# The Siege of Valash



## Maiden_of Harad

An empty stillness, filled only with the sound of blowing snow, pervaded the camp. The pale grey-blue of twilight was fading into darkness as a solitary sentry gazed up at the city of Valash, which crowned the top of a grey plateau that rose like a tower above the white plains. The sentry blinked and used his hands as a shield to ward snow from his eyes.
" How long will I stand here?" He muttered " I bet they're huddled up in their tents, cozy and all, while I stand here half-frozen, to keep watch so that those ungrateful men can sleep safe from a surprise raid tonight! I bet Nevsky forgot all about getting my soup!" 
His stomach growled, and he stomped his feet, from both frustration and as a futile attempt to warm his sluggish body.


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## Maiden_of Harad

A soft crunching of snow behind him and the smell of something savoury wafting towards him aroused the sentry from lethargy.
"Why are you so late, Nevsky?" He growled.
Shivering with more than cold, Nevsky replied:
"I-I'm sorry, Hideoshi, but Galen heard a rumour-"
"Camp rumour," scoffed Hideoshi,"and by Galen, too! Hah! Wasn't he the one that told everybody that we'd be home before autumn?"
"Yes, but-," continued Nevsky, nonplussed,"- There's going to be another attack on the city tomorrow, and they're going to send some soldiers the climb up the sides of the plateau, while the rest of us storm the main gate. You'll be with the mountain climbers for sure."
" Not another scheme! None of 'em have worked so far! Those generals need a reality check!"
"What are we in the war for, anyways?" Asked Nevsky.
"Well, the city of Valash, although it's a human city, is a smuggling point for the evil Fairies or Mazovians to raid our country. So, supposedly, taking out the city will stop the raids."
"Do you think it will work, Hideoshi?"
"I can't say."
Suddenly, a loud whoosh flew over their heads, a great thud landed in the camp behind them,and an enormous explosion filled the stillness about them. Great clouds of snow, clods of dirt, tents, men, and other items were hurtled into the air. A great orange ball of flames, seething, billowed, then fizzled and died in the snow.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"Blasted cannons!" Fumed Hideoshi.
A loud cry sounded: " Pack the tents, then move foreward! We attack Valash tonight!"
"Now your supper is wasted!" Groaned Nevsky.
Hideoshi laughed. "No, it isn't!"-and gulped down the soup.
Another cannonball crashed into the camp. Soldiers scurried about in panic, dashing here and there, packing up camp. More cannonballs fell into their midst.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Hideoshi and Nevsky dashed franticly to the kitchen tent, but Nevsky tripped while they ran.
"Ahh! What's this?" He cried. He glanced at the obstacle in the snow that tripped him, and he blanched.
"Someone's asleep in the snow!"
Hideoshi groaned. "Boy, you're really green! He's dead, probably killed by one of those cannonballs."
He looked back at Nevsky, and saw him standing dumbly, staring wildly at the corpse.
"Yes, people are killed out here, silly!" Hideoshi shouted. "Now snap out of it and run,unless you want to keep him company!"
He looked back again. Nevsky finally began to walk towards him, but he trembled violently, his face contorting with emotion.
"He's one of the types that either goes mad, kills themselves, or gets killed, if they don't man up," mused Hideoshi.
"Be glad it wasn't summer," was all Hideoshi said outwardly.


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## Maiden_of Harad

At last they reached the kitchen tent, which they broke down rapidly and bundled up into a coarse sack. Other soldiers had already borne away the kitchen ware.
Hideoshi and Nevsky hoisted the sack onto their shoulders, and trudged off, following the haphazard column of men that was heading to the nearby forest. Snow whipped round then, confounding their sight in the dark grey light that grew ever darker. The wind penetrated them, sapping what little warmth they still had within them.
They entered the pine forest, scarce noting the tall trees whose trunks stood straight as arrow shafts, except to avoid running into them. About them, they heard the trudging of other soldiers, heavy breathing, and the eerie moan of the wind in the trees. 
"Hideoshi?" Asked Nevsky, partly to reassure himself that his companion was truly there.
"Yes?"
" Well," Nevsky mumbled, "how come you're not afraid-of the war, that is?"
Hideoshi trudged on, bewildered. What should he tell to this novice of warfare?
Memories began to flash in his mind. The screams of wounded, dying men in their last agony. The panic that seized him before each battle. The wild frenzy of killing so that he would not be killed.
"I'm not really brave," he replied. "I just got used to it all. People can get used to about anything."


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## Maiden_of Harad

"Oh, alright," said Nevsky.
Soon the soldiers halted, threw down their burdens, and began to pitch camp. Canvas flapped, resisting the restraint of strong hands trying to hold it down. Logs were stacked by others, and set to flame.
Through the roar of snow-laden wind came a sudden call, echoing: "Get your weapons, fall in line, and march to Valash! Now!"
"So we're going now!" said Nevsky. "I barely thawed out! I'm not used to cold weather, unlike you, Hideoshi."
"Where are you from? I've never heard," asked Hideoshi, as they fell into line and trudged off once more.
" I'm from the Andre Swamps, down south. In the summertime, the air just hummed with life; birds, insects. And that hoary gray-green moss draping from cypress trees that gave the swamps a melancholy air! It was so humid though, and sticky, which made one just want to lie down under a shade tree with a good breeze going. So long as a cypress root didn't stick in your back!" He chuckled.
"How was it like in the mountains where you're from, Hideoshi?"


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## Maiden_of Harad

"Well," replied Hideoshi, "it was a vast chain of craggy, gray mountains as far as human eyes can see, many perptually capped in snow. It was remote, and for miles jagged peaks pinnacled to vast heights, while below them were rough trenches and gouges of deep-bowled valleys overcast by mountain shadows. Sharp, sudden gusts of cold air blew over the valley where I lived, where short, stubbles of grass grew in spring and summer.
My friends and I often would go mountain climbing. How grand that was! But we'd better stop talking now, unless you want the sergents to stop us!"
"Okay. Thanks."
" And don't think I never get cold here!"
" Fine!"
For five miles they trudged in the darkness before comming to the one road that led to the city of Valash on top of the plateau. Up the road winded the column of soldiers, until the top was reached and the city stood before them.
" Set up the trebuchets and catapults, First Company!" Boomed an officer. " The rest of you will be ordered either to batter the gate, or to continue work on that mine near the back gate!" 
Nevsky shivered. "We're both in Third Company. I wonder what they'll order us to."
" Probably to batter the gate, since our company's had the fewest losses," said Hideoshi.
Nevsky's eyes widened,and he began to tremble.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Meanwhile, the dark night was fading into a grey-blue light, enabling Hideoshi to see more clearly Nevsky's blank stare of terror.
" Not now!" Hideoshi thought. "That's the way with his kind. Let's see what I can do for him."
" Stick by me!" He called out to Nevsky above the clamor around them.
Just then a great "boom" thundered directly before them. Fire shot up from the ground, blasting skyward with great force a trebuchet and several men.
The pair dashed backwards, while more cannon shot blasted into the beseiging troops.
Hideoshi cried, "Why do we fight cannons-fairy (that is, Mazovian ) made with trebuchets and catapults? It's madness!"
" Third Company, ram the gate!" Shouted their major.
Hideoshi glanced at the dazed, petrified Nevsky.
"Stick by me. I'll be with you. I've done this before," he said.
Nevsky smiled shakily back.
"Thanks."


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## Maiden_of Harad

A large battering ram, tipped with a sharp iron point, was brought forward, along with many large, rectangular shields that curved inwards. Soldiers of the Third Company formed the shields into a tortoise over the battering ram, and marched towards the gate of Valash. But not there was not enough room for all the soldiers of the Third Company to carry the battering ram. These followed behind the ram, including Nevsky and Hideoshi.
Another cannonball shot overhead, barely missing the group.
" Nevsky!" Whispered Hideoshi.
"What?"
"I've got an idea. Since a lot of us can't actually batter the gate, let's capture a cannon!"
"What! We'll be killed!"
"No, we won't!" Hideoshi insisted.
Nevsky stared at him.
"How can you say that?" He asked.
Hideoshi, bewildered, said,
" I don't know, but I can somehow tell."
Nevsky scanned Hideoshi's features: Black, glossy hair, fair skin; and, though his eyes were green, they were narrow, characteristic of many Asian peoples. Finally, Nevsky asked
"Is there-by any chance- Fairy blood in you?"
Hideoshi glanced back at Nevsky, puzzled.
" Not that I know of, even though I am of mixed human race. But we must hurry if we're to capture a cannon!"
Nevsky shrugged, and muttered to himself as Hideoshi told the others about his plan. 
" I wouldn't be surprised if he did have Fairy blood in him," he said. "But there's been only one Fairy-Human marriage in all of history, and their son had no children. Still- ouch!"
An arrow whizzed past, nicking his arm.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Arrows began to rain upon the Third Company, hissing until clanging and ricocheting off the steel shields. A few penetrated the shields, pricking skin. The cannons of Valash continued to blast into the ranks of the beseiging army, but several trebuchets and catapults creaked in reply, hurling chunks of stone against the city walls. A section blew apart, collasping into rubble, leaving a gap near one of the cannons.
Seeing this, Hideoshi cried, " Run forward now!"
The members of the Third Company who were not battering the gate rushed forward, clambered over the rubble, captured the cannon and its gunners, and dashed out ( making the prisoners tote the cannon ) before the dazed Valashians could respond. Their major gasped when he saw their prize.
" Who thought of such a daring plan? He deserves a medal!" He exclaimed.
Hideoshi strode forward, saluted, and said, "I did, sir."
" Well, you and your companians may return to camp now," replied the grinning major. "You all deserve it."
"Thank you, sir," said Hideoshi, who saluted, along with his companions, and trudged back to the road that led down fron the plateau.
Halfway on the way back to camp, Hideoshi became aware that he had not seen Nevsky since before the capture of the cannon.
"Where is he?" He cried. "He'll get killed if left by himself, the way he is!"


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## Maiden_of Harad

After being nicked by an arrow, Nevsky had followed Hideoshi and the others into Valash, but became bewildered once their prize was dragged out of the city through the breach. Soldiers dodging arrows, racing to the breach in the wall, fleeing cannon bombardment distracted him, caused him to lose sight of Hideoshi and his group.
"What should I do?" He questioned himself, as a tusnami of panic arose within him. Other soldiers pushed and shoved past him, screamed and shouted, while cannons and siege weapons boomed and creaked in concert. He tried to think, despite the tumult about him, but tripped once more over a dead body.
Nevsky, upon impulse, looked at the face of the dead soldier. Though streaked with blood, he recognised the corpse as the body of his cousin, Ivan, who had been in Fifth Company.
"No! No!" He screamed, but his cry of agony was lost in the roar of battle.
Once more, panic-caused by the fear of death-surged within Nevsky. He attempted to calm himself, saying, "I won't get killed! I won't get killed!" Repeatedly. But this only increased the feeling of terror.
A shadow passed over him, and looking up, he saw a Mazovian Fairy flying in a spiral over the city of Valash.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"Retreat to the camp!" Cried the commanding officers while the dark form soared overhead. All rushed to the road in panic, some even deserting their siege weapons. Nevsky remained petrified for a moment, then arose, darting after the last stragglers on the road down to the plains.
Hideoshi just started out to search for Nevsky when he saw a drooping figure plodding at the end of a line of soldiers. 
"Nevsky, where have you been?" He shouted.
Nevsky approached, still drooping, and replied in a voice that mingled terror with despair, " My cousin Ivan is dead."
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Hideoshi, but meanwhile he thought, " One more blow, and he'll go berserk. I hope nothing else will shake him up."
Just then, Galen, the camp mailman, strode up to Nevsky and shoved an envelope into his trembling fist. Nevsky glanced at it absently at first, then slowly a grin covered his face.
" It's from my aunt Olga! I've not seen or heard from her in years!" He cried,ripping open the envelope.
Hideoshi and Galen moved in closer to catch whatever Nevsky said. At first, he scanned the letter, still grinning. However, his grin faded, he reread the letter, and he read it again, now gasping.
Galen and Hideoshi asked instantaneously, "What is it?"
A burst of screaming and tears poured forth.
"They're dead! My family, all of them! My father, my mother, my little brothers and sisters, my whole village, dead! Mazovians slashed them up and razed the village! My family!" Screamed Nevsky, hot tears streaking his flushed face.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Nevsky suddenly dashed towards the city of Valash, shouting, " Come get me! Come get me!" 
"We'll have to get him," said Galen, groaning. 
Hideoshi replied, " Then we'd better run, or he'll be killed!" " There's a dark grey cloud moving in fast from the north." "Not a blizzard! But let's go!". 
Hideoshi sped after the deranged Nevsky, Galen following after thrusting the rest of the camp mail into the backpack of an unsuspecting soldier nearby. Soon, Galen caught up with Hideoshi, and together they pursued Nevsky, crunching snow beneath their urgent footfalls. Meanwhile, the storm cloud moved rapidly towards them over the white plains. The two finally reach Nevsky, seized him by his shoulders, and shook him. " What on Arret were you thinking?" Galen screamed. 

