The Protector of Her People
by M.C.
A small city-state in ancient Greece is protected by an invincible woman warrior


King Menelaus of Thebes smiled as he looked down from a hill upon the verdant
valley that stretched out before him. Off in the distance he eyed the walls of
the city of the people that the fertile valley belonged to. "Jason," he said
to his son who was standing next to him,"isn't this valley beautiful? And it's
soon to be mine. It's hard to believe that these people, who don't even have
an army to defend themselves, have remained unconquered for so long. Anyway,
all that's about to change soon." The king then motioned to his commanders who
were standing right behind him to began marching his army down to the valley
floor below and head for the city. "With any luck this will all be over in a
few hours," he boasted.

As the large army numbering several thousand well-trained warriors began their
descent, the farmers working in the fields and the people living in the small
villages in the valley stopped what they were doing and ran towards the walled
city. "It won't help them," King Menelaus arrogantly said. "With no army to
protect them, how can they possibly hope to stop us?" When his army was about
200 yards (or meters) from the city walls, Menelaus halted them. He walked on
a bit further and, in a loud voice, bellowed,"people of the city of Athena, I
have come to incorporate you into my kingdom. And I demand that you open the
gates of your city and accept me as your new king immediately! Any delay will
be dealt with harshly!"

For about a minute nothing happened. Then a small door to the right side of
the city gates opened and a lone woman came out and began walking towards King
Menelaus and his army. She appeared to be about six feet tall with a very
muscular build. Her long brown hair was tied back into a ponytail which fell
down to her waist and she seemed to be somewhere in her mid-20s in age or
thereabouts. But what was really strange about her was that she was holding
two very large swords, one in each hand. And what was just as strange was that
she wasn't wearing any armor whatsoever - no helmet, no body armor, not even a
shield. In fact all she was wearing was a pretty blue dress! Was this one
woman really going to fight against one of the most powerful armies in all of
Greece ?

She stopped a few feet away from the king. "King Menelaus," she began,"my name
is Laya, and I am the protector of this city and all the land in this valley.
I have heard your offer and would like to put forth a counter-offer. That you
and your army turn around and march back to Thebes immediately! Any delay will
be dealt with harshly!"

The king and his generals that were standing around him began to laugh when
she said this (but surprisingly not his son Jason who was also standing next
to his father). "Please stand aside Laya," he said,"I wouldn't want to see you
get hurt."

"That's very kind of you," Laya replied. "So please take my advice and stay
out of this fight. I wouldn't want you to see you get hurt either...handsome."

"Stay out of this Jason!" his father bellowed. "This is none of your
business." Then turning to a squad of his elite guards he said,"seize this
impudent woman and her oversized swords. She needs to be taught a lesson; and
then let's get on with our conquest!"

"Very well then," Laya calmly replied,"have it your way king; but don't ever
say that I didn't warn you." And what transpired over the next several minutes
will undoubtedly never be forgotten by either King Menelaus or any of his
soldiers; those that managed to survive that is. For as several of the king's
elite guards approached her, Laya swung one of her her swords and deftly
decapitated them, with just a single stroke! She then charged the remaining
members of his guard. Swinging her heavy swords around as if they were
feathers, she easily cut the king's best warriors to pieces in just a few
seconds. Then she swiftly moved to attack the rest of his army.

"Kill her!," King Menelaus cried out. "You're my finest warriors and she's
just one woman! Kill her!" But the more soldiers the king sent against this
amazing woman, the more the dead bodies piled up. One of his soldiers got
close enough to throw a spear at her from behind, but incredibly, the spear
simply broke apart when it struck her (she then decapitated him too an instant
later). Laya also seemed impervious to arrows as they too broke apart when
they struck her. With her long ponytail swishing around behind her, this
amazing female warrior slayed a least a hundred of the king's soldiers in the
first two minutes alone, and two minutes later she felled at least a hundred
more!

Wielding her two massive, razor sharp swords like meat grinders, this amazing
female warrior continued to tear into the king's once proud army, literally
cutting them to pieces. And in a gruesome display of her incredible fighting
abilities, the severed heads, arms and legs (not to mention dead bodies) of
King Menelaus' finest warriors soon littered the battlefield.

So overpowering was Laya that at one point she even paused for a few moments
during the heat of the battle, looked over at King Menelaus and his son Jason
and smiled; then she went back to slicing up his army. After a few more
minutes of this incredible carnage, King Menelaus, totally horrified at what
he was witnessing (by now he had lost over a quarter of his army) finally
broke down. "STOP!" he cried. "Stop this slaughter! I surrender to you Laya!
Please stop slaughtering my troops. You win, we can't defeat you. We'll leave
your land. But please stop this massacre!"

