“In human towns, we halflings are considered a different race, y’know? Leads to all sorts of trouble. When that happens, it’s real handy to have a dwarf acquaintance who’s already settled there. They’re serious about their work, and that gives them a good reputation. They hate lying or beating around the bush too. If they like you, they’ll at least put in a good word for you. So I always look for the oldest one in town first. Oh, by the way, dwarves who are adventurers don’t count. Those guys are just a bunch of drunk rowdies. Townsfolk don’t trust them at all.”
“Wait, is that why you brought me there?” the kid asked. “I mean, I’m human.”
“You’re still an outsider, aren’t you?”
After handing the spear over to the blacksmith, we headed back toward the adventurer’s guild. It was already dark, so things had probably wrapped up over there by now. Wonder how everything turned out? I thought. Probably pretty bad.
I shrugged. Not that it mattered. If those two decided to quit adventuring, they’d probably be just fine. They had options. And if they kept going? Well, that wasn’t my problem either. Adventurers were free to do what they wanted.
Whatever happened, happened. That was my take. I was more worried about having to listen to Waine rant and Sheya sulk about the whole thing.
“Hey, tiny. That dwarf said that you fought out of anger, didn’t he?”
He had seen right through the kid. Any old blacksmith could’ve fixed a cheap spear like that. We didn’t need to bring it to him, but I really wanted to hear from a dwarf who could listen to the voice of the iron.
“You charged in recklessly out of anger and took down three goblins. All you got was a broken spear, a cut on your forehead, and a dirt-cheap reward that wasn’t worth any of it.”
I stopped in a dark alley. The moon was hidden behind the two-story buildings all around, and even the torchlight from the main road didn’t reach us. It was the perfect place for this kind of conversation.
“Anger clouds your judgment. It keeps you from thinking clearly about the little things. Everything gets sloppy. When you try to force your feelings through, of course nothing good’s gonna come of it. Getting hurt and getting screwed over is what you signed up for. But anger makes you stop thinking. So I guess I’m saying anger is a kind of weakness. If you swing a weapon like that, then you should get chewed out for it.”
The kid stopped too and looked at me. It was hard to see his face in the dark, but he seemed a little dissatisfied. Like something didn’t sit right with him.
“You’re weak, and you still chased after them and ended up where the goblins were waiting. Even though you told them not to go.” That mess was on those two girls. That was why tiny got mad and fought. He was fueled by that anger. “You should’ve just left them behind.”
The kid finally spoke up. “You’re gonna make me mad.”
“Why?”
So that anger was justified. Sure, he might regret parts of it, but he didn’t think it was wrong. He believed he’d done the right thing. That was why his voice had that gutsy edge to it. And that was probably why the blacksmith liked him. There was no way a dwarf wouldn’t respect someone who got mad for someone else’s sake and fought for them too.
“You’re weak like they are, but you still went somewhere with dangerous monsters. If you didn’t want to end up involved, you should’ve left them behind.” I was a halfling, and we were better suited to running than fighting. So I had to ask, “If the same thing happened again, do you think you could leave them behind?”
He didn’t answer right away. That was honest of him. He could’ve just said something vague and been done with it.
“Those two girls, well... I’m guessing they’ve been putting in a decent amount of effort. And that’s probably why they overestimated themselves. They figured they could handle it, especially if it was ‘just goblins’ and not something stronger. But that kind of thinking? That’s how people die. Happens to a lot of newbies,” I said.
I heard about stuff like that happening all the time. But plenty of people survived, so stepping in might just be meddling. At the end of the day, goblins were monsters even a kid like this could take down. If they underestimated that kind of danger and died for it, maybe they just weren’t cut out for adventuring. The most you could do was offer a little advice and hope they took it.
“That fancy girl... I’m guessing she’s the type who actually prepared and studied hard to become an adventurer. People like that always have stars in their eyes. They end up doing all kinds of dumb stuff. Real pain to deal with.”
This was just a guess, but as the granddaughter of a powerful merchant—especially the one who headed up the sea salt guild—she probably led a pretty restricted life. It wasn’t hard to imagine someone like that idolizing adventurers, becoming one herself, and getting her first taste of freedom. Everything she saw had to feel fresh and thrilling, whether it was good or bad.
When Waine told her to quit because she wasn’t cut out for adventuring, right after she showed up at the guild, how did she feel? On her first adventure, what did that scenery look like to her? How bright did it shine in her eyes?
A girl like that probably looked down on the older adventurers who spent their days drinking, fooling around, and slacking off. She probably thought she’d never be like them. And when tiny gave her that you’re just gonna leave the party anyway, right? attitude, I bet it hit her like a punch to the gut.