At The End

“Lou?”

“Yes?”

…

“When am I coming home?”

…

“I wish you could. I’m sorry Rom.”

“Why can’t I come home? What’s happened? Lou?”

…

“I’m sorry…”

“Lou? Louis what’s going on? Please… Louis!”

XXXX

I awoke with a start. My heart was pounding in my chest. It was a nightmare. Just another nightmare…

Taking deep breaths, I calmed down when I realised where I was. I was in the dining ball room of the castle we had taken shelter in last night. The sun was rising and the storm had passed.

Standing up, I wobbled, remembering that it was four legs. Not two.

Looking around, I saw our gear and our bedding on the floor. What I did not see were Mark and Jack. Their gear was still here, only neatly packed away. My ears perked up, swivelling towards the door way leading to the castle entrance. Making my way to the door, I opened it slightly and stepped out.

“Oh yeah?”

“Don’t you remember the time Lou asked Andy to go and get water. He goes out in the middle of the night counting his steps. On his way back he miscounts and ends up falling into our hole?”

“Hahaha! Now that was a fun time.”

“The Lieutenant was yelling at us to keep it down!”

On the steps leading into the castle were my friends. Happily laughing and recounting stories from our early days on the Canal. It was refreshing to hear them laugh and smile. I know that this was hard on us, but like our operations during the war. They were making the most of it. As we should.

“I hope I’m not interrupting?” I asked, stepping out onto the top step with them. They both turned and looked up at me with huge grins.

“Sure thing Cap!” Mark laughed. I cut him short by hitting him with a wing on the back of the head. Wings may actually be starting to become more and more useful!

“Here to join the nightmare squad?” Jack asked. It was now clear that they had been awoken by their own nightmares. Dark bags under their eyes.

“You were talking about your brother.” Mark stated. “I didn’t wake you... I didn’t want to make it too personal.” His gaze shied away when I looked at him. I needed to tell them. Having me cooped up over my nightmares wasn’t going to help me. They would understand.

“Romain’s gone.” They looked at each other realising that they may have sparked an unwanted conversation. “Shot down over Europe. Didn’t make it out in time…”

“I’m sorry--” Jack began, but I cut him off.

“No! You need to know what’s going on. It helps a bit to talk.” I looked up at the forest, the world we were now trapped in. I then looked at Mark, giving him my most hopeful smile. “I want to go home too. Be normal for my family. Because if I were to return as a pony... they might lose it. Losing their youngest child, now losing your eldest…”

“I’m sorry.” Mark said, before turning to look at the horizon too. “I’m sorry for how I acted yesterday. We’re all in this together. I was just too self centred to even realise it.”

“I don’t think Jack or I will hold it against you, Mark.” I said, draping a wing across his back. “If we are stuck as ponies then I’m sure we can work out a way to get on with our lives.” Mark smiled and so did Jack. We were together, and we were unstoppable. Being ponies wasn’t going to change our relationship together. Though it may end up ruining our relationship with home.

We must have sat there for a while. Watching the trees move in the wind. Birds flying in the sky and the clouds moving overhead? We were lost in thought. Shaking myself awake again, I rose to my feet… er hooves… paws.

“Pack your things.”They rose to their paws too. “I want to explore this place before we head out.” Going back inside, they both following suite.

“Head out where ?” Jack asked, as we entered the dining room.

“North, like we did yesterday.”

XXXX

This castle was not only huge, but also strange. Each room that we visited had a different story to tell about the history of this place. The architecture would vary from one room to the next. Seemingly a mismatch of stone and carvings. The designs not fitting together.

There were signs of burning throughout the castle. Maybe the cause for the difference in architecture…

Maybe the castle was burnt down during its life time, and someone had it restored later on. There was very little to go on. We knew nothing of this place, its importance in whatever society that existed at this time.

We had no time to explore the lower levels. We had no idea how big the forest was. If it took us an entire day to get here, then maybe it would take the same amount of time to get across it.

I was not going to allow us to stick around another night. Not unless we had too.

“If we get split up, we meet back in the hall.” I had said. Exploring alone was dangerous and I had no intention of losing anyone in an accident while exploring this strange place.

The latest we would leave was mid day. So that we still had plenty of time to navigate the paths to the North without losing the light. Hopefully we would find the edge of the forest before night fall.

