War - Short Story

The sun was burning, and the day was one of the hottest lately. The weight of the tree I wore on my shoulder threatened to turn me on the ground. And I should probably stay there. But there was no excuse, I had to carry them. We all had to. Our home was destroyed, entire villages burned from the face of the earth. Cities are now just wrecks. What were the cities are now only large groups of stones. All this was destroyed and burnt to the ground in the previous war that started in our land ten years ago. For ten long years, these little living people have remained hidden by the forests and hills, avoiding invaders. All we wanted was to live peacefully and far from starvation. And so, after many years of exile from our homes, we are now trying to build a home in the depths of the forest. Let's start rebuilding everything.

I was just a boy of ten when the war started. We all sat in the field, the day was approaching it's end, and we were tired of all the work done that day. A small boy ran out of the village, he was no more than five years old. He called all the men to the Square. The father went with a worried facial expression, because such male conveners did very rarely. In fact, nobody in the village, my mother tells me, does not remember when the last time it happened. We went home from the field, and with great fear we sat around the hearth waiting for our father. He returned when the night had already fallen, and we all had fallen asleep waiting for him. But we woke up as soon as we heard the door, and we saw him with a garment on his face. Then he told us about the war, he said that all men over seventeen years old had to come to the nearest military garrison. That meant that both the father and both brothers need to go. And they just filled seventeen. Mother and I, we'll just stay alone. Mother then began to cry, and she did not seem to have ceased to until her death two years ago. My father told me that I have to keep what we own, but not at the cost of living. He said that everything could be rebuilt, and that I need to save my life first and that think about everything else.

Two years after that, the enemy army roamed through the village, took all the young women into slavery, and left us children and old people alive. In addition, the village no longer existed. Each building was burned to the ground, all animals were killed, and all fields with wheat and other fruits and vegetables were also burnt. Everything was black in all directions. I looked at all this from the forest, hidden in the dark from the sight of their soldiers. The hatred that had already begun to find places in my heart, with the departure of my father and brothers in war, has now grown even more. I watched the soulless removal of every evidence that there was life there, watching, and with great distress turned my back to past life. Mother did not stop crying. Many older people have died at the very sight of their homes disappearing.

We hid in the woods and hills, and we started to live like highlander. The few of us children, trough years we developed various skills to help us survive. And now, many years later, we decided to build a home. We, now, have already grown in men, we decided to make our home here, in the woods. None of our brothers, nor fathers, returned. Although the news is that the war is ended has come to us, we do not know who won the war. Even before that, we were a small principality, without much army, our main activity was agriculture and trade and we were not a threat to anyone.

And then one night while we were sitting next to the foundations of our new building, we also talked about further construction plans. Through darkness, we heard someone coming. In the light of the fire, we saw well-known faces, three people from our village, so many years ago gone to war, they are here now. Every year spent in this cruel world has been seen sculpted on the face, deep-cut caring. Their eyes were tired. These are the eyes that have seen the greatest horrors of the human race, and nothing can surprise them anymore. But they were happy when they saw us. The words they told us, froze the blood in my veins.

The war is not over, now it's up to you to go and defend us and then the silence fell to the whole forest.

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