[ Gale grimaces, expression twisting into a humourless smile. ]

I could have left, it's true. Could have taken myself away out into the swamp and ended it all then. Far from a glorious battle, but an ending all the same. One in which the bloodshed would have finally been over. But some part of me still wanted to fight. To live, fool that I was. Maybe I had some... delusion that I could talk sense into everyone.

[ Not that anyone ever listened to him. ]