A long time ago, in the kingdom of Calvarus, there was a young king who had recently taken the throne. He was very ambitious and visionary but extremely selfish, desperate to hold anything and everything he could in his grasp. Over the stretch of six years, he built a prosperous kingdom, established a fearsome army and conquered the neighboring countries of Gaveroy, Alaria, Newerk, Sonoa, and Liminith. King Malvis became extremely arrogant about his imperial forces and showcased that arrogance by bullying any country that attempted to expand or refuse to trade with his kingdom. Calvarus grew to become one of the most powerful kingdoms in the old world, and very quickly King Malvis yearned for control over territory in the New World. He conversed with his government officials and organized war strategies to challenge the native population of the New World and the other powerful countries in control of land over there.
Though King Malvis did have territory in the New World; half of the southern continent known as Justanup, acquired after his defeat of Newerk, his thirst for control grew mercilessly. Obviously, he could not control just a fraction of the continent; he'd need to have all of it and possess the old world too. The land controlled by the natives would be easily obtainable; but the portions controlled by the other powerful nations of Brady, Esana, and Kambridge, would prove much more difficult. There was only one solution to achieve his goal: he'd have to wage war on these nations and conquer them and their colonies of the New World.
Eighteen miles outside of King Malvis' palace lay a small town, and in that town, on a green pasture lay a tiny house. In that house lived a small family, a pair of new parents with their newborn son. The father’s name was Jaxon, a struggling shoe salesman before he decided to enlist into the king’s army. For now, he was extremely happy with his life.
A necessary proponent in starting a war was supplies, and supplies were what the King needed. For a year after his committee unanimously agreed to the war, merely out of fear that the king would not be very forgiving of those who opposed him, the king rationed the kingdom of its food and basic necessities. In the meantime he trained his troops to fight in the harsh winter that gave Brady its advantages in war, financed the construction of the most envious fleet that could defeat Esana in its infamous naval battles, and established more factories for mass production of advanced weaponry that could compete with that of Kambridge’s brute army. In a matter of months following that year, the people were growing angry with the king’s revisions and didn’t want to sacrifice their goods to the army. Some ransacked the warehouses holding the army’s equipment. Those involved were caught and King Malvis ordered them dead in order to tighten his grip on the people. He realized that the main country was not a good place to store the materials and organized for all of the army goods to be placed on an island called Sianta that his father had captured twenty years before Malvis’ reign.
The people of Sianta were enslaved there; King Malvis expected it to be a safe place to store everything since the only inhabitants were wealthy aristocrats and their slaves that worked the land around their manors under the close watch of armed forces of the King’s army. After all of the supplies were stored on the island, a revolution erupted. The King, unaware of anything due to lack of communication between the islanders and the mainland, had not reacted to the revolution soon enough. By the time he had; Corpus Watson (his real name unknown) had led the Siantian slaves to revolt against the Calvarian landowners that oppressed them, burned down their manors, and run into the jungle.
I received the message one day while walking across the pasture to my family’s well. The message simply stated that I, Jaxon, was to report to the palace immediately. I packed my things and kissed my family goodbye before heading toward the palace of his majesty the king. Once in the courtyard, I was overwhelmed by the massive crowd of men all responding to their letters. Before I could ask someone what was happening, King Malvis appeared on his balcony that overlooked the courtyard to address us.
“Men, you have all volunteered to serve for me and this country. Sadly, I do not want any of you untrained buffoons in my superior infantry.” A roar of angry slurs and confused mutters echoed around the courtyard. If he did not want any volunteers, then why in the world did he order our immediate presence?
“Instead, I want you to retrieve something of mine in the name of the King and this country. I have been informed that there has been a rebellion amongst the Siantian people.” Who? I turned to see if any of the other men understood what the King was referring to and was relieved to find no understanding faces. A man next to me met my gaze and leaned over to me,
“What’s a Siantian?” he whispered. I shrugged and the other man moved back to where he was and continued to listen to the King.
“You are to move to the barracks to prepare yourselves. You will be led by one of my Generals but your orders will be told to you now. On the island of Siantia, there is a thick jungle that without experience, any man would become trapped inside and devoured by wild animals or murdered by the Siantian people. I have no doubt they have retreated into that jungle, their ancestors have lived on the island for close to 800 years, originating inside the depths of its trees. You, under any and all circumstances, are not to enter that jungle. Your only purpose is to go to the warehouses and retrieve the supplies residing there. I will deal with those revolting savages later.” At that, the King turned and entered the castle once more. At his disappearance, the man next to me turned back to meet my gaze,
“Do you think we still get paid?” He asked, “I heard army pay was good but if we’re not actually in the army, does that mean we don’t get anything?” I shrugged again. I hoped there would be something I could provide my family with.
The volunteers arrived at the island and spent half a day waiting on the outskirts of the jungle. The warehouses were empty; the malnourished slaves had taken everything with them into the jungle and left nothing for the men to return to the king. Their commanding officers, assigned by the king once they were given their uniforms and weapons, had hoped to wait out the natives. The Calvarians set up camp and prepared for bed, the Siantians couldn’t wait inside forever.
In the middle of the night, when the soldiers lay heavy in their slumber, the Siantian rebels crept out of the jungle. They stole any food they could find among the belongings of the Calvarian volunteers and captured two of the commanding officers. When the soldiers awoke the next morning to find their food gone, they were angry and some were ready to go after their looters in the jungle, but they were quickly halted by the General with a reminder of the king’s warning.
My new pal and I, the man from the summoning to the courtyard named Ryvet,
Suggested that we go searching for more food around the island, of course without venturing into the jungle. After everyone agreed, Ryvet and I searched the east side of the island. There we discovered two hanging bodies from a tall coconut tree. Ryvet recognized them as our two missing commanding officers and pushed me back towards the camp. When we informed the General, he attempted to remain calm and urged the rest of the men to not be discouraged. Many quickly lost faith in the mission and longed to return home.
The Calvarians grew wary and angry. They were hungry and two of them were dead, causing fear to rise in some of them as night fell. It grew cold and most retired to their tents early, before bed the commander left four men on watch for the Siantians. This plan worked for a while and the men began to sleep a bit more easily. Four days later, once again, the Siantians crept out of the jungle, and stole all of their medical supplies and alcohol. Before, any of the watchmen could utter a single word of warning to their comrades, the Siantians captured them and led them into the jungle.
The next morning, the volunteers arose to find their medical supplies missing and were even more distraught by the absent containers of liquor. Another thing that concerned them even more was the lack of report from the assigned watchmen.
Ryvet proved easily contentious and became very stubborn whenever The King’s General Alan Rush ordered us to stay clear of the forest. Taking the liquor was the last straw for him and he wanted to go in their swinging, a sudden hatred of these people arose inside of him. Everyone was scared and the thought of being stuck on this island with these murderous kidnappers instead of returning home to our families made us extremely nervous. I paced back and forth along the beach trying to calm myself down.
