Adrian, lying on the ground, opened his eyes to realize what was happening. Before, and on top of him, sat a boy, grinning widely.

“I won!”

Announcing his victory, the boy brought his face towards Adrian’s to savor his victory.

Adrian pulled his head back and with a swift movement launched his forehead into the boy’s face. He then jumped into defensive position as the boy now writhed on the ground, covering the front of his head with hands.

“I see you’ve already met.” Said a familiar voice coming from behind, barely heard through the screams of pain.

With the danger now neutralized, Adrian turned his back and saw Tybalt appear in front of him, having what seemed like one extra pair of legs.

Tybalt puts his hand behind his back and pulls forward a young girl, who was shyly still holding onto his coat.

“This is Riya. Riya, this is Adrian. Say hi.”

Pulling on the coat even harder, she mumbles something what seemed like “Hello”. When her averted gaze straightened up, she noticed the boy lying on the floor as he was still trying to ease the pain, and walked towards him.

“And the one moaning over there is Ricard, her brother. Be sure to get along, they will stay here for a while.”

Riya started patting him on the head trying to help him. A moment after that he rapidly stood up, revealing blood coming out of his right nostril, and yelled:

“Since it seems like we... have a draw, I cha... lenge... you...”

Unable to finish his sentence, Ricard fell unconscious.

Tybalt and Adrian took him inside to rest while Riya kept tending to him.

After leaving them, Tybalt asked:

“I think you want some answers, am I right?”

Adrian looked at him with a demanding look as they sat behind a table.

“Well, you know the letter that I got yesterday? As I said, it was from people that I know. Those two are their children. I’ll spare you the details, but what you should know is that there is some heat going on in their family, so I took them here for things to cool down. Ricard tends to be a bit too energetic sometimes but he has a good heart. Please forgive him this time and try to get along, alright?”

Adrian understandingly nodded.

As Tybalt left the table and was on his way outside, he stopped at still sitting Adrian and patted him on the shoulder.

“You could try to make some friends. Spending every day swinging that piece of wood is not healthy for your mind.”

Thinking about what Tybalt talked about, Adrian gazed at the door of a room, where the siblings resided at the moment. Not wanting to interfere, he went outside and began training again.

After a while, the door of the school blew wide open and behind them stood Ricard, now in better condition, demanding:

“Ehm. As I said. I challenge you to a duel!”

Not caring about his demands, Adrian continued minding his own business.

“Ignoring me? Are you perhaps scared? Let’s make a bet then. If you win, I’ll shut up.”

Stopping the training with the last swing, he sighs and turns towards Ricard.

“But if I win... you’ll tell me what happened with your arm. Deal?”

Adrian frowns at him angrily as he walks closer.

“Now where can I find a swo-“

Not even letting him finish, Adrian throws his own weapon into Ricard’s hands. And as soon as he touches the weapon, Adrian sprints towards him after which he makes a sweeping movement with his legs. Ricard, who barely had any time to properly grab the weapon by the hilt, finds his legs being already in the air as his back is falling towards the ground. Upon impact, Adrian punches the air, inch in front of Ricard’s face, making the wind play with his eyelashes.

“How did y-“

Adrian lowers his fist onto Ricard’s mouth and pushes against it, indicating that he should keep his promise of not talking.

After getting up by himself, he asks:

“That was awesome! Can you teach me?”

To which Adrian made a shushing gesture with his mouth and a finger.

Ricard decided to huffily sit on the outside bench muttering to himself and watching Adrian train while Riya tries to console him.

All of a sudden, a woman appears in front of them. Not only being out of breath but also looking scared, she tries hard to speak her mind:

“Please... Can you help me?”

Ricard seeing the dread on her face immediately realized that she was in dire need of a hero to which his eyes sparked up in anticipation.

“Please miss, come in. We’ll listen to your request inside.” Said Tybalt welcoming her to their humble home.

After a while, the door opens and Tybalt announces: “We have a job to do.”

Ricard, almost bursting with excitement, yells:

“HEROIC ADVENTURE! HOORAY!”

15 minutes later on the road leading to Mistvale.

“A LOST RING? SERIOUSLY?!”

With a palm resting on his face, Adrian is trying his hardest to silence the annoying sounds coming from his back, tugging along.

“Didn’t you say you would shut up?”

“I... did... But this is ridiculous. Uncle Tybalt told me we would be going on adventures, not finding lost jewellery.”

Adrian sighs once again, turns around and angrily explains:

“Look, this is what we usually do. We help people and we get paid for it. Adventure or not we are really not in a place to choose as you might have noticed. So shut up and walk, we should be close.”

Yelled on Ricard, now more tame, kept walking along with Adrian till they reached their goal.

“So what was it again?” Asked Ricard.

“Their carriage broke down and amidst the panic she lost her ring somewhere in the grass. Place with wooden debris and a hole in the road... It should be around here.”

“Alright, let’s split up. I’ll take this side of the road, you take the other.”

After numerous minutes of sifting through the tall grass in search of the woman’s lost ring, Ricard started talking:

“Did... Uncle Tybalt tell you why did we come here?”

