Gather around for some new stories - Tale of The Week 38

[Hesus de bodemloze]

Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company.

- George Washington -

Toboe' s winning picture, PoTW 139 Champion. A wonderful picture, enjoy making up your tale.



Rules :

1. Post a short text about this picture, with min. 200 max. 500 words, in a spoiler.

2. If you are a contestant you are honour bound to not read other contestants' writings until you have submitted yours.


3. The winner gets 1 point on the Leaderboard, if there are at least 4 contestants.

4. Deadline: last day of each week (Sunday).

[Nazgûl Killer]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Beggining...
he walked from his tent to the general's, pacing quickly through the grassland, many soldiers looking at him. The man in the bright, shiny armor walking gracefully and quickly, he obviously just tidied himself up and cleaned his armor from the battle before, but now he paid little care to that, something was so important, it could not wait. He walked faster and faster, mud splattering on his greaves, he did not care, rain and muddy water on his leggings, he did not care. The carefully cleaned man just kept walking faster, he knew that running might cause panic, so he walked.
Upon arriving into the general's tent, he stormed in, looking him in the eyes and told the rest of the men;
"Leave us!"
They gazed at the general, which nodded, and they left.
"What is i--"
"They are coming, we must make haste and rally up all the men, we must hurry!"
The general smiled, a hearty smile; "Lest you worry my friend, I promise you, we will be fine"
The man seemed really terrified; "Fine!? How!? They are in the thousands! We are mere hundreds! Horsemen, infantry, archers, shamans, what are we to do!?"
The hearty general smiled again; "You worry too much my friend. Come, stay, clean up your armor, it is quite messy"
The man gazed at the general, annoyed... But he did as such, and calmed after a while.

A day later, at the general's camp, the two were there already, and in came the captains, the general stated:
"Men, tonight we will face our greatest battle. Prepare the men, it will not be pretty"
He said heavily, not smiling this time.
As the captains rounded up the men to war, the general gazed back at the man riding behind him;
"How many are we?"
"Seven hundred and thirty three, sir"
"How many are they?"
"Seven thousand"
The general smiled.

Reaching the battlefield, the general took a deep breath of the clean fresh air, fresh after the rain, and the second he did, it started snowing, he smiled, he knew the Indians would interpret it as a bad omen, he actually loved the snow, reminded him of his homeland.
"Prepare for battle! Muskets! Aim for the back of their lines!"
So they did and opened fire, none of the front lines fell, but the back lines got hammered, the cannons opened fire and more were killed.
The Indians sent in their horsemen, five hundred, galloping quickly, running towards the English.
"DO NOT, fire at the horsemen!"
The whole army looked at the general, awed;
"Keep aiming for the back lines, do not fire at the horsemen!"
The soldiers, reluctantly, complied.
As the horsemen reached the English lines, they all stopped, with battle in their eyes, and the lead one, the banner carrier, approached the general;
"General Hartford, 'how do you do'"
The Indian asked, cynically, and the general laughed, smiling at the man.
"I'm fine, thank you my friend. Set up your soldiers at the flanks, we'll be needing them" He said, smiling.
Seeing that, the enraged Indian chief sent his front lines, who were all infantry, to the fray, they ran quickly.
"INFANTRY! Charge!"
The general screamed, after five minutes, both infantry sides collided, but not with the clash of swords, but with joyful handshakes and smiles.
The hearty general smiled.
"It's not quantity, my friend. It's quality" The general stated to the man, who was awestruck.
"Yadid! On me!" The general yelled and galloped ahead of the Indian cavalry, coming to support the English-Indian infantry charging at the Indian lines;
"This is the begging... Of a beautiful friendship!"
Yelled the Indian cavalry leader, as they galloped together to meet the Indian chief in combat.

[Theodotos I]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hair

“Did I ever tell you boys the story of my hair?” A few weary nods greeted the question—the rest of the tavern's occupants too preoccupied with their pints of ale to even respond.
“No.” The only audible response came from a boy of no more than fourteen, warming himself by the fire.
Groans went up from the rest of the men in the tavern. “Lord have mercy, kid,” one of the men bellowed, setting down his pint to glare in the boy's direction, “you oughta known better than that. Here we go again. . .”
The old man in the tattered red jacket ignored their protests, his eyes shining with delight as they focused on the boy. “You haven't, eh? What's your name, sonny?”
“Jim.”
“Well, Jimmy, let me tell you about it. It was back in '59, when we went after the Injuns down in Cherokee country, with Colonel Montgomery at our head. Winter came on as we chased them durn natives through the forests, and every morning we’d shiver ‘round the campfires until our teeth nearly rattled from our heads.”
“Then one fine mornin’ the colonel hisself comes up to our bivouac and says all fancy-like, ‘Sergeant’—that’s me, sonny—and he says, ‘Sergeant, I want you to take your men out on patrol to the sou’west.’ Well, I called together my boys and off we set, six of the proudest soldiers auld England ever produced.”
The twinkle died in the old man’s eyes and he peered mournfully into his now-empty pint. He reached into his pouch with a long, bony hand and extracted a gold coin. “Ale!”
Only when his pint had been refilled did the old man continue his story. “Yessiree, some of the best men I’ve ever known. There was John and Billy, Jonas the corporal, the MacGuire brothers, Malcolm and Jack. And me. A light snow was falling as we started out and it got heavier.”
The boy’s eyes never left the old man’s face.
“Jonas was the guide, a Kentuck boy hisself, but all the guiding in the world couldn’t have helped us as the snow fell faster. Our tracks were filling in and we was lost. That was when the Injuns hit us.”
“They came thundering outta the snow on horseback—jest like they knew we were there all along. Jonas got it first, a musket-ball through the breast—then Billy and Jack were cut down. John turned to run, but a spear caught him right back here—‘tween the shoulders. And he was dead. A musket-ball clipped my head and I fell, knocked senseless. I just lay there, not knowin’ a thing till I woke hours later with the sun shinin’ down on me. Malcolm lay not far off, dead as all the rest. So, I got to my feet and walked all the way back to camp on my lonesome. And that’s the story.” The soldier returned to his ale, a look of contentment on his face as he sipped the dark liquid.
The boy looked puzzled. “I thought you said that was the story of your hair?”
A cunning look came into the old man’s eyes and he grinned, standing to his feet and sweeping off his hat.
His head was devoid of any hair, the flesh rough and discolored as though the entire scalp had been removed. The tavern exploded with laughter at the shocked look on the boy’s face and the old man chuckled. “It is, sonny. It is. . .”