Suddenly General Rush was ordering the watchmen to come forward, but it was undeniable that they were no longer there. He organized the volunteers into a search party to scan the island for them. Within thirty minutes they were all found hanging from a single coconut tree right on the outskirts of the jungle. The others were furious and demanded the General to allow them to go after the Siantians. I still remained where I was, observing the commotion at a comfortable distance from the jungle. I was looking up at the sky when I noticed out of the corner of my eyes something perched high in one of the trees. I peered at the figure and made out its body formation quite easily. It was clearly human and therefore must have been a Siantian. It appeared to be looking down at the beach and watching the Calvarian volunteers’ commotion and aggravation. And though I could not see the Siantians face, evidently represented through its body language was a sign of satisfaction.
This picture worried me. Why was this Siantian spying on them? It made me feel less and less safe on the island and anxious to get home. The Siantian spotted me staring at it and quickly sunk into the treetops. I froze where I stood, frightened from the realization that I have possibly made myself the next target for attack. After a minute or so, I ran to General Rush, who was standing there while the other men were yelling at him and pleading with him to either let them go after their attackers or return home.
“General Rush! There was a Siantian spying on us from the treetop! We have to send men back to Calvarus and get help. We’re falling into a trap and they’re toying with us. They want to get us all and so far they’re not failing!” I was frantic and the other men around him became uneasy.
“Young man calm down,” the General shook me lightly by the shoulders and tried to alleviate me,
“We know they want to kill us but we must complete this mission by order of the king. It doesn’t look bright for us at this point but we must try.” He said attempting to sound composed and to hide the obvious dissatisfaction with his own words mirrored through his eyes.
“Why must we complete it first? If they took everything in the jungle with them do you not figure they may be using every last bit of those supplies?”
“We have to try something, we have to come up with a way to beat them.”
“General listen to yourself. That’s not practical. We’ve lost, they’re starving us in, they’re trying to lure us all to our deaths in that jungle and they’re succeeding. Why can we not go back? If not to get reinforcements?” The General was really frustrated now.
“BECAUSE THE KING WILL KILL US!” He belted. “If we go back with nothing, the king will kill us. Why do you think he sent a bunch of lousy volunteers here, with no intention of putting you in the army? He sends you here and if you succeed, he gets his supplies and can start that war. If you fail, well, all he’s out on is a few extra peasant mouths to feed. He may lose his supplies in the latter but those are easily replaceable, he’s not willing to sacrifice his elite army to a bunch of savages.” I was stunned, I couldn’t be too surprised that the King didn’t care whether we returned or not, but I was angry that he could be so inhumane and tear me from my family that way.
“What can we do then?” I asked. The General just looked at me. Then he asked,
“Son, what’s your name?”
“Jaxon, sir, and I have a family to get home to”
“Jaxon, its times like these that you think about what you have to lose”
“General, why would he send you here then? You’re a part of that elite army he’s so fond of.” The General inhaled the crisp air deeply and let out a sigh.
“I’m supposed to be retired. But the king promised me that if I led you saps successfully I would be able to return for one last hoorah in his war, earn something before getting shelved with the rest of his trophy generals. I didn’t want to leave my command before having something to show for it. All those years fighting for Calvarus and nothing to prove it. So I agreed, I see now he doesn’t see me worth anything more than you. I should have known he wasn’t planning to put my old self in charge of any of his precious new regiments.”
“So what then? We sit here and die? We just signed up for a suicide mission?” The General looked around the camp as if contemplating the group of volunteers.
“What’d you think the King’s army was young man?” he spit in the sand and turned to his tent, climbed inside and remained there with no intention of leaving.
I bent my head back, staring at the sky and tapping my agitated fingers on my pant leg. Then I sat down on the sand and rested my forehead on my knees. The General had given up and the King had no intention of rescuing us. That wasn’t going to cut it for me, if I was going to be left to try to survive on my own, I was going to do just that. As night crept onto the island I had organized a party of five men, one of which was Ryvet, the other four were the first four I could find with some energy and common sense. Their names were Liam, Syro, and Hayes.
We would have been able to go undetected a few days earlier when there were still hundreds of us crowding on this beach. Starvation, dehydration, heat stroke and a quick spread of pneumonia took more than half of the others. So now we had to be extremely cautious about causing attention. That night the six of us went into one of the now vacant warehouses and talked. We made plans to build a boat and get the hell out of there. Hayes and Syro were ship builders before the king put each industry under government control and ordered any men he felt unqualified to build his ships to take a hike. Syro and Hayes were among those men, Syro let go because at the time he was healing a broken leg and the soldiers issued to inspect the workers thought he was disabled and fired him on the spot. Hayes was fired because he was a tad crazy and made life threatening decisions, marking him a hazard to the other workers. That’s what led them to signing up for the army, and luckily in my realm of men of possible survivors of this disaster.
Liam was fast, when I said energy, I meant someone who could pull their own weight and wouldn’t hold us back, but Liam could pull all of our weight and make out like a bandit. He was also extremely stealthy and a bit of a kleptomaniac, but that didn’t concern me considering I had nothing with me worth protecting. It would just come in handy if we were in dire situations and his tactics could help us get food. In that night’s case though, we just needed tools and material to build that boat, and he was handy at retrieving material from abandoned manors and warehouses to do just that. Ryvet and I planned the escape and helped Hayes and Syro with the construction.
We didn’t get any sleep that night but it was worth it because the Siantians didn’t raid the camp again and we managed to get a good start on the boat. Three days later, after we’d finished it, we went to our tents and pretended to have been there asleep all night again. No one suspected a thing and though the six of us were sleepy, we were able to help the rest of our fellow volunteers search for food. That day we found fruits and Ryvet and I went to one of the coconut trees on the far side of the island to try and reach the coconuts for milk.
“Hey, so what’s your wife’s name?” He asked me while we were chewing on some sort of melon.
“Mikaeah,” I said. “We’ve been married for a year now.
“Wow, I wish I had something like that. Women don’t tend to go for a guy like me. I’m a little too rough around the edges and I scare ‘em. That’s alright though, I’m not looking to take any forever. That’s too much, I mean look at you. You’re probably more miserable than I am on this Island because you have something back home. All I had was that stupid farm that nothing grew on.”
“That’s what you were? A farmer?” I asked
“Yeah, we farmed vegetables mostly but the past year has been hard with the King taking most of our crops. That’s why I signed up, we needed another source of income.”
“We? You got a family?” I was starting on my next melon and my face and fingers were sticky.
“Yeah, well, it’s just my parents and my brother. But my brother’s about to get married and my parents are about to die, so I figure if I die out here there won’t be much I’d be leaving behind.”
“No not really, I’m sure your brother and his wife would want their kids to have an uncle, and your parents would want you running the farm.”
“Ha, I’ve always hated farming so I suppose I would’ve sold it. My nieces and nephews wouldn’t need me in their lives; I’m such a screw up. I’m better off being a good memory than a bad influence on them.”
“Way to be optimistic my friend.”
“Eh, optimism is for men who can’t accept the fact that their lives are over.” He bit into his melon and smiled at me.
“We’ll make it off this island Ryvet; you, me, Syro, Hayes, and Liam. We’ll go home to Calvarus. You can come home with me and help me reopen my shoe store. That’s what I used to do. Shoemaking.” He laughed at that and we continued to eat. He was sort of pale at this point.
“Alright.” We heard a rustling in the trees behind us and before we could react or run, we were captured by a small group of Siantian warriors and dragged into the jungle.
