The Unnecessary Battles of Men


Sapalbizes could hear only the horses sputtering and neighing. Right now the men were silent. It was the silence men use to make peace with their god and themselves before riding into battle and perhaps death. The silence known to all battle fields throughout history. For centuries when men marched into a struggle for life and limb they said nothing and livened only to the plodding of their feet. Sapalbizes was too experienced and had been in too many battles to be thinking about dying, instead he only thought about what brought him here. What made him risk his men against a force almost three times as great as his. He thought back to his tent in the camp-city of Sulek.

"Oxyboaxes plots something my lord, everyday he goes from tent to tent talking to the chiefs of the clans, and they love him, especially after they heard of his raid on Sulek."

"Damn him, yes he brought back many heads, but what good did that do, wasn't it I who defeated the hordes of Haomavarga, was it not me who captured sulek with less than fifty casualties, wasn't it I rounded up over two thousand slaves which now tend the herds and serve the chiefs in chigu. Nobles care only for one thing, Glory."

"Indeed milord, but we must do something, or he will soon be Yabghu and you will be dead."

"We have sent most of the heard home and they will not likely return so quickly, we need to deprive him of his power, we need to take his warriors."

"Yes Yabghu, a raid, a glorious raid, outnumbered and ranged, but you will overcome this and come back with many heads."

"No Miyika, not a raid, a conquest, we will set out for Haomavarga and take the horse men, but we will leave Oxyboaxes, he has a knack for governing anyway."

And so Sapalbizes took Oxyboaxes faithful warriors and set out to punish the Haomavargans for their Treacherous attack, but now Sapalbizes did not know how glorious this would really be. He knew now that this battle was unnecessary, and many men would die in a battle so unnecessary.


The enemy outnumbers the saka greatly, the chances of victory are slim.

But this did not matter, he was here now, and so were his soon to be dead men,and so was the silence. He knew the more men thought about dying the worse, he had to break the silence. He was not much fir speeches, but he knew one thing never fails.

Sapalbizes drew his sword and let out a great war cry.



Suddenly as if they had all just awoke from sleep, his men answered his call, and from the silence, came the thunderous noise of men that were ready for a fight and so the hordes of the saka rode into battle once more.