While looking at Ezhno, the expression of anger melted away and turned into one of shock and astonishment. She stood there not knowing how to react to what she just heard.

After the initial shocked settled in, tears rolled down her cheeks like waterfalls. She still did not know what to do or say. She fell down to her knees with her hands covering over her face, sobbing as if someone had killed her parents.

Ezhno walked over to Odilia, squatted down beside her, and said, "Odilia, why are you crying like that? You are the hero of Forest Shadow village, if people see you like this they would think that I beat you and stole your money. Then I would be stoned to death in the middle of the village."

While slightly shaking her, Ezhno continued, "Please Odilia, stop crying, I don't think getting hit by stones would feel that good."

Odilia still did not get up, and her sobbing became more vigorous.

Ezhno did not know what to do at this point. He did not know why Odilia was crying like this in the first place. He only had one idea that he thought might work.

"Odilia, I will be right back," Ezhno said as he stood from his squatted position, and ran to his home as fast as possible. After a minute he returned and squatted back down next to her. He opened his hand and said, "Odilia, please take this."

Ezhno opened his hand, as the sun light hit the object, it sparkled and glistened, as if he were holding the world's most expensive jewel.

With a big cheesy smile and wide open eyes, Ezhno looked at the palm of his hand. If one looked close enough they would see a little drool seeping from the side of his mouth. He said to Odilia, "This is a piece of candy the middle aged lady a few houses down gave me after I helped her fetch 500 gallons of water for her household. I have been saving this to eat on my birthday, but if it will help you calm down and make you feel better, then I am more then happy to give it to you."

The truth of the matter was that Ezhno really did not want to give Odilia his candy. The smell of citrus and berries was making his mouth water, and agonized him the more he thought about it, it's lustrous shine captured his full attention. He has never once indulged in sweet confectioneries before. This was the first one he has ever possessed. He was always envious seeing the kids around town full of smiles and satisfaction, as they snacked on these heavenly, delectable treats, while enjoy the conversations with one another.

He worked so hard to obtain this mouth watering morsel, and while he really did not want to give it to anyone, he also did not want to be stoned to death either. If people thought he bullied her, he would not be able to enjoy the candy anyway, so he might as well see if this would help to get Odilia to stop crying.

Odilia finally looked up at Ezhno, and then looked at the piece of candy, and back at him.

Ezhno thought that the candy had worked and breathed a sigh of relief.

He thinks to himself, "Now I don't have to worry about being stoned to death, giving her this was worth the sacrifice."

Odilia finally opened her bright red swollen eyes, looked around, blinked a few times and then had a startled look on her face, as if she had seen a ghost. She gets up from her knees, looks at Ezhno, and smacks his precious treasure right out of his hand. The beautiful candy shimmered in the light as it flew through the air, It landed right into a small pile of horse manure . As Odilia steadied herself on her feet, she pushed him on his bottom.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Ezhno was shocked at what just happened and was surprised at the outcome. He was now getting annoyed, he got back up, rubbing his butt and yelled out, "Why would you do that?! ... Do you know how hard I worked to get that piece of candy, only to have it ruined, and now no one gets to eat it!"

Ezhno starts to think to himself, "Why would she do that? If she did not want to eat the candy she could have just said no, but instead she smacks it right out of my hand."

Desperate to save his precious reward, he tried to quickly think of a way to salvage it. "I can't let anyone see me pick it up and wash it. That would be too embarrassing. When she leaves, I will pick it up and try to wash it off. This is utterly disgusting, but I may not have another chance to experience one ever again. Maybe it will still taste ok?"

While Ezhno's thoughts were on his candy, Odilia with a low muffled voice said, "Ezhno, if you still do not know why I am crying then you're an idiot. You are the smartest person I know. I have only taught you a little on how to read and write, but after only a few lessons I was stunned to see that you are smarter than me. You can read things that even I have a hard time reading. Your writing is beautiful and better then even my 60 year old teacher that comes to my house three times a week to teach me writing skills."

Odilia continued, her voice was getting louder and one could feel the anger with each sentence she spoke, "I thought you were lying to me and taking me for a fool. I even went so far as to ask around to see if you were even born in this village. I thought you were adopted, and maybe some rich noble family was hiding you in the village, I thought someone had paid your mother and father to take care of you, because your relatives wanted to kill you since you were next in line to inherit the throne or something of the sorts. While I asked around, I even found the woman who helped deliver you on the day of your birthing.

After that, I realized that you truly are a poor worthless stable boy, and will only ever be a shit-scooper. While I am off doing amazing things, you will still be here taking care of the horses and picking up horse shit, for your entire pathetic life. You will die and be buried in a pile of horse shit. ... Actually, you are not worthy to even be buried in horse shit. Even horse shit has more worth than a poor worthless stable boy. At least the crops benefit from it, but you have no worth, and will benefit no one!"

As she was saying all of this, tears started flowing even more. Ezhno was shocked, he did not know why she was saying all of this to him. Honestly, through most of what she was saying, he was still so engrossed with his candy, and whether or not it was salvagable. However, when Odilia got to the part about being worthless, and buried in a pile of horse shit, Ezhno also fell to his knees and started to cry. With confusion, he mumbled through the sobbing, "Why are you saying all of this to me? Why would you say I was worthless?! I even gave you the candy I worked so hard to get! Why would the hero of Forest Shadow village, who is my friend, say all this to me? "

He stared at Odilia with red swollen eyes not knowing what he did wrong.

Still crying as well, Odilia says to Ezhno with a normal tone, "My grandfather said while I'm still in the village, I am not supposed to see you anymore. Not only will he beat me and ground me to the house, he said he would also either sell you off to the fighting pits, or if you have no worth, he will just kill you and feed you to the beasts of the forest. Also, he said that no one would miss a worthless stable boy that can be easily replaced."

After a few more moments of crying on both ends, Odilia also said, "In a few months time, I will be going far away from here, Through my parents connections, I have been invited to attend one of the top schools in the Capital. This may be the last time you ever see me, so I broke my grandfathers rules to come and see you before I left."

Odilia walked passed Ezhno, while tears flowed faster again and in a light voice says "Please do not die."

The moment she stepped past him, she started running away as fast as possible. As she ran away she yelled out, "You're smart. Think about why I said the things I said."

Under her breath she whispered to herself, "I'm so sorry. ... Goodbye my friend."