"Nevsky, I understand that this news is hard for you," shouted Hideoshi, " but this won't help! That's why we're fighting, to keep stuff like that from happening again! Now snap out of it!" 
Right then, a flurry of snow swirled round them, the air became colder, and the grey sky grew greyer.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"We've got to start moving, unless you two want to become like ice blocks!" Shouted Hideoshi over the wind.
They grasped each other's hands, walking towards the camp. But snow flurries and grey-black night obscured their sight. No even fire light could penetrate the wall of night in that snowstorm.
Still the three trod on, forcing themselves against the wind. Often, they stumbled, upon what they could not tell. Numbness began to take captive their ears, hands, and feet, while snow blew into their eyes.
This continued for a wearisome while, until they began brushing against tree trunks. The snow flurries died down. The grey-blackness became dark blue, while a full, glowing moon rose above them.
Nevsky, peering ahead into to forest, cried,"What's in the middle of that glade?"
Galen and Hideoshi looked in the direction Nevsky pointed towards. A dark, looming thing stood erect in the center of the glade. 
"Let's see what it is. We have weapons, if it comes to that," said Galen.
They crept forward, silent as shadows passing over the ground. Then they stopped, for they were directly in front of the mysterious object.


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## Maiden_of Harad

It was an erect, unhewn stone, taller than a man yet shorter than a house. Yet on it were angular symbols. A round glade surrounded it, and beyond the glade wild trees grew thickly, tangling up together. In the soft, white moonlight beaming directly upon the stone, these symbols could be clearly seen. 
"It's a rune stone," murmered Galen in awe. 
Nevsky scrutinized the letters, then said, "Can any of you read this?" 
"Not me," Galen said. Meanwhile, Hideoshi stared at the foreign letters, and suudenly, he could read them as well as his native language.
"I can read it," he said, marvelling at his ability to do so. "It says: Anomijiah erected this in memory of his wife, Enya, for whom he mourns to the end of the ages."
Nevsky stared at Hideoshi. "Were you ever taught," he asked Hideoshi, "how to read runestones?" 
"No, it just came to me." 
"See, I told you that there was fairy blood in you!" Gloated Nevsky. 
But Galen cried out before a bewildered Hideoshi could respond, " So what does that mean? I mean, who is Anomijah and this wife of his?"


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## Maiden_of Harad

"I don't know," murmured Hideoshi, still gazing at the runestone.
As he stared, a vision came to his sight. A woman, crossing a great plain of rustling grass, a child at her side. Mountains, the same ones Hideoshi knew from childhood, stood before her. Then, she was dead, lying on a stone bier in the mountains, but older, and her adult son stood beside her in grief. A man of Fairy race swooped down beside the body, and bore it away weeping inconsolably, while the woman's son gazed gravely after. 
The vision faded, yet Hideoshi stood transfixed, staring without realising it. Nevsky and Galen, alarmed by his behaviour, shouted, " What's wrong with you?"
An orange glow appeared in the horizon, and the faint thunder of cannons booming sounded to the east. A faint roar like rushing water rose and fell.
"They're fighting again," said Galen. "Can you handle it like a man this time, Nevsky?"
"I'll try-verry hard," Nevsky replied, "but I'm so afraid."
"Come on then. Let's follow that glow," said Hideoshi.


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## Maiden_of Harad

They trudged towards the east, where cannonfire flashed white, and the deep orange glow of sunrise began to cut through the black horizon. Though there was no snowfall, icy winds from the west pushed them forward, lashing them with tingling cold. Numbness and sleepiness strove to conquer them, yet they marched on.
They stumbled into camp after a long while. Most of the soldiers were already fighting at Valash, but the Third Company remained, preparing to join the others in battle.
"Where've you all been? Since Galen's been gone, we've been short on a medic, a mailman, and a bearer of all news," some of them asked.
Galen replied, "We've almost been lost and frozen, Hideoshi and I, all on account of this newbie here!"-pointing to Nevsky, who hung his head while weeping silent tears.
"What's the plan for today?" Hideoshi quickly asked, while glancing at Nevsky.
"Oh, we're going to try out that cannon we captured. Hopefully, it'll blast some walls!"
"Thanks."
"Third Company, march!" Shouted an officer. "To Valash!"


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## Maiden_of Harad

The company arose, dragging themselves and their equipment onto the road to Valash. The three joined the rest of the company, falling in line.
"Galen," said Hideoshi. "Why did you have to shame Nevsky in front of the others?"
Galen laughed. "It wasn't much! And his cowardice made me lose some quality snoozing!"
"I know, Nevsky's annoyed me too," Hideoshi murmured. "But what would you do, if you were new, shy, and alone in a hostile environment totally different from home, only to discover that home and the people you cherished were gone forever by a cruel deed? Would you stolidly continue on? No! You would suffer great loss and pain within. For to love is to suffer."
"Where'd you hear that?" Piped up Nevsky.
"From my father."
"But," interposed Galen, "I thought that love brought great joy."
"It does. Joy so great that the pain is borne with love"
Nevsky shouted, "We're falling behind!"
The three hastened their steps.


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## Maiden_of Harad

After wading through snow for an hour, the Third Company reached the summit of the plateau. Bodies were strewn about, and the tumult of screaming, shouting men accompanied with the booms of cannons resonated about them.
"Hideoshi!" Shouted a sergeant. "You captured this cannon! See if you can make it work!"
"Yes, sir!" Hideoshi replied.
"Nevsky, Galen, help me now, won't you?"
"Yep," said Galen, while Nevsky nodded.
They strode over to the cannon, a long, black tube of iron bound with steel hoops set upon steel wheels. Hideoshi looked it over, while sighing, "If only this thing would work for me."
Instantly, the cannon lit itself, and blasted a cannonball towards the walls of Valash. An impact, and chunk of stone were sent hurtling into the air, as that section of the wall crumbled.
A hush fell upon the battlefield, and the roar of the Valashian cannons ceased.
Galen, wide-eyed, turned to Hideoshi, whispering, "How'd you do that?"
"I don't know, but when I said that I wished that the cannon would make itself work, it felt like power went out from me, a strange, deep power."
Nevsky grinned slightly, but said nothing.
Again Hideoshi's cannon fired, collapsing more of the wall. Finally realising what happened, the Valashians resumed the firing of their cannons and crossbows. 
"All of you, except Eighth Company, storm the breach!" Shouted the officers.


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## Maiden_of Harad

A great mass of soldiers rushed forward, swords unsheathed. Still the bombardment of the troops by the Valashians continued, toppling columns of soldiers or tossing them into the air with clumps of snow. A slight drizzle of snow began falling, sprinkling city, men, and weapons. 
Galen, while running alongside Hideoshi, said, "I've heard that our consuls Evanduor and Varrus called upon the Fairies of the South to aid us. They'll be here any day." 
"Emperor Dietrich and the rest of the Southern Fairies would not want to be involved in this war if they can help it!" Said Hideoshi. 
"Why not?"
"Because this is an indirect attack upon their kinsmen." 
"But the Mazovians are heartless killers! Haven't you heard about the slave labour camps they've got? About how they've tried to erase the history of this world and supplant it with their own? And they practice forbidden powers! How can Emperor Dietrich and his people not help us? Surely they don't like these things!"
"They don't," replied Hideoshi. "But you seem to forget the history of Arret yourself! Don't you remember that when some of the Fairy people began to use forbidden power, that it divided fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, cousins, and other relatives? Many still live, on both sides. For them to fight each other, at least on the Southern Fairies' side, would shatter dreams of winning the Mazovians back, and would pierce their hearts with a sorrow that would endure to the end of the world." 
Suddenly, Nevsky shouted from behind the two, "Don't run into the wall, Hideoshi and Galen!"


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## Maiden_of Harad

Hideoshi and Galen halted abruptly, scarcely avoiding a head-on collision with the wall. 
Their fellow soldiers rushed through the breach nearby, shouting and brandishing weapons. 
"Nevsky," said Hideoshi, noticing that the former's pale face and trembling hands. "Do Not freak out now! It will get you killed! Stick with us!" 
"Okay," Nevsky mumbled. 
The three charged through the breach, to find themselves in mass chaos. Arrows whistled through the sky to land clattering on stone streets,or to pierce a soldier's body. Steel stuck against steel, man strove against man. From many-storied houses and buildings townspeople hurled down chunks of stone while shouting derogatory terms at the attackers. 
The wild urge to survive seized Galen and Hideoshi, who plunged into the fray, scarcely realising what they did, acting upon instinct or months of training drilled into their subconciousness. They fought like this for some time, until they stumbled into a quiet street, having overcome their latest advisaries. Huddled in an arched stone doorway nearby, was Nevsky. 
"What are you doing?" Screamed Hideoshi and Galen.
"I-I," quivered Nevsky, " can't take it.". 
"Stop that now, or we'll leave you here by yourself!" 
Nevsky flinched, but suddenly, he straightened up, and looked into the room behind him. 
"I wonder what's in this room," he said.


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## Maiden_of Harad

The three crept through the arched doorway, swords drawn, into the house. Though dim within, they could see that they were in the entrance hall of a lordly house. Four columns stood in the hall, from which a vaulted, gothic ceiling sprang out and up into points, before curving back down. Though large gaps of paint flaked off of the ceiling years before, gold stars in a deep blue background remained in patches. Between the four columns were four round windows in vivid, gem-like glass. A great door, flanked by the columns and windows, was in the middle of the wall opposite the three. 
"I never saw anything like this," whispered Nevsky while gazing round him. 
"Nor I," said Hideoshi. 
Galen said nothing, but he strode up to the door, grapsed its iron handle, and slowly creaked it ajar. After peeping through the crack, he whispered, "Come on with me! There's a stairway in here, leading straight down!" 
"No!" Said Hideoshi. "There's no telling what's down there!" 
"But there's light at the bottom! Lots of light!" 
Hideoshi and Nevsky started forward, when loud cries and shouts suddenly began to sound. Rapidly, Hideoshi noticed a staircase to the right, going up. 
"Let's go upstairs and see what's going on!" He said. 
They clambered quickly up the stairs and dashed at once to the nearest window. On the streets below, people, both defenders and besiegers of Valash were running, screaming in panic, "A Thunderbird!" 
"I never heard of a thunderbird," yawned Galen. 
"They're a legendary-" Hideoshi began saying when Nevsky pointed wildly, screaming, "Look to the northwest!"


