Two Kings

• Ninekupoyieh Moore, Grade 10, Blackwater State High School -
• Short Story
• 2020

Excellence Award in the 'The Inside Story 2020' competition

Vaon rushed through the battlefield on his white groomed horse. Arrows whistled in the air above him. Screams of rage and agony tore his ears. Blood guts and gore ran down the hill, soaking the brown earth.
His plan for deliverance had failed. He had sallied out of the city against a well trained and better equipped army in order to save himself, his army and his family, which were hiding inside the bastion. Originally they had success in taking a large hill. Vaon planned to draw his brother to the hill and ambush him. The ambush was a success; except it wasn’t his brother Saeonduil he duelled. In a cruel twist of fate, it was his brother’s right hand man, disguised as him.
Vaon rushed to the city smouldering with smoke and surrounded by enemy soldiers. He looked hard and to see his real brother. He realised if he didn’t do anything, not only would he be cut off, but he would lose all of his family.
He commanded his forces to fall back and save the town, but it was too late. Flames pieced the sky as blood soaked the roads. Vaon found his son Vaoran, hiding in an alleyway. He hugged the boy and did his best to get him to safety. They evaded enemy soldiers and fought of stragglers. Fire pots darted, through the sky, inflicting wonder and terror to the eyes of its beholders, as the city was sacked. The boy ran too slowly for the full grown man but Vaon would not let him go. A missile struck the towering buildings bringing down piles of stones forcing the pair to take up safety. Vaon and Vaoran narrowly escaped with their life by hiding in a nearby stone house.
Vaon tried beating down the walls to no avail. He ran up and down the stairs for a way out but the doors were locked. Only one window was available. Vaon peered out only to see flaming rubble at the base of the building. A contingent of guards surrounded a man all too familiar with Vaon mounted on a black stallion: his older brother, Saeonduil.
“Set an example,” Saeonduil said, “Burn everything to the ground. Flatten the city with fire, douse it with blood.
The first building the went too was the house hiding Vaon and his son. They lit the structure ablaze causing the floor to break.
The boy began crying. His eyes wet from smoke and fear. Vaon huddled his son close to him, tears streaking down his face. The fires began searing up the supports of the building. Vaon wasn’t going to lie to his son.
Crack.
He remembered hoping to win the war.
Crack.
He remembered his desperate attempt to save the city.
Crack.
He remembered his ambition to usurp the throne from his older brother, an ambition which came crumbling down on him, like flaming broken rubble, only to fly off into the wind as ashes.