7. Declaration of Freedom

Jefizon was covered in cold sweat, left alone in his room. He heard Fuja scream, first from a distance, then closer and closer. Oh. Surely the good woman hadn’t cooperated? It sounded as if she walked through the fort. Or were they taking her to—

His door opened. The bag was lifted from his head again. Fuja’s warm arms wrapped around him and helped his shivering body upright, off the floor.

Ajay stood before him. Ajay? Unchained? Angry? No, wait, that was normal.

“Split up,” Ajay growled. Fuja didn’t listen.

“What … what is …” said Jefizon, disoriented.

“It was a trick,” Fuja said fuming. “It was all Ajay’s plan.”

Jefizon’s eyes widened. He closed the distance between him and Ajay, but stopped before hitting him.

“And? Did we pass your test? Or do you still doubt the loyalty of your best friends!?”

“You did great,” Ajay said calmly, as he walked away from Jefizon’s death stare. “Pikan, or Beeris apparently, failed. He wanted to cooperate with Casbrita. So I was right!”

Fuja covered her open mouth. “What did you do to him?”

“Asked soldiers to arrest him. But …” Ajay looked away, ashamed. “He’s still Demigod of Luck, so halfway they slipped and now Beeris ended up in some meadow and they can’t find him anymore.”

“You have,” Jefizon said, his anger barely contained. “Chased the god of luck away from your own army!? Was that your masterful plan, oh good man Ajay?”

“He is disloyal. He’d have given his luck to the enemy sooner or later.”

“We are done,” Jefizon said. “Fuja and I, we work for Wasserbox and Congress, not for you.”

“That is not your choice.”

“It should be,” Jefizon said, who instantly wrote down his thought. “Animals should have the right to choose their own work and also refuse it when their boss turns out to be insane.”

“Insane!?” Ajay slapped the paper from Jefizon’s fingers. “I have single-handedly led the colonies to revolution. Without my Children of Freedom, we’d all be Casbrita slaves by now!”

“Good deeds from the past,” Fuja said calmly, “do not rectity bad deeds in the present.”

Arrold entered the room with an empty paper in his hand. “We’re writing a message to Wasserbox about the events here. What must I say?”

“That Ajay’s great leadership allowed us to take over the fort with playful ease. None dead and no wounded on both sides. Except that Elwar soldier that stabbed himself with his stolen bayonet. Numerous weapons are ready for use.”

“I … my soldiers did most of the work, no? Without me, it wouldn’t have been this easy.”

“Don’t be so selfish, Arrold.” Ajay’s angry stare brought him to silence. He wrote the letter with most of the credit going to Ajay, and only a footnote about himself.

Fuja and Jefizon held each other tightly. They waited for Ajay, who blocked their exit, to step aside.

“Maybe you are loyal to Elwar,” he said. “But you’re blind not to realize how much your rebel boss has done for you. You will see that there are many animals worse than me, out there in the real world, who make more stupid decisions. You don’t actually want freedom.”

“The existence of worse beings,” Fuja said as she passed, “does not make you better.”

Jefizon also wrote that down.

Wasserbox was hunted all over Elwar. Casbrita had raised their military presence time and time again, with soldiers who were far stronger and far better trained than the rebels. Even the most clever of traps and strategies couldn’t overcome that gap.

Casbrita really only owned a single city: Bosnot. They concentrated their forces there, because they needed the city as a harbor to receive all their shipments. Their new soldiers arrived there, to be distributed over the colonies later.

Though they didn’t truly own another city, not even Philadinna, they did definitely control large swaths of Elwar now. Entire countrysides where Wasserbox had tried to stop them, but had to flee because they were badly losing.

This made Wasserbox lost in no man’s land, somewhere in the center of Elwar. Communication was chaotic and delayed, while aid was hard to give or receive.

“We must make Bosnot ours, for good,” Bardams said at the next Congress. “Cut off Casbrita’s import of soldiers.”

“Bosnot isn’t even our largest city anymore. New Bork is much more important.”

“Not now. Everything revolves around Bosnot for now.”

“And then?” asked a leader of the southern colonies. “If we have Bosnot, what then?”

Bardams considered this. He looked at Jefizon, who kept notes of everything that was said, which honestly led to ridiculous paper expenses in combination with the stamp tax.

“Then we declare ourselves independent.”

“That is … that is like a toddler declaring himself king. Nobody will take us seriously.”

“They will, if we prove they should.”

“It would be worth more if Casbrita declared us free and independent,” said another voice.

“Will never happen,” Fracclin said, back from his secret missions just in time to visit Congress. “We all know this. We must show we are stronger than Casbrita, then declare our independence, and hope most countries in the world believe and support us.”

Bardams nodded. “So long as most beings believe you are a real country … you will be a real country. Eventually, all country borders and kings in power are just made up.”

“We are not one country,” another stated. “We are thirteen colonies.”

“Then we declare independence of each individual colony. As if we’re thirteen different countries,” Bardams said.

Jefizon looked up from his book. “But that only works if the declaration is impressive. We shouldn’t just say we are free. We must explain our new laws and why they are the best.”

Many faces turned to him with a faint smile. Bardams spoke out loud what they all thought. “If you, Jefizon, would be so kind as to write this declaration?”

He froze. “Oh, my good men, how unexpected. It would be an incredible honor. In fact, I already finished half—”

“Present it to us when it’s done,” Bardams replied curtly.

And so Jefizon started work on his Declaration of Independence. A very long document in which he wrote down everything he’d learned and read in his entire life.

They had a chance. The chance to found a new nation were no royal family ruled. One that started with only reasonable and just laws. One where everyone was truly free and equal, as close to absolute freedom as they would ever get.

Though by now he saw that his vision was flawed. Some were simply unlucky to be born a slave, and some were unlucky to have weak bodies or minds. They should still have freedom, which meant restricting the freedom of others to conquer and colonize.

He wrote it all down. The explanations for why laws were good often felt silly. It was so obvious. Did he need to explain a female animal was equal to a male animal? Did he need to explain that every animal could be worth something to the world and had to receive the equal opportunity? Thus he often wrote down that he considered a truth “to be self-evident”.

Fuja slowly learned to read, mostly because she wanted to add her own voice too. Jefizon reminded her that all other Congressmen still had to read the document and approve too. All the privileges for natives that she added as a joke, were removed by Jefizon later.

Jefizon wrote for weeks, months, in his office at his estate. In his memoires, he’d always write down this part of his life as the very best period. Fuja who was always near him. Sipping endless cups of tea. Being able to write down his vision for an entire continent, with a large likelihood it became the law. They could create something big and beautiful. Would everyone see how beautiful it would be, like he did?

In the meantime, he thought about ways to win back Bosnot. The first stream of news from their capital was mixed. Wasserbox had received help from mysterious sources: crates filled with weapons and ammunition had washed up in the southern colonies. He’d used that to prevent being captured, but his army was too broken and weak to surround Bosnot.

In the harsh winter that followed, most of his soldiers died of cold and hunger. The enemy had no such trouble and partied in a well-stocked Bosnot or their warm forts.

Ever since Ajay chased Beeris away from them, their luck had truly run out. Rumors spread that Wasserbox was still secretly working for Casbrita, or that he’d lost all trust and belief in his own abilities.

Until a letter was delivered at his estate that contained a very clever plan.