PAPA SHINY.

Chapter: 2.

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"Papa, shiny!" Chara cried, running towards her father. "Look...too shiny."

Andreios eyes followed the little fingers of his daughter only to see men in sparkling and shiny armors walking towards them. They were but a small tribe roaming freely in their little village which has the best streams and the fields are always green, the reason their ancestors had called the little village Greens. They knew nothing about the wars that raged around them or the power struggles of the nations that bordered their uncharted home. 

The soldiers were rebel forces, Andreios had later learned. But he called them traitors, that's what they were. 'Savages' They were moving west to join the lawless warriors of the barbarians of the land that lay beyond.

But all Andreios and his family knew was that they were strangers, strangers in bright and shining armor that shone and winked in the light of their warm sun.

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"Come, love." Andreios beckoned to his daughter and he watched as her little feet carried her to him, once the little girl was in arms reach Andreios hugged her closer to his chest while calling out to the others. "Doris! Chloe!!" He yelled, but only Doris heard and stepped out from behind the tall grape tree. 

"Yes, love," she walked towards him, cleaning her hands on her apron. "What could be the matter?" She asked, finally joining her husband and daughter.

"Look, there are men coming towards us." Andreios pointed in their direction and they were getting closer.

A gasp fell off Doris's mouth and Andreios turned to find her palming her mouth with her dirty hand.

"Where is Chloe?" Andreios asked, looking around worriedly, but his daughter was nowhere in sight, knowing the girl, she must have wandered off for an adventure or a little hunt.

"Aaaahhh!"

A very heart-wrecking cry rang throughout the forest as birds flew for dear life. Andreios felt wetness on his hands and he looked to find his hands soaked with Chara's tears.

"Shhhh, baby don't cry. I've got you. Go to mama, don't cry baby." Andreios soothed while handing her to Doris to set out to find his first daughter. "I need to find Chloe, stay here, wait for me." He ordered, he took a step only to be stopped by a hand gripping his wrist tightly.

"Wait," Doris whispered.

"Why? I need to-." 

"They are coming for us, look." Doris pointed and once again Andreios found himself tracing her slender finger to the group of men already surrounding them. His eyes went farther and he saw smoke climbing into the clouds as screams, shouts, and Cries of both children and women could be heard in the clouds.

"The village!" Doris cried, pain-filled her voice as she spoke.

"Chloe!" Chara spoke her first word since she had shown her father the strange shinny men. Andreios watched as they emerged from the shadows, one of the men dragging Chloe by the hair as they got closer. Andreios saw tears stain her beautiful face and her eyes... She was scared. These men had brought that out of her. For the first time in Chloe's life, she was terrified.

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Andreios sprinted towards the man pulling his daughter's hair, rage-filled him as he ran, one hand gripping onto his grubber. One man charged after him and he took a quick swing, slitting the man's throat in one go, another came and so did another and soon Andreios was surrounded. Dangling the grubber in both hands he charged for the first man on his right, no sooner than it had begun Andreios had fallen eight men. More came at him and soon he was stabbed in the ribs, the metallic smell filled his nostrils as he came down flat into the muddy earth, his blood soaking the earth giving it a mixture of blood and mud. His face was buried in the mud and he choked on it, soon he was pulled up by the hair and left to kneel before these evil men, his hands and legs bound together by a strong chain. Andreios was left bleeding and panting in rage as he felt useless and unable to protect his family, leaving them at the mercy of these Savages. 

"Papa!" Chloe cried and made to run towards her father, but she was pulled back by the hair and another slapped her hard on the face. Andreios flinched, Chara cried out and Doris quickly dropped her at his feet and ran to kneel before the man holding their daughter captive by the hair. Andreios went mad with each second that went by and he was still bonded to the earth, he felt weak and worthless, his first daughter was in so much pain right before his eyes, his second daughter kneeling at his feet while pulling effortlessly at the chains that held her father bond, his wife kneeling before their enemy. Andreios couldn't help the weak tears rolling from his eyes.

"Please!" He begged. The man holding onto his daughter seems to be their leader seeing that he was more fashionably dressed and his facial expressions more beast-like than human. "Please...let them go." 

"At what price?" The man bawled, his voice as cold as the bottom of an icy sea, void of any emotions whatsoever. 

"Do with me as you wish, but please let my family go." Andreios pleaded. 

"Your plea is worthless to me, and if you have nothing of interest to offer, then I shall do with your family as I see fit."

"Something of interest? Like what?" Andreios hoped it would be something he could offer.

"Gold! Lots of it." 

"Gold? But-"

"But what?!" The man growled.

"I-"

"You don't have any gold, I see. So what shall it be then?" The man looked thoughtful for a while. "Your wife or your precious little daughter. She is quite beautiful just like her mother, who is kneeling at my feet waiting for my commands." The evil man roared a sour laugh.

"Please.....don't," Andreios begged shamelessly.

"She is what. Five, Six? She would most certainly make a fine--"

"No....no, don't please! She is but a child." Doris pleaded.

"A mother's love, she is powerless yet still seeks to protect her child." The evil man laughed, bringing others to laugh with him. Only one man looked rather unpleasant and unamused. "So woman, what would you give to save your daughter?" The man mocked.

