Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Stand Up.

This is the time.  



This is when everyone either pushes through and becomes a champion or when they curl up and hope they survive to the end of the fight. Which will you be? a dying soldier who made a fatal slip and gave up? Or the one who slipped, but then got up and kept fighting?

  'Cause that's the difference.  Picking yourself up.  If you can't get up and keep going then you will lose. Simple as that.  Heck, you might still lose! But, going with the soldier analogy: 
Dying in a blaze of glory, fighting your hardest, breaking a way for the rest of the army to get though... That's not a loss. That's a win. That's something that will be told of for thousands of years, written of in epics and used as inspiration for struggling men everywhere. 



So which will you be?  A statistic? Just one of the 7000 wounded?

 Or will you be the Hero? The one who lead the charge and helped win the fight? 



As for me, I don't know if I 'll "live" per say, but dang it, I'm going to go down fighting. 


From here: http://sebadorn.deviantart.com/art/Kneeling-Knight-Colored-141746435
found it on a Google image search...  (The guy is super talented. :D )

Monday, March 18, 2013

Dreams.


Wow, everyone has been talking about Dreams a LOT lately.  I think that's sort of a wake up call to me.
See, I don't like trying to figure out exactly what I will do in life, because every time I make a decision, I feel like it closes a million doors, but that's the thing, it does But here's the other thing, it opens a million more!
My main problem is that whenever I have to make life changing decisions I never know what to do, because I don't know where I want to go.  So finally, I'm just going to go for it, this is what I want to do with my life as of right now.

To start off, I don't necessarily want any big PHYSICAL thing.  Like, I'm not looking for a huge house or an awesome lawn. (Though, I wouldn't complain if I were to acquire such) What I do want is a non physical thing.  I want to be famous. There, I said it. I want to be famous for something.
Now, what I would like to be famous for is writing. I would like to be an amazing writer.
I want to write Fantasy or science fiction (Or both) And I want to make people smile. I love making people happy, it's something I'm good at and enjoy.  I love that feeling once I reach the climax of a book and you feel like you want to stand up and cheer, you feel like you could run a million miles!  Like you could beat a dragon or do a years worth of school work in a day. That's the feeling I want to give people. That's what my dream is, that's what I strive for in life.

Friday, March 15, 2013

A Life of Performance.

Two weeks ago I finished a run of a play, Much Ado About Nothing.  It was amazing and fantastic and I enjoyed myself a lot!
Acting is what I love to do, it's part of me and I've done it since before I can remember. This year is my last year in high school, after this I will move on, go to college, go on a proselyting mission for my church, and whatnot. 
Anyhow, this will be my last year to be in a play for at least three years.  This year there is a large musical being put on and I was DYING to try out. The problem was that I had just been in a play (Much ado) and had been in one last semester and I was (And still am) very very behind in school..
  So I had to make a decision, I had to give up something so that I could catch up in school. So rather than give up acting, which I loved, I decided that I would have to give up the funness of the internet.  So as of right now I have decided a few things: I'm only aloud to use YouTube during classes or via class Modules, I'm not aloud on Facebook except for on Sundays. I can't listen to podcasts on my computer (Though, If I'm exercising and it;s on a mp3 player it's fine) and I can't play any games on my computer.  All of these are in hopes that I'd be able to catch up WHILE being in a play. 

It was interesting because I had to actually go through and decide, what is most important to me. I had to look at what my dream in life is. As Dallin Ward said over in the Williamsburg community,          
"Everyone needs a dream. That is how all great things have been done." (If you have time go read his entire thing, it's good, and then go to Wesleigh Smith's post and read all of those responses, they're beautiful. )  So I looked at my life and decided where I wanted to go.  I found that that path didn't involve wasting days on end on the internet, however fun that may seem to me at the time. MY path to awesome involved me being committed to getting work done and to being free of the distracting influence of the internet. 

This is now the second week I've been doing this and it's fantastic how much has changed.  I've been able to focus on school work and I have started to catch up, it's been great. 