“No.”

“Well-“

“I didn’t ask...” Thought Adrian as Ricard was starting what looked like a long story.”

“It’s because of my sister, Riya. And I don’t mean it like it’s her fault. You see, our family isn’t rich but poor neither, we manage. One day we had visitors with whom our parents were friends. They’ve come with a proposal of marriage between their son and Riya. Our parents didn’t seem to care about her opinion, but rather about something else since the proposing family was a lot wealthier than us. Without a second thought, they agreed without even talking to her, Riya wasn’t even with them in the same room that time.”

“The night of the day that Riya learned of what was happening, she couldn’t let go of me and cried herself to sleep in my arms. Ever since then, the only smile her mouth managed to muster up was not even a genuine one. I tried talking to them but they brushed me off, saying how a kid doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

“This continued for few days until we decided to run. We came to our secret base which we built few years ago. Only ones who knew about it were us and Uncle Tybalt who helped us build it. That’s probably when they sent the letter to him, because they couldn’t find their own children. Pathetic... So anyway, he knew where we were hiding and when we explained what was going on, we straight up turned around and came here.”

“Sorry for blabbering, I needed to get it off of my chest, since it seemed we came uninvited and-“

Ricard’s apologizing was stopped when Adrian decided to share his story.

“About 3 years ago, my home town was attacked by a group of people wearing robes and holding torches. They destroyed everything and killed almost everyone. Including my mom and... dad.”

Adrian clenches his fist against his chest.

“I couldn’t save them. I couldn’t save anyone. Yet I somehow survived. Teacher found me and helped me recuperate. To be honest, sometimes I ask whether I am really alive and all this is just not an illusion. But then I get reminded, this pain I feel in me is real.”

“Now I just keep waiting... for anything to send me a sign that I can latch on. A clue to what I should do next. Truth be told, I don’t have anything. I am holding out for something that may never come. All I have is the will to get stronger.”

“Wow.” Expressed Ricard.

Adrian became embarrassed since he realized how he let his guard down and started talking.

“You really are strong.” He continued after which Adrian looked at him angrily.

“Sorry, I don’t mean like physically... well that too but...”

“I would have probably given up by now if I was in your place, if I lost Riya. Despite all of the bad you keep moving forward which is another way of being strong. Strength, for me, doesn’t only mean how fast you swing a wooden sword. I must seem like a whiny kid in comparison to you.”

“Ah found it.” Proclaimed Ricard.

Adrian paused for a while then looked at him and said:

“Let’s find you a sword when we get back.”

Ricard, overflown with joy, almost started yelling but immediately calmed down when he saw Adrian’s hostile look aiming at him.

On their way home, Adrian noticed two strangers coming towards them. As the distance between them got smaller, he also noticed that both were carrying weapons. All of his focus was now aimed at those armed figures getting closer.

“Be careful and follow my lead.” He notified.

Ricard got nervous from the gaze in Adrian’s eyes and nodded.

After they met eye to eye, the strangers with rugged face and vile smile stopped, blocking their way.

“Move.” Demanded Adrian with a tense face.

“Hey hey, that’s not the way to talk to adults. You’ve hurt us.”

“Yeah, and I know just the right way you’re going to repay us.”

“Hand over the-“

Before the stranger could finish his sentence, Adrian, now standing on one leg with his other stretched behind him, swinged it right into the stranger’s shin, making a crunching sound. Being in intense pain, he kneeled down to try to quell the pain. But as he was getting lower, Adrian grabbed his head from behind and pushed it towards his launched knee. As the stranger’s head was being bounced off followed by drops of blood flying around, Adrian pulled Ricard by the hand and insisted:

“Run.”

“What did you just do?!” Asked Ricard able to process things only now.

While running away, Adrian looked back to make sure they were not being followed. Fortunately it seemed that the second uninjured stranger was tending to the one on the ground.

All of a sudden, Ricard started laughing.

“That was amazing! I guess this counts as an adventure!”

He finished and continued laughing as they were running back home.

Few minutes later at the school, Ricard was inhaling and exhaling at a rapid rate while leaning against a tree.

“What happened, is he alright?” Asked Riya.

“I think so. We were running on our way back and he kept laughing all the time.” Replied Adrian whose only sign of physical exercise was a drop of sweat on his forehead.

Afterwards. Adrian returned the ring to the woman and they were graciously rewarded. In the evening, thanks to the payment, all four of them enjoyed a nice meal which wasn’t only potatoes.

After Riya and Ricard went to bed, Tybalt sat with Adrian at the table alone.

“I heard that you’ve met with bandits on your way home.” Said Tybalt.

“Yeah.”

“Tsk, that blabber mouth.” Adrian thought to himself thinking of Ricard.

“Do you remember what I always say? That violence-.”

“-should always be my last resort. I know... but they were carrying weapons. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“But you can’t be sure-“ Continued Tybalt as he was promptly cut off.

“Can’t be sure about what? People having ill intent? Remember what happened because I didn’t take proper action. I won’t let others get the best of me anymore.” Barked Adrian with an angry tone, after which he went to his bed.