As day became night and the group had finished dinner, Lilith invoked the arcane shield and everybody retired to their respective shelters for the night, except Marren.  Unable to sleep, the man sat outside his tent and stared into the campfire, not noticing Petra exiting her shelter.

"Can't sleep, huh?", the woman addressed the man.  A bit startled by her sudden appearance, Marren looked up toward the dwarf's face and replied, "yeah, seems like it."  "Me either,"  Petra answered,  "mind a bit of company?"  Moving his bow and motioning the woman to have a seat, "please do, I'd like that," Marren said.

Thinking out loud, Marren spoke, "never thought I'd ever return to this hellhole again, but here I am"  "Aye lad, that be two of us, but like you said, here we be," Petra replied.  "When I finally was able to get out of here over thirty years ago, I swore I'd never return, funny how things work out sometimes," the woman continued. "Yeah, same for me four years ago," Marren replied, then with a sigh, added, "yeah... funny.  Tell me Petra, does it still haunt you... the things that happened here?"  "Not as bad as it used to, but aye, there be times it comes back to me head," Petra answered.

"This place was me first field posting with the Mountaineers, just made lieutenant then.  I was full of ideas the officer's school taught me on how to wage battle... changed really fast when faced with the reality of war.  Found out ye learned things quick...", Petra spoke.  "Or you died," Marren interrupted.  "Aye... or ye died," Petra responded with resignation.  Looking toward the dwarf, Marren said,  " I was a scout commander, me and my squad went out on a routine patrol... we got ambushed by a large band of orcs.  Everybody got killed, except me.  Laid there two days, badly wounded and near death when they found us."  "Aye, I was leading a platoon of soldiers into an orc warcamp.  We were doing good until more of the bastards came from out of nowhere and flanked us... lost them all.  Like you, I lay there badly wounded until a patrol found us the next day," Petra told the man, "a few days later while still in the infirmary recovering, I was made captain... 'battlefield promotion', they called it."

"What made us so special, that we survived and they died?", Marren asked his friend, a slight sob in his voice.  Rising from her seat, Petra knelt next to the man and with a comforting kiss to his head, replied, " I don't think there be anything special about us, lad... perhaps we lived so they wouldn't be forgotten.  Well, I'm headed back to me bed, try to get some rest Marren, we all need ye bright and alert in the times ahead.  Good night, son."  As Petra returned to her tent, Marren sat staring into the fire for a few more minutes, then crawled into his tent and lay down.  As he drifted off into an uneasy sleep, Petra's words lingered in his thoughts.

"... perhaps we lived so they wouldn't be forgotten."

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