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Constant Struggle
by Kahn
The Journal of Kahn of A0E
I waited in the small house with my team and others of my kind I did not know. I took in the faces, eye's that had fought many battles and hardened battle worn armor. My father had once spoken of armies such as this when I was a boy, only the army I now rode with was the ones he had fought so hard to destroy. It is odd how fate plays such strange cards. I looked out the window, the proud banners of A0E, SAS, PkP, PKZ and >U<. Guilds that I only heard of as fairy tales, yet here I stood, among those very men that my self righteous family had try to destroy and it made me wonder if I deserved to be apart of such company, as if reading my mind Mo whispered "It is your home just as it mine young friend, we are honored to have you among us" Ahriman, Reg and Poison all nodded in agreement. It was my home, I hold the freedom that I have close to my heart and with another glance at all those the banners I knew that today I would go with these men, both honorable and feared, to defend what was rightfully mine.
Though I had taken part in many patrols to hunt down these outsiders who came to our homeland I had yet to make it on the battle field. So I took in every word of those who had already faced our prey, taking in every word as if it were my life line, I closed my eyes as I always do before a patrol and played out every scenario I could think of that our foe might use and envisioned counter attacks...It was then that our allied spy's sent word that a large force was seen moving towards the city of the dead. Ahri thought it best that we move, our men were getting bored and when one's mind begins to wonder what might happen dread could kill him before he even enters the battle, we departed from the rest of the force and made our way into the lost lands near Deluica, at first we thought we might have misjudged were the enemy might enter the fray but as soon as the comment was made we ran head long into the largest army my young eye's had ever seen. Our allies were quick to the call of aid and before I had a chance to breath a battle such as no other I had ever seen rolled like thunder across the forsaken lands known as T2A.
I have always wondered why armies fight and lose countless lives over ground or cities, that night I learned why such things are done, I think that no one ever really wants such battles to take place, they just happen and in doing so the souls that fight on either side give their lives to gain just one inch of ground, give lives both side did, for a bridge, a bridge that is hardly ever used......But, on that night that bridge with no name was the most important thing in the world to me, to my allies and to my enemy. Call it a symbol if you will, to the enemy it was a gate way from the safety of the town guards and into the realm that we call home.....Open and free, though most of it abandoned it was still ours and we were not about to allow them to waltz in and take it unchallenged.
Minutes seemed like hours as both sides fought tooth and nail for that lonely slab of wood and stone. We would push them back only for them to rally and force us to give up the ground we had gained, all the while that very ground shook like thunder from the hooves of mighty war horses and the river below us run red with the blood of the fallen. I watched some of them run into our mass's knowing they would die but still they came taking as many of us with them as they could before falling to the ground dead. We pushed them back once more, my team and allies fighting like gods, tactics and bravery that truly could never be matched again......Yet still they came. We slaughtered and run them....Again they came against us like a mad ocean trying to destroy a rock cliff with its waves.
I was told by my father once that one must respect his enemy to defeat them......Those I stood against with my guild and countless others earned the respect of our enemy I think and our enemy did the same. What is it that makes a man put his life on the line for a bridge? I can only say that it is a small price to pay for freedom, and on that cold evening I was willing to die for that bridge, on that day many others that fought beside me did give their lives for that bridge...Our enemy gave their lives for that bridge. Men and woman who's names I can not remember, who in time will be forgotten as will this battle I'm sure. So what makes us do such things? It is really quite simple......To me and my guild and to those who fought with me that day, we call this home and we are willing to die to keep our lands........They left this place to gain riches and titles in another land and now that their purses are as fat as their bellies they come back to claim something that they had long since forsaken.........I think I speak for others of my kind when I say let them come, let them try and take the place we roam so free.....Let them come, for they will find that it is not so easy a task.
They call us murderers and cutthroats, but I ask you this, how are they to truly know what makes a man's heart. They have always said we have no honor or respect but on that day I am sure we crushed such lies. Tell me are they better? They take the dragons for their own and they kill off the orcs that threaten their city's, city's that they built on land those very orcs have called home for centuries and make pets of majestic beast that have roamed free even longer. They look down on those who are poor and they chide those of us who do not hold the same virtues that they do. Did they think it would be easy? Did they think that once they entered the lands they have forgotten and abandoned that we would just bow out and give it back? If they did they are sorely mistaken, these are our lands and this is my home and I say only this......After I am dead and gone I'm sure no one will morn or remember me, only those few who have taken me in when the righteous would not. If it is my fate to die in this war then I accept it with open arms, because I will be damned if I will let them walk these lands freely as long as there is an ounce of breath in my lungs to breath and I will carry on as long as there is blood in my veins yet to be spilled. The epic battle has begun and may whatever god that is prayed to by each side have mercy on all our souls.......Because many more deaths will follow in the days to come and the ground will run red as the blood of my enemy and my family mix and soak deep into the lands that we fight for.