SHAME

Shame, 'tis but a path
A path of failure I tread
Shame, a sign away.

My feet are heavy
Each step takes a hefty toll
A toll on my soul.

The path of failure is not dark.  It is lit with the most glamorous lighting.
The path of failure is not a maze.  It is a straight path with no obstacles in sight.
The path of failure is tiled with new bricks.  But it is within a glass structure like a greenhouse.
Beyond the glass on the side are grass fields.  Nicely trimmed and green, no weeds nor pests. 
A true spectacle are the grass fields!
But the glass prevents those who walk on the path from reaching the grass.
With no end in sight, one takes the walk of shame.
At first, the walk seems normal, nothing perculiar.
As the sun's heat is captured and stored in the glass structure, the walk begins to feel heavy.
The heat makes one's limbs ten times more heavy.
The heat makes one's breath ten times more dense.
The heat makes one's steps a hundred times more difficult!
So it begins; the walk of shame.
And this is but the beginning.
Thankfully, humans are adaptive, versatile, and strong.
Soon the heat becomes ambient, it is background.
Strength returns to steps!
Pace returns to breaths!
Vigor returns to limbs!
The walk is easy now.
The walk is conquered now!
And now we have time to think.
To think!
Yes, it is time to reflect,
Reflect good.
You just got used to the walk of shame.
You got used to the path of failure.
You forgot about the grass on the other side.

Little Red Riding Hood

Why? WHY? YOU DARE ASK ME WHY?  Oh, I will tell you why, you fool, I will tell you why.  Six years ago, you humans began to invade our forest.  At first they came with just axes and shovels.  A tree chopped here, a tree chopped there.  It was nothing we haven't seen before.  But then one day it all changed.  Bulldozers.  You humans brought in bulldozers!  Over night entire sections of the forest diminished and just like that our preys fled the forest or died at their former homes.  Those who survived branched off.  We split apart.  Some couldn't abandon their homes, others saw their survival beyond the forest.  My father decided to stay.  After all this was where his wife died, this was where his father was born and his father and his father and his father.  Five days.  My father and I went on five days without food, without our pack.  My father was proud.  Proud to be a predator.  He always taught me to be tough.  He taught me the rules of the forest.  The rules of the hunt.  The number one rule, never go after the young always go for the oldest ones and only the oldest ones for they have finished their task in life.  The second rule, never go after those who are stronger than you.  But those rules didn't matter.  We didn't see any living thing we could eat for five days.  And then, we saw you.  Oh yes, I remember the glimmer in my eyes when we saw you, helpless little girl, how we could finally feast on flesh; raw, sweet flesh.  Oh I could taste your tender thighs, your smooth cheeks, your supple arms.  My father, he could sense my hunger and so he told me to stand aside.  He walked up to the little girl.  You, with your little basket and your little red hood, stood unfazed before my father.  I could hardly hold my laughter in when I knew my father was about to slaughter you.  But then you, you... YOU WITCH.  You held out your arms and said to my father: "Hug."  At that instant, I knew you were a goner, I was about to eat you.  But oh how terribly wrong I was.  My father knelt down and hugged you.  MY FATHER.  He never hugged me even once!  Be tough he says, be proud he says.  HE HUGGED YOU, ONE OF THEM, THE PEOPLE WHO DESTROYED OUR FOREST.  Did you have any idea the rage, the confusion, the sadness, the despair, the disappointment I felt at that moment?! DO YOU?  No, of course not, you are a human.  When you left, my father came back and said to me.  "We must not break the rules of the hunt."  SCREW THE RULES, your kind destroyed us.  I couldn't stand the hunger anymore.  And so that night when my father was asleep.  I snuck away and followed the trail you went.  And what did I see?  A sweet old lady, sitting in front of her house.  HA!  Just my luck.  Respect the rules of the hunt?  FINE.  I, will.  I ran towards the lady, your grandma, but everything happened so suddenly.  Suddenly from behind, something grabbed me and flung me to his arms and with me in his arms he ran back, back into the darkness of the forest.  I couldn't see anything.  But as I was being pulled back, I heard a loud bang.  I smelled the smoke in the air; gunpowder.  And the next thing I knew my father, bleeding profusely, put me down by a tree.
"Always.. respect the rules.. my boy."  My father patted my head.  He could no longer stand.  But I did follow the rules!  I went after the old!  WHY!  WHY!  ARGH!!!!!!!!!!! 

