Week 12 Storytelling: Ashen Warrior

The Samiyan Kingdom was small, but it controlled the mouth of the river that snaked through the entire continent. This ocean port was so successful that it made twice the money of far larger countries.

But despite its wealth, it had no standing army and was vulnerable to attacks. Seven factions guarded the borders, however, they fought only for their own territory, not Samiya.

Fifteen years ago, there was a family that fought for the country as a whole. They were nomads, riding wherever there was a border dispute or towns in danger. But when the parents died in the line of duty, the other factions mocked their children, refusing to help the little ones. While Guinevere did the best to raise her younger sister Elleah, Guinevere died of a plague.

Although Elleah grew up all alone, she quickly became the strongest fighter throughout the entire continent.

During her eighteenth year, the Tensha began an invasion. Their troops amassed all along the land border, drawing arguments from all seven factions as to how to rebuff the attack.

Although Elleah tried to bring order to the masses, they refused to listen to her.

As the attacks escalated, the prince had no choice but to get involved. He rode to the center of the border. While a great strategist, the prince was not a warrior. He organized a tournament to raise morale and find the best fighter to lead his troops into battle.

Elleah didn’t care about being recognized as leader, however. She simply wanted to defend the country that her parents died for.

On the other hand, it seemed like every member of the seven factions was participating in the tournament. Each gladly fought their brothers, sisters, and countrymen all for a chance at the title.

Every day for seven days they fought each other, swords clashing against armor. Finally, there were only five left. Just as the prince was about to decide what to do with the odd man out, Elleah rode by on her way to a skirmish, flying under the flag of the country and not a faction.

“Warrior! Join our fight for a chance to lead my army!” he commanded.

“I desire nothing but peace for Samiya, my lord. I must be on my way,” she replied, intending to turn to the east and leave.

“This is an order from the prince of the land whose flag you fly under.”

“As you command then, my liege.” Elleah jumped off her horse and entered the arena.

With her helmet and armor on, none of the fighters recognized her as the dirty orphan they saw when they looked at her.

But as a warrior, she was incredible. Her match against the unpaired fifth person was over in two minutes after she knocked the sword from his hands.

“But we have reached the same problem again!” someone cried at the remaining three fighters.

“I’ll fight the two of you at once if you’d like. I need to get to Mikusa.”

“Arrogant girl!” one of the two finalists yelled.

“We agree! Let’s get her!” The other brandished her sword.

Elleah parried their blows and landed many of her own but always with the blunt face of her sword. We need every warrior we have. No use damaging them.

As Elleah knocked the man out with a well-placed kick, the woman hit the sword out of Elleah’s hands.

“No matter.” Elleah disarmed the woman across from her and sent her sprawling to the ground. “I am free to leave now, correct?”

The prince was so impressed that words failed him, and Elleah took off for Mikusa, not even pausing to grab her sword.

“Seize her! She is to unite the factions!” the prince declared, but she had gotten too much of a head start. “I know not where she rides, but I have this.”

In his hands, he held Elleah’s sword, engraved with the message her father had used to propose to her mother and the only thing Guinevere had been able to save when their parents died.

“We will find her, and she will lead us in the coming campaign!” The prince thrust her sword into the air, and the people cheered.

The next day the prince went back to the arena, only to find numerous people lined up with Samiya’s flag emblazoned on their armor.

“What is all this?” the prince asked, but the people only argued.

“I’m the warrior who won!”

“No, it is me! I need my sword!”

The prince sighed, realizing that he’d have to entertain all of them to find the real one.

Presenting Elleah’s sword, each fake was asked what the inscription was, but all of them failed. Some demanded another chance, but the sword was too heavy for them or they couldn’t get used to the counterbalance.

After testing every person in the arena, the prince ended up with a standing army all wearing the Samiyan flag on their armor, but he was still missing the leader.

“Does anyone know where she went?” he asked. “Please.”

“She was headed to Mikusa, milord,” the woman she fought offered finally. “The Tensha are advancing rapidly there.”

“Very well! Let us ride and defend our borders!”

When the prince arrived in Mikusa flanked by all of his men and women, he saw her.

Elleah was leading a makeshift army of citizens with pots and pans, herself only armed with a dull practice sword. But she was winning nonetheless.

“For Samiya!” the prince cried, lofting her sword above his head.

“For Samiya,” his army replied, pushing the Tensha back onto their own land.

“I believe this is yours.” The prince handed Elleah her sword. “Fight for me. Become the leader of this army.”

“I have always fought for you as my parents did before me. These people will not follow me, but I will do as you ask.”

“We will follow you, Commander, we swear!” several voices insisted.

And that is how Elleah became the leader of Samiya.

Author's Note: This wasn't quite how I originally envisioned writing this story, but I still think it worked out okay. The initial idea is of course Cinderella, but there were multiple different versions in the reading I did for this week, giving me lots of ideas to choose from. Rushen Coatie was very similar to what I normally think about when I think of Cinderella, except the ball was a church gathering of Yuletide and a little red bull functioned more as her fairy godmother than anything else. I mostly went off of this version, but I wanted to make Elleah (Ella was too obvious, but this name sounded like a nice alternative) stronger and a warrior who lost her sword not a shoe.

I would have loved to wrap up the ending a little better, but I once again found myself at exactly 1,000 words.

As for names, the title came from a friend when I asked my classmates in Japanese to come up with a title for a Cinderella adaptation. Besides Guinevere and Elleah, I made up all of the other names. I realized after I finished writing that, again, save for Guinevere which I randomly picked off of the top of NameBerry's webpage, that all of them follow the Japanese language structure. It's invaded my whole life now, for better or worse.

Bibliography: "Rushen Coatie" by Joseph Jacobs

Image Information: "Albion Arn Film Sword" by Søren Niedziella.