After the altercation with the nun I hadn’t learned the name of, “this is starting to become a habit...”. We made it out of the city in no time. What waited for us outside was not the wagon Kiyara had arranged for and I got a very, very angry look as Kiyara stomped off to find out what had happened.

Luckily the owner of the wagon and the man who would be driving our wagon had simply moved the cart out of the way of the early morning traffic. That did not stop Kiyara from having me walk behind the wagon instead of riding in it with the others. I tried to complain but was easily shot down with ‘you need to work on your stamina.’ so I ended up spending the rest of the day trudging and at times half running behind the wagon.

Thus it was no surprise that my legs wobbled and my breath was ragged when lunchtime rolled around, and I was forced to retrieve our lunch from my storage. But I didn’t complain. And it absolutely had nothing to do with the fact that I was laying on my back panting.

“Are you sure this is wise?” The wagon driver asked Gilana as he glanced at me.

“Yeah, he needs to work on his stamina so this is fine.” Gilana responded with a shrug as she dug into her ration.

“But… he is a mage, is he not? Are you sure that…” The driver pressed.

“Don’t be such a worrywart.” She patted the short man on the shoulder. “It is fine, say it after me: It is fine.”

“I-I umm…” The man stammered but Gilana made a go on motion with her hand and the driver broke. “I-it is fine…” He said looking anywhere but at me.

“Good that’s right.” Gilana said happily and slapped the man on the back. She then walked over to my unmoving form and peered down at me. “You look pale.”

“…” I didn’t respond. I just looked at her with all the anger I could muster. Which to be fair wasn’t much anger at all. I honestly didn’t have the energy to be angry. Had I not decided to be stubborn this time around and managed to keep to that philosophy I would not have made it this far. Especially since I knew that they couldn’t leave me behind.

“Well get up and walk around a bit or your muscles will cramp.” Gilana said with a grin and leaned down and offered her hand. “Come on, I’ll help you up.” I just looked at the hand for a moment really wanting to ignore it but with a mental cuss I accepted her hand and was pulled to my feet. The ease with how she did this once more impressed me with her strength.

“You are quite strong.” I said as I tried to rub some feeling into my legs.

“Haha, this is nothing.” She winked at me playfully and pointed at her badge now strapped to her leather armour. “I am a silver ranked Mercenary you know.” Gilana smiled proudly. She was now wearing proper leather armour with small interlocking plates that covered her vitals. The leather was black and the plates were a deep red almost perfectly matching her hair.

“That armour looks quite good on you.” I said, unable to keep my thoughts to myself. This startled Gilana but she soon recovered and danced away from me sending her hair swishing around her.

“It really does, doesn’t it?” She grinned at me with a slight blush. It at the same time looked super out of place and very cute at the same time. “Did I get a heat stroke or something?” I shook my head and slowly walked around the camp, Gilana gave me a nod before running off to cling to Kiyara. “She is so predictable it is almost comforting.” I let out a snort of laughter and looked around at the surrounding area. It was mostly flat farmland of wheat fields.

As the wind passed over the fields it looked like a multi-coloured sea of green and gold. It was quite stunning but I was rather confused by the lack of buildings. Not that there were no buildings, just that the ones there were, were huge barns evenly spaced along the road. No farm house, nothing else. I did see people tending to the crops, but they were few and far between. “Probably because it is summer… but where do these people live?” I looked around once more, seeing nothing new. “Surely they can’t all be living in the city?” I muttered and was VERY startled when Franz answered me.

“Of course they do?” I recovered ‘gracefully’ and turned to the armoured dwarf. “No ruler would be cruel enough to leave their citizens undefended outside the wall.” Franz peered at me suspiciously. The other two members of our ‘party’ walked up and the wagon driver was off watering the horses. “Boy you are not of this world, are you?” Franz asked simply.

I stiffened and looked at the three. Kiyara wore an uninterested expression as she half-heartedly fought off Gilana's clinging, Gilana wore a placid but happy expression as she wormed her way past Kiyara’s defences and Franz. Well Franz wore his visor down, so your guess is as good as mine.

“Um… what makes you say that?” I asked, my voice only shaking slightly from the nerves.

“I mean, it is rather obvious. Right?” Gilana momentarily stopped fiddling with Kiyara’s green hair and spoke seriously. The others nodded.

“It is the only explanation to your strangeness that makes sense.” Kiyara stated flatly.

“The girls are right. You are way too out of the norm to be something else. At first I thought that you might be royalty pretending to be a commoner but that simply doesn’t add up.” Franz reasoned.

“Am I really that weird?” I asked without thinking...

“Yepp.” “Absolutely.” “Yes.” The three answered simultaneously. “Should have seen that coming...”

“Urgh…” I wanted to fall to my knees and clutch my heart at the triple attack. But if I did I might not have gotten back up. My legs HURT. “… And here I thought I was at least doing a reasonable job of keeping a low profile…” I said sullenly. “I hate my stupid mouth.”