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## Maiden_of Harad

Hideoshi and Galen looked towards the northwest. There, above the white clouds, was an enormous creature of ashen grey nigh unto black, like the clouds of a great thunderstorm in midsummer. Its eyes and beak were a glossy, dead black, glittering with malice, while of all birds it looked like a cross between a condor and an eagle, but was far larger. Lightning shot from and pulsed round his body, while thunder rumbled. 
"He's coming nearer," Nevsky whispered. 
Hideoshi nodded, while Galen said, "Look, when he passed over those roofs, patches of snow melted!". 
The Thunderbird soared over Valash like a vulture over a carcass. Each time his shadow passed over, people screamed and cowed in terror. Pandemonium reigned. Suddenly, a crossbow from a beseiging soldier twanged, shooting straight into the breast of the Thunderbird. A frightful, eerie shriek arose from the Bird, but he was only slightly wounded. 
Now, his smouldering wrath was fully kindled, and screeching in anger, the Thunderbird dove down upon the city, crashing into the residential section, reducing a whole street to rubble. No one came forward to confront the beast, for he shot bolts of lightning around him, knocking out some, vaporizing others, killing many. 
Hideoshi watched tensely, a feeling growing within that he must do something. 
"I'm going to try to wound that thunderbird," he said grimly. "I don't know if I can kill it, so stay here.". 
He began to walk away, but Galen called out, "Naw! I'm a grown soldier, and I'm coming too!". 
"Me too!" Chimed Nevsky. "You stuck by me and I ought to repay it!" 
Hideoshi smiled gravely, a feeling of dread foreboding descending upon him. 
"Okay then," He said.


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## Maiden_of Harad

The three dashed down the stairs to the hall below, Hideoshi to the fore, Nevsky in the rear, while Galen was in the middle. Out the hall through the arched door, to the grey, somber street they continued. Now down the street, now a turn, and another turn, following the contortions of the narrow, crooked streets. 
It seemed that they had lost their bearings, when a shriek that rent the air pierced their ears, and before them loomed the dark grey thunderbird. His black eyes glowed as he spread afar his wings, covering the streets below in shadow. Hideoshi and Galen drew their swords, breathing heavily, grasping their swords tightly.
Suddenly, they rushed forward, rushing to keep thoughts of fear and turning back far from them, rushing to save their comrades and the Valashians from this monster. Up to the Thunderbird they rushed, and stabbed it, grey blood trickling out from its breast.
The Thunderbird, now aware of Hideoshi and Galen, screamed, shooting forth flashes of lighting as a deep rumble of thunder boomed from his chest. Up into the sky he flew, then he streaked down, crashing more houses. Hideoshi and Galen dashed towards him and struck again.
"Look out!" Shouted Nevsky suddenly.
Just then, a black beak snatched up Galen by the collar.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Hideoshi wheeled round. Before his eyes Galen writhed, dangling by his collar from the hooked beak of the beast. Suddenly, the Thunderbird released Galen in a shriek of ire, before turning round on his attacker from behind. 
Gasping at what he saw, Hideoshi exclaimed, "It's Nevsky!"
Wan and gaunt, Nevsky stood before the Thunderbird. Though trembling, his brown eyes shone as he clutched his ice-cold sword. For a while nothing stirred, save a breeze that ruffled Nevsky's light brown hair. Then the Thunderbird pounced, like a hawk upon a mouse. Nevsky darted to the side, yet the bird still pounced after him.
The Thunderbird flew upwards, preparing to dive upon Nevsky. Quickly, Hideoshi looked round for help, but the besiegers and the defenders of Valash had fled, while Galen lay face downwards, unconscious in the snow. He tensed, gripping the wall of one of the ruined houses.
"I've got to do it," Hideoshi muttered.
Down like lightning dived the Thunderbird, screeching. Out raced Hideoshi, who snatched up an abandoned crossbow. Rapidly he cranked the handle, took aim, then fired. The arrow whistled, shooting up into the grey sky of cold, snowy winter.


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## Maiden_of Harad

The arrow struck the Thunderbird, who reeled back in shock, before falling in a spiralling decent. One shriek it gave, which was abruptly cut off in its highest notes. But summoning the reserves of his waning might, the Thunderbird shot forth a powerful bolt of lightning, striking Hideoshi in his chest. 
"Run!" Shouted Galen and Nevsky. But Hideoshi, stunned and numb, could not flee before the Thunderbird's body fell upon him, before its claws pierced his thigh. Blood ebbed out upon the snow. 
Nevsky and Galen rushed to Hideoshi's side and knelt beside him. Fumbling, Galen searched his side pouch for bandages, while Nevsky attempted to apply pressure with his chilled hands. 
"Are you okay?" Asked Galen. 
Hideoshi merely groaned. 
Suddenly, the street around then filled with soldiers cheering, while horns blared, "Reinforcements have come, along with Emperor Dietrich and the Southern Fairies!" 
"What!" Shouted Galen and Nevsky, while even Hideoshi became more alert.


----------



## Maiden_of Harad

A train of soldiers, clad in wool white as the snow upon the ground, processed into the city of Valash through the breach in the walls. The train split in half, and a fairy clad in white fur strode through their midst, with two other fairies before him, who bore turquoise colored standards. 
"It's Emperor Dietrich!" Whispered the awed soldiers in hushed tones.
From the other end of the train the human generals rushed towards Emperor Dietrich, and knelt with bowed heads before rising up again. But the fairies did not rush. Instead, they walked with calm tread, raised their standards skyward, held out the standards straight before them, and bowed slowly before Emperor Dietrich began speaking.
"I present these soldiers to you, for we have decided that it is time to fight evil instead of cowering from it for fear of suffering," he said.
"And these two with me," he continued, " are Lord Kir Kostya and Lord Anomijah Miron."
The soldiers then began to disperse, while Nevsky gasped.
"Anomijah! That name was on the rune stone we saw!" He cried.
Another voice cried," Hideoshi! Oh, no!"
A young man, one of the soldiers, rushed forward with this cry on his lips. Great was his resemblance to Hideoshi, but his hair was brown, and his eyes a green less keen.


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## Maiden_of Harad

The young man climbed over a pile of rubble and knelt next to Hideoshi.
"Takashi!" Hideoshi managed to say.
Galen's dark face furrowed in puzzlement, bringing his brows close to his coarse, tightly curled hair. Meanwhile, Nevsky silently crept away.
"Are you related to Hideoshi?" Galen asked after a minute.
Glancing up, Takashi replied, "I'm his younger brother."
He looked down again at Hideoshi, one hand on his forehead while the other grasped his right hand. Hideoshi gazed back at Takashi, pain clearly showing on his brow.
"Are you badly hurt?" Asked Takashi. " You keep clinching your teeth and fists, and there's a lot of blood on the snow."
Hideoshi's face became ashen pale, but he quickly assumed a stolid composure, though his voice shook.
"I think I'm going to die."
"Not while I'm with you!" Cried Galen, who began to apply linen bandages with alacrity. "Besides, you've got a whole life to live! Think of how pleased the folks at home will be when you tell them what you've done! Anyway, this wound doesn't look TOO bad. I've seen worse. We'd better carry you back to a cart or to camp, whichever we can get to first."
"Here's a cloth I found that we can use!" Nevsky cried, stumbling over rubble while waving a long, wide linen cloth.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Takashi jerked up his head, then grinned.
"Just what we can use to carry my brother away! By the way, Galen, how did my brother get hurt? And what is this giant of a bird that lies here?"
With avidity Galen told Takashi about the Thunderbird, and how Hideoshi killed it, while both of them, with Nevsky's help, lifted Hideoshi onto the cloth and tied two great knots at the head and the foot. 
"Hey!" Called several soldiers from the Third Company who were wandering nearby. "We've been sent to gather the wounded, so you can give him to us. The sheriff of Valash just surrendered, so there's not much left for the reinforcements to do."
Galen laughed, saying, "Oh, there'll be stuff to do, like bury the dead."
"Yeah," groaned one of the soldiers as the three handed Hideoshi over, careful to avoid causing further pain. The soldiers trudged off towards a wagon, as Takashi rang out, "We'll see you tonight!" Then a silence settled upon the group, as they watched soldiers drifting about, alone or in groups. Meanwhile, Nevsky shifted his weight from one foot to the other, while his heart beat anxiously. Finally, he asked:
"Could-could you two-possibly-help me bury my cousin Ivan? He was killed yesterday-I think-it seems so long ago."
"Why-"moaned Galen, but Takashi spoke up. " I will. Do you know where his body is?"
"That spot I could recognise ages from now, so seared into my memory is that one second when I saw his-" began Nevsky, but he nervously cut off the flow of anguished words.
Galen sighed, but with resolution said, "I'll help."
Carrying a shovel found at an abandoned house nearby, Nevsky led the others to Ivan's body, singing in a low, soft tone:
'My friend has gone to the world beyond
And I shall some day follow after.
Once we both shared in mirth and laughter
But now I weep alone in sorrow.

My friend has gone to the world beyond
For he lives on, 'tis known in my heart
Though for now in sorrow we do part,
And I feel like I'm lost in the dark.'
"What song is that?" Takashi asked, moved by the calm yet melancholy melody.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Nevsky sighed.
"It's a traditional song we sing back home when going to bury the dead."
"Oh-yikes!" Said Takashi, who tripped unawares over Ivan snow-covered body. 
Once more, Nevsky grew pale, and he began to tremble.
"Well," said Galen. "Since I'm a medic and mailman, and since we've got lots of wounded to get around to, I've got to go now. See you both at camp!"
Takashi rang out "See ya!" As Galen waded off through the snow. Nevsky stood as if fossilised, then crept up to Ivan's body, reached out a hand, and drew it back quickly when it was within a foot of the blood-caked body.
He did this several times, each time letting his hand get a little closer before swiftly drawing it back. Finally, he touched the frozen body, and jerked his hand back involuntarily.
Takashi looked towards the west, where an orange glow was sinking under the weight of darkness.
"I wish this grave was already dug," he said.
Instantly, a dug grave with a mound of dirt next to it appeared beside the corpse. Nevsky gasped, but said nothing. Instead, he knelt next to Ivan's body, and placed his right hand upon the forehead of the body. With the hand he traced a circle on the forehead, then he touched his own forehead and traced a circle upon it.
Puzzled, Takashi asked,"Why'd you do that?"
"It's another old custom," replied Nevsky. "It symbolises that the dead live forever, that we will remember the dead, and that we will also die."
"What a way to respect the dead. But, we need to bury him now."
In silence they lowered the body into the grave and covered it with earth. When this was done, Takashi, noticing Nevsky's silence, said "Come on! Let's find Hideoshi and Galen!"


