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Well America, things are certainly dreary now aren't they? We have been through dark days over the last several months, we have been through times that have shaken our resolve and destroyed our faith in the fact that there is always hope. In such bleak times America, my family has been one to participate in Oral Tradition, the tradition of passing down stories through the generations through spoken word. America, these times have inspired me to share one of these stories with you. This is a simple story that these times in America remind me of. I hope you take the time to enjoy it, and I hope by the end, you understand the point I was hoping it would make.

**Note: I would like to apologize that this article is a wall of text, but this isn't a picture book 😉
**Note: It is a pretty good story, I hope you guys read it 🙂
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Story of the Lost

A very long time ago, in a confusing time ravaged by war and conflict, a man whose name is not known returned to his home in England after fighting in the Holy Wars in the East. This man had fought in cities from Tyr to Acre and had fallen into the favor of the King. In return for his valiant effort in the East, the King had awarded this man a great wealth and the rank of Lord in his courts. This man accepted the wealth upon his return home and lived many years in happiness and comfort.

As his life went on though, he started noticing the world around him more and more. What he saw depressed him. He saw the Order he once fought for and served for years taken by greed and desire. He saw the Kingdom he loved so dearly grasped by corruption. He saw the world which he had fought to protect begin to crumble at the seams. With the world in such a wretched state, this man decided to travel the world once more as he had in his youth. He decided to see if the entire world was truly engulfed by evil.

This man's first stop took him to Paris, home of his beloved Order. While at the city he stayed at a small inn whose name has been lost to the whispers of time. While lounging in the inn on his second day in the city he saw several Knights of the Order enter the building. Templars weren't an uncommon sight in Paris in those days, the city was the home of the order after all. At first the old warrior simply ignored the group, but then he heard a commotion. He heard some kind of argument and when he looked up to see what was going on, he saw the group of Knights harassing a girl and pushing the innkeeper when he tried to intervene. When the man saw this he immediately stepped between the group and the girl. The Knights immediately stopped when they recognized the old man from tales and stories told of the wars in the East.

The old man asked immediately, "You are Knights of the Order?"

The oldest looking Knight spoke up, "Yes we are, and who are you to stand between us and our prize?" This seemed to astonish the two younger men, but the old warrior wasn't surprised. The older Knight smelled of alcohol.

The old warrior responded simply, "She is not your prize. I suggest you leave," and upon hearing this the two younger men grabbed their friend and fled from the inn.

On his way out of Paris to a small city in Switzerland whose name has been lost, the old man reflected on his experience in the inn. He had truly been shocked by the behavior of the Knights. He had never seen men act quite that way, not when they were in service at least. While on the road, his reflections only darkened his mood and further proved the grip evil had on his world. That day he had seen men overcome by arrogance beyond reason, and he was sad.

Upon arriving in the small Swiss city, the man didn't have to go far to see evil had its hold. As he entered the town he saw four men attempting to rob a market stall while people gathered and yet did nothing. The old warrior jumped to the aid of the vendor. He cut down three of the thieves and grabbed the last by the throat before the man could even draw his sword. Once he had the man in his grasp he shook his hood off. The old warrior was astonished by what he saw. The thief was another Knight, and not just any knight. This thief had served with the old man in Acre. They had saved each other's lives more than once and had cut down countless enemies side by side.

After a moment the astonishment the old warrior felt turned to rage. Red in the face, the old man asked, "How could you do this?! You are a Knight of the Order and you would rob a hard working man in the street?!"

The thief responded by saying, "We were not stealing from him! We are Knights, it is our God-given right to take what we need!" This infuriated the old warrior so much that he didn't even respond to his old friend. He simply threw him to his knees and stabbed him through the chest, ending his life.

The old warrior rode out of the city immediately on his way to a small town just north of Rome. He was still furious, but more so than that, he was even more depressed than he had been on his way out of Paris. He had just killed four men he presumed were each Knights of the Order. He had just seen greed take the hearts of four men, one of whom was his own personal friend. This further ruined the old man's hope of ever finding good in the world, and he was sad.

The old man arrived in the small town and rented a room in an inn. He paid a servant to groom his horse and had the innkeeper take his belongings to his room. After his things had been taken care of, the old man went off into the town in search of supplies. He would need them if he were to continue his journey. As he wondered the town, he noticed the local base of the Order. He stopped by the training fields to watch a little before continuing on. While he was watching the people spar, he noticed one group in particular. The partners were a full blown knight so confident in his ability he had to be a very high ranking man. The other was so young he couldn't be anything but a squire. As he watched the two spar, the Knight knocked the squire down several times, bruised him horribly, and taunted him in an awful way. When the squire finally fell to his knees clutching his stomach after a particularly brutal blow, the Knight simply snorted and left while the crowd that had gathered left, laughing all the while.

