Bro's Life
Hannibal the horrible, what can I say about the man? He was the brightest general I had ever seen. There is no doubt in my mind where he got all that from, it was most obviously his father. His father, Hamilcar Barca, was the commander of the Carthaginians. Now let us take a minute to talk about his name. As we were growing up I always heard people call Hamilcar, "Thunderbolt" which was an honor. Thunderbolt, represents the last name, the heritage of the last name comes from the root of the word Barca, or thunderbolt. Now this name was important because it was something that people would not call you unless you were considered to be of great power. Hannibal would always tell me as a little child how much he wanted to bare the name "Thunderbolt" or even "Thunderbolt Jr." Hannibal always wanted to be great.
Some of my first fun memories with Hannibal where in our home town, Carthage in Tunisia. We went to school there, and one particular winter day I remember Hannibal asking me if it would be fun to have a snowball fight. Of course I was always up for a good snow ball fight, but I saw something mischievous in the eye of my friend. See you have to understand that no one liked Hanny, he was smart and his dad was rich so all the students looked down on him and made fun of his families name and made fun of him. There was this especially mean kid named Levi, and his brother Nathan and the both of them were relentless when it came to pokin fun at Hanny. And since they were the two most popular kids in school everyone else joined in and made fun of him to. So, it was pay back time, and I knew I had to help my friend so I asked him what we were going to do. He looked back at me and pulled a small piece of parchment from his trousers, as he unfolded it I saw a blue print of the entire castle and a master plan of how he was going to have the two of us beat 122 students with just 7 snow balls a piece! It was impossible I told him, but for the next ten minutes leading up to lunch recess he went over the perfectly crafted plan step by step until I had memorized, and recited it back to him.
We were in third grade at the time and Hanny, that was my nickname for him, and I stepped out knee deep in snow as recess began. Our professor Dan was leading the rest of the students out behind us. So we wasted no time, running over to the drift next to the buildings because Hanny said it would pack easier. We started packed seven perfect snowballs in each others nearly frozen wolf skinned jackets. Just as he packed the last snowball in my hood he gave me a thug hug with a snap back pound, that was the code, and I knew it was time. I started running just in time to see a snowball whiz by my face and smack Levi, the biggest, strongest sixth grader in the school, right in the beak. Within a split second blood was flowing from Levi's nose and he was off like a mad bull towards Hanny. Before I knew it we were back together and everyone was getting in on the snowball fight, and just like Hanny had planned all of them were taking sides with Levi and going against the two of us.
Hanny and I stuck to the plan, throwing only when planned and luring all 122 kids back into the dark alley between the gym and cafeteria. As we got into the back of the buildings I noticed that we were trapped, we had hit a dead end and my mind was drawing blanks not knowing what was going on. All I remember seeing was professor Dan, and 122 mad students with Levi's frozen and bloodied face leading the pack, with Nate following bloody mouthed behind him only 20 feet in front of us. I had used my last snowball to smack Nate, the twin brother of Levi, square in the mouth, so I was out of snowballs, and this was a foul moment to be out of ammo! Then I look over at Hanny and all he has is one left, but he is wearing a huge come on grin and I know something is about to shake down. Then it happened, Levi was nearing ten feet away when Hanny drew back and fastballed his final snowball aiming right for Levi's head. The ice ball seeds itself right on mark in the middle of his forehead, Levi wobbled a few more steps ahead and then like Goliath, the 250 pound, six and a half foot, chiselled out of granite sixth grader named Levi, dropped face down right in front of Hanny giving an earth shaking smash. The quake was felt by all and the second his face whipped into the frozen earth, the after shock trembled up the 20 foot building and hit the 3 foot drift of snow detaching it from the arms of the gym and cafeteria building walls in the alley way, releasing it all at once falling and landing like a prison of pillows around the entire 122 students! As the snowy powder finally settles you can see everyone’s tiny little snow packed heads popping out of the snow, gasping for breath wearing stunned and baffled faces. He had done it! With seven snowballs, two people, and a motive he had conquered the entire student body, even professor Dan got dumped on! As they sat unclenched by the snow, Hanny and I took the walk of glory back to the outside of the small alley way, walking on top of snow right next every single imprisoned body that was yelling and screaming curses at Hanny's name.
