Blaze Dying Down

Guys! Blaze is almost done being wrote! I plan to have it done by next week. (I originally thought this week, but then I realized it was already Thursday) The last two days I've spent the evenings sprawled out across my bedroom carpet and just scribbling away madly. No internet or TV at all.
And I have got so much written. So, I thought I'd share some snippets with you leading up to the finale. Enjoy! (By the way, I've switched to first person- present tense, experimenting with how I want the final work to be, so some of them won't match tense) Also, I'm wanting to do a big bash for finishing it, so if you have questions about the story, or any of the characters or whatever, shoot them down in the comments or email and I'll have them later on :)

One of the women made it over to me just as I was finishing. I slicked my hands down my pants. "Hi." I smiled a bit.
She smiled easily. "Hello. Did you need some help?"
"I took an arrow in the arm. Got it cauterized, but my brother thinks it needs a look."
"Well then lets take a look." She seemed so happy and it was contagious.
I chuckled. "Alright." I unlaced the neck of my shirt and tugged it down so she could see.
"Well, you didn't wash it very good."
"I didn't wash it at all."
She clicked her tongue. "Oh, boys. Take that shirt off. I'll get a towel."

"Jace."
"Yeah?" He tips his head like a kid.
"I hate you."
The little rat grins. "Sorry."
I shrug and turn back so he doesn't see me try to hide a smile. "You're my brother. I'm stuck with you forever. I'll get over it."

Chet rides alongside me and glances over. "It's a crazy thing, all this, isn't it?"
"What's that?" I face him fully, pulling myself from my imagined reunion with Tara.
"This war. The big men in the capitol are the ones who started all this, but you don't see any trace of them. They send out their little soldier boys to do all the work against the likes of us."
I nod. "They wage a war they're not willing to die for."
"But we are." His voice has a puzzled tone to it.
"We care about it more than they do. It's a whim for them. Just a little more power to add to their fist. For us, it's everything."
He studies me and I shift a bit. "What?"
"Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. I mean, everything we've already lost. Everything that there's still left to do. But..." He pauses. "I never really cared too much for looking up to others. I like to be my own person. But I see how you are. The way you're doing everything with us that you hate, so you can get back to Tara," He shrugs. "It makes me think it's worth it for me too."

The man riding next to us snorts. "I don't understand what any of this is for. Anyone can start a war. I don't see why we should die for it."
Chet speaks up, turning his horse toward the man and pretty much shoving me out of the conversation. "Then why are you here if you don't understand, and hate it so bad? Why don't you leave?"
The man shoots an uncertain look at me, like I'm going to be made at anything else he could say. When I say nothing he turns back to Chet and shrugs a shoulder. "No reason. I guess I will leave." He starts to turn away.
"Hold up." Chet says, his voice cool and even. "Leave the horse and sword." 
The man scowls. "They're mine."
Chet's eyebrow quirks up. "They were both won in a battle, fighting for a cause you don't believe in. If you go, they stay here."
He glares and I wait to see if there will be a response. Like most men, He shrinks back from Chet. He mutters a curse and slides his mount over several horses from us. Chet glances at me. "What did he say to me?"
"Nothing." I say, preferring to spare a fist fight today.
Chet smirks. "I thought so."

Asher's frown deepens. "do you see that?"
I follow the line of his finger to a dust plume several miles out.
I nod. "Yeah, I see it..."
"Soldiers." Chet cuts in.
I frown and hope he's wrong.
Jace rides up, jerking his horse to a halt. "Look over there."
He waves an arm and I look in the opposite direction. My breath hisses out between my teeth when I see another dust column.
Asher pulls up sharply. "We can't go forward."
"They'll box us in." Jace finishes.
"They might anyway."