Once Upon A Battlefeild

Once Upon A Battlefeild                              

            A second siege was planned for the morrow and I did have to partake was my duty to king and country to cleanse the holy land from these heretics or so we were told by our masterful pope. I had lost the faith the hunger for the death of others that was in every other crusader and knight. Laughing to myself I did drink my ale a dribble falling from cup to my chainmail and tunic. Caring not I drank on the other knights ran about screaming victory into the night air. For myself tomorrow would be but another act of aggression against god himself what god of mercy would order the slaughter of millions.

            Standing I loosened my sword from its sheath and began to make my way to the grouping of my fellow knights at the front of the army. It would take a great deal of time to reach it and by that time the battle would soon be commencing. I hate this life I thought looking around at the supposed men of god partaking in their drink and women. This was no holy army no we were an army of butchers and I amongst them was no different. How many women have I known in the same fashion, how many men had I killed with a smile. In honesty it did not matter, there was no salvation for the likes of me.

            An hour or so passed by the time I reached my fellow templar’s they stood together and greeted me with excitement. Once upon a battle field I would have done much the same. It was not their fault nor in any case mine we were raised to believe these people deserved to be slaughtered and following blindly like the sheep we were we followed the chant of god onto the fields of despair, despair made by ourselves as much as any other.

            The call came now as the catapults loosed mass fury onto the city walls and I felt my legs propelling me forward. It was not even a thought my body did as it was told even when my mind did disagree with its actions. Charge they screamed into our faces as the main gates ripped from their hinges. Charge I did through the gates of the city of god and inside my acts of treachery was committed. Even with my thoughts of hatred for myself wondering about I did still commit the acts of ungrateful sin and disgusted at myself I enjoyed it.

            Time blurred about me through the day so much that my vision only seemed to clear at the moments of my foulest deeds. Nobody would win this fight this I know, we could take the ground and make the city ours but dead or alive we would all feel the effects of loss from this battlefield, the loss of our life’s or our humanity loss of innocence and purity at the hands of monsters who would take it for themselves. Being one of those monsters I took and took and hated myself for every second of misdeed.

            Finally as the sun began to set behind the hill Christ himself had been crucified I watched. I looked down at the city aflame I heard the screams of women and children as the smelly of the dead men that they thought would protect them fumigated about me. There was a time I would have enjoyed the sight of bloodshed and fire a time when the sins of my brothers would have beckoned me to join. There was a time I thought. once upon a battlefeild