The loss had completely devastated Flohelm. In just forty-eight hours, the man had lost everything which was once dear to him. He was speechless, though it would be more accurate to say he was in distraught. All left to him was his two-day-old son. Flohelm's inner mind conflicted with the emotions of rage and fear. Without his mother, he would surely not survive, and then he would be alone.
Suddenly, he felt pressure on his shoulder; the weight tilting him in the direction. A moment later, he felt his body being vigorously shaking when suddenly, an ear-piercing scream went off.
"SONNNN! ARE YOU OKAY?" the elderly woman shouted.
Reflexively, he covered his ears with his hand.
"What the heck are you doing, old lady?" he shouted in rage and confusion.
"It seems you have received a heavy hit on your head," she said in a sympathetic tone.
"What makes you say so?" he replied, his face showing an expression of confusion and concern. Concern that he might not be in the right place, concern about his son's safety with the old woman and his with the woman.
The elderly woman seemed to have read his face.
"You don't have any other option, young man other than trusting me and my women." she said in a stern voice. Flohelm was taken aback by this.
"How did you-" Flohelm asked in shock.
"Experience, young man. Don't worry your son shall survive, our tribe knows just the remedy." the elder woman said, her tone like those of the wisest of mankind.
A faint glimmer of hope sparked in Flohelm's dark and dull eyes. He gave a heavy sigh.
"When can I see my son?" he asked in a respectful tone.
"By night. For now, let the wound heal, we cannot afford an infection." the woman replied in a kind voice.
"Are you going to be here with me for all that time?" he said, stretching his words.
"Yes, do you have a problem with that?" she asked in an inquisitive tone.
"Uh, no, not at all. Better have company than to be alone." he said in a depressing voice.
"Son, sharing always reduces one's grief. If you feel comfortable, you can talk to me, all should be confidential. Avia's word." the woman assured. Her eyes with genuine kindness, the grittiness and the soft-spoken tone of one trying to help reverberated through Flohelm's heart. He was hesitant, those memories were painful. The lady caught Flohelm's expression.
"It's okay if you don't wish to, given your condition I can guess what mishappening fell upon your condition." she said.
Flohelm was lost in his thought, her words didn't reach him. he began to murmur to himself, bits of his tale in a nonsensical manner. The lady's face twisted in an expression of confusion. Flohelm has seemed to catch the sudden pause in the conversation now, he looked up and saw the old lad; concern, visible on her face.
"I guess we can start with introductions, please excuse me but I really don't wish to talk about recent incidents." he said in an apologetic tone.
"Sure, I'm Bakuzkha Avia, the head of the Avia Tribe. Our tribe...."
[18th October, 1939, Forest Of Tats, Narchasia]
"Align yourself!" the woman ordered. The soldiers obliged. Within a matter of minutes in front of her stood the army of thousand cavalrymen, behind them were the seven hundred horsemen, adjacent to whom were a hundred snipers; all ready with their GL-209 sniper rifle. Countless other subdivisions stood in the adjoining spaces. One of the female soldiers, presumably the woman's subordinate gave her a megaphone.
Out came the loudest of the commands, "Attention! Soldiers of Narchasia, we are just moments away from the battle, upon marching north we shall face our greatest enemy, The Tyrant, The Cruelest Man in all of Europe, Natria, the dictator of Avenriot. They say no man can kill him, it is because they send a man to do a woman's job! I, Xandra Fol' Narch will kill that bastard and with the blessings of Narach by our side, we shall have Avenriot for ourselves, soon once again, we will be one country and that begins today. My soldiers march forward! Be it any man or woman, slay them! Destroy them but remember keep 'him' alive, I wish to make special arrangements for 'him'."
The army marched forward through the forest, each step amplified a thousand times by the sheer size of the army. The earth trembled in fear, as the army marched on it destroyed everything in its path, trees, grassland, wildlife and everything else which could possibly inhabit the Tats. The earth cried, begged and what not but Xandra was dead set on killing Natria. The ground crumbled, the rivers dried as the whole planet shivered in fear and then it stopped.
The stampede stopped as if peace had returned to the land once again But Xandra knew this was far from the truth, cause before her two hundred metres afar stood the so-called Devil of Europe, not even the nights of whom Hitler or Stalin could reach, or so she was informed by the priestess.
'Oh, how wrong could I be!' she thought. He looked nothing like what she had been told.
"Devil? He is not even a man!." she scoffed, her pride oozing out of every single cell in her body.
She took the megaphone from her subordinate and shouted, "Oh, I couldn't be ill-informed no more! The mighty tyrant, the Devil of Europe is a child! How pathetic could those men be that they succumbed to a scrawny kid!"
Natria stood in the distance amidst the barren landscape, the wind was calm, his uniform fluttered calmly in the wind. His face bore a soft smile, standing alone without his soldiers he just looked at the enemy in front of him.
"I suppose even your people have realised how weak you are. See! He has no army to speak of, fall into my feet and plead for forgiveness. It might torture you a little less before putting an end to your misery." Xandra mocked Natria.