It hasn't been easy.  For instance, there are some days when I don't get very much done because I am simply spending the time fighting the part of me that wants to just quit and go to YouTube and waste away the afternoon. I'm used to being able to just distract myself and I'm used to just having fun.  I believe that the carefree, "Do nothing" mindset is just as much of an addiction as anything else is, and I obviously must have got myself hooked to it. It's just weird, some days I will literally have to argue part of myself that wants to go play, I have to literally convince it that what I'm working on is more important. It's basically my Red/Yellow personality if you're at all familiar with the color code.  I used to be really red, I was focused and I was very leadership oriented and stuff, but then over the years on the internet my yellow personality has taken over and I'm can be very uncommitted and lazy and just like having fun. So basically I'm trying to exercise that redness that I know I have. I'm trying to get back the determination and drive that I used to have.  It's crazy, but it's awesome that I am finally able to sit down and work and get things done. 

So, look at your priorities see what you WANT and then organize you time well.  You will never have more time than you have now, something will always be taking up your time, whether it be school work, other school, children, you will never have more time, you will just have to prioritize. 
So find that path and follow it to the end. The path is straight and narrow, the path is hard and filled with brambles, but in the end, it will be worth it. 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Aida and progress report

Wow... it feels good to actually be productive during days...
Like, WOW. It's amazing!
I finally decided what was top priority, and went with it. :D

Anyhow, status update for the day:
I've gotten about 2 hours on Aleks done... which amounted to one topic and an hour working on another one... :/
I also finished most of a Chemistry study guide.
Also... I;m pretty sure that having random spasmodic panic attacks every so often is NOT healthy...
This is not normal... normally I'm either confident or don't careahhhhhhhhhhhhh I don't even bleh. 
...just ignore all that up there^^
Yeah.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Accountability, day one.

Here I am, at the low.  Just like I was last year at this time.  But LAST year I just sort of fell over and died until the last week when I got up and brushed past with barely a "B" and a couple of A's (Most pretty much undeserved. )
So, this year I'm not going to do that, I have made a set of commitments and I'm sticking to them, they are requirements.
It's going to be hard, but it'll be doable.
Along with that I'm going to try to give an update of how I did each day. I'll publish it each night.  Here is today's: (Tuesday's)

So, today I did four Aleks topics (Right along schedule)
And I did one Study guide.
This is  in 6 1/2 hours.
I could have done better... But that's acceptable for today.

Also, AHHHHHHHHUUUUGGGGG!!!!
I'm trying out for Aida the musical and I'm so worried!!! I don't know what I'm going to get!! And I won't know until Thursday...

Also, if you want to read Final Stand in it's entirety, here it is
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FU6cs1d9uq5poaO08_gm_KPbWEfdj6uWKMAnG9rPrBs/edit?usp=sharing

Friday, March 1, 2013

Part four.

So sorry! I accidentally posted part 5 before part four... here's 4.


