The Boy Warrior - Season 1 - Episode 5

4 years ago

The Boy Warrior - Season 1 - Episode 5

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The oppressive silence returned again after the huge soldier finished speaking.How. . .dare. . .he?was all David could help but think. The two lines of soldiers in front of him had abndoned all semblance of discipline and were now discussing furiously. Abner shouted something, he didn’t hear what, the orders were repeated down the ranks, and the Israelite army turned and marched back up the mountain.

Howdarehe? This was the army of Israel, the army whose God was Jehovah, the army who fought with the hand of their God. And this. . .this uncircumcised Philistine thought he could taunt their battle line? The mere thought of it nearly drove him mad. Was it because of his size? No, no, David thought, shaking his head. This kind of action couldn’t be allowed to pass. Something had to be done about it, and quick.
“What will be done for the man who strikes down that Philistine over there and takes away reproach from Israel?” he asked the men on the line. “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the battle line of the living God?”

The men told him that there was a reward. King Saul would give the man great riches and his daughter as a wife.

The Israelite army had gotten to where they were now. David moved out of the way as the remaining two lines joined the rear of the army. The army commander, Abner, looked at David as he marched at the head of his men. He couldn’t see most of his face because of his helmet, but David saw that he didn’t look pleased. Not in the slightest.

David continued walking only when the last men were in front of him. He pulled his shepherd’s bag tighter over his shoulder and followed them up the mountain, over the stone wall, and into the camp.

In the camp, all was chaos. No, not chaos, exactly, just loud. David had thought their own house loud because of the eight sons his father had, but this was something else. There were cookfires everywhere, even more men than the cookfires, and the sound of voices. A thousand men talking at the same time. Most were talking about what had happened down at the valley.
It took a while for David to find his brothers, but after asking for directions more times than he could count, getting lost more than once, and having to sidestep men everywhere he turned, he finally found it.

It was a regular tent, drab, dark brown, made of animal skins and faded by harsh weather, just like the hundreds of others just like it. Inside it were four men, all stripping out of their armour.
Eliab, of course, was the first to see him.
“Ah, if it isn’t the future King of Israel himself,” his eldest brother said, unstrapping his breastplate at his side. “Why have you come down? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I heard what you were asking the men. I well know your presumptuousness and the bad intentions of your heart; you came down just to see the battle.”

“What have I done now?” David asked, surprised to hear the anger in his brother’s voice. “I was only asking a question!”

The other occupants of the tent had turned to look at him. Eliab scoffed and continued taking off his armour. Shammah and Abinadab were here too, along with another soldier David recognized from the barracks. He nodded to the man, who was seated on a pile of animal skins, stretching. The man nodded back.

“Well, what did you expect,” Aminadab said from a pile of animal skins in another corner of the tent. His voice was soft, low, and taunting. “Surely you didn’t think little brother would stay in Bethlehem while the rest of us were here, having all the fun?”

The other soldier chuckled at that. Short, thick Shammah didn’t say anything, mostly because he sat on his own makeshift bed, chugging down wine from a wineskin. He finally put down the wineskin and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He still had all his armour on.
“Oh, leave the boy alone,” he grunted, thumping his chest with one hand and letting out a large belch. Groans of disgust went up from the other men. David smiled. He walked over to Shammah’s bed and sat. “But why are you here, David?” his brother asked seriously. “A battlefield is no place for a boy.”

“Father sent me with suplplies,” he replied, frowning. They were all still calling him a boy. His beard was more than just peach fuzz now, and his baritone matched any of theirs, yet they still called him a boy. “An ephah of roasted grain and ten loaves of bread for you, and ten portions of cheese for the commander of the thousand. They are with the baggage attendant.”
“Hey, nothing for me?” the other thick-bearded soldier asked in mock annoyance. Shammah barked out one of his laughs.
“Nothing for you, of course. You’re not family.” He and the other soldier laughed.
“The Philistine, who is he?” David asked quickly, looking from man to man. “How long has he been taunting the men?” David nearly recoiled when he saw how tightly Eliab’s jaw was clenched. Abinadab was frowning. In fact, all the men were.

“How long?” Shammah asked in his gruff voice. “Including today, forty days.”