Jon watched Mercy jump gracefully into the air, making her way to the wall that marked off the border of the town.

She’s leaving… into the forest?

Unless she ran down the hills to get to the farm, which would take forever, this would mean that Mercy was going to run into the forest without anyone to help her out.

Jon didn’t know if he should be terrified or impressed. He heard Hector's heavy breathing as he ran past.

“Stop!" Hector called.

When Mercy made it close to the wall, she jumped.

Jon expected her to scale the wall with ease, but instead, a magic glowing tentacle wrapped her leg and stunted her movement.

With a small gasp and her hand still extended, she fell to the ground.

“Sorry!” Mallory called, waving towards Mercy. He had a small glowing circle surrounding his feet.

He turned his attention to Hector. “Hector, you can stop now!”

Hector didn’t stop. He drew his sword as he ran towards Mercy.

Jon could now see that while it was a normal length, it wasn’t very wide. Jon thought it was funny that someone like Hector would use a smaller sword, but that would never reach Hector's ears.

Mercy stood up and drew her own sword. The blade was large and curved, bigger than Hector’s sword. The front edge was serrated with large, metal teeth. The handle was a simple small wooden pole with no guard.

Oh... no… Jon didn’t want them to fight. They both seemed like nice people.

A sudden gunshot made everyone in the area duck. Hector stopped running.

That’s a blunderbuss, Jon realized. He turned and saw Dan pointing the blunderbuss in the air, facing towards the two combatants.

“Let’s try to get along now!” Dan called. “How about we bring it in here!”

Mercy and Hector glared at each other.

“Let’s talk it out!” Mallory had approached Dan’s side. “Please?”

“Is she going to run away again?” Hector asked.

“...Depends on how long I have to stare at your ugly face," Mercy answered. She put her sword away and walked to the others.

Hector realized that the other people in the area were still staring at the scene.

“Go on about your business!” He yelled. “It’s done! Go buy some clothes or something!”

He also made his way over to Dan's stand.

“Alright now,” Farmer Dan started, once everyone was standing together. “What’s the problem?”

“Me and my partner, Mallory, are on orders to bring… her, home,” Hector said. “Her father-”

“My father hasn’t wanted me home for several seasons now,” Mercy said, “So, you understand my frustration when he sends a pack of goons after me now.”

“...You’ve been traveling for how long? Hector asked. His face was getting a little red. “That’s… then why was it made so urgent! Did something happen? Did the Highlander clan start a war somewhere?”

“Highlanders don’t start wars,” Mercy said. “We poison their water supply and we move on.”

“Actually,” Mallory started,” you stab’em in the back, like… ha!”

Mallory made a quick stabbing motion with an invisible knife.

“And in the front, too,” Mercy added, clearly directed at Hector, “if we don’t like you enough.”

“Well, try not to stab anyone here,” Dan said. “We don’t have much hubbub here. I even managed to talk off the guards from getting involved.”

“You have that much power?” Hector asked.

“...If you mean the power of asking very politely, sure.” Dan shrugged.

“Mercy,” Mallory said, “If I can call you that… we traveled pretty far to find you. I know you don’t want to go back home… but people are scared.”

“No one’s… scared…” Mercy looked down ashamed.

“The only reason we found you is that you started a fight with a traveling band of Vindazi warriors,” Hector explained.

“It was one, and it was a duel, and I won a giant sword. What’s your point?”

“I could be helping protect a village from a bandit siege,” Hector said, “But instead, I’m here to find you. I don’t care if you hate your family. Everyone has responsibility. And if you run away, people can get hurt. If that wasn’t true, my sister wouldn’t have sent us here. You’re a danger to everyone here.”

Mercy looked downhearted. “I don’t mean to be.”

“Too bad.” Hector said curtly. “Let’s go. Before you destroy Jon’s livelihood.”

“You almost destroyed Jon’s livelihood, “ Mallory said with a sense of indignance.

