Chapter Sixty-Seven: Feisty Forest Foray

"Where did this sudden moral backbone come from anyway?"

Tim and Meg were travelling North, up to the woods near the border of Athene and Eurota, to the East of the central mountain. They had been arguing on and off for a good while, with Meg becoming increasingly annoyed every time she was shot down.

"It wasn't sudden, I've been thinking about it for a while." Meg replied sullenly.

"Not too long, clearly."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You weren't bothered about it when you were summoning people for me to kill, were you?"

"That's hardly the same."

"How?"

"You were, and still are, the only reason I haven't been executed. If I didn't do the one thing you kept me alive to do you could've just left me, and then I'd be fucked, wouldn't I?"

"Shows how much your morality is worth then doesn't it."

"What?"

"You were saying before that we should punish criminals but not kill them, implying that innocent people should have to pay the cost of keeping them alive. But when it comes to potentially innocent people, you're quite happy to throw away their lives instead of facing the possibility of fending for yourself."

"You're saying I should die for not wanting innocent people to be killed?!"

"If you're not willing to then what's the point in having morals to begin with?"

"How about just trying to be a decent person?!"

"Fat lot of good that does people when someone bigger than them is breathing down their neck."

"What, someone like you?"

"Clearly."

"...I can't believe this." Meg seethed behind Tim in anger.

"Look, there are always going to be people who disagree with you, and some of them are going to be stronger than you. When you meet them, you can either put your foot down, or you can just let them walk over you. You are the latter. You live in other people's shadows, never influencing things yourself. You lived in your family's shadow, and now you live in mine."

"That's-"

"Am I wrong?"

"..."

"The only arbiter of what's right and wrong is power, Meg. At the end of the day, you can ask people to civil, but if one person decides to use force, and you don't have the power to stop them, they win. They are righteous, because they claim to be, and no-one is left to challenge them."

"It doesn't have to be that way though. Everyone is willing to listen to some kind of reason. You're listening to me now, aren't you? You could've left me behind and ran off to deal with it yourself, but you didn't."

"Yeah, because I'm trying to get that wishful thinking out of your head. If I just left you there and did my thing you'd never speak to me again."

"See? You're trying to change my mind as much as I'm trying to change yours."

Tim was silent for a moment, and Meg finally felt like she had gotten somewhere. Then, she heard a light sigh, and Tim began to speak in a somewhat somber tone.

"Let me tell you about some people I met.

Back when I was relatively young, there was a raider group. Now what this group would do, is they would ride into a village, kill all the men, take any food and valuables, and rape the women. Then they'd kill the women too, except for a few of the younger ones, who they'd take with them. Then they'd burn down the village and leave. Of course, having young prisoners when you're always on the move is difficult, they tend to try and escape. So what they'd do is they'd break the girls' legs, usually gag them too so they couldn't scream. Then they'd keep them as sex slaves until they raided the next village, at which point they would execute them in front of the new prisoners to scare them into behaving.

So Meg, how would you reason with those people to make them stop?"

Tim turned his head and twisted round to look at Meg. She stared back at him for a second, before looking away. After a second, Tim turned back around.

"You know what the difference between you and them is?" He asked.

"..."

"When I came to challenge their moral code, they fought me tooth and nail to the last man. When I came and challenged your moral code, you bent over backwards to accommodate me. If they were stronger than me, they'd have carried on doing whatever they pleased. If you were stronger than me, it wouldn't have made a difference."

"...Why are you saying all this? You sound like you want me to try and fight against you with force. Is that it? You just want another person to fight against?"

Tim looked back around at her with an annoyed expression.

"Don't try and come up with some reason why I must be antagonising you just because you don't like what I'm saying. It's pathetic."

Seeing Meg pull away from him, he turned back to face forwards again.

"You just seem woefully unaware of how the world works. In fact, you seem to have decided what you think is moral, and are now trying to twist how you think reality works to fit. If you do that, all that's going to happen is you're going to get yourself in trouble. And I can't always be there to bail you out."

"So you're altruistically calling me a delusional idiot are you?"

"I'm just trying to save us both the hassle of you finding out the hard way. If you don't want to listen, fine. Just try to make sure the only person you get killed is yourself."

That signaled the end of the conversation, Meg had nothing left to say, and it was clear that Tim had made up his mind a long time ago.

