30 June 20XX +1
My
Dear Lucilius:
A quick note at lunch before we arrive back
home.
Our departure this morning was as quiet as our arrival had been: there was no triumphal exit, no banners waving, no celebration of victories won. Just people, tired and in some cases shocked at the week that had been, heading home.
Our ride back was not over the trail we had come down but rather on the main road over the hills that separated the valleys. Slowly rolling up the hill and looking back, one could make out the scene of battle as well as McAdams briefly before it disappeared around the curve in the road. If I thought I could see the bridge where the grave of Blazer Man was located, it was most likely in my imagination.
Odd that I had seen this view scores of times before with almost a passive indifference.
We arrived back at the old county seat, where an actual crowd was waiting. Reunions were emotional, as you can imagine; I was spared the pain of Blazer Man being there as there would have been no reunion for him.
The Colonel and The Captain came around and shook each and every hand, thanking them for helping. The Leftenant came around as well to each of our small subgroup, thanking us as well and rather spontaneously giving each us – the old, the near sighted, the slow – a hug.
Human connection, Lucilius. It remains a thing.
We will depart in a few minutes for home. Young Xerxes is here with me, quiet and sober and with a slightly haunted look on his face.
I do not know we are sorry for coming. But neither can we go back to see the world as it was previously.
Your Obedient Servant, Seneca
A good conclusion to an interesting adventure.
ReplyDeleteThank you Leigh! This actually went on longer than I had anticipated, but I am overall happy with the result.
DeleteA group that saw the need to do something and experienced Seeing the Elephant as a result.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, I wonder if once upon a time this is what really happened? Certainly in reading up on warfare in Classical Greece, it was very much like this. Citizens from 18 up to 60 were expected to march off to fight wars, at least until the end of the period (338 B.C.).
Delete"I do not know we are sorry for coming. But neither can we go back to see the world as it was previously."
ReplyDeleteHave you seen bloodshed? This line suggests you have.
Heinlein would be proud of that line.
VERY GOOD writing.
Michael - I have never been in the military or seen bloodshed (or really, ever been in a fight except once in the fourth grade, where I basically threw my skateboard and ran). I just have a lot of reading and an overactive imagination and now a number of years of a martial art where I am very conscious of the damage I could cause.
DeleteThanks very much for the praise!
Oh yeah, very good. Hope it's not the end of the story.
ReplyDeleteThanks TM! Not an ending that I am aware of, but it certainly seems like a changing point (indeed, if I ever get to actually putting these into book form, it would certainly make an "End of Volume X" point).
Delete