The Wrong Reasons to Fight

There's something about Ariela that doesn't quite make sense, because even though she lost her mother during a battle in Apalué - the soldiers were advancing house by house, Ariela's mother was holding them off with slingstones thrown down from the rooftops, and Ariela literally saw her get hit and fall - even despite all that, the one thing Ariela wants most is to be a fighter like her mother.

She knows the price you pay for being brave and standing on the front lines of a war, but she still idealizes that over every other course of action. She's always practicing with her sling, always trying to get faster and stronger, but sooner or later she'll have her own chance to fight in a battle, and she's going to have to confront the fact that a few minutes of heroism are not necessarily worth the years of grief that come afterward.