(Author’s note: End of February, I go home to America. Until then, I post! Here is this week’s fictioneers.)
© Roger Bultot
Ride Across The River
by Miles H. Rost
Klaus tripped over a broken tree branch.
He hated his commander for staying at this place. It wasn’t safe, and wasn’t protected.
It was Christmas, and he was not wanting to be in this foreign land. He wanted to be home. Any home. He even spoke enough English to get by.
He had made it about two miles when he ran into a vast line of men. One commanding man looked down at him from his horse.
Klaus raised his hands.
“I know English. I surrender. They are not on guard.”
The horseman looked back, and smiled.
“Victory or Death!”
Courtesy of ushistory.com; 1851 picture credit to Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze
Music and Fiction 
Great song choice to go with a dramatic story 🙂
Thanks. The picture pretty much dictated it’s use.
A great story! Even better when playing the music while reading!
It really works, doesn’t it? 🙂
It does!
Thanks for a great song! Dire Straits are my absolute favs. The story goes smoothly with the song.
Thanks! Love Mark Knopfler’s guitar work.
Very creative take on the prompt. You built up the tension in this skillfully. I have to say I love that album.
One of my favorites. And one the first albums I bought with my own money in 1991.
Words and music in perfect harmony! Excellent.
Click to read my FriFic!
Thanks, Keith! ^_^
Great Story!
Thanks, Jelli! History can be fun!
I must be missing some cultural reference, because the reply “Victory or Death” just seems inconsequential. I tried googling the phrase, but even Wikipedia wasn’t particularly enlightening.
Battle of Trenton, just after George Washington’s ride across the Delaware. The phrase that was used to signal the pincer attack on Trenton was “Victory or Death!”
From Wikipedia: Before Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River at the Battle of Trenton in 1776, “Victory” was the password and “Or Death” was the response.
Great story with a large subject for so few words, well told
Thanks! ^_^
I hope Klaus makes it home in one piece! What was a German doing over there anyway? Was he one of the Hessians, like the Headless Horseman? Thanks for the snippet of American history along with the tale Miles
He was a Hessian. He was an educated Hessian, drafted in but knew he didn’t want to be in a war.
That’s one way to get out of the war. Nice one!
I love that whole Dire Straits album 🙂
As do I. A side is all pops stuff, B side is message music.
Great combo indeed!
Thanks! ^_^