The Battle

The Battle:
By Robin Nederlof.

The king rides away on his black horse.
I am shaking and my heart is pounding fast.
The general speaks, to comfort his force.
Prepared and ready to fight, but will I last?

This time we fight to conquer the barbarian lands.
I hate this king, who tries to turn everything to his hands.
He has a heart of stone, using everyone as tools of war.
Always letting us fight alone while he flees so far.
To look at us and maybe admire at the top of a hill.
Looking at the slaughter and waiting for that one kill.
Waiting for the enemy's leader to be slain.
To see and grin upon his death and the pain.
I really don't understand anything of this.
Why do they say all of us will end in the abyss?

I quickly snapped out of my thoughts, to see.
Seeing my men, with white faces and trembling of fear.
To smell how frightened they are, they want to flee.
I try to comfort them by talking about now and here.

The time has come, the time to fight.
Finally it had come this far, the enemies in sight.
Suddenly silence turns into a burst of sound.
They play the trumpet, the drums, everything they found.
When at last from all of this noise, a sound raised a yell.
Men on my signal, you will unleash hell!</i>
Catapults slinging and archers releasing their arrows of fire.
Everything lit up, we felt our lives hanging on a silk wire.
Giving all my men one more dared look.
And I felt bad thinking about all the lives I took.

We attack and when running towards the enemy.
I take a good look around and I am stunned of what I see.
Why do they call them barbarians, I thought.
Seeing my comrades as beasts, the way they fought.

A total chaos is in where I got caught.
Dead bodies, screams and a lot of dirt and mud.
Blood splashing all over the place.
In this moment you are no human, you have no face.
My sword drenched in blood and covered with pieces of flesh.
I try to rely on my own saying: fight to survive, not to impress.
And as I pierce through another human skin.
I want to look into his eyes and ask forgiveness for this sin.
And this is just the begin of the battle.
Where thousands of men will be butchered like cattle.

At one moment, everything seemed to be frozen.
I see my wife smiling and my children wave at me.
Will I ever see them again, what path have I chosen?
How could I have asked her to tell, they might never see...

The anger towards myself, goes into my sword.
And this makes me feel like defeating the whole horde.
I hack and I slash, I kick and I punch my way through this.
They are right, we all do end into the abyss.
Screaming like a mad man and fighting to kill them all.
No one seemed to stand up to me, without taking the fall.
Almost everything in my path is destroyed or killed.
I run forward, trying to see through the blood I spilled.
Finally I was heading towards their boss.
I tried to calm down, I knew he wasn't easy to cross.

Raising my sword into the air.
I see him coming at me, grumbling like a bear!
With his axe ready to strike, he jumps, I try to flee.
But I am too late, his heavy body is now upon me.
I punch him in the face but he while not give in.
He grabs a dagger and is ready to stab into my flesh, my skin.
At this moment, next to me I see a spear.
Lightning fast I grab it, piercing his lungs making him reach for air.
Slowly I crawl back upon my feet.
And I realize once again our enemies suffered defeat.

I raise my head and take a good look around.
Dead and wounded bodies, nothing else to be found.
Closing my eyes, thinking of the promise...
I will return home to be the father that they had to miss.