Congratulations
Sunbird Alkibijad wins his first ToTW competition with Pray for rain. Congratulations to you.
PRAY FOR RAIN
"Just another swing, please!"..."Just...another...one..."
Swing...Blood spurt...Swing, a hacked limb...
I can feel the cold sweat slowly flowing down my cuirass, and dampening the skin of my back...Who would have thought, that a single thought like:
"God Almighty, give us rain today, flush this damned heat away!" would actually reach the heavenly ear of Allah...
Patiently, hiding just as we were thought from the day we learned to stand, my Hashashin brethren watched the Infidel crusader column moving in the morning heat, clad in that wretched steel armor...It would start soon, the slaughter is nigh...A single cloud in distance gives me hope, ever so slight
but still hope.
I slowly speak to my brethren: "Now we do what we're bred for, for Allah and our beloved Sultan. Death to Infidel Prince, the white skinned slayer of children and women..."
Clouds now come ever closer, as if stalking the column, just like we are doing, Allah-u-Akhbar...Sun finally seems to fade behind the darkness of the clouds and the air comes into my chest without scorching my soul as intensely as it did this morning.
Sallah-din should be commencing the assault with his cavalry any moment, just as we agreed...Buying us time to do our holy duty, the one we were brought into this world for. And just as the thought went past in my mind, the familiar sound of Sultan's brave bodyguard, comes charging into our eardrums. It has begun...
The dust cloud becomes ever larger as the cavalry charge nears the quick forming line of Infidel armored infantry. And the carriage that holds our precious target gets left with but a few guards..."Now is the time! Thread fast, and slide like the "rih al khamsin" does in Sahara..."
Just as we're about to enter the arrow range from the carriage, one of men trips and draws attention from bodyguards. "Damned fool! Our cower is blown, CHARGE NOW!". The cursed charge into the midst of the Infidel's best bodyguard begins, and hopes are high we can reach the wretch in the carriage before we're completely overpowered. And at last...
The heavens open up in a furious bursts of water drops, deafening in noise, and suffocating the screams of the bodyguards for reinforcements! The sweat on our backs is replaced with bucket-worth amounts of water in mere seconds, but now even visibility is minimal as well. There's our chance! "Allah-u-Akhbar!" I utter one more time, while sending yet another bodyguard to hell.
Only 2 of them stand between me and my prized target now, "I must endure...".
My blade moves ever slower now, and my swings become heavy as the weight of water the heavens have unleashed upon this field today.
First guard of the two is down, and the last one charges towards me..."DIE YOU BROWN-SKINNED COWARD!" I can hear him screaming something, "Is he cursing me?"...
As I propel my body with last bits of my strength, my saber cuts into the neck of the last bodyguard...
The swing...the blood spurt...Time has all but stopped as I watch the huge water drops exploding on the blade and my armor...Turning slowly around, I see the shadow jumping out of the carriage and dissapearing in the flurry of water, as another wave of bodyguard's shades grows ever larger upon me...
"Who would have thought..."