1 Overthrown

"Burn...! Don't leave a single building standing...!"

"Kill all of them...! Paint the ground with their blood...!"

"You...! Take a few men with you and guard the gates...! No one gets in or out...! Kill them on sight...!"

"Come on men...! We Red Bandits takes no prisoners and leave none alive...! Once our initial deed is achieved, we can slowly take our time to gather the spoils...! Darlington will collapse tonight by our hands and we will allege victory...!"

A rebel captain outfitted in black except for a red coloured bandanna that was wrapped over his head hollered once the initial attack upon the guards manning the gates were ruthlessly slaughtered and was successfully executed.

The Red Bandit's victim tonight was a small town named Darlington, with approximately 3000 citizens, a three-storey stone castle that looked more like a Manor than a castle with no moats surrounding it.

Their aim was not to capture anyone but to annihilate anyone on sight, bringing the kingdom down to its knees.

Clustered around it were the nobles' houses and well off citizens that made themselves known as merchants or artisans, while the outskirts we're mainly cruck houses, belonging to the peasants.

A perimeter made of a low stone wall was built as a border between these 3 classes, not for security measures but as a deterrence for livestock and other animals from loitering inside the nobles' compound. These low stone walls provided no threat whatsoever to the horde of rebels that had evaded this small kingdom by storm.

There were 3 gates altogether, and due to the size of the population, the kingdom of Darlington does not have many guards around at that time, as most of the able-bodied men were being deployed to the war front to serve as soldiers and in support to the King of England

Three hordes of rebels had stormed simultaneously through the 3 gates and had taken the guards by surprise. Armed only with either a short sword or a spear, these guards were rendered helpless.

Coupled with ill-equipped armour and weapons, they watched in utter shock and horror, as their comrades fell after exchanging a few blows with the rebels.

Soon, the entrances of the gates were slowly stained red from the fallen guards as the air filled with the thick metallic smell of fresh blood.

The roofs of the cruck houses belonging to the peasants were soon torched. As the materials of the buildings were extremely combustible, the cruck houses were soon ablaze amidst the anguished screams within.

Any means of escape was barred by the rebels and were immediately struck down the moment the peasants tried to make any attempt to escape.

These cruck houses comprise of a single or double room where the peasants would cook, eat and rest within, while some even kept their livestock inside.

The occupants were simply slain or simply burned alive within the compounds of their houses by the rebels, without even bothering to look for any spoils.

The burning houses soon accompanied the peasants to their deaths.

The poor defenceless peasants were soon overwhelmed by confusion, chaos, shock and death as the rebels made their way into the inner perimeter where the commoners, also known as artisans, would soon meet their demise.

Those who tried to defend their own turf was in vain as the peasants, armed only with farming tools such as pitchforks and hoes that proved little use in combat, was mauled down effortlessly.

The old, young, men and women, as well as children, were not spared in the merciless slaughter that followed up soon after. With 600 or more rebels that stormed the small kingdom of Darlington from all the 3 gates, it only took less than half an hour before the leader of the Red Bandits reached their ultimate goal.

=*=

Within the small castle or Manor where the ruler of Darlington resided, a group of guards took up their positions around the entrance to protect against the barrage of rebels who were trying to break the door down.

These guards were better equipped than the ones guarding the town's gates but still, their equipment was subpar to the standards of a knight. "Protect the Royal Highness with our lives...! Take down as many rebels as you could...!"

"This is our final stance...! We may never see the daylight tomorrow but may our guardian angels be with us tonight...! Men...Prepare to tank them...!"

A young yet seemingly inexperienced lieutenant among the guards that were assigned within the Manor, hollered his last few instructions as he gulped down the saliva and nearly suffocated with his very own words.

A scout from the lookout tower on top of the Manor ran down to the lieutenant and send in his latest report. "Sir, all the houses belonging to the peasants on the outermost perimeter had been torched."

"Those people were struck down the moment they wanted to escape. The pleasant were simply unable to leave their burning houses and were simply burned alive...! What shall we do, Sir...? Sir...?! S-I-R...?!?"

Plumes of grey smoke and tongues of red flames filled the evening sky and any survivors that tried to escape would either meet their deaths at the end of a blade or being razed by the flames. The air was filled with the smouldering, rancid smell of dead bodies, livestock and houses.

Some of the guards in the Manor were shaken by the news and some of them even had fallen to their knees in total despair. Tears streamed down their faces as they hung their arms at the sides, not bothering to pick their weapons to stand guard against the impending doom that was waiting at the other side of the door.

"Audemars... Listen to me. You are the heir of the throne but in this kind of dire circumstances, there would be no throne left at all... No matter what happens to both me and your mother, go protect your sister."

"Both of you go into hiding. Quick...! Keep yourself safe, my son." the King placed both his hands gently on my shoulders as he looked at me with his reddened blue eyes.

My father was wearing his worn-out bronze breastplate and was holding to a claymore. That's all he ever possessed and he had even discarded his crown aside as he puts on his helm under his arm earlier. He gave me a last look and readied his sword as he took up his stance.

"Leave with your sister, now, Audemars...!"

His ash grey hair was tied with a single piece of twine and a curl of hair was covering part of his forehead and his face. I looked at my father, who looked 20 years older than he really was, as I tried to fight back the droplets of precious crystals that jerked at the corners of my eyes.