Laya had her right arm back and was just about to slay yet another one of the
king's soldiers when she heard him say this. Slowly, the invincible female
warrior lowered her arm (but couldn't resist the urge to gently tap the
petrified man on the chin with the edge of her sword). An eerie silence then
descended on the battlefield - a silence broken only by the cries of the many
wounded and dying men that were scattered all around her. In the space of just
a few minutes, this mighty woman had killed over 500 of King Menelaus' finest
soldiers and wounded many more.

Laya walked back to where the king and is son were standing - both in total
shock at what they had just seen her do. And in her cutest, little girlie
voice, she giggled and asked,"well your majesty, have I learned my lesson yet?
Tee, hee, hee."

With his head bowed in shame and humiliation, the once proud and feared
monarch, fighting to hold back his tears, prostrated himself before the
powerful, beautiful woman that had just virtually destroyed his army and
meekly said,"I'm sorry Laya; I'm truly sorry for trying to conquer your people
and take your land. I surrender to you. I'll do whatever you want."

A lengthy pause followed before the victorious woman said, in a stern tone
this time,"all right then, this is what you're going to do. You're going to
gather up all of your dead and wounded men and leave our land as soon as you
can; and don't ever come back here again! Do you understand?"

"Yes Laya. I'll do exactly as you say."

"And there's one more thing. Since you disobeyed me, you will also have to pay
a price."

"Just name it Laya and I'll give you whatever you ask for. Do you want gold?
Silver? Precious jewels? I have plenty of all of these."

"I have no need of those things. They are only for vain and greedy people. No
King Menelaus, what I want is him," (Laya pointed one of her swords at Jason).

"But...but Jason is my son; my only son. I can't let you have him."

"Then let me rephrase what I just said so that there will be no further
misunderstandings between us. Either you give me your son, or I'm going to
resume the slaughter of your army. And this time I won't stop until I've
killed them all except for Jason and you. Then I'll take him anyway. I've
already wiped out a quarter of your army King Menelaus, so what makes you
think I can't finish off the rest?"

"But...I...I...

"it's O.K. father," Jason interceded. "We have no choice. I'll do what this
mighty female warrior demands."

Realizing that he did indeed have no choice, the chastised king, with tears in
his eyes, embraced his son." I'm sorry Jason; I'm so so sorry about this."I
have no idea what this powerful woman has in store for you, but please try to
be brave."

"I will father, I will. And now you must do as she demands; you must go."

When Laya was satisfied that King Menelaus did indeed intend to return to
Thebes as soon as he finished collecting all of his dead and wounded, she
turned to Jason and softly but firmly said,"follow me." And so he did. Laya
led him back to the main gate and reentered the city through the same side
door that she exited only a few short (but very dramatic) minutes earlier.
When she entered the city, Laya was greeted by literally thousands cheering
people, thanking her for saving them from being conquered. In a voice loud
enough for everyone to hear, Laya shouted,"the army that invaded our land has
been defeated - and they won't be coming back. So you can all go back to your
homes and fields and continue with what you were doing before they arrived."

As the crowd began to disperse, Laya turned to Jason and motioned for him to
follow her again. She led him up a long stairway and into a very large room
with a great view over the whole city as well as the surrounding area. "This
is your new home now Jason, so get used to it."

"This? This is my home? (he obviously wasn't expecting this). So where is your
home Laya?"

For the first time that day Laya laughed "This is my home too Jason. I also
live here."

"You mean we're going to be living here...together? And how is it possible
that you, one lone woman, can singlehandedly wipe out my father's finest
soldiers? And you don't even have so much as a single scratch on you? How?"

Laya smiled. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions to ask me Jason. But first
let me get out of this dirty dress and tidy up a bit (indeed, 'dirty' was a
gross understatement. Laya's pretty blue dress was literally soaked with the
blood of the hundreds of soldiers she had just killed). And while I'm at it,
take off your clothes too and get into the bed. And don't give me any trouble
about it. I think you may have noticed that I have very little tolerance for
people who disobey me (smirk)." A few minutes later Laya - now washed and
completely naked - laid down next to Jason. "Now as to your questions, I think
I'll start with your second question first. How was I, one single woman, able
to defeat one of the mightiest armies in all of Greece without getting so much
as a single scratch on me? Well, here's the story...

"Many generations ago, when our more powerful neighbors began to eye our land,
my people realized that they would be unable to defend themselves against
them. After all, they were just poor farmers who couldn't even afford to have
an army. So they prayed to the Goddess Athena - after whom our city is named -
for protection against all those who would harm us; and Athena answered our
prayers. But instead of giving us and army, she chose one female to become our
'protector' - an invincible warrior who could never be defeated in battle no
matter how great the odds were against her.

