An Army of Heart

We are followed by the grinning innocent child of ourselves, tugging on our skintight shirts and asking us to light a flameless fire.
Who are we to deny her?
What gives us the right to wrench the dreams away from her tiny hands?
We do, of course
Hate grew in her as we took away everything she believed in.
And we praised her as the Hatred spread throughout her systems
It starts at your fingers and toes
Then inches up the body, towards the heat
It passes our elbows without slowing down, rides up our humorous and pops over the shoulder
It zings up our legs like a quick-moving elevator, pausing only slightly to get through our hip bone
From our shoulders it spreads up and down, creeping up the little knob of spinal cord to the brain
It infects the occipital lobe, in the back, and affects what we see, clouds our vision with Hate
Then the virus leaks further into our brain, covering the temporal lobe, wrapping around until our frontal lobe is engulfed; and with it, our reasoning
That is not all though
At the shoulder there were more places to go; the same for our hip bones
This cancer-like entity shot into our body cavity, attacking our vital organs
Until, finally, all that is left is the human Heart
A fierce opponent to Hatred, it fights back; it fights harder than the elbow or the knee, harder than the liver or lungs, even harder than the brain and all of its power and knowledge.
The Heart marches out its little white and red armies,
Calls the capillaries to attention,
Bugles the vessels and vesicles to stand tall,
Orders the mitochondria and nuclei to take up arms;
It does all this, and more, much more, just to fend out Hatred
And Hatred, in response, screams a battle cry to its regiments,
Sends messages to the furthest reaches of its immense power,
Hate rustles its forces to the limit of their greatness
And the battle began
Hatred made the first attack, sending out Company P to attack the outer army woven into the top rungs of the ribcage
They were well matched, even when these were the weakest of the forces
Calvary men were flung from their steeds as the pike-men of Hatred caught their armor
Foot soldiers were bloodied and bruised as they tried to gain ground, slashing and hacking limbs, burying the floor with fallen comrades
For years they fought, thus the immensity of Company P, and pride and power in the defending Heart Army
Finally they exhausted their resources, for the powers of the Heart and that of Hatred are infinite, as though a battle between immortals
Retired were the armies of Company P and of the initial defense army.
So more militias were brought
Stronger, more resilient soldiers were called onto the field; those of Co. J, G, and C, from the Hatred army all marched onto the body strewn field
Heart army notified its greatest warriors that a fight unlike any had ever seen before was about to take place
The men of Heart marched to meet the men of Hatred
In silence they stood for a moment
They knew this war could be over in an instant if one surrendered
They also knew that neither would ever do that
To give up the prospect of this undiscovered land? Never! – From Hatred
Leave our home and be annihilated, abused and humiliated? Not a chance! –From Heart
The two sides would not give in or be bullied
With a great battle cry, the leader of Company G of Hatred charged forward
Everyone around himsurged past their neighbors to meet rising force of Heart
The men of Heart slowly started to beat their swords and axes and spears and pikes against their shields
A low rumbling started in the Heart, the sound of millions of courageous soldiers all in unison, as one
In comparison, the men of Hatred looked bedraggled and disoriented as they charged towards the ominous impromptu cacophony coming from the heart of Heart
In the center of all the men, that of Heart and Hatred, was a small fear.
It was the fear that they would not make it home.
But these were trained soldiers, born into the heat of battle like a calf into a barn
They had been suckled from birth on the hard metal of daggers and arrowheads
They knew this could be the last time they ever breathed
And so, a huge roar erupting from them, the men of Heart lifted their weapons into the air and ran forward to meet the attackers
The two armies crashed into each other, casualties were instantaneous
Just hours into the battle, the tide of war did not favor Heart
Many were the wounded and dying covering the ground
Agony sprung from every fallen mouth
The armies of Hatred bored grim, wicked expressions
They saw the ruin
They saw the dwindling numbers of Heart
They felt victory was just within the grasp of their cramping, calloused hands
Suddenly though, a great noise came from deep within the Heart
It reverberated throughout the earth and dug into the core of all the men
They looked up to see lightning crackling in the sky
The longer they looked, the more transfixed they were
Then, curiously, a ball of pure energy burned pink just under the dark clouds
This ball crackled and snapped and formed into a dagger in the sky
With a blinding flash, it surged downward and struck into the earth
All the men were baffled when they saw a young girl standing when the dots left their eyes
She stood in the middle of burnt and charred earth, perfectly whole
Hatred men tensed themselves, for they could tell she was of Heart
Heart men either roared with laughter, lay sobbing on the ground, or stood silently with tears streaming down their faces, both guilt and insane relief and joy on their battle worn features
They had forgotten the child
The child, which was the purest entity of Heart that could be imagined, and they had forgotten about her
She was, after all, the Soul of Heart
Without children, there would be no Heart
She existed in very, very small area of Heart, contributing to small matters here and there
And now she had come to save them!
The small girl on the field raised her arms above her head, and when she let them drop, the mean of Hatred did the same
The men of Heart stood, bewildered at how quick their war was over
They fell to their knees, thanking her, smiling the embodiment of a Cheshire cat
From the distance though, across the battlefield, they heard a terrible wailing
One man of Hatred still remained alive, his only wounds those he gained from battle
He screamed the pain of losing his brothers
He screamed at the men of Heart, and at the little girl that stood at their front
He screamed a thousand screams for the men who could no longer do so
The little girl started the slow walk over to where he was kneeling, the embodiment of a crushed man, and bent down to kiss his forehead
He reeled back in shock at the soft caress of her lips
“Go soldier,” she said to him.
“Go.”
He looked into her eyes, clear blue eyes that reflected his piteous appearance back at him
“Go and tell your leader that he may live throughout this body, he may infect the mind and the bones and very marrow of my being, but he will not touch my Heart. This is why I have spared you and only you. Go now, and tell him what I have said,” she told him.
The men of Heart watched as the last Hatred soldier rose and walked into the wild
They forever kept the child protected, for they realized that she was what made up all the pureness of a Heart
And without her, it would be nothing.