Chapter Four
Jett was awakened by a shout; he sat up and, with the training from being a scout for four years, instantly took in his surroundings.  He was in a tent, there was shouting, light… Then, he was awake, he remembered everything and he jumped into action.  Grabbing his sword he peeked through the folds of his tent entrance.  He had expected to see chaos but it wasn’t anything like that, his men were running, that was certain, but they were running in squads, to wherever they were needed.  Jett ran over to a large rock that jutted out of the ground near his tent, he climbed up on it to see better what was happening, mostly it was dark, but around 120 yards away, next to the opening of the pass, there were some tents on fire. Even squinting Jett couldn’t tell how many, there was too much glare in the darkness to tell.  Jett took off running towards the flames; he wanted to be there, leading his men if they needed it.  After a minute of running Jett got to the place that was on fire, only to find that it wasn’t really that bad, they had repelled the attack well, they had lost maybe 30 tents, usually a tent fire was a crushing blow, taking out over half of the men’s sleeping quarters, it was considered one of the best surprise attacks by the best military strategists.  Thinking about this Jett hadn’t realized that the enemy was still there, and that his men were holding them off.  Jett ran up and helped, it gave the men an extra boost of moral seeing their leader fighting alongside them, risking his life to save more of their lives.  After around five minutes the enemy had all died or had ran off.
Jett gave some orders to a few of the squads to clean up the area, told some of the commanders to set up a heavy watch to make sure the intruders wouldn't come back, and then took three companies of one hundred and fifty men each with him to Dan’s camp, which he knew would be the least prepared for this attack and would have suffered the most losses. They jogged over to his camp, so as to conserve energy if fighting was needed. When they arrived Dan’s forces had beaten off the enemy, but hundreds of tents were still blazing.  They all set to work with buckets of water prepared for this purpose and saved what they could.  After three hours they had finished with the ‘clean-up’, and Jett’s companies returned back to base.  Jett stayed up all night, helping with whatever was needed, and running back and forth between camps and trying to figure out how much they had lost in this attack.
Finally, when morning came, Jett looked around; there was black smoke billowing everywhere, the sunrise looking blood red through it casting a dark mood on the land.  All was quiet, except for in the background, the muffled sound of men talking in hushed tones and shovels constantly hitting the ground, they were burying their dead comrades. In the end, eleven thousand men had been killed, and fifty nine were still missing.  Five thousand of those had been killed by the fire in Dan’s camp and three thousand more had been killed in the fighting there afterwards.  This hadn't been some simple ambush to throw them off guard, this had been the first stroke, the first attack.  Most interesting to Jett, the casualties in his camp were only two hundred and thirty seven, a ridiculously low number compared to the other camps.  Jett would have thought that his camp would have taken the most casualties, since they were right next to the entrance…  perhaps, he reasoned, they had figured that his would be the strongest and had sort of, skipped over it.  Yes, that was probably it.
  As Jett was thinking about this, he saw Keth and walked up to him, “Are you alright?” Jett asked, “I forgot about you in the heat of battle…”
“Hah,” Keth said, “I’m fine, slept right through everything in fact…. Quite a show your men put on though, they were hardly even scathed!”
“Perhaps…,” said Jett, “I have suspicions that the enemy sort of skimmed over this camp, thinking it to be very well defended.”
“I suppose that could have happened,” Keth said, “but I kind of doubt it.  From what your men say it seems as though they fought just as many men, they just handled it better than the others.”
“That could be,” Jett said skeptically, “I still doubt they faced quite as many as Dan’s camp…”
“Well, I suppose that you could be right, and you are right sometimes… just not usually.” And with that Keth gave Jett a wink and walked off.
Jett sighed; he never could win with Keth.  After about half an hour Naphe and Dan showed up at Jett’s command tent to talk of strategy.  With a 6th of their forced gone they’d have to revise it a bit.  Not that any of them knew what to change; they had already had a pretty good plan.  Jett suggested staying in the valley and making the enemy come to them.  Dan and Naphe still both thought that they ought to fight them on the open plane. Jett rolled his eyes, “Fine, what if we set up some sort of contraption that can help us, like a make shift catapult?”
That might work, “Naphe said, “But we don’t have materials.”
“Then what should we do Naphe?” Jett asked.
“Well,” Naphe said, “I’m not sure…”  Jett sighed. It would be a long day.
That night they had finally figured out what to do, they were going to strike camp in the morning, and move.  Jett passed the orders down the line so that by morning everyone would know what was going on.  Jett lie down and fell asleep almost instantly, since he’d been awake for nearly twenty four hours.  

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Second to last installment.

Well, This is going to be a LONG post, this last Chapter is around ten pages. 0_0