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## Maiden_of Harad

Together Nevsky and Takashi picked their way through the rubble and out of the breach. Snow began to fall with a faint, almost imperceptible whisper. As they stumbled and trudged through the breach, they saw that the camp had moved to the plain in front of the city. Soldiers rushed about, carrying canvas, poles, personal belongings, and sundry other things. Several of the Valashian soldiers, guarded by their conquerors, dug graves at the part of the plateau farthest from the camp and the city. 
"Let's try to find the hospital tent," said Takashi while he and Nevsky stood hesitating. "We might find Hideoshi or Galen there." 
They forced a way through the bustle and haphazard tent arrangements, until Nevsky spotted one with a wagon filled with wounded before the door. In they crept, and began to scan the rows of patients. 
"There you all are!" Called Galen from behind them. 
Nevsky, groaning, said, "I feel ill." 
Galen laughed, then groaned himself. "You feel ill! How would you like a splittin' headache instead? Ever been knocked out?". 
"No." 
"Then quit whinin'! And I have to hustle 'round here too!" 
"We'll help you!" Takashi cried. 
"You can," replied Galen, "but not Nevsky. He'd faint or shriek in the middle of an operation or something! He can go and get some sleep (and after robbing me of a whole night too)." 
Nevsky turned and strode out dejectedly. 
Meanwhile, after a bumpy ride during which the wagon wheels creaked and bounced at every rock or hollow, Hideoshi found himself carried into a hot tent and placed in between two other soldiers. His thigh smarted and swelled, while pain shot up to his heart at intervals. 
"Blood-this place reeks of it. And sweat, the agonised, feverish sweat of the suffering, the dying," Hideoshi thought.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"I feel like I can't breathe in here," Hideoshi moaned.
"And pain, pain-it seems like I can't think of anything else but that jabbing, throbbing pain in my thigh! Why did I have to play the hero? Or was it really heroism? Pain such as this must have a meaning, a purpose-or else mankind would've gone mad long ago. But it hurts!" 
Hideoshi tried to shift himself, but he was jammed between two other wounded soldiers, one coughing and wheezing in his ear. So he sighed, and covered his head with his arms as much as he could in his cramped quarters.
Several hundred yards away, Nevsky stumbled into his tent after pitching it. He felt his coat pocket, and felt Aunt Olga's letter inside. A sudden awareness dawned on him, for he whispered, "I have no home."
Once more his heart began to race, despite being worn out by two days and a night without sleep. He felt weak, and the nerves in his limbs tingled with numbness and fear.
He walked a few steps into the tent before stopping, thinking: "Fear. Why does this fear cling to me, making me irrational? I should not be afraid, for I'm a grown man-or am I-yet those loud guffaws and voices outside, even friendly ones, make me jolt and quake.
"Could it be something that I've done that's haunting me? But I'm no doer of heinous deeds! What is it then? Am I going mad? But no, I'll never go mad! I won't go mad!"
Nevsky's face stiffened in resolve as he continued to think: "Then why am I worrying if I can care for myself? I must stop this-this rambling which only produces fear, fear! Perhaps fear is my nemesis, or, my path to glory through overcoming it. But how can I 'get used to it' as Hideoshi said if it doesn't go away?"
Nevsky sat upon his sleeping bag, then flung himself upon it, splaying his arms. For awhile he lay sprawled upon his sleeping bag, gazing with glazed eyes upon the billowing canvas ceiling.
"Maybe it will never leave me," he sighed before yielding to sleep.
Pale blue light filled the tent when Nevsky awoke. Beside him stood Takashi, combing his hair.
"What are you doing here?" Nevsky mumbled.
Takashi wheeled round, saying, "Galen sent me to find you after several hours, and he told me to get some sleep. When I came in, you were splayed out on your sleeping bag! I even fell asleep and woke up well before you did! But, let's find Galen and Hideoshi- and get some breakfast as well."


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## Maiden_of Harad

"Okay," yawned Nevsky as he sat up, then combed his hair.
After pulling on their woollen, fur-lined caps, the two stepped out of the tent into the pale blue morning. Fires smoldered here and there, surrounded by clusters of soldiers huddled together, crouching over the embers. Steam arose from iron pots and kettles in which soup simmered. 
Nevsky, while absentmindedly looking around him, saw Galen winding through a crowd of sleepy soldiers. 
"Look, there's Galen!" He cried.
Takashi answered, "Let's follow him!"
Jostling and brushing past other soldiers, Takashi and Nevsky followed Galen into a hospital tent. The close, sweaty air and the smell of blood overwhelmed them at first, but then Takashi's green eyes began to glow, and he rushed towards one of the wounded who had covered his face with his arms.
"Hideoshi! It's you!"
Hideoshi uncovered his head, rubbed his eyes, fixed them upon Takashi, then grinned. Quickly, Takashi knelt in front of Hideoshi, and grasped his right hand. Nevsky approached Hideoshi meanwhile, with a shy and wistful demeanour.
"Galen found me," Hideoshi began. "He was going to tell you all, but you two came before he could take a break."
Takashi began to ask "Are you okay?" But General Tacitus Morini strode into the tent, booming:
"Emperor Dietrich of the Southern Fairies is about to enter this tent! So the utmost respect due to him!"
Immediately behind General Tacitus came Emperor Dietrich and his two standard bearers. They gazed round them with compassion for the sufferers they saw, and were about to approach a wounded soldier, when Lord Anomijah said, "Who are those two that are so like another, though one is brown haired and the other black haired?"
Other Fairies had entered the tent before Lord Anomijah said this, so many eyes fixed their gazes upon Hideoshi and Takashi. Those two, however, were baffled, and stared at each other in bewilderment. Nevsky smiled.
"There's strange blood there," said one. 
"From what place do you come, and are you two related?" Asked Emperor Dietrich, his dark brown eyes staring fixedly, his brown beard stiff upon his gaunt yet benevolent face. Behind him trailed dark blue wings, like eagle's wings, for Fairies' wings are not frail and gauzy.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"We're-" began Takashi, but he checked himself.
"Go on!" General Tacitus fumed.
Hideoshi spoke up.
"It's not the custom, among our people where we come from, for the younger brother to speak before the elder in the name of his brethren or family in formal circumstances. I hope you, good sirs, will understand this."
"We understand," replied the Fairies.
"We," continued Hideoshi, clinching his fists at times to ease his pain, "are from the Illyvitch Mountain Chain to the far east. Takashi and I are brothers, and there is one other at home, Toru, for he is but nine years old."
"And your ancestors? Who were they?"
"Our ancestors were from various peoples, but our forefather Varrus' mother came from this region long ago, sometime in the third millennium by our reckoning."
"Varrus," whispered Lord Anomijah Miron. Aloud, he said:
"Do you have any accounts-"
A lieutenant from the Third Company dashed in, shouting, "Scouts report that a massive force of Karician soldiers is marching towards Valash! They'll be here in a day!"
"And I," said Emperor Dietrich, "will depart, though my soldiers will stay under the command of Lord Anomijah Miron."
General Tacitus, flustered and red-faced at the news, shouted to the lieutenant,"Order your men, and tell the other officers to tell their men to move into the city and repair that breach if you can! And, how many are in this force?"
"About a hundred thousand, sir."
"Okay! Get moving!"
"Yes, sir!" Replied the quaking lieutenant, who saluted, then rushed away.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Another officer, this time a major from the Fifth Company, thrust himself into the tent. He saluted General Tacitus, then said:
"Sir, our spies just reported that the Karician army has decided to halt, so the'll be here in a day and a half actually."
"Then go and do what I've just ordered! Make those Valashians help too!" Boomed the general. 
Emperor Dietrich turned to leave, but halted, and turned round. He looked at his men, and they nodded their heads. Then he spoke to General Tacitus.
"You will need every able bodied man you can get to repulse this attack. My men and I will heal your wounded, then I will take my leave."
The Fairies went to the wounded and touched them, healing them instantly. Emperor Dietrich strode up to Hideoshi, looked into his deep green eyes, then at his wound, and asked, "How were you wounded?"
"I slew the thunderbird whose carcass lies in the city," said Hideoshi, who felt renewed strength pulsing through his body.
"Slew a thunder bird, and lives, though he is mortal," whispered Emperor Dietrich, though Hideoshi, Nevsky, and Takashi heard him. "Or," he continued, glancing at Hideoshi's eyes, " is there something more there?"
He then departed with his men, while the formerly wounded arose and stretched themselves, before leaving to pack up camp.
In the hustle that followed, Hideoshi and Takashi clung together for hours, setting up beds, carrying supplies, and checking inventories for hours, until it was well into the night and a measure of calm had replaced the bustling noise. Then, Takashi, glancing around, exclaimed, "Where's Nevsky?"
"Let's find him,"sighed Hideoshi.
Through narrow streets darkened by shadow in the dark blue of a winter night when a full moon shines they hunted for Nevsky, finally entering a tavern.
They did not see him in the throng on the upper level, but, decending into the basement, in a dim, narrow corner they saw him, hunched over a table. Several large pewter tankards stood on the table, filled with whiskey, and a dirty, rumpled letter. Above them, the ceiling loomed low, barely missing the tops of their heads.
"What are you DOING!" Hideoshi shouted indignantly.
Nevsky, without raising his head, whined, "Leave me."
Takashi glared, then said, "Let's leave him! Let him be miserable with himself!"
"No, I'm not leaving!" Said Hideoshi, who wondered in his mind, "Why am I doing this?"
"Nevsky, what's the matter?" He asked.
"Don't you-have you ever thought that it's more terrifying to live at times then to die?"
"Yes, but-but-life is so good that, dispite terror and pain, we must fight for it! Can't you see that! But you must! That's why you're drinking now, because you can feel that life is a marvelous good, even if you want to feel otherwise, and you, in terror of that thought, want to cling to life all the same, and it's tearing you apart. But, stop your drinking AT ONCE and tell me what's wrong!"
Nevsky trembled, but he raised his head, and said, "See that-" pointing to the letter. "They-all my relatives, near and distant-are dead. I won't be writing to Aunt Olga to tell her that Ivan's dead."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
"Its not like you killed them. But-I-I'm alone, alone!"
Nevsky turned towards them, then rushed to Hideoshi and siezed his coat with both hands, his face red and streaked with a sudden onslaught of tears.
"Don't leave me!" He cried.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"I won't leave you," said Hideoshi breathlessly, "if you stop that and stiffen up!"
Takashi suddenly burst out,"I know! You can come and live with us after this seige is over!"
"Why not? What do you say, Nevsky?"
Nevsky had calmed down, but he still quivered as he said, "That's fine. I promise I'll be better. Besides-in case you got some queer notions in your heads-I'm no drunk. I even loathe the very smell of alchohol! It's just-never mind. I'll come with you two."
They briskly left the basement, Nevsky snatching up the letter, climbed up the stairs, and walked out of the tavern. A full moon glowed milky-white overhead in the dark blue sky, lighting the snow on the ground and the city of Valash.
"You know," Takashi said, "I never really noticed the city before. See that round tower with the cone roof right in the middle?"
"Or, how everything seems to have a blue tile roof?" Said Nevsky.
Hideoshi interjected, "That's because there's blue clay about six miles or so from here. Let's get to bed now!"
They plodded through slushy streets just beginning to freeze over, until they reached a large house, climbed up the stairs, opened the door, and stepped inside. Gasping, Nevsky said:
"It' the house we looked around in yesterday!-or the day before- I don't remember."
But now there were rows of sleeping bags on the stone floor beneath the stained glass windows. A fire was burning in a fireplace that escaped their notice on their last visit, while soldiers milled about, talking, drinking, or sitting alone on their sleeping bags. Takashi yawned.
"It's drafty in here, and it echos a lot. I won't be able to sleep tonight."
"Then you're no soldier," grinned Hideoshi, who ran up to, then dived into his sleeping bag afterwards. Takashi and Nevsky followed his example.
However, several hours later, Nevsky still lay awake. Thinking.
"I-I run from it, yet it follows me. It won't leave me! And I'm such a coward, though I want to be brave. But how-the world is not what I thought it to be! It's savage and heatless! But it can't be! If it was, then why would Hideoshi and Galen help me? If that was true, totally true, they wouldn't have.
"I've got to fight tomorrow, but I'm nothing but a scared nineteen-year-old, alone, alone! So I'm a man, they say. In years, maybe, but inside-
"-Hideoshi. How can he say that life is wonderful dispite suffering? But it's true that I felt like fighting for it. Then the rest must-must be true! But how? How can life be wonderful in spite of fear?"
The darkness of sleep overtook Nevsky however, and he slept in peace.