From that day forward no one ever gave Hanny any sort of problems again. The two giant brothers, Levi and Nathan, respected Hanny from now on and always gave us our distance. You can say that from this point on that Hanny was the most respected kid in school. I had always respected Hanny, but up until this point I had no idea how truly intelligent and strategically minded he was. I mean, he beat our entire school with me and him and 7 SNOWBALLS; this was only the beginning for Hannibal! Hanny and I laughed about this story for years. Hanny would always tell stories, that was his favourite thing to do.
As Hannibal and I got older and out of school, he kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I never really thought about it up until he asked me, but now that the question was presented I really didn't have an answer. I had always followed everything that Hanny had done, being his right hand man and best friend. By this time Hannibal knew what his life was going to be like. It was going to follow in the foot steps of his father being the leader of the Carthaginians. After his father died in battle his brother-in-law named Hasdrubal went to full commanding officer with the young Hannibal as an officer under him. Hasdrubal did not last for long though, after his assassination in 221BC, Hannibal was finally proclaimed commander-in-chief by the army and by the Carthaginian government. As Livy and I recall, it was like Hamilicar being brought back to all the men in flesh form. Hannibal was a spitting image of his pappy but we would soon find out who the better general really was! I was so proud of my buddy Hanny. Once he was in this position following his pappy's footsteps, he was asking me what I wanted to do with my life. Well, I told him, where you go I go, I will fight with you until the day death separates us. We gave the thug hug with the snap back pound and I knew I had just packed a life of adventure with my best buddy.
Shortly after this happened, I got the privilege of being the best man in Hanny's wedding to Imilce the gorgeous Iberian princess. But, the honeymoon would be cut short with the arrival of the Second Punic War in Italy which, if memory recalls, was from 218-203BC. This war was the beginning of a shining time for Hanny, it would test his valour, wit, bravery, mental and physical strength, and most of all his ability to lead and succeed! Some of the best memories we had together were at the beginning of Hanny's leading. During grade school there were tons of kids that really used to be good to us once we pummelled the twins Levi and Nathan. There was a man named Miles Fortner and he was the head of the archery and Rambo division in our new army. I chose him because back in grade school that boy could sneak up on a jack rabbit blindfolded. When he wasn’t sneaking up on them, he would let them loose, and then at 75 yards, mid-stride, with a heavy northeast wind he would stick them right through the heart with his hand made arrows and Indian carved bow. Then we had Jon, Charley and Bobby. These men were the head of the pump up speech division; every one of them stood about six feet and had biceps the size of your head; when they talked you listened! Then there was Bart and Scott. Bart is my father and Scott has been like a brother to me since I was little, he only lived a days walk away. These jugheads where at the head of the mechanics division, making sure all the catapults were oiled and functioning along with general up keep. Also, they each were high ranking officers with specialties in farming weaponry. Scott has been telling me that Bart and him were up to something big, they are calling it S & B Deere, I have no idea what it’s going to be like but it’s got to be good!
We loved these guys and they loved us. Some nights would get pretty lonesome, but we knew if we waited around long enough, Hanny would tell us one of his famous tales of near death survivals. The men loved Hanny and he respect for all of them. So to say the least we had a whole crew of some of the best people we knew being lead under the GREATEST general the world had ever seen. We were a wrecking crew that dared to be messed with. The biggest trademark of any Carthaginian soldier was that he wore the mark of Hannibal. Hanny and I came up with the name, "Templers" and the symbol was a small Latin cross that was branded into the center-upper chest of every soldier. When this mark was revealed to any opposition they would shutter at the look of it, because they knew that cross meant power! Even the legendary Spartan respected and revered the Templers cross.
Hannibal had more men than hair. As he became leader he started to realize what a gigantic army he had control over, around 62,000 foot soldiers and 12,000 horsemen. What a number for one man, I always looked up to Hanny for taking such good care of us. The men followed every order that Hanny gave and followed him with total allegiance. But as we got going and as we started saying goodbye to many friends, in Garrison we left Scott and Bart behind along with their 11,000 men to take care of the newly conquered region. The next set of goodbyes happened at Pyrenees were we left Jon and Boyd and another 11,000 men. These were some ruff days, we both had to let go of some dear friends but we knew we had to keep moving onto Gaul, still with nearly 40,000 men and 12,000 horsemen.