Chapter Five
The next morning he woke up nicely rested. He visited the wounded, of which there were around a thousand.  They would stay in the valley hidden in a grove with 500 men to guard them; hopefully they would not be discovered.  At Ten o Clock he went back to his camp to head the preparations for leaving.  Most of the tents were already down and were being backed into sleds that would be pulled by men and horses.  By noon they left, leaving the safety of the valley.  Just as they did so the scouts at the watch towers reported seeing the main enemy force about thirty miles away.  Seeing the dust cloud it made, Jett thought it looked huge.
After everyone had reached the destination on the plane, half of Jett’s men left the main group and followed Jett up into a steep trough cut into the mountain.  When they got to the top, it sort of plateaued, Jett and the other commanders had decided to rig a trap, so Jett’s men started cutting down trees, these weren’t just some regular trees, some of these were fifty to one hundred feet tall.  They cut, moved set up, and tied off all of these trees to form an elaborate contraption that would release the logs, along with a few huge boulders, down on anyone in the mouth of the trough.  After all afternoon, with ten thousand men working, they finally finished.  They all marched back to camp, where the other half of Jett’s men has set all of the tents up.  They even had ten watch towers built around the three camps.
The first thing Jett did when they got back was climb up a watch tower; he wanted to get a good look at the enemy.  Once he got to the top, he could see everything. A mile away, over a small rise, the entire enemy’s army was camped.  Looking out, it didn’t look good. It looked as if the other army had a third again as many troops as their combined forces, and losing the eleven thousand men earlier didn’t help.  This would be no cake walk… in fact, even with their supposedly brilliant trap, there was no guarantee that they would win.  In fact, it looked like the odds were very, very, much against them.  
Before the sun was up the next morning, Jett snuck out to meet with his spies. They had sent spies into the enemy camp months ago.  Now that the army was this close, they could contact Jett directly without too much hassle. They would meet him just outside of the camp, so if they were discovered they could claim that they were misleading Jett. There were three of them. Jett, cautiously approached them and said, “Welcome men, it’s been a long time!”
The first man replied, “Yes, it has been. Be ready, they will attack at dawn tomorrow.”
Apparently they weren’t in the mood for small talk. “Thank you,” Jett said, “Could you start a rumor that we’re smaller than we really are and that many of our men are wounded and thus won’t fight?  It might give us the element of surprise in the morning.”
“We can try,” the lead spy said, “but I don’t know if it’ll catch in just a day. We’ll do our best though sir.”
“Good,” Jett said, “Now go.  You don’t want to be seen talking with me.”
“Yes , sir” They said in unison. They walked into the darkness back towards the enemy camp.  After returning, the day seemed very long to Jett. He didn’t pass the order to prepare for attack until the sun had set that evening. If the enemy had spies in his camp, he didn’t want them to know that he knew their plans. He did tell Naphe and Dan though. Right after the sunset, Jett walked to his second in command and told him what was to happen. He would pass it down by word of mouth only to those he knew, who would then pass to those THEY knew. Hopefully any spies would be kept out of the loop. Everyone was instructed to get a good night’s sleep, so they all went to bed early. The next morning Jett was up by 3 am.  Jett did the rounds and made sure that all of his officers were awake and readying their men.  By 4:30 all of the men were ready and waiting for an attack, the sun was due to rise any moment.
As the sun rose, Jett looked over to the enemy camp from the top of a watch tower. He saw men just milling about, not preparing for war, not charging… Nothing! And so, the army waited, and waited… and they waited some more.  It was just about reaching noon when the watch horn was sounded. The enemy was on the move. They all ran to the gathering place. Soldiers were flocking in from everywhere; lining up and prepping weapons. The enemy was just a mile away, but Jett’s army had dug a trench in between the two armies and filled it with makeshift spears and such. So, rather than risking the trench, the enemies went around and planned to fight them next to the mountain. Jett smiled. This was exactly the response he had been hoping for. Now they could spring the trap and perhaps that would help them defeat the enemy.
