The Fortunes of War

Emerald light filtered through the tree leaves.
At first, the man lying on the forest floor couldn't remember what hadhappened to him. Then he tried to move his right shoulder, and the searing pain cut his breath short and refreshed memory. It was lucky he had survived the battle, but Fate had turned against him once more. Sywyn was stranded in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. Naturally, his packs and supplies were all gone without a trace.
Rather than try to get up immediately (which he couldn't do anyway), he lay back down. Loose strands of blond hair fell on his dirty face, and the entire right half of his upper body was soaked in blood. Now that he was awake, the pain threatened to drive him mad.
Hours seemed to pass with nothing but the whispering of a nearby river and the humming of wind through the tall grass.
Then, Sywyn thought he heard something. It moved slowly behind him.
Groaning, he partly sat up.
"Who goes there?" The harsh voice seemed to echo in the depths of the old forest.
Whatever it had been, he could hear it running away. After a while, he started to think perhaps the sounds had been a dream.
By nightfall, he was growing unbearably stiff and hungry. He kept telling himself he had been in worse situations, and that was true, but it didn't make the current position he was in less problematic.
He started to doze off. In his strange dreams he was fighting in the west lands again, and he looked into the silent campfire and gripped his swords close against the threat of the shadowy sand dunes. Then, there was more than one flame illuminating the dark, and he heard soft voices in the night. At one point, he thought he saw a young girl holding a
torch standing in front of him. Unwillingly, he fell back into unconsciousness...what awoke him was the smell of cooking.

"How is that possible?" he blinked.  

No longer was he in a forest, lying helpless and bloody among the weeds, but on a bed in a small, clean room. The sheets were white and soft, and the room was simple, with floors and walls of wood, without many decorations. There was an empty chair next to the bed, a bowl of water on a nightstand, and a dresser with a mirror by the window.
His wound had been bandaged pretty skillfully as well, but his right shoulder was still useless. There was probably poison in the wound.

"Oh...You're awake." The startled voice came from a slender girl standing in the doorway. She stepped inside the room carefully, watching him intently as he watched her every move.
What he noticed first was the girl's hair.  It cascaded in unfurling waves of brown curls almost down to her elbows, and it framed her oval face in a way that made her look an ancient china doll. Her eyes were soft and deep, brown as well. She was a few inches shorter than him in height, and did not look as if she could fight. He noticed her wrists were so delicate his own hands could easily encircle and crush the fragile bones.

"Um...my name is Luna. You are in my house now...and safe."

A little boy now appeared in the doorway. He was looking at him with startled eyes and his brown hair was messy. He did not look more than seven. Luna motioned for him to leave.
"My little brother Nolan found you lying unconscious in the woods, so we brought you here. That was tree days ago, and you have been sleeping ever since."
Sywyn had been listening patiently. He tried sitting up, and she took a step back frightfully.
"Where am I?"
"In a village south of the land of Endor. It's too small to have a name...Do you have a name?"
Sywyn threw her a sharp look, wondering whether to lie or not. Luna noticed his piercing blue eyes and looked down piously. She had pretty long eyelashes.
He sighted. "Sywyn Nym' el. Also known known as the Windrider."
This was clearly not the kind of girl to cause him trouble.
In retrospect, he wasn't entirely right.
"Why are you here?" she crossed her arms. Apparently his name rang a bell.
"Why do you think, darling? The war is coming." Her sudden attitude irritated him.
"I don't believe it." Luna turned away and slammed the door behind her.

