Lion Heart

Some say a man should be judged by his accomplishments, but this is a different story. It’s a story that puts choices on the minds of those forced to fight. David was a businessman in a small country searching for a stable form of government. He was just a bricklayer who specialized in building brick walls. The other business leaders never understood how and why people would work for a man like David because his mentality was a little different. A student of ethics, no one ever saw David as a threat and no man wanted much to do with an independent thinker. While David enjoyed the comfort of his wife and daughter, a particular mouth shooter soon rose to power and dragged every nation into a war. David saw no reason to leave his family to fight for a mouth shooting leader who put fear in his enemies by telling them he heard from the Gods. Once word got out that one man stood down and dwelled in the presence of poor and left for dead people, David became a target.
“Who is brave enough to challenge the rule of law? If no man wants to fight, he is a coward in the eyes of the Gods,” Julius the Great said as one of his concubines fed him grapes.
“David, the bricklayer has locked him and his family in their home, they refuse to fight, Sir,” John said, trembling in the presence of Julius the Great.
“David, the bricklayer, he has no army, bring him to his knees,” Julius the Great declared.
“Yes, I will do that Sir. I will bring David to his knees.”
John went to gather his men, but word soon got to David that the ruling party now had it out for him. David had nothing to fight with, he didn’t own a gun and he wasn’t very skilled outside of his trade, but he was brave and had the heart of a lion. He and his family hid in a shelter underneath his home until John and his men went away.
David’s wife was now concerned, “They’re challenging you, because you refuse to fight. We will go stay with grandma Edith, but I want you to listen to me. Follow your heart David, it’s the gift that our God gave you to survive. No one will fight for us David, our people are all lost in the ways of the rich and powerful. Run and hide in the woods until the dust settles,” David’s wife Lilly said.
David spent three days hiding and dodging Julius’s men until the day he found out they had captured his family. Arriving to find a broken entrance at grandma Edith’s, David became furious. He picked up his daughter’s toy slingshot off of the floor.
 “I have no choice but to fight,” he said to himself, looking at a painting of him and his family on the wall.
The heat from the sun scorched his family as they were set to kneel at the feet of Julius the Great.
“I assemble my men to fight Lilly and your husband refuses. Am I not honorable by giving them a choice? The Gods have called for war, it is written that we must fight,” Julius the Great says, looking down at David’s family.
“We have served you great leader. Why do you torment us? David sees no need for war, the world is tired,” Lilly says, sweating and exhausted from running and hiding before being captured then brought to kneel before Julius.
“The Gods speak to me Lilly, do they speak to David also? I alone have been sent to revive the hearts of men. We were made for war, we were made to fight,” Julius says kicking dust in the face of David’s daughter Lillian.
In the search for his family, David’s heart led him to them, he listened to his wife and followed his heart. Reaching down to grab his canteen from his belt, he heard his daughter screaming from afar. He then ran through a bunch of high bushes in the direction of the scream only to be blocked by a huge wooden gate. Peeking through the wooden gate, David saw his family kneeling and being whipped while Julius watched. He did everything he could to get over the gate but it was to high, so he followed it to the guarded entrance.
“I submit myself to Julius,” David said to one of the guards.
“David, you have nothing to fight with, you’re trash, our people have become weak, Julius has made us strong, he will crush you. We see justice in the mouth shooter. You fight for poor stupid people who  have nothing left, do you see them bearing arms to help you? Julius has our entire government under his thumb. Save yourself and get out of here,” the guard says.
“He has my family, I have to save them,” David said.
“David, if I let you through and you lose, then I will die. Julius hears the voices of the Gods. What voice do you hear that tells you not to fight with us?” the guard asked.
“I don’t know, I can just feel when something is right and wrong, I don’t know where the feeling comes from. Maybe it’s my God,” David says, hearing his wife screaming.
The guards began laughing, “He is fooled by the voices in his head, go ahead and be killed by Julius the Great. I’ll make sure they write ‘Lion Heart’ on your grave,” the other guard says.
David then rushes past the guards into Julius’s courtyard to save his family.
“Daddy, no!” David’s daughter Lillian screams watching her father standing there with only a rock and a slingshot.
“Little David, you come to challenge me, Julius the Great? You, of all men. You should be kneeling when in my presence, after all I’ve provided for our people, but you challenged me. You’re only a bricklayer, you have no skills, don’t be a fool. I alone possess the power from the Gods, by what authority do you have to defy my orders? Now, enough talk, let the smashing begin,” Julius says charging David.
David grips his daughter’s slingshot, and quickly places his sharp rock on the sling, he pulls back then let’s go and as Julius got closer and closer his head was slightly tilted then bam, the rock punched right through the temple of his head. Julius staggers and falls to his death. At the sight of this, word soon spread like wildfire that David had defeated Julius the Great. At this moment the course of time had changed dramatically, people all over the world had found a new story to believe in, a new vision was born. David had introduced the people to a strength that came from within, he introduced them to a strength that came from the heart. At the end of his journey when he died, the coroner noticed that his heart was the size of three fist put together. Til this day David’s story lives on. His daughter published it in a book called: “Lion Heart.” God dealt the world the king of hearts.
The End.