Cock Horse
- Now that the war's over, Cam can never sit still. He wants to get out there and do something, but no one else wants him to lift a finger.
- He feels incomplete—like he's missing something.
- In the middle of the night, he goes to the stables, grabs a horse, and rides away.
- We get a flashback to when Cam was younger, long before the war. He remembers telling his mom he wants to go.
- When she would ask him where he wants to go, he wouldn't know—he just knew he wanted to leave. Um, okay.
- Then we get another flashback, this time when Cam was twelve years old. They'd heard the Uplanders were marching south for a war.
- Cam decided he wanted to go to war too. Even though others protested (he's just a boy), he went along for the ride; he was super excited.
- The next flashback is when he's in the surgeon's tent during the war, surrounded by Uplanders, including Lord Ryuu and his son.
- He hears them saying things like "I aimed for his neck" and "I got his arm by mistake" but he can't really make sense of it all.
- He also hears "Now he doesn't look like Gyodan but he did out there." Huh? Who the heck is Gyodan?
- When he asks "Why me?" all he gets in response is "Why not?"
- Another flashback, this time to when he first got home from war. He feels unsettled with the quiet routine of life—it's just too quiet, perhaps because everyone is tip-toeing around him, which he hates.
- Everyone except Da. He tells Cam that he's not the son he was before the war, and that he doesn't trust him one bit.
- Ma hates the fighting and scolds Da, but Cam gets the message loud and clear.
- No wonder Cam decides to leave and ride north—he wants to find Lord Ryuu's son and ask him why they let him live.