In king Malvis’ palace the king awaited the return of his supplies. Weeks dragged by and he grew so irritable that any time his servants attempted to serve him in any way they were met with a rage normally associated with a powerful lion. Everyone walked around the palace on egg shells to avoid upsetting him. He spent most of the day sitting on his throne like a cranky four-year old.
The King was undoubtedly angry and stomped his feet and slammed his crown on the palace floor. He drastically ordered twice as many newly acquired volunteers to go to the island and kill every last Siantian residing there. And also to get his supplies so he could have his war. Ships were prepared for their immediate departure.
The Siantians were quite scary looking and were in no way gentle with us. Ryvet and I were tied to a post and pulled through the thick growth. It was nearly impossible for anyone who didn’t k now their way to find it. There were no paths to follow, it just appeared to be walls of trees, vines, bushes and other green substances that were hard to make out. These Siantians in particular squeezed through trees and followed invisible routes, smashing through the growth and climbing over the rocks placed randomly and abundantly throughout the jungle. Ryvet and I crashed mercilessly in to the trees and leaves as we traveled down into the depths of their home. By the time we came to a stop we were bruised and scarred without the Siantians putting a single threatening motion toward us.
They pulled us to a fairly small clearing where there was an empty fire pit fashioned from smaller stones and some thick branches. Above the pit there were no trees and around it for a few hundred kilometers nothing green in the slightest. I assumed they felt it was safe to light a fire here, but I couldn’t help but remember that I had never seen a single swivel of smoke come from inside the jungle during the weeks now that we’d been there. We were placed in the center of the pit and the posts were hammered into the ground with stones. The posts wouldn’t be strong enough to keep us tied down but the Siantians knew that and their presence and weapons made it clear that if we attempted to move an inch we’d be killed.
Ryvet didn’t say a single word to me as we sat there and waited for whatever the Siantians had in store for us. He closed his eyes and relaxed himself as if to try and fall asleep. I sat in my place and looked around the makeshift village, containing a few women and children and a major force of Siantian men. They were all watching us, trying to figure out our purpose, some with hatred in their eyes. The island grew hotter and the sky brighter by the time someone nudged Ryvet awake and commanded our attention. We were sweating, hungry, thirsty, tired and angry by that time. Ryvet, being much more argumentative and belligerent than I, was not willing to take any bull from those savages. One of them, dressed in trousers and a shirt and much differently than his fellow Siantians, knelt down between Ryvet and I.
“I’m Corpus Watson.” He said slowly in the language we speak, as opposed to his Siantian brethren, who spoke in a mix of tongue torturing sounds to one another.
“And I’m hungry” said Ryvet, looking Mr. Watson dead in the eye a little challengingly.
“You’ll be fed shortly,” he struggled a bit with his dialect but managed to make himself clear enough to understand. “But I must speak with you first.” He turned to me.
“About what?” Ryvet asked him. Mr. Watson didn’t turn back to him but rather addressed me. “I need your help with something is all.”
“Why would you need my help? The only thing I’m concerned with is getting off of this island and going home to my family. Besides, you seem to be helping yourselves quite fine at the moment.”
Ryvet eyeballed the Siantians guarding us, and then he stared off into the distance.
“Simple. I’m going to kill your king. The man you serve. And you’re going to help me do it.”
“Whoa!” I said, trying to straighten up, “What makes you think I would kill my king? And even if I did, what makes you think I could?” he smirked.
“You know just as well as I do that he needs to die. Everyone who serves him believes that. That’s just how it is with kings who abuse their power. Don’t tell me you’re any different. You just said for yourself he sent you here away from your family. To die. Which may I remind you, if my friends here get the feeling that I don’t approve of you at any moment. You will.” He gestured to the Siantian men surrounding us. I hadn’t noticed earlier but their group had significantly grown.
“Okay then. What makes you think I can?” I asked him. Ryvet’s eyes were closed again and he slouched over. Mr. Watson began speaking softer now, as if to ensure that no one else could hear.
“I saw you on the beach earlier. You’ve got a plan don’t you?”
I don’t know what you’re talking abou …” he slapped me hard across the cheek.
“Don’t even try that. The boat you idiot. You’re getting off in a boat, right?” I nodded. Ryvet looked up at me suddenly and was about to argue but I shook my head to tell him it wasn’t worth the fight. Mr. Watson looked at him.
“So what,” Ryvet said, “You’re just going to take our boat and leave us to die here?”
“No. I’m going with you.”
“We can’t fit that many people in the boat, we already have five.” I said.
“Then remove one or I will. You’ll just be making room for me. No threats, you can try to throw me overboard after we get out to sea. But I’m going to tell you this, though I will be making myself vulnerable to you and your friends, I won’t make myself vulnerable to your King any more. I want to kill him, I will kill him, and I don’t need you once we dock. Just get me there and we will part.”
Ryvet and I looked at each other for confirmation that we agreed with each other’s thoughts. Once decided, I turned to Mr. Watson and nodded to him. He clapped his hands and a grin shot across his face.
“Alright, dinnertime!” We were untied and led through more growth to another clearing, much larger than the last and filled with more Siantians and an abundance of food.
That night, the men refused to sleep. They were missing two more men and many of them had died. Liam, Syro, and Hayes tried to figure out a way to leave undetected. It was every man for himself now and they weren’t going to forfeit their opportunity of escape because those two were missing. It would be hard this time to sneak off though, the men refused to sleep, in fear of an attack by the Siantians. It was extremely hot that night and most of them died of dehydration.
The next morning, when it was cold and windy, the men had had enough. They pushed past General Rush and headed into the jungle. The Siantians had them where they wanted them, and slaughtered every single last wanderer into the thick mass of growth. Liam prepared the boat while the angry volunteers stormed into the jungle. Syro and Hayes loaded it with fruit they found and a jar of water they found in the stream that flowed through the jungle and out of the side. It was the fresh water the Siantian people depended on to survive.
Right when they were about to kick off into the ocean they heard yelling. Jaxon, Ryvet and a Siantian dressed in his oppressor’s clothing sprinted towards the boat. Syro was relieved that they weren’t dead but Hayes and Liam were annoyed. The three men approached the boat and Jaxon explained the plan to the others, who were, unanimously receptive to the idea and agreed to it. When they all tried to get in the boat however, it was obvious one person needed to be left behind. After much arguing, The Siantian shot Ryvet in the face and pushed him out of the boat.
They silently pushed out to sea and started their journey to Calvarus; Ryvet lay in the water that washed up to the shore, the water turning red around his body.
Meanwhile, the volunteers issued for sail by King Malvis were halfway to Siantia and the king himself sat tentatively reviewing his plans and becoming wary of the possible failure of his attempt at war. He’d built up this army and they were being stalled because of a bunch of murderous savages and their cursed jungle. Things were not going the way he wanted them to, and this made him exceedingly cross with the members of his court.
That bastard shot my friend in the head. No warning, no attempt at compromise, just shot him. When we were in the middle of the sea, it was still awkwardly quiet and it was easy to tell that Hayes, Syro, and Liam were exceptionally uncomfortable with him sitting next to us with a loaded pistol. Mr. Watson didn’t seem to care though, he just leaned back in the boat and toyed with the gun in his hands. We’d been out there a few hours and already started eating some of the fruits. We tried to save most of it so it’d last us but we were so hungry and it was delicious. Finally, I broke the silence,
“You shot him. What’d you do that for?” I stared at him.
