I shall enter too.
____________________


The day that it rained arrows.

- Wake up Castor!
- What now? Cant the Persians even wait for Sun God Helios to rice above the horizon, before they start to bug us again.
- Stop blabbering and get up now, something is happening!
As i stood up, I saw that our camp had turned into an ant nest.
My friend Theognis told me that, before sunrise some men had run to the camp screaming that, the Persians have came through some pass west from here. Men from Fokis, that guarded that passway were supriced by the Persian Immortals and now they are encircling us.
We had now other choice but, gather around the command tent and wait for the news. After half on hour all the commanders came out from the tent. Last one was our king Leonidas. He was in full armour with scarlet cloak hanging on his shoulders and his helmet on his armpit. He climbed on a big stone and shouted:
- Sons of Sparta! Are you so afraid of the Persians, that you cant sleep at night and gather around my tent for security! After the laughter ended he continued:
- Like you have allready heared Persians are surrounding us. Some filthy covard has betrayed us, and lead them to our flank. I and the other commanders have agreed that, majority of our forces will leave this place before it´s too late. Only us Lakedaimonians and 1100 Boitians will stay. This place is holy to us! It has been made holy by the blood of our brothers that have bled here!
So comb your hair now and polish your armor! Because i dont think that any of you want to go to Hades ugly looking!
So as Leonidas words echoed in my head, i run to my tent and armed myself. It had been decided that we would form two phalanxes one facing north, other to the South.I sayd goodbyes in a hurry to many of my friends and joined the phalanx standing North.
My friend Theognis on my right side and old warhorse called Anaksagoras on my left, we marched to North on the pass to face the Persians.
There stood the mighty Persian army. Noble Medians with their colourfull clothes and their bowes, savage Thracians with their painted bodies, Arabs with their camels, fierce Scythians on their horses and the Immortals with their shiny armours. As we stopped absolute silence fell over the battlefield. Not a single sound. I could smell the sweet smell of the corpses from previous days fighting. Then all hell broke loose. Drums, flutes, Spears and swords battering against shields. As the noice echoed from the Stone of the Thermopylai pass, i thought it would make me deaf. They charged against us like wawe against rocks, and they broke like it too. As the first wawe pulled back the sky went dark from their arrows. I shouted to Theognis:
-I cant see the sun from these bloody arrows!
-Dont Worry! He shouted back.
-Persian King is so courteous that he will cast an shadow over us,´so it wouldn´t be too hot for us to fight on this fine day!
I could only see his eyes from his helmet, but im sure he smiled when he shouted that.
It was high noon. The persians just kept coming. We slaughtered wawe after wawe, but where one fell there was two others to take his place. We werent standing on a ground anymore we were standing on human remains. Slowly but without doubt our two phalanxes were pushed towards each other. At my left the old Anaksagoras worked like an machine.Thrusted his spear on anything that came to his sight. On my right Theognis was injured somewhere to his upper torso, but he said it was just a scratch. I could see his cloak was wet,but it wasnt perspiration. Hours went by and we fought like lions, dying one bye one and the Persians kept coming. At somepoint i looked over my shoulder to the right and saw that, Theognis wasnt moving anymore. I touched his shoulder and he fell to the ground. The scratch was ten centimeters wide stabbing wound. He had bled to death. And his dead body had stood with us for sometime, that compressed we were.
I threw my spear down, grabbed my sword and run screeming towards the enemy.
- Come on cowards! Come taste my blade! I stabbed stomachs, punctured lungs, cutted throats and severed heads, untill i was so tired that i could barely stand. Then i felt strong grasp on my shoulder. I turned around,and there was Anaksagoras covered in blood,without helmet,smiling to me.
- Its not good to die alone. Come die with us.
As we were regrouping, i felt a sudden push on my side. I looked down and i saw arrow on my side. It distracted me for second too long. As i raised my head, i was looking straight to the eye of my enemy. I felt devastating pain in my chest. I stroke my sword under his chin and it came out from back of his head. He had stabbed me to my armpit and from there to the lungs.
I fell on my back and tryed to breath, put i only got blood on my mouth. I could see the warriors running over me, killing and dying. As i layd there i felt how it didn´t hurt anymore. It didn´t hurt anymore because i had found my peace.


After the Persian wars, Spartans erected an memorial stone to those who fell at Thermopylai. It sayed: Stranger, To Sparta carry this message with you; We lay here obeying our countrys law.