The smell and sounds of war are both horrifying and indescribable.
Like animals, pitted against each other, we took arms, relied on our greater instincts and did everything to live - Everything.
It's like we were put in a trance, as soon as the battle shields clashed and the steel swords sparked. It was a chaotic whirlwind.
The screams and yells of pain surrounded the entire land.
Each time a soldier fell, you prayed the next would not be you, or that they were the enemy's and not your comrades. The dignities of death are also lost at war. The men who had fallen were almost unrecognizable. There couldn’t be any proper burial rights when the realm was torn apart by war. This battle held no ending, no clear sight of the morrow. All that was left were the cabalistic instincts of one set into a contagious rampage. Friends are falling one by one, brothers against brothers and neighbors against neighbors…Each time someone fell, not one had time to remorse. We had to fight for our necks so that we’d be able to bury our dead on our soil and not the enemy.
There was no glory in it.
Emeraldie had been right all this time. Men died, cut into pieces, mangled and trampled on - they had no hero's farewell.
Like animals, we had fought to survive...no longer for a noble cause. For what was noble in slaying your fellow men? There was nothing epic or heroic in it.
There was only grim death, selfishness and pride of the upper-class that drove innocent men into their deaths. There shall be nothing but weeping tonight – both for the slain and the victors – there shall only be weeping.
The Black Sea turned red with the blood of the slain, for there had been far too many - as the sun dipped down the horizon.
I had faced him then - faced death.
Their armies reached the foot of the castle. I braced my men for the onslaught. The archers were quick on their feet and had managed to ward off those who tried climbing up the wall. Golnraw had fallen on the draw bridge, where the enemy had rammed their way in with a log. Some of my archers had fallen in the plight against the wall-climbers.
They had breached our castle walls and are now marching into the very steps of the castle – that castle where Emeraldie watched from her tower as her people were torn by the merciless wrath of that bloody battle. I looked up to see her tower, where she was sure to look down…and there she was.
There was no time. I had given strict instructions to her ladies-in-waiting to assist her if ever the need arises, for her to flee from this castle. I had given them the route towards the escape halls, into the mountainous paths and into the old castle, across the Black Sea. If worse comes to worst, I will have to take her there, where she’ll be safe.
There were only a few of us now.
His majesty had ordered for everyone to withdraw into the farther chambers of the castle. He rode out, himself, with only a few abled-men. But the lines have enemy significantly thinned as well.
The men clashed in the middle of the grounds that were once camped with merriment, as it had been during the time of peace and prosperity in the kingdom. The castle still stood, we still have a fighting chance. And I still have to uphold my oath of protecting Emeraldie.
We fought for I don’t know how long…but we fought till there were but the faint memory of life in us and the blood in our veins have all but been spilt.
BINABASA MO ANG
Blood Ink (The Archives Book I): Editing
Vampiro"Two deaths that happened in the distant past were revealed to me. Now there was a recent murder within the school that I had to witness for myself. And when I fled to a new found friend (though I wanted to be more than that) for comfort, he tells m...
