We slowly split apart, and I give one final pat to his shoulders. He nodded, and I speak. "Ahem, so, when do you guess well get to go back?" I ask, my hissing accent fading with each word spoken.

  "Ahem, we should be bought back soon enough. This fucking skirmish was not worth it in the first place. We didn't need it, and those Varret bastards took it too far... sigh. It too late anyway... But we should be ransomed and home within the week." He said.

  I sigh, and think. This whole debacle started over the Heiforts had contested a claim of land, a relatively baron piece mind, and the Varrets decided to push wholesale into Heifort interests. As a result, this skirmish occurred, and the price was one Theodore Heifort.

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  The worst part about it all? I knew for a fact that he only wanted to delay, not stop the Varrets. He had been blunt about it. He had been paid, and requested by the local count. The Varrets had apparently been getting too big, and the count wanted them stymied for a while.

  He had shared it with me and Tomas, to sharpen our wit. He did things like that... By God will I miss him... I had warned him. So had mother. Instincts and knowledge together had warned us that not everything was as it seemed. But, we went through with it anyway, and me and my mother were proven right in the worst of ways.

  The Varrets were getting too confident, too vicious. Like apex predators. From what little Intel we had, it corroborated what I thought. We wouldn't be going home without a price. They wanted to put us down and what was worse... we would have to yield.

  At this point... I just wanted to go home...