THE EAR ARCHER Part 1 (Completed) #wattys2022

CHI CHI

Yart walked into his house. The rickety structure was covered in layers of dust. Without as much as glancing around, he marched straight to the corridor.
There were seventeen rooms, fifteen out of them were constantly under lock. In all of Gob's stay at Yart's, never had he stepped foot in any of the rooms.
Yart walked down five doors before turning to the sixth. From his tunic, he produced a bunch of keys.
Soon,the door was ajar. Arranged by order of height were endless shelves housing thousands of beautifully crafted daggers.
Yart heaved. It was exactly ten years since he last stepped foot in the room. The guilt of what transpired in the room weighed heavily on him.
The faster he strapped up, the father he could leave without ado, he set to work.

Billed as the fastest animal on land. Under cheif Safara's orders, twelve of these creatures were made to pull the chiefs chariot.
Safara settled into her chariot drawn by twelve cheetahs. Beside her was her general and his commander. Closely following was Gorm.
Four thousand rebels, three thousand tribesmen and a host of animals stood at the ready.
The ride to the palace from the military headquarters was a two day journey but cheif Safara was in a haste to have Gob's head. Her roar was a physical message to the soldiers and a psychic message to the animals.
With a jerk, her chariot sprung forward immediately gaping the rest of the army.
The intense speed at which the cheetahs ran made Safara feel like she was in flight she enjoyed the ride so much she even whipped the animals mentally to move even faster.
At such speed, Safara's army wouldn't need two days. They would arrive the palace gates by night fall.

Then she did it, she called out to the mountain to every animal on mount Slyine. She emptied the mountain of all the animals. together, they marched towards the palace.
Everyone in the palace was in full armour. Women lined the walls armed with swords and bows. The children guarded the inner walls.

It was evening when Gob found Rutherford smoking on the pipe Ferdil gifted him. Both men acknowledged each other without speaking.
They were silent for a while before Rutherford spoke.
"Uve come a long way you know, you are no longer the boy I knew".
"Av become a man now?"
Gob asked with disinterest
"No, you are still a boy, just a smarter boy with a bigger heart".
Gob scoffed.
"Smarter?, Bigger heart?, Am the reason we are in the situation we're in but not for me, we wouldn't be in this".
Rutherford considered his words for a while.
"It's not your fault, Sema had it planned to the last detail. In the end we are all victims of his game, Safara included".
Tears rolled down Gob's face.
"I never should have left home".
" If you didn't we would have lost a long time ago, your place is here Gob".
"I love her" Gob confessed
Rutherford smiled sadly
"I know".
He carried on smoking while allowing Gob to cry some more.
Gob recovered enough to feel footsteps behind him. He didn't have to think far to know it was Sefth.
Quickly, he tried to clean up his face.
"It's okay", Sefth's voice cut through
"There is no shame in it, I too do it every now and then"