{"id":1202,"date":"2022-05-14T20:22:02","date_gmt":"2022-05-14T20:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1202"},"modified":"2022-05-14T20:22:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T20:22:06","slug":"define-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/define-hero\/1202\/","title":{"rendered":"Define Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWoe to the warrior, woe to the woman of the street, and woe most all of all he who hears but does not believe!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The braying, bleating voice was once again calling out in the square. People came to trade and gossip, often from ten miles away and the last thing anyone needed was the shaming voice of a pious preacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Herndon, retired but still a respected war hero, decided to talk some sense into the young Christian, and if not sense, perhaps a little muscle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou may have heard of me,\u201d he began with his typical modesty \u201cI\u2019m Herndon, son of Paradorn, fought in the battle of Cambrian Hill and killed around, oh, three hundred men in a single day, nothing to boast of course because that was just the first chapter in a long illustrious career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A not-so-subtle nod that if the Christian didn\u2019t leave, Herndon would have him limping back to Rome with a broken nose. But the missionary, skinny, youthful, and possessed of that condescending air that the young have no business giving to their elders, was not impressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThree hundred?\u201d he replied coldly \u201cThree hundred of your brothers slaughtered, for the earthly approval of man, not for the love of Heaven?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey now,\u201d Herndon laughed, \u201cit was nothing personal, we all knew the risks of war. I came out on top because I was the best. I\u2019m a hero.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA killer,\u201d the Christian countered \u201ca common murderer! I am here to save my brothers\u2019 souls from fiery torment, but you! Why did you even fight in the war?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herndon considered and said, \u201cWasn\u2019t much else for me to do, besides girls loved the uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd what was the cause of that war?\u201d the Christian pressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDunno,\u201d shrugged Herndon, \u201cpolitics usually give me a headache.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Christian looked upon Herndon if he were tragically simple minded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou call yourself a hero and all you ever did was kill people just because you were bored, for reasons you barely understood. How heroic is that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herndon suppressed a yawn as he drowned out the impromptu sermon by noting a little detail of the young man\u2019s ropes. Pure white with a red emblem of a cross upon the breast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh,\u201d he said pointing at the emblem. \u201cYou\u2019re one of Bishop Blanchard\u2019s disciples, aren\u2019t you? I\u2019ve been to his missions, seen plenty of your brothers wither and die on dirty slabs. Impressive that your sect can conjure up vast donations and yet spend so little on treating the sick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur mission isn\u2019t earthly comforts, it\u2019s to minister to the sick and the dying, to save their souls from the pit!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herndon recalled his visit to the bishop just a year prior and he could still see the old goat, sitting upon a velvet cushion, sipping from a chalice and counting the hills of golden coins with his bright piggy eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWoe to the warrior, woe to the woman of the street, and woe most all of all he who hears but does not believe!\u201d The braying, bleating voice was once again calling out in the square. People came to trade and gossip, often from ten miles away and the last thing anyone needed was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[597,624],"tags":[626,627],"class_list":["post-1202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-may-2022-hero","tag-define","tag-hero"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-jo","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1204,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions\/1204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}