The Final Chapter

[Sithrazer]

Sigred had never been a good man.

He drank too much. His temper always got the better of him, even when he was sober. His tongue was sharp and his wits slow. His fists were quick to let fly. He's even struck his wife on more than one occasion when he'd managed to make it home after a bender.

"I'll not be troubling you further, Lorel." He thought to himself, long ago having given up trying to figure out why she'd ever married him in the first place.

Not for lack of trying, nor desire to be a better man. He tried giving up the drink, but wound up always being twitchy and more ornery than usual. He'd tried letting the nuns at the church school him in controlling his anger, but inside of an hour backhanded one of the initiates. Although he considered himself a pious man, and attended services regularly, he'd not so much as walked past the church since the day he struck the initiate.

He regretted it all. Well, all of it that he could remember and had been told of after waking up from an alcohol induced blackout.

So when the border scuffles turned into war and the City Guard called for volunteers, he eagerly signed on in the hopes of finally doing something good with his life. When the King's Army folded and invaders began marching towards the city, he was the first to request the longest patrol duties to make up for the headaches he'd caused the Guard commanders. When reinforcements from the capitol never came and it looked like the city would be sacked before an evacuation could be mounted, he stepped forward and asked to lead the force conscripted from the jail, stocks and dungeon in defending the main road into the city, buying time for as many people to get away as possible.

So there he found himself, out on the main road in from the border, the gates barred shut behind him, at the head of a pack of thieves, cutthroats, rapists and more kinds of ne'er-do-wells than he could name. The approaching army, that had started off a small dusty line in the distance, was now rapidly approaching up the road, the thousands strong force making the ground tremble softly as heavy footfalls marched in step.

He heard another mad scramble of footsteps behind him as one more convict lost his nerve and bolted out along the city walls, then the familiar twang of a bow as an archer up on the walls fired on the would-be deserter. There was no getting out of this day alive.

Sigred pulled a bottle from his belt and took one last, long pull then tossed it aside, savoring the sensation of liquid fire burning it's way down his throat.

"Right lads, time t' make sure we do at least one thing right in our lives."

Shouldering his shield and drawing his sword, Sigred turned towards the advancing army and strode forward to meet it.