Shirla clutched her leg.  “Ahhh… Zaaack… I think you broke my leg,” she murmured.
	Her lieutenant kneeled by her side. “You alright, Shirla?”
	She glared at the still lifeless body of the general.  “Somebody go give Zack a good kick in the rump.”
	One of the blue soldiers happily complied, and the general sat up, yelping.  “OW! What the heck was that for! I was already dead!”
	The battle having concluded, the slain rose to converse with their living comrades on the results of the battle and its long-term consequences for the “war.”  The enemy general, Zack, walked over, still rubbing his bum, and held a hand out to Shirla.  “Sorry,” he said sheepishly.  “I didn’t mean to stab you that hard.”  His hand still held the offending wooden sparring knife.
	Shirla allowed herself to be helped up, limping a few steps before the pain subsided.  She smoothed her simple green dress and tossed her tangled hair behind her face.  “Seriously, though.  My leg.  Broken beyond repair.  I’ll be hobbling the rest of my life and it’s all your fault.”
	Zack shrugged lamely.  “I couldn’t breathe.  I was desperate! Desperate men do desperate things.”
	“You aren’t supposed to hit a girl anyways,” Shirla pointed out, grinning mischievously.  “It’s, like, the number one rule of manhood.”
	“HA.  You lost that privilege when you broke Ian’s nose.”
	Shirla’s lip curled.  “Ugh.  Ian.  He deserved worse.”
	With most of both armies off the ground and mingling about, the group of teenagers began to slowly make their collective way through the forest, heading towards the nearby village.  It was nearing late afternoon, and parents would soon be wanting their children home for dinner and to finish chores for the day.
	“Ian’s not such a bad guy,” Zack said as they joined the group.  “He just takes after his father.”
	Shirla snorted, directing her gaze away from her friend.  She considered, not for the first time, explaining why she had even slugged Ian in the face that time. Tell somebody what he had said to her, about her parents, about her father…
	She shook her head violently to indicate how strongly she disagreed with Zack, but otherwise didn’t voice her thoughts.  “He’s… a rude, mean-spirited, unintelligent excuse of a human being, that’s what he is,” she spat.
	Zack shrugged, then spotted a few of his teammates drifting off into the woods.  Throwing a hasty wave and a “good game, anyways,” over his shoulder, he jogged to catch up with them, leaving Shirla on her own.