Remember No Russian

" Clean this godforsaken place up as best you can," I shouted to my men as I gazed towards the cold, emotionless eyes of the three prisoners who were gagged and tied up. "Burn the rest of it to the ground, take anything of value, and leave before sundown." Out of the original sixty people, all that was left were these three men.

I had lost not a single man to this war, all thanks to our giant Harald, who caught the attention of every able-bodied man and survived to tell the tale. Of course, some were injured and beaten. Still, all will heal with time and be back on the battlefield in no time.

The battle was not well organized on our part, and I made two oversights.

First, we were too close to the enemy, resulting in shooting only one wave of arrows. Thankfully, their armor wasn't that obstructing, and that wave of arrows had taken close to all of the enemies.

Secondly, when we set the houses on fire and killed our way towards the enemy, some hid when they heard the battle noise, including women and slaves who took up arms to fight us from behind, since they knew what would happen if they didn't put up a fight... death would happen.

Thankfully, our trusty old Alfverin was present and noticed the upcoming wave of close to ten enemies creeping from behind. He hurriedly stopped five men who also held the rear with him, from charging - something I trained them to do. To stay with Alfverin until they were needed, yet they wanted to charge and I needed to do something about it.

At a distance of close to one hundred meters, he shouted the command to aim. When the under-equipped and under-clothed enemies saw six of my men aiming at them, they just charged, hoping to intimidate my men with their sheer numbers. After shooting two waves of six arrows, and missing a lot since they didn't have the time to aim like earlier, he quickly shouted: "Draw AND CHARGE WITH ME!" Bashing them with their round shields, the six of my men easily killed the slaves.

"All according to my plan," I thought bitterly as I kicked the head of the corpse of the guard, sending it flying like a football who, moments ago, had smacked my head with the hilt of his sword. I had wanted to kill him slowly, painfully, drawing out his screams of agony as I dismembered him piece by piece; but in the heat of the moment, I had settled for a quick and merciful death. I spat on his corpse one last time, sending a stream of my bloody saliva at him while cursing "Didn't I clear as day tell you to put your weapon down? Why the f*ck did you hit me? You absolute f*cking savage! "

I carefully probed my teeth with my tongue, checking to see if any were loose, while I reflected on my upcoming plan to blame all of this on the other tribe. I nodded in approval, as I had already confirmed to proceed with my initial plan, even though I know that anyone who isn't suffering from a brain cramp will identify it as a scheme at once.

But I didn't care. I'm tired and exhausted, and all I want to do is get all of this done so I can rest in my bed, which is only a stack of furs and pelts.

Hours seemed to drag by as my men filled two wagons with pelts, pottery, weapons, and armor - and anything of value they could find. I personally found nothing interesting in this tribe. Nothing of value for me - maybe the two aged donkeys. I left Alfverin in charge of all this, and took five of my men, including the three prisoners we'd captured, with me, to the Lemovvi tribe.

With a slow, painstaking march that lasted hours, we finally saw the edge of the huge Lemovii tribe. Tired, we took a rest far away from them, gulping down water and eating some dried jerky.

I suddenly stood up and ordered the three men who had close to one hundred percent loyalty to me - after all, they were the men of my late father. Orphaned and trained like blood guards, they only knew of my words.

Alas, I knew the full, sad truth. My grandfather took them from their dead mother when he killed his way towards his position of power. My father took them when they were only small children who couldn't even walk. He trained them to listen to his words as a decree from God.

"Steinar! Cut out their tongues!" I ordered sadistically as I sat on a small, slimy rock, playing with my dagger. The blade glimmered in the light, and I licked my lips in anticipation.

No words came from the tall, bald man , with an indifferent gaze, and a wicked smile that made his crooked nose more hooked, walking towards the wide-eyed prisoners. They struggled against their ropes and tried to shout through their gags. But the man was upon them too quickly.

"Stop!" I ordered in a booming voice, while pointing my deadly-looking dagger towards the three cowering prisoners. Looking at Steinar, who stopped in his tracks, I continued in a cold, calculated tone. "He will shortly take off the cloth covering your mouth. You can shout for help and I will make him cut your tongue slowly and painfully.

After that, he will rip your eyes out of their sockets making them bleed. Then I'll heat my dagger until it's white-hot, and I'll slowly stab you making your skin go *pshhhht*..... So you better not shout. Believe me, I need only one of you three."

"Nod if you understand me," I added, surveying their reactions closely. After seeing them all nod, I signaled to Steinard, who swiftly and expertly cut their tongues out with a knife. As an experienced silencer of my family's enemies, he had done many things like this before.

"Get them all dressed up in their armor, tie their weapons and shields to their hands so they can't drop them, cover their heads with cloth so all you can see is their eyes, and Geir, bring me those jars you're holding. Be careful not to open them!!" I swiftly ordered. Of course, I could help, but why would I do that? Isn't this what I'm dreaming of - to have people do my bidding? And it's refreshing. Plus, it gives me a sense of power and control that I'm not used to.

I couldn't help but chuckle a bit as I saw the stark white covers of the prisoners. If any modern man saw this, he would definitely rage and curse them for wearing such blatantly racist clothing. Thankfully, there was only me. And any other colored clothes are quite rare at this time since you need either dye or some rare plants.

Time seemed to stand still as we slithered closer and closer to the Levonni settlement. Feeling the tense atmosphere, we hid in the dense forest and bushes with sweat dripping from my forehead. I knew if we were discovered, I could only command the men I came with to stall for time until I escaped. Thankfully, luck shone on us as we found no one guarding or patrolling the part we came from. I swiftly ordered the men to hold the three prisoners as I quickly poured the contents of the jars into their mouths and into their clothes.

I quickly ordered the three prisoners, who had no idea what was happening, to "GO to seek refuge with that tribe or I'll kill you NOW," I said menacingly, as all of my men had already drawn their weapons.

Just as they turned around to face the tribe, I commanded them to stop, maybe to satisfy my inner sadistic Humor. I saw them stopping when they saw my men wave their swords towards me, urging them to listen to me. Turning their covered heads slowly, I saw their sunken eyes, feeling their fears and anxiety. A sadistic smile formed on my face as I slowly said in English: "Remember No Russian."

As I chuckled at my terrible joke, I signaled with my hand towards them; they swiftly took off running with their awkward run as they had swords and shields tied to them, towards the Lemovie Tribe while crying in gibberish, like a Deaf person when he talks, alas they were minutes from turning wild, all tanks to some unknown Ants which were discovered by someone of my tribe the day we arrived, a colony of billions of ants, while burning it, an ant bit a young man, turning him as wild as a drug addict, he was close to killing someone when he got close to him, thankfully it is temporary as it didn't last... let us just hope they will die in Thirty minutes or we will be in deep trouble.

The plan was simple: make the three prisoners injure or kill someone from the Lemovii tribe. This will make them demand an explanation from their colleagues ,The Suardones, and hopefully, their colleagues will attack them in retribution for killing one of their villages.

"Hopefully they won't think about it too much and just attack." I mumbled under my breath as we sprinted away from the scene, like a thief in the night. Yet the road is long, and we will be walking for hours. The village we destroyed is merely hours away from here, while we are a day's journey from ours.

"I can't believe I have to walk everywhere like some kind of peasant," I grumbled under my breath. "I need a horse."