Warrior Girl

  (3 minute read)

            This is another story that I wrote decades ago.  I have been reading stories about the heroic women of Ukraine fighting for their country against the evil that Putin’s Russia has leveled against them.  I dedicate this story to them. 

Warrior Girl

By Keith Thomas ©

            The father heard the sounds of horses and he knew it wasn't good.  They had been warned of the evil that had been rampaging in the country.  He turned to his beloved wife and family saying, "I love you all.  You must go.  I'll buy enough time for you to escape."

            His woman grabbed the boy child in her arms, took her daughter's small hand in hers, quick kisses were exchanged and then she did as her husband bade.  They ran into the covering of the woods, leaving not a trace of their passing.

            The father took his sword in hand and waited proudly at the doorway of their peaceful home.  He waited for the soldiers' coming.  He waited with tears in his eyes, resolution in his heart.

            From the woods a girl watched the soldiers attack her father.  She heard his battle cry, "For my family!  For my family."  She watched her dad fight, she watched her dad die, she heard his final words, "For my family."

            After the soldiers left taking with them all they had not earned, she returned to their looted, burning home.  She gently took her father's sword from the rough hands that would touch her face no more and wrapped it in his cloak.

            She quickly returned to her mother and the safety of the hills.  There they lived as best they could with all the others who had fled.  The mother did the best her broken and failing heart would allow.  While other young women were holding hands and stealing moonlit kisses with their young men, the daughter of the father in the doorway practiced the life of the sword and when it was time she said her good-byes and left to track down those she had practiced for.  She did not notice her young brother following her.

            It wasn't hard to find those who had slain her father.  They never rested in their toils.  There were sad signs aplenty to point in their direction.

            She found their camp.  It was filled with loud and vulgar soldiers with faces she recognized from years gone past.  She stood at the edge until they noticed and fell silent at the sight of a young woman.  Not many ever sought them out.

            She pulled her sword from beneath her cloak and announced, "I've come to join you, lie with you and I give you the word of my sword and father that this is true."

            The leader walked up to her, fearless of one so slight, and said, "Why would camp following trash like you want to join us?"

            "For my family" she answered, as she drove her sword through his black heart.  She did her best to keep her word as she slew the men around her.  Driven by the fury of her brave young heart she laid half the band to rest before they finally cut her down to lie with the bodies on the ground.

            As those who were left gathered around the small warrior lifeless on the ground they heard the anguished voice of a young boy cry out from the hills, "For my family.  For my family!"