It was the first time I had kissed anyone in this world. Yes, I am an adult and I have lived here for more than eight years, so what? I had other things to do. You know, like chopping wood, eating, sword training, playing with Tasha. Equally, if not more important things that one does aside from romance. Well, anyways, it was a rather long kiss that left me breathless when it was done, but only because I didn’t breathe in the middle of it. That was mostly it, though. Her lips were soft and I could still feel the sensation and warmth for a moment, but there was no stirring of the heart and loss of the senses like my earlier meetings and exchanges with her. She smiled at me expectantly as she let go of my arm.

“Sorry,” I apologized one last time as I turned my back on her. Before taking two more steps into the camp, Destiny screamed.

“Help!” I turned back around and she suddenly took a step towards me and tripped over. I looked at her, dumbfounded, as she continued to scream. “Somebody, help!” Still confused, I reached over to her but she turned away from me as she crawled along the ground. The armed men quickly rushed over to the scene of the commotion.

“What’s going on here?!” one them shouted out, as more continued filing in. I was about to speak but Destiny cut in first.

“B-Braith,” she stammered out, pointing at me shakily, and looking disheveled, “I was just trying to cheer him up when he suddenly forced me down!” Her one clearly visible eye looked watery as she finished. Before I had a chance to refute her, one of the men suddenly attacked me. I evaded it, but stumbled and fell onto the ground. More of them started to surround me and began drawing their weapons as well.

“You bastard! We offer a helping hand and this is how you act?!”

“W-wait, listen to me!” I tried to get back up off the ground but one of them kicked me in the side and I fell back down. Then, another one stomped on my back, forcing me against the ground. “She’s lying!” I shouted out as I tried to lift myself back up. Destiny began to sob very audibly and I knew my words fell on deaf ears. I grinded my teeth and focused. I felt a jolt shoot through my body, and I suddenly leapt off the ground with explosive power, lifting the man who was stepping on me a few feet into the air. I quickly bolted through an opening in the crowd of armed men and then turned around to face them. I reached for my weapon, only to realize it was still back in the tent.

“Get him!” Half of the men rushed in as the rest continued to gather around or stayed behind to comfort or defend the tearful Destiny. I ran towards the tent and two men who were yet to gather by Destiny suddenly appeared from behind it and came to intercept me. One charged at me with a spear and the other stayed a bit back, preparing to swing with an axe. I crouched low and kicked off with a jolt, evading the charging spearman. As I was about to pass by in front of the axeman, I suddenly sprang upwards and bashed myself into his chest, knocking the wind out of him as he flew off his feet. I quickly ran into the tent as his unconscious body was still falling onto the ground.

I quickly retrieved the sword by my luggage and turned back around just as the first of more armed men came into the tent after me. The tent was less than three hundred square feet and these somewhat tight quarters definitely felt like a disadvantage on my side.

“Listen, nothing happened between me and Destiny,” I tried to reason. The man swung his sword at me, but with my new legs, I easily dodged the attack and knocked him out from behind with the pommel of my sword. Another two men came into the tent. “Okay, something did happen, but it’s not what Destiny said,” I said, retracting my previous statement. The two attacked me with their swords, one after the other. I parried each of them and they were directed to either side of me by my defense. I spun on my heels and hit one of them on the side of the head with the flat side of my sword before they could turn. The other one rushed at me. Normally, simply jumping back in that position wouldn’t be fast enough, but that would have been for the old me. My backwards jump got me just enough room to evade the attack and as he stopped short and began to follow with another attack, I swung the flat of my sword into the side of his head. I turned back to the entrance of the tent and watched as three more men cautiously entered.

“You’re definitely no ordinary traveler,” the one in the middle said, as he looked down at his fallen allies. It looked like they were silently planning something, but as they continued to look at the three men already lying on the ground, it was clear that they were all hesitant to initiate.

“Yeah, that’s right. However, I don’t want any more trouble with you guys, so just let me leave and I won’t have to take things even further. Okay?” I hoped a bit of intimidation could prove more successful. From outside the entrance, I saw more of the men shuffling around to see what the hold-up was.

“You think we can let you go after what you did to Destiny?!” the one in the middle barked out.

“And what is it that I did exactly? I’ve already told you that I haven’t done anything to her. She just suddenly started screaming.”

“Heh, likely story!” With no other witnesses, this was just a case of he said, she said, and I don’t think I’ve ever won one of those before. First time for everything?

