The wind drove ragged shreds of smoke across the field, swallowing the silhouettes of the fallen. The air was so thick it felt as though it could be cut with a knife, and every breath scorched the lungs with the taste of burning. Lembitu stood among the bodies of his warriors, feeling weapons crunch beneath his feet, slipped from the lifeless hands that once held them. The sword in his grasp was heavier than ever—not from the steel, but from the blood it had spilled.
A glint flashed to his left—the tip of a spear. The blow struck his shoulder, the cold of the metal slicing through flesh, and at once something hot surged into the wound. The world swayed. He stepped back, but the ground seemed to slide away from under him. His ears no longer caught the roar of battle, but a distant thudding—like the heartbeat of the world itself, beating in unison with his own.
His lips were parched. The taste of iron filled his mouth, as if a shard of a sword lay upon his tongue. Before his eyes the world blurred, yet in that wavering haze he saw movement in the sky. There, above the smoke and cries, a falcon circled—proud, calm, untouched by the slaughter of men. Its wings caught the pale light breaking through the clouds, and that light fell upon Lembitu’s face like one last warm gaze.
His knees failed him. He sank to the ground, feeling the chill of wet grass through his torn clothing. Fingers that had so recently clutched a sword now reached toward the heavens. The air around him trembled, and in that trembling he heard the whisper of wind through the trees of his boyhood forests, the smell of bread at spring festivals, the laughter of his village. Everything he loved was there, in the depths of the sky, where the falcon flew.
“Take it…” he whispered, his own voice unrecognizable—hollow, as if it came from beneath the earth. “Take my strength… my will… let it be wings…”
The wind brushed against his hand like a feather, and in that instant he felt the warmth leave him—and with it, the weight. He was no longer lying in the mud—he was soaring. He saw himself from above, saw the field where neither man nor steel had power over him anymore. The falcon made one final circle and rose into the heights, carrying with it the spark that had been his soul.
Below, only a still figure remained, its eyes fixed on the place where the sky meets the wind. And from that day, people said: when a falcon circles over Sakala, in its gaze lives Lembitu—the guardian of the freedom and pride of his land.
📜 The most well-known historically documented warrior among the ancient Estonians was Lembitu (or Lembit). He was the elder and military leader of the Sakala region in the early 13th century (until 21 September 1217).
Lembitu led the resistance against the invasion of crusader knights and even formed an alliance with the Novgorod Republic, gathering around 6,000 Estonians to fight the invaders.
In the Battle of Viljandi (the Battle of St Matthew’s Day), he fell; the knights severed his head and carried it to Livonia as a trophy.
Today, Lembitu is regarded as a national hero of Estonia; parks, streets, and monuments bear his name.
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