“Sure you are Goldie.” “Absolutely, mister tall as a house mage from Elianor.” “Said the child without an ounce of common sense.”

“Urgh…” I took a step back and hung my head. “Do you really have to be so harsh!?” I half shouted.

“Seems like we do.” Franz said simply, Gilana nodded emphatically, a smile on her lips and Kiyara just looked at me as if I was something the cat had dragged in. I just sat down on my arse in the dirt and looked at my feet.

“How am I supposed to know how to act?..” I muttered unhappily. I looked up with a frown. “But really, how was I being strange…” My question got interrupted.

“I think the word you are looking for is ‘Weirdo’.” Gilana said ‘helpfullyʼ and gestured for me to continue. I gave her a flat look and took a deep breath.

“Even if that is the case, how did you know that I’m not from this world? There has to be plenty of” I glared at Gilana who just smiled back at me. “weirdos out there. Besides, this world is enormous, I could just be from another continent or something?”

“That’d be even stranger.” Kiyara said flatly.

“What do you mean?”

“The Amaran continent is the only one that has humans on it.” Franz said. I blinked, surprised before I could ask Franz continued. “Many of the other species consider humans vermin and most humans think they are the cream of the crop. Because of this, there have been quite a number of wars. Wars that have more or less restricted humans to Amaran.” Franz stated indifferently. I just gaped at him.

“Well you could have been an escaped slave from the Bathri continent.” Gilana said with a shrug. When I looked at her in incomprehension she sighed. “See, this is why you can’t be of this world. The Bathri continent is the main continent of demonkind and they primarily use human slaves for labour.” She wore a frown and then added. “Oh and as a staple food supply.” I looked at her, wide eyed and saw an uncommon look of anger in the brutish looking woman’s eyes.

“Since humans are the only sapient species that have managed to settle and thrive on all of the continents at some point or another, they are the ONLY race that has managed to earn the collective dislike of ALL other species.” Kiyara said as she avoided the hurt look in Gilana’s eyes. “You almost breed like Goblins and are as belligerent as Orcs.” Kiyara scoffed.

“I have to object to that last statement as a dwarf.” Franz looked angry. “Do not compare ‘those’ filthy animals with humans.” Franz growled and somehow managed to spit out of his visor. “Humans can be bad. But orcs, those filthy creatures only ever rape, pillage and kill.” Franz growled angrily with fire in his eyes. “By the gods, even demonkind is reluctant to use orcs in their armies!” He and Kiyara glared at each other for a few moments, before Gilana bit Kiyara’s ear causing the elf to yelp and leap away an impressive distance.

“Now enough of that.” Gilana said cheerfully before she licked her lips and looked at Kiyara who was covering her ear with both hands and glowering back at Gilana. “Long story short, we figured you were not of this world.” She said with a nonchalant smile.

I just looked at Gilana. She was apparently far more complex than I had imagined. There was a rather keen intellect behind those vibrant green eyes and over exaggerated behaviours. “Or then again, maybe not.” Gilana made me question everything about her once more as she started chasing after Kiyara while apologizing.

“Now Victor, don’t be so stiff.” Franz said with a chortle and reached out his hand to pull me to my feet. “We are a laid back bunch so you don’t have to worry about us blathering too much about you.”

“So you will be ‘blathering’ about me anyway?” I asked as I grabbed his hand.

“Of course!” He laughed. “You are one hell of a weirdo after all!” His entire armour rang with his laughter.

“Is what I did really that strange?” I asked, thinking back to the Nun.

“Almost everything you do is strange.” Franz said with a laugh. “But I’m guessing you are talking about that incident with the Sister?” I nodded. “Then yes, I doubt that even people with more money than they know what to do with would have done something like that.” He then looked at me curiously. “Why did you do that? You didn’t even know that woman, did you?” He genuinely did not understand and I smiled sadly.

“If she died how many of those children would have survived the year?” I asked both as a statement and because I was curious.

“No idea, maybe half?” Franz thought for a moment then shrugged. “But I could be wrong, why do you ask?”

“So if I did nothing, that woman and possibly half of the children would have not made it.” I stated and was a bit stunned when Franz just looked at me. It was like he was saying ‘what of it?’ “So I didn’t want that to happen.” I said a bit of heat to my words.

“Why? It’s not like you owe those kids or that woman anything, is it?” Franz wondered.

“No, the only interaction I had with them before was when one of the boys tried to lift my wallet.”

“Lift your what?” Franz asked, utterly confused.

“He tried to pickpocket me.” I clarified.

“So what? you beat him up toO much and felt bad?”

“No! No, nothing like that. Simon bit him and then the boy and his ‘brother’ found me when I was resting in a park looking for recompense.”

“And then you beat the shit out of them and felt bad after?” Franz continued unhelpfully.

“No, why do you assume that I beat them up?” I asked a bit exasperated.