"Me! Just take me instead and my husband too if you must, but let them be. Please!" Doris wailed bitterly.

"I'm afraid your husband is of no use to me, even though he makes a fine man." He threw a dirty look Andreios way and smirked.

"Then take me, perhaps I might be of use to you." 

"Oh! Plenty, woman, but not for long. I am a man of my words, I'll take you and spare your daughters the other pain they'd have to suffer from my hands and make it less painful." He laughed again.

"You speak so highly of yourself, yet filled with so much evil."

"I'll take that as a compliment, enough talk now. Come, Gouria hold this one." He ordered, throwing Chloe to his right arm man. A man who hasn't taken his eyes off Andreios since the beginning. Andreios saw him hold onto Chloe more gently than their leader had done, and that warmed his heart a little still doesn't make him any less savagery than they all were. 

Shortly after, Chara was pulled from her father's feet and handed to the same man. 

*********

Andreios turned to look at his wife who appeared to be very much ashamed to stare back at him. Andreios didn't blame her for making such an offer. If the evil man had asked the same of him he would have obliged willingly.

"No!" 

Doris's yell pulled him off his thoughts just in time to see that she had been thrown to the muddy grounds and more men tiring at her dress savagely and laughing with their sport of spanking her naked body parts with their swords and hands. 

"No, please not before my family, at least not before the children... Please!" 

"You do not tell me what to do, I alone give the orders around here." The evil man slapped her and she fell face down to the earth and sobbed. The man started undressing more quickly than anyone Andreios had ever seen. 

"Mama! What is he doing to our mother?" Chara asked the man holding her. The little girl was beyond terrified.

"Lord Athesmos, I think the kids shouldn't see this." The man Gouria spoke, his soft voice filled Andreios' hearings and he stared up into the man's beautiful green eyes and the man stared back, something flashed in their depths, and Andreios darted his eyes away.

"Gouria, do you have any special interest in these people?" 

"No...sire, of course not." 

"Good." He bawled and in one swift motion he was on her and she yowled. The children cried and thrashed while struggling to get free and run to their mother. Gouria held them tightly while making sure they didn't see what had been done to their mother. Andreios was forced to watch as one man held him tightly in his hair, having lost so much blood already what else could he possibly do. Once their leader was finished he called on Gouria who said no by simply shaking his head.

"Oh, Gouria....when was the last time you had a woman?" The man Athesmos asked, buckling his pants up.

"You seem to have forgotten, my lord," Gouria answered and Andreios found himself staring into the man's deadly yet beautiful eyes once again. There is something about this man, something he just couldn't understand.

"Nonsense Ria, you do both men and women, although now that you've mentioned it, it's been quite a while. You can take the husband, I see you've got eyes on the hot young man....hmmm." Athesmos laughed, patting Gouria on the shoulder and the man sniffles a laugh while their commander yelled orders on who to take a turn on his wife next. 

They hadn't bothered waiting in turns, too greedy for their pound of female flesh. They abused, humiliate, and raped her until her terrified heart gave out. Even then, they weren't finished.

Andreios noticed in his mind-consciousness that she had stopped sobbing and rather she lay peacefully, her face buried deep into the muddy earth. Fear struck him like a knife and he cried out.

"Nooo! No, you killed her. Y-you savages! She is dead! Stay away from her! You heartless murderers!"

"Stop!" Their commander roared and they let her be. Doris's beautiful naked body lies half-buried in the ground, blood-stained her toned skin mixed with mud. Andreios saw he was still bleeding and he knew he would join her sooner if they didn't kill him any faster. "I think our work here is done." The man spoke as more men filed into the farm.

"What about the kids?" One man asked.

"Throw them into the river." He said, pointing towards a quiet and rather deep river, none of his kids would make it out there alive. "I would rather have them drown to death than have my hands stained with their blood." He spat on Andreios face, picked up his sword and walked his way back into the forest.

One of the men carried Chara who was so frightened and hadn't spoken a single word since her mother got raped to her death. Andreios hoped she accepts her fate in the river and has a more peaceful death than her mother had.

"What about their father!?" Another asked.

"Let him bleed to his death!" Athesmos yelled.

"Nooo!" Chloe yowled and when Andreios looked up, she was on her knees, head bowed, the edge of the commander's sword sticking out from her back.

She had run into the man's sword.

She had killed herself.

"She's fainted." The man carrying Chara spoke.

"Throw her into the river, dammit!" Athesmos bawled, pulling his sword off Chloe's body. Her lifeless body fell into the mud, her blood building a pool around her. Andreios saw his second daughter being thrown into the river and soon her own body came back up onto the surface.

And there they were, his wife and daughters all dead right before his eyes. Their yells and Cries rang in his ears painfully while he waited for death to comfort him sooner so he might as well join his family and they would be reunited once again, never to part again. 

Away from these men, these Savage's, their face's a mark tattooed upon his soul like a curse.

They have taken away all that he was. 

The last face he saw was that of the man called Gouria before his eyes gave way to the darkness that awaits.