The morning dawned nice, bright, and early. Dyl was rooted out of his blankets by an excited Nat who was already packed and ready to head off. Nat busied himself with eating a quick cold breakfast as Dyl blearily packed his tent.

“Why do you have to get up so early?” came Dyl’s complaint while he rolled up his bedroll.

“We’ll make more progress if we start early” Nat replied cheerfully.

“Yeah but the sun isn’t even up yet!” Dyl croaked.

“I think you need a nice refreshing drink of cold water.”

“No I don’t! I just needed you to let me sleep another hour or two.”

“Aw come on! Don’t you want to see your family again?”

After grumbling his assent Dyl cheered up a bit. He quickly finished packing and soon most of the company was assembled. The Lieutenant bid them farewell and to return promptly or they would be labeled as deserters and Sergeant Bullion stomped up and down bellowing orders and directions. Finally they were dismissed. Nat and Dyl raced off to find Varrelle and what her decision was. When they did find her she agreed to come along.

They set out with a brisk pace and covered much ground. The days were full of hard marching and the evenings full of lively discussions. Strangely the old woman accompanied Varrelle. She held her own with the group however and provided many insights into discussions.

Finally they arrived at the village. Nat excitedly increased his pace and came around the corner and stopped dead still staring. The village was in shambles. Many of the buildings were burnt to the ground others looked like a giant had stepped on them. There were arrows pin cushioning the ground everywhere and corpses strewn all over. Nat was horrified. Indeed the whole group was staring in shocked silence. The fields were burnt and blackened and where there should have been teams of oxen plowing and preparing the fields for planting there was only