----------



## Maiden_of Harad

When Nevsky awoke, dappled flecks of colored light shone on the stone floor, while the dim outlines of the ceiling and the columns grew more defined with increasing light. Other soldiers from the Third Company were also arising from slumber, grooming themselves or just crawling out of their sleeping bags. 
"So you're up now!" Said Takashi (who was nearby ) in a loud whisper. 
"Yeah." 
After grooming and a breakfast of stew, Hideoshi, Nevsky, and Takashi walked out of the front door, down the steps, and onto the street. A group of women walked past them, spitting into their faces and shouting "Bah!" Before strolling away. 
Takashi, grimacing while wiping his face with his coat sleeve, said: 
"Yuck! How rude!" 
"I heard some other soldiers say that they were spit at when walking around," Nevsky said. 
"Well, I suppose they don't bear goodwill towards their 'invaders'," said Hideoshi. 
Frowning, Takashi replied, "We'd better watch out then!" 
Meanwhile, Nevsky, seized by an adventurous mood, wandered off into a sidestreet nearby. He strode across frozen mud, stared at the blue tile roofs, and puffed out a cloudht breath while twiddling his thumbs. Then he looked down, and saw a child alone in the street, huddled against a stone house wall. 
It was a boy, about seven years of age, barefoot and draped in a woman's coat caked with mud. His straw brown hair curled, and his eyes were a vivid turquoise. Nevsky stared, then asked, "Are your eyes really that color?" 
"Yes," came a hurred whisper of a reply. 
The boy had turned to face Nevsky while saying this, which caused Nevsky to notice that the boy had no right arm. 
"Were you hurt?" He asked. 
The boy lowered his head, almost whispering, "No." 
"What happened then?" 
"Wuz born that way." 
"Oh." 
They stood silently in the grey-white light in the grey street, Nevsky staring at the boy, the boy gazing at the ground. Then Nevsky broke the silence. 
"Do you have any parents nearby? Are you lost?" He asked.


----------



## Maiden_of Harad

"No, I'm not lost," said the boy.
"Then where," Nevsky demanded, "are your parents?"
"Father left, then Mother killed herself."
"Wha-!" Exclaimed Nevsky.
"Hey, you!" Someone called. "What are you doing off-duty?"
Nevsky looked beyond the boy, and saw Lieutenant Hanft of the Third Company.
"Well, sir," stammered Nevsky.
Lieutenant Hanft frowned.
"I see. Get on now, and come with me! There's still a war on!"
Lieutenant Hanft, strode briskly up the narrow street, trailed by Nevsky. Turning a corner, saw Hideoshi, Takashi, and Galen leaning on a house wall. Nearby, several soldiers were seated at a low table, gambling.
"Stop that, get up, and go help repair the rest of the walls!" Ordered Lieutenant Hanft.
The soldiers shifted in their seats and moaned, "Why don't our Fairy 'friends' help? They've just holed themselves up in the nicest building in town, and don't even talk to us!"
"Who says such things?" Laughed several voices. Before the soldiers stood several Fairies, clad in white.
None of the soldiers replied.
"Besides," continued the foremost of the group,"we have decided that we will assist by caring for the wounded, cooking meals, and loading weapons, unless we must fight."
"Look at those sissies," Galen snickered, while everyone else except Hideoshi, Nevsky, and Takashi laughed.
The Fairies faces flushed red, and their eyes blazed, but one of then shouted "Stop!" Which caused all present to turn and look at him.
Tugging his wing was the boy Nevsky had met. But now, seeing that everyone was staring at him, he stopped, and looked bashfully at the street.
"What did you do that for?" Asked the Fairy.
"I wanted to be noticed. I've never seen Fairies before, and I wanted to see if your wings would stay on."
"Where are your parent-what happened to your arm?"
Nevsky spoke up. "He's an orphan, and he was born without that arm."
"Oh," said the Fairy. Then he turned towards the boy, asking "What is your name?"
"Illari."
"Alright. Would you like to have two arms, like other boys?"
Illari wrinkled his freckled face, then looked up at the auburn-haired Fairy
"No."
Everyone gasped. 
"Why not?" Queried the puzzled Fairy.
"Because I wasn't meant to have it."
"Who told you that?"
"Nobody. I once heard some men talking about how one wasn't meant to be a king since he wasn't born one. So, maybe I wasn't meant to have two arms."
"Come on, now, we've got to get ready to-" said Lieutenant Hanft, but deafening shouts of "Look!" Began to resound on all sides.
The entire group dashed to the nearest set of stairs that led to the top of the city wall, rushed up, and pressed themselves against the cold stone. Far below the plateau, on the white plains, a dark column wound its way towards the plateau. A faint tramp like continuous thunder accompanied by a low rumble could be heard.
"Wow," gasped Takashi.
"How many soldiers do we have?" Nevsky asked while his face blanched at the sight. 
"About twenty thousand," replied Hideoshi. "One of our against five of theirs."
"We'll see how this goes," said Lieutenant Hanft.


----------



## Maiden_of Harad

"We must now depart to our own quarters," said a newcomer.
It was Lord Anomijah Miron, who stood facing the group, his brown hair hurled about by a sudden gust, his green eyes shining with urgency. The Fairies began to withdraw from the group, when a thud sounded.
"It's Illari!" Nevsky shouted.
On the stone wall Illari lay still for a moment, then began to twitch violently. After several seconds, the twitching subsided, and Illari opened his eyes. Galen knelt beside him, asking, "Has this happened before?"
Illari moaned, "Lots of times. Even when I was a baby."
"Missing an arm and epilepsy-how could he survive?" Wondered Galen aloud.
"But," Lord Anomijah interjected, "we must prepare for a seige, not stand here! My men and I will care for the boy, but-" turning to Illari-"do not pull on our wings."
The Fairies turned and strode away, bearing Illari with them. But, at the foot of the stairs, Lord Anomijah glamced back at Hideoshi and Takashi, sighed, and turned away.
"What was that for?" Galen asked.
Hideoshi stared after Lord Anomijah, then said, "I can't tell. But we've got to get ready."
For the next several hours, Hideoshi, Galen, Nevsky, and Takashi bustled about with the rest of the Third Company, reinforcing walls, stuffing quivers with arrows; and stacking cannonballs, cannonshells, and gunpowder kegs next to the cannons. Meanwhile, the dark column slithered closer, preparing to open its jaws and strike at the city of Valash.
Well into the night, the soldiers, Hideoshi and his friends among them, were stationed on the wall. Before the city, where the lone road dipped beyond sight into a cluster of trees, the first division of the enemy emerged, and marched onto the open plain. Hideoshi tensed, his breathing and heartbeat accelerated, and his hands grew cold, though he gripped his bow the tighter.
"I'll make it! If a thunderbird couldn't kill me, there's nothing to fret over," he mused.
"Then why do I tremble?" He continued.
For several hours, more Karician divisions appeared, each joining the others on the snowy plain before the city. Hideoshi had begun to rest his head on his shoulder when a lurid orange glow flared from behind him.
"Fire!" Screamed many.
Galen rushed up to Hideoshi, panting, "Those Valashians! They set the city on fire to aid their Karician friends!"


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## Maiden_of Harad

"But," Hideoshi inquired, wrinkling his brow, "weren't the Valashian soldiers captured and imprisoned?"
Galen nodded, still panting, with short and sporadic breath.
"Yeah, but those civilians-remember those women that spat on us yesterday?"
"I'd rather not-"
"Never mind then, but these Valashians are a mean, craven, knavish bunch!"
"Say!" Exclaimed Takashi. "Snow's falling, and the fire's fizzling out!"
Galen grunted, "Good."
Several more hours passed. Still the Karician army tramped up the road onto the plain before the city, until a bloody glow streaked the black eastern sky, colouring the Karician ranks. Then, a roaring wave of a shout, the shout of one hundred thousand unified voices, rose and collapsed. 
The center of the Karician lines parted, and a runner raced through the center, bearing a green flag.
"A truce!" Whispered the soldiers stationed on the walls of Valash.
The officers of the companies stationed nearest to the gate began to shout, "Open the gate!" When Nevsky shrieked. A shriek that stilled the entire plateau.
"The sky! The sky! Look at the sky!"
Everyone raised their eyes. Soaring above the city was a Fairy, a Mazovian. Six times he circled the city, before dropping something that gleamed like an iridescent glass star, then vanishing.
The star-like object hurtled down, dazzling all with its brilliant colours before it disappeared behind some roofs and crashed, shattering like glass. Everyone was turning back to what they were doing before, when a 'whoosh' sounded, buildings began collapsing, and an enormous fire billowed forth.
Soon, a terrible sight unfolded before the soldiers. As several buildings collapsed, they saw, tumbling or rolling towards the flames, as though they were being sucked into a maelstrom, soldiers and civilians.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"What weapon could do that?" Takashi gasped.
Buildings had ceased to collapse, but the flames waxed in strength, leaping upwards, crackling as more structures and rubble sucumbed to the heat. Still an overbearing wind of unnatural force blew near the center of Valash, bearing everything not rooted in the earth towards the golden-white center of the flames.
Suddenly, a crash thudded nearby. Wheeling round, Hideoshi cried, grasping his forehead, "The cunning villians! Now the Karicians are ramming the gate!"
"If only," he thought, "if I'd resisted that urge to look back! But, there's nothing to do now except-I must-"
"Fire!" Shouted the officers on the walls. "Don't look behind you! The Fairies will take care of it!"
Hideoshi mechanically took up his bow, fitted an arrow, drew back the taut string with his numbed hands, aimed at a Karician soldier, then released the string. Around him, Takashi, Galen, and many other soldiers did likewise. Cannons flashed, thundering as their cannonballs and shells crashed into the mass of Karicians below. Creaking, the great scorpians of the Karicians fired back at the base of the walls of Valash, chipping away at the stone.
For several hours this continued, until the Karician force withdrew to the far side of the plateau. A low murmer could be heared, and orange campefires seen, but nothing else could be discerned from the city of Valash.
Hideoshi had sat down, when he heard Nevsky say," Hideoshi?"
"Yes," he yawned.
"How can you kill people-I mean, I know it's your duty, but-without it bothering you?"
"I-don't really think about it. That is, I try not to."
"I've never killed anyone,so-"
"-You mean that you didn't-" Hideoshi began shouting but checked himself after looking into Nevsky's eyes.
"You don't belong here," said Hideoshi. "Maybe you should try to get assigned back with the cooks and stableboys."
"You don't mean I'm not good enough, do you?" Nevsky said, trying to suppress the tears welling up in his eyes.
"No. You're too good. It's natural to be reluctant to kill another man."
"Then, why doesn't killing affect you?"
"Nevsky," said Hideoshi, "don't believe those fellows that say killing doesn't affect them. It does. But, with practice, time, or a strong sense of duty-never mind! I can't explain it!"
"May I sit beside you?"
Hideoshi nodded.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Nevsky brushed away some snow before sitting next to Hideoshi. Before them, amid unscathed buildings, were smouldering heaps of blackened rubble. Lone pillars or empty shells of buildings stood among the rubble, their charred corners a mute testimony to the ravages they had undergone. Several Fairies searched among the ruins for the victims, while shocked Valashians wandered among the ashes in bewilderment. 
Hideoshi and Nevsky stared without speaking, until Hideoshi felt a shadow fall upon him. He turned round, then started. 
"It is only I," said Lord Anomijah, who stood beside them. 
"I," Hideoshi said, "did not expect to have the honour of meeting you again.". 
"Say!" Cried Galen as he strode towards them, "why have you been watching Hideoshi and Takashi?" 
Takashi, who had almost dozed off nearby, started. 
"Us! Are you sure?" Hideoshi said. 
"Sure! Yesterday night, when you all were asleep, he sneaked in and stared at you two. When we were getting ready for the siege he spied on you. And, during the battle we just had, he watched you. I saw him!" 
"I am guilty," confessed Lord Anomijah, whose eyes danced in a somber face. 
"Why then, sir," Hideoshi said, "do you take such an interest in my brother and I?" 
"I would keep my reasons to myself." 
"But don't we have the right to know why? It can look suspicious." 
"What is your family name?" 
Hideoshi nearly jumped when confronted with this unexpected question, but steadied himself. 
"Varri." 
"Thank you." 
"Why did you want to know, sir?" 
"I have my own reasons." 
"Will that always be your-" 
Whistles screeched, while officers shouted, "Third Company to report to the tower in the center of the city at once!"