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The two reached a small town near to where the bandits had been sighted in the evening, a few days after they had set off. As the sun dipped in the sky they found a small inn and, without a word between them, went about their established routine.

Once Holly had been properly taken care of and the rooms had been booked, the two sat in the social area of the inn, eating the meal Meg had ordered before Tim came in and drinking lightly. The atmosphere of the room was jovial, as the workers of the town came together to finish the day with a few rounds before heading to bed.

The locals couldn't help but notice, however, the stilted atmosphere between their new guests. At a casual glance they appeared to just be winding down after a day of travelling, but after watching them for a few seconds, one would notice a few oddities.

The way Tim would look blankly around the room, ignoring Meg completely. The way Meg would often steal glances at him while she was eating, eyes snapping to him whenever he made a sudden movement. The way they sat through their entire meal without saying a single word to each other, even after they finished.

This left the locals watching the pair cautiously, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Tim.

As the twilight turned to night, Tim and Meg remained in the social area drinking.

"Not that I mind..." Tim said, breaking the long silence between them. "But are you planning on watching me all night?"

"You're planning on going tonight, aren't you?" Meg asked him, thinly glaring at him.

"I am."

"Then yes."

"Hmph."

Tim took a swig of his drink, and the two went back to their silent stalemate.

A few hours later, as the crowd of people in the inn began to thin, Tim suddenly stood up.

Immediately Meg followed suit, cold determination in her eyes as she addressed him.

"And just where are you going?" She asked.

"To the toilet." Tim replied, somewhat annoyed. "Why, are you going to come watch?"

Meg said nothing, and simply watched Tim through narrowed eyes as he headed deeper into the inn, whereupon she sat back down and fixed her gaze on the door he went through.

After a few minutes, a man who had recently left the inn returned to speak to the bartender. After listening to the man, the bartender came over to Meg, looking somewhat unnerved.

"Excuse me, miss?" He said cautiously.

"What?" Meg responded, not taking her eyes off the door.

"Um, do you know what your friend is doing? One of my customers is a little concerned."

"Why? He's gone to the toilet."

"...In the woods?"

Meg turned to look up at the man with a blank expression, and there was a moment of silence.

The bartender looked back the woman, waiting for a reaction.

"THAT MOTHERFUCKER!"

The bartender jerked back as Meg shot up from her seat and stormed off towards the toilets on the other side of the building. With the bartender now chasing after her and the rest of the locals watching her in shock, she exited the social area, walked up to the toilet door, and kicked it in.

At the back of the small room was a wall that stood on the outside of the building.

A wall with a large hole in it.

Meg and the bartender came to a halt and stared at the dark world outside the inn. The bartender was especially shocked by the damage to the property.

"What the... How did he-"

"That bastard..."

The bartender was silent as he was reminded of the woman stood next to him seething and shaking with anger.

All of a sudden, Meg leapt through the hole Tim had used to escape, with the bartender leaning out after her.

"Hey!" He shouted, before falling silent as Meg lifted off the ground and shot upwards into the air.

He stared for a moment as she disappeared into the night sky, flying towards the nearby forest in search of Tim, before muttering, "I'm not getting involved in this." and heading back inside.

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"Where is he..."

Meg anxiously looked upon the forest, desperately seeking any sign of Tim. She had been up there for a few minutes now, but she was too preoccupied to notice the cold air biting her as it passed.

Then, Meg froze.

She stared off into the forest, as a chorus of yells and screams filled the air. A flurry of movement erupted across the treetops, as the sudden cacophony cause the residents to vacate their homes, rushing past Meg as she gritted her teeth, and headed towards the source.

Though flying over the forest proved not to be the best method of searching. The sounds echoed under the layer of foliage between her and the ground, obfuscating the source of the initial cries. On top of that, the group seemed to have given up retaliating, and had scattered into the forest, meaning any one individual was now harder to pin down.

The movement below her began to die down, gradually. The rate at which cries were sounded from below dropped, and Meg began to fear that it was too late.

A fleeting glimpse of movement seen through the leaves caught Meg's attention, and noting the direction it was heading, she shot down to intercept it.

Landing in the forest ahead of the moving object, she waited for it to arrive, and after a few seconds, it did.

A young man, terrified and gasping for air came rushing through the brush. He seemed shocked, and fixated on getting away. He looked like he was barely out of his mid-teens, and his face and clothes were stained with patches of blood, though he didn't appear to have shed any himself.