Well, he surely hadn't expected that. What the hell did she mean by "I don't believe it."?! What kind of nut could she be that denied the simple fact the front was going to encompass this land?
Slowly, and painfully, he got up. The room spun around, and he was forced to lean against the wall. Something caught his eyes. Next to his foot was the remainder of one of his packs. It looked like it had been trampled on, but then Luna had probably washed and salvaged it. He looked inside. Not much: one of his smaller knives, a change of clothes
and buried at the very bottom, some of the special cigars. Now that was a worthy treasure.
He sat down as comfortably as he could right beneath the window and lighted one. He could gradually feel his pain becoming numb. Then, unexpectedly, Luna entered the room in a hurry, snatched the cigar and threw out the window in one languid movement.
"Not in my house you don't."
Sywyn seriously considered stabbing her with his left arm.
"This crazy girl is starting to get on my nerves."
"Dinner is ready." she announced before heading out to straighten up some things.
Sywyn saw the rest of the house was much like the room he was in. Simple, clean but not excessively so, neat and crammed with books everywhere. There was also a that strange air of desolation a lonely house has. Looking out the windows, he hadn't seen or heard any neighbors, nor had there been anyone to the house beside the young girl and the boy. By the look of things, they were quite separate from  even the solitary village. Luna looked a human, not older than 16 or 17, so it wasn't quite natural for her to be all alone, was it?
After washing up for dinner, they silently sat down at the table. Nolan was the kind of adventurous little boy with windblown hair, scarped knees and wide eyes, but it was clear his sister disciplined him thoroughly. Sywyn winked at him when he noticed Nolan was still staring.
"How did you get hurt?"
"In a battle."
"Wow. Are you a soldier?"he asked with overwhelming innocence.
By now, outside it was dark, and the softly lighted home seemed a last outpost against the wild.
"Yes. I've been in many battles."
"You're name is familiar." This time it was Luna who was speaking.
"You...why are you really here?" He was surprised to notice her voice trembled. She looked softer in this light, with her perfect curls fallen around her face, and the pink lips partly open. She was the kind of person suffering hardship; he had seen plenty. This kind of resilience that will not be crushed - people who go around with their fists
clenched tight and a defiance to death about the rising and falling of the chest, her naked shoulders...
"I told you before. The war is coming here."
She nodded thoughtfully.
"I've arranged for my brother to go to relatives who live by the Great Sea. Do you think he will be safe there?"
"I cannot tell for sure, the fortunes of battle are strange." He smiled in his strange way.
Nolan had been listening to the exchange with an open mouth.
"What?! You're sending me away?" He started to cry, and Luna shot him a deadly look.
Sywyn would not normally care, but the fact was, this girl took a risk by letting him in, and politeness dictated he feign a minor interest.
"Why don't you go too?"
"My father...she spoke slowly, would have stayed. He believed this land would remain free, that the people would rise up and protect it or die trying. So..I..I have to stay."
"But I'm staying too!" Nolan was crying again.
"Go to bed", she admonished him, and Nolan slipped reluctantly away.
Sywyn threw another glance to the massive bookcase lining the opposite wall. The books were arranged carefully, and had an overall look of preciousness by their leather covers and golden lettering. So the father had been an intellectual, and now she was expected to follow his virtuous ideals. He knew she would probably die. Luna was too beautiful to be left alive by the ravenous soldiers that would come destroy everything in their path. And he couldn't explain it, but she did not seem too keen on staying, even when she said it.
"It would be a fool's death." he remarked casually.
She turned to him with tearful eyes and a fiery voice.
"You're one to talk! Well I've heard of you! You kill the innocent without restraint, turn sides without regret and live by the sword without any conviction! A beast! What will your death be for ?!"
She stopped yelling, frightened. The look in Sywyn's eyes had changed. She had obviously upset him.
He covered the space between them in even strides and put his left hand around her throat quickly, shoving Luna against the wall.
Surprisingly, she did not call out nor cry, because she knew there was nothing she could do against him. Somehow her silence seemed eerie. Luna's hands shook and she kept looking at him with those exceptionally big brown eyes and he could not make up his mind to crush her neck yet, when they heard first yells and then the loud raps at the door.
Sywyn let go.
