Covered by the shadows of the hills cast by the moonlight, there was a big town with a temple in the corner. Near the temple stood a small house, the home of a priest and his family.

  The priest was wearing a dhoti, a long piece of unstitched cloth, and a kurta, a loose-fitting shirt, as he returned home from the temple. He knocked on the door, and after a few seconds, it opened. A lady opened the door,

  “It took you a while to come home,” said his wife, “you told me that you would be returning sooner today”.

  “Can’t turn away other people, can I?” said the priest while entering the home. His wife closed the door behind him.

  “Were there more people in the temple today?” asked his wife, and he nodded, “Why?”

  “As you know, the harvest was good this year, that’s why many people came to the temple to thank God for his blessing on us,” said the priest, removing his shawl.

  “I pray that God will keep blessing us every year,” his wife said

  “I pray too,” he said, “by the way, how is he, is he asleep?”

  “No, he is better than before, but still, he’s not recovered from illness fully yet,” she said. “I was just preparing medicine for him”.

  “May God bless him too,” he prayed. He went inside a room and saw his son sitting on the bed, his legs covered with a thick blanket, and he was looking out the window.

  “You are not asleep yet.”

  “No father, I was waiting for you,”

  “But I told you before not to do so, you should be asleep by now,” the priest said while sitting beside his son.

  “But I like watching the moon,” he said, “and at midnight, the moon comes out of the hills and I can see it”.

  “So, waiting for me is just an excuse,” the priest said with a big smile.

  “No, it’s not.”

  “Yes, it is,”

  “No, it is not,” he giggled.

  “Yes, it is,” the priest smiled as he grabbed him; his son started laughing.

  “And you ask me why he doesn’t sleep on time,” said his wife, entering the room while holding a cup of medicine. And she sat on a chair placed near the bed and gave the cup to the priest.

  “Now drink this and you’ll be fine by tomorrow,”

  “But Father, you told me this yesterday also,” he said, “and I’m still feeling so cold, and I also don’t like this medicine, will I not get better?”.

  “Who said that?” the priest wrapped his hands around him. “You are better than yesterday, and you will be fit by tomorrow.”

  “Now drink this,” the priest said. He handed him the cup and helped him to drink the medicine.

  As he drank, he squinted his eyes and looked at him,

  “Is it that bad?” he asked with a little smile.

  He nodded his head, and the priest hugged him. He picked up the blanket from his legs and wrapped it around him. Priest’s wife got up and went out of the room, and the priest helped his son lie down on the bed.

  “Now sleep”.

  “But if I sleep, then I will not be able to see the moon,” he said while lying down on the bed.

  “Tomorrow night, we will go to a place from where you will be able to see the moon big and bright,” he said, “but right now, you need to sleep”.

  He closed his eyes and, in a few seconds, he fell asleep, and his father slept beside him.

  Priest’s eyes opened as he heard a woman’s screaming voice, and it continued with many screaming voices. He quickly stood up and looked outside the window. People were being chased by people carrying weapons.

  Priest quickly ran towards his wife sleeping on the bed next to him, “Wake up! Wake up!”.

  “What happened? Why are you shouting?” she asked

  “We are being attacked by raiders,” he said, “hurry!!! Pick Ivaan and the stuff which is important, we have to get out of here now!”.

  She woke Ivaan and gathered their essentials while the priest took out a sword and a dagger from a metal box.

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  “What happened?” asked Ivaan while rubbing his eyes,

  “There’s no time for talk.” She quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him from the bed.

  He handed her the dagger, “This will help you to keep both of you safe,” and his wife took the dagger with hesitation. The priest ran outside the house holding the sword, and his wife followed him while the raiders were approaching his house from the temple, which was just a few steps away.

  “Run!! I will stop them,” the priest said as his wife was holding Ivaan’s hand.

  “No, you come with us,” his wife yelled while Ivaan was confused.

  “I cannot, they are too close and I can’t leave the temple,” he shouted, “just run”.

  As the priest saw the raiders approaching, he screamed “run!!!” and his wife ran while holding Ivaan’s hand. The priest turned towards the raiders, he swung his sword towards them as they came closer, but before that, one of the raiders stabbed him in the stomach. The sword slipped from his hand, he fell on the ground, and blood came out of his mouth while blood was pouring from his stomach.

  “Kill her,” one raider shouted as he saw a woman running with a kid. An archer shot an arrow that pierced her head, and she fell to the ground. Ivaan screamed.

  “Mom, please wake up,” he cried, “wake up, mom!! Please wake up!!!”.

  A raider approached to kill him.

  “Leave him, he will be much more of a use to us alive than dead,” the leader said, “don’t kill the kids and young woman, chain them”.