As we entered Gaul and counted up our men Hanny took me aside with a face of concern. He told me that we had to go through the Pyrenees Mt. along with the Alps and many significant rivers. He told me to prepare for many of our good friends to die, when he said that I knew that he was talking about a nasty journey ahead. He had Nate Gurtler give the drum roll and the walk out in the spring of 218BC. Nate gave the marching out drum solo atop a plat formed drum set that his men carried from below, it was legit! Hanny made his way to the Rhone before the Romans could take any measures to bar his advance, so we made it there pretty easily! At this time we settled down and my beautiful mother Kathy, along with her sister Karen, and her parents Ken and Bonnie came and counted all the troops and such to give us a idea of how many people we had left. Grandma Bonnie gave us all a fantastic meal, while Grandpa Ken sat around and told us jokes and made us laugh. As the men settled in we had all the horsemen take their horses to the local stable which was famous for their beautiful stable workers. Since all the men had gone to war, only the wives remained to do the stable work. All the men came back spreading the word of all the beautiful women working that night. There was Kassy, Ruth, Steph, Layne, Katie, and Jessie and the men in the camp were all taken by their beauty, but sadly all of them had a man off at war that they were waiting for. The men were heart broken, so I told them to go to Brittany's Bakery to eat some home made world famous cup cakes, they were totally fine after that! My family finally counted all 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 37 war elephants that we bought from Gabriel’s Zoo. At the zoo we thought we would have some problems since we didn't speak the local language, but that was no problem. There was a woman named Inma and she was able to speak English, Spanish, and Arabic perfectly so we had no problem communicating with elephant sales man.
The next morning we had our cries and goodbyes and then set off over the Alps. Soon I found out why elephants were a bad idea. I thought they were smart, but as we were scaling the steep Alps the elephants would all hang onto each others tails, in a tail to trunk train. Just as we were turning a corner one elephant started slipping down a small steep grade to the edge of a cliff. It was a domino chain of one, two, three, four, five, six, and then finally on the eighth elephant loan behold, Levi and Nate are teaming up and holding the chain of 8 elephants that are now dangling off the cliff. As the elephants dropped off one by one the entire army stood still to watch these two Hulk like men try to save the last dangling elephant by slowly swinging him back and forth until they can get enough momentum to swing the one remaining elephant back up onto the ledge! Levi and Nate sat in exhaustion as me and Hanny could not believe what we just saw. We could not stop, but from that moment on Levi and Nate got back their respect in Hanny's eyes and the entire army heard of the twin’s unbelievable strength! This was only one of the tragedies that we encountered. At one point we encountered some rock fall that we couldn’t get over, so Hanny had the great idea of using vinegar and fire to break through it. When we finally got through he applauded his entire army and gave all his glory to his men and then said, “We will either find a way, or make one.” I told him that was a great one liner; he laughed and told me Jon had told him that the night before.
We lived like this for a long time. The men became tired and irritable, and times were starting to get ruff. We lost almost half our men and nearly all our dumb elephants; have to say that was a terrible idea! Hanny kept on leading us from one battle to the next, victory after victory. Finally we made it to the gates of Rome, after months of fighting we finally made it to our destination. We marched right up to the monstrous gates and they were locked shut. In turn, Hanny went up to the door knocked three authoritative times. No one answered. So he told us we would have to come back another day, but as he turned he saw the entire Roman army surrounding us. There were so many of them. I had no idea what to do. Hanny grabbed me at that instant and started to run to the only remaining elephant still living. Left and right I saw the arrows of the enemy taking the lives of my dear friends. Then I saw Nate beating some one with a drum stick, Levi and Nate each had a man by the ankles and were using then like grain bags to pummel other Roman soldiers. Then I saw Miles rear naked choking two dudes at once while putting another guy in a triangle. Those are Hanny's men, and my friends fighting till the death! In the rush of it all Hanny had managed to strap me to the bottom of the elephant with out me knowing. He gave me a thug hug with a snap back pound and then turned, hit the elephant, and I watched him battle to a sure death until I was out of sight.
All my friends lost their life that day, not only Hanny. Every one of them showed bravery and served Hanny till his very last moment. Hanny was a great man that sacrificed his life to keeping the freedom, and gave his life so I could live. He was a great man and I know we are all gathered here today to commemorate the loss of the greatest general the world has ever seen, living from 248-183BC. God rest his soul and all those who died with him. I pause for a moment of silence and mourning, then BOOM the back doors come crashing down and the light comes streaming in. And there he stood silhouetted in the beaming light, a bloodied and beaten Hanny surrounded my Levi, Nathan, Nate, Miles and all my lost friends! Tensions build as the place drops into complete silence and Hanny looked at me with a smile and said, “Man have I gotta story for you!”