“I wonder where that goes ?” Mark looked towards the spiralling staircase at the end the hallway we had gone down a few minutes ago. The rooms we had seen appeared to be some sort of barracks. Bunks and pieces of armour were still scattered about the place.

“Maybe it’s the living quarters to whoever ruled this place.” I proposed, moving up the first steps. Continuing on my way, up, the other followed behind. The stairs were large and were definitely made for either a fat pony or a for several ponies at the same time.

The atmosphere as we ascended seemed to become very dark. As if we were approaching something unsettling. We ended our ascent on a landing. Four doors, two to the left another to the right with the final door at the end of the hall.

The first three were rather uneventful. They appeared to be rooms for children. They were bed chambers. One was painted a deep blue, adorned with faded moons while the opposing door was a bright yellow adorned with Suns.

The other door next to the lunar coloured bed chamber was also a bedroom. However this one was devoid. Cleared of whatever was in it, the only thing that stood out from this place was how charred the walls were. The entire room seemed to have been engulfed by a raging inferno. Everything destroyed, yet the rooms and hallway next door seemed to be fine. As if they had been rebuilt after the fire and left this room in its state.

“This is strange.” Jack said as he moved to stand by the wall facing the door to the hallway. He then moved closer to the wall and bared his claws. Carefully, he scratched the wall. The soot and ash crumbling in his paw. “This place was burnt but not by fire.”

He was right. While the atmosphere in the room felt very stuffy, there was no indication of there ever being a fire spreading on the floor. Only a chared circle where something had caught fire.

All the boards we were standing on we solid’ish’. No sign of burning, nor did the walls smell like there had been a fire. Maybe it was a magical occurrence?

“Let’s check out that last door.” Entering the hallway, we began to move towards the last door. Every step we took made us tremble. Something was off. I could feel it within me. This room was screaming to not be opened.

As I began to lift my paw to try the lock, the handle moved on its own and the door swung open. We all screamed, all of us drawing our guns with our magic and shaking with fear as we stared at the ‘self opening’ door.

“Captains first?” Mark suggested, he was shaking with fear. Swallowing hard I leaped into the room. My 45 ready to take down any ghost that may await me.

Nothing.

“Clear.” I breathed. Mark and Jack pocked their heads through the door and took a look around. No ghosts, but a self opening door was very frightening. No way it was a breeze.

This room was the largest of the lot. Huge with large windows. It was in ruins like the rest of the castle, but much like the other room we had just visited, there were scorch marks everywhere. Both rooms had been neglected. But this one was special and I could not place my paw on why.

“Check out the floor.” Mark pointed out. It was made of stone and was very well burnt. Whatever happened here, something made of fire scorched the floor in a particular trail. Ash and dust leading towards an empty corner of the room. It there was furniture here but the scorch marks ended before reaching the stone. There was something missing, though none of us knew what it could be.

On closer inspection, I noticed that whatever had caused the flames had left scratches along the floor. Like claws? Or something else. But leading into this corner of the room? Why?

It was as if someone or something was pulled or dragged into this area of the castle.

“Damn.” Jack inhaled, staring at the floor.

Looking to see what he was looking at, my breath caught. Carved into the floor was a swirling cloud with loads of stars doted amongst it. Huge it was. Carved out over the entire floor. Only by standing at the door then having the mid day light shine on it could it be visible with all the burning.

But what did this mean. Did that woman send out here to find this?

There were questions that needed answering. And I knew that it was only by finding Twilight that we could get them.

“Let’s get the hell outta here.” The air in the room was starting to make me jumpier. I had to get out. The forces there were breathtaking, in a bad way.

“Right with ya!” We ran, the door closing and clicking shut as we ran faster to escape this horrible feeling that was enveloping our hearts.

XXXX

Despite the exploration of the castle being very… cryptic. The outer city seemed far more interesting with its story to tell. Just like the castle, it too had suffered from a ghastly inferno. It seemed like much of the inner buildings had all suffered from a great fire. Like the great fire of London! The more clues we searched for, the more we were able to piece together.

Judging by the burning that had impacted the clay in the foundations of the inner city, much of it had happened prior to the buildings that were now standing in ruins.

There had been a fire once and it had consumed much of the settlement. It seemed strange that the two bedrooms we had explored were still showing signs of burning, yet the rest of the palace had been rebuilt after it. Maybe the two were unrelated? Or maybe they were related. Maybe the rooms were left intact because of its sentimental value?

