“You will be king!”

“Father, I don’t want to be king.”

“You are my only heir, you are my eldest, and your mother was barren for years before her death,” his voice sounding solemn as he spoke.

“I don’t want to be king,” I shouted sternly.

He slaps me.

“I am your father, boy, but I am also your king. You will do as I say.”

“No!” I shouted.

Anger filled my father’s eyes. He slaps me again, but fiercer. He slaps me again, harder.

His anger begins to overwhelm him, his chest tightens, and he begins breathing heavily.

“Listen to me boy, if you weren’t my son, I’d have you hanging from the gallows for that tone of voice.” He continues breathing heavily.

“I may not have much more time on this world, you need to be ready.” He says through the cobwebs in his lungs.

“I can’t father” I say my heart becoming heavy.

 Under the cover of night and wrapped in a hooded cloak, I stowed away through the narrow alleys and dimly lit streets. After wiping away my tears, I left and joined the army.

Seven Years Later …

I awoke from my slumber gripping the hilt of my sword. I leave my tent and gaze into the night, observing the festivities of my fellow Templars as they celebrate our afternoon victory against the heretics that have taken a violent stance against the crown. The bonfire burns in the center of our encampment; men have gathered around it with drink and begin singing songs of victory, but sadly this is not the last battle we will see.

“Have a drink captain,” my longtime friend yells from across the way as he approaches.

I look up at him. He hands me a drink.

“You’ve missed half the party.”

“You seem to have had enough fun for the both of us.”

“Right you are, good sir.”

He takes a large swallow of his ale. I take a drink.

“We’re moving out in the morning.”

“Shouldn’t we wait a couple of days and scout the area more?”

“We must keep in mind we are not welcome guests in these lands, and I believe the troops are having too much fun.”

“You sure know how to spoil a mood captain.”

He takes another swig of his drink.

“I’ll spread the word to the others.”

“Thank you, Constantine.”

The next morning, we begin to march to the blood-soaked battlefield that awaits us. We head south to the mountains where the enemy sits quietly waiting for the next clash of steel.

We come to a road stretched through a wide open plain where farmers and kind shepherds once lived. Dust from a once fertile land spreads through the air as the wind carries it elsewhere. The dust is a shroud that hovers over us, making it hard to breathe. It acts as a beast that ingests pleasure from the suffering of man. The sun seems to want to cook us as it bares down on us.

In the distance we see a ghostly sight of a village, it seems bleached and faded, the village was hollowed out and lifeless. From a distance I saw a run down well and the troops and I hastily marched, their gaunt faces showing a sliver of hope.

We walked into the remnants of a lost village where families and children played. As we entered the gates it felt as if a haunting presence of a lost memory followed us through the dusty air. My men gathered around the well taking swallows of the cloudy water. I searched for anything we could use. I looked on the other side of the south gate, noticing strange decrepit trees; or so I believed. Corpses mounted on spears dotted the landscape. Fear penetrated my soul leaving me in utter shock. Dried blood surrounds the mounted bodies, mixing with the sand.

From behind me I hear a voice.

“Captain!”

“Constantine, gather the men we must leave.”

“We cannot! Enemy calvary is approaching the village!”

He points toward the raging dust clouds over the horizon.

“Rally the men, I need archers on the top floors of those old buildings.”

“Spearmen and infantry hold the gate!”

The enemy calvary rides toward the village with haste. The enemy banner flies high as they push towards us. They are not close enough to release a volley of arrows. They push vigorously forward.

 “Hold your arrows men!”

They are almost close enough.

“Fire!”

The arrows fly through the dust clouds and pepper the enemy. I watch as they drop to the sand. The enemy begins charging faster.

“Fire!”  Ten more combatants drop.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“One last time, men. Fire!”

The infantry men at the gate brace for impact as the remaining enemies charge.

The crackling of wooden spears sounds out as the horses were impaled. My men hold their ground fiercely fighting to keep them out. Archer begins to pick off a few at the gate as the infantry holds them back.

The enemy pulls back and tries for a second charge. Half of the remaining few are taken down by archers as they pull back.

Whom I can only assume was the cavalry leader, realized he would not win this, and they retreated.

“We can’t stay here Constantine.”

“Why,” he asked.

“They will come back here with a larger force.”

“Let the men rest Caltrain,” Constantine demands.

“They will have an hour.”

I approach the well, knowing I need water just as much as the others, and I take a large drink.

“Be sure to fill your canteens before we leave men, but you all may rest for now.” “How many men did we lose in the skirmish?” I asked Constantine.

“We lost four, captain.”

“Bury them and mark their graves after you gather their canteens; we need as much water as we can carry if we are going to make it out of this waist.”

I watch as they dig into the hard, coarse sand and lower the poor souls into a mass grave.

“Everyone, pack up. We must keep moving. I have a feeling we have already been here for too long.”

We began marching into the dusty air. Corpses lie on either side dotting the path we must take. The rotting putrid smell attacked our nostrils. Many of the younger men began to gag, and some vomit. Sadly, this is not the first time I have seen a scene such as this.

“Do not stand there and gawk! Keep moving!”

Dried blood stained the wooden spears, many men noticing as we walked through the desert battlefield.

“Captain, these were our men.”

“Yes, they were Constantine. They were the troop we were supposed to meet up with.”

He looked saddened by what I said.

“Where are we going Captain?”

“Desert Watch Keep. There is bound to be soldiers there.”

“We need more troops and resources if we are going to Eradicate the enemy infringement in these lands.”

