A Promise

[21st August, 1917, Forest Of Tats]

SWOOOP!!

Flohelm opened his eyes; his slumber disturbed by the sudden noise. Quickly, he got up from his bed and walked toward the window of the cottage. He looked outside, confused, everything seemed normal.

'What was the sound? Was I dreaming?' he thought.

He was lost in his thought when he felt a soft sensation on his nose. His eyes focused on his nose, there balancing itself on his nose, was a small leaf. He removed it from his nose and looks at it in his palm. It was small and delicate, just like his son, Natria. A feeling of bittersweet joy took over his mind. Reminiscing of his wife and friends, he decided to get back to his bed when a sudden gust of wind displaced the leaf from his palm.

For the first time, he really looked outside. For the last two days, he had been so lost in his mind, thinking about recent accidents that he had isolated himself from the world. When the light from outside entered his eyes, this time his mind didn't reject it. In front of him was the vast, lively village of Avia. Children helped their mother while their fathers prepared to leave for the jungle. The local craftworker had opened his store, farmers ploughed the field and many more activities continued on. He had never realised that the cottage he was living in for the last two days was a four-storey town hall.

There was a knock on the door.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Yes." he replied.

"It's Bakuzkha. Can I come inside?" a voice came.

"Of course." he replied.

The door of the cottage opened with a creak.

"How are you?" Bakuzkha asked politely.

"I'm fine. Thanks to your medicine, I feel better than ever." Flohelm replied, trying to sound as energetic as possible.

"That's nice to hear. I'm glad we could be of help. I wanted to tell you that Natria is awake, you guys might need to leave now." she said in a serious tone.

"Oh, I guess the time has come." Flohelm said in a grim voice.

Bakuzkha just looked at Flohelm in silence.

"Uh....If it's not too much to ask, um, why are you guys aren't leaving? You know the assault might come today, we are so close to boundary, maybe we can help the whole town evacuate and reac-" Flohelm was interrupted by Bakuzkha's sudden gaze at him.

"I thought you would say something like this. After all, you city folk don't understand one's love for their land." she said with a sigh.

"Um, sorry?" Flohelm said.

"Oh, don't misunderstand. Come, I'll show you." she said, signalling him to follow.

Flohelm obliged. Quietly, he followed Bakuzkha through the building like a small child. They reached her room on the ground floor. She rotated the knob of the door.

CLICK!

"Come." she instructed.

Flohelm entered the room, he felt his heart would burst out of excitement. As soon as he entered the room, instead of ancient treasure or legacy, there was a small desk and chair neatly put beside a large bookshelf filled with files and documents. In every sense, it was a normal study. Flohelm felt disappointed. He had thought of being revealed to some hidden secret of the tribe, but reality is often disappointing.

Avia walked over to the corner of the bookshelf, Flohelm assumed she was about to take out a book but then he saw her hand go to the back of the shelf. A lever was put down somewhere, the bookshelf came outwards on its own, revealing a small door behind it.

"What sort of magic is this?" Flohelm asked in amazement.

"Control yourself. Go upstairs and come back with Natria from the nursery." she said in a nonchalant voice with a touch of faint chuckle. Flohelm obliged. On his way upstairs he thought about the sudden noise that had caused him to wake up.

"I guess I'm finally going nuts." he chuckled.

He entered the nursery quietly, making sure not to wake up Natria. He paved his way to the wooden crib in the corner of the room, greeting the caretaker on his way. He peered through the mosquito net; there inside slept Natria nicely tucked in his blanket. A slight grin came over his face. He removed the mosquito net, then as quietly as possible lifted his son. Couple of minutes later he was standing in front of the hidden door with Bakuzkha.

"Still asleep?" Bakuzkha asked.

"Soundly as ever." replied Flohelm.

"Good. Come now, I have something that might interest you." Bakuzkha said, her voice carrying a tone of pride.

She bent down a little to open the door. It opened with a creak. She grabbed Flohelm's hand and before he could even question; they passed through the door. Inside, it was complete darkness, what little light illuminated the dark corridor was coming from their entry point. Still having the hold of Flohelm's hand, Bakuzkha closed the tiny door. Now, it was really complete darkness. Flohelm got the answer to his unasked question. Bakuzkha steadily guided Flohelm through the corridor of eternal darkness. After what felt like eternity to Flohelm, she finally stopped, he heard some clicking noises and then came the sound of opening of a metal gate.

CHIRK!

A match was lit, the tiny flame was dropped into something by what looked like just an autonomous hand to Flohelm. A large flame followed and soon light illuminated the surroundings. They were in a large room. Flohelm's eyes glittered with amazement as the marvelous sight before him engraved itself into them. Various artifacts, treasures, armours were scattered around the room with portraits of various men and women put around the room.

"This room is our legacy." Bakuzkha sighed.

"To put it simply, it's what our elders left behind for us. These treasures and armours you see; these are memorials of our brothers and sisters who sacrificed themselves for us." Bakuzkha's voice was now heavy and filled with emotions.

Flohelm listened in silence.

