counting. Miraculously they had only twelve dead,
and thirty wounded. Considering what they had done to the enemy, it
was well worth it.
42 Little Dog came out and surveyed his handiwork. Red Serpent had seen
the look on men's faces before, after a battle. "The best thing to do,"
he comforted, "is be sick, boy. There's no shame in it. It happens to
all of us, it's not just you. No matter how many times you see it, it's
never any better. If it ever is, you want to quit fighting and go live
somewhere nice and quiet, until there's some honor back in your Soul."
43 Little Dog took his advice. When he came back, he watched the men
picking up the Oneness' dead. "To know you did this," he said,
"to know that the plans you made did this to living flesh; before you
fight them, you don't think of them...as men, just the enemy. But when
you see them like this, they're men….living, breathing people that
you've blown to pieces. Lord, why do men do things like this to each
other?"
44 "If I could answer that question," answered Red Serpent, "I would
be the wisest of the wise, but I am only a fighting person with a touch
of The Lords Power. I don't know the secrets of the universe. If they
would leave us at peace, we would happily let them live out their lives
and never harm a scale on their heads. It is they who make the war, not
us. We are people of peace, not pain.
45 Talk to some of the prisoners. Maybe they can tell you why they
cause these things. But I don't think their answers would make any
sense. The answers of those that want to hate and destroy never make
any sense at all.
46 Right now I want to gather these weapons, salvage what of their
equipment we can, and push