PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

He stepped inside the room, and shut the door behind him, it stuck in place with a soft click sealing the secrets inside. He ran his eyes over the people assembled, he knew many of them but not all. He gave a brief nod to some familiar faces before moving to stand where all could see him. He took a deep breath, paused, and let it out again. Finally in a tone that carried warmth and the gravity of age, he spoke “Friends, I do not know all of you here, some of you are new to this room, others I have fought with before, I am honoured that all who are here came.” he stopped to bow his head, before resuming his speech. “I am a selfish man with a war to fight, and today I ask you one question, but before that I must explain myself. I am fighting for nothing more or less than myself, and only myself, this is no war for other people, for an ideal. If you believe that this is the case then leave now.” He paused, waiting. Nobody moved, and a smile spread across his face. “I do not know why you all stayed, whether you feel indebted or because you truly want to help me, for a reason I can only attribute to altruism. I do not know, but I do not care. All of you, those who would stand for me, to fight for something that you do not want, that you do not believe, from now on you are all my friends. You have won my loyalty, and because of that I promise you that if I survive I will come to your aid when you call. Tomorrow at dawn I have a challenge to face, the outcome is not certain, but I have never backed down from a challenge in all the years that this place has been my home. I do not fight for glory or riches, though these will be yours should you wish it. I do not fight for an idea, I am no revolutionary, no freedom fighter. I fight for a woman who may or may not want me in return. But I will burn this world to ashes before I give her away freely. She has broken the boredom of an age, I will not throw that away. Will you stand with me tomorrow, will you give me blood, will you live and die with me on that battlefield? This I ask of you, with no promised return. I would have you prepared for the worst, I would have you know that I will be yours if you stand with me. But blood and death is not all I want from you, I will give you loyalty and I will have yours. Now, to those who stayed, tonight I ask that you drink with me, that we form bonds of brotherhood that care nothing for blood. In the morning we will put our existence on the line, but for tonight we celebrate new brothers and new battles.” He reached behind him and pulled out a bottle with a strange label and cracked open the top. He lifted it up and drank it all in deep gulps, before throwing the empty bottle at the wall. He looked around at an audience whose expressions ranged from shock and surprise, to bemusement and in one case open grins. Then he roared out “If you don’t hurry all the mead will be gone!” With that the last of the tension left the room, the crowd of new brothers leapt up from their chairs and descended on the bar like a pack of hyena’s on a carcase. In the morning the bar was empty, as were the beds of those who had attended, not one was filled. The battle had begun.