The Weary Warriors

The cliff side had seen a lot over the years. Everything from first meetings between strangers, negotiations, fights, reunions, suicide attempts, adventures and even bloodshed due to war. Unlike most cliffs, this one hung at the side of a fort. The walls around the cliff had been built and broken many times over the years. But over the years, the cliff remembered 2 men in particular. Both of them had changed the world and yet, fallen to the same vices over the years. 

The first one had fought off colonizers from a foreign land to give birth to an independent nation and risen to become a King. He had woken up the spirit of independence in his people who were almost slaves to their own self image as they were to their colonizers. At the age of 16, he swore his entire life to achieve his dream of independence and achieved it, by carving out a self sufficient nation out of a broken land through blood and ink wherever necessary. 

The other one was a conqueror of unparalleled measure. He had spent an entire lifetime on the battlefield without a single loss to marr his record as a General. After taking to the field at the age of 20 and leading his men into over 40 battles and numerous skirmishes he came through victorious every time. He had singlehandedly expanded a minor independent nation into an Empire. 

Both men had been instrumental in shaping the history of not just their own little territories and Nations, but had altered the very course of human history. And yet, in time, both of them would not only be forgotten by the world, but what little that remained would get misrepresented and altered as the years went by. However, the cliff side remembered something else entirely about these two men.  

It remembered two nights almost half centuries apart with these two men. It remembered their pacing, their frustration and their agony. The most intriguing aspect, however, it seemed that both men were plagued with talent and ability but seemed to fail at the same thing. The bane that haunted their nights was not the threat of invasion, battle, espionage, economics or commerce. It was their families and how these two men had been shackled to the pitfalls that come with families. 

The King had been cursed with a Prince that possessed the best of the abilities of his father and yet, chose to willfully squander them in wine, women and merry. He also had a second wife that was almost poisonously jealous of his first and deceased wife. The General was torn between family and love. His family and society had deemed his new wife unworthy of his stature and he was expected to abandon her. His spotless record on the field and ability would be cast aside in favor of the immortality of this scandal. 

Time and History would remember the exploits of the young King but forget the systems and lessons the King wished to impart to his people. The General on the other hand, would have his love for his second wife immortalized to such an extent that his very career and record as a General would be lost. The cliff side remembered these two men for they had been burdened by their families and had echoed their pain and heartache out into the open air as they sat there pondering their respective situations. 

Both had vented their frustrations at being held back by their families, the sheer agony of knowing they were to die soon, the utter certainty of knowing their families were doomed because of it, and due to the nature of their responsibilities, so was the empire they had created. 

Perhaps only historians would see their real stories in their studies and see them for who they were. But a mere 300 years down the line, both of them would see their legacies desecrated and their lineages ruined by incompetence, conflict and betrayal. The pride of the people that both of them had spent their entire lives contributing to, sat broken and shattered. The cliff side was done reminiscing for the countdown had begun. Erosion and construction had made it unstable. The hard rain lashing the fort had set up a landslide of epic proportions. As the last reminders of the legacy of 2 great men roared down the slopes of the mountainside, the very sand, rock and steel fondly recalled the men that would unfortunately not be, but deserved to be remembered.