Hello @stormlight24, I have not read a story by you before. You say it's been a while. Don't you wonder what makes you sit down now, after such an absence? I can't imagine, although I've been there. Suddenly, I get an idea and it pours out of me in a story.

As for this "Introduction". It is of course extremely well written. You draw the characters and landscape in such detail that we imagine we are there. What does the scene mean to me beyond that. Well, I live in a certain time and place. Everything I experience is filtered through that. And so I see the world I live in now. People who are really so much alike, losing sight of that and going into battle with each other. People determined to be angry...about what? And the consequence, chaos, grief, loss. Nothing accomplished. No winners. Everyone a loser

(Wow, now I'm thinking of WWI...)

Forgive me for seeing what you may not have intended. But that's my reaction to your story.

Nice to meet you.