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## Maiden_of Harad

"We'd better go now," said Hideoshi while he jumped up, snatching his weapons. Nevsky, Takashi and Galen followed. 
At the head of the stairs leading down into the city, Hideoshi glanced back. Lord Anomijah still stood where they had left him, gazing wistfully at them. 
"Fairwell," Hideoshi said before racing down the stairs to overtake the others. 
After tripping over charred beams and tramping through freezing slush, they arrived at the round tower. Other soldiers from the Third Company milled about, whispering rumours, crowding others to get closer to the tower, and glancing nervously at the tower door. Uncertainty tingled through the anxious looks, wide eyes, and fidgeting bodies of the soldiers, spreading from man to man. Then the tower door creaked, slowly opening. 
Every man instantly stilled or quieted himself when that door creaked. Some could not exhale from trepidation or anticipation. Others stolidly watched, seemingly unmoved, but their eyes spoke of suppressed emotion. 
At last, General Tacitus emerged from the dim shadows. He scanned the soldiers rapidly, then spoke. 
"Soldiers of the Third Company, tonight, it will be your task to divert the enemy to the city of Kolov, which is ten miles from here, on the nearest plateau to this city. To do this, you will climb down this plateau, and run to Kolov. You will start tonight!" 
The soldiers gasped.


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## Maiden_of Harad

But the soldiers checked their murmuring when General Tacitus spoke again. 
"We are," he announced, "expecting about five thousand reinforcements in a day and a half, which is all the aid our consuls could muster at this time. If you do your task well, this diversion may give us a little time, time in which more reinforcements can be acquired. Go now, my men." 
General Tacitus turned back, soon lost to sight in the dim tower. The tower door creaked shut behind him, shutting out the buzz that arose in the streets. 
"Why do they always think that their schemes will save us?" Muttered Hideoshi. "They've only been a waste, a reckless waste of time and lives!" 
Takashi grinned while saying blithely, "Well, the day after tomorrow the odds will be much better!" 
"How?" Scoffed Galen. 
"It'll be four to one instead of five to one." 
"Takashi! Do you,-" said Hideoshi, "really think that that's much better?" 
"Come on, now! You're too gloomy anyway. Always have been." 
"It would do you some good to see the serious side of things. At least I know-" 
"We'd better get ready!" Cried Galen. 
Hideoshi, Nevsky, Takashi and Galen soon found the house in which they slept two nights ago. But now, their belongings were heaped in a remote corner of the entrance hall, while several Fairies were unpacking their own belongings, one of them the auburn-haired Fairy they had met before. 
"I thought that your quarters were elsewhere," Hideoshi said. 
The Fairy replied, " They were, but since your company no longer needs this place, we came here. It is a stouter building than the one we were given, not gaudy, and austere." 
"I never associated Fairies with austerity," mused Galen aloud. "I thought that they were pleasure-loving, luxurious people. Your clothes certainly aren't plain!" 
"Our clothes are more elaborate than those you have on, but they are made of wool, not silk, or satin. We appreciate and enjoy pleasure, but how can we retain a watchful guard against evil if we gave ourselves up to pleasure? Even the- the Mazovians are not so foolish." 
He suddenly glanced over his shoulder at the stairs, then grinned. 
"Illari!" 
"Illari," said Nevsky. "So, he's fine? No more seizures?" 
"He had several, but he is well." 
Illari crept down the stairs, then glided across the hall until he reached Nevsky. He kept his eyes lowered at first, but his one hand crept out of the shabby coat he wore, and pinched Nevsky's arm. 
"Hey!" Shouted Nevsky, flailing his arms, then staring at Illari. "Why'd you do that?" 
Illari gradually raised his turquoise eyes until they met Nevsky's brown ones, before rapidly lowering them. 
"Can I talk with you?"


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## Maiden_of Harad

AN INTERRUPTION!I now have this story on a blog, so if you see a blog titled "The Siege of Valash" by an InTerramDiligereEstPati, that's me. I'll still write here, but less frequently at times.Thank you!


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## Maiden_of Harad

"Sure," said Nevsky, puzzled by Illari's request.
With his only hand, Illari grabbed one of Nevsky's and tugged on it, pleading, "Come with me."
"I can't. I've got to go fight soon."
"Then I'll come with you!"
"You're not fit for war!" Exclaimed Hideoshi. "And-" memories of Nevsky's terror flashing in his mind-"you couldn't take it."
"I've seen people killed," said Illari.
Galen looked up in shock.
"You?" He said.
"Yes. Buildings fell on them. I even saw a man kill another-before the siege-to take his money. And mother killed herself when father left. I can go. I have no home. Nobody'd miss me if I died."
"This blasted war-even children are caught up in its madness," said Hideoshi, staring at the floor of the hall.
Illari spoke again.
"Never mind. I might black out-and that wouldn't help you. But, Nevsky, when you come back, take me home with you. Please."
Nevsky stared at nothing in particular. Home. What home? A charred ruin in a desolate swamp, its inhabitants now among the dead. 
"I don't have one," he replied.
"Then we can make a home anywhere!"
Nevsky started, a new thought dawning in his mind.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"If we're both alive when this is over, I'll take you," replied Nevsky, staring half-dazed at Illari.
Hideoshi glanced at his companions, then motioned towards the heap of goods in a far corner of the hall.
"Let's get our stuff and go," he said.
Hideoshi, Nevsky, Takashi, and Galen shuffled over to the corner, and began to pick through the heap of sleeping bags and stuffed canvas bags to find their belongings. For a moment Illari stared after them, then crept back upstairs. Several other soldiers from the Third Company also dug through the heap, muttering various complaints.
"I don't understand why we had to get picked for this suicide mission!"
"We were supposed to git back home in the summer, and now it's dead of winter! We're just wastn' our time, gettn' killed for nuthin!"
"Five thousand reinforcements! Bah! Against a hundred thousand?"
"Hey, Hideoshi!" Called one after glancing up from a sack he was rummaging. "What do you think about this mission?"
Hideoshi's narrow eyes contracted together as he thought of a reply.
"How should I say this?" He mused, when words began to form themselves together in his mind, demanding to be spoken.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Hideoshi raised his eyes, and surveyed his companions. 

"I don't mean to disrespect the generals, but this plan appears to be a waste of manpower, another desperate gamble to stave off defeat." 
He sighed, hoisted up his canvas sack onto his shoulders, and continued, "But we've got to do it, anyhow." 
The other soldiers finished packing in silence. Only the plodding and shuffling of feet echoed in the hall, as the soldiers of the Third Company began to depart to the western wall, which rose above the western edge of the plateau. 

"How are we going to climb down?" Whispered Nevsky to Hideoshi as they stepped out into the tingling cold. 

"Didn't they train you-" Hideoshi began to snap, when he realized the absurdity of what he was about to say. 
"He-and many others-haven't been trained at all," thought Hideoshi. "They've just been snatched up from their homes, had a weapon thrust in their hands, and sent off to this chaos! A farmer from the Andre Swamps may be strong, but he's not trained in warfare. Not much, anyway." 

"Can you climb at all?" He whispered back to Nevsky.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"I used to climb trees," Nevsky whispered.
A patter of feet, alternating between crunching on snow and slapping stone, sounded behind them. Hideoshi turned to look, and saw a boy, thin and pale, stumbling and bare footed, in pale brown bespattered coat that engulfed him, trailing them.
"Illari!"
"Let me show you the way! Let me show you!" Cried Illari, panting as he adjusted his draping coat with his one hand.
Galen narrowed his eyes and tilted his head slightly while asking, "What way?"
"There's a way down to the bottom, without climbing down. I've been there. I can show you. It's a secret."
Illari turned his face upwards towards the four. Hideoshi glanced around him, placed his hands upon his knees, bent down so that his face reached the level of Illari's, then spoke.
"Are you sure that it's secret?"
"Yes."
Illari rapidly withdrew his eyes from the piercing scrutiny of Hideoshi's dark green ones, and hung his head.
"It's true! I know! Will you believe me?" He said, suddenly clutching Nevsky's arm.
"You all are supposed to be moving! What's going on?" Shouted Sergeant Degmah as he stormed up to his men. His thin, almost transparent eyebrows twitched vigorously, his pale hair bristled, his cheeks puffed in and out, and his pale blue eyes appeared to have melted into their whites from the heat of his fury.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"Sir," said Hideoshi, straitened himself as he addressed Sergeant Degmah, "we're on our way." 
"Why the halt?" Sergeant Degmah demanded, folding his arms as he glared at Hideoshi. 
"This boy knows another way down to the bottom of the plateau, sir." 
"But he's a Valashian! Might be a trap!" 
"Most of the soldiers here can't climb down a cliff, even if ordered to, sir." 
"What of it? It's orders!" Said Sergeant Degmah. But lowering his eyes, he muttered to himself, "I don't enjoy thinking about that climb myself." 
He raised his eyes to Hideoshi again, pulled at his beard, then ordered loudly," Halt, everyone! Wait for further instruction!" 
After announcing this, Sergeant Degmah trudged off towards the tower in the center of Valash. 
"I'm freezing! Why didn't you tell us about this other way back inside, Illari?" Galen moaned while stomping his feet and rubbing his hands. 
Hideoshi looked around him. Most of the soldiers of the Third Company were moving about in a futile attempt to warm themselves while chatting, including his brother Takashi. Nevsky, however, stood still and aloof. His arms were folded tightly, his pale lips were pressed together firmly, and his glazed eyes stared into nothingness. Only his brown hair fluttered feebly in the icy wind. 
"What's up with him now?" Thought Hideoshi.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"Nevsky!" Called out Hideoshi. But Nevsky remained unmoved, frozen as ice, without even the slightest flicker of an eye.
"Nevsky!"
No response.
Suddenly, Hideoshi understood, as clearly and sharply in his mind as an icicle is clear and sharp, Nevsky's lack of response, his bleak stare, his stiffened jaw.
"He still won't accept what happened," thought Hideoshi. "He refuses to face that he's by himself since his family's all dead, but he knows that he must-and he's petrified. He's built up a frozen fortress of ice around himself, his thoughts. A fortress that will shatter into thousands of bits that'll dissolve into nothingness upon the first hard blow."
Hideoshi slapped his tingling hands to prevent numbness, while staring at Nevsky.
"I don't know why, but I'll see if I can shake him out of this," he thought.
A slushing of snow caused him and the other soldiers of the Third Company to pause their thoughts and doing. Sergeant Degmah, red-faced and puffing his cheeks, waddled up to them, followed by several other officers. Then Sergeant Degmah halted, and rang out:
"Boy! Your secret way better lead us down to the plains 'cause if you're lyin'- you'll get it!"
" I'm not lyin'! Follow me!" Illari called shrilly, skipping blithely and waving his one arm, then marching off with a beaming face.


