The prison is a virtual fortress.
So secure is it regarded by its keepers, that often there is but a single sentry posted to stand watch throughout the night.
It has been a long and uneventful night.
The sentry is awake ...
But possibly not quite as alert to danger as she perhaps might be
were she not lulled by what is to turn out to be a false sense of security.
Somehow, a small band of prisoners has acquired weapons of a sort.
Few enough they are - in fact the sum total of their arsenal comes to a pair of hunting knives that have been smuggled in to them,
I know not how.
Lots were drawn ...
And it was the luck of Ta-too to pull the short straw!
Almost hopelessly outclassed - her knives against the ancient scimitar of the sentry ...
Ta-too's only advantage lies in stealth!
If she could but only sneak up close enough to take the sentry from behind!
Alas for Ta-too! Such is not to be the case!
Either a telltale twig snapped, or a floorboard creaked, or someone coughed in the background ...
In any event, the sentry is suddenly fully aware of Ta-too as she stands there brandishing her two little knives!
Ta-too ducks under the first swing of the sentry's scimitar!
The huge bla../de misses its mark by a considerable margin, but Ta-too can not hope to always be so fortunate!
Ta-too has one small advantage ...
And that is that the blade of the scimitar is so long and heavy that it becomes somewhat unwieldy!
And so Ta-too has time enough to skip out of the way of a stroke that - had it found the mark -
would have split the young warrior open from neck to navel!
Again and again, Ta-too manages to parry a swipe of that huge blade!
By sliding one of her knives down the the blade of the scimitar toward its hilt ...
Ta-too is able to get in at close quarters to her oponent!
It is only at this close range that Ta-too can hope to inflict any damage!
But the sentry is hardly unaware of what Ta-too is attempting to do ...
And as her blade swings free, she side-steps back safely out of range of Ta-too's thrusting knife!
Sliding back a few steps, the sentry prepares to launch a headlong thrust with her weapon!
In a test of strength born of necessity if not desperation, Ta-too manages to stop the onslaught of the scimitar ...
And then to sweep the blade aside as the sentry completes her stroke!
The sentry is at least two inches taller than Ta-too ...
And this advantage, coupled with the length of her weapon sends Ta-too ducking and reeling back!
An overhead chopping motion ...
Perhaps suitable for the removal of the head of an executioner's victim!
Quickly followed by a horizontal slash of the blade that would serve to easily disembowel a victim had the blade found its mark!
Once again, Ta-too seeks to move in within range of her knives!
Ta-too leaps into the aire to avoid a vicious slash of the scimitar!
But even as her feet hit the ground,
Ta-too realizes immediately that this time her follow-through has left the sentry
in an awkward and difficult position to defend!
Ta-too bounds foward to bring herself within striking distance of the sentry!
It may be that the sentry has become arm-weary -
which comes as no great surprize after swinging her heavy weapon as many times as she has ...
At any rate, it is Ta-too who capitalizes on the moment by thrusting the blade of one of her knives into the weary woman's navel!
Though she still keeps to her feet,
it is clear from the expression on her face that the sentry knows that she is mortally wounded!
Ta-too presses her advantage by thrusting her blade to the hilt in the unfortunate woman's belly!
Ta-too continues to work the blade in her the wound ...
But still the sentry steadfastly refuses to go down!
The sentry stares down at Ta-too's knife as though hypnotised at the sight of the blade reemerging from her innards!
"Did you really find it necessary to gut me so cruelly?" The sentry may be asking her assailant.
"Why? Do you know of any nice way to do it?" Comes the retort as Ta-too pulls the blade from her victim's belly.
The sentry staggers back as if to ponder her own demise while Ta-too begins her victory celebration ...
"There's power a-plenty packed into this little body of mine!"
Ta-too crowes as she brandishes her knives ...
"I wonder if I can last long enough to get one more good swipe at her?"
The sentry may be thinking as she stands summoning her strength ...
So involved is Ta-too in her victory celebration that she utterly fails to take notice of the sentry who,
dying though she was, somehow manages to summon the strength to take one last swipe at her antagonist!
Oh! But ... Oh!
How many times have the young warriors been warned not to indulge themselves
in preening prematurely over a wounded enemy ...
Thereby totalling losing sight of the fact that a wounded warrior is not dead - but desperate to take revenge!
And at the very least poses as much of a threat ...
Indeed - is every bit as dangerous as she was when she was intact and as yet unharmed!
And so it is that the sentry has a free swing at Ta-too's unprotected belly!
The huge blade swishes through the air with force enough behind it to cut down a small tree!
Nothing is offered to block its path and it splits the belly of the warrior Ta-too as one would open a ripened fruit!
As the sentry completes her follow-through, Ta-too stands there momentarily as one transfixed ...
Ta-too loses her grip and almost simultaneously her two knives fall to the floor ...
Ta-too's body arches back as the sentry sinks to her knee ...
Ta-too is down on the floor where she lifts her head to stare in disbelief at the great wound
that has been slashed across the region of her navel!
As her wound opens slightly, Ta-too manages to raise herself to a half-sitting position ...
The fact that she has somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory dawns on her for perhaps the first time!
And as Ta-toos' eyes roll up and back in her head ...
She sags in dying to lay flat on her back on the floor ...
Or to lay as flat as the curves of any well-endowed female allow her to do!
The sentry may realize that vengeance has been hers!
But she has but small satisfaction!
For even though the sentry's scimitar has brought death and destruction to her assailant ...
So too has Ta-too succeded in her mission ...
Even though she herself has been slaughtered, her sacrifice does not go entirely for nought ...
For even as Ta-too has fought and died ...
Her fellow prisoners have made good their escape!
So, I suppose it can be argued that hers is the greater victory!
Although, truth to tell ...
I utterly fail to see what great deal of good it does her ...
Since even as the sentry still writhes in her death throes ...
Ta-too herself is beyond taking any pleasure in witnessing them ...
Since for her part, she has succumbed some time ago and so is already long dead!
And whatever satisfaction the sentry may have taken in killing her assailant is relatively short-lived ...
For eventually she too expires ...
Her fingernails may have added to the small scratches on the floor as she twisted about in her final agony ...
While her well-upholstered opponent lies dead on the floor not more than three feet away!
I mourn for them, Buck Simpson! I truly do!
How many times have I told these youngsters to take heed and take care!
And not to rejoice too soon at the discomfiture of an adversary!
For, Buck! You have played that same song many times yourself!
Saying that "There's a world of difference between fallen women ...
"And one who's still hanging on!"
Footnote:
Paraphrase of lyric by Tom T. Hall
"The Fallen Women"
Hallnote Music (BMI)
Mercury recording 1975 Phonogram Inc