“What’s your point?” he didn’t bother looking up at me, “I told you if you couldn’t remove someone, I would.”
“But why him?”
“He was dying and slow and sad to look at,”
“He was sick but he would’ve got better, he would’ve been able to make it.” He sat up and leaned in until he was a couple of inches from my face.
“WAKE UP! He would’ve died and you would have tossed him overboard.” He pointed to Syro and Hayes, “They built the boat,” then to Liam, “and he is useful. And to break it to you, you aren’t, other than the fact that I made the deal with you.” He leaned back to where he was and closed his eyes. The other three men just sat there and tried to pretend they weren’t paying close attention to that entire conversation. This was going to be a long journey.
There were two ships headed for the island. The first had set out three days earlier and had reached the island. After the ship had stopped and the volunteers rowed up to the beaches, they immediately embarked on the wild goose chase for supplies. After realizing that there were none on the beaches, they camped out and planned to return to Calvarus in the morning. After the sun rested, the Siantians crept out of the jungle again and raided the camps. Several rowed out to sea and set fire to the ship, awaking most of the Calvarians on the beach. The fight was quick, by the time the men had retrieved their weapons, the Siantians were already in the jungle. Half of the volunteers followed them inside the growth in the dark, which was the worst plan they could’ve made. They were all slaughtered before the sun rose the next morning. The Calvarians left on the beach were scared, they had nothing but had found the stream Liam had used earlier. It was flowing downstream, out of the jungle and there were luckily a lot of fish traveling through it to get from one side of the island to the other.
For a couple of days the Calvarians were able to live off of the fish and fresh water. But the Siantians caught on fast to their enemies. They poisoned the water at a safe distance from their people’s villages and it flowed downstream into the Calvarian volunteer’s grasp. The next day the volunteers began dying of dysentery and the flu. Once again, the Siantians had won.
We fell asleep late and woke up early, it was becoming difficult to keep myself focused. We were too close to finishing the fruit and water. No one talked much still and we were circled a few times by sharks. We were also pretty sure we were lost and had no way of telling otherwise.
But just when I started giving up, I spotted the most wonderful sight: a ship coming toward us. Liam, Syro and Hayes stood and waved their hands at the boat to get attention to us. When the ship pulled up, men dressed in the same uniforms we were issued hoisted us onboard. They were skeptical about Mr. Watson, but we assured them that it was fine. Urgently we requested they turn around and that going to the island was a bad idea. The King’s men who were onboard began to distrust us and threatened to throw us overboard or arrest us for treason in the name of the king. Liam, apparently a former friend of a few of them was able to convince them of the danger ahead and that there were no supplies to retrieve.
“But we already have a ship that has arrived there, it should’ve been there three days four days now.” One of the men said, “If it’s dangerous we have to save them.”
“If they’ve been there four days, they’re dead.” Mr. Watson said. It was the first thing he’d spoken since we argued three days ago about Ryvet. One of the men stepped to him,
“What do you mean they’re dead?”
“If, they’ve been there four days, my people would have killed them by now.” He gestured to us, “They only lasted so long because we were making a game out of toying with them. My people are sick and tired of it now and want all of you Calvarians off of our island. So simply, if you decide to go there, you will die. Period.”
“You murderous bastard!” One man tried to grab him. Mr. Watson pulled out his gun from his trouser pocket and aimed at the man’s head. Then moved it side to side, making sure everyone knew he could shoot every last one of them.
“I am a murderous bastard my friend.” Mr. Watson said, “But I’m not going to murder anyone unless I feel my life is threatened. Don’t test me. Now, you will turn this ship around and take us to Calvarus, be grateful I’m sparing you by not taking you to my home. My people are a tad more brutal than I.”
“Mr. Watson, please put the gun down, we don’t need to threaten them.” I said trying to lower the gun that he still had outstretched toward the passengers of the ship. He waved me away and tucked the gun into his pocket before turning towards the stern of the ship and leaving everyone behind him to question what just happened. The Captain of the ship approached me quickly after he left,
“What’s the matter with you bringin him here? You tryin’ to get us all killed?”
“He’s not here to kill us. He’s here to kill the king. And I suggest you don’t get in his way.” I turned and walked to the door leading below deck with Syro, Hayes and Liam. They were suddenly happy they arrived with Mr. Watson, especially Liam, who planned to team up with him to live a life of piracy after the death of the king.
The King was losing support for the war from his Generals. Before long he decided to postpone the war until he punished those filthy Siantians that murdered twelve hundred of Calvarian men in four months. At this point it didn’t matter that they were nothing more than the scum of his country, poor volunteers with no training, he felt disrespected. He planned an invasion of the island with his army and powerful navy and weapons from all sides. He wanted to chop down those forsaken trees and make every last one of the Siantians suffer. Even blow up the island if he could. He planned and planned for weeks and some days he was sure he could win, but on others he became concerned with the loss. What if he couldn’t cut down the trees? What if the people proved more powerful than he thought and could wipe out his elite army? At this point they proved unpredictable. He suddenly felt bad for arming the volunteers with nothing but knives in an attempt to preserve the useful weapons for his army.
We reached the country and went our separate ways. The ship ride lightened up, Mr. Watson became less threatening and we started to bond with him and the Captain. But tragically half a day before we returned to Calvarus, Mr. Watson went missing. One of the volunteers on board claimed to have seen him on the deck the night before near the railing, and that he assumed the man went overboard after everyone went to sleep. After we docked, I said my goodbyes to the men and headed home. My family’s town was a day’s ride on ox cart, so the Captain paid my fees for me and I was on my way. Syro and Hayes teamed up to open a consignment store, they’d planned it while on the ship and had apparently become really good friends. Liam didn’t get Mr. Watson to agree with his plans to engage in piracy before he went missing, I guess he only had one mission in mind before returning home. So, anyway Liam went solo and joined a crew that terrorized the coasts of Kambridge.
A peculiar sight got me thinking at the docks though. As we all left the ship I thought my eyes betrayed me when I saw General Rush walking across the dock. It gave me chills for a second but I disregarded it and headed home. I arrived to the small town my family lived near. It was a pathetic little town but it had character, it made me feel at home before I even got to my front door. After stepping out of the cart I started the trek up to my family’s pasture and waved at all of my neighbors strolling around, buying goods and socializing. By the time I’d walked into my home, I was already tired, but my wife embraced me and we hugged for a long time. We kissed and cried and she handed me our son. We hadn’t named him yet on account of we were waiting for the right one. I told her about my experience and that I wanted to name our son Ryvet, she agreed with a smile and we planned to open up a new shoe store and start over.
By the time the king had made a decision he’d let his country fall into ruin. All of the time he spent in his chambers with the door locked caused him to neglect the people’s concerns and they despised him. Anarchist citizens were able to sway the people to rebel, some for the sake of bringing down government, but most wanted a democratic society like Esana.
