The Boy Warrior - Season 1 - Episode 6

4 years ago

The Boy Warrior - Season 1 - Episode 6

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“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.”

David shot up from the bed so fast he drew the eye of everyone in the tent. Here he was thinking that something had to be done about this issue quickly, and these taunts had been going on forforty days?

“Sit yourself down, boy,” Eliab commanded. David made to object. “I saidsit!” He obeyed. “Goliath has been taunting our people for forty days, and there’s nothing you can do. Do you think we are happy about it? Do you think all the men in this tent won’t love to see him cut down?”

Eliab’s voice was rising in volume, and David could see how much the issue pained him. None of the other men said a word. They all wanted the same thing Eliab wanted, he could see it in the glares they gave their beds.
“You know why nothing has been done about it?” Eliab continued. “Because none of the battle-hardened men in this camp is mad enough to accept his challenge, that’s why.”

“Aye,” Shammah said, his voice low. “Goliath, he eats boys like you for dinner. No one will accept his challenge, not even with the king’s reward.”

“David,” someone said at the entrance to the tent. He turned around and saw a soldier there, just outside, peering into the tent. “The king requests your presence in his tent.”
He nodded and stood up.
“I have to be going now,” he said quietly.
“Bring the supplies on your way back,” Eliab said from behind him.

“And the cheese too, boy,” Shammah added. “We’ll give it to Abner ourselves.”
David frowned. There was no chance of that happening. He liked Shammah, looked up to him, but he also knew him very well. He’d give the cheese to him and only five portions would make their way to the chief of the thousand.
He pulled back the tent flap and stepped back out into the sun’s glare, the noise and chaos of the tent. This sun was the early evening sun. David followed the guard through the rows of tents, past soldiers casting lots on everything from pouches of silver to pieces of roast rabbit. Almost every tent had a spit in front of it with an animal roasting on it.

They finally reached the king’s tent. It was large, as big as a hall, a lot larger than the tents of the other soldiers, and a lot newer too. David placed it around the middle of all the others. Two soldiers stood guard on either side of the tent flap. David followed the soldier inside.

Inside the tent was a bit dim, and it took David a couple of seconds to get his eyes adjusted to the light. The king was there, just inside the tent. On a table close to the entrance was a parchment map. Abner, the chief of the king’s thousand, stood opposite King Saul who was seated on a camp stool. Candlestands stood all the way farther into the tent, but none of them were lit.
“ . . .Azekah’s city gate remains sealed,” Abner was saying, pointing at a spot on the map, “as it has been since we first arrived, in case the battle goes against us. We handle supply runs from the rear of the city wall to the camp by night. No one is allowed past our camp wall.”

“My lord,” the soldier who led him in said. “David, son of Jesse.”

Both the king and his commander looked up then. They had been so engrossed in their discussion that they hadn’t seemed to notice the two new arrivals. The soldier bowed and stood aside.
King Saul was an elderly man, though not as old as his father. He was in only a silk inner garment, girded about the waist with a golden woolen sash. The garment didn’t cover his arms, which were bigger than those of any of the guards’. The king wasn’t wearing his crown. David thought he looked tired, his handsome face marred by worry lines. The king looked in real need of his harp.

Abner, on the other hand, was dressed in his complete armour. His helmet was on the table.
“David,” the king said in his loud, strong voice. “I didn’t appoint you my armourbearer for times of war. What are you doing in the camp?”

“Your servant was sent by my father, my lord,” David said, taking a knee. “He sent me with supplies for my brothers, also to check on their welfare.”
“Rise up, David,” the king said, sounding even more tired. “I have told you not to kneel each time I summon you. Rise.” David did as commanded. “I am not angry at you for obeying your father, David. How is Jesse?”
“He is well, my lord,” David said, his head bowed. He raised his head to address the king. “My lord, the Philistine, let no one lose heart because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”