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Time passed and I was promoted. I was one of the soldiers in the army,the lowest rank in it, but Alexandra still remained the gardener she was. I worked as her companion when I didn’t have any army work to do.
One day, I was called to our head officers cabin with a few fellow soldiers. A war was starting and I was posted to the location. We were assured that our families would be taken care of when we were not around. We believed them.
I went home to face Alexandra. I knew she was not going to let me go without a scene. She would cry and cry and I would do nothing but console her, tell her no, promise her that I will come back for her no matter what. I had no other option. How else was I going to keep her fed? Keep her alive. The officer had told us that if we declined this offer our families would die. And I didn’t want Alexandra to die. I wanted her to live and to somehow escape the prison of an unknown king whom we had never even caught a glimpse of.
I went home and told her, “Alexandra, I have been posted to the war location and I leave tomorrow morning.” The moment she heard that, her eyes became blurry with tears and big, fat tears rolled down her cheeks. She ran to me as I strode towards her and put her hand around my waist, under my cloak and sobbed into my chest.
“Please don’t go. I can’t live without you. You bring me happiness. You are my support. You keep me happy, Aro, when I remember my children. I can’t live without you being there. Please. Just this once. Don’t go, Aro. Please. I’m begging. Please.”
She sobbed all night as I held her, knowing that this was the only time we could spend together. Who knew if I would survive this war or not? If I did, the first thing to do would be getting my Alexandra out of here.
And if I did not, I’m sending some money to Didyme too so that she can take care of Alexandra while I’m gone. I’m sending her a letter with it, asking if she can rescue my wife from here. I don’t want to burden her too much but I should ask her. I want Alexandra safe when I am gone.
So, the next morning I woke her up and bid her farewell. She didn’t say anything. She just looked into my eyes and I looked back. I don’t know who started but when I realised what was happening, we were both wiping away each other’s tears. I pulled her into me and placed a soft kiss on her forehead and whispered “I promise I will come back. Just be ready to wait for me as long as possible. I love you.”
And then, I left her. The last memory of Alexandra that I have is that of her standing on the steps sobbing and wiping the overwhelming tears. I wanted to go back to her so badly. I wanted to comfort her, tell her everything was okay. No. No mistakes. I wanted her to live. So I just looked back once and gave her a smile that told her ‘take care of yourself.’
I went for the war. They took us through an over-filled carriage. It had room for about 15 but they crammed in 25 of us. What a miser this king was! Forget about sitting, I barely stood on one toe. It was excruciating. But we reached the grounds eventually. I knew no one. Actually it looked like nobody knew each other. Everybody was lost in their own world, just like I was lost in mine.
It was strange. We were taken to some old village. It was not a place where a war could start. It was all very strange. People were gliding around like ghosts at night and hardly anyone came out during day. And even if anyone came, they all just behaved like if the sun touched their skin, it would hurt them or something. I figured the people here must be having sensitive skin due to which they would get early sunburns and that was why they were all covered. I still was not sure. It seemed strange-this kind of behaviour. When they talked, their voice was smooth. They had noiseless movements and all of them had weird skin.
The fair ones had amazingly fair skin, almost chalky white. They were pale. The skin disease had me terrified. I did not want that to happen to me. It would destroy my life. My wife would not recognise me and even if she did she wouldn’t take me back because of this disease.
The dark ones were also the same. Just that they were not pale, their skin was too black. It was almost glossy.
But there was one thing common about everyone in that village. All of them had red eyes. I should really stay away from them. They have so many diseases. If I come in contact with them, I will die. The skin diseases, the eyes, the clothes they wear look borrowed-everything they possess looks used. They always had this hungry look when they looked at us. It was all very eerie. I knew there was danger. After all, there is a war coming up. I had to beware.
The next day I got up. We were made to go in a line into the king’s tent. I was excited and scared at the same time. I had never seen my master-I was excited to see him finally- and I had a feeling, this meeting was not going to be pleasant.
The king was something to look at. He was just like the people I had seen around here. Chalky white skin, red eyes, pale and noiseless movements. Ghostly. Just like everybody here. But still, he was different. Maybe it was the heavy jewellery he wore. He was even more-impossibly- graceful than the others. He was wearing a long dark-red robe and a crown studded with who knows how many gems and precious stones. Though he was one beautiful sight to look at but he scared me. Terrified me. I wanted to bolt through the doors. Though there was a warm smile on his face but still, there was something about him-something I couldn’t point out- that no one else seemed to notice. He was scary.