Jon couldn’t imagine how Mercy felt. From what it sounded like, she was being burdened with responsibility from her father. He knew how that felt like.

“Well…” Farmer Dan cut in. “She could stay for the night.”

Mercy’s eyes flashed with hope. “Really?”

“Why would we spend the night?” Hector asked. “It literally makes no sense. We have to go now.”

“Dude, we were gonna spend another few days looking for her,” Mallory responded. “We can just call everyone and tell them to meet up with us on the road. And it’s getting late.”

Hector growled. “Jon’s the one that found her. What does he think?”

Jon didn’t know he would be asked that. It sounded important that Mercy needed to get back home, but he also understood that she wanted to feel some sense of freedom.

“Sure,” Jon answered. “She can stay.”

“It’s settled then!” Dan said. “I’ll get us some more rooms.”

He made his way to the inn nearby.

“Doesn’t he need money?” Hector asked.

“It’s called being polite, Hector,” Mallory answered. “You should try it sometime.”

He patted Hector on the back and followed.

Hector turned to Mercy and Jon.

“Don’t run away again!” He yelled. He went after Mallory.

Jon and Mercy looked at each other.

“Thanks, Jon,” she said.

Jon didn’t think he did anything of use. Still, he decided to be polite.

“You’re welcome.”

It was nearly sunset, so when Dan came back out, he started to pack up for the night. Soon, they all sat at a table in the bottom of the inn.

“I hope you’re hungry,” Dan said. “I haven’t eaten all day.”

Jon remembered that he hadn’t eaten either. He just had whatever that grey drink Graves gave him.

“I’m incredibly hungry,” Hector remarked. “But I don’t want my food to be poisoned.”

“I thought we discussed that I would stab you in the throat and pull out your eyeballs,” Mercy responded.

“Hey, guys,” Mallory cut in, “I get it, you’re not yourselves when you’re hungry, but can we at least pretend to get along for Jon’s sake?”

Why me? Jon wondered. He didn’t mean anything to these people.

“I can’t stand dignitaries,” Hector said. “They always think they’re better than everybody.”

“I am better than you,” Mercy answered.

“The weather’s quite nice,” Dan interrupted. “Don’t ya think?”

“...It is…” Mercy crossed her arms and stared daggers at Hector, who responded in kind.

Jon had never been around so many intense people before. He wanted to ease the tension as well.

“Where are you from?” Jon asked no one in particular. He hoped that someone would pick up the slack.

“...I live in the north, past the mountains,” Mercy said. “Keeps the unsavory people away.”

“Do you mean the mountains that separate your unscrupulous clan from the rest of the nations,” Hector asked, “or the ones we had to travel through in order to find you here?”

“We took a boat,” Mallory quickly inserted.

“Both.” This question wasn’t working. Jon needed another question.

Thankfully, the food was delivered to their table at that moment by the bartender.

“Spiced chicken!” Mallory began to pull apart the chicken with his fork and knife. “They don’t season their chicken like this in the castle!”

He stuffed his face with glee. It made Jon smile to see an outside enjoying their food. He also couldn’t imagine eating unspiced chicken.

“Yeah... it’s nice…” Hector, whose mood seemed to have calmed down, began to cut his chicken into pieces as well.

Mercy followed Jon in pulling the drumstick off of the body of the chicken with her hand and biting down on it.

Hector made a small grunt but didn’t say anything more.

Jon was happy the meal went without incident. There wasn’t any talking, but Jon imagined that they all must have traveled into the town that day and that they were exhausted. Jon used to be exhausted from the trip to the Townsend the first couple of times until he got used to it. Then it was like the trip had never happened.

“...I think I’m gonna take that bed now,” Mallory said. He stood. “Coming, Hector?”

“Don’t leave me with this girl.” Hector stood up. “And like I said-”

“I’ll kill you before I leave,” Mercy interjected.

