Ra retaliated with a great uppercut to make Taleko fall. Ra ran to where he had thrown the sword and picked it up and saw that Taleko was already standing. They walked slowly until the distance between them was miniscule. Both began blocking the other's weapon attacks, neither was able to gain the upper hand. Taleko swung his pike so forcefully that he knocked Ra off of his feet. He was only off of his feet for a moment or two, but in that time he grabbed a clump of sand and then stood.
Before Taleko could do anything Ra threw sand into his eyes and blinded him. Ra swung his sword as hard as possible and his blade found Taleko's neck, slicing through the vulnerable skin in that area. Taleko clasped his hand around his neck and took two wobbly steps before collapsing.
"Are you all going to fight me as well?"
"Taleko is gone there is no need." One of the soldiers answered.
"Explain."
"There were not many of us that opposed your rule. Most of us were fighting because we were ordered to fight or die, we never thought that... all of this would happen. We considered attacking Taleko but he is extremely skilled compared to us."
"Because you wanted to save your own lives the lives of many were lost, you can't be afraid to fight for what you support."
He turned and walked toward the trail to the royal grounds. When he made it to his hut he tied up his shoulder to prevent anymore blood leakage.
"I think that it is time that I leave... there is nothing on this island that is truly important to me."
Ra went over to where the chest was and retrieved some sais from it. He tucked two of them into the sides of his belt and the third into the back.
"I guess this is everything." Ra headed back to the beach and then followed the trail that led into the forest; the fishing canoes were hidden somewhere around there. Not far from where he was standing he saw something sticking out of the bushes. Sure enough when he raced over and pulled the object out it was indeed a canoe. He dragged it over to the beach and then fell to the ground. Kakut, who was nearby raced over and sat him upright.
"Are you all right my lord?
"I'm still exhausted from my battle, it nothing to lose sleep about."
"If you say you are fine then I believe you. May I ask what you are planning to do with that canoe?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm leaving the island and starting my life over someplace that I can be seen as normal."
"But we need you to lead us sire."
"No you don't the village was decimated under my rule, North will be in far more capable hands if you rule. You would know what the village needs and you would be enthusiastic about your role, I lacked enthusiasm and knowledge while I reigned, these survivors need you. However one bit of advice I know I can give is that, you should move the village west and hopefully the Southerners will think everyone has been killed and you all won't have to live in fear of future attacks."
Kakut wanted to say something, but he could not find the right words so he walked away. At the same time Ra got to his feet and grabbed a pike from the beach and placed it into the canoe and did the same with his remaining weapons. He went back into the forest and grabbed an armful of large rocks and returned to the beach and put them on top of the weapons.
"This should be enough to weigh them down."
Ra began pushing the canoe toward the ocean until he was knee deep in water. He hopped into the canoe and began rowing west. He wasn't sure where he was headed, but he didn't care either, right now he just wanted to be gone.