Tear A Path

When the day's meeting ended nothing changed. The advancement of each side in negotiations were still the same simply because no negotiations were held at all.

"What the hell Chora!?" Kitsi screamed as they exited the venue. "You were supposed to bring us back in the negotiations and yet you sat and didn't even say a single word."

"I would remind you to show a little respect, I didn't say I was going to do anything, all I said was that I would come... just to see what the trouble was about", the man said, combing through his whitening head of hair with the fingers of his left hand. Where his right hand should be, a stump stood encased in metal.

"Chora sir we understand your troubles with finding a place here but we assure you that we're doing this for the people," Eyisha said.

Chora stared at her unwavering eyes with a maddened glare. "You know princess, that's the same exact reason your grandfather gave me when I could've torn a cancerous root right at the base of it's neck... and I warned him that one day will come when he'd regret not showing those pigs a little blood."

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30 years back, a younger Chora stood in front of his own home. "Y'know Myr sometimes you take this too far, Chyron is grown and I didn't tell him to be a soldier."

"Yeah but you filled his head with all that glory of blood and companionship crap since he was small, if you'd raised him different he wouldn't be joining under a little sh*^ like Assaze out there." Myr screamed from the window as she threw his stuff out.

"He's the dukes son, he might be a playboy and a gambler, but I'm sure that every noble house has taught their children a thing or two about the war... Come on honey let me back in..." Chora tried to console her.

The door opened and a stunningly lithe and beautiful Myr stepped out brandishing a two handed Scimitar like a kitchen knife at Choras face. "Fine!! But when he comes back, he's going under your command, understand!?"

"You of all people should know it doesn't work that way, the soldiers are moved according to where they would be most effective... besides, I've tried to tell him to do that but he wouldn't listen to me... by your reaction I'm pretty sure you talked to him and he didn't listen to you either... besides even if he comes with us to the battlefield we're both generals, all we'd do is keep him safe and away from the battle where he wouldn't grow... and this time it's just the Phesite kingdom, out of all the kingdoms eyeing our land, I think it's the least consequential and a perfect place to train him."

"I'm his mother, what's wrong with trying to keep him safe!? Besides he's just a boy who trained with those warriors, you didn't let me teach him anything!! All those new turds couldn't even keep their crap inside once they entered the battlefield..." Myr complained with a loud harrumph.

"We didn't have a choice, we picked up our weapons from the people who died before us when our country was growing, if we fell, some other dumb kid behind us would've had to pick it up and start." He looked at Myr in nostalgia.

When Dracas was growing, it was a target for the kingdoms around it due to its bountiful resources. Somehow even as a swamp, it was home to a lot of beasts and tribes which raised a question in the previous king, if all these beasts were surviving what were they surviving of. It turns out that the damp soil contained some strong magical properties which continuosly gave birth to plants of strong medicinal qualities.

One way or another other kingdoms found out too, but during this time, Dracarian technology hadn't grown. They didn't even have enough weapons for everyone who wanted to fight. So at each point of defense, they sent 5 men teams with a single weapon.

When enemies tried to breach their walls, the person in front would keep hacking until they couldn't anymore which basically meant they were dead. The person behind would have to pick up the weapon and start hacking and attacking as well.

After 10 days, the enemy retreated, by then most groups were wiped out. They were reinforced with elderly or capable children to pick up where the earlier group left off. Chora was pushed into the fray on the 4th day taking a single sword of a dual blade set, he kept switching between his left and right hand whenever the other was tired. Myra entered on the 7th, taking a scimitar just slightly smaller than the one she held now.

By the time they were done, the blood had dried on the handles of the weapons and they couldn't even move their fingers to open their grip and drop the weapons. Many like them simply slept with it still in their grasp.

Most of them like Myr and Chora would hold their weapons forever in future battles. By the time Guru was going to teach them and told them that they were not suited to the weapons they were using, they'd used it for far too long to change.

"I want him to be able to find his own path, not pushed into one like we were... who knows, he'll probably get much stronger than us with his dual axes one day, and Guru said he was going to train him once he comes back at a certain meddlesome mother's request...." he looked accusingly at Myr who acted as if he said nothing at all.

"Atleast..." Myr contemplated, "Assaze is only sent out by his father to resupply the main army, he'd straight away return afterwards. Which is a 7 day trip back and forth at most..."

But only Assaze and a few men returned 4 days beyond schedule.