"We had fought each of our enemies with insuppressible braveness and valour. Every child you see here has been taught to put the land before themselves." her voice had begun to shake, an overwhelming sense of helplessness had come over her.

"Whether it be the colonist or some other foe, our people had never gave up, we fought through the harshest of times together and would continue to do so.." her voice had a spark of pride but suddenly it was overpowered by despair.

Flohelm now knew the answer to his question.

"Even if I forced them to, they won't leave." she said in a voice filled with sorrow as tears fell down from her eyes.

Flohelm tried to console her. Controlling her tears, she let out a sigh.

"I as the head of my tribe, can't leave my people alone, we would fight just like always. Maybe it would be our last one or maybe the sun will rise again on our village; just like it always has been for centuries." she said, her voice a mixture of pride and sorrow.

"The gate you see at the end, that leads straight to the outskirts of village, travel west once you get to the surface, if you re lucky, you might reach the border before sunset. No, you will reach the border. As promised, I'll guide you to your destination." Bakuzkha said.

Suddenly, there was the sound of footsteps from the path they had just come. Flohelm could see a flying ball of fire getting larger and larger in the darkness. As the ball grew in size the footsteps became louder and louder. A figure began to take shape behind the flame; it was a man running towards them.

"𝘈𝘯𝘯𝘢, they are here!" he shouted.

"They? Who are you talking about?" Bakuzkha asked.

"An army of two hundred men with guns, they have come to take over the land of village!" the man said, panting.

"How do you know they have come for the land?" she asked.

"I found an arrow in the man's room this morning while cleaning. It was stuck beside the dresser. It had a note attached to it." he said handing the note to Bakuzkha.

It read-

𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝒜𝓋𝒾𝒶 𝐸𝓁𝒹𝑒𝓇,

𝒜𝓈 𝓅𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓇𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝓅𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓈𝓈, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝓆𝓊𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝒩𝒶𝑜, 𝓌𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒷𝑒 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓈𝑒𝓈𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝓅𝓊𝓇𝓅𝑜𝓈𝑒𝓈. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝑜𝓇𝒹𝑒𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒷𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓃𝑜𝑜𝓃. 𝑅𝑒𝒻𝓊𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓈𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓊𝓁𝓉 𝒾𝓃 𝓂𝓎 𝓉𝓌𝑜 𝒽𝓊𝓃𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝑒𝓃 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑒𝒶𝒸𝒽 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊.

𝒲𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝑅𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈,

𝒞𝒶𝓅𝓉𝒶𝒾𝓃 𝒞𝒶𝓊𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒩𝒶𝓇' 𝒞𝑜𝓇𝓂𝒶𝒸

As Bakuzkha read the letter aloud, an expression dilemma came over her face.

"They are near. The watchmen from the tower informed me of an approaching army just four kilometres from the gate." the man said anxiously.

Reading Bakuzkha's expression, Flohelm put a hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry about us, your people need you much more than me. After all, if I were to ever protect my son, I can not be always dependent on someone for our aid. We will be able to reach the border without you."

"But I-" Bakuzkha tried to speak but Flohelm interrupted.

"Just now you had told me that you guys always fought together, do the same this time too." Flohelm said.

Upon hearing those words, Bakuzkha's expression transformed from confusion to one of determination. She nodded in agreement. Flohelm gave her a slight push, "Good, now defeat them all!" as he ran towards the gate on the other.

"Wait!" he heard Bakuzkha call. She came towards him, then took off the necklace from her neck and gently put it in Natria's neck.

"This is our ancestral necklace, passed down to generations since our tribe was founded. Since then we have kept it together." Bakuzkha said.

"Why would you give this to us?" Flohelm asked.

"For your brave words, this is my reward to you!" she exclaimed.

Flohelm's mind was overwhelmed with respect for Bakuzkha.

"You are giving me such a valuable item just for my words." Flohelm said in a shaky voice.

"Uh-huh." Bakuzkha swung her head in negation.

"Make Natria like yourself and one day if he ever returns to this place and we are still alive, tell him to return it to us." she said with a wide grin.

Flohelm was now on the verge of crying.

"Thank you for this gesture of kindness. Yes, I shall make my son the bravest of all!" he exclaimed.

With a last hug, he bid farewell to Bakuzkha. Together with Natria, he entered the corridor for escape.

The corridor was long and had no light for illumination, he just walked and walked through the never-ending darkness. After what felt like eternity, he felt his leg strike against something, it was wood! He searched for the handle with his one hand, touching here and there like a blind man, he found it! The handle twisted and blinding lights entered the dark corridor, as crows cawed in his welcome. He could see the watchtower of the village in the distance. He blocked the exit with a large boulder by knocking it of its weak support of small stones and then continued to walk west.

5 hours later...

[21st August, 1917, Shidan Border, Shidan, Karsen, Avenriot]

As Flohelm walked out through the final wines, he couldn't believe his eyes. He had accomplished his goal. In front of him was the military headquarters of Shidan. Red lights went on and off at the top of watch towers. Army men patrolled around the fortified walls of the town. He had saved his son; tears of joy began to fall out of his eyes. Natria had woken up by now; looking at his son, he gave him a wide smile and together they walked towards to the headquarters as twilight came over the town.