No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it

Eli gets Paul to Hans for healing, shortly after Eli passes out and has a flash back about the events leading up to their return to base.

Hans, despite not being a Jolt, moved like one as he set to patch Paul up. Hans’s hands delicately handled Paul’s burnt flesh, with the dexterity of a surgeon he removed ember shards deeply lodged in his body while simultaneously, with the hands of an artist, stitched the opened flesh shut.

“Eli what the hell happened? Did Paul jump on a FENIX?” Hans’ voice was muffled as he spoke through his doc-mask. Hunching over Paul’s body Hans’ hands play his tools like a musician playing their break out solo, a sheet of music and instrument were substituted with Paul’s body as the sheet and surgical tools as the instrument.

“I don’t know the Flamer we dealt with must have had some explosives rigged to go off when he died, or some sort of last surge of his energy, a Last Flame I believe is what it is called.”

My head began to replay the last few moments before Paul had gotten blown away. I knew something was wrong whenever Paul had the Flamer in his arms. Just moments before Paul had made a pun about how he added more “juice” to killing the other two with the Flamer. But something, something in the air or in his morning rations, caused him to “snap.” Watching him as he held the Flamer, and how he acted towards him was off for Paul. Too emotional.

A feeling of weightlessness and numbness engulfed my head like a smothering hug. My sight got spotty, eventually evolving into a void of darkness. Then like a geyser with eons of pressure build up I erupted. All at once a combined onslaught of images began to flash in my eyes, aided by sounds recorded in the past finding their way to now just to repeat in my ears.

After I told Paul it was time to go, I turned and started making way to our squad’s rendezvous point, the Zeigerland’s watchtower on the hill. The watchtower had four lights on it, on each cardinal face of the watchtower. Providing much needed light to the troops in the trenches below, the watch tower was the flashlight illuminating all the scary monsters in the dark. Only instead of illuminating the scary monsters it was revealing us.

I expected to Paul to get up and pass by me to take point, but instead my nostrils were met with a strong scent of phosphorus. The scent receptors signaled my brain to react, fight or flight. I turned to check on Pail and warn him, but it was too late. I turned and was meet by a bright flash followed by a wave of raw heat. The sheer force produced from the flash launched me into one of the mushy remains of our enemies. Paul was unconscious and sprawled out over the death tainted ground, the Flamer’s remains were nowhere to be seen. The only trace left behind from the flash, other than a ringing in my head, were wispy glowing flakes moving upwards from Paul’s body. The flakes emitted a dim glow that was held to the space around the flake. Instead it seemed to envelop all of the surrounding space from the ground, to the walls, to the death and destruction, and even the very air itself seemed to be “touched” by this faint glow. Not only that, but, despite all the carnage and the explosion from thin air, there was a euphoric aroma of calmness consuming the trench. I do not know what, or who was emitting, producing, or releasing, hell I don’t even know if that is the right word to use to describe it.

Regardless, the calmness was rather intoxicating. I could not contain myself, I found my essence absorbing this calmness like a man satisfying his hunger after being deprived of food for a month. I was seduced by the tranquility, left completely oblivious to the events occurring right in front of me. When I snapped out of the spell I found myself, with Paul’s body over my shoulder, enclosed within a dome made of mud and rock.

“COME OUT YOU ARE SURROUNDED YOU KILBOURNE SCUM!” I must have an earth dome to act as cover from the Zeigerland soldiers. I could hear voices, but I had no clue how many Zeigers there were. Amongst the voices I could hear the breeze picking up.

The Zeigers talking about tactics drowned out the minute gusts of wind. As the seconds ticked by, the soldiers were strategically positioning themselves in advantageous positions around me, and the wind’s tempo and intensity began to greatly crescendo. What started as a child’s whisper lost in the wind has grown to become the piercing sound of a predator’s hunting howl.

“YEAH, IF IT’S ALRIGHT WITH YOU I AM NOT GOING TO DO THAT, OK? I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT IF YOU JUST LET US LEAVE!” I am screwed, “ALSO, I DO NOT AND HAVE NOT KILLED ANYONE BEFORE. SO I DO BELIEVE THAT QUALFIES AS A PARDON TO LET US GO!”

All was quiet, I wondered if the Zeigers had heard me. My wondering was given the answer when I heard a roar of laughter, “YOU ARE QUITE THE COMEDIAN, EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE KILBOURNE.” I held tightly to my last sliver of faith that they would allow me to leave, “BUT I JUST CAN’T LET YOU LEAVE! YOU, AND YOUR COUNTRY, HAVE DECIDED TO BARGE THROUGH OUR COUNTRY’S FRONT DOOR WITH THE INTENT OF TAKING OUR LAND AWAY FROM US! WITH WEAPONS IN HAND, YOU HAVE SLAUGHTER MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN AND THEIR FAMLIES!” The other soldiers exploded in an untamable force of hooting and hollering, accompanied by a few whistles. As the excitement subsided, I heard footsteps approaching me, becoming louder with each step closer to the thin crust that served as my barrier from death. The footsteps slowly stopped, a few seconds later a tap on the outer wall could be heard. The tap produced a ringing within my hollow dome, it was a slight nuisance to my ear drums, but I have experienced worse.

The Zeiger soldier, I assumed I had been talking to, whispered through a tiny crack in my impenetrable dome, “Let’s cut a deal my funny friend.”

I was intrigued but I dare not answer.

“I know you Kilbournes like to sell the rest of the world the image that your kingdom and its people hold loyalty as their most sacred virtue. Unlike the rest of the world, I see through your nation’s grand façade, and call your bluff. I know what you want, but are too scared to. I know what is nestled with in the darkest corners of your mind that you don’t even dare explore.”

The sweet calmness I had consumed like ambrosia earlier had soured at this point. It curdled into fear and anger, quite an odd combination.

“I know what that all you really want is to survive. I can ensure that you live, but I have a price.”

I can remember the fear overpowering my anger, moving my lips and strumming my vocal cords without my consent, “What’s your price?”

“I ask only two things of you. One, you defect from the Kingdom of Kilbourne, and join the people of Zeigerland in repelling Kilbourne’s invasion.”

“What’s the second thing I must do to pay your price?”

An eerie silence, much to long for my liking, lingered in between my question and his response, “Two, you must give me your friend.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes. That’s it.”

In that moment I had allowed my fear to take control, and make my decisions for me…My fear welcomed the infectious pathogen that came from the Ziegerland’s mouth…Yes, in the darkest corners of my mind, I wanted nothing more than to survive and thrive…But, I am not paying that price, or any other price that costs me my soul by damning me to walk this Earth knowing that I am a traitor…The following moment, my anger grew, beating my fear back to the darkness of which it came…

“Go f**k yourself, my answer is no.”

Author's Note

(The quote is from the movie Mulan; With the Emperor speaking to Shan Yu. I did not come up with the quote, I just liked it and used it for a chapter title. Same with all the pictures I use, I do not own any of them. I believe they help illustrate the tone of the chapter, and who the character is. With that being said, each chapter I am going to post a picture of the character's point of view in the chapter.)

Let me know what you think!