I couldn't forgive you, I couldn't forgive your grandma.  So the next day, right when she got out of bed, I struck.  I snapped her head in half.  HA!  How fragile she was.  How small her nose was.  How shivered her face was.  Oh, how sweet her scream of pain was.  Delicious.  But that is not over.  I could not forgive you.  And so everyday, I waited.  You humans destroyed my old home but no matter.  You could not destroy the entire forest.  No, and so six years.  I waited.  Sometimes days go by without a new prey.  But no matter.  I knew if I waited long enough, one day you WILL return.  And today.  You.  Did.

The wolf let out a big smile as he launched himself at little red riding hood.  But she was crying no more.  She dodged the wolf causing him to fall down.  As he turned his face back, his eyes filled with anger.  But his gaze quickly shifted from one of rage to one of fear.  Fear and understanding.  He finally knew what his father meant by respecting the rules.  He had been arrogant all along.  It was not that his father didn't want to kill her but he couldn't.  He was respecting the rules of the hunt.  This was what his father meant.  As the wolf stared in the little girl's gun barrel.  It was all too clear.  He did violate a rule that night; "never go after those who are stronger than you."  And without a shred of compassion for this beast, mankind stands triumphant as the girl stands dominant over nature.

Observers and Retrievers

Smith found nothing on the dead bodies.  The cold helped numb his nose so that the dreaded stench of the dead wouldn't disturb him too much, not that it really matters to him.  Just as Smith stands up and stretches his arms, John cried out.
"Hey!  Is this it?"
John holds up a silver-colored pen.  Smith couldn't see too clearly what John is holding up but Smith was certain John found what they came for.  John might be new but he is sharp.  Upon closer inspection Smith knew their work for the night is over.
"Good job, let's go."
John hands the pen to Smith.  The two of them changed out of their dirtied working gloves.
"Of course it's at the last place we'd look."
"Let's hurry, before the sun rises."
"Another six miles, at least its downhill this time."
John took out his pack of smokes again and placed one in his mouth.
"Want one?"
"Nah, too much of that shit kills."
Besides the rustling leaves crushed beneath their every step, silence accompanied them for the rest of their way back.  This made it easy for them to hear the stones thrown into their path.
"Smith, -"
"I know."
The stones is the signal.  Smith takes the pen out of his pocket and throws it in front of him.  At that instant, a voice that seems to come from the darkness itself spoke to them.
"Head north, retrievers."
A bag was thrown near them, indicating the north direction.
Smith picks the bag up and counts the silver coins inside.  When he was sure that the payment was complete, he motioned John to follow him.  The six mile walk downhill just ended.
"If they had people following us, they could've just gotten it themselves."
John felt cheated out of this.  He just dug in the snow for who knows how long and now, just like that, without giving them a single minute to rest they are told to do another job.
"Don't complain about it.  This is our job.  They have their job."
Deep down John knows this.  He joined the organization expecting this was how he would be treated at first, but reality is still harsh even when one is expecting it.  John took out yet another smoke and just for the sake of breaking the silence, John asked:
"Have you actually seen an observer in the flesh?"
"A couple of times."
"What was it like?"
"I had other things to worry about when I saw them."
"Hmm..."
The snow has stopped.  The grey night sky transitions into a red-orange color.  John looks up at the sky and yawns. 
"Just in time, the signal is here."
Smith points into the direction of a crackling sound.  The crackling of burning wood and leaves.  As the two approaches they could see the light of a dim fire and beside it laid a figure.
"You sure this is really a signal?"
John is cautious approaching the sleeping man.  The fire lit up the sleeping man's light complexity.  Judging by his features, John guesses that this man is about the same age as him. 
"Sit, rest.  We've got a long way ahead of us." 
The man spoke.  Had John and Smith been any other person they might have been startled.  But they are better than that.  In fact, if the man was really sleeping that would surprise them.  John sits down near the flame to warm himself while Smith sits leaning against a tree.
"Go ahead and sleep, we're in no hurry.  You two must be fatigued."
Smith closes his eyes.  There is no use asking questions.  In the organization, if someone had to ask a question then it means he's not meant to know the answer.  John takes off his hat and lays his head on top of it.  With the crackling fire withering away beside him, John falls into slumber.
"What a kid you've gotten yourself as a partner, Smith."
"We must be getting close if they are sending you out on the field."
"Go to sleep."
Smith pulls his hat down enough to cover his eyes.   