Hector gave another small grunt and the two of them went towards the back.

“I’mma head up too,” Dan added. He pushed himself up. “Take care of yourself!”

Jon wasn’t ready to be left alone with Mercy. Still, Dan quickly and nimbly made his way out of the chair and left Jon alone.

He looked at Mercy. She had an easygoing smile.

She has a nice smile... but why is she smiling?

“Thanks,” she said again.

“I didn’t do anything,” Jon finally said.

“You did, you really did…” she put her hand on his hand. He didn’t even know that his hand was on the table.

“You wanted us to stop fighting,” she continued. “That made sense.”

“I… I don’t like fighting,” Jon answered.

She squeezed his hand. “I can tell. You carry that large gun on your back… but you don’t seem like you use it that much.”

Jon looked down at the blunderbuss, which he had placed near his feet in its strap.

It’s not mine… Jon knew what Graves had told him, but he still didn’t believe it.

“I practice… a lot…” He answered.

Mercy smiled. “I wish you could show me, but I have to leave tomorrow, don’t I?”

Jon nodded in agreement. “You do.”

“Maybe next time I run away… we can hang out more… before I have to run away again.”

“Okay..” That sounded scary to Jon. Would he ever run away from the farm?

He hadn’t ever considered it.

“It’s funny…” Mercy continued, “because I’ve never had someone tell me not to fight anymore. It feels… nice? You know? To have someone care about you.”

“Sure…” Jon just kept nodding his head. He never had anyone tell him not to fight either.

Mercy had a look of regret on her face. “Good night… Jon.”

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and went towards the back.

Jon’s face burned. He had only been kissed on the cheek by his sister and his mother, and his sister had rarely done so before she left.

Jon felt his whole body shiver.

Wow… Now he would definitely miss Mercy. It was nice to have a friend who didn’t talk to him about farming at all. Jon as a farmer didn’t come up once in the conversation. That made him happy.

He stood up with his newfound happiness and took it with him to his room in the back of the inn.

Even as he laid in the bed, with Farmer Dan snoring from the bed across from him, he had a strong sense of fulfillment in his heart.

Ever since his siblings left home, dinner had become quiet. It was just him, his mother, and his father, with the occasional visit of Dan, eating every day, and Jon hearing the musings of the farming community from Jassiter over and over. He sat at a whole table with other people he didn’t know.

His heart was warm with joy as he went to sleep.

Jon had forgotten what that joy had felt like when he woke up. He felt exhausted, and his body was drained.

He had barely made his way out of bed. His bones seemed like they were creaking, and that his arms would fall apart if he had stretched them out too far.

Ow… Even farming didn’t make Jon feel this tired, poor at it or not. He made his way downstairs to the bottom tavern where he saw Mercy eating a large sandwich.

She turned to Jon as he came towards her.

“This is amazing!” Mercy said. She didn’t even seem to mind the spots of sauce over her face.

Jon didn’t know someone could be so easily entertained by a sandwich. He was glad to see her enjoy herself.

He was also able to notice that she was wearing all-black underneath.

She had black arm warmers that stretched from her thumb to her elbows. Jon wondered why someone would wear arm warmers when it was warm all year round in the Farm areas. He just figured it was because she was from somewhere else. It's not like everyone wore plaid and overalls.

Soon, she was finished, and they met up with Farmer Dan outside.

“The other two went on up ahead, to get the carriage,” Dan explained. “When they come, they’ll probably be ready to go.”

“Yeah…” Mercy grimaced, then she caught Jon’s gaze. “It was fun for what it was.”

Hmmm… It made Jon feel weird to stare at somebody he barely knew. Yet, he was fine with it. Mercy's stare never felt invasive or nerve-wracking. Jon could always return it with ease.

“We got a problem!” Mallory jogged to the stand with Hector trailing behind him.

“With what?” Dan asked.

“...You know what a caiman is?” Mallory asked.