29 october 2024, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2540: hearing loss

This post was inspired by today's 5-minute writing prompt in the Freewriters Community - 29 october 2024, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2540: hearing loss

Enjoy !

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The battle had raged all day, and was going badly for King Radbald's army. The tide of barbarian invaders seemed endless, and the pressure they exerted was relentless.

Soon, men were breaking away from the rear ranks, their morale cracking. The army was pressed hard, finding their backs to a river. It was small enough, little more than a stream with boggy banks. But for a retreating army, it was a major barrier. Men trying to flee across it became stuck in the mud and were hacked down by the barbarians.

There was a single narrow wooden bridge. King Radbald's army withdrew across it. The King had given the order in the hope of achieving an organised retreat before discipline totally broke down.

One man held firm. An ancient warrior wielding a two-handed axe. The living embodiment of the saying that an old man in a game where people die young should be feared. The dispirited army saw him as they moved away, holding the bridge alone, fending off the barbarian horde.

He saved the army. Many men lived that day who would have died if the enemy had crossed the bridge and pursued the beaten troops. They sang songs and wrote stories about the hero who saved them.

They never knew that he held the bridge because he never heard the order to retreat. He was old, and suffered from terrible hearing loss.