The Shine Journal

A Treacherous Savior

by

Adnane Rehane

At last, her unique son was on his way back home. Without him, her life seemed to be hellishly hard: she spent three unending years beset by harassing worries. Not a single day, after his departure, did she envision-and not without pangs of fear-a scenario, among others, of his capture. She simply couldn’t help it, she was a mother, and most of all, she knew the cruelty of her sworn enemy clan, The Cybannez, where her son was sent.

His perilous mission consisted of amassing considerable amount of information regarding the organization of The Cybannez warriors. His clan, The Tsikards, underwent, in the past ten years, crushing defeats whenever a battle against the Cybaneez took place. Yet, the most perturbing issue was not the casualties, but rather his clan’s wounded pride. A wounded pride he swore to restore in full in front of his people, even at the price of his blood. However, before completion, his mission was interrupted by terrible news: his mother was in grave danger. His clan asked for him immediately and he had to obey--even at the risk of blowing his cover.    

It was said that a slayer was hired to kill his mother--a slayer from an unknown origin, whose talent had no equal but his cruelty. Yet, nothing justified the state of apprehension that seized The Tsikards’ village in its entirety. Even worse, rumormongers fanned the flames of an unbearable tension among their own people, elevating the slayer to a semi-god status. Fear among The Tsikards had already done its effect and nothing could be done to dissolve it.  

But still, a crumb of hope persisted. The savior was on his way to weave a protective cocoon around his mother. Not far away, under a sweltering sun, his muscular silhouette loomed on the horizon. At the entry of village, his mother, heedless of her own security, awaited, with an ill-concealed patience, his return.

The sun bathed his face with countless pencils of light to uncover an impassive complexion, showing either an excessive confidence before danger, or a callous indifference towards duty. As he was approaching, with heavy steps which rose clouds of dust around him, a treacherous and poisonous volley of arrows, trained at him from his village, streaked overhead to land unerringly on his torso, sealing his fate once for good. Shocked, his mother stood stationary for an instant, groping for a cry of distress entrapped in her throat, before she collapsed on the ground. Her own people killed their savior! Her own people killed her beloved son! Unbelieving what just happened before her eyes, she looked up to the sky, she turned around to her people, and finally, she stared at the motionless body of her son before she burst into a flood of tears.

Despite her grief, she found the will and courage to crawl to the dead body of her child. She looked at his blanched face for long moments in which she recalled his life: his birth, his adolescence and now, painfully, his death. Then, she clasped the arrows responsible for his death and strived vainly to pluck them off. Furious, she tore his bloodstained shirt open to realize a truth so unbelievable, and so abominable to grasp. Around his cold chest, a bird of fire deploying magnificently its wings was remarkably tattooed. A rare privilege granted by The Cybaneez clan to either their local warriors--who showed loyalty beyond questioning--or to defector warriors, from other clans--who proved an allegiance beyond doubt. Her eyes dried out instantly, for the foreign pattern revealed, unequivocally, that not only her beloved son defected to the other clan, but also he was the slayer who came to murder her.

Motivation: Two years ago, when I started writing short stories, I tried my hands at different types of stories. I used to set different goals for my writings. One of them was to write the shortest fiction I could imagine. Thus, Treacherous Savior was born, as a challenge.  It used to be less than 300  words. I wasn't quite happy with the length, so I extended it to @ 600.

Bio:Adnane Rehane is a teacher of English as a foreign language in Morocco. From time to time, he writes short stories and articles. Currently, he has a published story in FlashesInTheDark and a scheduled story,in Flashshot; He seeks to publish other stories in other markets very soon.