Comforting.
His head resting on his mother's lap.
Early days-
Back when-
Nothing mattered.
Back when-
There were no worries-
Just him-
His family-
And…
Fire!
"Ah-" Breath erratic Flint woke up-
His head on Amanda's lap- she craned down- staring at his face. "Morning! Nightmare?"
"Evening… pretty much… Why didn't you wake me?" he said- staring at the troll corpses.
Three-
'Still need one more…'
Amanda yawned. "Cause I have a proposition to make."
The sun was nearly about to set.
They didn't have enough time.
"Proposition?"
"Yes. With the trolls, you were going to go on to become the town knight's apprentice, right?"
"Yes?"
"Then you'll probably quit adventuring, yes?"
"Yes?"
Lips curling, a kind smile. "So, here's my proposition. Instead of quitting outright, go out with me at least once a week."
"I don't know about that-"
"Or one, I won't give you the corpses, and two-" She came closer- blowing in his ears- "I will personally eat you up!" vigorous whisper! A solid lick of her lips.
"Alright, alright…" Blood rushing to his face… he looked away.
"Good… now let's go find one last one."
"Right!"
***
Flint had a curfew.
He could not be out past eight.
It was set by Erveine as she was prone to overthinking.
So-
In a sense, Flint only had about an hour and a half left.
Which meant-
"There seem to be some trails here-" Amanda said, pointing at the ground.
"I don't see anything-" Flint said, also staring down.
A proud grin. "Want me to teach you?"
"Wasn't I begging the other day and you said no?"
"Did I?" A finger on her face, acting cute.
A sigh. "Please do so but later. Right now, we don't have much ti-"
"Always say, you have time. The moment you say you don't have enough, the fairies will mess with you for fun and you'll end up with even more loss…"
"Right…" Flint rolled his eyes but didn't complain anymore.
And together-
They followed a trail.
A trail straight to one particular place in the long wide field where some trees… and some trolls were camping.
Yes-
Camping.
"The number's too high…" Flint whispered.
He'd never heard of trolls hanging out in the open like this-
Normally they hang around in a cluster of two to four and hunted. Sometimes, even alone.
But this many?
"Yes…"
At least in the dozens-
There were some watch trolls too- ready to pulverize any and all intruders.
And they were all protecting something.
Their women and children.
"Doesn't this make us the plunderers?" Flint mumbled…
"It does, yes."
"Now what?"
"Why're you asking me? it's your call. We can easily take out one of those watchers and just scram."
Lots of thoughts.
Lots of dilemmas.
A deep breath.
"Let's leave."
"What?" Amanda said, confused.
"You heard me. I'll explain later."
"Al…right?"
They warped back to the guild.
Amanda went to turn over all the goblins.
And when she got back with a bag of coin-
"Well? Do explain yourself-"
She and Flint sat down together.
"I felt pity for them."
"Huh?"
Chatter.
The guild was oddly noisy today.
Apparently, one group of adventurers had successfully slain two trolls and scared off a bunch-
"When I thought about what happened to me and my family- I… couldn't help but feel pity for them. I didn't want the little trolls to go through what I did. I know that sounds hypocritical considering how many we've killed-" He spoke quietly.
"Cause that 'is' hypocritical." She shrugged. "What about your apprenticeship?"
"I'll explain it to them."
"And if they refuse?"
"Then I guess, he wasn't for me…" Teeth biting teeth.
Flint had many dilemmas. This was one of them.
On one hand, he couldn't stop feeling pity.
On the other, he didn't want to become the same murderer-
But he still wanted to get stronger-
He still!
"Damn it!" Hands slammed against the table- almost breaking it, grabbing most of the adventurer's attention… for a good two seconds.
He let out a breath, slouching down on his chair… "I'm sorry…"
Amanda let out a faint sigh. "Go home. Rest well. Explain yourself tomorrow to that knight and if everything works out, it does. If it doesn't, I'll train you to become a proper assassin; trust me, being an assassin would be much better than being a knight when it's about killing people," she whispered.
Flint snorted. "Yeah."
And then he went back.
Erveine said quite a few words but he couldn't say anything back-
He couldn't have dinner either.
And before he knew it-
He was on his bed- staring at the ceiling, without even an ounce of sleep in his eyes.
'What am I doing with my life?'