I simply looked at him and tried to etch his face into the recesses of my memories. Somehow I knew that the end was near and there was nothing both he nor I could do anything about it.

Fate and destiny was in God's hands that evening and there was no way for any of us to change history.

I simply nodded as I found no words to describe what I felt right now. I looked at my mother, the Queen, and she was hugging my younger sister, who was sobbing uncontrollably.

My mother had with her a thin longsword strapped to her waist, as she looked at my direction with her eyes that carried a single message— "We may never be out of here alive".

"Audemars... Take your sister and go now...! This door would not hold any much longer... Make your escape right now...!" Mother was trying to push Tanya, my younger sister out from her grasp towards me but Tanya simply clung on stubbornly than before.

"Tanya, follow Audemars into the cellar and hide there...go now...!"

"NO... I WANT TO BE WITH YOU, MOTHER..." Tanya obstinately refused to let go of Mother as she clung to her in a vice-like grip. Suddenly, without warning, Mother slapped Tanya across her face and the sudden force made her stumble back a few times.

Never in our lives, our parents, the King or the Queen had ever laid a finger on us. Both Tanya and I were taken aback as I slowly picked Tanya up from the fall she had sustained by that unsuspected move made by Mother.

"GO NOW..." Mother pointed towards the end of the hall, where a door led to a spiral staircase which led to the cellar. That cellar used to be Tanya and my place to play hide and seek as there are many nooks and crannies underneath the Manor. We also held small tea parties by ourselves and with our friends too, sometimes.

Unlike other well-developed castles, there's no underground dungeons or prisons underneath the Manor, but rather, a short and winding tunnel that simply branches out to a few dead ends with just a single exit that pointed to the surface.

There's no point to be on the surface right now as it was now currently swarmed with hordes of rebels and only Death awaits at the doorstep of the secret escape route.

I crocked my arm underneath Tanya's, as I was nearly half-dragging and carrying her across the stone floor. "Tanya, please, come on... Let's go. Stand on your feet now..." I pleaded with her, realising that both of us were feeling downcasted right now to leave our parents behind.

BOOM...!!!

A deafening sound broke through the main hall of the Manor, as the sound reverb area within everyone's broken hearts as well. The front door that was bolted down with a thick horizontal beam across it was finally broken through and was splintered open as a few rebels entered carrying a short battering ram.

"CHA—CHARGE..."

The rebels discarded the battering ram on the ground and unsheathed their swords while one wielded two short axes from his back. Within a breathe, a group of almost 20 rebels stormed inside the main hall. Suddenly all hell broke loose as sparks flew when swords, axes and daggers clashed against one another.

"Take them with you as you go down...!!!" the young lieutenant guard hollered his command and surged forward to block off the frontal assault from pouring in through the door. The rest of the guards tanked off the assault but soon one by one feel down to the ground, eyes rolling in the back of their heads as pools of blood slowly formed under their bodies.

Their weak armour and shields were easily bashed apart as heavy weapons struck down in those guards that were tanking the oncoming onslaught.

This was not some kind of game or training and once the rebels had managed to penetrate through the door, the guards became dispirited.

A few archers from the rebels let loose a few bolts from their crossbow and in that chaotic scene, I saw it landed on my parent's chests as it penetrated their thin armour. Shouts of anguish and agony were heard in that room and was soon overwhelmed by war cries from the rebels.

I was shocked and was numbed as this was the first time I had seen such action happening before my eyes and Death sauntering in through the front door. I couldn't move and felt rooted to the ground when suddenly, I felt Tanya knocked against my head violently.

This woke me up from my stupor as I could taste the metallic taste kf my own blood in my mouth. I quickly dragged Tanya by my arm, as she still refused to make an effort to stand on her own and cooperate with me.

The door that leads to the cellar was within reach and in that chaotic scene, I had barely managed to enter it along with Tanya that was dragged along the stone floor behind me.

I frantically glanced back and saw that both my parents were holding out their last stance for both Tanya and me as we entered the cellar's door and I quickly bolted it down with a horizontal thick wooden beam.

Fortunately, the cellar's door was behind a curtain and it looked inconspicuous since it was almost like part of the wooden wall. "Tanya, stand up now, please...! I can't simply drag you any longer...!"

Hearing no response from her as her hand slid down from my grip, I glanced at Tanya as she lay down on the floor. The cellar was very dim and it took me some time for my eyes to adjust. I squatted down and tried to shake her shoulders, thinking that she might have passed out during that chaos.

I suddenly felt a long thin shaft with a fletching at the end of it. Fear gripped me and my body began to convulsed involuntarily. In that dimly lit cellar, I saw a single bolt had entered Tanya's left eye and had penetrated the skull right to the back of the head.

"Tanya... Mother... Father..." My knees suddenly felt like jelly as I mumbled those words as I fell down like a sack of potatoes besides Tanya's body that was gradually losing her body heat.

I choked up, a mixed feeling of remorse went up to my throat and stayed there as if it was trying to smother me and bring me to the netherworld. I wished that I was dead that evening, along with my parents.

Darkness soon enveloped me, muffled cheers sounded right behind the cellar's door, as I lost consciousness due to the immense pressure and shock of losing my loved ones.

=*=

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