Hannibal the horrible, what can I say about the man? He was the brightest general I had ever seen. There is no doubt in my mind where he got all that from, it was most obviously his father. His father, Hamilcar Barca, was the commander of the Carthaginians. Now let us take a minute to talk about his name. As we were growing up I always heard people call Hamilcar, "Thunderbolt" which was an honor. Thunderbolt, represents the last name, the heritage of the last name comes from the root of the word Barca, or thunderbolt. Now this name was important because it was something that people would not call you unless you were considered to be of great power. Hannibal would always tell me as a little child how much he wanted to bare the name "Thunderbolt" or even "Thunderbolt Jr." Hannibal always wanted to be great.
Some of my first fun memories with Hannibal where in our home town, Carthage in Tunisia. We went to school there, and one particular winter day I remember Hannibal asking me if it would be fun to have a snowball fight. Of course I was always up for a good snow ball fight, but I saw something mischievous in the eye of my friend. See you have to understand that no one liked Hanny, he was smart and his dad was rich so all the students looked down on him and made fun of his families name and made fun of him. There was this especially mean kid named Levi, and his brother Nathan and the both of them were relentless when it came to pokin fun at Hanny. And since they were the two most popular kids in school everyone else joined in and made fun of him to. So, it was pay back time, and I knew I had to help my friend so I asked him what we were going to do. He looked back at me and pulled a small piece of parchment from his trousers, as he unfolded it I saw a blue print of the entire castle and a master plan of how he was going to have the two of us beat 122 students with just 7 snow balls a piece! It was impossible I told him, but for the next ten minutes leading up to lunch recess he went over the perfectly crafted plan step by step until I had memorized, and recited it back to him.
We were in third grade at the time and Hanny, that was my nickname for him, and I stepped out knee deep in snow as recess began. Our professor Dan was leading the rest of the students out behind us. So we wasted no time, running over to the drift next to the buildings because Hanny said it would pack easier. We started packed seven perfect snowballs in each others nearly frozen wolf skinned jackets. Just as he packed the last snowball in my hood he gave me a thug hug with a snap back pound, that was the code, and I knew it was time. I started running just in time to see a snowball whiz by my face and smack Levi, the biggest, strongest sixth grader in the school, right in the beak. Within a split second blood was flowing from Levi's nose and he was off like a mad bull towards Hanny. Before I knew it we were back together and everyone was getting in on the snowball fight, and just like Hanny had planned all of them were taking sides with Levi and going against the two of us.
Hanny and I stuck to the plan, throwing only when planned and luring all 122 kids back into the dark alley between the gym and cafeteria. As we got into the back of the buildings I noticed that we were trapped, we had hit a dead end and my mind was drawing blanks not knowing what was going on. All I remember seeing was professor Dan, and 122 mad students with Levi's frozen and bloodied face leading the pack, with Nate following bloody mouthed behind him only 20 feet in front of us. I had used my last snowball to smack Nate, the twin brother of Levi, square in the mouth, so I was out of snowballs, and this was a foul moment to be out of ammo! Then I look over at Hanny and all he has is one left, but he is wearing a huge come on grin and I know something is about to shake down. Then it happened, Levi was nearing ten feet away when Hanny drew back and fastballed his final snowball aiming right for Levi's head. The ice ball seeds itself right on mark in the middle of his forehead, Levi wobbled a few more steps ahead and then like Goliath, the 250 pound, six and a half foot, chiselled out of granite sixth grader named Levi, dropped face down right in front of Hanny giving an earth shaking smash. The quake was felt by all and the second his face whipped into the frozen earth, the after shock trembled up the 20 foot building and hit the 3 foot drift of snow detaching it from the arms of the gym and cafeteria building walls in the alley way, releasing it all at once falling and landing like a prison of pillows around the entire 122 students! As the snowy powder finally settles you can see everyone’s tiny little snow packed heads popping out of the snow, gasping for breath wearing stunned and baffled faces. He had done it! With seven snowballs, two people, and a motive he had conquered the entire student body, even professor Dan got dumped on! As they sat unclenched by the snow, Hanny and I took the walk of glory back to the outside of the small alley way, walking on top of snow right next every single imprisoned body that was yelling and screaming curses at Hanny's name.