Snowy Start

John and Smith just arrived at their destination, a pile of rubble in the middle of nowhere.  The smell of fire is still fresh in the air and sadly for them the dry winter wind is blowing the ashes directly in their faces. 
"Six mile walk and we get this crap.  This better be worth it."
"Shut up John.  Lets get this over with and get out of here."
The two of them approach what used to be the east wing entrance to the three story mansion.  They are immediately greeted by two charred bodies with their abdomen and lower body crushed beneath the debris.  But nature does not care about these small details.  Already there are swarms of flies orbiting around the corpses, picking on their new food before sunrise and the rest of the forest wakes up.
"So where is that thing supposed to be?"
"They said it was somewhere in the third floor."
Smith pulls out a floor map of the mansion and lays it down on the floor.  His puts his right hand on the center of the map and holds it in place.
"Right there, looks like somewhere in the middle."
Smith points to a red dot on the map.
"Which means it's somewhere in the middle of all this garbage."  John sighs.
"Pay some respects, don't go around calling the dead garbage"   
John disregards Smith's remark and heads straight to the middle of the rubble.  He changes out of his leather gloves for some working gloves and begins to move the debris with his shovel. The two of them gets to work.
"Hey look what I found."
John holds up a burned painting by Arkmeids, a prodigy artist that revolutionized the art world with his realistic style.
"What a shame, this could fetch tens of thousands."
"Stop screwing around.  It's going to snow soon."
Smith looks up at the cloudy sky.  No moon.  No stars.  Just clouds.
By now they have moved most of the debris from the center area of the rubble to the edge and yet they still couldn't find the item.  Smith decides to move onto the east wing while John goes to the west wing.  As they uncover more bodies the foul stench grows unbearable for John, so he tosses the bodies on the flower field in the garden, hoping the distance and the flowers would dilute the awful smell.  However, for Smith this is nothing.  He has long desensitized himself to the smell of the dead.  The two of them continues to dig further into the rubble.
"Ah shit, snow."
John grunted.  Working in the cold is bad enough, now there is going to be layers of snow on top of everything.
"Quit complaining."
Still, Smith is just as unenthusiastic, if not more than John, about the snow.  He hates snow.
"Hey Smith, what if we can't find the thing?  Couldn't it have been burned to nothing in the fire?"
"If it burned so easily we wouldn't be here.  Don't worry about not finding it, just keep looking."
The prospects of finding anything are grim.  They have spread the rubble all over the estate and still nothing.  They could even see the ground now.  The three stories of unexplored rubble is no more.
The two of them gradually shifts their respective digging areas back to near the center of the rubble where they started. 
"Want one?"
John is exhausted from all this manual labor.  He holds out his pack of smokes and offers it to Smith.
"Thanks."
Smith takes a smoke and puts it in his mouth.  John takes out some matches from his coat pocket and lights the two smokes.  The two of them sits on top of a broken marble pillar covered in dust laying next to a couple of steps of stairs and enjoy their small break. 
"So what now?  Search through all that stuff we already went through?"
"There's still some left behind us.  Let's go."
Smith finishes his smoke and heads to the flower field.  He kneels down on the snow covered flowers and brushes the snow off the clothes on one of them.  Smith closes his eyes and murmurs something to himself.  Then, he starts searching the bodies.  John turns his head around and watches Smith until his smoke finishes.  Before long, John stands up and begins digging the remaining rubble that they haven't gone through.  Good thing the snow tonight is light, just enough to leave a thin sheet of white over everything.  White, it contrasts beautifully with the charred remains of everything.  That's probably what the heavens are thinking about this scenery.  John thought. 

