War Queen
897 Words
The people watched with their mouths gaping open as the stony bars of the gates ascended, followed by the familiar galloping of horses. With their eyes stuck in the distance, they warily watch as the deployed soldiers from the South marched inside with their flags upon the air.
The children peeked from behind the windows and all the people stared as the generals, captains, and the wounded soldiers enter inside.
There was a deafening silence.
As the bystanders gazed into the soldiers' devastated eyes, they watch in horror as they realized that only a few of them had returned home. Some even, had only one or two limbs miraculously attached to their bodies.
"T-There's much fewer of them today..." one of the farmers muttered under his breath. "W-Where is my child..?"
The march halted. They stared upon the last people who entered the gates.
Eyes filled bloodshot dead, and lifeless sloppy postures- the generals and captain entered with their horses. Blood covered upon their once shiny armor. Their lips pale and their vigor, gone. Their swords were broken and their sheaths torn into oblivion.
"D-Did the generals enter the siege?" the bystanders whispered among themselves.
"W-Well, that's what I think of too."
"Did we lose?"
"Good for them, those cowardly, pathetic oafs—"
Suddenly the trumpets filled the air with a beaming sound as a woman emerges from the gates. Her robes painted with blood. She halted their horse and it recoiled a battlecry upon her tug.
The villagers' eyes widened more and more as they realize that it was their queen.
The trumpet stopped.
"Listen, my lovely Pollus." she spoke gently. But even if she did so, her words echoed throughout the air because of the silence. It was audible enough for everybody around them to hear.
"With me, are the generals and captains assigned for the redemption of the South. As you all may know, these," she looked at them with her eyes filled with amusement. "honored soldiers have plunged into the war with me."
The generals slowly turned their heads upon her with their faces filled with disgust and fear.
"And today, I proclaim to all you- that the South..."
The village listened with their palms clenched, bracing for her words.
Some lost hope. Few shed tears. It was impossible.
The siege had been ongoing for three months. They have lost half of their battalion trying to retrieve the fallen region. And on that morning they had left, seeing that they had deployed fewer than their usual, the villagers' anxiety grew more and more.
"The South is fully redeemed."
Their eyes froze and the women dropped their blankets. The farmers and merchants lose their grip upon their cloths and rakes. Before their eyes, stood the Queen with only one-fourth of her soldiers alive and well.
"H-How did we win against the siege... Your Majesty?" a brave yet shocked peasant asked from below her.
"Y-You must be lying to us, My Queen. Surely you cannot win with all these soldiers left."
The villagers looked at her. Intensely. Demanding for answers.
She raised an eyebrow against them and gave them a mocking smirk.
"Oh, my bad." she jeered. "Truly you have not lost your faith in us because we only have a few dozen to return home, do you?"
She could hear their whispers. Their eyes judging her.
She gritted her teeth in irritation. Of all the noises she had to hear when she returned home, she hated this the most.
Their doubtful whispers and lollygagging. Their pathetic mindset and stupid assumptions.
"Ugh." she exasperated. "Listen, dipsticks."
The people stopped chattering.
"I believe that most of you knew that I am not a talkative person, do you not? I am exhausted from all the fuss I dealt with, now will you please, for the love of God, shut your darned mouths and use your brains even for just a slight minute."
The villagers were taken aback by her remark and lowered their heads.
"Why do you think that only a few soldiers had come home?"
The villagers whispered among themselves. But they could not think of an answer.
The queen closed her eyes in irritation and palmed her forehead in complete annoyance.
"What a bunch of village idiots." she whispered to herself.
She brings her fingers to the hilt of her sword and drew it. She raises it into the air and sighed excessively. With her eyes narrowed in a cold stare upon the whispering crowd, she proclaimed with all her might.
"The South is redeemed and I have lost nobody in my squadron today. If you wish to find a family that was deployed, I recommend for you to visit them at an inn we have retrieved from the South. They are resting well. A few mules and carts have been prepared. Now I do not care of a single thing about your food and water upon your journey so I suggest you don't pester me about it. Go for all I care."
And with that, the soldiers were dismissed. They ran limping towards their wives and children, while the Queen watched over them as smile plastered on their faces. The joy, the sorrow.
It is what they have told, after a rain, comes a rainbow.
But for the Queen, her rainbow never rose. And never it will be.
- Writer
