The Loss
THE TALE OF A SHE-ELF’S RISE TO WARRIOR
4
Scouts were dispatched; they waited tactically
without fires so to never divulge their place.
Nimgalliel thought about her initiation:
the first time she used her dagger to kill.
She recalled…
While traveling back to the Kingdom, she saw the Queen’s guard
fighting off attackers
leaving her open to deadly harm, so
Nimgalliel leapt into the fray to protect her.
Armed with her dagger
she assessed the attackers
as they moved toward the Queen.
She squinted at one on her left, then scorned
one to the right.
“You think that two of you scare me? Think again!”
She lunged like a cat
at the one on the right,
used momentum to propel
toward the one on the left.
Dagger on skin, claws to the bone, two deaths fell hard;
the cat spun in place, her eyes seeing all.
Men moved, she swiped, she danced up,
then under
their thrusts hitting nothing
but darkness or wind
as the She-Elf dispatched them
twice and then thrice; whence,
five were dead at her deftly trained hand.
The Queen grabbed and hugged her
unusual and loving for her to do
to a She-Elf warrior.
Nimgalliel tensed at first, then returned the embrace.
It was over.
The Queen had lost
many companions
and most attackers were dead.
The ones that could run, had.
She, Nimgalliel the She-Elf, was commended by the Queen
who took precious time
making sure
her courtesans were well enough
to move home
with Nimgalliel as their guard…
Startled out of her thoughts
her Captain ordered the garrison
to get ready to move.
While she daydreamed,
the scouts came back
with good news:
The advantage was theirs.
The attackers too lean
in their numbers
to warrant
a buildup of troops.
They prepared to attack!
They fanned across the field
and attacked from four fronts,
swiftly leaving but one alive
to take back to the King
for torture or truth.
“ How easy this battle,” the Captain praised
his garrison and She-Elf
every one of them brave.
But, nonetheless,
she had disobeyed
a direct order from her King.
Her captain looked down at her
from his horse, “You are worried
what will happen when we return?”
“Yes. I disobeyed,
and punish me, he will,
to set an example
no matter how much
he might care for me
or my late father’s trust.”
“I’m not sure that will happen.
He and the Queen
saw you fall in with us
and they did not stop you.”
She groaned, “Are you sure?”
He just smiled at her and rode to the front.
She watched him go
and tried to push the thoughts
from her head
that she was falling in love.
Chorus– in unison:
She would not be a She-Elf like her mother. The day her father and her Elf-mother were slain, they were attacked by a jealous kingdom. Her father fought to save his beloved family, till he could stand no more. The murderers left her parents dead, but Nimgalliel faked death to live. Her mother and father slipped away to the gods, leaving Nimgalliel, their Girl-Elf, to seek revenge as a woman warrior in the King’s Royal Guard. She would prevail, for when any man gloats that he enjoys killing a woman and her destiny, it causes his moment of defeat.