G

"Sir, I come back with grim news."
It has been six days since Ikra and his men left Kaph's fortress.  Before they left, Ikra sent his intelligence team, fastest of all the kingdom, to Fonam so he could get a better understanding of the situation there before his main army arrives.
"What is wrong?"  White flares spark around Ikra's pale face.      
"Fonam has been sacked.  The entire city torched to the ground."
Ikra's expression is unmoved, as though he was expecting this.
"And General Coarl?  What of his army?"
"Annihilated, by the time we got there their corpses were littered across the city and its outskirts.  We also saw Bastedine's standard."
Upon hearing Bastedine's name, Elektor steps into the conversation with great confusion and discomfort.
"Bastedine?  Ikra, what is he doing in our lands."
Ikra turns his head to his old friend, his voice softens.
"The Sessinds allied themselves to Ey.  They hoped to claim our throne and offer themselves to the east."
In the east lies a kingdom under the rule of the Ey family.  When a fourteen year old prodigy, Ey VI, rose to the throne he immediately initiated plans to conquer all the lands within his reach.  And his reach is far.  Through complete mastery of strategy, geography, and weather, Ey VI tripled his kingdom's size in six years.  On his twenty-third birthday, Ey declared himself the King of Kings and held a contest.  He conscripted men from his conquered lands and split them into ten groups.  He then gave each of these groups to ten men he thought promising.  He sent each of the ten and their groups to different parts of Chasy, one of the first neighboring kingdoms that Ey conquered, and had the ten of them fight each other.  The winner would be given the rank general and ownership of Chasy while the winner's men would be given a choice of officer rank in the military or a sizable estate.  Bastedine won only losing four out of his five thousand six hundred men army in seventy days.  It took Ey ninety days to conquer Chasy.  Bastedine refused Chasy, he told Ey he doesn't ever plan on settling down to govern anything.  During the height of Elektor and his fellow councilman's power, Bastedine was the only foreign threat they feared.  Between Ey and their kingdom sat Kraton, another kingdom.  Bastedine siege Kraton's capital for five hundred days before retreating after Elektor convinced his king to send the entire kingdom's army to aid Kraton.  But it didn't matter, Bastedine controlled so much of Kraton's lands that the king of Kraton had no choice but to bow and pay tributes to Ey.  It was around this time Elektor's king died and the kingdom fell into a power struggle.  At this time, Bastedine was forced to focus his attention to the south where an alliance was forming to fight against Ey.  Unbeknownst to them, Ey had built up an entire navy for this and while Bastedine and several other of Ey's general attacked from the north, the King of Kings and his navy knocked on their shores. Nevertheless, Bastedine's feat at Kraton's capital alerted Elektor and his allies though they soon became powerless to do anything.
"So since Sessind failed, Bastedine is coming in himself."
"HALT"  Ikra's voice echoed.  Before he could continue his conversation with Elektor he is interrupted by a dreadful screech.  A pitch high and foul.   
"MEN PREPARE FOR COMBAT"
Ikra's men draw their arms, the metals cling is unison.  His mages prepare their incantations and the beast handlers prepare their companions.  The dreadful screeching repeat itself, this time accompanied by the shaking earth.  The screeching grows louder and more fierce.  The ground trembles as the onslaught stampedes closer to Ikra's army.  In an instant, Ikra unleashes a cone of white flames in front of him, completely burning down everything in their path.  The enemy is now in plain sight.
Bird-like creatures running with the might of an ox.  In between them ride their handlers, a club in one hand and a whip in the other.  Elektor retreats to the back of Ikra's army.  Bastedine's first attack is here.  The first of many waves.

