I am sitting here. I am cleaning my rifel’s tube and shining my knife. I know I will need them although I am not sure I still know how to use them. But I know I was born to defend my life and the lives of those I love and I am sure I still have it in me. I leave this place I am staying in since they released me from prison and I get on the back of my horse and head back home, the home that must have changed a lot since the enemy burnt it down years ago in a battle that have been based on lies and deception.
And as I cross the valleys the memories race by. I remember how the elders of our little village called for a meeting that morning, how I was sent to negotiate the enemy for the lives of my people, how I had a beautiful wife and two kids… And then I remembered how it all ended up in war and ruins…
That morning I was in my bed minding my own business when my wife woke me up and asked me to head to the village council where I am to meet the elders of the city to discuss a very important issue. She knew not what that issue was all about, all she knew was a messenger dropped by and asked for my prompt response to an invitation by the elders to attend the council..
When I arrived there I was told by the village’s chief that we were to be attacked by the citizens of the surrounding villages. They told me that it was our turn. For years they have taken over lands and taken away rights that they were not entitled to and today it was our turn. I was told by the elders that they are raising an army and I was told that we wanted peace, all we wanted was peace and our freedom.
I was then asked to go to the elders of those people, there is one in every village and I could talk to any one of them but if I wanted to do it best and get our peace I had to go to the eldest figure they had. It was a duty I owed to my family, my people and to home. I left with no weapons, I went to preach a message of peace.
When I arrived at my destination they have already known I was coming… They were waiting for me to arrive and they were kind I have to be honest. They gave me food and wine. And they treated me with great respect. But that respect ended when a conversation started. I spoke to the eldest man of these people.
I told him that I come in peace and he implied that would mean that we would give in our village without resistance. I asked if there was any particular reason we should give in and he asked me, “Didn’t you say you came for peace?”
Me: “I came for peace and our freedom.”
Him: “Then you have to submit to our armies. We too come in peace, we don’t want the blood shed.”
Me: “There will be no blood shed if we agree to peace and peace to us is you leaving us alone and we reciprocating.”
Him: “Peace will be there when we remove the threats to our community.”
Me: “And you call us threats?”
Him: “You are, you don’t like us and you would always be a threat and unless we guarantee our safety, we will always be subject to your wild attacks.”
Me: “But we are not even that strong, we don’t have the power you have, how would you be threatened by a weaker community of peaceful people. And don’t you tell me we don’t like you because we are not forced to, you are a bunch of cons, pirates you may say, who came along and took over the lives of innocent people and then claimed that their lands and lives belonged to them. Why would we like you?”
Him: “You admit it that you hate us, to us it is a threat and to that the only peace I could offer is not shedding blood if your people give up.”
This argument kept going on for hours, I was determined to achieve what I was sent to achieve but I couldn’t. Those people were out of order and they wanted everything and I saw it since the first moment.
As I was leaving on my way back home the head of their army looked at me and said in an ordering tone: “Tell your people to submit to us or war it shall be.”
All I did was reply: “I will see you in the battle field.”
As I left I knew they gave orders to their armies to move. We didn’t rest on my way back, not me, not my horse. And when I arrived I told them what I have heard and they were as dignified as I was to give in to those people. They would never accept that option. For war we prepared and that was how it all really started, that is what got me here.
It was not a war for any hidden political reasons. We did not go for it for more land or for denying anyone their freedom. All we did was march out to meet an enemy and defend our land, defend our identity, defend what we stand for, defend our families, our food and our lives…
The battle was not fair, they had ten times the military power we had. The town was burnt down. My wife and kids were killed and those who escaped were a minor group…
Today I am going back home to see the ruins of what I once called my own cottage. Today I seek to remember how simple life was cause it is not that simple anymore.
As I arrive there I see many houses have been rebuilt, but that’s not what makes the place different. What makes the place different is that the people I know are no more there, the people I know have died and the few left are fugitives away from their own land.
I know one day I will see them again in the battle field and I know I am gonna fight them and I know some people think it is an old story. A story of twenty years. My home is not there anymore but I remember where exactly it was and I am gonna come back and I am gonna make my wife and kids proud of me in their graves…. And let them call me a criminal… I am just in it for the truth… I am just in it for the honour I swore to keep for life…
And for my lost Identity…..