The old warrior was curious and strode over to the young squire as he rose slowly to his feet and began to walk. When he took his first step, he stumbled, but the old warrior caught the boy's arm and pulled him upright. As they walked toward a rack where the training swords were placed, the boy struggled slightly, but the old man kept him on his feet. After the boy had placed his sword on the rack, he went to sit on a bench and the old man joined him.

The old man looked at the boy curiously, the boy was beaten and bleeding, but he didn't seem angry or discouraged. He seemed resilient if anything. As they sat there, the old man asked, "Who are you?" and the boy replied, "I'm just a squire sir, but I want to be a knight one day."

The boy was struggling to dress a particularly bad wound on his leg, so the old man helped him. While tying the bandage, the old man asked, "That Knight just beat you badly. Are you not angry with him?" The boy replied, "No, sir. He is harsh, but one day I will be good enough to beat him. He always beats me hoping I'll eventually go away, but every time he hits me or knocks me down, I just stand back up to show him that I'm not going to give up."

That shocked the old man. It didn't shock him in a bad way, it shocked him in a very good way. The old man asked, "Why do you want to be a Knight?" The boy replied, "All the other Knights say the only reason to be one is that you get a lot of rewards and you can have anything you want," and the old man became depressed as he remembered both of those were evils he had encountered, "but, I don't think so. I want to be a Knight because I think there are innocent people out there that need my help. My family was killed when I was small, and I had a hard time, but I never gave up. I want to be a Knight so I can help people, so I can make the world a better place to live."

That one statement warmed the old man's heart beyond belief. The old man looked at the young squire with a respect he hadn't felt for anyone in quite some time. The old man told the boy simply, "Don't give up. Never give up. You'll be a knight one day, and I have a feeling you'll be one of the best knights to ever live," and with that, the old man stood up and walked away, leaving the boy shocked on the bench.

The old man left the small town to go back to England the next day. On his journey back his thoughts were a mess. He thought of his first stop, where arrogance had claimed three men's hearts and corrupted them. He thought of his second stop, where greed had claimed the heart of a man he once thought very highly of. Then he thought of the young squire. He thought of the beaten and bloody boy, beaten so badly that he shouldn't have been able to move let alone continue fighting. He thought of how the boy continued to stand back up after each hit; he thought of how the squire was able to get to his feet even after a blow that would bring most men to their knees for several minutes. He thought of the squire's answers to his questions and for once on his journey, he knew happiness.

On his trip he had seen pure evil, but that squire had redeemed it. One small boy had revived the old man's faith. The old man still saw evil all around, but he no longer let it depress him; he no longer allowed it to claim him and force him toward a cliff which he would never return from. Instead, when he saw evil, he thought of the squire and saw hope. He saw hope that one day, someone would fix things. He saw hope that one day, the world would be set right, and he was happy.

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America, I tell you this story today because we are at a cross roads now. We have been through hardships in the last month that have been beyond belief. We were invaded by seven countries, we were swamped by the PTO, we were wiped, we saw all of our allies across the board collapse, we saw even one of our most faithful allies back away from us.

Do not lose faith America. We have seen in the last two months that there is yet hope left in this world. We decimated Hungary and then we used our momentum to destroy Serbia's empire. It didn't last long, but it showed that the eUSA AND HER ALLIES ARE STILL HERE.

There is still hope yet America. As has always been our nature when forces against us were to powerful to fight, we will weather this storm. In the Revolution we were outnumbered and outgunned and yet we fought. We fought for the liberties that are self-evident against an overwhelming force, and in the end we weathered the storm and we won. In the War of 1812 we couldn't beat the British in a stand up fight, we weathered the abuse and kept getting back up every time we were hit. In the Civil War, when sectionalism threatened to tear our nation apart at the seams of its existence, we battered each other to the brink of destruction. We ended the war and yet we continued to fight. Our nation was so divided it was on the verge of collapse. Then from the brink, America stood united and we got up off our knees. In WWII, when the attack on Pearl Harbor shook the nation to its core and brought it to its knees, when the Empire of the Rising Sun "awoke the sleeping giant and filled it with a terrible resolve" that giant came off its knees swinging. We came up off the ground from the very bottom of the depression to become the superpower we are today.

Do not forget your history my fellow Americans. We are a people divided, but when threatened and pressed to the brink, WE STAND UNITED. Do not lose faith my friends, do not back down. There is yet hope. Just weather the storm, and keep getting back up.

Beauseant America,

SwiftStrike74