[ WP ] Can you identify with a 13th century soldier .

Note: You may want to reword the title and the request as a writing prompt, such as - Make wartime atrocities sympathetic in a 13th century setting, or changing the tag to be [ OT ]. 
 
 The conditions you describe read like a lot of ancient and eastern medieval armies ( eg: the Khans ). 
 
 Anyway, here's quick attempt. 
 
 Sir Shay Redwin of Theodone plunged the rusty dagger blade into the child soldier's neck, offering him the courtesy of a quick death over the daylong suffering of disembowelment. He stood, flicked the scrap weapon into the bloody mire, and continued walking the field of battle towards the nearby village. 
 
 Another knight of Theodone, Sir Franklin Wood, walked to intercept Redwin at one of many sacrificial pyres, where their brothers once writhed in flame. Though their spirits had departed the flesh, still it lingered near, and Redwin paused to put a gloved hand on the charred remains and whisper the passage of unencumberment to help spirit on its way. 
 
 `` Shart,'' Franklin named Redwin by his field name.'' 
 
 `` Fookstick,'' Redwin replied. They used the knightly honorarium bestowed when drawing their first blood in battle, always some debasement of name and character, such that even the Duke himself might be called Bumsmear, not only with no repurcussion, but expectation, were he not to be addressed as such the noble would chastise that soldier for failing to recognize his brother in battle. 
 
 Standing shoulder to shoulder near the pyre, ankle deep in bloody mud, and gazing at the unscathed village, they clasped the other's shoulder. 
 
 `` Finally,'' Franklin said. 
 
 `` Finally,'' Redwin agreed. 
 
 After two years of fighting, at last they were within reach of plunder. Goods and monies in exchange for fallow fields and abandoned mercantiles, grains and beasts to bring back to the empty and distended bellies of their wives and children. And slaves to sell, women to take, who once saw fit to sew shut the lips of their brothers before roasting their bones for damnable festivities. 
 
 And so the two walked to the village, and bring the gods' love and light by scourging the land of these wretched souls.
