The Foolhardies 75 A Sense of Guil

A honeyed scent floated up to my nose while I stood at the edge of the garden's threshold and I assumed they'd come from the yellow tulips blooming beautifully atop healthy green flower bushes.

Yet even this pleasant fragrance couldn't make me feel any less anxious.

A delicate hand grasped my right hand. Our fingers intertwined momentarily. Then came the warmth that usually arrived whenever Aura wanted to encourage me. It was like a very pleasant shot of adrenaline.

"You didn't have to come, you know," I said.

"We're partners, Dean… your burdens are my burdens," Aura insisted.

I turned away from her and did my best to hide the redness rising up my cheeks.

All too soon, Aura let go of my hand. Only the warmth she'd sent me remained.

"Are you going to be okay though, Aura?" Ty asked.

He was standing on my right and looking worriedly at Aura's hooded face.

Aura sent him a dazzling smile that made Ty blink in a way similar to when he accidentally looks up at the sun.

"I'll be fine, Ty. Thanks for the concern," she said.

"Here I thought fairies could only come out at night," Arah commented.

She was standing on Aura's other side and was also staring into Aura's hooded face.

Aura turned to Arah and answered the unasked question on her face, "Although it's true that some types of fairies can't stand the sun—"

"—like trolls and drow, you mean?" Arah interrupted.

Aura nodded. "Drows are physically weakened by the sun's energies while some trolls have such a high sensitivity to the sun's rays that they turn themselves into stone as a defensive measure."

"Wait…" Ty raised his hand like a student in class looking for clarification. "Trolls can turn themselves into stone?"

"Cave trolls can, and only in the worst types of scenarios. As you can imagine, becoming stone for a full day can make one vulnerable to other outside influences," Aura explained. "In fact, I once heard a story of a human tricking a troll to turn itself into stone only so the human could shatter it into pieces afterward."

"Humans feature a lot in fairy folk tales?" Arah asked, her eyebrow rising as she did.

Aura nodded. "Mostly bad ones where humans trick fairies… you guys are the villains in our stories."

My friends gave each other dubious looks, and then all three of them laughed.

"You guys sound like you're having fun," I interrupted.

I didn't mean to sound annoyed. It was just that their laughter felt out-of-place given the nature of our reason for standing there. Also, their laughter reminded me of the insensitive scolding Darah gave me the previous night.

"We taught you better than to feel pity over your opponent's circumstance!" she'd said this after I told her I didn't feel like I deserved a reward for what I'd done.

This happened right after she said I did what she'd expected and nothing more which in Darah-speak was very high praise. Darah then said she was considering rewarding me with a new field promotion. It was then that I told her how uncertain I felt about my actions.

"Roger, punch this fool for me, will you," she said this right before she punched me in the face herself.

It wasn't a full-force attack as that would have probably sent me flying out of her command tent but it was by no means a weak shot. Even now, in the warm sunlight, I could still feel the bruise on my left cheek. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"I didn't train such a weakling whose resolve would crumble after experiencing one smidge of doubt," Darah kept her fist raised. "Get up! I'll punch the pity out of you."

General Thors got between me and the Great General.

"What our leader is trying to convey to you, Dean, is that not all your enemies will be devils who deserve the edge of your blade. Some, like you, will fight for reasons completely relatable. But this shouldn't diminish your belief in the path you've chosen," Thors explained while holding Darah off with a hand.

I kept my head down as I had no response. I still couldn't sort my feelings regarding this. I knew deep down that my chosen path was necessary but it didn't stop me from feeling the guilt.

"He's pouting again, Roger," Darah hissed. "Perhaps I should give him a kick, instead?"

"I'd refrain from that, General," There was a hint of a smile on Thors' face when he said this. "Your kicks tend to go into very sensitive locations… wouldn't want the boy to get scarred like that."

Darah had said more things and Thors did his best to interpret them in a nicer way. But the gist of it was simple, "cool your head and come back ready to fight or else!"

I wasn't sure how I could do that in a single night but I figured one way to do it was to keep the promise I gave Jimmy Jonas, which is why I was standing outside his house searching for the resolve to ring the doorbell.

To my relief—or maybe it was regret—I didn't have to as a voice asked from behind me, "What are you kids doing outside my house?"

Turning around to face the woman who'd just spoken might have been harder than facing off against a dozen hobgoblins. But turn I did.

The middle-aged woman who owned the house behind me had Asian looks. She had shoulder-length black hair surrounding a beautiful pale face. The painted eyebrows above her slanted eyes were raised in a questioning look. She wore a simple one-piece black dress underneath a grey cardigan. She carried a shopping bag in one hand. Her other hand grasped the hand of a boy of about nine or ten.

My eyes widened at the sight of the boy as he looked like a carbon copy of his late father.

Guilt overtook me again, and I found it hard to find the words to speak.

The boy looked back at me and my friends with mild interest.

"Who are you guys?" he asked. "Did my dad send you?"

I could feel my friends look nervously around at each other. No one spoke up. They were all waiting for me to make the move.

I sighed. "Yeah. Your dad sent me." I looked the kid in the eyes before shifting my gaze toward his mother. "He asked me to pass on a message to his family."

Chapter end