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Dark skies are suddenly set on fire as flaming arrows pierce the night and descend upon the small village. Frightened screams of women, children, and horses reverberate across the valley as the knights from the mountain storm the village walls.
A little girl runs across the road after her mother. Horses race by and a glancing blow knocks her to the ground and leaves her to the mercy of the Gods. She feels a throbbing pain in her right arm and though she tries to ignore it, she knows it’s broken. More mounted men surge forward on their dark warhorses, wielding even darker weapons.
She cradles her arm and cries out for help. Two men come to her rescue with farming plows in hand and act to block off the last of the knights to enter the village. The knight laughs as he pierces one in the throat with a heavy lance while his horse makes good work of trampling the other. Blood sprays across her cherubim face only to be washed away by tears made dark by the ash stirring in the breeze.
She is able to get up, and she runs away. Her right arm hangs limp as she tries to find asylum from the chaos. Glowing embers streak across her face getting carried off by the wind and bringing the fire in their wake. Horrible, red, burning flames spill across the ground in front of her and she screams. Demons seem to dance in the flame as dark shadows to rise from the ground to play with the horrible, burning fire.
Someone calls her name but she can barely hear it. It’s her mother, but she sounds so far away. The thundering hooves, the dying screams of men and women, the knights from the mountain laughing and shouting as they pillage and burn and slaughter, it all drowns out her mother’s voice.
She backs away from the fire searching frantically for a sign of her mother. A throttled scream comes from behind and she turns to see two men drag her mother out into the street. They laugh as the tear away her clothes and pull at her black hair. She yells and curses as one of the knights throws her to the ground bloodied and naked.
He takes her in the street, mounting her from behind like a wild animal. That’s what he was, a terrible, wild, savage beast from the dark recesses of the mountain. He pulls her head up by her hair as he enters her again and again. Ash stains her beautiful face. Streaks of pale skin peek through the soot, made by her tears of shame, her fear, her agony. The girl watches as it all happens, her mother staring at her with those wild green eyes welling up with more and more tears as she cries for herself and her daughter.
The girl falls to her knees and breaks down into shuddering sobs as the knight from the mountain ravages her mother there before her very eyes. The fire, the pain, the screaming and burning and slaughter are all in the distance. All she can see is the pain in those beautiful green eyes.
More blood sprays across the ground in front of her followed by a body. It’s a man she recognizes and it scares her to see someone so familiar look at her with blank, dead eyes, blood spilling from his open throat. She stares down at the face in horror. A dark boot steps on the dead man’s neck and crushes it. The girl looks up to see one of the knights staring down at her with a manic smile on his face and fire reflected in his eyes. She can see Hell in those eyes and it makes her want to want to scream. She wants to cry out, but her throat is raw.
The knight raises his heavy blade and she can’t move. Fear is holding her in its cold, skeletal embrace and she simply can’t run away.
More blood… she’s covered in it now. Abruptly, the light flickers out of his eyes and his smile is replaced with a look of surprise and confusion. He looks down and sees the blade of a sword protruding from his chest. The blood flows like a fountain down his dark armor to drip on the little girls face. The knight grunts as the sword is removed, she can hear the steel scraping up against bone as the blade slowly slides out of view and he falls away. His face lands in a pile of embers to smoke and burn. The sound of skin cracking and popping distracts her for a moment before the shadow of the killer sweeps over her small body. She looks up, empty of tears and screams.
She sees her mother staring down at her. Her naked body riddled with cuts and burns, the sword dripping with blood is held firmly with both hands. It takes the girl a moment to understand what had happened. Her mother must have gotten hold of the sword that the knight that was raping her had in his possession.
The little girl looks up at her with the blank expression of a child with a broken mind, no smiles or tears or sobs, just muted and blank. She wraps her good arm around her mother’s leg. Blood had already begun to cake on her mothers thighs from the brutal assault she had just experienced. Her mother throws the sword away and kneels down to grab her daughter in a tight embrace. The girl can smell the ash in her hair and can feel her mother’s tears roll down her shoulder. She grabs a handful of her mothers black hair and presses it to her cheek, still soft. She looks over her mothers shoulder and watches the tragedy that had overtaken her small home. Men, farmers, attempt to protect their homes and families with sickles and plows all for naught as they are cut down, one after another. Other girls like herself, friends and familiar faces all, being trampled down or burned. Small boys try in vain to be brave and strong like their fathers, only to suffer the same fate as their fathers. Women being raped in the streets, babes thrown into the burning buildings or having their heads crushed in with steel boots. Her mother goes limp and the wait pushes her to the ground. She crawls out from under the body and just stares down and the last thing in her world dies and fades away. She almost doesn't notice the noose wrap tight around her little neck until she's dragged off her feet along the hard ground. She starts kicking and clawing at the rope to no avail. A giant blood stained hair grabs her by the turf of her hair to face her fate. A burning building with the rafter still intact with little bodies hanging above the flames. Dark men laughing and shouting at the atrocity. She's not afraid or sad or hopeless anymore. She sets her jaw firmly as her hands are tied behind her back. This little girl, so tiny and helpless and weak, is now ready to face her death at the hands of terrible men. The push her towards the building, prodding at her with their lances and laughing all the while. They through the rope over a rafter as they set her on a tall stool. She doesn't flinch. She just looks up through the burning roof up at the night sky full of stars obscured by the smoke and she curses god. They kick out the stool...oh tragic night.