King Malvis stepped out on to the balcony of his grand palace courtyard on a chilly morning. Before he could announce his decision to his military, an arrow pierced his skull and passed through to the other side. He died instantly. Two miles away, in a guard tower of the courtyard, the Siantian by the name of Corpus Watson stood up straight and dropped his bow. The country became a democratic society and flourished. Jaxon’s son grew up to be a strong and great man. He became the leader of the great nation he grew up in and protected the island of Siantia until it grew to be a strong nation as well. No one ever heard from Corpus Watson again.
Though King Malvis did have territory in the New World; half of the southern continent known as Justanup, acquired after his defeat of Newerk, his thirst for control grew mercilessly. Obviously, he could not control just a fraction of the continent; he'd need to have all of it and possess the old world too. The land controlled by the natives would be easily obtainable; but the portions controlled by the other powerful nations of Brady, Esana, and Kambridge, would prove much more difficult. There was only one solution to achieve his goal: he'd have to wage war on these nations and conquer them and their colonies of the New World.
Eighteen miles outside of King Malvis' palace lay a small town, and in that town, on a green pasture lay a tiny house. In that house lived a small family, a pair of new parents with their newborn son. The father’s name was Jaxon, a struggling shoe salesman before he decided to enlist into the king’s army. For now, he was extremely happy with his life.
A necessary proponent in starting a war was supplies, and supplies were what the King needed. For a year after his committee unanimously agreed to the war, merely out of fear that the king would not be very forgiving of those who opposed him, the king rationed the kingdom of its food and basic necessities. In the meantime he trained his troops to fight in the harsh winter that gave Brady its advantages in war, financed the construction of the most envious fleet that could defeat Esana in its infamous naval battles, and established more factories for mass production of advanced weaponry that could compete with that of Kambridge’s brute army. In a matter of months following that year, the people were growing angry with the king’s revisions and didn’t want to sacrifice their goods to the army. Some ransacked the warehouses holding the army’s equipment. Those involved were caught and King Malvis ordered them dead in order to tighten his grip on the people. He realized that the main country was not a good place to store the materials and organized for all of the army goods to be placed on an island called Sianta that his father had captured twenty years before Malvis’ reign.
The people of Sianta were enslaved there; King Malvis expected it to be a safe place to store everything since the only inhabitants were wealthy aristocrats and their slaves that worked the land around their manors under the close watch of armed forces of the King’s army. After all of the supplies were stored on the island, a revolution erupted. The King, unaware of anything due to lack of communication between the islanders and the mainland, had not reacted to the revolution soon enough. By the time he had; Corpus Watson (his real name unknown) had led the Siantian slaves to revolt against the Calvarian landowners that oppressed them, burned down their manors, and run into the jungle.
I received the message one day while walking across the pasture to my family’s well. The message simply stated that I, Jaxon, was to report to the palace immediately. I packed my things and kissed my family goodbye before heading toward the palace of his majesty the king. Once in the courtyard, I was overwhelmed by the massive crowd of men all responding to their letters. Before I could ask someone what was happening, King Malvis appeared on his balcony that overlooked the courtyard to address us.
“Men, you have all volunteered to serve for me and this country. Sadly, I do not want any of you untrained buffoons in my superior infantry.” A roar of angry slurs and confused mutters echoed around the courtyard. If he did not want any volunteers, then why in the world did he order our immediate presence?
“Instead, I want you to retrieve something of mine in the name of the King and this country. I have been informed that there has been a rebellion amongst the Siantian people.” Who? I turned to see if any of the other men understood what the King was referring to and was relieved to find no understanding faces. A man next to me met my gaze and leaned over to me,
“What’s a Siantian?” he whispered. I shrugged and the other man moved back to where he was and continued to listen to the King.
“You are to move to the barracks to prepare yourselves. You will be led by one of my Generals but your orders will be told to you now. On the island of Siantia, there is a thick jungle that without experience, any man would become trapped inside and devoured by wild animals or murdered by the Siantian people. I have no doubt they have retreated into that jungle, their ancestors have lived on the island for close to 800 years, originating inside the depths of its trees. You, under any and all circumstances, are not to enter that jungle. Your only purpose is to go to the warehouses and retrieve the supplies residing there. I will deal with those revolting savages later.” At that, the King turned and entered the castle once more. At his disappearance, the man next to me turned back to meet my gaze,
“Do you think we still get paid?” He asked, “I heard army pay was good but if we’re not actually in the army, does that mean we don’t get anything?” I shrugged again. I hoped there would be something I could provide my family with.
The volunteers arrived at the island and spent half a day waiting on the outskirts of the jungle. The warehouses were empty; the malnourished slaves had taken everything with them into the jungle and left nothing for the men to return to the king. Their commanding officers, assigned by the king once they were given their uniforms and weapons, had hoped to wait out the natives. The Calvarians set up camp and prepared for bed, the Siantians couldn’t wait inside forever.
In the middle of the night, when the soldiers lay heavy in their slumber, the Siantian rebels crept out of the jungle. They stole any food they could find among the belongings of the Calvarian volunteers and captured two of the commanding officers. When the soldiers awoke the next morning to find their food gone, they were angry and some were ready to go after their looters in the jungle, but they were quickly halted by the General with a reminder of the king’s warning.
My new pal and I, the man from the summoning to the courtyard named Ryvet,
Suggested that we go searching for more food around the island, of course without venturing into the jungle. After everyone agreed, Ryvet and I searched the east side of the island. There we discovered two hanging bodies from a tall coconut tree. Ryvet recognized them as our two missing commanding officers and pushed me back towards the camp. When we informed the General, he attempted to remain calm and urged the rest of the men to not be discouraged. Many quickly lost faith in the mission and longed to return home.
The Calvarians grew wary and angry. They were hungry and two of them were dead, causing fear to rise in some of them as night fell. It grew cold and most retired to their tents early, before bed the commander left four men on watch for the Siantians. This plan worked for a while and the men began to sleep a bit more easily. Four days later, once again, the Siantians crept out of the jungle, and stole all of their medical supplies and alcohol. Before, any of the watchmen could utter a single word of warning to their comrades, the Siantians captured them and led them into the jungle.
The next morning, the volunteers arose to find their medical supplies missing and were even more distraught by the absent containers of liquor. Another thing that concerned them even more was the lack of report from the assigned watchmen.
Ryvet proved easily contentious and became very stubborn whenever The King’s General Alan Rush ordered us to stay clear of the forest. Taking the liquor was the last straw for him and he wanted to go in their swinging, a sudden hatred of these people arose inside of him. Everyone was scared and the thought of being stuck on this island with these murderous kidnappers instead of returning home to our families made us extremely nervous. I paced back and forth along the beach trying to calm myself down.
Suddenly General Rush was ordering the watchmen to come forward, but it was undeniable that they were no longer there. He organized the volunteers into a search party to scan the island for them. Within thirty minutes they were all found hanging from a single coconut tree right on the outskirts of the jungle. The others were furious and demanded the General to allow them to go after the Siantians. I still remained where I was, observing the commotion at a comfortable distance from the jungle. I was looking up at the sky when I noticed out of the corner of my eyes something perched high in one of the trees. I peered at the figure and made out its body formation quite easily. It was clearly human and therefore must have been a Siantian. It appeared to be looking down at the beach and watching the Calvarian volunteers’ commotion and aggravation. And though I could not see the Siantians face, evidently represented through its body language was a sign of satisfaction.