“Because, I mean that’s what you do when someone tries to steal from you and then comes back looking for trouble.” Franz sounded almost amused.

“That’s just cruel, they are just kids.” I said sadly. “I’m not getting through to him.”

“It doesn’t matter if the blade that stabs you belongs to a grown man or a baby, you are still dead.” Kiyara said unamused. She and Gilana had finished their impromptu game of tag at some point and had been listening in. (Gilana had apparently won as she was currently hugging Kiyara tightly.)

“I would argue that a baby would be unable to wield a blade…” Gilana interrupted me.

“Anyone who has cleared out a den of goblins would disagree with you on that.” She got a disgusted look on her face and started sniffing Kiyara’s hair to distract herself.

“… What I was trying to say is that I see your point but if you always answer evil with evil it will never end. Besides…” I was interrupted again.

“Sure it does, it ends when you put the last of your enemies in the grave.” Gilana said with a huff and the other two nodded.

“And what if it is YOU who ends up in the grave because of it?” I was getting a bit upset at this point.

“Unlikely, but if that happens my enemies were stronger than I was.” Gilana shrugged. “That’s just the way of the world.”

“What a horrible way to live your life…” I said without thinking.

“If you don’t like it you should probably lock yourself in the mage tower in Umpari and only come out when you are forced to.” Kiyara said coldly. That shut me up good and I had to think for a while.

“Is… is it really so wrong to want to help the people around you?” There must have been more sorrow in my voice than I had intended because Gilana grimaced but it was Franz who responded.

“Not really, it is only strange if you include random strangers on the street in ‘people around you’.” He then looked at the other two. “Even for us we only help each other because we know that the others would do the same, even Kiyara.” He winked at the elf but she ignored him, without retorting. I had not expected that and so I just stood there for a good long while thinking. The others moved off and I was left alone.

“Is that really what people are like in this world? They only band together when it suits them, they only extend a helping hand when they know that they will receive assistance in return?” My mind swirled and I could not help but remember my cold apartment, my empty phone catalogue, my mother’s grave and the empty words from my ever-changing co-workers. I felt the empty cold that I kept away for so long with games and books gnaw at me once more and barely paid any attention to the others as I curled up in the back of the wagon.

The others looked at me confused and a bit concerned but they did not register to me. “Is this really how it is?” Then a thought that almost made me shudder flitted across my mind. “Are you any different? I had not gone after the boy when he had been bitten, I had only tried to help the nun when I smelled the gangrene. I only tried to help those in front of me…” Was that just to stroke my own ego? Did I only help the boy because I didn’t want to feel responsible? Was the only reason that I wanted to help the nun because I had knowledge that I believed could easily deal with the problem?” I held my knee tightly to my chest and the others looked at me worriedly not knowing my thoughts.

“Did I care at all?” My thoughts began to spiral downwards and I was starting to panic internally.

‘Stupid.’ The thought hit me like a blow to the chin. ‘Stupid’, ’Stupid’, ’Stupid’ Simon’s thoughts crashed into my mind with what felt like distain. I looked at my sleeve and the now even bigger snake that poke out of my leather jacket. ‘Help, why?’, ‘Why, why?’ I just looked at Simon uncomprehending for a moment before I think I understood what he meant. “Why am I wondering why I helped?” I asked in a thought and Simon just pulled back into my sleeve. He had apparently said what he came out of his slumber to say.

“Why am I agonizing about why I help hu?” I thought and looked out the back of the wagon with a wry grin. “Is it because I am a weirdo that gets off from helping people like the nun said? Is it because I am afraid of being alone again?” I pondered it for a moment then I glanced over at the other three and smiled. “It doesn’t matter.” The auras surrounding the three were now a lightly blue tinged green even around the sometimes venomous Kiyara. “I will do what I feel is right. I don’t care if this is a cruel or kind world, I will do my best to live a life that brings me joy.” I almost wanted to laugh.

“I’m a weirdo.” I said and the other just looked at me like I had just said the most obvious thing. “Do you hate that?” I asked, eyeing the three with bated breath.

“Not at all!” “GAHAHA NOPE!” “Yes… ouch!” Gilana grinned, Franz laughed enough to make his armour rumble and Kiyara was slapped on the back of the head by Gilana.

“We are all weirdos here.” Gilana said with a smile. “I’m a brutish woman who finds comfort in excessive physical contact…” She was about to continue but Kiyara interrupted.

“So you are aware!” She burst out indignant. In response Gilana pulled the elf in closer and play bit her ear, making the elf squirm. Only when she meekly stopped struggling and became quiet did Gilana loosen her grip and turn back to me.

“As I said, I’m a brute. Franz is a cursed dwarven outcast and Kiyara is a thief who got a bit ahead of herself.” She brushed back her fiery red hair and reached out her hand to me. “You are in good company.” I chuckled and took her hand. Then I took Franz’s proffered hand and finally Kiyara’s. Kiyara had been coxed by Gilana to extend her hand, but you know what? I’ll take it.