He Came Back

Focus.

We have to win.

The empire has to be defeated.

"Charge!"

"Huraaaaa!"

What is that!

###

The small farming village didn't have a distinct name. Everyone knew it as the village by the river. The villagers didn't even know the name of the feudal lord whose land they were living on. They only referred to him as the Lord, and the village and all the lands were Lord's land.

In one of the shabby houses, there lived a mother. She lived with her one and beloved son, the last ray of hope in her life. After losing her husband, he was the only family she had left. And she was waiting... for her only son to return from the war.

"Aghhhhhh! Noooo!"

And she did manage to wait for his return. But instead of a teary welcome, she let out the most heart wrenching sound known to man... The sound of a mother crying over her child... that met a fate worse than death...

For him, death would be the better outcome than returning in the state he was in...

When the cart arrived, they unloaded his body and placed it before the mother.

"My boy, my sweet boy. What happened to you?"

###

It hurts...

Why does it have to hurt? Is it night? It's so dark here.

. . .

Where am I? Eyes, I need to open my eyes. Are they open? It's so dark...

"Can you hear me?! I'm here!" He tried to scream for help, but no sound left his mouth. Only ragged breathing could be heard, the only sign of a person still being alive...

"Why is no one here? There were so many of us..."

"What happened?"

With the absence of his own voice, he was left with only his thoughts...

"Where is everyone? What happened during that battle?"

He tried to remember the last images he saw before the darkness set in... A vast field, a row of young men in armor, each one holding a long spear. The first wave of an attempt to destroy the empire that threatened the southern border of the kingdom.

He was forced to join, but it wasn't entirely involuntary... Being a part of the Lord's legion meant receiving money. Money that he needed to help his mother, to lift the burden of the daily life off her shoulders.

It was an unprecedented opportunity. The first time anyone got offered money as a reward for fighting in a battle. It was a known fact that living on the Lord's land meant having to serve in his legions when the kingdom went to war...

The history of this humble village was sprinkled with periods when all the young men had to leave. Usually, about half returned after months, at worst years. So when the messenger came, accompanied by soldiers to take all able bodied to fight, he had to go. Just as his ancestors, the village elders, and all the long gone did before him. It was his duty. He was a part of the Lord's domain...

But this was no ordinary war. The empire, located to the south of the kingdom, proved to be a far greater enemy than anyone here could have thought...

"Just what were these stones?"

They were told to hold the formation and march onward, to protect the archers and the cavalry from enemy soldiers on horseback...

"Where did the stones come from?"

They were marching, trembling, shoulder to shoulder, step after step. Each and every one of them holding a long spear, maybe a pike. The name of the weapon wasn't important for all the soldiers. They just had to hold it in front and march. That was the will of the Lord, and his will was a reflection of the king's will. They had to walk...

"And what was that sound I heard? It couldn't have been thunder, the sky was clear. Perfect visibility."

"Just what happened to me?!"

As he desperately tried to understand his fate, the last bits of adrenaline coursing through his veins began to deplete. The body, startled by the sudden change of scenery and the sudden waking up, began to register...

The pain...

"Aghhh! It hurts! Somebody, please! My leg!"

He tried to scream... but no scream could be heard. He was as silent as if he was sleeping. The leg he desperately wanted for someone to see... was gone. A mangled stump wrapped with rags. A bloody reminder of the battle he had to take part in.

The leg wasn't the only thing he was missing...

"My sweet boy... what happened to you?" The mother spoke in between sobs. She took a bowl of hot water warmed on the house's fireplace and began to gently wipe her son's body. Every pass with the rag made her sick to her stomach. The blood was coming off, revealing a bruised body and scrapes.

"How will you walk?" She asked with a weak voice while wiping the stump that once was her son's thigh.

When he was a boy, he used to run all over the village. With all the running came scraped knees, usually the right one. She would always wipe it down with a rag dipped in hot water. Then she would place a gentle kiss next to the scrape. It was a miracle cure that made all the sobs stop...

But he wasn't a boy anymore... he wasn't sobbing. He was silent as if asleep, and his knee wasn't there...

"How will you work without a hand?" As she moved up, she reached the place where her son's right hand and forearm used to be. He always used to arm wrestle with all the boys his age... How could he do this now? He would have to train his left side more now...

"Silas... you came back to me... That's what's important." Though the pain of seeing her only son in such a state was an immense pain, he was home. Her Silas came back, just as he promised to do so.

"Please wake up soon, my sweet Sil..."

###

"Please! Somebody! Make it stop!" The man tried to scream, his leg being a source of unimaginable pain...

"Was this what the old man Wilbur felt when he got hit by that wagon? Why did I laugh at him back then?! Now that stupid brat is paying for his past sins." The only point of reference that Sil had were the screams of one of the village elders. Wilbur got hit by a passing cart. His leg broken to pieces, bone sticking out. I made him scream at the top of his lungs. All the adults were serious and busy attending to him, but some children...

"I can't even think! How am I supposed to return to mom if I can't even think about returning home?" He tried to set his mind on fulfilling the promise he made to his mother. On the day of his departure, he promised to come back. A heroic soldier of the Lord's legion, Silas from the village over the river.

He didn't know the fate that met him. In all his agony, he wasn't even aware that he already was back in his village. Laying in his bed, being taken care of by his beloved mother. He couldn't feel anything that could point him to that conclusion.

All he could experience was darkness, silence, and pain. Pain from losing his leg... And more was about to come...

"God, please! Please, God! End this suffering!" He moved on to praying. When calling out for his comrades for help failed, he did just like his mom used to teach him.

No matter how much he called for God, his pain didn't go away. If anything, it only got worse. His body, trying to adjust to the new situation, was able to move on from the leg. While still hurting, it stopped overshadowing other parts. This was not a miracle. This was a curse for Sil.

While still suffering from an unknown leg injury, now his right forearm and hand started to feel the same way...

"Why?! Why the right side?!"

He couldn't make sense of anything happening to him. The last images of the battlefield were flashing before his eyes. The terrifying sight of flags waving in the wind, the sounds of drums playing a rhythmic marching tune. The screams of his fellow soldiers. Most screamed a loud battle cry. They were fighting for glory. Glory to the king, to the homeland. Glory to the Lord that he served. But the loud roar of young men set on defending their country was being interrupted by screams of wounded men...

"Why did they scream? What hurt them?" He couldn't understand what happened. They were moving forward. There were no arrows being fired. From both sides... Only troops marching. Then what did hurt them?

"That sound..." The loud bang, something he thought was thunder. But the clear sky and the sound of thunder were two things that didn't match.

"They started falling over..." In the corner of his vision, he saw groups of soldiers falling over.

"The sound of metal..." Without any swords being drawn and before the clash with opposing forces... just what would make metal sound like that...

"That thing... Was it a stone?" He reached the last parts of his memories of the battle. A gray circle getting closer and growing... Something was getting closer. For a simple soldier during his first battle, he had no way of knowing what was happening...

Maybe not even him was a clueless victim of the empire. The entire kingdom was surprised. The battle was supposed to be a regular border clash. The kingdom was able to hold back the empire for decades. The terrain advantage was a major contributor to the way previous battles played out.

"Was I hit?" He arrived at the correct conclusion. He was hit by a flying stone. It was launched by a new invention: a cannon. The empire has advanced military technology and changed the way battles play out.

The first time a man fell victim to a cannon... and Silas was one of the first hit by a flying bullet. For now, a simple stone ball miraculously flying through the air in one shape...

"If this flying thing hit me... then where am I?"