“Well, if you’re so sure, then tell me, what did I do? Did you even hear any specifics?”

“That’s obvious! You assaulted her!” The other men shouted out in agreement. However, they were still yet to advance on me.

“How? I mean, in what way? Also, do you think that really makes sense? I came into this camp full of armed men with my daughter asking you to save my friend. Why on earth would I then choose to assault one of you that very same night? Does everything I’ve done up until now just seem like some clever ploy? What benefit or reason is there behind such actions?!” Finally, some of the men started to wear confused expressions. The one in the middle of the three in the tent, though, was unconvinced.

“If you’re the one telling the truth, though, that means Destiny was lying! Why would she do that?!” The confused expressions quickly reverted to looks of anger and revenge.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I didn’t want to play along with her plans?” I said, basically giving up on my argument. It looks like we’re going to have to do this the hard way, after all. I readied myself as I expected the men to charge at me any moment, but then I heard a commotion coming from outside.

“W-what the heck?!”

“Arghhhh!”

“Someone get her!”

“Ooof!”

Various cries and shouts could be heard outside and as the commotion continued, two of the men inside the tent eventually turned around to see what was going on. I took that opportunity to immediately dash forward, spearing the handle of my blade into the middle man’s chest. He was launched out of the tent, and before the others could react, I struck the one on my right with a blow to the sternum. The armour reduced the impact of the blow, but I thought I still heard a crack. I’d feel a bit worse about not being able to hold back if the man behind me didn’t slash at my neck. I could have dodged, but my peripheral vision told me that was unnecessary. Before the blade could come within even a foot of me, the man suddenly crumpled to the ground after being struck hard in the ribs by Tasha. I gazed out at the scene of more than a dozen men lying on the ground.

Destiny and an escort of about another twenty armed men then came walking in from the side of the camp. That’s a pretty large consolation group, I thought. Destiny’s expression of slow recovery from grief suddenly turned to shock, as did the rest of them.

“Yo,” I said, suddenly feeling very invigorated by my overwhelming position. Destiny clearly struggled with trying to piece together her words while the others scanned around the campsite with stunned silence. I felt Tasha nudge my side, gently this time, though.

“Have you finally snapped out of it?” she asked. I thought for a second and then laughed. Her insight surprised me once more.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I wish you were a bit clearer though.” She nudged me again, harder this time. “Right, right, I’m sorry. I should have known better.” I took a few steps towards Destiny and the remaining men.

“I don’t know what kind of trick you were trying to pull on me earlier, but it’s not going to work.” I looked over the fallen men and then at the standing ones. “I assure you, I’m not just going to be another one of these men.” Destiny tried smiling at me again, but to me it looked like it was filled with repressed rage.

“Oh, Braith. What could you be going on about? There’s been no trick here. Ah, but I suppose I could have misinterpreted your very forward advances for assault. Really sorry about that.”

“My forward advances? No, I’m pretty sure you’re the one who kissed me.”

“Kiss?” Tasha blurted out, confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, I believe that’s your misinterpretation this time. You were the one who kissed me, although I’m sure you thought I was hinting for you to do so. Mistakes on both our parts.” Destiny continued to fabricate this new story, ignoring Tasha’s comments. Her escort looked at her questioningly, unsure of what to do now. Perhaps, it might work now?

“All of you, take a moment to hear me out,” I said, gesturing towards the men, a bit more threateningly than intended as I was using the shortsword. “Destiny has been saying nothing but lies about me, and I think I finally get it. She was trying to convince me to stay with you all and I was just about to agree.” I looked over at Tasha, who looked back in surprise at what I had just said. “But then I remembered an important promise that I had made. And nothing would ever make me break that promise. So, I refused.” Destiny prepared to cut in, but I raised my voice and continued. “She continued to plead with me to make me stay and when that failed, she kissed me. Now, that part just seemed a little too out of place. And if it weren’t for what happened today, I wouldn’t have even considered the possibility. Destiny! You have some kind of power don’t you? Perhaps, from a guardian spirit?” Destiny’s eyes went wide. The rest of the men continued looking between Destiny and I with confusion.

Destiny smiled, but it wasn’t like all the previous ones. This was the smile one would have while delighting in doing something they shouldn’t be smiling about. She gave a short laugh. Then another one. Then, she brought out almost hysterical laughter. She looked to be in manic ecstasy, wildly grasping around her chest and face, and body arched back. The confusion on the faces of her escort gradually turned to unease. I nervously looked over to Tasha, who wore the expression one expects to see from someone staring at a madman. Destiny’s laughter came to an abrupt end and she gave another one of her new sinister smiles.