F

"Fight?  With what?   Do you want me to go out there and punch him in the face?"
The invaders march on ever closer to Kaph's last defense.  His men are screaming reports of his guards falling left and right.  The undefeated general with the might of the imperial fist, seventy thousand strong, smashes through the barricades one after another.  Every inch the siege line creeps closer the fortress shakes with fear striking to its foundation.  The once pristine marble walls are now charred by the blue flames of the devil.  The orange morning sky is completely eclipsed by the flickering smoke.  None of Kaph's surrender signals have been honored.  The king's message is clear to him.  His Majesty demands submission.
"Go out, tell him I surrender.  Elektor, I have treated you well here.  I have provided you with safety from the throne's prosecution.  Now, save what remains of my men.  Joan, announce the retreat signals, he will not spare anyone who stays."
"Yes, milord."
It is too late.  The moment Joan opens the door she is incinerated.  White flames, an unearthly color for fire, sears her body from the inside.  Her body falls backwards, her mouth wide open.  They could hear her screams of pain in their heads but her vocal cord has been burned to nothing.  The fighting outside ceased, the earth shakes no more.  Kaph unsheathes his sword, ready to defend his life.  But it is no use.  Within seconds, Kaph meets the same demise as Joan.  Before Joan's body hit the ground, they were both no more.
"Am I to die here as well?"
A bearded young man, clothed in filthy brown rags, drags himself into the chamber.  He appears like a common beggar, his teeth yellow, his hair untrimmed, his nails black, his eyes dull, his back hunched. But one aspect sets him apart from a common beggar.  His every step leaves behind a patch of white flame.  White flares accompany his every breath.
"Never would I raise my flames or anyone raise their arms against you in my presence."
His coarse voice echos through the chamber.  Every word brightens the white flares around his face making his features more pronounced.  Deep wrinkles run his forehead.  His cheeks has no shine, no youth in them.
"Had those old dogs die a day sooner I would have rushed my men to your side and occupied the Castle to save you from this disgrace you had to endure for four years."
"So you are still on my side."
"I need allies, Elektor."
"He told me the military was on his side."
"On his side?  That man is cunning.  Ever since the riots four years ago, he instigated division among the upper echelon and reignited old feuds to incite the country into war.  He forced the military so thin it was impossible for us to handle any matters outside of managing our meager resources.  He broke up the entire government so he could dominate it and engulf it piece by piece.  He invited the foreigners to invade our country just to weaken our hold further."
"Then you were fighting Sessind because.."
"YES!  I had to fight the Sessinds alone because there was no one else capable.  For two years, I stood in his trap, fighting alone with no reinforcements.  If I fell to the Sessinds then the military would be easily overrun by his schemes and spies.  If I defeated the Sessinds, then a great threat to his power and this weaken country would be no more.  I attacked Kaph because I needed supplies.  He rather watch my men starve than help me."
"So what do you plan to do now?"
"Now I must go to Fonam and aid them against the savages."
"From desert to marshlands."
"I do what I must, Elektor.  I do what I must."
His coarse voice softened.  Though he emerges victorious, his voice lingers with sorrow and despair.  He speaks not like a triumphant general, but a defeated man.  He knows, it is only a matter of time before he is picked apart by the king.