My heartbeat accelerated as the feeling of danger sunk in. The smile turned mocking as he glanced mischievously at me. And at that moment, I knew somehow he knew how my body reacted to his appearance.
But then he spoke and I was shocked by the nature of his voice. It was crisp yet soft, honey-like. There was a silky texture to it. It was cheerful yet suspenseful. The words I heard were, “Welcome, soldiers. You will be taken to the underground chamber so that my generals here can give you your war equipments and armour.” It seemed like there was some hidden meaning to the words he said.
Till I realised what was happening, the soldier behind me poked at my back and asked me to move forward. I hadn’t realised when the line had started moving. I absently started walking- following the others- my mind lagging behind and my heart racing like a race horse.
The underground chamber was just like the first storey. It was all white. I don’t know what i was expecting but it certainly was not this. It was a hallway with doors on both sides. Candle-lit chandeliers hanging over our heads. I followed my fellow soldiers to the room they were entering. The room was even more unbelievable. There was a short space between it and then there was a huge metal door. It had a curved upper part and straight sides. Like a semi-circle put over a rectangle. I numbly followed the others inside. It was the same. A bright candle-lit room with white walls.
For the first time, I looked behind me. There were several villagers coming into the room now. The weird diseased ones. Why were they coming? Were they holding us prisoners and beating us up like they did where I lived?
They couldn’t. We would not be able to fight in this condition. We would be too weak. We’d need strength.
And before I knew, there were almost as many number of the villagers as us in the room. One of them came up to me and introduced himself. “Hello, gentleman, I’m Marcus Revelro. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I replied, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Marcus,“-though I wasn’t sure if that was true-“I’m Aro-Aro Graple.” I gave him a rigid smile.
He made small talk with me for a while. I noticed that whenever he breathed in, his red eyes seemed to flatten and turn a shade toward black.
I was telling him about Alexandra when he suddenly cut me off.
“My wife, Alexandra she works at the castle as a garde-“
“I can’t take this anymore.” And he snarled, a vicious, loud nose coming from the mouth of my new found (maybe only) friend. He leaned toward me and I couldn’t make sense out of the action. Did he want to tell me anything in my ear that was a secret? I was sure I could keep it.
But before I could make sense out of anything......... I felt sharp razors cut through me and burn me where they touched. This was not happening. Please don’t tell me Marcus got me here to harass me like this! I thought he was my friend- my only friend!
Why would he do this to me?!
Aro.
One day, I was called to our head officers cabin with a few fellow soldiers. A war was starting and I was posted to the location. We were assured that our families would be taken care of when we were not around. We believed them.
I went home to face Alexandra. I knew she was not going to let me go without a scene. She would cry and cry and I would do nothing but console her, tell her no, promise her that I will come back for her no matter what. I had no other option. How else was I going to keep her fed? Keep her alive. The officer had told us that if we declined this offer our families would die. And I didn’t want Alexandra to die. I wanted her to live and to somehow escape the prison of an unknown king whom we had never even caught a glimpse of.
I went home and told her, “Alexandra, I have been posted to the war location and I leave tomorrow morning.” The moment she heard that, her eyes became blurry with tears and big, fat tears rolled down her cheeks. She ran to me as I strode towards her and put her hand around my waist, under my cloak and sobbed into my chest.
“Please don’t go. I can’t live without you. You bring me happiness. You are my support. You keep me happy, Aro, when I remember my children. I can’t live without you being there. Please. Just this once. Don’t go, Aro. Please. I’m begging. Please.”
She sobbed all night as I held her, knowing that this was the only time we could spend together. Who knew if I would survive this war or not? If I did, the first thing to do would be getting my Alexandra out of here.
And if I did not, I’m sending some money to Didyme too so that she can take care of Alexandra while I’m gone. I’m sending her a letter with it, asking if she can rescue my wife from here. I don’t want to burden her too much but I should ask her. I want Alexandra safe when I am gone.
So, the next morning I woke her up and bid her farewell. She didn’t say anything. She just looked into my eyes and I looked back. I don’t know who started but when I realised what was happening, we were both wiping away each other’s tears. I pulled her into me and placed a soft kiss on her forehead and whispered “I promise I will come back. Just be ready to wait for me as long as possible. I love you.”
And then, I left her. The last memory of Alexandra that I have is that of her standing on the steps sobbing and wiping the overwhelming tears. I wanted to go back to her so badly. I wanted to comfort her, tell her everything was okay. No. No mistakes. I wanted her to live. So I just looked back once and gave her a smile that told her ‘take care of yourself.’
