I am RPing again because I feel like we are letting this story die, and I don't want it to.

The council broke up. We had decided to arrange a diplomatic meeting with Catastrophe, though someone had yet to propose a date. We had stopped there, everyone too tired to discuss it further. Though we had made a plan, I still felt like we hadn't really accomplished anything. We were still grasping at straws, feeling around in the dark to try and find a solution.

I push back the tent flap and walk outside. The sun was just lightening the horizon, the soft and quiet feeling of dusk lingering in the air. The battle field had been almost cleared, with fires dotting the perimeter. There were too many unidentified bodies to bury. Though I hate it and I know that we should be remembering even the unknown, I know that burning them is what we have to do.

The others walk away in front of me, shadow and Mina lingering in the tent. I was still shocked to see shadow after so long, even though I hadn't known her very well. She was quieter, more serious. I guess dying and coming back to life could do that to you.

Kristjan walks up beside me, and together we wander around the tents. I nod to several people we pass, but he remains silent. I'm curious to know what he is thinking, but I don't invade his thoughts. It would be a trespass, something I am not willing to do.

We stop at the top of a small hill overlooking the forest. The tents are behind us, the forest stretching out ahead. Birds are beginning to chirp, the slowly rising sun a signal for the start of their day.

"Well," Kristjan says, breaking the silence. "Now what?"

His question lingers in the air, heavy and unwelcoming. 

"I don't know," I say, crossing my arms and hunching my shoulders. "There are so many things to think about, so many problems."

"Are you planning to stay with the Resistance?" Kristjan asks, his head bowed.

I'm about to say yes when I stop. I had been with the Resistance for a while, and I had never really thought about going anywhere else. There was never anywhere to go.

Now, however, Kristjan was here. I could go back to the small town where he worked for the blacksmith and get a job. I could travel around Kyngdom with him, going to all the places I had always wanted to go. 

But as soon the thoughts come I know that it could never happen. I couldn't live with myself knowing that I had abandoned the Resistance. Knowing that I had given up on fighting Catastrophe. Knowing that I had left my friends. I was already involved in this mess, and I wasn't going to get out of it.

I take a deep breath and nod. 

"I plan to stay."

"I thought you'd say that," he says. 

"What were you hoping I'd say?"

"I don't know." He raises his head and looks at me, his blue eyes dark. "I want you to be happy, but at the same time I don't want to leave you. I want to make up for all the time that I lost. I want to rebuild, even though I know it sounds stupid."

He takes a shaky breath and half smiles.

"Because you've change a lot."

TOP

I look at the bodies as they burn. So many gave their life, and this all we could do....

This is not fitting...

I snap my fingers, SOULS cracking left and right, But some remain, these ones seems to have regret, I wish I could help them, but when the chain of life is broken,  you can't bring them back.

I t-tried...

When the fire burned away, I got a coffin and started shoveling the ash.

passing the time, I started a converation. some were more willing to talk than others, I was able to get more to pass on but some still remained...

when I has done. II took a handful, this will be for the end. I buried the coffin at this exact spot. and then  put down the tombstone.

I use Pater Iustitiae to carve into the granite

Here lies the heroes of the unknown.

I complete the ritual

"Your journey has ended, but your story will live on. Nunc Volare!" I toss the ash into the wind. "And my the Judge grant you peace"

at the end Some still stayed. I talked to them, some passed on, others left.

Some became friends. 

Nygrune~

There are a lot of bodies. Too many to bury, even with magic. We can't even identify many of them. So we burn them. Friend and foe alike, though we may not know which is which. I help. It's sickening. But I don't want to just watch. 

The meeting ends somewhere along the line, and I hear that we're going to try diplomacy with Catastrophe, although no one seems to know where or when. I wash up and go to help make breakfast. 

"Hey, did we win?"

The mutant I'm working with shrugs. "I don't know. Doesn't seem to matter as much when people you knew died. Can you grab the vegetable oil?"

I do, and we start frying the pancakes. People start drifting in, drawn by the promise of food, and we recruit a dozen or so more to its cause. We start talking, sharing stories and news and ideas for lunch. I begin to relax.

~It's pretty uneventful for Nygrune. Right now he's just taking care of the little things while waiting to hear the next set of orders.