The two celestial rooms that we had discovered were somewhat intact. If only we knew what it all meant.

I wasn’t thick, nor were my friends. We all knew that this had something to do with our mission here. But without context into the history of this place, it was pretty much futile to continue to search for more information here.

We had slightly missed noon according to the sun. We had no other way of telling the time. No watches, even though I had mine on when I had been brought here. Oh god!

What if in my living room was a pile of clothes? That would definitely freak my parents out.

Standing on the steps with all our gear, we began our journey. Hopefully we would make it out of the forest. Or find some shelter before the sunlight was lost to us.

North was the right choice! From the castle we found ourselves a path and ventured deeper into the abyss. We came across another part of the ravine, a rope bridge was the only way across. This must have been a rear entrance into the city. The ravine acting as a mote, most likely encircling the place. Incredible.

The ground was still wet within the forest, the humidity and lack of sunlight making the terrain slippery. Puddles and mud slides made it a bit of a tricky trek. Walking on paws was not like wearing boots. They were very sensitive. I had not walked often bare foot on the Canal, but when I did I hated it. This was similar, but I had no choice since we had no shoes to wear.

I and Mark tripped and slipped up several times. We weren’t very clean any more. The mud in my fur felt sticky and horribly itchy. I just wished I knew a cleaning spell. We may have been Marines, but that did not mean that I would want to go back to this. Or that I was used to it.

Jack was lucky because he was tailing. He could easily avoid the rough patches while Mark and I got filthier every step of the way.

About an hour in, we suddenly found that the path was getting dryer and dryer. The trees were beginning to clear. No light at the end of the trail yet…

Ahead was a clearing. Unlike the ones we had seen before, this one had a little hut. Circular in shape with a straw roof, it looked like nothing I had ever seen. Rudimentary but seemingly very solid and water proof.

And inhabited.

Outside the hut was a Zebra. It was working on something with its back to us. Humming to itself. We all watched on. A little disbelieving, we had not expected to run into a creature that was not a pony. At least it seemed sentient, that was certain.

Taking a step forward I began to make my way over to the Zebra. Slow tentative steps, I was also thinking of what to say. If I could say anything at all. It may not even understand English.

“Um… Hello ?” I called out. The Zebra did not jump, but slowly turned its head to face me and the others. “I’m sorry for interrupting your business. I was hoping you could help me and my friends here.” I gestured to Mark and Jack behind me.

The creature did not say anything at first. Approaching me slowly it studied me closely before opening its mouth.

“My oh my, what a state you are in. How may I help you and your kin?” It-she asked. Female then and had a strange accent I had not heard before. At least not to my memory.

“We’re trying to find the closest settlement. We’re looking to find a friend.” I needed to be truthful. Finding someone who could help us was what we needed and I was in no mood for being cryptic.

“Ponyville is the closest town, its inhabitants will welcome you without a frown” She replied. Was her melodic tone normal or was she trying desperately to make words rhyme?

“Who is this friend that you are looking for? If I may ask of course?”

“My name is Lou Conlin, my friends and I are looking for… Twilight Sparkle?” I dropped her name as a question. It may be that this Zebra had no idea of who Twilight was. But she knew, from the look on her face, it was not good.

“I am Zecora of Zebreca. I have not heard a name like yours for as long as I remember. But if it is Twilight that you seek, I am afraid that I cannot help you meet.” She said. Now that made very little sense in my head, so I cocked it to the side. Showing my confusion. She seemed shocked that I was not understanding what she was saying.

“You do not know of her fate? You must know the stories as of late?”

“We’re not from around these parts.” I grimaced. I was not terribly sure if I should talk about being from a different planet. Especially after she had spoken of Twilight like that.

“We would just like to know of how to get to… Ponyville, to rest up. And how to contact Twilight.” Hopefully she would point us in the right direction.

“Follow the path straight ahead. You shall find Ponyville and a bed.” She pointed to a path to our right. The trees thinning out further down.

“Its inhabitants may help you meet, if she deems you worthy of her greet.”

“Thank you madame Zecora.” Turning to towards the path she had indicated, we began to follow it down. A feeling of pride in my heart. I had just spoken to a Zebra! And it was not as hopeful as I would have liked but I was happy no matter. Twilight was here!