“I guess I should have known that was the reason. You seemed to be falling so hard for me like all the rest in the beginning that I thought you just had a tougher mind. I guess that guardian spirit inside of you was what kept you from my control. You do have one as well, don’t you?” I found myself nodding. “Heh, I guess I have been getting a bit too greedy with gathering every man with a weapon I can make mine.”

“D-Destiny, what are you talking about?” the man standing closest to her asked. She pressed a finger to his lips.

“Shhhh, this is no place for puppets like you to talk.” She glanced back at me. “Tell me, Braith, now that we’ve gotten to know each other better, are you sure there isn’t some way we can still work this out?” Her eyes shifted over to Tasha as she put on a mischievous expression.

“Don’t even think about it?!” I snapped at her, assuming the worst. She put on a fake, disappointed look.

“Oh, what a shame. And even after you received an advance payment from me. Well, don’t blame me if these men here take revenge on you out of jealousy.” She took a few steps back. “All of you, be a dear and do something really awful to that little girl of his.” It looked like they were about to protest, but she suddenly put on a very stern expression. “Now.” As if hypnotized, their eyes clouded over and they slowly started advancing. As they got closer, a few of them even snarled. As their advance continued, Destiny came forward a bit again. “Last chance, Braith, I’d just hate it if I really had to do something bad to that lovely-looking little girl of yours.” She was clearly reveling in her own belief of victory, but that started to fade a bit when I smiled back at her.

“If there’s one little lady here who should be worried, it’s you. Tasha, just don’t kill them.” She sprang forward and I followed suit. The entranced men attacked like savage beasts, and although their attacks were more powerful than those earlier, we only needed to be a bit more careful. We ran to either end of the wave of charging men and quickly knocked out one each before they even got to attack. We then evaded or parried the attacks as they came in, sidestepped or backed out of the way before getting surrounded, and knocked one down whenever the chance presented itself. We repeated this cycle in quick succession and I imagined that Destiny’s face was probably just about to shift into a look of fear. It only took a minute to take down all the men, and now all we had to do was capture Destiny. Unfortunately, I was too focused on the battle and when I turned to look for her, she was at the edge of the camp and was already on one of the horses. I tried to run after her, but she kicked at the horse and it began galloping away. I was about to speed up, but my leg cramped up.

“I swear I’ll get you for this!” she cried out as she rode off into the distance. Wow, what a cliché line. I clutched at my cramped leg and watched her a second longer before turning back to the camp and all the men on the ground.

“Are you okay, dad?”

“Yeah, just a cramp. Nothing serious.” Her concerned look did not immediately go away. I made a show of brandishing my arms and turning my hips. “Come on, look, no cuts or anything. I’m fine.”

“And, uh…your head, too?”

“Relax, Tasha, I’m over that, too. Destiny is a vile, manipulative woman. See? Would I say something like that otherwise?” Tasha smiled. “Although, there is still the issue with all of these guys.” Tasha’s smile dropped away.

“Should we just leave? In case they fight us again?” I pondered that for a moment.

“Well, let’s try waking one of them up first. Maybe they’ve snapped out of it, too?” Tasha paused for a second before giving a quick nod. We went looking for a random man to wake up when we heard one of them groaning as he roused to consciousness.

It took him a moment to remember how he got knocked out to begin with and although he was quite flustered, he calmed down soon enough. I asked him if he remembered anything about Destiny and we learned that he had joined up with Destiny’s camp a month ago. He went along with a group of other men as part of a hunting party for their village and they came across her group. That same day, they gave up on their objective and ended up joining them. The man also remembered that some of the other men in the hunting party also had families to care for. We asked some more men, and we received similar stories. The men encountered Destiny and ended up joining up with her, several more of them had also left behind a wife and children. Upon realizing the horrible reality, most of the men were extremely grateful towards us.

Some, however, did not have such reactions. They were insistent that Destiny’s actions today were far from her true self. They adamantly claimed that she was a saint and a saviour and what she did today only meant that she was either possessed or was actually an impostor. One also thought that everything still going on was just a dream and he repeatedly banged his head against the ground to wake himself before a couple other men restrained him. Perhaps being under her control for so long resulted in too great of a backlash. Regardless, knowledge of how Destiny first began recruiting men or why would remain unknown. This was the last thought on my mind before suddenly passing out.