"It’s fine," he said, dusting himself off. "It’s just— my dad brings me out when he goes hunting, and he makes me stay on guard at all times. He says one small mistake gets you killed, right? And, uh… I don’t want either of us to die."
I nodded my head in response.
"In fact, I should’ve known better, since you always sneak up on me. But all habits die hard— that’s what mom says. So I guess my dad did a good job teaching me to be cautious, huh?" Adrian laughed.
"I won’t do it again," I said.
"Oh, no, it’s really not a problem. I was just making a joke. It’s like if you say something that’s absurd— not that I don’t think you don’t understand jokes, I just meant..." the boy trailed off, as I gave him no reaction. He quickly tried to change the subject, pointing at the basket in my hand. "You sure you wanna head back now? It’s not even full."
"We’ll be late for Mr Walden’s lesson."
He gave me a weak grin. "I don’t see how that’s a problem…?"
It was another attempt at a joke, although he did not commit fully to it; I did not know how to respond to it, so I just made a noise. "Mhm."
We both stood there awkwardly for another moment; it was not long, but it felt like forever for some reason. Finally, Adrian managed to mutter under his breath.
"...let’s go?"
I nodded again. The boy led the way back as we made our way back to the village. We continued to walk together quietly for a few minutes, before a voice finally broke the silence.
"Greetings."
The voice was hoarse and rough, definitely not belonging to the boy walking in front of me. It came from behind us, and we both whirled around to face the strange voice.
A suspicious looking man strode out from the trees behind us. No, not suspicious looking— he was literally just suspicious.
He was dressed in what was similar to a black trench coat, and wore a pointed hat like my mom usually did, except it was black, not purple. Its wide brim was twice as large too. He had both of his hands held out in a placating gesture, before either Adrian or I even saw him. Yep, definitely suspicious.
Adrian seemed to agree, as his hand was already on his holster, tightly gripping the gun. The man noticed our hostility as he took a small step back, speaking in as civil of a manner as he could.
"Now, now. I am just a traveler looking for a place to stay for the night. If you could just bring me to your village, I will truly appreciate it."
It did not work. His gruff voice betrayed his attempt at a soothing tone, and each word he spoke was over enunciated; it sounded too forced— too fake. Somehow, this was enough for Adrian to change his mind as he relaxed.
"Sure, we were just on our way back. We can show—" he started, but I didn’t let him finish.
"No."
Both Adrian and the man turned to me in surprise. Neither expected that response. And why would they? If we brought him to the village, we would be safe. He could not do anything to us there, in front of all the villagers. But it wasn’t my safety that I cared about.
This man snuck up on us without making a sound. And even though he was a ‘traveler’, he was alone and without a pack animal, in a world where Monsters roamed free in the wild. And worst of all, he was quite clearly hiding something with the way he was dressed. He could have been something like… a Witch hunter? That was a thing back on Earth, right? Not that Witches existed in this world. Powerful spellcasters were often called Dark Acolytes, apparently.
And if this man saw my mom and somehow recognized her... well, she would probably kill him. But then we would be kicked out of the village. So I was not letting this guy near Villamcreek.
"We’re not going anywhere until you leave."
The man raised an eyebrow at that, seemingly amused.
"And if I just don’t move, would you just wait here forever? Surely you’d get tired after a while and return home. Then I can just follow you back."
"Then he’ll shoot you." I pointed at Adrian, who opted to trust me and slowly unholstered his gun. I gave the man an ultimatum.
"And if you try to follow us, we’ll tell everyone that a creepy guy tried to kidnap us in the woods. We’ll tell them that he’s following us, so when you try to enter the village, they’ll shoot you. So go away."
I stood firm as the man stared at me. His eyes lingered on my face for almost a minute, before he finally broke off; he threw his hands up in resignation, sighing.
"Guess I’ll just have to find another place to stay."
With that said, the man slowly turned around, and stalked away.
Adrian and I kept our eyes on the man in silence until he was finally out of sight. When it seemed like he was finally gone, Adrian turned to me.
"Are you alright?"
"I’m fine," I said apologetically, "sorry about that."
"You sure? That’s the most I’ve heard you speak in one go. I—" he paused, turning to face me. He looked me straight in the eyes before continuing, "What happened? What was wrong with him?"
Shrugging, I turned to look up at the sky like I was in deep thought.