XXXX

“What do you think she meant by ‘worthy to greet’ ?” Jack asked.

We had now been walking for over an hour and we were still not out of the forest. We were all a little worn out now. We had not eaten since last night and I was beginning to feel a little light headed.

“Don’t know and I don’t care at this point.” I replied, looking over at him I gave him a weary smile. “I just want to get somewhere where we can sit and rest.”

“Hear hear!” Mark replied while panting. We were all worn out.

And just when it seemed like we were still going to be walking for a few more hours, the trees thinned out almost completely.

We had done it! We were out!

Despite hearing so many strange sounds and finding traces of creatures that may have been too much for us to handle, we had made it alive and with no serious injuries. Just a very filthy coat and bad back from carrying these saddlebags. We may not have worn them properly…

No matter, we were home free ! All we had to do is follow the trail and hopefully, get to Ponyville before the sun began to set.

“Jesus…” I turned to Jack who was muttering to himself. He looked to be in a bad way.

“You alright?” I asked, the look he gave me told me ‘no’, but he forced a smile.

“Just need to relax a bit. My back is killing me.” He rose shakily to his legs and began to move ahead. I looked to Mark with a raised brow.

“Guess I’m tailing, huh?” I had never known just how expressive animal features were on us. The way his ears folded backwards was clear sign of disappointment. Reading pony body language may be easier than reading human body language.

“Yes you are.” I stated and moved to follow Jack who was already getting a little far ahead.

“Just great I hate tailing.” He mumbled, and I laughed. This earned me a magical slap on the back of my head.
I wished that the Zebra… Zecora had given us an estimation of how long it would take to get to Ponyville. We were all dragging our paws and there was still no town in sight.

What had appeared however was a large orchard. Apple trees spanning as far as the I could see on the right side of the road.

In certain areas we could see ponies picking the apples. They all we all dressed in overalls for ponies, some were hitting the trees with their hind legs while the others were pulling oversized carts of apples around, following their fellow apple tree kickers.

We all stopped to look at these ponies. They were far off but we could still see some defining features. Unlike us, they all lacked wings and horns. They were normal ponies and they seemed to be struggling. They also appeared to be suffering from malnutrition, many of them were looking very thin.

Down the road, we could see a more ponies approaching us. They too were all dressed in the same gear. Maybe they were another team that was coming to work on this part of the orchard ?

As they approached, a small pony with a pink bow in its hair ran up to us.

“Well hi there, welcome tah Sweet Apple Acres! Are ya hear for the inspection?” She had the voice of a child that sounded feminine. Guess she must be a girl. Though I was not sure yet.

“Inspection?” I wondered what she meant by inspection? Maybe our military gear made us look like inspectors in their world...

“Ah thought y’all was part of the Imperial Guard, with those strange cloaks!” She pointed at our insignias. She was right about the military markings but not about us. Just as I was about to formulate a reply, a very old looking lime green pony with grey hair approached us.

“Now now Apple Bloom, I’m sure that these fine colts are here for the rosters.” She held the young one back, the looked at me. “What’s ya name sunny?” God that accent was thick.

“Lou Conlin and this is Mark and Jack.” I pointed to them and they nodded their heads as a hello.

“We’re not part of the guards, we’re travelling from the forest over there.” I pointed behind me.

“The Everfree?!” The young one, Apple Bloom reeled back in shock. Obviously that was not the right thing to say.

“Now now Apple Bloom.” The old mare said, putting her leg over the filly. “Well I’m Granny Smith, this here is Big Mack and Apple Bloom.” We nodded to the others, and smiled. “Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres! We were on our way to make our harvest before the end of day. To meet our production quota.” She then looked out at the other workers in the orchard.

“That’s why we thought you were here to inspect our work for the war effort.”

“The war effort?” Jack asked as he stood beside me with Mark.

“Y’all been living under a rock?” She asked in almost utter bewilderment. To be fair, we were new to this world, so speaking from hindsight, maybe things seemed a little strange for a magical land of talking horses.

“Not really, we’ve just been travelling for a while.”

“Well… like I was sayin’, we thought you were here to inspect our work. But seeing as you are not, is there anything we can help y’all with?” She asked. She was obviously in a hurry to get on with her work and I was not going to hold her and her friends any longer.

“We were on our way to Ponyville.” I paused as I began to wonder. What would happen if I asked about Twilight?