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## Maiden_of Harad

The soldiers of the Third Company began to march, following the officers and Illari's lead. Some shifted their packs on their backs, adjusting them for comfort and security, while others plodded with half-closed eyes and drooping shoulders. All soon fell into two uneven lines that wound through the streets of Valash before entering into the house that they slept in some nights before.
But this time, they entered the great doors directly across from the entrance, and descended the stairs that seemed to drop down into the ground directly in front of the doors. Down the smooth steps they tramped until they reached a passageway, while was lit with a pale, white light that streamed down from shafts. In the passageway were five doors, two behind the company, and the other three beside and before them. Illari dashed to the door on the left, reached for the handle with his one hand, and swung it open while dangling from the handle.
"You'll want lights," he said before striding into the darkness.
The subdued chatter that was present before subsided as echoes became prevalent, and the air grew thick and damp. Hideoshi, Nevsky, Takashi, and Galen stuck together during the gradual decent, though none of them spoke.
Hideoshi glanced about him, and, from the flickering orange lights, discerned that the walls were painted in vivid colours, such as red, green, purple, and yellow. At times he could make out figures-soldiers, trees, beasts, maidens- all on a dark blue background with gold stars, just like those painted on the vaulted ceiling in the house above.
"I wish I knew what the paintings were, what they mean, who made them, and why," Hideoshi thought.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Hideoshi tapped Nevsky on the shoulder, causing him to jolt. 
"You scared me!" He hissed. 
"Didn't mean to. Look at the walls." 
Nevsky looked absently, then with attention, at the wall of the passageway. 
"I see now," he whispered. "Some of the paint's chipped and flaking, though." 
"Probably the dampness did that," replied Hideoshi. 
"We've been tramping for hours!" Galen interjected. 
For a long while the passageway led the Third Company steadily downwards, neither levelling flat nor diverting in any other direction. Suddenly, out the darkness the shape of a vast door, outlined by flickering torchlight, stood gaping before them. The ground beneath their feet just as abruptly levelled out, transitioning from stairs to a smooth stone floor.
"Follow me," said Illari, whose shrill voice faintly resonated throughout the passageway, as he tiptoed through the door, bearing a lighted torch in his hand. 
When Hideoshi and his companions passed through the door, they gasped. The room behind the door was vast, with a vaulted ceiling supported by colums arching far above their heads. Gigantic paintings of an ancient battle outlined in gold and silver were on the four walls of the room. Three vaulted doors stood before and beside the company. 
"Boy! Which way!" Shouted the officers and the sergeants at Illari, who was gazing with upturned head at the magnificence surrounding him.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Illari started, then dashed towards the door on the left, his bare feet pattering across the stone floor. The members of the Third Company followed, many frustrated with the length of time they had travelled through the passages, to say nothing of their mission itself. 
"I don't understand why," Galen muttered as he shuffled alongside Hideoshi, "why those Fairies said they want to fight evil, then they turn right around and say 'Oh, we'll just care for the sick and wounded'. Sound like inconsistent wimps that don't know what they're up to me." 
"I'm not sure about that, but why didn't any Fairies go on this mission with us?" Takashi asked, glancing at his older brother. After several moments of silence, he turned to Nevsky, asking, "What do you think?" 
Neither looking to the right or to the left, his eyes glazed in a blank stare, Nevsky said, "What of it?" 
"What do you mean, 'What of it'? Do you want to get killed on a stupid, useless, wasteful mission?" 
"We're all going to die anyway-I don't see why it should matter how." 
Nevsky stiffened his jaw and his face paled, but no other reaction occurred as they tramped through the passageway. 
"Why did I ever bother helping him?" Hideoshi pondered. "Now he's just as bad as if I'd done nothing. Nothing! He's hopeless!" 
He took a quick glance through the corner of his eye at Nevsky. Nevsky marched as though oblivious to all, as though he were nothing more than a mere walking machine. At once revulsion, frustration, and pity seized Hideoshi at once, each attempting to dominate his will. 
"What should I do?" His mind said.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Hideoshi realized that the air around him was gradually becoming colder and the passageway was narrowing. Ahead, a door creaked, and the faint roar of a brisk snowfall reached his ears.
"Must be near the entrance, or exit I should say," He thought as he pulled his headgear over his brow, wrapped a scarf round his mouth, and tugged at his coat.
The Third Company stepped out in single file from the passageway into the dark blue night of swiftly falling snow. Behind them, the plateau loomed overhead, craggy and forboding. A faint booming of cannonfire and a rushing roar of battle from above could be heard, nearly overpowered by the sound of the snow.
For a good while they traveled eastward in silence. Icy winds bit their ears and noses, penetrated their coats, and froze their breaths as they trudged onward in sullen silence. Nothing eventful occured, until a dark figure appeared beside them, halted, and screamed with a scream that rent the night.
"Get 'em!" Sergent Degmah shouted, and several of the soldiers dashed towards the stranger, Hideoshi reaching him first. He siezed the stranger, pulled out a dagger, and was about to thrust it into the stranger's throat when he saw that the strangers face was that of a terrified young woman.
In one hand she clutched a bundle, while with the other she strove to fight off Hideoshi's hold on her. Her face was wide, her grey eyes were large, bright, and very wide apart, while a fring of dark brown hair peeked out from her dark hood. 
"Let me go! Let me go!"
Hideoshi in astonishment released the woman, who immediately began to dash away like a deer escaped from dogs. But Sergent Degmah shouted, "Halt, you!"
The woman halted, shivering, while she began to wail and cry.


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## Maiden_of Harad

"A woman! What's she doing here?" Fumed Sergeant Degmah as he trudged and puffed towards the woman. Many of the soldiers halted, and stared in curiosity at the diversion.
Hideoshi, after glancing at the woman's bundle and her thick clothing, said, "She's probably a refugee."
"These people have had all summer and autumn to flee, only to do so now?" Replied Sergeant Degmah, frowning as he folded his arms. "Anyway, she'd better tell her own story."
"So you demand it of me?"
Startled, Sergeant Degmah and Hideoshi whirled round to face the woman, who had ceased crying. Now, her brows arched as she smiled playfully.
"Demand what?" Sergeant Degmah said.
"My story, you thick-headed brute! If all your army's as dimwitted as you , then I can dance right through the gates of Valash!"
"You!"
"My, what a snowfall! I think it's turning into a storm."
She began to dash away, but Sergeant Degmah, baffled and exasperated, shouted, "Get back here, and get back to the point!"
The woman spun round, approached the two men, and gave a flourish.
"Very well," she began. "I suppose I look odd, but then, well, I am a refugee, and I'm lost."
She halted her speech, darted a quick look round her, then resumed.
"I live in a little village, on a small plateau, about fifteen miles from Valash. We were safe, as no armies came near, only rumors-until yesterday, when far off in the distant southern plains, the men saw a small army marching our way. Small for an army, but it could easily destroy our village. So we left. I was with my family, but somehow was separated from them in a small but blinding snowstorm. Then I ran into a wood, and came out near here."
"So the reinforcements are coming! " Takashi exclaimed.
Sergeant Degmah said, "Maybe, but she's coming with us as a precaution. Might be a spy. I'll talk with the other sergeants and the officers about this."
He strode to the front of the column, spoke with the officers and sergeants for a short while, then waded back through the deepening snow.
"She's staying with us. Watch her, Hideoshi and Galen."
The Third Company resumed marching, the woman between Hideoshi and Galen. After trudging a short ways, Hideoshi turned towards her, and asked, "What's your name?"


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## Maiden_of Harad

Before the woman could answer, Sergeant Degmah came puffing alongside. Hideoshi, saying, "There's some more wanderers near the front of the line. They've come from a village, and they're missing their daughter."
"My parents!" She exclaimed before rushing off as best she could through the knee-high snow, never to be seen again by Hideoshi and his friends. Sergeant Degmah trudged off to another part of the column, and they continued to march.
The snowfall ceased, and a glowing moon shone upon the snowy plains. Ahead, a small plateau loomed, on which could be seen a road winding round the trunk of the plateau to the very top. On top, the ghostly outlines of a wall could be seen peeking over the plateau's edge.
"Should be at Kolov round sunrise," Galen said, staring up at the city as he adjusted his pack. "Sure 'aint lookin' forward to bashing another gate open."
"Why? This otta be easy! It's not a big city," said Takashi, his eyes narrowed as he looked at Galen.
"You weren't here last time, ne-"
"Quiet!" Hissed a lieutenant who happened to march past at that time. "We want to surprise the enemy. No more talking!"
Takashi and Galen nodded their heads, looked at each other, rolled their eyes, then continued marching.
The base of the plateau was soon reached, and the Third Company began to march upon the slushy road. Their shoes became waterlogged, legs and feet began to tingle, sharp winds of ice pierced their clothes, yet they marched up to the top of the plateau. Almost immediately before them stood the city of Kolov.
"To the gate!" Shouted the officers.


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## Maiden_of Harad

A roar and clattering of confusion, bustle, and desperation sounded from the city of Kolov. As the Third Company rushed upon the gate, the clamour intensified. Soldiers raced along the walls to the gate, cranking crossbows once they took up positions. But they were too late. The wooden gate, set ablaze by the Third Company, collapsed, and they rushed in like water poured into a basin.
The inhabitants of Kolov, woken by the commotion, panicked. Shrieks and screams filled the streets as men, women, and children dashed about, disoriented and disorganised. The disarray visible shook the nerves of the soldiers of Kolov, yet they were spurred on to fight, to fight vigorously, to fight valiantly. They held their ground, and began to shoot.
"At 'em!" Sergeant Degmah roared to his element. 
Once again Hideoshi's heart raced, breathing was hasty and laboured, and his muscles tensed as he gripped his sword. Its cold steel handle burned through his gloves and tingled his numbed hand, yet he gripped the harder. He charged forward, screaming without knowing what he screamed, caught up in the universal tension around him.
Takashi and Galen did likewise, soon colliding with the enemy. A frenzy seized them, and they thrust their swords into the nearest enemy, before pulling them out and repeating the process. Blows were given and parried, and the enemy lines began to give way, when Takashi felt a sudden jab in his stomach that withdrew itself, then sudden pain.
He glanced down, faintness overtaking him, and in the early sunlight, saw a growing spot of blood on his coat. Right after, he slumped over upon the snow.
Hideoshi, elated with his successes despite his weariness, glanced over at his younger brother, just in time to see him collapse. Glee swiftly morphed into concern.
"Takashi!" He screamed hoarsely.


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## Maiden_of Harad

All around Hideoshi the Third Company swept by in pursuit of the enemy. A sudden longing to join them filled his soul, clashing vehemently with his impulse to rush to his brother's side.
He glanced at Takashi once more. A pool of crimson was growing next to his body as he lay face down in the slushy street. All the while the Third Company was moving swiftly away, the din growing fainter, leaving him behind.
Hideoshi took a step forward, then halted abruptly, for an old saying had shot up. from his subconciousness into the forefront of his mind.
'Safeguard thine one house, though the nation should fall.'
After glancing around and noting that no enemy soldiers were in the vicinity, he rushed to Takashi, knelt down in the icy slush, and rolled Takashi over. His eyes were instantly drawn to the red spot on the right side of Takashi's waist.
"A deep wound," he muttered as he proceeded to undress Takashi before binding the wound. Dismay filled him when he saw how deep the wound penetrated, but he gritted his teeth and bound it tightly, hoping to halt the steady ebbing of blood from his brother's body.
Meanwhile, Galen and Nevsky were swept along with their companions in pursuit of the enemy, though their reactions were entirely different. Galen plunged himself into the fray, racing ahead, his sword ever ready to plunge into its next victim. Thus, he heeded not the doings of his companions, save to avoid mishap.
Nevsky ducked and dove beneath the other, striving to avoid the conflict about him. His heart raced almost as swiftly as his panicky mind. But, he was borne along with the rest, jostled and elbowed till he was bruised and sore.
Suddenly, he was thrust right into the chest of an enemy soldier, who lost no time in repulsing Nevsky. Fear and self-preservation kicked in, and Nevsky thrust his sword right into the soldier's neck before punching him in the chest. Down he fell, blood streaking his neck, his eyes slowly glazing over, when Nevsky glanced at his bloody, sword, gasped, and turned pale.
"I've killed a man," he whispered, wide-eyed.


