On a cold night, food and drink banished the chill, passionate dancing drove away fear, and the warmth of an embrace made them feel safe.
The next morning.
The embers of the bonfire still held some warmth. The recruits were still lost in yesterday's beautiful dream. After all, they rarely got to eat meat, let alone drink, and certainly never with such carefree abandon.
The officers' shouts rang out. The recruits scrambled to their feet and hurriedly got dressed. No matter how reluctant they were, or how much they wished to stay asleep, they had to get up. An officer's whip showed no mercy.
"Listen up! Our destination is Budapest! March!"
The column advanced slowly along the main road. As expected, the Austrian army turned a blind eye. Only an old priest stood by the roadside, waving a white flag and speaking in Hungarian.
"Children, go back! Go back! If you have any conscience left, send these children back!"
But no one paid the filthy old priest any mind.
"Leave him alone. He's just a madman."
"Bah! An Austrian lapdog!"
"We're about to enter the city!"
The recruits sang and danced, and crows danced along to their songs in the sky.
"War drums disturb the restless dead,
Bootsteps shatter the peace,
Young men stride toward fates unknown,
While only departed souls sigh softly in the wind."
An ancient Vandal folk song.
Everything went even more smoothly than they had imagined. The recruits quickly passed through the Austrian army's defenses, and Budapest's gates opened before them. A glimmer of light seemed to shine through the crack. Everything was full of hope.
But only when the recruits entered this holy city of the Huns did they realize that its grand buildings had long since been razed to the ground. Even the streets