As the days passed, I continued working for the villagers; I started being able to save coins, or grains, in my house. This way, I could eventually do even more for myself.
I might even dare to marry one of their daughters and start my very own family.
Some people can go through life without starting a family because they have one, but I have been an orphan for as long as I could remember.
Making a family is the only possible way for me to have people that belong to me.
I’ll belong to them as well, to have a companion throughout the rest of my days.
I was sitting on a stone bench in front of my small house, when I saw the elder coming my way. I raised my hand to greet him; he raised his back and came and sat next to me.
“How are you doing today, Gabalawi?”
“I am doing well, elder. Thank you so much for asking. Is everything okay? Is everyone okay?”
“Yes, yes Gabalawi, don’t you worry, everything is fine. I never asked you, by the way. What does your name mean?”
“My name means mountaineer, he who lives in mountains.”
“That’s such a nice name, a powerful name as well!”
“Thank you, Elder.”
“So I came to talk to you about your future. There is a girl in the village. She is like you are, an orphan. Her uncle has been taking care of her all her life. Him and I spoke about you, and we think that it’s a good idea to wed you to her. You are both good young people, and you will be a great help to each other in your lives.”
“I.. I don’t know what to say, Elder. This is a surprise for me. I have been dreaming of one day being worthy to wed one of your own. Couldn’t even imagine you would be the one to set me up. I imagined I would have had to beg for the opportunity.”
“No, no Gabalawi, no such a thing. You are one of our own. You have been, for the last couple of years since you came here. We just waited for the right opportunity, with the right girl, and now it is here finally, so what do you say? Should I say congratulations?”
“Yes Elder, of course I accept. I am honored by this offer. I am honored to call myself one of this village’s sons.”
“Good, good, then congratulations Gabalawi. We will speak further later on when we will hold the wedding. Right now I have to tell the bride’s uncle, so that we can set you both up to know one another. This will be an auspicious occasion. Oh, to be young again. Anyway, I have got to go now.”
“Take care of yourself, Elder. I will be ready for the meeting. Thank you again for setting this up.”
*****
image [https://imgur.com/XfBSXXC.jpg]
A few months passed, and it was finally time for the wedding.
The village was bustling with activity, everyone was getting ready, everyone was taking part in making the wedding as special as possible.
My bride is beautiful. We both clicked immediately and have been talking every day since our first meeting. She would come talk to me while I was working around the village. Sometimes she cooked and brought me dinner while working and we ate together. She was a dream in human form, and she was mine, and I was hers.
A few hours before the wedding, we heard trumpets at the entrance of the village, followed by a herald’s voice.
I found everyone leaving what they were doing and heading towards the sound. Some were whispering “the lord’s herald”, while some looked scared.
Others looked excited with anticipation. During my stay in the village, I never heard the herald. The tax collector came, but never a herald before.
We all headed to the village entrance, and found the herald, accompanied by a trumpet player, and five soldiers behind them.
All the villagers looked worried after they saw the soldiers. I had no clue what this was about, but the villagers seemed to know something.
Only problem is, there wasn’t time to ask anyone. We all paid attention to what the herald was saying.
“By Orders of The Lord of these lands, Lord Zing Zuo, may he live long and prosper. This is an announcement for compulsory conscription. One Able male per house of this village is required to present themselves right now to the accompanying officer. We need new soldiers, and no house can stay behind. Those are the orders of his lordship. I advise everyone to cooperate.”
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The whispers of the people started rising in volume, till the officer stepped up and raised his voice “Everyone, we don’t want to use violence here today, every house should present their male candidate now, or they will have major pains while we make the trip back to the army’s barracks. We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way, your choice.”
Every house started conversing and choosing their male candidates, they started stepping forward, even some elderly did because they had no sons, I didn’t know about these rules, so I just stood there, the officer looking at me intently, and I am dumbly looking back.
“You, You Big Oaf! come over here, why are you standing there like an idiot? Which house are you from?”
I was about to speak when the elder intervened, “Sir, this one isn’t from our village, and his wedding is today. If you can exclude him from the conscription, that would be a great favor to all of our village.”
“How long did this one live here?”
“For about two and half years, sir, he came from the desert.”
“Does he have a house in this village?”
“Umm, yes sir, yes he does.”
“He lives by the lord’s grace, under his protection, and at his service, that makes him obligated to join the army, same as everyone else.”
