The Hero's Mistake

The shake was firm and attitude full of confidence. The hero who helped me was a young man, similar to someone I knew. Unknowingly I got tense and that made him a bit suspicious.

“Who are you?” he asked, pretending friendly curiosity, but the posture signalled being ready to fight.

This question I hated and feared the most, the simplest one and the one which started the spiral of lies every time someone asks it. Rob’s company made me realize that it’s not that easy anymore. The more I heard about myself in third person, the more I wanted to answer it truthfully. Rob’s assumptions said once in a while like ‘Eric would do this, Eric wouldn’t do that’, I barely stopped myself from correcting him. After over a century of hearing my name only next to insults or curses, when he was speaking about me positively it actually affected me, however I didn’t want to admit it. My hand clenched on Frank’s hilt, just in case it didn’t go well.

“A hero like you, Ed.” Rob suddenly was next to me.

“It’s Edward you idiot.”

“It’s Rob, you dork. I am not happy to see you either,” the half-elf sounded bitter, but he didn’t steal all the attention. I noted that I should ask some questions later.

“I don’t know you,” Edward was still too interested in me. “What is your symbol? Rob you shut up, I am not talking to you.” He warned my companion, as he noticed that the answer couldn’t be mine again. I nervously looked around, and my eyes stopped at a wooden piece I was holding one and a mark left there.

“The fish,” I said firmly.

“Unusual choice,” the king's hero commented.

“Personal reasons. I don’t owe you any further explanation.”

Rob hit me lightly in the back reassuringly. I corrected my posture, after all I was the oldest and the most experienced person among us. Edward was thinking for a moment if it would be enough, so half-elf mentioned that instead of having that discussion it would be nice to take care of the situation.

“What are you doing here?”

“I recommended Alan to the workshop here, as his shield was destroyed lately. It happened to be closed, so we decided to see a sunset if we were already here," Rob explained calmly, even pretending to be a little frustrated and disappointed in his acquaintance’s behaviour.

“Something to add?”

“No,” I answered and went to see the injured, showing that this talk for me is finished, but my moves were still stiff. I felt a bit better, when Rob joined me right away. “Were the girl and the father hurt badly?”

“Fortunetely, the substance monsters were shooting were just paralyzing, in my opinion the effect won’t take long, as they didn’t looked like the kind storing the food. In an hour or two he will be fine, however he might feel tingle in the area he was hit for the next few days. As for the girl, look at yourself,” Rob smiled as we just got to them.

“Thank you mister hero,” the little one was cheerful, when I was getting pale, when I saw her missing one foot, covered in bandages. “Don’t need to worry. I was born without it, so the monster only ate a piece of wood. Dad will make me a new one.”

“But the monster wrenched her and threw in the air, just some not very deep wounds from the bite.” Rob explained while checking on the kid's father once again. “Like you see, she is absolutely fine.”

“I will have cool scars.” The girl was absolutely proud of this fact.

“You will.” The healer nodded and smiled brightly.

I did the same, however I would love to just leave everything behind already and flee from the city. As I had many chances to see Rob while practicing the healing process, I suspected he wouldn’t be eager to leave the dwarf’s side, until making sure he would be absolutely fine. One more person wasn’t eager to leave the scene too, Edwards was pulling the son by the hand and gave him a nudge in the mother's direction.

“He was almost in the water again,” the king’s hero made an accusation. “There was a warning announced to not to get to water, because we were finding human bones on the shore lately, and yet you let your kids play in it. And after the attack you still can’t properly take care of your kid, when there can be more monsters just waiting to kill him.”

Edward made a mistake, but I guessed his lack of experience and young age were to blame, but there was one of the common rules he should follow - not to mess with a dwarf woman. When you do, you better pray to stay alive after the confrontation. The particular one stayed with her husband till that moment. She stood up and headed to Ed. I stepped back, her eyes went for a moment to my shield, so I slightly moved it, so she could smoothly take it out of my hand. She swung the piece of wood and fetched the king’s hero a blow in the head, which put him to the ground and shocked as well. Rob too. I just smirked. That’s what I meant.

“We were visiting our family in the mountains so we didn’t know about any warning. and no one was nice enough to pass it to us, when we were back. Who would care about dwarfs in a human city in a human kingdom?”

Her aura screamed rage, but her voice was colder than ice, and I thought that was amazing. The tallest dwarfs were the height of the average human and their profile was rough and stocky overall, but any other kind is as hard working, strong and straight forward as them, not to mention that art and talent were in their blood. Edward didn’t have an answer, so she turned and lifted her husband and went towards home. The dwarf woman turned to look me in the eyes for a really short moment, I understood the message. I told Rob to help the daughter and the son just took my hand. The kid turned around just to stick his tongue at the king's hero. I pretended that I didn’t see it, but as soon as we got out of the beach I praised him. He showed me what he found and I didn’t like it.

“Good job, little one. But you know what we should do.”

“I know, but I thought you would like to see it.” The boy smiled proud of himself.

“It will be very helpful for me. Thank you. You are a very smart kiddo.”

The kid went further, while I stopped looking at two glass spheres resting on my palm. I crashed it. So what’s gonna happen now? I have a feeling that you know, it’s me.