“We’re trying to meet up at Twilights lodgings.”

“Y’all friends of Twilights?” Apple Bloom asked, having escaped the grip of Ms Smith.

“Yes but we are just trying to get to Ponyville. If you tell us how far, we’ll leave you and your workers to your business.”

“We’re not workers!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “This is mah family!”

Ooooh… that seemed to make sense. But this Apple Bloom seemed a bit to young to be working the orchards.

“Sorry, I had no idea.” I apologised. She took it with huge grin. Her family seemed to be alright with that.

“So… is Ponyville far?”

“It sure ain’t, but are y’all sure you want to meet with Twilight? She’s a bit of a busy mare as of late. Her bein’ the commander of all of this area.” Ms Smith asked. This was interesting but I was not going to push my luck before these ponies started asking too many questions.

“Thanks, does she live anywhere in particular? Or does she pick lodgings?”

“She used to live the old library. It’s been abandoned since the Shadow took over. She lives in Canterlot now.” She then pointed to a mountain that was partially obscured by clouds. But even from here, I could make out the outlines of a town. I gulped.

“Thank you for your help. We’ll leave you to your work.”

Bidding them farewell, we made our way down the dirt road once more. I had my eyes almost completely stuck on the distant mountain. There was no way I could ever walk that far. Not in one long haul.

The others agreed. We would need to figure out something if we had to go all that way to meet Twilight.

I was getting slightly worried however. It had been twice now that we had been asked if we wanted to really meet Twilight. They made it sound like she was not… well… I don’t know. I still remembered my vivid encounter with that shadowy figure in her mind. I had never seen anything like that before. While Twilight may have been on my side then, there was every possibility that she had become corrupted. Or worse.

There was a war going on and we did not know against who. Other ponies? Or something else… We were suppose to help the ponies of this world and we had no idea of where to start.

Twilight was my only hope for answers, but maybe Twilight had changed. It had been years since we last saw each other. Maybe this life under occupation had made her believe that their was no other option but to side with this mysterious creature that everyone seemed to call: the Shadow.

That was another thing. The Shadow… Who was he? We had very little information. All we knew was that he had invaded all alone it seemed and was now in charge of this country. Or this world. We had no idea what he had done. Was he evil? Did he have bad intentions for this land?

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but as a marine, I never questioned whether the Japanese were evil. Maybe they were… But I fought them without really being sure.

All that mattered was finding Twilight. Dragging our paws along the road, we approached a dip in the road, and down below… A town. Ponyville.

We had made it. Spurred on by the sight, we ran? Galloped? Whatever… we rushed to the town. Upon entering the outskirts, we slowed down and gaped at the architecture. The town had a seemingly medieval feel to it. The buildings made of straw and tightly packed hay criss-crossed by large wooden beams.

It was beautiful. Ponies all around looked at us but seemed to keep to themselves. While we looked over joyed, it soon became apparent that the ponies here were not.

They looked miserable. Tired. Hungry and thirsty.

We asked several of them directions for Twilight’s house. In the end, we ended up in front of a large tree. The entire thing looked almost mystical. Approaching the door, I knocked.

No answer. To be fair the place looked abandoned. Putting my paw on the handle, it was locked. Turning my side, I prepared to breach the door with my shoulder. Only for Mark to stop me.

“Are you seriously going to break into her home like that ?” He hissed. I stared at him with a dead paned look before turning my attention to the door. My friends covered me as I knocked the lock right off the other side.

Slipping inside, I held the door for my friends before closing it.

We must have spent a few minutes with our mouths hanging open. From the outside, this place looked kind of small, but inside…

It was very large and spacious. All around were book shelves embedded in to the outer walls. The centre piece had a horses head on a table. Flicking on our torches, we moved still in awe at what this place was. Beautiful.

I could see Twilight living here actually. She did say that she was a bit of a bookworm. I think.

Pulling out my torch, I moved through a door way into what appeared to be a kitchen. Mark went to a door in the back that was probably a basement. Though a tree was supposed to have roots, so basement was a little strange.

Jack on the other hand followed the stairs up. One thing that I had noticed was the fact that this place looked not only abandoned, but was also left in its state of habitation. Books were still laying out on the floor. Food was left moulding on the side counter. Washing still in the sink. And a thin layer of dust covered everything. Cobwebs covered most things. My sensitive pony nose was struggling to not sneeze.