From that day forward no one ever gave Hanny any sort of problems again. The two giant brothers, Levi and Nathan, respected Hanny from now on and always gave us our distance. You can say that from this point on that Hanny was the most respected kid in school. I had always respected Hanny, but up until this point I had no idea how truly intelligent and strategically minded he was. I mean, he beat our entire school with me and him and 7 SNOWBALLS; this was only the beginning for Hannibal! Hanny and I laughed about this story for years. Hanny would always tell stories, that was his favourite thing to do.
As Hannibal and I got older and out of school, he kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I never really thought about it up until he asked me, but now that the question was presented I really didn't have an answer. I had always followed everything that Hanny had done, being his right hand man and best friend. By this time Hannibal knew what his life was going to be like. It was going to follow in the foot steps of his father being the leader of the Carthaginians. After his father died in battle his brother-in-law named Hasdrubal went to full commanding officer with the young Hannibal as an officer under him. Hasdrubal did not last for long though, after his assassination in 221BC, Hannibal was finally proclaimed commander-in-chief by the army and by the Carthaginian government. As Livy and I recall, it was like Hamilicar being brought back to all the men in flesh form. Hannibal was a spitting image of his pappy but we would soon find out who the better general really was! I was so proud of my buddy Hanny. Once he was in this position following his pappy's footsteps, he was asking me what I wanted to do with my life. Well, I told him, where you go I go, I will fight with you until the day death separates us. We gave the thug hug with the snap back pound and I knew I had just packed a life of adventure with my best buddy.
Shortly after this happened, I got the privilege of being the best man in Hanny's wedding to Imilce the gorgeous Iberian princess. But, the honeymoon would be cut short with the arrival of the Second Punic War in Italy which, if memory recalls, was from 218-203BC. This war was the beginning of a shining time for Hanny, it would test his valour, wit, bravery, mental and physical strength, and most of all his ability to lead and succeed! Some of the best memories we had together were at the beginning of Hanny's leading. During grade school there were tons of kids that really used to be good to us once we pummelled the twins Levi and Nathan. There was a man named Miles Fortner and he was the head of the archery and Rambo division in our new army. I chose him because back in grade school that boy could sneak up on a jack rabbit blindfolded. When he wasn’t sneaking up on them, he would let them loose, and then at 75 yards, mid-stride, with a heavy northeast wind he would stick them right through the heart with his hand made arrows and Indian carved bow. Then we had Jon, Charley and Bobby. These men were the head of the pump up speech division; every one of them stood about six feet and had biceps the size of your head; when they talked you listened! Then there was Bart and Scott. Bart is my father and Scott has been like a brother to me since I was little, he only lived a days walk away. These jugheads where at the head of the mechanics division, making sure all the catapults were oiled and functioning along with general up keep. Also, they each were high ranking officers with specialties in farming weaponry. Scott has been telling me that Bart and him were up to something big, they are calling it S & B Deere, I have no idea what it’s going to be like but it’s got to be good!
We loved these guys and they loved us. Some nights would get pretty lonesome, but we knew if we waited around long enough, Hanny would tell us one of his famous tales of near death survivals. The men loved Hanny and he respect for all of them. So to say the least we had a whole crew of some of the best people we knew being lead under the GREATEST general the world had ever seen. We were a wrecking crew that dared to be messed with. The biggest trademark of any Carthaginian soldier was that he wore the mark of Hannibal. Hanny and I came up with the name, "Templers" and the symbol was a small Latin cross that was branded into the center-upper chest of every soldier. When this mark was revealed to any opposition they would shutter at the look of it, because they knew that cross meant power! Even the legendary Spartan respected and revered the Templers cross.
Hannibal had more men than hair. As he became leader he started to realize what a gigantic army he had control over, around 62,000 foot soldiers and 12,000 horsemen. What a number for one man, I always looked up to Hanny for taking such good care of us. The men followed every order that Hanny gave and followed him with total allegiance. But as we got going and as we started saying goodbye to many friends, in Garrison we left Scott and Bart behind along with their 11,000 men to take care of the newly conquered region. The next set of goodbyes happened at Pyrenees were we left Jon and Boyd and another 11,000 men. These were some ruff days, we both had to let go of some dear friends but we knew we had to keep moving onto Gaul, still with nearly 40,000 men and 12,000 horsemen.