This picture worried me. Why was this Siantian spying on them? It made me feel less and less safe on the island and anxious to get home. The Siantian spotted me staring at it and quickly sunk into the treetops. I froze where I stood, frightened from the realization that I have possibly made myself the next target for attack. After a minute or so, I ran to General Rush, who was standing there while the other men were yelling at him and pleading with him to either let them go after their attackers or return home.
“General Rush! There was a Siantian spying on us from the treetop! We have to send men back to Calvarus and get help. We’re falling into a trap and they’re toying with us. They want to get us all and so far they’re not failing!” I was frantic and the other men around him became uneasy.
“Young man calm down,” the General shook me lightly by the shoulders and tried to alleviate me,
“We know they want to kill us but we must complete this mission by order of the king. It doesn’t look bright for us at this point but we must try.” He said attempting to sound composed and to hide the obvious dissatisfaction with his own words mirrored through his eyes.
“Why must we complete it first? If they took everything in the jungle with them do you not figure they may be using every last bit of those supplies?”
“We have to try something, we have to come up with a way to beat them.”
“General listen to yourself. That’s not practical. We’ve lost, they’re starving us in, they’re trying to lure us all to our deaths in that jungle and they’re succeeding. Why can we not go back? If not to get reinforcements?” The General was really frustrated now.
“BECAUSE THE KING WILL KILL US!” He belted. “If we go back with nothing, the king will kill us. Why do you think he sent a bunch of lousy volunteers here, with no intention of putting you in the army? He sends you here and if you succeed, he gets his supplies and can start that war. If you fail, well, all he’s out on is a few extra peasant mouths to feed. He may lose his supplies in the latter but those are easily replaceable, he’s not willing to sacrifice his elite army to a bunch of savages.” I was stunned, I couldn’t be too surprised that the King didn’t care whether we returned or not, but I was angry that he could be so inhumane and tear me from my family that way.
“What can we do then?” I asked. The General just looked at me. Then he asked,
“Son, what’s your name?”
“Jaxon, sir, and I have a family to get home to”
“Jaxon, its times like these that you think about what you have to lose”
“General, why would he send you here then? You’re a part of that elite army he’s so fond of.” The General inhaled the crisp air deeply and let out a sigh.
“I’m supposed to be retired. But the king promised me that if I led you saps successfully I would be able to return for one last hoorah in his war, earn something before getting shelved with the rest of his trophy generals. I didn’t want to leave my command before having something to show for it. All those years fighting for Calvarus and nothing to prove it. So I agreed, I see now he doesn’t see me worth anything more than you. I should have known he wasn’t planning to put my old self in charge of any of his precious new regiments.”
“So what then? We sit here and die? We just signed up for a suicide mission?” The General looked around the camp as if contemplating the group of volunteers.
“What’d you think the King’s army was young man?” he spit in the sand and turned to his tent, climbed inside and remained there with no intention of leaving.
I bent my head back, staring at the sky and tapping my agitated fingers on my pant leg. Then I sat down on the sand and rested my forehead on my knees. The General had given up and the King had no intention of rescuing us. That wasn’t going to cut it for me, if I was going to be left to try to survive on my own, I was going to do just that. As night crept onto the island I had organized a party of five men, one of which was Ryvet, the other four were the first four I could find with some energy and common sense. Their names were Liam, Syro, and Hayes.
We would have been able to go undetected a few days earlier when there were still hundreds of us crowding on this beach. Starvation, dehydration, heat stroke and a quick spread of pneumonia took more than half of the others. So now we had to be extremely cautious about causing attention. That night the six of us went into one of the now vacant warehouses and talked. We made plans to build a boat and get the hell out of there. Hayes and Syro were ship builders before the king put each industry under government control and ordered any men he felt unqualified to build his ships to take a hike. Syro and Hayes were among those men, Syro let go because at the time he was healing a broken leg and the soldiers issued to inspect the workers thought he was disabled and fired him on the spot. Hayes was fired because he was a tad crazy and made life threatening decisions, marking him a hazard to the other workers. That’s what led them to signing up for the army, and luckily in my realm of men of possible survivors of this disaster.
Liam was fast, when I said energy, I meant someone who could pull their own weight and wouldn’t hold us back, but Liam could pull all of our weight and make out like a bandit. He was also extremely stealthy and a bit of a kleptomaniac, but that didn’t concern me considering I had nothing with me worth protecting. It would just come in handy if we were in dire situations and his tactics could help us get food. In that night’s case though, we just needed tools and material to build that boat, and he was handy at retrieving material from abandoned manors and warehouses to do just that. Ryvet and I planned the escape and helped Hayes and Syro with the construction.
We didn’t get any sleep that night but it was worth it because the Siantians didn’t raid the camp again and we managed to get a good start on the boat. Three days later, after we’d finished it, we went to our tents and pretended to have been there asleep all night again. No one suspected a thing and though the six of us were sleepy, we were able to help the rest of our fellow volunteers search for food. That day we found fruits and Ryvet and I went to one of the coconut trees on the far side of the island to try and reach the coconuts for milk.
“Hey, so what’s your wife’s name?” He asked me while we were chewing on some sort of melon.
“Mikaeah,” I said. “We’ve been married for a year now.
“Wow, I wish I had something like that. Women don’t tend to go for a guy like me. I’m a little too rough around the edges and I scare ‘em. That’s alright though, I’m not looking to take any forever. That’s too much, I mean look at you. You’re probably more miserable than I am on this Island because you have something back home. All I had was that stupid farm that nothing grew on.”
“That’s what you were? A farmer?” I asked
“Yeah, we farmed vegetables mostly but the past year has been hard with the King taking most of our crops. That’s why I signed up, we needed another source of income.”
“We? You got a family?” I was starting on my next melon and my face and fingers were sticky.
“Yeah, well, it’s just my parents and my brother. But my brother’s about to get married and my parents are about to die, so I figure if I die out here there won’t be much I’d be leaving behind.”
“No not really, I’m sure your brother and his wife would want their kids to have an uncle, and your parents would want you running the farm.”
“Ha, I’ve always hated farming so I suppose I would’ve sold it. My nieces and nephews wouldn’t need me in their lives; I’m such a screw up. I’m better off being a good memory than a bad influence on them.”
“Way to be optimistic my friend.”
“Eh, optimism is for men who can’t accept the fact that their lives are over.” He bit into his melon and smiled at me.
“We’ll make it off this island Ryvet; you, me, Syro, Hayes, and Liam. We’ll go home to Calvarus. You can come home with me and help me reopen my shoe store. That’s what I used to do. Shoemaking.” He laughed at that and we continued to eat. He was sort of pale at this point.
“Alright.” We heard a rustling in the trees behind us and before we could react or run, we were captured by a small group of Siantian warriors and dragged into the jungle.
In king Malvis’ palace the king awaited the return of his supplies. Weeks dragged by and he grew so irritable that any time his servants attempted to serve him in any way they were met with a rage normally associated with a powerful lion. Everyone walked around the palace on egg shells to avoid upsetting him. He spent most of the day sitting on his throne like a cranky four-year old.