Ten minutes later, all fifty thousand men were standing right next to the opening of the trough. Dan and Naphe had elected Jett to be the general of the three armies, because he was one of the best strategists.  They knew that he wouldn’t call the retreat again, he couldn’t this time. It was all or nothing.  The reason for having one main general was for leadership. You couldn’t just have three people telling the troops different things, it would be chaotic. So, Jett was the leader and would tell everyone what they should do. He got up on a watchtower towards the back of the army. It would allow him to see and make quick battle changes.  They had many pre-rehearsed battle strategies and Jett could change them with a blow of his whistle. There were also twenty of the fastest men in all of the army working as messengers. They could tell the generals what plans had been whistled, if the fighting got too far away or if no one could hear over the din.
Suddenly, the enemy attacked! Jett whistled out the three short blasts that signaled the infantry to get in front and for archers to stand right behind them. Once the archers were safe, they would start firing in rotation by companies and would be launching an unending wave of arrows down upon the enemy.   A minute later the battle truly began.  The enemy hoards smashed into the line of soldiers. Here was the moment of truth. If the line held, even for a minute, they might have a chance.  They could then rotate the line safely without breaking it. They could also be orderly and pass messages along. If the line broke, all could be lost. Jett blew the whistle to send a group up to the trap. He’d wanted to send overwhelming force, but knew that he couldn’t spare even a single man. He’d been forced to send the ones who were unfit to fight. He sent those who had injuries which prevented them from being effective. He’d also sent 10 very fit men, just in case. They ran off to head to the top of the trough, where the trap was ready to be sprung.  Jett figured that they’d do a good job; at least he hoped they would. He looked back over the battle and was dismayed to realize the enemy must have known just how many men Jet had had. How else could they have matched his line, which they had done? So much for the false information he sent.  Perhaps he didn’t give the spies enough information…  Perhaps, there was something more sinister...  Jett threw out the idea and put his focus back on the army in time to see some of the enemy troops break off the main group.  Where were they going?  “Oh no…” Jett murmured. They were heading towards the troops heading up the trough and there were twice as many of enemies as there were Jett’s troops. They fell upon the small band and slaughtered them. There was hardly any fight. Jett hung his head. Though none of them had been HIS men, he still felt responsible. Perhaps if he had sent more, or if he had gone with them, or, or, or… So many things he could have done differently. He pushed it out of his mind. This was no time to think about that. 
Hopefully they could survive and even conquer without the trap.  Jett whistled for the next step in the strategy; the feint.  Jett’s men would turn and run as though they were retreating. When the enemy broke lines to chase them, they would turn around, already be formed up and hopefully scatter them.  Jett gave the signal.  His men all pulled back, as if making a strategic retreat.   The enemy ran forward, anxious to attack their broken line.  Then, Jett’s troops pulled together to charge and broke the enemy line! But, there was a second line. It was as if the enemy had known what was going to happen… They shifted and the entire side that had feinted was shoved back twenty feet!  This was devastating. Taking out a side was an excellent way to break a formation.  Jett whistled for a push forward. It was risky.  If you weren’t careful, you could lose formation.   But it was the only way to fix the damage.  It seemed to be working.  They were pushing forward!  Then, Jett’s line broke! The enemy came flooding through and it was a free for all.  Somehow the enemy must have KNOWN their maneuvers!  Jett couldn’t figure out how, unless someone with direct knowledge had told them. The only people who had the ability to do that were the spies Jett had hand-picked… He shook his head to clear his mind and focused on the battle.  

