Daniel remained silent, not knowing what to say. He had lived with fear all his life, so he had become a mercenary so that he could always see the danger in front of him and learn to deal with it. He didn't talk much to people, so the only nice things he saw were the clothes the Herald had bought for him, but he wasn't impressed by them either, because of his preferences.
His daily routine consisted of training, reading, meetings about plans for various missions, and his experiments with various plants he found in the forest or at the market when he bought food for their group.
But he looked again at the lake with the fireflies above it, but still didn't understand anything.
"So what's the big deal, fireflies often appear in the forest, but of course the lake has more of them."
"You..." Melissa was taken aback by such a situation, she thought everyone could feel the beauty of this species. "Look closely, how many yellow-green lights form a whole constellation that is constantly moving. How those lights reflect on the smooth surface of the crystal clear water. Just look a little longer."
Melissa took a seat next to Daniel and watched as he tried to stare into the colourful distance. ....
But she quickly realised she was getting a little bored and remembered the questions she'd been wanting answers to for a long time.
"By the way, I never asked you your name. What's yours?"
"Daniel." The boy said a little distantly as he continued to look out at the landscape of the lake.
"And your last name?"
"I don't have a last name." Daniel replied in the same calm tone.
"How can you not have a last name?" The young girl was genuinely surprised.
"Where I was born they didn't give out surnames. It was a quiet village, everyone knew each other by name, and they only went to the towns to sell their crops and buy various goods for the farm." The boy answered, but his gaze became noticeably colder and sadder, and more thoughtful.
Only Melissa didn't notice his bad mood....
"Where is your village and why was it like this?" She asked without hesitation.
"It was to the west, now that part of the continent belongs to the Desert People. I haven't been there since I fled the fire when I was three."
Melissa became a little sad and felt guilty for asking such a rash question.
"I'm sorry..." she apologised very quietly.
"Don't worry about it. It wasn't you who burned down all the people in my village and then stabbed my older brother in the back when he tried to get me out of the furnace, but he could only save me, he didn't last long with such a bad wound... Then I was alone, trying to figure out what to do next, but I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't met the Herald's group and been taken in".
Melissa began to feel even more guilty, even though Danielle told her not to worry.
Danielle only grew more wistful as he stared into the distance, pondering not only the tragedy of the past, but also why he was starting to talk more.
They were in a ringing silence of anguished guilt and heavy thoughts, so Melissa quickly thought of another question to lighten the mood.
"What was your role in the mercenary group?"
"I used to go shopping and train with the rest of the mercenaries, but as the years went by, this old man only wanted me to learn, so I argued for a long time to become a full-fledged mercenary on escort missions, but I also had to show my knowledge in other areas, where I had to think tactically about route building depending on the landscape, as well as preparing different potions from the ingredients our group had, to repair wounds, to feed the wounded who couldn't eat in the usual way, and the like..." Daniel's heart warmed at the memory of growing up in that group.
He didn't even notice as he sat down with Melissa and began to talk to her face to face.