"Athena then took her anointed warrior - we call her Alpha, 'the first one' -
to the River Styx and immersed her in it's waters. But unlike Achilles whose
mother held him by his heel (which would have fatal consequences for him
during the Trojan War) Alpha was immersed completely so that she had
absolutely no point where she was vulnerable to the weapons of war. Athena
then trained her chosen warrior in the skills she would need to defend our
people. And finally, Athena gave Alpha those two swords (Laya pointed to the
two swords that she had used to slay the hundreds of King Menelaus' soldiers).
They're cast from the hardest material known and which only the 'protector'
knows how to wield properly.

"Alpha did indeed defeat all the enemies that dared to try and conquer us. And
when she had a daughter - and the protectors have only daughters - Alpha
trained her as she had been trained by Athena: to become the greatest of
warriors so that she could replace her mother when she was ready. And so it
continued through the generations. I am the 16th protector, and our daughter
will be the 17th."

"Our daughter Laya?" Jason asked.

"Well get to that a little bit later honey," Laya answered with a grin, then
she continued. "My mother, the 15th protector, taught me my fighting skills,
as did her mother before her. When I was born, my mother also immersed me in
the waters of the River Styx - that's why you saw the spears and arrows break
apart when they struck me. I'm invulnerable, no weapon of war can harm me. And
if you were impressed by what you saw me do to your father's army today Jason,
you should have seen my mother in her prime."

"It's hard to believe that anyone could ever fight better than what I saw you
do today Laya. You were totally awesome! The way you easily sliced up my
father's finest warriors; incredible!"

"Why thank you Jason, what a sweet thing to say. But getting back to my
mother. You've probably never heard about this before because there are no
written records, but when the Persian King Xerxes led his huge army into
Greece in order to conquer it, he first tried to get to Athens through our
territory (historical note: Xerxes invaded Greece in year 480 B.C.E.). I was
just a little girl at the time and my mother felt I was too young to
participate in the battle. But she did let me watch from the ramparts of the
city walls.

"My mother first warned Xerxes to turn his army of several hundred thousand
soldiers around and leave our territory - like I warned your father earlier
today. And just like your father and his commanders, they all laughed at her.
So she attacked them. My mother was magnificent! By the time Xerxes begged her
to stop the slaughter - again, just like your father did - she had killed
thousands of his men. She even took the time to smile at me during the battle;
that's where I got the idea to smile at you and your father today. So Xerxes
was forced to retreat and find another way to get to Athens." Laya giggled and
then added, "I guess that after what my mother did to them here, facing the
Spartans at Thermopylae was like a walk in the park for the Persian army."

Just then the door to Laya's room opened and a large, extremely well built
middle-aged woman entered. "Well, speak of the devil. I was just telling Jason
about you mommy."

"About what Laya?"

"I was telling him about the time you almost wiped out Xerxes' entire army.
You killed thousands of his soldiers, as opposed to me who killed just a few
hundred today (fake frown)."

"Well if Jason's father had been as stubborn as Xerxes was, then you'd have
killed thousands too honey. Fortunately for King Menelaus, he saw the light
and begged you to stop; and you did. I was very proud of you when you spared
the rest of his army after he surrendered to you honey. It's one of the most
difficult things a protector has to learn: how to temper our immense strength
and awesome fighting abilities with mercy and compassion; and that's exactly
what you did. You're going to be a great protector."

"Thank you mother, that really means a lot to me."

Laya's mother then gave Jason a long look over. "Is he 'the one', Laya?"

"Yes mommy, he's 'the one'."

"Well, I think you made a fine choice."

"Thank you. So do I."

Laya's mother walked over to where her daughter had placed her blood-soaked
blue dress. She picked it up and examined it. "Hmmm, I won't promise you any
miracles Laya, but I'll try to remove all the blood stains as best as I can. I
know this is your favorite dress. But can I give you a little bit of motherly
advice honey? The next time you face an army, try wearing a dress that you
don't like so much."

"Thanks mommy; that is indeed great advice." Laya shared a giggle with her
mother as the large woman, bloody dress in hand, left the room.

After she left, Jason looked at Laya and asked,"what did your mother mean when
she asked you if I was 'the one'?"

"Well, that gets to the first question you asked me Jason. You see, it's like
this. In order for there to be a continuous line of female warriors to protect
our people, we have to have daughters; right? So Athena has allowed us (the
protectors) to chose one man to love - and only one man; and I have chosen you
Jason. So you see, you're neither my hostage nor my slave; you're going to be
my husband. The father of my daughter - the next protector."

"But what if I were to refuse your offer Laya?"