The King was undoubtedly angry and stomped his feet and slammed his crown on the palace floor. He drastically ordered twice as many newly acquired volunteers to go to the island and kill every last Siantian residing there. And also to get his supplies so he could have his war. Ships were prepared for their immediate departure.
The Siantians were quite scary looking and were in no way gentle with us. Ryvet and I were tied to a post and pulled through the thick growth. It was nearly impossible for anyone who didn’t k now their way to find it. There were no paths to follow, it just appeared to be walls of trees, vines, bushes and other green substances that were hard to make out. These Siantians in particular squeezed through trees and followed invisible routes, smashing through the growth and climbing over the rocks placed randomly and abundantly throughout the jungle. Ryvet and I crashed mercilessly in to the trees and leaves as we traveled down into the depths of their home. By the time we came to a stop we were bruised and scarred without the Siantians putting a single threatening motion toward us.
They pulled us to a fairly small clearing where there was an empty fire pit fashioned from smaller stones and some thick branches. Above the pit there were no trees and around it for a few hundred kilometers nothing green in the slightest. I assumed they felt it was safe to light a fire here, but I couldn’t help but remember that I had never seen a single swivel of smoke come from inside the jungle during the weeks now that we’d been there. We were placed in the center of the pit and the posts were hammered into the ground with stones. The posts wouldn’t be strong enough to keep us tied down but the Siantians knew that and their presence and weapons made it clear that if we attempted to move an inch we’d be killed.
Ryvet didn’t say a single word to me as we sat there and waited for whatever the Siantians had in store for us. He closed his eyes and relaxed himself as if to try and fall asleep. I sat in my place and looked around the makeshift village, containing a few women and children and a major force of Siantian men. They were all watching us, trying to figure out our purpose, some with hatred in their eyes. The island grew hotter and the sky brighter by the time someone nudged Ryvet awake and commanded our attention. We were sweating, hungry, thirsty, tired and angry by that time. Ryvet, being much more argumentative and belligerent than I, was not willing to take any bull from those savages. One of them, dressed in trousers and a shirt and much differently than his fellow Siantians, knelt down between Ryvet and I.
“I’m Corpus Watson.” He said slowly in the language we speak, as opposed to his Siantian brethren, who spoke in a mix of tongue torturing sounds to one another.
“And I’m hungry” said Ryvet, looking Mr. Watson dead in the eye a little challengingly.
“You’ll be fed shortly,” he struggled a bit with his dialect but managed to make himself clear enough to understand. “But I must speak with you first.” He turned to me.
“About what?” Ryvet asked him. Mr. Watson didn’t turn back to him but rather addressed me. “I need your help with something is all.”
“Why would you need my help? The only thing I’m concerned with is getting off of this island and going home to my family. Besides, you seem to be helping yourselves quite fine at the moment.”
Ryvet eyeballed the Siantians guarding us, and then he stared off into the distance.
“Simple. I’m going to kill your king. The man you serve. And you’re going to help me do it.”
“Whoa!” I said, trying to straighten up, “What makes you think I would kill my king? And even if I did, what makes you think I could?” he smirked.
“You know just as well as I do that he needs to die. Everyone who serves him believes that. That’s just how it is with kings who abuse their power. Don’t tell me you’re any different. You just said for yourself he sent you here away from your family. To die. Which may I remind you, if my friends here get the feeling that I don’t approve of you at any moment. You will.” He gestured to the Siantian men surrounding us. I hadn’t noticed earlier but their group had significantly grown.
“Okay then. What makes you think I can?” I asked him. Ryvet’s eyes were closed again and he slouched over. Mr. Watson began speaking softer now, as if to ensure that no one else could hear.
“I saw you on the beach earlier. You’ve got a plan don’t you?”
I don’t know what you’re talking abou …” he slapped me hard across the cheek.
“Don’t even try that. The boat you idiot. You’re getting off in a boat, right?” I nodded. Ryvet looked up at me suddenly and was about to argue but I shook my head to tell him it wasn’t worth the fight. Mr. Watson looked at him.
“So what,” Ryvet said, “You’re just going to take our boat and leave us to die here?”
“No. I’m going with you.”
“We can’t fit that many people in the boat, we already have five.” I said.
“Then remove one or I will. You’ll just be making room for me. No threats, you can try to throw me overboard after we get out to sea. But I’m going to tell you this, though I will be making myself vulnerable to you and your friends, I won’t make myself vulnerable to your King any more. I want to kill him, I will kill him, and I don’t need you once we dock. Just get me there and we will part.”
Ryvet and I looked at each other for confirmation that we agreed with each other’s thoughts. Once decided, I turned to Mr. Watson and nodded to him. He clapped his hands and a grin shot across his face.
“Alright, dinnertime!” We were untied and led through more growth to another clearing, much larger than the last and filled with more Siantians and an abundance of food.
That night, the men refused to sleep. They were missing two more men and many of them had died. Liam, Syro, and Hayes tried to figure out a way to leave undetected. It was every man for himself now and they weren’t going to forfeit their opportunity of escape because those two were missing. It would be hard this time to sneak off though, the men refused to sleep, in fear of an attack by the Siantians. It was extremely hot that night and most of them died of dehydration.
The next morning, when it was cold and windy, the men had had enough. They pushed past General Rush and headed into the jungle. The Siantians had them where they wanted them, and slaughtered every single last wanderer into the thick mass of growth. Liam prepared the boat while the angry volunteers stormed into the jungle. Syro and Hayes loaded it with fruit they found and a jar of water they found in the stream that flowed through the jungle and out of the side. It was the fresh water the Siantian people depended on to survive.
Right when they were about to kick off into the ocean they heard yelling. Jaxon, Ryvet and a Siantian dressed in his oppressor’s clothing sprinted towards the boat. Syro was relieved that they weren’t dead but Hayes and Liam were annoyed. The three men approached the boat and Jaxon explained the plan to the others, who were, unanimously receptive to the idea and agreed to it. When they all tried to get in the boat however, it was obvious one person needed to be left behind. After much arguing, The Siantian shot Ryvet in the face and pushed him out of the boat.
They silently pushed out to sea and started their journey to Calvarus; Ryvet lay in the water that washed up to the shore, the water turning red around his body.
Meanwhile, the volunteers issued for sail by King Malvis were halfway to Siantia and the king himself sat tentatively reviewing his plans and becoming wary of the possible failure of his attempt at war. He’d built up this army and they were being stalled because of a bunch of murderous savages and their cursed jungle. Things were not going the way he wanted them to, and this made him exceedingly cross with the members of his court.
That bastard shot my friend in the head. No warning, no attempt at compromise, just shot him. When we were in the middle of the sea, it was still awkwardly quiet and it was easy to tell that Hayes, Syro, and Liam were exceptionally uncomfortable with him sitting next to us with a loaded pistol. Mr. Watson didn’t seem to care though, he just leaned back in the boat and toyed with the gun in his hands. We’d been out there a few hours and already started eating some of the fruits. We tried to save most of it so it’d last us but we were so hungry and it was delicious. Finally, I broke the silence,
“You shot him. What’d you do that for?” I stared at him.
“What’s your point?” he didn’t bother looking up at me, “I told you if you couldn’t remove someone, I would.”
“But why him?”