E

"Here's what you requested."
Joan set down a bowl of noodles and a copy of today's newspaper on the table by Elektor's bedside.  Elektor hasn't read anything since he arrived to Kaph.  But reading is not one of those skills that fade away so easily.  He instinctively looks at the top right corner of the front page.
"So, it's been almost four years now.  Who would've thought I would make it this far."  Elektor laughs, a fake laugh, a very sarcastic laugh. 
"Yes, four years."
Elektor puts down his fork and picks up the paper.  In the center of the front page in big bold font, "THE SESSIND'S FRONT CRUMBLES: IKRA THE UNDEFEATED MARCHES ON."
"How pathetic.  I warned those idiots and they still didn't listen."  Elektor lets out a long sigh and puts down the paper to finish his meal.
"I am going to bed early tonight so don't bring me dinner."
"Understood."
The previous embarrassment has long passed Joan's thoughts.

In the dead of the night, a great explosion wakes Elektor.
"What the hell.  Joan, what's going on?!"
But Joan is not there.  The central alarm starts ringing and several more explosions fire off, each getting closer to the compound.  Each explosion sends a wave of blue and green light into Elektor's room through those prison windows.  If Elektor didn't realize what happened after the first explosion, he certainly knows now.  Kaph is under attack.
"Damn this shit."
Elektor tries to flee his room but it is locked from the outside.
"Of all times, are you serious?"
Elektor hears panic and footsteps in the hallways.  He bangs on the door with his fists, screaming and yelling for someone to open the door.  The central alarm begins to ring in a different pattern.  Elektor recognizes the code, after all he devised it for the kingdom back in the day.  At last, his door slides open.  It's Joan.
"Quickly, follow me."  Joan commands Elektor.  She grabs his hand and runs to the opposite direction as the fleeing prisoners and caretakers. 
"Where are we going?"
"I am not a spy.  Not for the king anyways.  This corridor is directly under the control of Lord Kaph.  We brought you here because the king began to make his move."
"The king is attacking this place?  He has to be out of his mind."
"A lot of politics has been going on in the time you spent idling around in here.  Lord Kaph respected your wishes and left you alone for as long as he could but I couldn't stand by seeing him agonize as he watched his position get worse and worse by the day."
Politics.  A deadly arena.  Years ago Elektor played this game as the king's advisory reform committee that eventually became the king's right arm, the king's council.  This was five kings ago.  Four years, five kings.  The most turbulent era in the kingdom's recent history.  The political stage has been so toxic it was akin of criminal organizations.  Once you get in, you never get out.  That's why reform was needed and that's why reform was enacted.  Under the committee, the nobility's powers were curbed, the financial district was effectively destroyed, and the military was tamed.  But when the king died without an heir, the tension ruptured.  When the council's demise was imminent, Elektor knew the only way to survive was to leave this hellhole.  He seek refuge and found haven in Kaph's prison.  At the height of the council's power, Kaph was one of two only men in the kingdom that the council could never touch.  Kaph and his prison has always been a thorn by Elektor's side.  Within Kaph's domain, the only royal presence is a meager intelligence unit stationed on the ground floor of his prison establishment.  In here, Kaph housed many political enemies and prisoners.  The intelligence unit's primary goal is to relay any suspicious activities of the prisoners back to the king but more importantly, to monitor Kaph's actions.  This was a tough move that Elektor helped initiate but ultimately the unit was handled by the military.  Elektor came to Kaph with the help of several military strongmen that sympathized with Elektor.  These strongmen are all dead, save Ikra, a man that Elektor implanted in the military as his handle on them.
"The monster you have created is besieging your fortress, Lord Elektor.  There is no escape.  Fate dictated you save the throne from the evils within.  Now fate dictates you save the people from the evils on top."      
"Lord Kaph, blunt as ever."
Joan opens her mouth.  "Fight the war on our side, milord."  This was the first time she spoke in Kaph's presence without asking for permission.  Yet another explosion.  Boom.