Ch.3 We get screwed

After I finally let Leo out of the chamber pot and we burned his cloths and got all the tar off Dthort I finally got to get a good look at my friend. I haven't seen him in two years and he did looked the same as the last time I saw him.... well except all of those new scars he had gotten. He had a scar reaching from his right eye to his jaw. He had cuts all over his arms and he was short 3 fingers.

“Did you get into a scrap with your wife?" I said, watching his face get beat red." N-No there h-has been a lot of attacks by those Macedonian tribes in the north. So how have you been Marvil?" My grin got wider; I could never understand how a man that has fought and killed probably hundreds of men be so damn scared of women." Don't you change the subject Leo, how is that little wife of yours? You get her belly big yet?" He got even redder that time and stared at the ground, mumbling.

Having enough fun at my friend’s expense I got down to business. " Tomorrow night we will start his raid, Morth be damned" Leo looked physically relieved that I was no longer talking about his wife." Same formation?" We both grinned. The formation that we made when we were kids was that the Spartans would hold the center and the Reasuian would be on the flanks. We had used this formation as soon as we were given commands and it had never let us down." Yep and let’s try to not burn down all of their stuff like last time." we both laughed at the old memory. After we got all of the business we talked about all of the adventures we had and the places we have been. I went to sleep that night happy.

The next morning not so much....

    “SIR!!!" My sweet dreams were rudely interrupted by Dthort crashing through my tent and yelling in my face. I opened a blood shot eye and growled," What? And this better be good, I was having a great dream." “My lord the whole Athena army is here with all of its allies. Well that WAS a good reason for waking me up. I lunched out of bed and shrugged my chainmail on." Dthort I want the men ready and into formation in 20 minutes does Leo know the good news?" "Yes my lord, he is getting the men in formation as we speak." Good wait outside, I'll be out shortly."

He left and I got the rest of my equipment, my boots, my shield, my trusty knife and the most important thing Sun Setter, the great sword that has been passed down my family for 30 generations. It was 6 feet of ugly black steel. The whole blade was covered in runes that were suppose to protect the blade and the owner. They must work because the sword never broke and I'm not dead yet.

After getting dressed and getting outside I went outside to see what we were facing. “Fuck.me." I said, we were screwed. It looked like half of Greece was against us.

Everyone was scrambling around, putting out fires grabbing helmets, and running to piss. After we had our small army ready we went out and met the army. I was in the front line like always cheering the men on and putting on a brave face but I was nervous. The enemy had close to 10 times our numbers and most of our men were green boys. I prayed to Ares and Athena to help us survive the battle.

Silly me for forgetting that the gods are pricks.

“You ready Leo?" I yelled at my friend. “Let’s go Marvil!" “COME ON BOYS LETS GIVE'EM HELL" I yelled to my troops and they roared in response. With a final roar we charged the enemy.

I have been asked many times what it is like when two armies have come together since I'm always the first to hit the enemy. The best way to describe it is like an avalanche and you’re watching it come down to get you. Men are smashing into each other making the loudest noise that I have ever and probably will ever hear. There are also the screams of fear and pain. But for me the worst part of battle is the smell. In battle you smell piss and shit and blood.

That was what I experienced that day and more. There was simply too many of the enemy. We could not retreat because we were Reasuians and Spartans; retreat was not something we knew. The battle for me felt like minutes but I'm sure it lasted hours. But during that fight I saw Dthort, a friend to me in his own right, get run through with a spear as well as many of the soldiers that I had known as boys. Finally the only ones of our army that were left alive were me, Leo, and a Spartan soldier that I had never seen.

All three of us were huddled under our shields near a cliff to keep from getting impaled by javelins that is when the worst thing happened that I've ever experiences. One of the javelin throwers, bigger than the others, threw his spear harder and faster than I've ever seen in my life. It flew straight and true, going through Leo's shield, through the armor, and into his chest.

"NOOOOOO" I roared, throwing my shield barely noticing the other Spartan get killed by a spear. I caught him before he fell. He was covered in gore, but I could tell he was already deathly pale. I pulled the spear out of his body. " Leo look at me we'll get you out of here and get you to that pretty wife of yours just don't-" Leo grabbed my arm and said," Marvel don't let them get you don't....." He stopped, closed his eyes and just died.

Let me tell you that I wasn't the happiest camper ever.

“COME ON!!!" I yelled, getting closed to the edge of the cliff." WHO WANTS TO TASTE MY BLADE FIRST?" I guess none of them wanted to because instead all of them threw their spears. One of them hit me one in the arm and the other in the leg, throwing me off balance and sending me over the cliff.

Well this isn't such a bad way to die I thought to myself as I was falling thousands of feet in the air. I was moving so fast that I didn't notice that I was about to go through an opening that for some reason just opened up into the ground.

“Well this is odd." I said out loud to myself. After going through the hole it immediately closed and I was once again falling through the sky." Maybe the Gods are punishing me for some reason; I'm probably just going to keep falling forever. Unfortunately forever wasn't going to last much longer because I was going to die from blood loss.

Luckily the Gods weren't going to let me die that easily. When I hit the clouds they did exactly what I thought they would do they slowed up my fall a lot and since for some reason they were so close to the ground they slowed me up so much that I survived my fall when I hit a tree.

I've been hit with many things over my life and I'm grateful that the tree helped stop my fall, but it could have given me a softer landing. " DAMN DAMN DAMN." I said in my head as I hit with each branch, it felt like every in the damn branch, but I finally hit the ground. “OOFFF!" I could feel all of my ribs broken and there was the problem that I was still was going to bleed to death.

"GGGGRRRRRRR" something growled off to my right. “Great, I survived falling off a cliff to be eaten by a beast." I muttered to myself. I rolled myself to my side and drew my knife; I wasn't going to be eaten without a fight." Come on then beasty." And I was what it was. It was about twice my size with the body of a lion that had wings and a scorpion’s tail. I recognized what it was at once. “It’s a fucking Manticore." I mutter under my breath.

The edges of my vision were going black; I didn't have much time left. The Manticore didn't notice me though, it was about to eat something. I used what little energy I had left to focus on what I was about to attack. Then I saw it...

It was about to eat 6 little horses.

The horses were cowering near a tree. Some of them were weird colors like blue and purple and one was wearing a hat but I shrugged that off as blood loss. But if I was about to die I was going to do one last good thing before I died.

I was going to save them.

I used the arm that wasn't broken to rip the spear that was in my shoulder. I got up, I felt no pain, and I threw the spear. It was probably the best throw that I have ever done in my life. It arched beautifully, sailing over trees and hitting the monster right below the mane. It was dead before it hit the ground. “Nice" I said weakly before I hit the ground, landing on my back. I heard something walking over to me. It was the horses. All of them circled around me.  I smiled up at them, tasting blood in my mouth." You come to thank me little horses?" I said weakly. One of the horses the one that was wearing the hat looked to me.

What was most striking was how big it's eyes were and how intelligent it looked. It opened its mouth and instead of a neigh it said," What in tarnation are ya?"

The last thing I thought before I passed out was...

Did that horse just talk????

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