Jett kept directing the other armies.  They were all holding their line pretty well.  He looked at his line.  He could call a retreat.  Considering the enemies apparent knowledge of his plans, It would save lives and maybe they could come back and help from another side.  But the sudden change of plans would probably break Dan’s line.  He thought about it and was just about to give the order when a thought came to his mind.
Trust. Believe. They are strong.”
Jett took the whistle from his mouth. Why start something that you can’t finish? If he was fighting, would he retreat? No, he would fight to the end, till death or victory.  And he would let them do the same.  He ordered the 500 horses to charge into the flank of the enemy.  It worked brilliantly.  That part of their line broke.  Now both sides were sustaining heavy casualties. Ten minutes later the battle was not going well for them.  They had lost a fifth of their men.  And, while the enemy had lost at least that many, they had started out with more.  Even so, Jett would not give up, they could still conquer. 
At that point, from a valley behind the enemy, came what looked like a few companies of horses.  “We can take them” Jett muttered.  He ordered some spearmen from the back of his army to go head them off.  But then, from behind the horses, men started appearing; line after line of men.  There were thousands of men marching towards the battle.  Somehow, Jett had been misled as to how many men the enemy had.  Again, he thought about his spies.   After a minute, over thirty thousand men had appeared; all marching towards Jett’s position.  Jett could only watch them come, keep on commanding and hope for a miracle.  When the new army crested the hill, they were in full view of Jett’s army.  Jett waited, to see if anyone would run.  No one moved.  They still fought.  They still died.  These were men. 
Then, to Jett’s disappointment, two squads from his own army routed.  The thirty soldiers broke off of the main column and ran.  Jett was disgusted.  How could any person, who did something like that, call himself a man?  How could they…?  In the midst of this thought, he saw something. The routing men weren’t running away.  They were running towards the trough!  They knew that it was the last hope.  They knew that anything else meant defeat, no matter how skillfully they fought.  In the distance, Jett saw something that almost made him want to sit down and cry.  A hundred men from the enemy lines had seen the quick rush.  They had run to stop the two squads.  It was to be 100 verses 30; three to one.  There was no way.  It was over for them and they would die, just like the others.  Neither army was close enough to help now…  They would surely put up a good fight and though they might not win, perhaps they would inspire the other men.  Inspire them to fight to the very last man trying to protect their country. 
Everything else seemed to freeze as the small battle began.  Jett’s troops formed up into the triangle he had taught them.  It was the best way to fight when one anticipated being surrounded.  Rather than just standing and awaiting the charge, they started running. They would meet death straight forward, with their head held high.  Soon, the two armies crashed together.  Jett expected to see the line break and his army be simply run down like the others.  But that didn’t happen.  Instead, they held their ground and fought bravely.  They fought with the strength of three times as many men.  And they were winning! Jett was confused.  Simple, common sense didn’t explain this.   With odds of three to one, there is no way, (well, he revised, almost no way) to win.   But, he remembered something Keth had taught him. In wars, one would think that two men of equal skills, who battled each other, would be pretty equally matched.  But often, that’s not what happened.  Usually, one beat the other, quite soundly.  The reason, he had said, was motivation.  It was passion and their reason for fighting.  And sometimes, no matter the odds, the weaker man still won.  It was not because of luck; but because the weaker man knew that he could NOT lose.  He knew that he HAD to win.  This, Jett realized, was the reason for how his men were standing strong.  They knew that they could NOT lose. They were fighting for something bigger, not for money or power, or even for their lives.   No. They were fighting for their families.  They were fighting for their homes.  They were the last line of defense.  What they did here would directly affect how many of their family and friends died.  No, they could not lose.  They had to win, for they were the final stand.  It was obvious that Jett’s men had stopped being pushed back.  In fact, they started advancing!  They beat back the enemy, until finally, the enemy retreated.   They ran to save their lives.  They simply ran back to their main army. 
Looking, Jett could see that he had only lost four men.  Four men…  Perhaps there still was hope for them.  The two squads ran towards the trough, not even stopping to lick their wounds for they knew that time was of the essence.  Jett gave a whistle order: To stand firm no matter what. If they were pushed back far enough, then the main enemy army would escape and the trap would be useless. As long as they held firm, the enemy couldn’t retreat.  If they retreated, they would be overrun and would probably lose anyways. So the enemy pushed back.  Jett watched as his army held firm, but it was like holding back the floodgates. It was like trying to stop the wind or a river.  Wherever they pushed, the enemy flowed around them, flanking them, forcing them to thin out and push it back.  This was casualty heavy to both sides, but the enemy had so many more people that it didn’t matter.  Slowly, Jett’s army got pushed back; slowly they got further and further away from the mouth of the trough.  From afar, Jett saw a flash of light from the top of the mountain, where the trap was.  It was the signal.  They were flashing the signal to him with mirrors!  He was about to call the order to push ahead when he realized, it was the failure signal.  Something had gone wrong.  Something was stopping the trap from working. This wasn’t going to work.  They would have to figure it out without the trap.