        We continued down the desert road. In the distance we see Desert Watch. We continue pushing to make it. Dirty clouds approach as we continue marching. It begins to rain. The dirty water begins to sprinkle onto me and my men, but it leaves as quickly as it arrived. We approached the fort.

        “Captain this place was attacked.”

“I can tell, Constantine,” I say.

I noticed an enemy soldier impaled by a ballista round, rotting.

“Sound the horn, Constantine.”

“Yes sir.”

The sound of the horn blows into the desert wind. I watch the ramparts of the fort for someone to show themselves. The wind begins to kick up sand as it blows. I see a feminine figure on the ramparts as we continue our approach.

“Sound the horn again, first line of the imperial anthem.”

        Constantine begins to play. He does a grandiose sounding of the imperial anthem. From the distance we hear a heroic reply of a horn. I give Constantine a smile. I hear a relieved sigh from my troops. We approach the gate as the chains rattle and the weathered drawbridge groans. It slams open, kicking up dust into the hot suffocating breeze of the desert wind.

        At the head of the ranks stood commander Karla Stone. Me and my men slowly approached. We walked into the large Gate House. I look around noticing the tattered Desert Watch soldiers and seeing the unburied corpses rotting. Then I see commander Karla Stone and she approaches. She looks to my crowd of men and ask.

“Where is your commander “

“I am here,” I say. She looks over at me. I pull my hood from atop my head. She looks at me, her stern face softens only for a moment. She recognizes me, but quickly hides that fact.

“Do your men have water or food to spare.”

“No, we are low on both.”

Her Face quickly turned to anger as I told her.

“We had hoped you and your men had some.”

 I begin to explain that we were attacked while resting in an abandoned village, and that we had lost some men during the skirmish.

“Our food carriers have been attacked and raided, so this frontline hasn’t received any food from Aussie in three days.” She explains.

“they’ve been trying to starve us out.”

“I see,” I responded.

I look around at the desperate walking corpses surrounding us. Many are starving and some are sick, and all of them need rest and a good hot meal. We must do something to help, I thought.

“I need to let my men rest Commander Stone, but first thing tomorrow I will take any volunteers to Grand Lake to bring food and reinforcements.”

“You know I’m always with you captain through thick and thin.” Constantine rests his hand on my shoulder as he speaks.

“Go at your own risk, I have lost to many men making the same mistake, “she says. “I will not risk any more of my men” She pushes through the crowd and walks off.

My men rest as the dreary night drags on. Tired and hungry, they rest. The putrid smell of rotting corpses and dysentery keeps me awake. I lay there silently before hearing footsteps approach me.

“Get up,” I hear the stern voice of commander stone say to me. I look up and see her stern face looking down at me.

“We need to talk,” she says. I slowly rise to my feet.

“What is the matter,”

“You know what,” she says bitterly.

“Follow me,”

She begins to walk up the cobblestone path.

“Now!” She says aggressively.

I make haste behind her dreading what is to come. She leads me into a large meeting room, with a table sitting in the middle. Large figures surround the table. Commander Stone lights a lantern and sits it down in the center.

“I know who you are Caltrain, I hear commander Stone’s voice say with a subtle softness.

“Why are you here,” she asks.

Sweat begins to drip down my forehead, as I think of some lie to say.

“You should be in the capital with your father,” she says.

“He has become ill you know.” Her voice becomes saddened.

I look into her eyes and nod.

“I know,” I say solemnly.

“These men of mine are here to escort you back to the capital” she says.

I look around at the large figures surrounding the table.

“Karla the people of this fort need help!”

“They do not have long before they starve to death.” “I have the extra manpower to get food for these people, I can’t go back to the capital.”

“I know they need help, but there’s nothing we can do!” she says angrily. “We need to abandon this fort, before it becomes a tomb.”

“Just give me a couple of days, I will bring food and reinforcements from Grand Lake.”

“For all we know the enemy could be planning an attack on this fort, and if you get captured, they will use you as ransom.”

“They don’t know who I am!” I exclaim.

“Everyone knows who you are!” she yells. “The king has been sending search parties to find you.” “You’re the lost prince, those sapphire eyes tell the whole story.”

“I’m not going back to the capital, not while these people are starving.”

“Fine then go but leave my soldiers out of it.” “Take your own men to their deaths.”

“I will go and show them the path.”

A large masculine figure stands from his chair and comes into the lamplight. Commander stones cuts her eyes to him with a scowl. His scared face and rugged appearance seem to be one of a battle-hardened veteran. Though his expression is calm and commanding.

“I will escort you and your men to Grand Lake.” He says.

He turns to the commander and says, “They will need help.”

“I didn’t give you permission to escort them” commander stone says.

“I wasn’t asking for your permission commander” Grim shrewdly says. Commander Stone hammers the table with her fist. Her anger turns the table to splinter.

“I am ordering you to stay put, you will not be escorting anyone anywhere!” She cries out angerly.

“I will not lose you to those savages” she says, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

“Karla there is no need to worry for me, the sun is already setting on my life.” He says with a soft fatherly tone.

“Let me be a hero one last time and I will hang up my glaive and shed my armor.”

She wipes the tears from her eyes.

“Then go.” She says with a broken heart.

She walks out and slams shut the door.

I stand there awkwardly, unsure of what to say.

“That girl must learn to control her anger.” Grim says bitterly.

“She cares for you Grim, that’s why she acted out.” I say.

“I know but I’m just an old wolf.” He says.

“Gather your men and let’s get moving, he haven’t the time to waist.” He commands.