  “But why, we have already looted the whole village,” said the other raider, “then what’s the point of keeping them alive?”.

  “Because we will get a good amount of money for them when we sell them as slaves,”

  A raider came and chained Ivaan. “Put all the women in one line and the kids in another,” said the leader, “we will get good money for such a number”.

  Another raider came, “3 kids and 5 women are heavily injured, but they will be okay after medication”.

  “Are you a fool?” the leader shouted, “Are you going to pay for their medication?”.

  “Kill the injured kids, they will be of no use to us,” the leader said. “Keep the woman, we will use them either way,” the leader said with a smirk. The raiders separated the injured kids from the group and stabbed all of them in their stomachs until they died, while the woman and the other kids were screaming and crying, watching this horrible scene.

  A woman with teary eyes proceeded to attack the leader while being chained, but the other raiders stopped her from doing so.

  “Wooooh” the leader backed off a little, “there’s so much life still left in you”.

  “Why do you want to kill me?” asked the leader, “Everyone has to do something to live, I raid, what’s wrong with that?”.

  “You killed all of my family and now, my son too.” She looked down at one of the injured children, “You are not going to get away from this,” she said while proceeding to attack him again, but the other raiders stopped her again.

  “Don’t worry,” the leader said by holding her chin, “Me and my men will snatch away the rest of the life left in you”.

  “All the goods have been placed in the cart,” said one raider.

  “So, we are ready to go,” said the leader as he went towards the carts.

  Some of the raiders sat on the carts while others mounted their horses. Their leader climbed up on a horse and shouted, “Move,” and all of them started to move down the track. While the women and children were in separate cages placed on the carts, Ivaan was also sitting in one of the cages, folding his legs. Tears were continuously flowing down his face as he was remembering how his father was helping him drink the medicine, the love her mother was giving to him, and how all of that turned into fire and blood.

  Within a few hours, they reached a city, and the guards standing at the entrance stopped all of the carts.

  “Where are you going and what is the purpose of your visit?” asked one of the guards.

  “As you can see behind, we have brought up some slaves and we plan to sell them here,” said the leader.

  “So many slaves?” asked the guard with suspicion.

  The leader smiled. He took out a pouch full of gold coins and tossed it towards the guard.

  The guard caught it and shouted, “Open the gates!”. All of the carts started to move again and went inside the city. Ivaan watched all over the place. There were many people chained up who were being dragged down by different people and guards.

  All the carts moved into narrow streets; after crossing the narrow streets, they stopped in front of a two-story house. The leader dismounted the horse, and a man came outside the house.

  “We need your house for tonight and tomorrow,” said the leader, and he took out another pouch full of gold from his bag, which was smaller than before, and then handed it to the man.

  The man bowed and went inside the house.

  “Take out all the slaves from the cages,” said the leader, and all the raiders opened the cages and started taking out slaves one by one. “Take them in”.

  All the raiders moved the slaves into the house, and the leader entered the house following them.

  “Put the slaves in one room,” the leader said, and all the women and children were moved into one room. All the raiders gathered in the hall,

  “Brothers, today we have raided a big town successfully,” said the leader with a big grin, “and I think there should be a celebration for this”.

  “yesssss” all the raiders screamed together, “bring rum and fill the stomach of my brothers,” the leader shouted, and all the raiders roared together again. Many women entered the hall holding big jugs of rum.

  All the laughing and screaming were audible in the room where the slaves were kept.

  “Those monsters are celebrating,” said one woman crying, “We all went into the temple to thank the god for the good harvest, and this is what we got in return”.

  Ivaan was hearing all of this silently. “We should kill them together,” said the woman who attacked the leader before.

  “You shut up,” said the woman, “You have already put yourself in such big danger, and you want us to do the same stupidity.”

  “You're such a coward,” said the woman who attacked. There were multiple footsteps approaching the room, and everyone became silent. The raiders flung the door open and stormed into the room.

  “Take out all the women and bring them into the hall,” said the one raider. All the women started screaming and crying while the other raiders forcefully took them out of the room, and all the children became frightened. As all the women got out of the room, the doors closed behind them.

  After that, the screaming voices of women started to come from outside the room, and the cheering and laughing voices of the raiders.

  “Those bloody dogs,” said one little older kid sitting beside me, “I swear, once I get a sword in my hand, I will cut them into a million pieces”. While Ivaan was sitting there silently with teary eyes, his body was trembling in fear. At dawn, all the children were taken out of the room and moved into the cages kept on the cart again. As the children were getting into the cages, Ivaan noticed the dead body of the woman who attacked the leader being disposed of.

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