Space Tails

Chapter 4: T.J.'s Tail

T.J. looked a bit bewildered.  Then again, that was kind of his normal state.  “Okay, I think I have a story…”

          “There once was a boy named Benjamin.  Ben, as he liked to be called, was a servant.  He didn’t want to be a squire or a knight and he certainly didn’t want to be a blacksmith.  He was content serving others.

          One day, a war came over the kingdom.  All of the squires and knights were called to the battlefield.  It was a very bloody and horrible war.  Eventually, even the blacksmiths were all moved closer to the battle front.

          Then news came to Ben that he would have to join the army.  Worse still, he was to be on the front lines!  Benjamin was scared out of his mind, but he wasn’t about to betray his kingdom.  The king must have a plan in this scheme that would guarantee the safety of the others in the kingdom.

          So he went.  He brought along with him the two horses that he had acquired as they would be valuable on the battlefield.  When he got there, he was amazed by the amount of dead bodies that had piled up on both sides of the battle lines.

          He walked to the tent that held the generals that he was supposed to report to.  He was halfway there, when General Walters stopped him.

          “Benjamin Smith, you are going to do…” as the general explained his plan to Ben, Ben started to wonder if the general was in his right mind.  The plan was doomed to failure from the start.

          Still, Benjamin had faith in the people of his kingdom.  So, he reported to the other generals who confirmed that he was part of General Walters’s regiment.  So, that was his leader.  He would be loyal to him, until the very end.  The General might have been a little out of it, but it was defiantly a plan that hadn’t been executed before.  Maybe it would win.

          So, Ben set up his own tent and slept.  It was a very fitful state of sleep as the war continued to go on into the wee hours of the morning.  When dawn broke, Ben decided to get up.  He hadn’t exactly slept, but he would be good enough for the battle of today.

          General Walters told all of his regiment what was going to happen.  Ben didn’t bother to point out that the last time he had wielded a sword was when he was very young.  That wasn’t going to stop him on the battlefield.

          General Walters had changed his plan.  This plan was exactly what Ben had hoped it would be.  It was an easy plan to pull off and would force the enemy back at least three yards.  The drums started playing and Ben quickly took his place at the front of the lines.

          The battle went smoothly and the enemy was forced to back up three yards.  The same plan was executed for almost a month before General Walters went back to his original plan.  Ben knew that it was a bad plan, but he would remain loyal to his General.  If this was what General Walters wanted him to do, he’d do it.

          He walked up to the front of the lines again.  He hated being up there.  He swung his sword and was about to kill an enemy solider when a traitor stuck his sword in his back.  The plan was wrong.  All wrong.

          “Traitor,” Ben spat out along with a little bit of blood.

          The solider didn’t say anything.  Ben realized then that the enemy wasn’t a different kingdom.  It was the same kingdom torn in two.  He had known that for a long time.  He had believed that this was the cause worth fighting for.

          He coughed up more blood and died on the battlefield for what he believed in.  More so for the kingdom he loved than the cause.

          Kara had tears in her eyes.  “That was a really sad story, T.J.”

           “Do you really feel that way?” I asked.

          T.J. nodded, “Of course.  I would die for you if you asked me to and even if you didn’t ask.”

          “Thanks, T.J.,” I smiled.

          Again, my phone buzzed and I had to answer it.  I had to know if we were following his/her specifications.  “Hello?”

          “You guys are better at this than I would have given you credit for,” the guy/girl admitted.

          We all replied simultaneously, “Thank you.”

          “I get to pick the next victim and after that I will give away my location,” it replied.

          Beth said what everyone else was thinking, “But that’s only the third person to go, why would you give away your location then?”

          “I never said that I would do it directly,” the voice replied.

          Of course not.  It’s never that easy!  I couldn’t figure out who was behind it.  I thought that it was a MIB agent, but most of the time they just leave us alone.  This had to be some kind of test.  There was no other explanation.

          Brandon replied for me, “Okay, so who goes next?”

          “Elizabeth, you’re up,” the voice replied before hanging up again.