"Wait!" Luna rushed to get Sywyn the bow and arrows hung above the fireplace and a sword for herself.
"I don't know how to use them", she whispered quickly as she handed them to him.
Not expecting any help, she opened the front door.
Even with the pain in his shoulder, Sywyn already had an arrow ready to release.
"Don't shoot!" yelled Luna.
The newcomer was an old woman with a red shawl wrapped around her head. She closed the door with a frightened backward glance.
"What..?"
"Luna, men have come here through the valley." the old woman whispered quickly, holding the girl by the shoulders gently. "They are fierce and armed."
Luna looked at Sywyn.
He answered the question in her eyes:
"No...it's too early for the official armies to be here. It's a group of swift "forerunners" they send to  massacre defenseless areas in order to make themselves feared."
"But the people will fight.."Luna tried. The woman didn't let her finish.
"Yes; but further, by the mill. Your house is in the way, and no one will come defend a daemon, Luna." The old woman had tears in her eyes.
"I wonder what the hell she means by daemon.." Sywyn thought.
"Your father was a good man; but he knew you didn't believe the same as he. That you wouldn't want to end up like this. He told me to come and tell you to run when the time was right."
"No; I want to be like him..." No one paid attention.
Sywyn asked the woman:
"How many of them are there?"
"A few hundred. More than all the villagers...and with that shoulder, you'd better run too." She said, pointing to the bloody bandage. Curiously, she didn't seem
surprised to see a strange man in Luna's house.
The night outside was becoming frantic. Even from the house they could hear the sound of horses, the clash of swords and heart-stopping screams. The windows gleamed with the sparks of houses aflame.
Sywyn suddenly couldn't stand any of it. His head almost burst from hatred and physical pain. He had been in many wars, as a soldier, a warrior, but never had he been part of the terrorized civilians trying to grab their children and run.
Luna came out of the bedroom carrying a sleepy Nolan.
"Don't send me away.." he moaned.
"The poor child.." the woman whispered. She took the knitted blanked wrapped around her shoulders and covered him hastily.
They all went outside. A few hundred yards in front of the house started the woods. Sywyn didn't wait for the women to say goodbye. As far as he was concerned, his stay was over.
"I'm going back to get some of my things." the woman said. "Don't worry, I'll meet you later in the woods." Her wrinkled hands patter the young girl's cheeks. Her promise was feeble.
Luna ran with Nolan in her arms, only to catch up with Sywyn stumbling and disoriented. He could hear the siblings walking a few steps behind him in the dark.
"Quickly, Nolan, I can't carry you any longer! Keep up!"
Suddenly, Luna's small hand gripped Sywyn's shoulder.
"There's a dozen of them coming towards us."
He turned around, surprised. Luna's eyes were shining a deep violet. He had sensed trouble wasn't far off, but something told him Luna could
see quite far, even in the dark.
She smiled a confident, crooked smile. Sywyn could only wander once more what in the world a daemon was.
"This way." She pointed for him to follow. They ran until they were out breath, continually hearing the rapid destruction of the village.
The trio hid behind a ledge of earth and waited. After the sound of an especially drawn out, horrific scream, Luna spoke:
"I know you think I'm the kind of person whose feeble heart would break now. But, she smiled sadly again, my heart doesn't burst into anything."
After a dark pause.. "I'm not much like my people. At the end of everything, I couldn't hide it even from my father: that I care about nothing of them and their ideals."
Sywyn thought she sounded a lot like him.
The mill erupted into flames violently and in the savage burst of light, Luna saw Nolan's blanket sprawled across the earth by her feet.
"Nolan! Nolan where are you?!"
Sywyn remembered something.
"He was afraid you'd send him away...He must have gone back."
She turned on her heels and started running, but Sywyn got a hold of her arm.
"I don't know what kind of powers you have, but it's certain death out there."
Then he let go. He wasn't going to insist.
"I know you're probably right."She said in that soft, clear voice of hers.
He didn't care.
"I was wrong to criticize you. In the end, I'm still not sure whether there are any differences between us, even though I wished there were. I just want to live, no matter how...!" she squeezed his hand.
" You could escape." Sywyn could feel her waver at the offer.
Luna's slender hands locked around his neck and she kissed him lightly, on the lips.
"Still, I have to save the last thing I can live for."
She disappeared among the dark foliage.
"That is the difference between us." Sywyn said, to no one in particular.
He knew he would not go back for them. It just wasn't in his nature.