The Loss
THE TALE OF A SHE-ELF’S RISE TO WARRIOR
5
They topped the hill
and saw the castle under attack.
Everyone moved
into fighting mode
and readied to protect their homeland
and the people within the far walls.
She and some of the others rode on horseback toward the castle,
cutting down as many of the enemy as they could
along the way.
She, the She-Elf Warrior, and her troops,
had the advantage
of coming from behind the attackers
to slay them,
never slowing their steeds.
Nimgalliel, the Captain, and a few of the soldiers
slid from their horses,
ran to the castle
searching for their royalty.
In the throne room they found them,
and jumped into action
dispatching many
while trying to reach the royal family.
A King and Queen must be protected
at all costs.
She and her Captain
fought their way
slaying a pathway
to their sides.
They reached the King and his Queen
when things took a turn
that no one expected.
Their son, the Prince, the heir, their blood,
her friend,
turned on them all.
Time tricked her eyes;
he stabbed the King
and spun with his sword
to kill his mother.
She put herself between
the two and grabbed his wrist
before he could.
They stared at each other;
neither one said a word.
She anticipated his lunge and moved out of the way.
She punched with her dagger,
the hilt hit him square.
He staggered back. Blood dripped from his nose.
His mouth took on a sinister grin.
While they fought,
the queen’s guards
got her out of the room.
The fight persisted around them.
The Prince’s lust for power,
premature for his age,
had brought evil between the two of them.
He was able to back her
into a corner
but that didn’t stop her uncanny defense.
She was hardly afraid;
she was raised as a warrior.
He smirked to her face, “I can end this now! “
“That’s not going to happen.
My gods see your soul.
You will die in your fantasy,
hardly a King.”
The Prince parried back, “Fight me more, so yours will be a slow,
and painful death.”
He gripped her wrists tighter and he tried not to gloat.
He saw her flinch. “I hope I am hurting you!”
He enjoyed the sweet taste
of her coming agony.
“No.”
He paused to savor his
imagined strike. In that pause,
the She-Elf spun to the left,
her dagger unsheathed,
her wrists clearly free;
she found flesh and his neck
was severed quite cleanly.
His head and his body fell limp to the stone;
his coup had been thwarted, her anger unleashed;
his dishonorable patricide, all in one night,
now undone!
The fighting had ceased; she regretted her anger, not
her dagger’s arc.
She stood up and looked round the room.
Nearby, a soldier dropped his sword when
he saw the Captain lying dead on the floor.
The soldier commended her,
“You did what you should!”
More shouts from the hallway, “We all saw him strike!
The King was his mark,
then went after his mother!”
Nimgalliel lamented, “I shouldn’t have done it, but you are right;
he gave me no choice.
I just hope the Queen understands.”
“She will. She saw her son
kill the King,
then attack you in force
when you stepped in front of her to protect her!”
Chorus– in unison:
She would be a Captain like her father: the Captain of the Royal Guard. This day, the She-Elf Warrior rose to her destiny to save the Kingdom, while losing a King. She had killed the Prince who was too petty to lead. Her father fought till he could stand no more. His murderers left them all for dead, but Nimgalliel faked death no more. As the Kingdom beckoned, she fulfilled her fate; the gods placed her father’s dagger into her hands, and without a sound, she carried out her fate. She would prevail, for when a petty Prince gloats that he will enjoy killing a woman and her destiny, it is always his moment of death.
