Sold to the King

The unbearable smell of smoke and blood woke up her. Moaning in terror, the young woman felt how she was crushed by an infinity of corpses, which pushed her weak body against the hot desert sand. Panicking for a second, as if it were an illusion, the young woman heard clearly in her head the words of her father. "Strong, intelligent, beautiful. Those are the qualities of a sword, a weapon that was forged to defend and fight for your convictions. Be strong, smart, and beautiful; turn your body into a sword." Managing to control herself despite the panic, with pain and anguish coursing through every inch of her body, she managed to remove one of those inert bodies from herself. Using all her strength despite her injuries, the young exterminator was able to get out of that pile of dead men. Panting and able to breathe freely for the first time in several minutes, she closed her eyes before screaming in horror. Making a last effort to free her entire body from her prison of death, surrounded by those who were once her battle companions, the young woman with reddish-brown hair and bright green eyes refused to see all the desolation around her. In her mind, remembering the exact spot where she stood, she was able to recreate what in some time that seemed far away, was a beautiful square of a very big city. Directly facing the government palace, with a market of various products on one side, and a square with several cherry trees and small artificial fountains on the other; which was destroyed by those savages. There was nothing left, her home had been destroyed. She felt dizzy, confused, lost. For the first time in her whole life, she did not know which way to turn. And thinking of praying for direction, she knew her prayers would not be answered, after all that devastation it was clear to her that the gods had abandoned them. "Be a sword”. Swords don't give up, not until they are completely broken. So she, as a sword, forced her eyes open to continue, stifling a groan of pain as she saw the terrifying sight of all the devastation. Corpses piled on top of each other, with broken armor and blood spilling on the ground, with organs and limbs of bodies everywhere, that once beautiful square was now the scene of a macabre m******e, with the large government building with walls destroyed by explosives and the marketplace in flames. Little did she care about the pain and the wounds on her body, the young woman forced herself to stand up. Leaning on the handle of a sword stuck in the sand, she was finally able to stand up, ready to continue. Taking a deep breath amid all the pain and confusion, she pressed the handle of that sword between her fingers, and with all the strength she had left, she managed to pull it out of the ground to wield it. That was not her sword, it was the sword of one of those other exterminators who had died around her, so for a second holding that strong steel that had not broken despite the battle, she asked forgiveness to its owner for taking that beautiful gift without permission. Being the last one standing of the exterminators of her city, the young woman forgot the pain and sadness, starting to walk with confidence. Moving through those destroyed streets that once belonged to what she called home, she was guided by the sound of the laughter of those wretches who had slaughtered her own. Not taking long to find them in one of the farthest parts of the city, enjoying the spoils they had managed to salvage from all the devastation and taking with them a multitude of slaves who were the last survivors, the murderers were laughing and feasting in an orgy of indecency. Giving a last prayer to a god who could not hear her, the young woman raised her sword before the mocking and incredulous gaze of the few assassins who had noticed her presence. The sharp sword was ready to fight again.