EDIT: Oh, crap, I should have used my reserved post. Stupid.

[SonOfAlexander]

I know this is a bit sad, but I just can't be bothered to enter this time - I cant think of any good storyline no matter how much I look at the pic ...

EDIT: URGH, should have used reserved...

[Nazgûl Killer]

I know this is a bit sad, but I just can't be bothered to enter this time - I cant think of any good storyline no matter how much I look at the pic ...

EDIT: URGH, should have used reserved...

(Sorry for useless post for a sec, just gotta tell him something, please excuse me)
Alexander, rare are the moments in which I get utter inspiration in matter of seconds, and the 2nd time I got that was the one I won. Several times have I almost won without inspiration at all.
Just start typing, see what comes out and go ahead! No reason to quit before starting, just try, it can't hurt. I'd really love to see some more of your stories, to be honest.

[ELITEOFKINGWARMAN8]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Surprise


It was a calm day that day.... Men was hustling about in the camp, preparing their meals, getting into their uniforms and preparing for the long day ahead..... There were report of several groups of Indians, numbering in the dozens per group, maybe hundreds at most, wondering around the area..... But no one pay any attention to the noises from the edges of the forest that day....


A Solider starts running though the camp....... "Indians are coming, Indians are.....", He falls to the ground with a arrow in his back. The men look up, and were giving him strange looks at first, until he fell dead.... From the edge of the forest, Indian infantry started to form, mostly with spears, but a few with Muskets and Bows&Arrows.... The alarm started to go out throughout the British camp.... The General and the rest of the men quickly prepared for battle.....

"Load your weapons..... Be ready to Fix Bayonets!" Yelled the General, as his men load their weapons..... Some just fixed Bayonets outright..... The Indian cavarly appeared out of nowhere, first at a trot, but then in a full rush to the British line..... When they came in range.... The British opened fire...... Then the 2nd line open fired on the cavarly, killing scoring of cavalry. The Inftrany was close behind.... They swarm into the battle lines, stabbing and cutting the British men as they went.... The British General spots the Indian Chief on horseback. He raises his pistol and shoots the Chief in the head..... a moment after the Chief fire his arrow that went into the British General, who is choking on his own blood while Indian inftrany is swaming into the lines to avenage thier dead chief and dead cavarly.....

[Conquistatore]

I'll try my luck for the first time.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Torment

The natives were all around us, left right and centre. We could not move, we could barely breathe. There was no escape for us, we all knew we were doomed. They surprised us, came out of nowhere. How could we not have seen them? How could this happen? Their axes are stained red with the blood of our men, their howling warcries pierce the dead night. The falling snow is as cold as death all around us, endless black and fire.

Their horses are crazed, mad from the blood rage. They plow into our ranks, crushing men underfoot. We have no chance, we never did. Our General was foolish, he underestimated their strength. Pride in ones country and military skills alone cannot stop the slaughter. He was arrogant, over confident, and now it has cost us our lives.

The cold wind whips through the night, turning us to shivering bloodied souls. The icy hell that is being delivered is unstoppable, the end is only a black wall. Our reinforcements had not come, we were alone out here, forced to march on against our will and better judgement. This is their land, they love and protect it, who were we to invade and attempt to destroy them?

Now we are being punished for our sins in the worst possible manner. Our mischief is being returned tenfold. It is my hope that our nation learns from what happened here today, to prevent a slaughter such as this in the future.

Their muskets light up the night, I see glimpses of the faces of desperate men, trying to get off just that one shot. We are surrounded, there is no hope, not in this life. Death and despair overtake us, some of the men begin to flee, but they won't make it. It is an open field and the enemy is on horse, methinks the running ones will only suffer greater pain and torture in the end.

Time is almost out, peace is almost upon me. I can feel the life slipping from me, oozing out of the hole in my chest. It is almost over, soon I can sleep forever and end this nightmare, this torment.

Hope you enjoyed it.