"Gold," Winters asked without turning his head, "why did you help me?"
"Me? I don't know either." Gold sat back down on the stump, pondered for quite some time, and then muttered resentfully, "I... I'm the youngest son at home, and my parents were tenant farmers. They couldn't afford to keep me, so they sent me to the ship to be a sailor. Life on the ship was tough; the captain and the sailors bullied people. On that ship, I was the lowest of the low.
"If the captain had treated me like a human, I would have followed him to the ends of the earth, even at the cost of my life. If the other sailors had been a little nicer to me, I would never have betrayed them. When our ship was seized, the pirates asked if anyone wanted to join them, and I agreed without any hesitation.
"Anyway, that's about it. I don't know why I ended up here. Maybe it's to return your water flask."
Winters silently chopped wood as Gold sighed and walked away.
