CHAPTER ONE: THE PLAINS OF ASSURE

is another hot afternoon on the plains of Assure, a dry land in the middle east that eats up every trace of green on it. It has been more than five years since the start of the Babylon-Assyrian war and we are still standing, Neems The strongest of them all.

"Arrgh!" The Babylonian messenger screams in pain as Meizza with his sword slices the skin on his sweaty and bare stomach as the smell of fresh human blood fills the hot desert breeze. 

He is a traitor!

We have done far worse to inhabitants of cities we conquered in the past let alone a bloody Babylonian, we are just getting started.

More loud grunts and yells from the Babylonian is almost deafening as Meizza grabs his intestines with his bare hands and drags them out of his body slowly and rolls to cause an unimaginable pain. Meizza then puts his left hand into his body forcefully and grabs a bloody organ as he screams again helplessly!

However, we are supposed to stand up by the scene on the hot desert sand. For us, it is supposed to be another day at work but no, not for me or my brothers, for we are too young to observe such a gruesome sight. We are not even close to passing our tests before we join the army.

I turn to look at Karen with a distaste written all over my face but her beautiful gray eyes met mine. She flashes her dashing smile at me and I return the gesture with my tongue out as we try to hold in our laughter. We know what we are laughing about; Our instructor Al-Ain the high priest has always said I would be the first among the ten young trainees to pee on my self when the real deal begins. My brothers including Karen have been making fun of me for this ever since.

Karen is my brother and my best friend. She is the strongest, fastest and most talented of us all. She mastered all the weapons of war at age twelve but here I am still sixteen and still struggling with my sword by Neem standards.

I suddenly feel like my bladder is filling up and would release some liquid at the thought of Al-Ain and Karen's pretty gray eyes searching mine. She notices my discomfort and mutters;

"..Wee-wee?" (meaning of pee)

..My other brothers who are standing like wanna-be soldiers on the straight horizontal line facing the scene without flinching seems to hear this, recalling the warning of Al-Ain and begin to giggle, trying hard not to laugh.

This catches Meizza's attention as he turns to know what could be so funny on a very important training session on the topic, "expressing no emotions and brutality against enemies".

This is one of the most important and final trainings of the Neem trainees. It represents what the Assyrians do which makes the world fear us.

"...What?" he asks curiously as we adjust ourselves quickly to the stance of warriors our chins upright, faces, and chests up! He is to be respected as he is one of the fiercest warriors in all of Golem and beyond.

He walks slowly across us, studying us one after the other, sniffing for the scape goat. My feet quavers for a split second as I try hard to hold in my 'wee-wee'.

He walks slowly like a tiger until he appears before me looking down at me until from his towering height, our faces align and his huge stature intimidates mine. My breathing becomes irregular unlike the others and I blink severally in a freight as his light gray eyes meet mine.

The color of his gray eyes is lighter than the rest of us, synchronizing with his sclera and making his eyes appear almost totally white.

I do not move still as he reaches for his side and puts a dagger on my hand, gnawing at me like an Ethiopian lion.

He points at the bloody Babylonian.

"Kill him" he says.

Meizza is clearly enjoying himself with his long hair and curly beards moving with the direction of the desert wind, his face partly veiled with cloth scarfed around his head and dancing along the direction of the winds.

He is a beautiful man! I thought. Especially in his scarfed head, shiny gold armor and dark cape falling roughly against his firm feet. He is the prince of Neems and he does not show mercy!

I have to follow orders as I swallow hard and approach the Babylonian who looks up at me, his eyes looking at me - his death, like I am doing him a favor.

'something is not right here' I cannot help but think as I move closer and closer and my colleagues cheer me on with their gazes to make my tenth kill.

I do not like to kill or watch life leave the eyes of men but it is the Assyrian way!

'Damn the Assyrian Way' - my heart cries wishing something would stop me from doing this inevitable, until I hear the sound of four horse riders approaching and I stop and look, lo! they are my fellow Neems but different because they are from the golden army in their golden armour!

"The Army is on fire!" they scream out from their distance calling out to Meizza - our commander.

"Meizza! our army is on fire!"

Meizza turns and looks at me for a split second before mounting his thick black horse, his looks at me saying it all- you had better done it.

Although there is trouble in paradise, he is a trained Neem who has learned to control all sorts of fear and to maintain calmness in the face of adversity, his gray eyes were telling me to never leave until this Babylonian is dead by my hands.

"we ride" he signals my fellow trainees to follow as he rides out to meet the horse riders from the army with a cloud of yellow dust following him.

But I stand here- poor me with a dagger in my right hand and a Babylonian's brown eyes begging me for mercy. For him, death is mercy but that I cannot give.

After the kill is even the hardest – the nightmares, the dreams of those helpless eyes staring at me in plain daylight, the visions and feelings of warm blood splashing against my body...

"...Hey chicken "

My thoughts are interrupted by a heavy nudge on my shoulder, and as I suspect, it is the greatest bully in the world! Zebedee. He is the tallest and hugest among the trainees and he just enjoys picking on me because I am the weakest, his prey and punching bag.

"...you should at least try to stick to fulfilling prophecies alone and not jokes also " he smirks his fat ugly blonde haired face with freckles and pink lips.

I do not like him at all.

I clearly understand what he means, our instructor is also our high priest. He says I will pee on my pants but not as a prophesy but as a rebuke and joke.

Zebedee is mocking me again.

"...go on then weakling, Kill him! or you want to cry for your mummy as usual?" he laughs at his own dry joke as he pokes me heavily on the back.

His laughter is interrupted by a splash of warm blood when the Babylonian's skull split open by the edge of an ax thrown expertly by someone. I am more in dazzle than in surprise and about to clap my hands in thrill as I trace the direction of the throw, it is my guardian angel approaching!

Karen arrives in between Zebedee and I and faces him.

"move" she gnaws at him like an angry lioness.

"...or what?"

"You know what happened the last time, cow" she cusses and draws her crescent shaped sword.

The other trainee boys begin to laugh, they never forget how severally and severely Karen beats up Zebedee because of me especially on the 'Rings of Sand!'

He bows his head in shame and leaves with the boys as they keep laughing and cracking jokes of Zebedee, Karen and I to our annoyance.

"she can't seem to stop helping him because his cock is not as weak as his fighting skills!" one of them says as they all mount their horses and ride towards Golem and Meizza laughing out loud! Yes, it is true that Neems are arrogant.

Karen turns her beautiful Hebrew face towards me and as our eyes meet, I sense the fear in her eyes- she is never supposed to kill this Babylonian for me and according to Neem laws she is to be beaten and thrown into a mud pit crawling with spiders, worms and snakes without food for one week, it is only if she survives that she will be taken back into the fold -This is Neem law!

Every Neem is meant to carry out a command even if it leads to our death, this is our bond! No one is supposed to interfere with another Neem's task and any who does earns the punishment of the pit. That was why the boys were making fun of her because;

why would someone want to go into that horrible pit for a weakling like me?

"you are getting the pit again..." I say

"yes Razal, and will be getting out as usual" she gives out a cheerful smile again.

It thrills me how she goes through unimaginable pain every time and willingly gives into another like she literally enjoys the experience.

For me, she is a true Neem god! I feel like she has true powers from the gods because aside from being Neem, she is also Hebrew- the only Hebrew Neem ever known and how this miracle happened, no one can tell.

My Karen is special!

"well..."

"Well..." she raises her eyebrows as her mood changes to that of Melancholy and I do know why-The fire!

We think we know what is causing the fire and if what we are thinking is true then Golem is finished!