Depressed After Hero Stuff

The carcass of the massive beast was like a barely discernible outline of a hill in the darkening night. This was the hardest battle they had fought yet, but none of them felt too triumphant. Peri's grief over the Khan's demise was palpable, and for the others as well she had been a comrade in arms.

Perhaps she was ruthless, and driven by selfish goals, Jelena mused, but the fact remains that she gave her life for all of us. In a proud and brave fashion of a true warrior.

Sarevok and Peri quietly arranged the khan's body on two shields, her hands clutching her katana, her plait on her chest.

- "Sister." Sarevok's voice was thick and grief-stricken too.

- "Yeah, Sar?"

- "She was a warrior. Free as the wind, born to battle on horseback all her life. She wanted to conquer, but how do you think she would have liked actually ruling, and not being a general?" Sarevok said.

Peri half-smiled.

- "Not well," she said.

- "No - as long as the dream of conquest burned her soul - which I believe it would have done as long as she lived - she would not have been content if she actually got what she wanted. She loved the war itself. She loved leading and inspiring an army. This was a good way to go for her."

Peri nodded and embraced Sarevok fiercely for a while, the hot tears strangling her throat.

- "You are right, bro, as you know the soul of a warrior. But still I can't help grieving."

- "The dead should be grieved," Jelena said quietly.

- "Well - no shortage of grief then in that department," Peri said bitterly.

- "This is the part where we should cheer wildly and the adrenaline should soar wild in our veins as we are ecstatic from our victory," Winski said.

Everyone nodded several times. There was some quiet. It was very dark. The ruins still smoked. The mild wind blew ashes over the wasteland.

- "Let's go," Peri said finally. She and Sarevok picked the Khan and solemnly carried her body on the shields. No-one uttered a word as they marched back to the T'aghur outpost. The stony expressions of the young guardsmen finally faltered as they saw their leader carried in this fashion. They wept, a hoarse wail full of pain and despair.

The lieutenant came to them, his eyes hard and dark.

- "She is dead. You are alive," he stated.

- "The Kusatte Iru - the beast that destroyed your new lands - is dead too," Imoen said. "She saved the whole Kara-Tur."

- "That is so," Sarevok said. "Never have I battled side by side of a braver warrior, and this should honor her spirit."

The lieutenant nodded.

- "I propose a truce," Jelena said. "We will report our success to the court of Kozakura, and we are sure that the representatives would want to honor the Khan."

- "I will propose that to her generals. Then they could come see her off to better riding lands. But now - go. This sorrow is ours to bear."

- "We will be off to the portal, then," Peri said.

They turned their backs and walked away, nobody sparing them a glance.

- "Well, I didn't expect them to thank us," Peri sighed after a while. "Why is it that... I always feel so depressed after we do some hero stuff?"

- "Perhaps simply because it is not all that it is cracked up to be?" Sarevok suggested. "Me, I am content that we killed the beast. Still I feel little elation, as the death of our sister in arms weighs my soul."

- "However, now we are able to tell them all that the beast won't rip Kara-Tur apart. Perhaps we came in time and that other nastie won't wake up!" Imoen said, smiling.

- "And Umi is there, waiting..."

So is Mei, Sarevok thought, and shuddered. If everything was going to calm down he would have to actually deal with that.