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## Maiden_of Harad

But there was no time for Nevsky to ponder what he had just done, for a flash of steel whipped by, millimetres from his cheek. Panic gripped him, and he wildly cast his sword about, attempting to ward of blows while ducking simultaneously. His ears filled with the din of shouting, groaning, clattering, screaming, increasing his racing heartbeat, his rapid breathing. All the while, he was driven on, onward by his companions.
Meanwhile, Hideoshi finished binding Takashi's wound, and lifted his brother onto his shoulder. A few, halting, slippery steps through slushy mud, then through the door of a nearby house before depositing Takashi on a plain wooden table. Takashi groaned, and feebly turned his head.
"Okay Takashi?"
Takashi merely groaned.
"Thirsty?"
Another groan, this time fainter, like a dying whimper.
Hideoshi pulled out his flask, only to sigh and let it fall clattering onto the floor when he realised that it was frozen. 
He glanced at Takashi again, then looked more intensely. That pallor, that bluish tint-he'd seen it before. In the persons of the dead.
Hideoshi tiptoed over to the table on which Takashi was lying and clasped his hand. There could be no doubt now. Creeping slowly yet relentlessly, the icy hand of death way laying hold of his brother, claiming his very life.
Hideoshi looked at Takashi's face. An eyelid fluttered when he whispered, "Takashi!"-then all was still. The pale, grey-white pallor crept over his features, now transfixed by death.
A thousand thoughts began to crowd Hideoshi's mind, all tending to one end, all leading to an overwhelming question.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Despite his affection for Takashi, Hideoshi felt nothing. Only a dull emptiness, while a kaleidoscope of thoughts whirled round dizzyingly in his mind.
"I've seen too many, too many die that way to feel it anymore," he whispered, gazing down upon Takashi's face.
Another face hovered in his memory, overpowering all other thoughts for the moment. An old man, snowy hair framing his tired face, sitting on the doorstep of his stone house, gazing up at the surrounding mountains while he waited. Waited for his sons to come home.
Other faces, the faces of his fellow soldiers, replaced this vision. Faces of men whose eyes grew old though they were taut and beardless. Men who sought to flee the thought of the impending doom of all mortals in carousing. Men embittered, cynical, despairing of hope when life had just begun.
Once more Takashi's face appeared in his mind, laughing with joy. Always laughing, smiling, or hopeful, whatever he did.
"It's good you went now, I suppose. If you'd turned like the others-no, better that you go now," Hideoshi said softly, his eyes welling up though he restrained himself from crying.
Once more he thought of the others, calloused or perpetually fleeing from the thought of death.
"We weren't meant for this-to be cowering in fear of the inevitable, or to harden oneself in bitter despair! Why haven't I gone so far as they? What am I holding onto?" Mused Hideoshi.
"There's meaning to this, there must be! This can't be a nihilistic void!"
Meanwhile, Nevsky stumbled and slipped, panting as he attempted to keep up with his companions. It was now fully daylight, revealing both glittering snow and pools of blood. The soldiers of Kolov were finally cornered in the northern part of the city, when from the southern wall a civilian screamed, "They've come to ruin us! Look at the plains!"
"The reinforcements!" Nevsky thought with relief.
But the citizens of Kolov panicked the more, all suddenly converging before rushing in a body towards the eastern wall.
Galen, who raced by Nevsky just then, halted and said, "What are they up to?"


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## Maiden_of Harad

Upon reaching the eastern wall, the citizens of Kolov rushed up a flight of stairs to the top of the wall, jostling, shoving, crowding, and squeezing each other along the way. Then, a woman, whose iron resolution displayed itself in stiffened jaw and firm tread, climbed the battlements, glanced skyward, inhaled deeply, and leaped down, down onto the plains a mile below the plateau on which the tiny city of Kolov was built. Others followed, a gesture of despairing defiance towards their invaders. Soon the crowd lessened, as the civilians continued to hurl themselves to their deaths.
"Stop that madness!" Several officers cried after gasping in astonishment at the horrifying spectacle. 
But the civilians were too quick, and the last person leaped to his end just before a group of soldiers reached the base of the eastern wall.
While gazing at Takashi's face, Hideoshi suddenly heard the officers' cries, breaking the silence and his brooding thoughts. Overpowered by a sense of duty once more, he rushed out of the house, rapidly scanned his surroundings, and saw the last civilian of Kolov leaping from the battlements. Noticing a small group of fellow soldiers at the base of the wall, he crunched across glazed-over slush to meet them.
"Where've you been?" Several queried, narrowing their eyes while frowning.
"Been busy, that's what. What happened-"
All eyes turned towards the corner of the city where the soldiers of Kolov were hemmed in. They had seen the spectacle of despair, seen it all too well. Some now were frantically attempting the climb the walls, while others thrust their swords into their own bodies. Hysteria reigned in the enlarged whites of their eyes, the pallor of their skin, in the sweat that beaded upon faces clammy and cold.
Instantly the soldiers of the Third Company raced over to the corner in a desperate attempt to halt the insanity. But the last soldier collapsed in a pool of his own blood just when the throng surrounded them.
"Well, we've taken the city," mumbled Galen after several moments of eerie silence.
Nevsky made no audible sound, but his widened eyes, his terrified gripping of the wall with one hand, and his lax hold on his sword with the other spoke powerfully where words would fail.
"Madness! Madness!" Hideoshi muttered under his breath.
Galen suddenly interrupted his brooding, saying, "Where's Takashi?"


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## Maiden_of Harad

At first, Hideoshi was baffled by the question, which showed in his blank stare of uncomprehension. Gradually, the image of Takashi's grey-white face appeared in his mind, blurry at first, but becoming clearer each second.
"Are-are you alright?" Asked Nevsky, still in shock from recent events, but pushing this aside for a moment in his concern.
Hideoshi jolted, then shook himself to clear his mind before stating, "Takashi's dead."
"Are you okay?" Galen asked.
"I'm fine."
Hideoshi began to walk away slowly, with measured tread, bowed head, and stiffened jaw, his feet crunching upon frozen slush and snow.
Galen began fuming, "Ever the Stoic! And it ain't just him either! Every soldier I've known from those Illy-something mountains, even the non-serious ones, if a friend or relative died, they'd stiffen up! Ever last man of 'em! And they're supposed to be all about family and friends too. Well, I guess-"
But Nevsky had ceased listening to the rambling rantings of Galen long before this point. He was watching Hideoshi, noting every footfall, every rustle of his black hair, every change in his still stiffened face. Up a set of stairs his eyes followed Hideoshi, and up upon the city wall. A sudden impulse arose within Nevsky, and he followed after.
Three quarters of the way to the wall, Nevsky's foot bumped into a body. A body that groaned. He glanced down, and recognised the soldier that he. Ran his sword through.
Instantly he knelt down and clasped his hands, saying, "I'm sorry. I had to! I'm sorry!"
The soldier glanced back at Nevsky, spluttered, and said in a hoarse whisper, "You and-an your liars' tears! Curse you! Cur-"
The soldier became still and silent, his eyed glazed in hate, a grey pallor creeping over his face like an ill-omened shadow.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Nevsky recoiled from the recently-deceased soldier, his lips parted and his brown eyes wide with shock. A slight gust that blew past just then seemed to be the icy hand of death, smoothing his cheeks and ruffling his hair. Gradually he arose and slowly backed away, his eyes riveted upon the body of the man he had killed. The first man he had killed.
Inside Nevsky was racked by revulsion, sorrow, pain, and self-loathing. A swift jab, a flash of cold, sharp steel, and he had killed a man.
"Just like those Mazovians killed my family," he thought.
A shiver flowed from the base of his back up to the base of his neck, causing him to shake himself. But he could not shake those ominous word from his mind, words of torture, words of guilt, words of doom.
"I have killed a man."
Suddenly, his shaking grew uncontrollable, and following his stormy thoughts came a flood of tears as he screamed and collapsed onto the bloody, freezing slush, upon which snow was falling.
Hideoshi's silent reverie upon the walls of Kolov ceased the instant Nevsky's scream of anguish rent the air. Though he hesitated for he moment, he hastened down the wall, dashed up to Nevsky and knelt beside him.
"Come out of it!" He snapped, shaking the prone Nevsky vigorously. "Stop it, now! If you really need to, sit down and rest but stop this now!"
"Why do I even bother with him?" Hideoshi fumed to himself. Meanwhile, Galen strode up and, after scrutinising Nevsky, said, "I should've known he'd end up this way. I don't know why he even came to this war."
Hideoshi glanced at Nevsky again, and he suddenly felt that he understood why he felt compelled to help him.
"He had to come. He's just a decent fellow who got dragged from his home into-this. It's almost like making a six-year-old kill his pet, if you get my meaning."
Frowning, Galen shook his head.
"He really is a decent fellow," Hideoshi whispered to himself as he continued to shake Nevsky,"but will he ever be able to learn to handle this and remain so? Or-will he become jaded and bitter, like too many another I've seen and known?"


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## Maiden_of Harad

The wind began to pierce Hideoshi's clothes once more, stabbing his skin and leaving it numb. Nevsky's demented screams died down to a whimper, but he continued to lie prostrate upon the freezing slush. Over him stood Galen, arms folded while puffing and frowning.
"Just leave him, we've got to get movin," he said before trudging away, kicking Nevsky as he left.
Hideoshi began following Galen, but glanced down out Nevsky. His heat began to beat erratically and he felt an urge to kneel next to Nevsky. Simultaneously, a surge of revulsion swept over him, and he frowned as his muscles stiffened. 
Just then the memory of Takashi inviting Nevsky to live with them crashed through the barriers of his mind, shattering all other thoughts.


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## Maiden_of Harad

Immediately Hideoshi knelt down, ignoring the cold damp that seeped through the knees of his pants. He extended his right hand, slowly lowering it before he finally laid it on Nevsky's quivering shoulder.
_It's useless-he's doomed anway,_ said a voice within his mind.
Hideoshi firmly pressed his chapped lips together and bit his bottom lip as his muscles contracted.
"Nevsky! Nevsky!" he whispered, hovering over Nevsky's ear.
Gradually, Nevsky rolled himself over, revealing a white face smeared with mud and blood. A white face with wide, dull brown eyes.
"Get up."
"Why should I? I'm a killer-like _them"._
Hideoshi stared into Nevsky's eyes, gradually coming to a vauge comprehension of Nevsky's plight.
_He can't put it behind him-the killing.
_He glanced up, then quickly dropped his head back down.
_Can anyone ever, really put the killing of another person behind them? Have I?_
Faces flashed into his mind. Faces that he thought had been erased from his memory, but that had actually been submerged in his subconcious. Faces of men that he had killed.
Hideoshi squeezed his eyes until water flowed forth, squeezed his hands until his fingernails penetrated their dry skin, but the procession of images would not abate until every last one had passed through his mind.
_ What have I become?_ his mind whispered.


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