These stories take place in our known history. You have a vision of the past? Share it with us!
The Raid on Camp Struthers by BrandonScottPilcher, literature
Literature
The Raid on Camp Struthers
British East Africa, 1896 AD The mountain rose from the plain as a rugged dome of black rock with a crater for a summit. Jack Erwin figured his old man, ever the amateur geologist, would have identified this natural edifice as a volcano long gone extinct. Comparing it and its surroundings to the drawing on the yellowed map he had bought in Mombasa, he smiled. This had to be it, Mlima Unaometa, known in English as the Sparkling Mountain. Maulidi, the grizzled Swahili huntsman whom Jack had hired as his guide, hugged his musket with shivering arms the way a scared child might cling onto their doll. His eyes darted side to side as he faced the stone ruins that lay at the mountain’s southeastern foot. “There could be djinn here,” Maulidi said, “Allah please watch over us.” “I should’ve figured you’d be scared of ghosts, old man,” Jack muttered. Even he had to admit, if there was any place out here that would be haunted, it would be these ruins. Lichen-stained walls formed rings in
Southeast Asia, 50,000 years ago A high-pitched scream pierced through the jungle. Ungu stopped in her tracks, stunned by the noise, and plucked out her ivory knife from under the deerskin bands around her thigh. She darted her eyes over the surrounding undergrowth, searching for the source, while chilled perspiration collected on her brow. She could mistake it for nothing other than a human cry. The rattling of leaves and branches, the cracking of twigs, and the scuffing of little feet on the damp earth followed another scream. To her left, Ungu could see a nearby tree-fern’s feathery fronds slap a short, dark shadow that ran past it. Close behind shot a larger, orange blur that leaped and fell upon the former figure, with both disappearing behind a screen of thrashing foliage. Ungu dashed toward the disturbance to find a little boy pinned beneath a tiger’s paws. The poor child yelled and squealed as he flailed his fists at the striped cat’s face. Undaunted by his pathetic
The Brood of Apep by BrandonScottPilcher, literature
Literature
The Brood of Apep
33 BC The head of a sandstone python reared high as a giraffe from the desert floor. Although centuries of wind and entropy had dulled the fangs in its open maw, the sculpture's unblinking glare nonetheless sent a chill slithering up Amanirenas's spine despite the balminess of early evening. If the old legends had spoken the truth, this idol represented the likeness of Apep, the giant serpent of chaos that lorded over the underworld and attacked the sun god Ra every night. And the earthen edifice that mounted the hill behind it was its shrine. How could our ancestors have venerated such a monster? Amanirenas thought. Even allowing the ruined temple dated to the time when both the people of Kush and Kemet roamed the grasslands that had become the desert around them, she could not fathom that they worshiped the one being both cultures now considered the most malevolent in their whole pantheon. There had to have been a misunderstanding, or a meaning that her people and the Kemetians
Racing Into Trouble by BrandonScottPilcher, literature
Literature
Racing Into Trouble
54 BC The sun burned white hot from its zenith in the sky, yet the cool wind brushing past Cleopatra provided refreshing opposition to its baking wrath, even if the wind did blow dust into her eyes. She flipped the reins that were tied around her waist to keep her two horses galloping at top speed even as they maneuvered between the boulders strewn over the barren plain. The strength of the animals pulling on the reins while she gripped them was all that kept her stable in her chariot despite its constant shaking and bouncing. Her friend Amanirenas was quickly closing the distance between them from behind. The way the Kushite princess’s horses, both of which she had brought with her from her homeland far up the Nile, were gaining ground, it would only be moments before she wrested the lead from her Kemetian counterpart. Already she had drawn close enough that, even through the billowing clouds of dust, Cleopatra could make out the details of her gold, carnelian, and ivory jewelry
It has been some time since I wrote an entry on this page in a tone of candid seriousness. Yet circumstances, the state of affairs, and with Memorial Day Weekend just a few hours away, I feel a desire to speak. There needs be little mention that the pandemic and the ensuing conflict in Ukraine have turn what was already our unstable mindset, anxious nature, and present illness into an upheaval unmitigated. But just as our little group grapples, once again, with our mental illness under trying circumstances; Us ourselves are joined by the recent victims, living and deceased, of two Mass-Shootings in America. Not all of us are Americans in this group. But what I have hoped that groups and avenues like this Literary Page have inspired is a sense of empathy toward our fellow patients in the field of psychological maladies. It is this empathy, Empathy that is shared among all Humans during times of both crisis and joy, that I ask that Us all share this Memorial Day weekend. Although
Scorpions of the Sea by BrandonScottPilcher, literature
Literature
Scorpions of the Sea
100 AD A commotion buzzed at the edge of the trading souq next to the harbor of al-Mukha on the southwestern coast of Arabia. All eyes of the spectators followed a slender galley of ebony fringed with gold and inlaid ivory as it slid and anchored beside one of the earthen quays. On its billowing crimson sail glowered the gold face of a ram supporting the sun on its horns, the royal insignia of Kush. It was by no means unusual for a Kushite vessel to dock at al-Mukha. Plenty of merchants from all sides of the Red Sea and beyond would flock to the Himyarite port to sell their wares and restock for the next trip. Yet the black galley that had come in was a rare giant that would have dwarfed the typical merchantman, never mind the puny native dhows. Above the deck glimmered the iron-bladed spears, axes, and swords of the soldiers aboard. Once they laid the gangplank down, there descended a svelte woman whose skin was dark as the galley itself, with her short ringlets of frizzy hair
The Slave Prince of Zimbabwe --- Excerpts by BrandonScottPilcher, literature
Literature
The Slave Prince of Zimbabwe --- Excerpts
Chapter One Southern Africa, 1215 AD Even as a slim crescent in the black heavens, the moon bestowed enough light upon the ramparts to give their layers of granite blocks a silver luster. These walls rose so high that not even the tallest giraffes of this far southern country could crane their necks up to look over them… or so Drazhan Khazanov imagined. Not that the man from the distant land known as Ruthenia had never seen grand architecture in his life, but after riding across wild savanna and hills for the past several days, he had not expected to discover such a colossal castle in this remote hinterland. With defenses like that to scale, his mission would present more of a challenge than expected. Such would be the price of his freedom. It was not like Drazhan had arrived unprepared. After tethering his donkey to an aloe tree, the Ruthenian removed a coil of rope from his packsaddle and stole up to the foot of the wall on the toes of his boots. He turned his head sideways
Today, we’re interviewing Simon Bennington, a veteran of the First World War who served with the British Expeditionary Force near Ypres during the famous Christmas Truce of 1914. So, Simon, what was it like the week before the Christmas of 1914? Up until Christmas Eve, everything was…normal. Or at least as normal as anything can be during a war. Both sides had given up the rapid offensives of the summer and autumn in favor of trench warfare, and anybody foolish enough to stick their head over the top risked a bullet. Knew one chap who went out like that. Conroy clambered out of the trench to pull some poor lad’s body out of the wire. An honorable gesture, but war doesn’t reward honorable gestures. Some sniper caught shot him right through the throat just before he made it back to the trench. Our only consolation in the whole episode is Conroy and the other fellow were now close enough we could collect their bodies without exposing ourselves. Both sides shelled the other constantly.