Two swords, two vultures and an elephant, a short story of fiction

She was watching the horizon intensely, waiting for something, anything to happen. Standing on top of a huge rock she waited, the wind blew powerfully and her long hair, that was tied up with a silk ribbon, was bending to the rules of nature. Every time the weather calmed, the ''X'' that the swords on her back formed, would get covered, she would seem almost normal. But she was not. She had stood there for days, without moving, without eating or drinking. She resembled a statue.

Once in a while she would squirm her eyes to look at the distance, as if she noticed something, her body would tense up. But the next moment the tension would go, like it was never there. It might have be something, but not the thing she was looking for. She was not tired, rather alert, and in the desert that constantly seemed to blow sand in her face she seemed to feel oddly in place. She looked in the distance one more time, then glanced sideways to the world below.

The drop down right in front of her was around twenty meters, there was an elephant in the desert beneath, a sight that was just as unusual in this area as the woman herself. And then there was that lone vulture circling over her head, one would think it was waiting for the womans life to give out, but that was not going to happen any time soon, so the bird of pray would have to wait.

She had no bag with her, no drinking water, no food, just the skin tight suit she was wearing, a belt around her hips. In the desert dehydration is the worst enemy that can be encountered, and yet her tongue was not dry and her body did not feel weak. Once, a long time ago, the world of hers used to be vibrant jungle, but today, where there used to be life, was just sand. Her people had learned millenniums ago, to bend to the will of change as going against the current would mean slow and painful death.

The world was changing faster than anything else, it did not listen to human desires, it had a mind of its own. Hundreds of years ago the land was a jungle, thousands of years ago the land was not at all. Water was their ground to build on. So many humans had gone with time, others, like her tribe had survived through it all, more of the big civilizations had split up in smaller groups, forgotten the smarts of the planet. There were not fever men than before, but there were more greedy ones than ever.

And so, searching for those greedy ones, she looked intensely to the horizon, the shrubs and rocks, the faded dirt road. She waited as she knew that only time and messengers would tell when they would come. They had received the news about an army of others, they were deemed a vicious, mean enemy to be dealt with. Stubborn and stupid as they had no idea, nor cared of the numbers her people had.

More hours passed, the vulture did not give up, it was persistent, not stopping, not even for a bit. Odd was this Earth of deserts, strong and not willing to let the life fade, the world of change and persistence. She was still standing in the same place, still waiting and still not seeing the future fight approaching. Finally, there appeared a black dot in the skies, right where her eyes were fixed, and as it came closer, its silhouette matured. Another vulture.

When it finally reached the other bird, they both dropped down right next to the woman, they seemed to be exchanging affections for each other. This was the first time the woman moved, just a little, she turned with her upper body, to face the birds, never really taking her eyes away from the line where the sky met land. There was a scroll tied to the new birds leg, she unraveled it and opened to read the message for her. It was short, with the information she needed.

Five hours from you, two when the bird will reach you.

-- Thank you, go, deliver the message to the city.- She tied the message back, bot to the other birds leg, and it took off immediately. The woman resumed her position.

The flying distance was not too big, but it was little tricky to memorize the route. The vulture was headed where once was a green valley. It was hidden away partly, and only someone who would know of its location exactly, would be able to locate it. Nobody would think that it to be worth going there now, though, as the sand had turned it into a dry, lifeless land. Still, that was where the vulture was headed.

The bird looked lazy, flapping his wings, nothing unusual to it, just a creature going for its nest. But the usual was not applied to this world as this world was not bent by our worlds rules. The second the vulture crossed between two destroyed stone statues, just for a second, as the city released their shields for the bird to pass through without harm, there were greens visible everywhere from the outside world. And then, desert once again.

They used a reflective shield, so nobody would see what the nation actually had, they were advanced, technology wise, and so they had created their own oasis in the middle of nowhere. Almost like jungle, there were trees and palms, animals. Camels and elephants, thousands of hummingbirds flying in groups. And that was just the front of the land, further in, there were more and more houses, more and more people, the land under shields was huge and the numbers of human and animals living in harmony even bigger.

That was what the outsiders came for, they had a chance to join the locals, but they chose to take the land over completely, they wanted to have slaves not partners. But they had no idea what the city of Wonder had up its sleeve. Their technology was more advanced than anybody else's, and their warriors were trained according to the old arts, each of their soldiers was ready and able to be a one man army if the necessity arose, but there were more people like the woman on the cliff, they had an army, there were so much more than the enemy could handle.

The vulture flew past most homes and went for the waterfall, the highest building in the whole settlement was built right next to it. Years had passed and they had expanded their lands thanks to their water source, years had passed since anybody knew how many lived in their city. The outer world had no clue of the fact that their numbers and lands had grown like a wildfire. The army coming was going into a massacre.

War was the last route they wanted to go, but it had been what the enemy had chosen. They had tried reasoning, but greed and sand had made the others lose their minds, there was no other way left. The vulture landed on top of the golden tower a man untied its message. He knew, that there was no time, the two hours would be one now, and his best soldier would encounter them soon.

There was a word sent and the solders got ready. They took mostly their elephants, but some went on foot or with camels. Before the soldiers started their march, a dark cloud of vultures formed around the tower, hundreds of birds were getting ready for a feast. They left first, before the elephants, they all reached their destination faster than the humans.

Our woman on the cliff was still standing still, but not for long. She noticed the cloud of dust forming at the horizon, it was what she had been waiting for. It was time and for the first time in days she moved out of her place. She left behind two footprints in stone, that filled up with water, the gift of her people. One more step made and she jumped down, off the rocks, landing right next to the elephant, with a quiet sound when the ground was reached. Those twenty-something meters were not a problem for her.

This moment was when you could notice not only the swords she had on her back, but also guns, at both of her sides, well masked, attached to her belt. She looked at her elephant and a smooth jump away, was already sitting on the back of a creature not found anywhere else in the world. The elephant of hers had the thickest skin, and it was one of the hundreds left on the planet. It was just like it had born for battle, just like his rider that he felt the biggest respect towards.

They started immediately, walking, then running. She heard in the distance the enemy army, their battle-cries. They were mostly on foot, but some with horses, she calculated her attack so no animal would be harmed. As she rode towards the battle, she heard the vultures sing, they had arrived in huge masses. The cavalry would be just behind, she would have to hold just a minute before her army would join.

First came out the guns and she took out enough on its own, making a hole in their defenses. The elephant rammed into the troops. No matter the guns, she did not stay on top of her ride, she pulled out her swords and jumped off her partner. Her eyes already saw blood being spilled all around. She had to look after the elephant of hers, he had thick skin, but it was easy to get surrounded, so she cleared out the troops that bared any danger, the vultures helped.

Her swords were wielded masterly, it was like a dance, they cut more men that day than any other blade. She would have loved to say that the battle was glorious, but the enemy had no chance, no matter the thousands they had in numbers. Most enemies ended up dead. Her army crashed into the men of the others shortly after her sword touched the first soul, the vultures delivered an attack from above.

There was almost no horse harmed as her army had precision that had no match, they were the first horses in their oasis since centuries. There were men in the enemy army, just a handful, that gave up, but most of the ones that survived run away, back to their land. There was a sea of bodies when it ended and the vultures had their feast before the people of the oasis buried the bodies and graced them with the water that they footprints left.

Not long after, the land started a new cycle once more, it started where the bodies were buried and took over the planet.

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I played with the desert/technology/different human anatomy theme, plus some magic (the footprints that left water in their way were not caused by the land being wet) I like to put a little magic in my stories, something that can not be explained. Hope you enjoyed!

Have the best day, week and life,
Linda