“He was dying and slow and sad to look at,”
“He was sick but he would’ve got better, he would’ve been able to make it.” He sat up and leaned in until he was a couple of inches from my face.
“WAKE UP! He would’ve died and you would have tossed him overboard.” He pointed to Syro and Hayes, “They built the boat,” then to Liam, “and he is useful. And to break it to you, you aren’t, other than the fact that I made the deal with you.” He leaned back to where he was and closed his eyes. The other three men just sat there and tried to pretend they weren’t paying close attention to that entire conversation. This was going to be a long journey.
There were two ships headed for the island. The first had set out three days earlier and had reached the island. After the ship had stopped and the volunteers rowed up to the beaches, they immediately embarked on the wild goose chase for supplies. After realizing that there were none on the beaches, they camped out and planned to return to Calvarus in the morning. After the sun rested, the Siantians crept out of the jungle again and raided the camps. Several rowed out to sea and set fire to the ship, awaking most of the Calvarians on the beach. The fight was quick, by the time the men had retrieved their weapons, the Siantians were already in the jungle. Half of the volunteers followed them inside the growth in the dark, which was the worst plan they could’ve made. They were all slaughtered before the sun rose the next morning. The Calvarians left on the beach were scared, they had nothing but had found the stream Liam had used earlier. It was flowing downstream, out of the jungle and there were luckily a lot of fish traveling through it to get from one side of the island to the other.
For a couple of days the Calvarians were able to live off of the fish and fresh water. But the Siantians caught on fast to their enemies. They poisoned the water at a safe distance from their people’s villages and it flowed downstream into the Calvarian volunteer’s grasp. The next day the volunteers began dying of dysentery and the flu. Once again, the Siantians had won.
We fell asleep late and woke up early, it was becoming difficult to keep myself focused. We were too close to finishing the fruit and water. No one talked much still and we were circled a few times by sharks. We were also pretty sure we were lost and had no way of telling otherwise.
But just when I started giving up, I spotted the most wonderful sight: a ship coming toward us. Liam, Syro and Hayes stood and waved their hands at the boat to get attention to us. When the ship pulled up, men dressed in the same uniforms we were issued hoisted us onboard. They were skeptical about Mr. Watson, but we assured them that it was fine. Urgently we requested they turn around and that going to the island was a bad idea. The King’s men who were onboard began to distrust us and threatened to throw us overboard or arrest us for treason in the name of the king. Liam, apparently a former friend of a few of them was able to convince them of the danger ahead and that there were no supplies to retrieve.
“But we already have a ship that has arrived there, it should’ve been there three days four days now.” One of the men said, “If it’s dangerous we have to save them.”
“If they’ve been there four days, they’re dead.” Mr. Watson said. It was the first thing he’d spoken since we argued three days ago about Ryvet. One of the men stepped to him,
“What do you mean they’re dead?”
“If, they’ve been there four days, my people would have killed them by now.” He gestured to us, “They only lasted so long because we were making a game out of toying with them. My people are sick and tired of it now and want all of you Calvarians off of our island. So simply, if you decide to go there, you will die. Period.”
“You murderous bastard!” One man tried to grab him. Mr. Watson pulled out his gun from his trouser pocket and aimed at the man’s head. Then moved it side to side, making sure everyone knew he could shoot every last one of them.
“I am a murderous bastard my friend.” Mr. Watson said, “But I’m not going to murder anyone unless I feel my life is threatened. Don’t test me. Now, you will turn this ship around and take us to Calvarus, be grateful I’m sparing you by not taking you to my home. My people are a tad more brutal than I.”
“Mr. Watson, please put the gun down, we don’t need to threaten them.” I said trying to lower the gun that he still had outstretched toward the passengers of the ship. He waved me away and tucked the gun into his pocket before turning towards the stern of the ship and leaving everyone behind him to question what just happened. The Captain of the ship approached me quickly after he left,
“What’s the matter with you bringin him here? You tryin’ to get us all killed?”
“He’s not here to kill us. He’s here to kill the king. And I suggest you don’t get in his way.” I turned and walked to the door leading below deck with Syro, Hayes and Liam. They were suddenly happy they arrived with Mr. Watson, especially Liam, who planned to team up with him to live a life of piracy after the death of the king.
The King was losing support for the war from his Generals. Before long he decided to postpone the war until he punished those filthy Siantians that murdered twelve hundred of Calvarian men in four months. At this point it didn’t matter that they were nothing more than the scum of his country, poor volunteers with no training, he felt disrespected. He planned an invasion of the island with his army and powerful navy and weapons from all sides. He wanted to chop down those forsaken trees and make every last one of the Siantians suffer. Even blow up the island if he could. He planned and planned for weeks and some days he was sure he could win, but on others he became concerned with the loss. What if he couldn’t cut down the trees? What if the people proved more powerful than he thought and could wipe out his elite army? At this point they proved unpredictable. He suddenly felt bad for arming the volunteers with nothing but knives in an attempt to preserve the useful weapons for his army.
We reached the country and went our separate ways. The ship ride lightened up, Mr. Watson became less threatening and we started to bond with him and the Captain. But tragically half a day before we returned to Calvarus, Mr. Watson went missing. One of the volunteers on board claimed to have seen him on the deck the night before near the railing, and that he assumed the man went overboard after everyone went to sleep. After we docked, I said my goodbyes to the men and headed home. My family’s town was a day’s ride on ox cart, so the Captain paid my fees for me and I was on my way. Syro and Hayes teamed up to open a consignment store, they’d planned it while on the ship and had apparently become really good friends. Liam didn’t get Mr. Watson to agree with his plans to engage in piracy before he went missing, I guess he only had one mission in mind before returning home. So, anyway Liam went solo and joined a crew that terrorized the coasts of Kambridge.
A peculiar sight got me thinking at the docks though. As we all left the ship I thought my eyes betrayed me when I saw General Rush walking across the dock. It gave me chills for a second but I disregarded it and headed home. I arrived to the small town my family lived near. It was a pathetic little town but it had character, it made me feel at home before I even got to my front door. After stepping out of the cart I started the trek up to my family’s pasture and waved at all of my neighbors strolling around, buying goods and socializing. By the time I’d walked into my home, I was already tired, but my wife embraced me and we hugged for a long time. We kissed and cried and she handed me our son. We hadn’t named him yet on account of we were waiting for the right one. I told her about my experience and that I wanted to name our son Ryvet, she agreed with a smile and we planned to open up a new shoe store and start over.
By the time the king had made a decision he’d let his country fall into ruin. All of the time he spent in his chambers with the door locked caused him to neglect the people’s concerns and they despised him. Anarchist citizens were able to sway the people to rebel, some for the sake of bringing down government, but most wanted a democratic society like Esana.
King Malvis stepped out on to the balcony of his grand palace courtyard on a chilly morning. Before he could announce his decision to his military, an arrow pierced his skull and passed through to the other side. He died instantly. Two miles away, in a guard tower of the courtyard, the Siantian by the name of Corpus Watson stood up straight and dropped his bow. The country became a democratic society and flourished. Jaxon’s son grew up to be a strong and great man. He became the leader of the great nation he grew up in and protected the island of Siantia until it grew to be a strong nation as well. No one ever heard from Corpus Watson again.
Post a Comment
Be the first to comment on this article!