Joseph’s eyes slowly opened, scanning his surroundings, to his surprise, he did not find a field of men. Next to him lay White. Joseph jumped up realizing what White must have done. “Are you hurt?” He grabbed White, turning her around and flipping her from side to side as she bit down on his armor. “… you’re not hurt.” Joseph blinked his moistening eyes, “I thought for sure that bastard of a God was going to take you from me too.” Joseph wrapped his arms around White.

Once calm it wasn’t long before a thought sprouted in his mind, ‘what now?’ He looked at his hand, which had been severely burned, but not nearly as bad as it should have been. He gave a smile to White before announcing, “I think it’s about time I get better armor, don’t you?” White was silent, only licking his wound as a response. “Take me back. Back to that field of dead.”

White had dragged him to safety, but not far away from the battlefield. Looking around he grabbed chest plates, shoulder plates, whatever was the largest pieces of metal he could find. With an arm full of armor he walked to the place his weapon lay. Holding it only long enough to aim, he launched it into the woods. “Go there and wait for me, I still have to find something.” White charged in the direction of his weapon, “It helps she loves chewing on that thing. Now, where would one be.” Grabbing bodies Joseph chucked them a distance to get them out of the way. After lifting a particularly short man he found what he was looking for. “There you are.” Joseph picked up the battle hammer, it looked almost like a building hammer in his hands.

Before leaving the battlefield Joseph stood over one body. Though to anyone else it might be unrecognizable, he knew it was the Boss’s body, even if it didn’t have a head, arms, or torso. “As much time as I spend on the ground at your feet I—I…” Joseph had to stop talking to focus all his strength on fighting the tears. Setting down the battle hammer Joseph knelt before the legs, collecting himself. “Sorry about that, maybe I am still nothing but a boy…” Joseph reached down, grabbing one of the legs firmly, “I don’t know when exactly my birthday is, but I should be sixteen years soon, if I’m not already… I shall claim today as my birthday.” Joseph let go of the leg to clench his fist, “Thank you. For all that you have done for me, for all that your lessons will do for me in the future. For treating me like a man. Thank you… I give you my word, I won’t die until I have accomplished it, I won’t forget what you taught me.”

***

“White, I think it’s ready!” Joseph lifted up the body armor and watched the sun bounce off the gleaning metal. Unlike his last sets of armor this body piece was one solid piece. The chest and back were connected by two metal arches that sat on Joseph’s huge traps, making them look monstrous. The rest of the armor was still tied on. Joseph started dancing around in his new armor, “so what do you think? Two weeks and I finally made it! It’s beautiful isn’t it!”

After stretching, White leapt at Joseph, swiping at the armor so hard Joseph went flying, bouncing off a few trees before coming to a stop. Standing up he smiled, “strong right?” White then laid back down seeming satisfied.

Joseph picked up a stick off the log he was working on. It was no normal stick, clearly handmade and treated. “It took me a while to get the fire affinity from that old mage’s wand but I did it in the end.” He then snapped the stick in his hand, dropping it to the ground. Joseph then looked at the battle hammer, “Should I break it too? It has the earth and fire affinity placed on it. I want to bring it, but what if someone notices. So far I haven’t seen a magical item with more than one affinity. They may just be rare and I could say I killed someone and took it. However if they don’t exist then it will become suspicious to anyone who could tell.” Joseph picked up the hammer and placed it against his head, “Gahh, I don’t even know if it’s possible for someone to be able to tell. I really don’t want to break it; it was so useful! And if I take it I might as well try and put the fire affinity on my weapon too!” Joseph smiled and placed it on his thigh sling that he had already made previously.

“Alright White, take us to somewhere with a lot of people.” Joseph pointed his weapon forward and started walking. He then realized White was walking in the opposite direction of him and swiftly followed after her.

***

After walking for a day or two in the woods they ended up on a path that was already nicely cleared out, “White, even the ground has been cleared! I wonder who did this.”

White looked at the smooth ground and proceeded to start digging.

Joseph pushed her away from the now hole, quickly putting the dirt back and stomping on it to flatten it back out. White then looked at Joseph with her head to the side. Following her eyes Joseph looked at his foot where he had stomped. The ground was now a small crater beneath his foot. “No, no. I can fix this!” Joseph gently put his hammer to the crater and slowly raised it, the terra rising with it. Though it was somewhat level now, it still didn’t look the same. ‘Yeah, it looks fine.’

They only walked a full day before a giant structure came within their view. It was still far away but it was within their sights now. Joseph looked in shock, “What is that? Is that a village?” White looked at Joseph, “I know you don’t know either, I was asking but I wasn’t expecting you to answer it.” White cocked her head before looking away from Joseph and heading towards the ‘village.’

“I’m serious, it’s a thing. You ask a question not because you want or expect someone to answer it, but because you can’t help but say it aloud.” White ignored Joseph as they walked. She then stopped, looking around and smelling the air.

Joseph used his eyes to scan the area even though he knew he wasn’t going to pick up on anything White couldn’t. He heard a quiet growl come from her and he stared in the direction she faced.

A group of men walked out, one woman following behind them. ‘One, three, four counting the woman. They all have weapons and armor.’ Joseph started to raise his weapon but an echo came from the past, ‘ “It’s not about that man! It’s about who he could know. How many he could know. You have to consider the consequences of your actions, Joseph.” ‘

Joseph plunged his weapon into the ground as they approached. “Hello, would one of you be able to tell me about that village over there?”

Two of the men approached. ‘One with light armor, a spear, and not that short. The other has a lot of armor and a sword at his hip, he is really short. They haven’t tried to draw yet, so they might be nice. Nice unless I mention that I’m going to kill that God. All people are fire’s waiting to be given the oxygen of blasphemy, I have to remember that. Even the Boss…’