“But Sir…” the words caught in the elder’s throat, when the officer stared him down. The elder held his head down in defeat, and the officer continued to shout his orders to exclude old men not able to fight. Everyone was fearful of their weapons. This village wasn’t a fighting village. We didn’t know how to fight.
I stepped up and joined the conscripted males of the village. They consoled me in low voices.
I couldn’t respond. I felt like all my dreams came crashing down around me in a short time. No one could see this coming, especially me.
I stood there in complete disbelief, completely lost, and I heard cries from afar, women's cries, my beloved’s cry, and other women sharing in her sadness. It hurt me, but I couldn’t console her. I couldn’t be there for her, like I imagined I’ll always be.
They led us away from the village, towards the big town where the barracks and the lord’s palace were located.
I didn’t utter a word the entire way. All I could think about was how I was even going to fight when I never harmed a person in my life? How?
*****
image [https://imgur.com/XfBSXXC.jpg]
We went into a training period in the barracks; it wasn’t too bad; we didn’t have to harm anyone, and me and the other villagers were really cooperative, so we looked out for each other. I opened up to them about not wanting to take part in violence; they kept reminding me of the rules of the army, and how the penalty for disobeying orders during the time of war is death.
But I really couldn’t imagine myself hurting another human. I don’t see the logic behind it. Why harm someone who looks the same as you, who has hopes and dreams as you, who bleeds like you, who feels like you?
Can you even imagine hurting someone and seeing them in pain and fighting your instinct to want to help them?
The training period was over, and they ordered us to move to another place where we will take part in a skirmish against another army.
We were really resilient by this point. The long distances and the physical effort didn’t exhaust us anymore.
Three days of marching later, we came face to face with the enemy’s army.
Our officer put me in the forefront of our army because he feared I might run away, so that all those behind me would push me forward and force me to fight.
And when he gave the order to battle finally, I didn’t move. I froze, not out of fear, but out of hatred for fighting.
“SOLDIER, WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE? I SAID ATTACK!”
“I can’t. So sorry. I don’t want to fight. I don’t want to take part in killing another human being.”
“SOLDIER PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, IF YOU DON’T START MOVING IN THE NEXT MINUTE YOUR LIFE IS FORFEIT.”
I gave him a pleading look. I looked over at the other army, most of which was composed of terrified farmers like our army, and I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t even move forward.
The Officer smiled derisively and jumped in the air, with his sword pulled out, and slashed my throat open with one strike.
I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I held my throat with my hands, and fell to the ground, gurgling my blood, unable to breathe, unable to voice my disbelief.
The Officer started ordering everyone else to attack on the threat of death.
The Army moved forward and clashed with the enemy, leaving me there in the mud, in a pool of my blood.
That was the last thing I remembered before everything turned black.
*****
image [https://imgur.com/XfBSXXC.jpg]
I woke up later, a walking corpse drenched in dry blood. I didn’t understand what was happening. The battlefield looked empty. I felt like some sort of faraway sound was calling me towards it, so I started following.
Nights followed the days. I kept on walking, avoiding human gathering at all cost. If they had an issue dealing with me before, it was going to be worse because of how I looked now.
After what felt like a month, I reached this cave entrance, nothing was visible on the inside, I hesitated a little, and then entered, I kept on walking, not knowing exactly what was inside the cave, and what was the source of the call.
Finally, I was in front of an ornate, immense door that blocked the rest of the way into the cave; I knocked on it, and someone who looked as much of a corpse as me opened the door, they pointed for me to enter with their head, not saying anything.
I complied and went inside, and I saw a series of entrances to many graves ahead of me, and a great yard, that had this huge bell, the bell was black and cracked, from the cracks there was blood dripping onto the ground, the bell had this strange aura about it; it was faint; it was glowing black, and it was what had been calling for me all this time.
The man who opened the door behind me had closed it, and came to me saying “Oh The Bell of the Great Tower of Amoria. Yes, that’s what called you to this place. We ring it weekly. It has the uncanny power to reach yin cultivators wherever they are in the world. Welcome to your new home. You arrived at a great time, because a great opportunity is close to hand. I would call this a good omen and thank my stars if I were you!”
His words were alien to my ears, but I understood that I had become something else since I woke up in my own dried blood. This was my fate now, and through the last month, emotions of hate that I never knew before were amassing in my heart. Someone was going to pay for all of this, by this I swear.