Day 33 - Battle Story

Battle Story

Matthew Ryan Fischer

The battle was not going well.  She had a dragon.  How could it go well against that?  His men had swords and spears and shields.  She had the sky and fire.

What started with bold commanders and well disciplined lines had turned to chaos.  Men crashed into one another, swung their weapons and hit anything that moved, hardly paying attention to who was who and on whose side.

He walked the field.  Separate from his men.  The battle ground was turning into a killing field.  His army was in shambles.  Running.

That was when he came across her.  She watched as he had been watching.  She had a smile much as he had had a smile hours earlier.

“I could kill you,” he said matter-of-factly.  There was no hatred in his voice, no rancor for this woman.  He had his weapon and was sure he could win in a hand-to-hand fight.

“You could, but what would you achieve?  Your army is already done.”

She was right.  What good would a king be with no country and no one to fight for it?  She had generals who would make short work of him.  But it would feel good.  It would feel proper.  There was a time when leaders were at the front of the battle, not in the back or off to the side, watching and giving orders.  He had never lived during that time, but it seemed like that was the proper way to do battle – with your own hands.  Get them dirty.  Get some blood on them.  Make a name for yourself out of the death of others.

He wanted to kill her.  Strangle her to the ground and choke the life out of her.

He walked away.  There was nothing left for him on this field.  Not today.

He came across scattered remnants of his army.  He sent them home.  Told them to hide their weapons away and return to their farms or their trades or guilds or whatever it was they had done before this day.  It was time for them to save their own lives and not worry about his.

He knew he was being followed.

He had his Sauros with him.  Big as a mountain, he liked to say.  His favorite pet.  They would kill it and not think twice.

He headed for the woods and walked the famous path of paths.  It he had won today his coronation would have been here, his kingdom would have begun.  Many kingdoms had begun here.  It was a famous path with a famous wall.  The Wall of Walls.  Where heroes are made and legends commemorated.

The pass was narrow.  The Wall was beyond.

“Block the path my pet...  I only need a head start.”

His mountain would buy him precious seconds.  That was all that mattered.  No time to think about what they would do to it.

He got to the Wall and waited.  It is said a thousand men could look in, but only one could look out.  A perfect place to make a stand.  They would come expecting to see fear.  He would show them fear.  He would give them something to be afraid of.

He would make his stand and a kingdom would be born.

Linbach had been dipped in silver.  Ranaasem had the water wind at his back.  Lanysy had an army of berserkers.  He had a mountain, but it had not been enough.  She had dragons.  A mountain can not compete with the sky.

But here, at the Wall, and the end of the path, no dragon could reach.  Here, it wouldn’t matter.  Here it would just be men.  It would be him and his own special gift.

His eyes.

Let them come.

Let them look.

Let them see a man take a stand.

Let them know the fear of fear.

And let their hearts melt and their eyes bleed and let them run.

Then they will know power.  Then they will know loss as he will know victory.

Then.