Jett spent the next few minutes giving orders.  Though they were losing, they were performing well.  They were putting up a good fight.  Jett was about to give the order to change to Dan’s army, when he heard someone climbing up the watch tower.  Assuming it to be one of his messengers, he gave the change order and turned around.  He turned just in time to see a man jump and lunge at him!  Before he even had time to think, instinct took over and he grabbed the man’s outstretched wrist.  He used the man’s momentum to throw him forward onto the platform of the watchtower.   Jett looked over the side to see four more men standing on the bottom.  He couldn’t tell see clearly since they were underneath it.  Then the tower started tilting to one side.  “Oh, blast it!” he said, while grabbing the railing.  The man, whom he had knocked down, fell off when the tower started tipping. Apparently he hadn’t been warned of the next step in the plan.  As the tower started to fall faster, Jett remembered that they often folded in on themselves if knocked over.  In order to prevent himself from being injured or trapped he’d have to jump off before it hit the ground.  He timed it.  And just before it hit, he leapt free, tucked and rolled.  Luckily, he was far enough away from the mountain that there weren’t rocks to land on.  He was mostly uninjured.  Though by rolling on his shoulders, he expected they would be a bit bruised and quite sore by morning. 
He drew his sword and prepared to fight the four men who had toppled the tower.  As they started advancing towards him, he saw a spear lying on the ground behind him.   He picked it up and readied it to use.  At least it would take care of one of them.  He raised the spear to throw and it was yanked away from him from behind!  Sensing this new danger, he immediately rolled sideways and popped up to see that there were four more men behind him!  There was a chance he could have beaten four… especially with that spear… but eight?  He was good, but he wasn’t invincible.  Looking around there was nothing to do but stand and fight.  There was nowhere to run since everyone else was fighting.  And if there was anywhere he’d like to die, this place was as good as any and better than most.  He would die fighting for his home, his friends and his family.  He looked around. There was no one else.
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Good.  No one to sneak up behind and finish him off.  He turned back to the enemy soldiers and raised his weapon.  They each had a sword and a shield.  Jett carried no shield as he was far from the battle and had deemed it unnecessary. They slowly tried to circle him, but he kept moving, flanking them, so that they were all in front of him.  Seeing that he would just keep moving, they attacked.  They all ran, but one man was there first.   Brave of him to lead the charge, but very stupid.  Jett grabbed his sword with both hands and swung out, beating the man’s sword to the ground with brute strength.  Then he swung back the other way, moved the man’s shield and stabbed him in the abdomen.  He went down with a gasp.  Jett then turned to the next man, blocked the sword blow, then turned and hit another sword to the ground.  He came back around for a swipe right across the chest.  That was two men wounded and hopefully out for the count. 
Since he was being overwhelmed with people, he jumped back and reset his footing.  If he could get hold of one of those shields, his chances would go up dramatically.  He began luring them over, so that he could be in a position to grab one of the downed soldier’s shields.  They noticed and held their ground, just rotating.  When Jet moved closer, they all attacked again.  Jett just started blocking, his training and muscle memory kicked in.   Block, turn, swipe, feint, block, block, and then one of the men scored a hit.  The man nailed Jett in the helmet with the side of his sword.  Jett fell to the ground, stunned.  The men surged forward to make a final blow, but they would have to do more than that to take him down.  Jett rolled and swung his sword blocking the down strokes after him.  There were just too many of them.  One of them was going to score a hit soon. 
Just when Jett thought that he would be killed by a missed swipe, something happened.  The men in the back were distracted and one of them screamed and fell.  This made the men in the front line look back.  Jett, not knowing what was happening, took the moment to stand up, sword at the ready.  Seeing the men still distracted, he stabbed one and slashed at the other.  The third turned back and blocked Jett’s next blow, but Jett disarmed him and gave him a stroke as well.  He fell and didn’t stand again.  The second man was only injured, so was up fighting again.  Having only three enemies left, showed Jett who his savior was.  It was Keth.  He had somehow shown up and taken out a man.  Now he was fighting another man, leaving Jett to deal with two.  Jett sprang into action, blocking and spinning between the two men.  After twenty seconds, they were both dead. Jett looked over to see that the man fighting Keth had disarmed him; his sword rose for the killing stroke.  Jett saw this and started to lunge for him.  Unexpectedly, Keth flicked his boot and something flew out of it, right into the enemy’s throat. It flung the man backward into the grass, dead. “Never underestimate your enemy,” Keth said with a smirk.  Then answering Jett’s unspoken question, “Spring powered knife, made just for times like these.  We old fellows have to rely on cunning and smarts to win, since we aren’t so fast anymore…”
