Day 212 - Divided Story

Divided Story

Matthew Ryan Fischer

They were seditious times. Powers came and went. Leaders came and went. The changes were rapid and often times bloody. The names were always changing. The lines on the maps were always changing. It was chaos where there had once been strength.

There had once been an empire. There had once been a great and powerful nation. Its neighbors trembled at its might. There had been wars, but the great and the powerful had persevered. For ages, the nation had endured. But leaders fell and enemies grew. Great nations came and went. That was the story of history. That was the tale of time. War is a fickle mistress and outcomes can be decided by simple things like miscommunications, natural disasters and the luck of the draw.

Where there had once been a great nation empire, there were now broken lands and a mixture of confederations, assorted allegiances and feuding city-states. They existed at the grace and goodwill of their neighboring nations. Whereas once the great nation had ruled and oppressed them, it was now their turn to act as protectorates over all the lands. There were treaties and agreements after the last of the great wars. No nation was to interfere, no nation was to invade, no nation was to try and gain influence over the remnants of the great nation. In reality none of the remaining city-states could truly defend themselves if some outside force had decided to enforce their will. But everyone agreed to allow the continued existence of the states. There were still spheres of influence and abuses and unfair trade, but all in all, the nations let these broken and weakened states remain.

Malahak had a dream. His ancestors had once carved out a great nation, and he intended to do so again. During the 4^th Great War an army comprised of soldiers had marched through the great nation, dividing it in half as they made their way to the sea. Malahak planned to make the same march, but in the opposite direction. He would reunite the nation by reversing the damage. He would turn back history. He would be known forevermore as the great uniter.

The neighboring nations had made sure the city-states had no effective military. They made sure that the great nation could never rise again to oppress them. Malahak worked in secret. He made allegiances in private meetings. His army was built clandestinely. His men were hand-picked for their loyalty. He knew he was risking his life and the lives of his men by attempting what he attempted. For years there were the plans and preparations and the slow build up, getting ready for impending war. Malahak understood every city-state and confederation would have to fall in line. There could be no great nation without all of its parts.

The march was to begin. Riders rode to announce the procession. With every passing mile their forces would grow. The people remembered. They knew their nation whether or not the nation still existed. Loyalty. Nationalism. The people were ready for a leader. They were ready for a great nation to rise again. Malahak would march from the ocean to the lands of his ancestors. He would reclaim their home and establish it as the new capital of a new great nation. He would move quickly and it would all be over before the surrounding neighboring nations knew what was happening. The plan required everything to be in place before there could be any true retaliation. Once the army was built and the people had rallied, their population and strength would outnumber and overwhelm all of their former enemies and current oppressors.

The outbreak of the plague changed everything. The densely packed city-states were ravaged. The overpopulated and unsanitary military camps were devastated. The plague spread quickly. Thirty-thousand soldiers died. A revolution was ended before it could begin. The only positive came when the surrounding nations, for fear of contracting the plague, did not invade the city-states to punish them for their attempted reunification – their soldiers were unwilling to risk contact and contamination with the diseased enemy.

Malahak for his part was infected and nearly died. He was bedridden for over a year and never regained the strength or drive to try to rebuild his forces and try again. His influence was ruined. His power destroyed. His dream was dead. The former great nation lay in wait, divided, asleep, still waiting to be brought back and have life breathed into its lungs. But the people remembered. Deep down, they remembered. They had to hide it and to wait, but they remembered, and someday, history would tremble again at the might of the great nation.