I went for the war. They took us through an over-filled carriage. It had room for about 15 but they crammed in 25 of us. What a miser this king was! Forget about sitting, I barely stood on one toe. It was excruciating. But we reached the grounds eventually. I knew no one. Actually it looked like nobody knew each other. Everybody was lost in their own world, just like I was lost in mine.
It was strange. We were taken to some old village. It was not a place where a war could start. It was all very strange. People were gliding around like ghosts at night and hardly anyone came out during day. And even if anyone came, they all just behaved like if the sun touched their skin, it would hurt them or something. I figured the people here must be having sensitive skin due to which they would get early sunburns and that was why they were all covered. I still was not sure. It seemed strange-this kind of behaviour. When they talked, their voice was smooth. They had noiseless movements and all of them had weird skin.
The fair ones had amazingly fair skin, almost chalky white. They were pale. The skin disease had me terrified. I did not want that to happen to me. It would destroy my life. My wife would not recognise me and even if she did she wouldn’t take me back because of this disease.
The dark ones were also the same. Just that they were not pale, their skin was too black. It was almost glossy.
But there was one thing common about everyone in that village. All of them had red eyes. I should really stay away from them. They have so many diseases. If I come in contact with them, I will die. The skin diseases, the eyes, the clothes they wear look borrowed-everything they possess looks used. They always had this hungry look when they looked at us. It was all very eerie. I knew there was danger. After all, there is a war coming up. I had to beware.
The next day I got up. We were made to go in a line into the king’s tent. I was excited and scared at the same time. I had never seen my master-I was excited to see him finally- and I had a feeling, this meeting was not going to be pleasant.
The king was something to look at. He was just like the people I had seen around here. Chalky white skin, red eyes, pale and noiseless movements. Ghostly. Just like everybody here. But still, he was different. Maybe it was the heavy jewellery he wore. He was even more-impossibly- graceful than the others. He was wearing a long dark-red robe and a crown studded with who knows how many gems and precious stones. Though he was one beautiful sight to look at but he scared me. Terrified me. I wanted to bolt through the doors. Though there was a warm smile on his face but still, there was something about him-something I couldn’t point out- that no one else seemed to notice. He was scary.
My heartbeat accelerated as the feeling of danger sunk in. The smile turned mocking as he glanced mischievously at me. And at that moment, I knew somehow he knew how my body reacted to his appearance.
But then he spoke and I was shocked by the nature of his voice. It was crisp yet soft, honey-like. There was a silky texture to it. It was cheerful yet suspenseful. The words I heard were, “Welcome, soldiers. You will be taken to the underground chamber so that my generals here can give you your war equipments and armour.” It seemed like there was some hidden meaning to the words he said.
Till I realised what was happening, the soldier behind me poked at my back and asked me to move forward. I hadn’t realised when the line had started moving. I absently started walking- following the others- my mind lagging behind and my heart racing like a race horse.
The underground chamber was just like the first storey. It was all white. I don’t know what i was expecting but it certainly was not this. It was a hallway with doors on both sides. Candle-lit chandeliers hanging over our heads. I followed my fellow soldiers to the room they were entering. The room was even more unbelievable. There was a short space between it and then there was a huge metal door. It had a curved upper part and straight sides. Like a semi-circle put over a rectangle. I numbly followed the others inside. It was the same. A bright candle-lit room with white walls.
For the first time, I looked behind me. There were several villagers coming into the room now. The weird diseased ones. Why were they coming? Were they holding us prisoners and beating us up like they did where I lived?
They couldn’t. We would not be able to fight in this condition. We would be too weak. We’d need strength.
And before I knew, there were almost as many number of the villagers as us in the room. One of them came up to me and introduced himself. “Hello, gentleman, I’m Marcus Revelro. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I replied, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Marcus,“-though I wasn’t sure if that was true-“I’m Aro-Aro Graple.” I gave him a rigid smile.
He made small talk with me for a while. I noticed that whenever he breathed in, his red eyes seemed to flatten and turn a shade toward black.
I was telling him about Alexandra when he suddenly cut me off.
“My wife, Alexandra she works at the castle as a garde-“
“I can’t take this anymore.” And he snarled, a vicious, loud nose coming from the mouth of my new found (maybe only) friend. He leaned toward me and I couldn’t make sense out of the action. Did he want to tell me anything in my ear that was a secret? I was sure I could keep it.
But before I could make sense out of anything......... I felt sharp razors cut through me and burn me where they touched. This was not happening. Please don’t tell me Marcus got me here to harass me like this! I thought he was my friend- my only friend!
Why would he do this to me?!
Aro.
