The Pope's Call to Arms & Preparing the Troops

Lt. General Highwater P.O.V. My name's Nathiel Higwater but please call me Lt. General Highwater the second top most general of the wolvesville military forces after my Niece Mistress Miranda Devorn who holds the rank of Field Marshal my second in command is Lt. Dan Bradham and our third in command is commander Ser Donald Devorn of Blackmoore and our job is to train this city's armed forces so that we are prepared for any call to arms by either the King of France Henri IV or the Pope Justinian I and today started off just like any with basic training ranging from shooting practice to basic tank repairs and I was walking along where my men where training as I continued my inspection I saw that one of my privates who's name I think is Sturgis was struggling with his shooting so I walked up to him and spoke to him Sturgis you doing okay son and he shook his head and said General I've been shooting from this spot for the last two hours and I still can barely hit that target that was 200 yards down range from us and I put my hand on his shoulder and I said here son the slight problem is that you accidentally forgot to adjust your sights so I adjusted the sight's setting so that it was at 200 yards and I said now try it son and remember to take a tactical breath and slowly release the trigger he nodded and so I stepped back a few feet and I said fire Sturgis and he fired his automatic rifle and the bullet traveled down the range at lightning speed and the bullet tore right the target's head and he turned around and smiled at me and said Thanks General and I patted his back and said no problem son and keep up the good job and he saulted me and said yes sir and then he went back to firing at the target while I walked away from him with a smile on my face as you can tell I love all my troops men/women like they're my children because two hundred years ago I was fighting in the battle of Acre back to back with King Henri IV's grandfather on the battlements of the major walled city and the two of us were keeping the enemy off the walls until King Henri II went down with an arrow to his throat that had pierced through the chainmail at his neck the king dropped to the ground coughing up a large amount of blood within the hour he died with his head in my lap and my armor was drenched in my king's blood I was shocked as well as enraged and I was left fighting on the wall along with about 500 Knights Templars during a short ceasefire with the Turks I ordered my squire Ser Daemon to take grab the King's body and to take it back to France and so I helped him get the king's body off the wall and onto his horse and I said go and so the Turks let him pass with the body since they respected him even though he was an enemy combatant because the king had been an honorable warrior and leader and after an hour the battle resumed and this time the walls were breached open and so I jumped down and joined the spear/pike wall formation at the head of the formation and I said raise your pikes and only drop them when I say so and so the joint formation lifted up their pikes/spears and once the enemy Turks were about 30 yards from us I said brace your polearms because here they come lads and sure enough the Turks came charging through the breach and were entangled on our pikes in the middle of the bloody melee that followed I took an arrow to my crouch from a Turk marksman and the arrow passed right through bursting my testicles like a ballon as it went through and even-though we had one the day after beating the Turks back we had sustained horrific causalties so under the cover of nightfall the survivors which only numbered 2,500 men out of the original 80,000 men I lead them through the blazing deserts for five months before we arrived at Constantinople and from there the men and I got onto some ships that the Emperor at the time Constantine V lended to us and so the next month and a half we sailed across the Mediterarnean until we reached the French Costal Town Marseille and there we dock our boats and then the survivors and I spent the next five weeks marching back home once we arrived home I sent the men to their homes and family while I limped to the Castle in the center of town and once I reached the door I used my energy and kicked in the door to the castle and limped to Miranda's office which was in north-east tower turret and once I reached it I threw open the door and saw that my oldest niece was sitting had been working on some papers when she looked up and when she saw my bloody and battered body she gasped and rushed over to me and said Uncle your hurt let me take you to the doctor and I shook my head sadly and she said what's wrong Uncle Nathiel and I said It's Henri and Miranda said is he all right uncle and I shook my head sadly and said Henri II is dead Miranda gasped again and then I fell to the floor and started crying because I loved that man with all my heart and I couldn't believe that he was gone during the time that I had been crying Miranda comforted me and said Uncle I know how much you loved him with your heart but Henri wouldn't want you to be miserable and I said your right I then stood up and took my armor off and threw it out the window and the I grabbed my sword from it sheath and broke it over my knee and then I threw the shards of the blade against the wall Miranda was in shock because she'd never seen me so broken and she tried to restrain me but I just shook her off me and then I limped out the tower and headed in the direction of my room once there I slammed the door shut and locked it with the padlock then I threw myself onto my bed and bawled like a baby for the huge loss that I had suffered and for the next year I didn't leave my room which greatly worried my wife Dorea and the rest of my family but I didn't care because the day before Henri was slain I had proposed to him and we had planned on getting married whenever we were able to go home from the holy land and he would share my bed with me and my wife Dorea who I had asked permission to proceed with my plan which she agreed before I had returned to the Holy Land eventhough I had unlocked my door so that my family could bring me food and water but I didn't have the strength or will to eat or drink then the next year on September 21st 1256 Miranda came into my room and said how are you feeling Uncle and I said with a hoarse voice I've been better dear and Miranda said firmly you need to eat or you will continue to waste away Uncle and I said Miranda you don't know what it's like to lose someone you love in front of you and all you can do is comfort them and try to ease their passing and so Miranda said I'm so sorry Uncle I had no idea how painful it must have been for you to see Henri drop in front of you while Miranda talked to me she fed me some beef soup and for the next six months I had gained my strength and will to live back even though I think about Henri every now and again I do know that he's in a better place and over the next two hundred years that followed I continued his lasting legacy by helping his widow Agnès to raise his son and heir Henri III as my own son because it's was his dying wish before passing on from this life and currently his son Henri IV rules as king if you looked at him closly he is a spitting image of his grandfather anyways I was headed back to my command tent when a courier came sprinting over to me out of breath and said message from Pope Justinian and I yelled Daemon get this lady some water and a place to rest from her travels and he came out of the command tent and said right this way madme he led her into the tent and I walked over to the Bellton Apartments and walked into the lobby and then I walked over to the elevator and pushed the button and I waited for the elevator to arrive and once it did I got in and pushed the button that read penthouse and up I went and once I reached my destination the elevator door opened and out I stepped into the living room of my family's penthouse and I went in search of my oldest nieces so I put my nose to the test and tracked their scent which led to their master bedroom and so I threw open the door but I wish I hadn't because i that my oldest niece was straddling her sister's hips suprisingly they hadn't noticed me yet until I barked Miranda get off your sister they both looked in my direction once they had locked eyes with me Miranda scurried off her sister and crawled back under the covers and said Uncle what the bloody hell and I barked back at her watch your tone young lady and she replied back rather fearfully yes sir and I then carried the message that the courier had delivered to me over to Miranda and Katniss and so Miranda opened the message and read it I said what does it say and Miranda said it's says that the Turks are causing trouble to the Holy Land and the King of the Kingdom of Jerusalem has asked for aid from all the Cristian Nations of Europe to aid him and I cracked my knuckles and said what are waiting for let's go kick those damned Turk's asses Miranda then looked up at me and smiled and said Uncle gather the legions and I saulted her and said yes mame and then I ran out of the apartment building and ran to gather our legions.