Counsel of War

This was a war that happened time out of number. The opponents, weaponry, and strategy change, but war is always the same, destruction and devastation. The old against the young, race against race, belief against belief, clan against clan- whatever the cause, pain is the true victor. 

This bloody war between the Patriot tribe and the Loyalist tribe has raged for years. Both sides felt their cause was the righteous one and would not yield one inch of ground. Compromise was out of the question. Surrender was unthinkable.

Both sides’ strategists were extremely clever. Each plan should have led to a total victory, but somehow, it never did. The opposing side would pivot, deflect, and retaliate with greater vitriol than ever. The end always looked close at hand but never came.

One from outside the war stumbled into its chaotic midst. Scared out of his mind, he dodged exploding bombs and hand-to-hand combat to stumble behind the Loyalist’s front lines. After regaining some measure of composure, he was able to look about him. His perspective was not that of the soldiers. He did not look only at the battling people but at everything, and that is why he noticed what they had not. Large, looming shadowy figures behind the Patriot’s camp. Shadows not cast by the individuals. They were much farther back and higher up. They moved in strange ways, almost as if they were pulling invisible strings of the soldiers on the field.

The outsider showed this to the soldiers around him. Once pointed out, they, too, could see the looming, shadowy figures. The leaders were called to a war council. They listened to the young outsider. His guidance was to aim at those figures instead of the soldiers. The oldest, wisest, most battle-hardened general strongly disagreed with the stranger. This mad scheme would leave them vulnerable to a counter-offensive, which he believed would wipe them out.

He was not wrong, but the shadowy figures were there and could not be denied or ignored. What to do? Continue in this long, bloody conflict with the current ineffective strategy, or try something new that could be fatal?

After much debate, the attacking the shadows strategy was adopted.

The Loyalists focused all their resources on the figures. Holding their collective breath lest the enemy attack and finish them off, they shot. The distance was tremendous, but their flaming arrows were true and, at last, hit their targets. Down crumbled the looming shapes.

The Patriots had seen their enemy line up for a great offensive. They responded by preparing to defend themselves and retaliate, but the enemy’s shot went overhead. They followed the journey of the arrows and saw for the first time the shadowy shapes, which fell as soon as the arrows hit them. Immediately they felt a great heaviness lift. The madness, anger, and heat of war that had cloaked everything cleared. As one, they turned their gaze over the heads of the Loyalists. There they saw shadow figures as well. Without conferring, they shot their arrows at those figures and watched as they, too, fell.

Weapons were dropped. It would take time to heal… it always does, but the war was over.