As we entered Gaul and counted up our men Hanny took me aside with a face of concern. He told me that we had to go through the Pyrenees Mt. along with the Alps and many significant rivers. He told me to prepare for many of our good friends to die, when he said that I knew that he was talking about a nasty journey ahead. He had Nate Gurtler give the drum roll and the walk out in the spring of 218BC. Nate gave the marching out drum solo atop a plat formed drum set that his men carried from below, it was legit! Hanny made his way to the Rhone before the Romans could take any measures to bar his advance, so we made it there pretty easily! At this time we settled down and my beautiful mother Kathy, along with her sister Karen, and her parents Ken and Bonnie came and counted all the troops and such to give us a idea of how many people we had left. Grandma Bonnie gave us all a fantastic meal, while Grandpa Ken sat around and told us jokes and made us laugh. As the men settled in we had all the horsemen take their horses to the local stable which was famous for their beautiful stable workers. Since all the men had gone to war, only the wives remained to do the stable work. All the men came back spreading the word of all the beautiful women working that night. There was Kassy, Ruth, Steph, Layne, Katie, and Jessie and the men in the camp were all taken by their beauty, but sadly all of them had a man off at war that they were waiting for. The men were heart broken, so I told them to go to Brittany's Bakery to eat some home made world famous cup cakes, they were totally fine after that! My family finally counted all 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 37 war elephants that we bought from Gabriel’s Zoo. At the zoo we thought we would have some problems since we didn't speak the local language, but that was no problem. There was a woman named Inma and she was able to speak English, Spanish, and Arabic perfectly so we had no problem communicating with elephant sales man.
The next morning we had our cries and goodbyes and then set off over the Alps. Soon I found out why elephants were a bad idea. I thought they were smart, but as we were scaling the steep Alps the elephants would all hang onto each others tails, in a tail to trunk train. Just as we were turning a corner one elephant started slipping down a small steep grade to the edge of a cliff. It was a domino chain of one, two, three, four, five, six, and then finally on the eighth elephant loan behold, Levi and Nate are teaming up and holding the chain of 8 elephants that are now dangling off the cliff. As the elephants dropped off one by one the entire army stood still to watch these two Hulk like men try to save the last dangling elephant by slowly swinging him back and forth until they can get enough momentum to swing the one remaining elephant back up onto the ledge! Levi and Nate sat in exhaustion as me and Hanny could not believe what we just saw. We could not stop, but from that moment on Levi and Nate got back their respect in Hanny's eyes and the entire army heard of the twin’s unbelievable strength! This was only one of the tragedies that we encountered. At one point we encountered some rock fall that we couldn’t get over, so Hanny had the great idea of using vinegar and fire to break through it. When we finally got through he applauded his entire army and gave all his glory to his men and then said, “We will either find a way, or make one.” I told him that was a great one liner; he laughed and told me Jon had told him that the night before.
We lived like this for a long time. The men became tired and irritable, and times were starting to get ruff. We lost almost half our men and nearly all our dumb elephants; have to say that was a terrible idea! Hanny kept on leading us from one battle to the next, victory after victory. Finally we made it to the gates of Rome, after months of fighting we finally made it to our destination. We marched right up to the monstrous gates and they were locked shut. In turn, Hanny went up to the door knocked three authoritative times. No one answered. So he told us we would have to come back another day, but as he turned he saw the entire Roman army surrounding us. There were so many of them. I had no idea what to do. Hanny grabbed me at that instant and started to run to the only remaining elephant still living. Left and right I saw the arrows of the enemy taking the lives of my dear friends. Then I saw Nate beating some one with a drum stick, Levi and Nate each had a man by the ankles and were using then like grain bags to pummel other Roman soldiers. Then I saw Miles rear naked choking two dudes at once while putting another guy in a triangle. Those are Hanny's men, and my friends fighting till the death! In the rush of it all Hanny had managed to strap me to the bottom of the elephant with out me knowing. He gave me a thug hug with a snap back pound and then turned, hit the elephant, and I watched him battle to a sure death until I was out of sight.
All my friends lost their life that day, not only Hanny. Every one of them showed bravery and served Hanny till his very last moment. Hanny was a great man that sacrificed his life to keeping the freedom, and gave his life so I could live. He was a great man and I know we are all gathered here today to commemorate the loss of the greatest general the world has ever seen, living from 248-183BC. God rest his soul and all those who died with him. I pause for a moment of silence and mourning, then BOOM the back doors come crashing down and the light comes streaming in. And there he stood silhouetted in the beaming light, a bloodied and beaten Hanny surrounded my Levi, Nathan, Nate, Miles and all my lost friends! Tensions build as the place drops into complete silence and Hanny looked at me with a smile and said, “Man have I gotta story for you!”