There was one thing that caught my eye. On the counter top was a crown. Small and delicate. Made of gold with small shards of amethyst or maybe sapphires within the tips. Beautiful though dusty. I picked it of with my magic and observed it.

“I wonder why she would leave this behind.” I whispered to myself.

“Hey guys !” A shout came from the library area. Mark and he sounded worried. Placing the tiara down, I grabbed my gun and ran to the library. Jack was already jumping down the stairs. It was strange seeing him like that. His legs working together to cushion his fall like a feline would. It seemed automatic. Maybe I could do that too…

Both of us ran down the steps of the basement. The room was very large. Big machines were all hooked up to other things. Wires and cables snaking along the floor. Amongst it all was Mark. He was lifting bits of glass from the floor. Large shards of reflective glass causing his flashlight to blind us momentarily.

Holstering our guns, I moved up to see what he had discovered. He looked at me as I approached, holding a shard in his magic, he then looked ahead of him.

‘Wonder what happened here.” He said, chucking the piece of glass to the side and nodding towards the large contraption ahead of us.

Within a large arch was a beautifully carved wooden frame. Rounded, most likely a mirror judging by all the reflective glass about the place. What seemed the most unsettling was that the glass appeared to have shattered outwards from the mirror. Only a few scant pieces were lying at the base. Either hit the mirror from behind without leaving a dent or a hole or…

“This must be where Twilight tried that experiment of hers.” Mark suggested, looking over a few pieces of paper on a table next to us.

“She said that it came through the mirror and pulled her into our world.” He was right. She had told us that when we had first met. In a cave on our way back to Henderson Field.

“Looks like we can’t use that mirror to get back home then.” I muttered. Looking at my own paws, I noticed what appeared to be a key of some sort just lying on the floor. There was no indication as to what it could be used for.

Taking a look around with my torch, I noticed a cupboard door on the side wall to my right. Pushing past Mark, I placed the key in the lock and turned. The doors opened to reveal nothing. There were small metal plackets marked ‘Honesty, Magic, Laughter, Loyalty, Generosity, and Kindness’.

I had no idea what that meant. Nor was it important right now. First we needed to rest up. Get some sleep and hopefully find our way to Canterlot in the morning.

I sure did hope that we wouldn’t have to walk. Oh boy.

“Jack, go back to the library section and set up camp.” I turned to him. He was still standing at the base of the steps. He grunted, shifting his wings as he returned up the stairs.

“Come on Mark, lets take our gear off. Then eat.” I turned and made my way towards the exit. My back was killing me… and so were my legs.

“Sounds like a plan.” He said, following my lead.

XXXX

We had very little to say that evening. We were all so tired. None of us really wanted to sleep, but at the same time, we really wanted to curl up in to a ball and sleep like kittens.

It wasn’t truly hard. Especially as cat-ponies. But the nightmares was what kept us away from the idea of sleep.

Not that we had a choice, either way, sleep would come and so would the nightmares.

“Tomorrow we go to Canterlot.” I yawned, smacking my lips before finally looking to Mark and Jack. They both nodded, yawning as well.

“We’ll hopefully find a better and easier way than walking. But if we can’t, then prepare to walk.”

“We’re really heading up there? To where this so called Shadow is ruling from?” Jack asked. I just nodded. I had no other ideas of what to do other than that. Maybe we were walking into a bad situation. Maybe there was someone else we had to talk to… I don’t know.

We had been dropped into this. Now we had to dig ourselves out.

“I don’t know what to do guys.” I admitted out right. I was not afraid to tell them what was on my mind. They knew that I was not a natural leader. Just one of circumstance.

“Okinawa did not help me with how to lead men. I’m not sure of what to do.” Looked at them solemnly.

“If only I could say that we needed to go see him or her and then find a way to meet Twilight without going to the wolf’s lair. I wish I knew what we had to do here. But I don’t. I don’t know…”

I never wanted to command. It always felt like an extra responsibility that I did not want. Responsible for other peoples actions. Their successes and their failures.

I looked up as my friends made their way beside me and gave me a hug.

They had never done that before. At least not for trying to comfort me. Maybe they had done it once or twice during the shelling on the Canal.

I hugged them back as we all curled up together and closed our eyes. Without another word, we went to sleep.