“Heh,” Jett chuckled, “You mean cheating?”
“Eh,” Keth said with wave of his hand, “Call it what you will, I’m still alive aren’t I?”
“True, true,” Jett said, “and thank heaven you’re here.  If you hadn’t shown up… I don’t know if I could have taken them.”
“You’re lucky I came. I noticed that the orders stopped coming and there was only one thing that really would have stopped you from leading your men.  So, I hurried over here to help you out.  Now, let’s get you somewhere you can help.” 
They both ran to the last remaining company of horsemen, where Jett acquired a horse. Keth jumped on another and they rode to a knoll at the back of the army.  Jett gave a few orders, adjusted things that had gone wrong and then realized,
“This isn’t what they need…” He instructed Keth, “Here, take this whistle.  You’re as good as I am at this.   They need me at the front lines and if we lose, I’m not going to be up here when it ends.  I’m going to be down there, fighting.  They need that right now.”
Keth replied, “Then go, have fun down there.”
“I will,” Jett said, and then started to ride off. “I will!”  He rode to the place where he had battled the small group of soldiers, grabbed a shield, grabbed the spear and then rode off towards the front lines.  As he approached, he called to the men, and they made a gap for him to ride straight to the front at a quick pace.  Jett knew that he was riding to his death.  There was no Keth to save him now; no fancy traps; just fighting and dying.  Fighting for what they all believed in.  When Jett got close he gave a mighty war cry and hurled the spear at the enemy’s front line.   He leapt off the horse and sent it back out of the battle.  He jumped into the line and started fighting.  He heard generals giving orders over the noise; the order to push forward.  So they did; Jett pushed forward with all his might, making a slight triangle where he was.  It bent the enemy line and made it easier to fight, while at the same time making a good standing ground for Jett’s army.
 They would still lose.  There were too many men falling. But perhaps they would take down a few more with them. After just a short time, Jett almost couldn’t hold out any longer.  He was taking the brunt of the point’s attacks, and still fighting.  Then, a man from behind grabbed his shoulder, yanked him back and took his place.  Until then, Jett hadn’t realized how tired he was. He almost fell over, but knew he couldn’t. Someone passed him water and it helped greatly.   After a few minutes he had recovered and was about to take his place, when two things happened.  The first was that he noticed that he was in a group with only the men from his portion of the army.  There were probably 50 of them in one group and these were the men he could trust.  If he had to die, these were the men with whom he would most want to fall with.  Then, the lines further down at either end broke.  There was chaos.  But Jett acted fast and instantly called, “TRIANGLE!!”  His men, conditioned by months of training, formed the protective formation.  They were surrounded by enemies, but they were still fighting.  They were not getting separated.  Jett made his way to the front and relived the man there.  It seemed hopeless, but still they fought on. The rest of the army was getting pushed further and further back. 
As the army was getting overrun and the enemy was starting to break Jett’s triangle, Jett heard a noise.  There was a great rumbling that sounded like thunder, but the sky was clear.  Perhaps it was an earthquake, the ground was shaking.  Or, maybe it was the one thing no one expected, but the one thing that they had all hoped for.  Then, with a crash, out of the trough came thousands of logs.  Tumbling down, they smashed into the side of the enemy soldiers, who had become very cramped with the newly added men.  It took out the back half of the army, but wasn’t done yet.  The next thing that came down were rocks; giant boulders flying down the canyon and smashing into the remaining men.   They took out hundreds each time.  All of this threw the enemy army into a panic.  With a yell, Jett picked up a fallen flag and raised it high.  They charged!  His troops followed him.  The rest of the army, strengthened by the blow, charged as well. They swept over the enemy like waves smashing into a battered shoreline.  Nothing could stand in their way.  There were only half of them left, but they charged the enemy and started winning.  They were unstoppable. The enemy was unable to make a good line, since Jett’s company jutted out in front taking out any line that tried to form.  All along their line, more of Jett’s soldiers did that.   It was like a wall of spikes smashing through the enemy.  When they had killed about half of the remaining enemy, the enemy routed.  They turned tails and ran.  They ran back to their homes.  They could not take a land protected by such as these; by men with something to fight for; with other good men to fight by, and with someone who led them well and who trusted them to do their jobs well.  That day was a victorious, a day of glory and honor