Look up at these walls.
Outside the city, but never really seen.
Lacking in uniform, a past of wars and conflict portrayed in every laid brick
History has shown that intruders have been let in.
Maybe disguised but overtime laying siege somehow.
Still poor leadership, or experience were the enemy,
Not just flaming arrows from the other side.

Researching the most recent battle, the scars still fresh in this expanding kingdom,
The enemy did not conquer,
But the kingdom surely did not win.

Warriors unfit for combat, never seeing blood or swords before,
But now the only line of defense for an unsteady people.
Having heard of war before, or even seen a nearby passing army, each man had an image of military and what they must do.
Full of misguided ideas, but not without trying.

Year after year the warriors grew more delusional than the last.
As well as a hunger for the glory of the past.
Over time, the walls were grandiosely constructed,
Assuming the worst, they made them impenetrable,
Strong enough to hold a Kingdom captive but safe from the outside world.
Building upon the history of painful loss.
As expectation of conflict grew,
Strategies were drawn and planned.

But there were no generals, no veterans to lead.
Everything was up to trial and error, as if a fight was a longed for pleasantry.
Seeking after any tension, pushing forces into every contested land.
Battle after battle experience was pillaged, but forces were lost and surely it did not contribute to the true knowledge of a war.
The possibility existed that meaningless battle further romanticized a full on conquest.

Soon the kingdom would come to realize, a reenforcing of the kingdom itself would prove to make better a future of warfare, or even the midst of a war would not bolster the army.