The mighty female warrior pondered this for a moment before responding with a
grin,"Well in that case honey, I might just be tempted to go over to the city
of Thebes and completely destroy it; and you know I can do it, or maybe you
weren't paying attention this afternoon." When Laya saw the look of horror
Jason had on his face when she said this, she playfully tweaked his nose. "Oh
come on now Jason, let's stop playing these silly games with each other. When
I confronted your father and his army and ordered them all to go back to
Thebes, they all laughed at me; but not you. How come? You saw a lone woman
challenging an entire army; didn't you find that a little bit strange? And you
even tried to warn me. That was very sweet of you by-the-way; totally
unnecessary, but sweet nonetheless.

"Do you really think that I would destroy your home city and kill thousands of
innocent people just because you don't know a good thing when you see it?
(giggles) I'm not a cruel person Jason. I only killed today because your
father had left me no other choice - it was either kill or let my people be
conquered. I'm the 'protector', and it's my responsibility to protect my
people and their land. And don't forget this Jason, I could have wiped out
your father's entire army had I wanted to, but I didn't. As soon as as your
father surrendered, I immediately stopped the slaughter.

"The protectors never fight for glory or wealth Jason, that's why I refused
your father's offer of gold, silver or precious jewelry. We fight only to
defend our people's freedom. Do you remember what my mother said a few minutes
ago? That the protectors have to temper our immense strength and awesome
fighting abilities with mercy and compassion? I'm sure that Athena would be
very angry with me if I had behaved...well, like a man today."

A long pause followed before Laya said,"Look Jason, I like you, that's why I
chose you. But if you really don't want to be with a woman who can single-
handedly destroy your father's army without getting so much as a scratch on
her, I'll understand. I don't want to keep you here against your will. I want
you to be here willingly; because you chose to be. Therefore, you're free to
return to Thebes if you want. I won't prevent you from doing so."

(Incredibly, the mightiest warrior on the planet by far, amazingly strong,
impervious to any weapon and able to singlehandedly wipe out even the
mightiest of armies, now found herself uncharacteristically vulnerable...
because of one man!)

Another long pause (and an agonizing one for Laya) followed before Jason
finally said,"No Laya, I don't want to return to Thebes. I'd rather stay here
with you. You're the most amazing, incredible woman - and it would be a great
honor to be your husband, and the father of the next protector."

Laya smiled and put her powerful arms around her future husband and gently
hugged him. And as they began to consummate their relationship, the invincible
female warrior reflected upon the day's events. She totally crushed an
invading army and thereby preserved her people's freedom. She also won her
mother's respect by showing both mercy and compassion towards her defeated
adversaries. And, to top it all off, she found 'the one', the one man that she
would be allowed to love. So all things considered, it turned out to be a
rather successful day for her.

Epilogue: Two Hours Later

Laya was lying on her bed gently running her fingers through the sleeping
Jason's hair when there was a knock on her door. "Who is it?" she asked.

"It's me honey, your mother. I finished washing out as much of the blood
stains from your dress as I possibly could and I'd like to return it to you."

"Come on in mommy."

Again the large well-built woman entered Laya's room. She held up Laya's
pretty blue dress for her to see. "It wasn't easy Laya, but I did manage to
remove most of the bloodstains; but not all as you can see."

"Yes I do mommy. Thank you for trying. The next time I have to fight an army
I'll make sure to wear something else, like that orange dress that I'm not too
fond of."

Laya's mother draped her daughter's dress over the back of a chair and sat
down next to her on the bed. "While I was washing your dress in the next room,
I couldn't help but overhear the conversation you were having with Jason. And
I'd like to ask you a question if you don't mind honey."

"Sure mom. Go ahead and ask."

"Why did you, the mightiest warrior by far in the entire world, give Jason the
option of going back to Thebes when you like him so much?"

Laya thought about that for awhile before answering. "It's because I want his
staying here with me to be consensual mommy. If I were to force him to stay
with me against his will - as I could to any man - then he'd really be nothing
more than my servant or personal slave; and I don't want that. What I want is
a man that I can love and be loved by him in return. Why are you smiling at me
mother?"

"It's because you've finally passed what I believe to be the most difficult
test of being a true 'protector' honey. It's something that no one else could
have taught you; you had to discover it for yourself, as I did many years ago.
And now that you have, I'm absolutely certain that you will indeed become a
very great 'protector'. You have learned how to love."

Historical note:

In the year 146 B.C.E. after the Battle of Corinth, Rome officially
incorporated Greece into the ever expanding sphere of Roman influence. The
Romans took over the entire country...except for one small enclave located to
the north of Athens. The reason for this is somewhat obscure as there are no
accurate historical records as to why this enclave alone was spared. The only
written record that historians have found was composed by a Roman soldier who
described a horrible battle between a Roman army and one single woman - and
she singlehandedly all but wiped out their entire army! Historians, obviously,
give no serious credence to such accounts and reduce them to nothing more than
local mythology.