Fairytales Family/Bannerholder Bob
Contents
Tales of Bannerholder Bob
These are the Tales of Bannerholder Bob a young peasent whose only purpose is to held up high the battle insigna of the Banner of the Dragon, one of the Fairytales infantry units. Unfortunatly, not all short stories of Bob have been preserved in the heat of the war.
Part III: The battle of Lambresi
The day has started so well. Bob remembered having a good laugh when crossing the Ethalian border. The men made some fun of the border sign, changing the inscription to "Welcome to Ethalia. We currently suck." But then came the battle, and like it was a good tradition, at least half of the men of the Banner fell in battle. Unfortunalty, this time, Bob got injured as well.
Bob remembered. They were in the middle of the battle again, eye to eye with the forces of Ethalia. They had superior numbers, but Bob knew that this did not count always.
His commander, the Dame of Lasop Florence Fairytales, ordered the Griffins to breach the Ethalian lines. And some good breaching they did. But once they breached the lines, there were only enemies around them. Ethanlian swords were reaching for his comrades, and it took not long before the first were falling to the mud. And suddenly, he felt a pain in his foot. Captain Gismar, Captain of the Banner of the Griffin, was commanding the wounded to stand up and get back to fighting, and so the wounded crawled back to the front lines, stabbing ethalian feet before giving their last breaths. And one of his comrades, blinded by all the blood in his faces, pierced Bob's foot to the battleground. Nailed to the field of honor, the bannerholder, and as such the entire unit had not been able to move further. A catastropic situation. Then everything went black, and the first thing Bob saw was the face of Vladimir the herb nerd.
Part IV: Shame and Glory
The camp was empty. Well, allmost. Bob the Bannerholder, the remaining soldier, was sitting next to a merely glowing campfire with a bad feeling in his guts and a bitter feeling in his heart.
The unit under command of the Dame of Lasop Florence Fairytales had been decimated by earlier battles. But this was new record. Keeping up with the bloody tradition, the unit tried to breach enemy lines resulting all men beside the Captain and the commander being slain. Even more worse, the Banner of the Griffin lost it's Banner, reducing the name of the unit to Griffin. And for Bob the Bannerholder, this was a catastrophy. His raison d'etre was no more.
Bob sighed. Suddenly, a "crack" was heard behind him.
"Attention!", the deep voice of Captain Gismar was heard.
Bob turned around and took position. "Yes, Sir!"
Captain Gismar, a large brute covered full of scars, both old and fresh, always looking grim, had come back from the commander gathering.
"Well.. Men of the.. cough Griffin, we have new orders. Our commander wants us to return to Arcaea to refit and.. get some new recruits. But first, we have to bury our dead propely."
With that the Captain handed over a shovel to poor Bob, turned around and left the camp.
It was going to be a long night for the Bob the Bannerholder.
Part V: Wiped out (again..)
"Take up Your positions, You cowards..!", screamed Captain Gismar with his deep grooming voice.
But no one was reacting to the command of the Captain of the Banner of the Griffin. Not John. For John fell in the defense of the wall. And not the other John. For he was dead too. And not Bob. For Bob was.. well, what was he?
Bob the Bannerholder looked at a sheep. Or so he thought, for it was a cloud high above him in the blue sky. Things went bad for him after his unit lost it's banner in Lambresi. He got appointed back to regular soldier duty. In this unit it meant to die soon. It was an silent tradition of the Banner of the Griffin that the unit had to be decimated in every single battle. Bob's chest was pierced by a black feathered arrow. It hurt a lot. And so it came that Bob did the best he could do in such a situation: He lost conciousness.