"Wait!" Meg shouted, standing directly in the way of the young man.

The young man's head wrenched towards Meg, and his legs jutted outwards to the side as he desperately tried to avoid her. His legs skipped across fallen leaves and decaying wood that lay on the surface of the forest floor, and he landed face first in the mud.

Immediately he scrambled in an attempt to get to his feet, yelping out in fear as he tried to get away.

"Wait, I'm here to help you!" Meg shouted, and moved over to where the young man was clawing at the mud, and he looked up at her with fear and confusion.

As she drew close to the panicked man, Meg heard a loud crack coming from where the young man had been running from. Immediately Meg placed herself between the young man and the noise, and taking a firm stance, glared at the new arrival.

Tim looked back at Meg with a blank expression. He was stood beside a tree that now had a section in it that had been crushed inwards by the force of him coming to a halt, and he held in his hand a sword that dripped glistening beads from its tip.

"Get out of the way Meg." He said, and took a step forward.

"No." Meg replied, her anger showing in her expression. "I'm not going to let you make yourself the arbiter of justice. You don't get to cast judgement and decide who lives and who dies."

"You're a little late for that." Tim said, moving closer still to the pair. "Honestly saving only one person is probably crueler than just letting them die, we would know."

Meg gritted her teeth in anger at Tim's words. In the back of her mind she wondered whether it was coincidence or not that the one she had happened to come across was the last one he came for.

"Now..." Tim continued, stopping his feet and reciprocating Meg's glare. "Get out of the way. Don't make me move you myself."

Meg stood her ground, and opened her mouth to speak.

Then Tim moved.

His eyes widened, and his empty hand stretched out to the side, having pulled out a small object that fit into his palm. His body tensed up, and he looked ready to move.

Meg watched him, confused by his sudden actions, before a noise behind her caught her attention.

Before she could turn, her mouth was covered and her head was pulled backwards. Crying out in shock, she squirmed against the young man who had grabbed her, until she felt a cold object press into her neck.

Meg's body went stiff, and she fearfully glanced her eyes downwards at the hand on her mouth, and the knife at her throat.

"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" The young man shouted, eyes bulging as he fixed them on the man who had just slaughtered everyone he knew.

"SHE'S YOUR FRIEND RIGHT? ONE STEP CLOSER AND I'LL KILL HER!"

Meg felt herself be pulled backwards as the man tried to back away, and her mouth slipped out of his grasp. She tried to speak out and reason with him.

"Wai-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

The young man screamed into her ear, and madly glanced between her and Tim.

Watching this, Tim lowered his hand holding the stone he had pulled out in case the man attacked Meg with the intent to kill, and sighing, closed his eyes.

Then he opened them, and looked towards the man and his hostage. At the same time, he allowed his power to emanate from him at the pair.

Meg felt her heart stop.

Every muscle in her body clamped up, and she couldn't move a muscle.

She couldn't move, she couldn't run, she couldn't even breathe.

I'm going to die.  She thought, and didn't even notice the hand slip from her mouth.

She felt nothing, she heard nothing, and the world in front of her blurred into a mass of dark colours and shadows melded into each other without coherence.

The only thing her mind could focus on was her impending demise.

The mass of colour in front of her shifted, and her mind went blank.

A wave of relief then passed over her, and she gasped for air, falling to her knees.

As the world came back into focus, she turned her head just in time to see Tim plunge his sword into the body of the young man who was laid out and convulsing on the floor.

She stared at Tim, trembling and breathing heavily while her heart beat against her rib cage.

As the young man ceased moving, Tim pulled out his sword, and wiped it clean with a cloth he produced from thin air.

As he cleaned his sword, he spoke without looking away.

"If I was anyone else, the price of capturing that man and sending him away for punishment would have been your life."

Meg stared at him as he finished cleaning his sword and threw both it and the cloth back into his storage space.

"With that said..." He continued, and turned to look down at Meg.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you aren't glad that he's dead."

Tim stared down at Meg, waiting.

Staring back at him, Meg opened her mouth to speak.

Then she closed it again, and gritting her teeth, looked away.

Taking her silence as her answer, Tim looked away from her, and began to head off back in the direction of the nearby town. He passed Meg, who stayed on her knees looking over towards the body of the young man. Tim continued on away from her, then after a few seconds, he turned back.

"Are you coming?"