[center][h1]Snowy Mountain Cabins - Bonfire[/h1]

[@LordVoldemort][@Solace][@FrostedCaramel][@LetMeDoStuff][@HecateProxy][@Ambra][@Aquanthe][@wolverbells][@QT][@SheriffLlama][/center]

[color=Gray]Unnoticed by the cadets who were consumed in the joyous release of the moment, having descended into a snowball fight one would equate to belonging in childhood memories, night had fallen steadily on the snow capped mountains.  Although already dark with even the now relatively light snowfall dimming all light, the final descent of the sun soon cast the cabin grounds into almost complete darkness.  Lanterns outside the cabins and torch fires around the camp perimeter, set as warnings against absent minded cadets wandering past the security of the cabins and inevitably falling to a snowy death, were the only sources of light; the moon shone too dully to pierce through the still falling layers of snow.

The camp monitors, mostly veterans retiring from long service with a few mountain guides local to the region, emerged from one of the cabins marked off for senior staff.  They saw the antics of the cadets, the adrenaline release at their success, and laughed, applauding some particularly spectacular hits, before retrieving large logs and planks from the wood store.  Piling this in the centre of the grounds to which all the cabins were ringed around, they soon had a raging bonfire lit and were warming their hands against it.  A pair, seeing the fire, kicked their way through the door of the main cabin struggling with a large cauldron between them, steam rising aggressively from its contents against the chill night air.  The smell of berries and spices wafted behind them as they approached the bonfire.[/color]

"Come on, young ones! Get something warm in you or you're going to freeze out here." [color=gray]One of the older soldiers called to the cadets, gesturing for them to come and join them around the bonfire.  He, like the other men, was holding a tankard filled from the cauldron and took a heft swig from it and then sighed in appreciation.[/color] "Mind you don't drink it too quickly though, you young'uns might not keep it down!"

[color=gray]The other men laughed but all the same hurried the cadets good naturedly to join them, pushing tankards of mulled wine into their hands. Specially brewed with spices to enhance the warming sensation it induced, along with hefty alcoholic content, it was certainly going to warm their cockles.  Growing louder and louder, more raucous as the drink flowed, the veterans mostly kept to themselves although occasionally approached the cadets, usually to top up their drink or crack a joke.

The young would-be soldiers had made it past one of the more gruelling trials of their long years of training and it was worth a celebration.  Unknown to them, but known to the veterans, some of the cadets who had not made it to the camp never would and would probably never be found.  That night, the bonfire, the flowing drink and the camaraderie were to allow them to celebrate their survival, their success, unblemished by thoughts of lost comrades.  That was something for the morning, the night was for the living.[/color]

[hr]

[centre][h2][color=7ea7d8]Lauren Jones[/color][/h2][/centre]

[color=gray]From the depths of sleep, the rising volume outside the cabin penetrated her dreams, the first she'd had for over two years.  She slowly came to, blearily seeing Mora's sleeping face barely a foot away from hers.  For a moment she lay there, confused; trying to work out why she had been asleep in the same bed as her friend.  

Then she remembered.  Her fears.  Her guilt.  Her self-loathing.  Her addiction.  Her... confession.

She resisted the urge to jump off the bed and sat up slowly, turning and dangling her feet off the edge of the bed as she try to collect herself, going over their conversation not long before.  No one else was in the cabin yet and the sounds outside suggested that it hadn't been that long and yet she felt refreshed. Lighter, the weight of two years of guilt partially lifted from her shoulders and from around her heart.  

It wasn't all gone, there was a renewed sense of pain she felt from subjecting Mora to everything at once.  Her plan had been just to tell her about her dependency, to seek help and from there work through what plagued her dreams bit by bit.  The release had been too much though, it had unleashed a need to be free of what held her back and she had lost control as everything poured out of her, seeking forgiveness and understanding from the only one who could give it.

Her confession? That had been the last thing she planned on happening.  It had been tied up with her pain but now it was for Mora too, she had hoped to keep her feelings hidden until a better time, a more neutral time.  She turned to look at her friend's sleeping face and couldn't help but smile.  She hadn't been scared away, she hadn't recoiled and she hadn't rejected Lauren.  She could not have hoped for any more.

She gently squeezed Mora's shoulder and whispered to the sleeping girl. [color=7ea7d8]"Thanks, Ra."[/color] Standing up she made her way over to the cabin door and listened to the sounds outside, working out whether she could face other people or not at that moment.[/color]