"The front line! On my count of five, the Seven Commanders shall go for a frontal assault on that man, cut off his limbs; do whatever you wish but keep him alive." ordered Xandra, licking her lips in ecstasy.
Slowly Natria lifted his left foot as if taking a step forward.
"5! 4! 3! 2! 1! Charge!"
The Commanders rushed, covering the land at inhumane speed, they were the finest of specimens the army possessed.
BOOOOOMMMMM!!
As soon as Natria's foot touched the ground, cannonballs came roaring down from the sky hitting the western front of the Narachasian army. Panic ensued, the coordination of the Narchasian army broke.
"Soldiers search for cover, they have ambushed us, Commanders organise the forces, Commanders? Where are they? Wha-" Xandra's words stopped in her mouth, she could see them, her Commanders sliced one after another, hands flying off, heads decapitated by none other than the Devil himself. One of the Commanders tried to retreat as her fellow comrades were diced like vegetables, she ran limping all throughout.
"Sister! Run! We are nothing compared to them; order for the retreat!" the Commanders shouted. Just when she was about to reach Xandra, a long sword came cutting through the air decapitating the commander before the eye could blink. The vision engraved itself into Xandra's eyes as the blood of her sister spurred on her face. Fear was replaced by anger, her eyes filled with rage, she was not going to retreat for the very least she would avenge her sister by killing Natria. She shouted, "Kill the Tyrant!" The army charged, their footsteps shaking the Earth. Xandra charged but then she stopped. She saw 'them'.
From the three directions, rising from the horizon was the army of Avenriot. They marched and marched and marched. Narchasian forces were surrounded, they had no choice but to retreat but retreat itself was not an option now, cannons blocked the entrance to the forest, Avian soldiers were ready to fire whenever their master signals. Rage died and in its place came distraught and acceptance in Xandra's heart. Natria slowly walked towards her, his right hand raised. Xandra tried to attack him with her spear, but he grabbed her arm, twisting it causing her grip to loose and the spear fell causing a small cloud of dust to arise.
"Cough! Cough!" she coughed as she inhale some of the dust. Natria remained still.
"So Miss Fol' Narch you were saying something about me, who is the kid now?" he asked, his voice echoing with pride among the thousands that stood there.
"Fuck you! Leave me, you bastard!" Xandra cried.
"Oh, sure I would." With a quick move, Natria twisted Xandra's arm giving it a complete 180 rotation, sounds of bone-breaking were heard.
"Aaargh! Aaah! Why the heck would you do this!" Xandra cried.
"I tried to be polite but as it seems you guys just don't listen." Natria said as he returned back. His soldiers continued to march towards the Narchasian forces.
"Fuck you, Hamil! If not in this life I'll make sure to kill you in the other, you will surely die by hands, you listening!" shouted Xandra.
Natria slowly brought his hand down and the sky turned black.
"Clouds?" one of the Narchasian soldiers murmured.
Xandra slowly lifted her head to look, her heart dropped.
"No." she softly whispered.
"THEY ARE CANNONBALLS!!" Xandra shouted as the balls came roaring down from the sky.
As the ball of fire slowly started to settle, Natria watched the ground from the top of the hill.
"You were correct about one thing Xandra, I surely am not a man. I am the Devil of Europe, Natria the Tyrant!"
[19th August, 1917, Forest Of Tats, Avenriot]
"..and that is the history of our tribe, we were the only one's to reject colonial rule and played a crucial part in this land's independence. My grandfather sacrificed himself for the land and so would I. We fear no mortal whether it be you Avians or those Narach cultists. We shall protect this land till our very last breath." said Bakuzkha.
Flohelm listened to her quietly. Bakuzkha knew that this place was not safe for, soon the Narachs would be here and another battle shall follow. It would be best to transport him immediately to safety.
"You were talking about going to Shidan, weren't you?" Bakuzkha asked.
"Ah, yes, I planned to take my friends and family to safety but now all left is me and Barc-" Flohelm stopped midway as tears began to fall down from his eyes.
Bakuzkha consoled him.
"Oh, so the little one goes by the name of Barch, interesting, the first name indeed reflects the character of oneself, in our tradition we name our children after great warriors for the sacrifices they made for our well-being." said Bakuzkha.
"No, his full name is Ba-" Flohelm was once again interrupted by his thought. Memories of recent events played before his eyes, images of Vahan, Nocus and Natria appeared in front of him.
He was broken out of his trance by Bakuzkha's sudden shake, "You were saying something about his name?" she asked.
"Ah, yes ma'am." he said stuttering his words.
An expression of determination came on his face.
"The world shall know him by the name of Natria, after her mother who sacrificed herself for the safety of mine and him. Even as a man I could not save my wife so I promise my son, that never again would I ever let someone even course a scratch on him. I was not able to save my wife but Natria, your father shall protect you with all his might!" remarked Flohelm.
Bakuzkha bore a slight grin on her face.
"Son, you shall rest for now, given the coming onslaught, you'll have to leave the village in three days if you wish to reach Shidan. Don't worry, I give you my word, you shall reach Shidan completely unharmed." said Bakuzkha as she exited Flohelm's room.