"As the battle begins, we await your orders, Master"
What battle? And how am I his master?
I didn't say anything out loud, but question after question began to pop up in my mind. I was of the belief that everything I was seeing was some form of illusion, and I wanted to see what would break the illusion.
I stood there in silence as I thought. The crowd remained quiet and the three persons before me didn't move as much as a muscle. I waited for a few minutes as I thought about what to do next. Through out this period, the silence remained, and as I looked around, I could sense hope in the gazes of every member of the crowd.
It was as though we were having a conversation, myself and every member of the crowd. It was like they were talking to me and I could hear them, but I heard nothing. Yet, my mind was receiving and giving out information.
As the three minutes passed, I felt the obligation to speak come upon me. It was like the cockroach themed armor around me was becoming lighter, and if I didn't speak soon, it would begin to levitate and lift me from the ground.
As much as I didn't know what was going on, somehow, I knew that I would begin levitating if I gave it some time. As the weightlessness increased, so did the obligation to speak. I gave in and opened my mouth. At that moment I had no clue what to say, but at the same time, I was very sure of what I wanted to say.
It made no sense, and my reasoning couldn't comprehend it, but something within me made me feel like, the fact that I didn't understand what I was about to do, was proof that I was about to do the right thing.
So I spoke;
"How many of us would be going into battle?"
Goldie responded," the entire army is at your disposal my Lord, we will spare no expense. Also, My Lord's Lord has said again and again, that he is not constrained to win by many or by few"
As he made the last Statement, I realized he was saying something I had read in the Bible somewhere. "He is not constrained whether to win by many or to win by few", I knew it came from somewhere in scriptures, but I couldn't locate it as I flipped through the pages of my memory of scriptures.
I knew it was in there, and I could see it as I flipped the pages, but with every page I flipped, it seemed to go further away from me. I therefore resigned to accepting the fact that I couldn't find it.
And who was "My Lord's Lord"? If I was his Lord, then there was someone who was my own Lord. Could this perhaps be the Lord of Lords? Was I in a trance? Had I been taken up into the heavens and was now before the great cloud of witnesses? Was I expected to run now?
I decided to ask Goldie a question.
"Why are there so many people here?"
Goldie responded without moving a single muscle, except the muscles used in the creation of Sounds;
"They are here to see you, and to show their support, before you march into battle"
So I decided to go with the flow,
" Very well then, prepare the entire army. We march in three days" I said with a look on my face that said
" yeah, I'm the boss here, so listen well".
Then Goldie, without my permission, stood upright. As he did, I realized his presence was rather intimidating, if not scary.
Being less than a feet away from me I could clearly see the details on his armour. I saw engravings of wings, fire, and strange creatures that seemed to have four faces on one head. The gold used to make his armour was almost transparent, but a layer of coating on the inside made it impossible to see through the armour.
While startled at his unauthorized standing up, he spoke up as Long silver and short silver stood as well. Here's what he said;
"I'm sorry my Lord, but it appears the enemy is already here"
As he said this, he reached behind with his left arm, pulled his shield off his back, wore it properly on his left arm and pulled his sword out of it's sheath. Long and short silver did the same as the three of them looked beyond me as they fixed their gaze on something I wasn't aware of.
As I turned to see what they were looking at, I saw a thick black cloud at the far end of the arena. Out of it came a creature that looked like a human, but his body gave off a mist of darkness and none of his features could be seen, except his form.
As I tried to make out his face, I realized that the four of us were no longer in an arena. The crowds were gone and I, Goldie, Long silver, short silver and this creature of darkness were left alone in a large open field with nothing else but short blades of grass.
The man of darkness spoke with a voice that shook me to my core as though he spoke with the strength of a thousand voices;
" The new recruit has finally arrived, let us battle"
He spoke calmly, as though we were friends, but there was a strange form of power in his voice. In less than a second, he closed the huge gap between us and swung a huge Cutlass at my neck.