“Oh, look, your back. How’d it go?"

"Terrible," Touji replied with an annoyed expression. "They just threw me out. Said I was dead."

"And what exactly did you say that made them do so?"

"Nothing. I mean, I did tell one lady that she would find a husband when she was already married. And I also called inspector Zephyr, “Zephy” but still."

"Good grief. Let me say this, sometimes I wonder if I hadn't hired you, would you have ever been hired."

"Old man, that hurt. Cut me deep. Oh, so deep. I might not recover."

"Grow up, Shorty."

"If you call me that one more time, I'm gonna kick you in the you know where."

"Don't you dare touch me or you know what's coming."

"Who says I wanna touch you?"

Odja eyed him with a peculiar gaze.

“What?”

"Okay Touji, remember that I’m your ride home. I've finished all my business here so we are going to head on out. Now help me put this hand plough onto the wagon before we leave.”

Touji sighed, “Fine.” Then clasping the plough with both hands, he and Odja managed to place the ground splitter neatly in the boot of the cart. It was lighter than Touji had expected, but he wasn’t sure if it was because he had been working on a farm for some time now that he had perhaps, gotten stronger.

“You know, one of us could have managed this ourselves? We didn’t need both of us to pick this up.”

“I’m getting older now and my back is beginning to let out. Now hop on, and we’ll go home.”

"Okie."

Touji submitted himself to fate and sat beside him on the driver’s bench.

"So did you at least learn your attribute?"

"No. They kicked me out before telling me?"

"Quite odd. Actually, no. That sounds perfectly in character."

"Nope. No character development here. None, zilch, nada."

"Glad to hear you’re not willing to change."

"Let's just leave,” Touji grunted.

Odja cracked the whips as their horse rode at a brisk trot down the main street.

"All right, just relax for a second here. You're acting like a child. Relax."

"What's wrong with acting like a child? Kids act like kids. Adults act like adults. I’m in-between, so I can choose whichever I want."

"That’s not how that works, and no one has permission to act like a brat no matter what their age."

"I don't know what you’re talking about."

This conversation really wasn't going anywhere, but on a similar topic, Touji had noticed that he was acting a little odd or what you might say ‘out of place’ from his usual self. He’d always tried to be mature in front of his family and friends, but when left to his own devices for long enough, the initial reasons for that behaviour, a natural desire for respect and a slight want for admiration quickly vanished with his old social circle. Having no one to please and being forced to the bottom of the social hierarchy left him with no purpose to continue. Thus, his actual maturity level began to show through.

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"You seem awfully preoccupied with your own thoughts."

“Just drive.”

-I can’t keep doing this. At this rate, nothing will happen. I’m leaving the city without accomplishing and no information other than I should be dead, (which isn’t any consolation). And the work here is hard. I can barely keep up with the farm work. Also, when was the last time I took an actual bath and not one of those half-assed backyard dumping-bucket-on-head rituals?

He began to sniff his hoodie.

"Hey boss, I think we need to stop by a laundromat on the way home."

"A what?"

"Oh yeah, those probably only exist for rich people, if at all. Oh, and I forgot. I'm poor."

He hopped into the back of the carriage far more discouraged than previously and laid his head down on the hard wooden floor beside the plough.

“I'll try and sleep off the rest of the trip unless that bothers anyone.”

“No complaints here. It's going to take me a while to get through the gates. It's a huge pain to get through the city guards to leave the city these days. So get as much sleep as ya can.”

To Touji trip didn’t matter. He just wanted to stop thinking. Thinking is what makes life uncomfortable and it’s why we humans do it so little. Without the many methods and devices he once owned that were made to help drown out his own thoughts, he was instead forced to sleep on them, only making his problems more vivid as they merged themselves with his already unpleasant dreams.

***

There was a loud bang sound on the side of the cage leaving Touji quite startled.

"Hey, Touji! Get out here! We got trouble."

He quickly sat himself and poked his head out from the back of the wagon.

A huge dog-like creature crouched on the road in front of them. Its teeth protruded far past the tip of its mouth and its claws were almost a half foot long. Its fur was black as pitch and its eyes glowed a dark blue.

"Wha-what the hell is that?"

"A Fenrir. Don't see them around too often. But I could tell something was on us once we had entered the forest. It was far too quiet."

Touji scanned the area around them. The forest was far too dense for him to make out any details but for all terms and purposes, they were boxed in.

"So basically, there's no way to get any help, huh? Why are we alone in the first place?"

"No envoy was coming this way for the rest of today and we needed to be back at the farm by tomorrow morning. Plus, I’m not staying in the city overnight."

"We're screwed." Touji groaned.

"We might not be entirely done for, but I'd say we're pretty damn close," Odja muttered in a failed attempt to sound optimistic.

"So, what are our options?"

"I brought a crossbow in the back. Hand it to me and then you take the horses reins. Go as fast as you can and I'll try to aim for its eyes to slow it down."

"Roger that."

He hurriedly shuffled through the boxes and crates, finding his hands shaking vigorously as he frantically searched for the weapon. Once found, he handed the crossbow to the Odja who looked to have aged ten years in a span of a few minutes. Touji grabbed the horse's reins and whipped them as hard as he could.

"Is it a problem that I've never actually steered a horse before?"

"Just pray the horses know where to run."

-Nice. Touji internally muttered to himself.

Odja shot an arrow, missing slightly and hitting the animal's ear, causing it to growl and shriek as it tossed its head from side to side.

The horse bolted forward, running straight towards the Fenrir. The creature dug its rear paws into the ground, causing the hard stony ground to crack. Then it leapt into the air high above the cart while emitting a paralyzing roar. As Touji braced himself for the impact, Odja landed a clean hit between its eyes with an arrow, causing it to narrowly miss the wagon.

"Holy-! I'm so dead!" Touji screamed.

The wagon quickly sped past the screeching Fenrir, the horse's feet clashing violently against the gravel pathway.

"Wow, we made it out!"

"Not yet. That creature can run as fast as a horse, if not faster. If it tries, it will catch up to us."

"Lovely!"

-Things just keep getting better.

The horse galloped down the road as fast as it could.

"Oi. Sir, you might wanna take the wheel here 'cause I don't know what I'm doing or where we're going."

"We're not out of the woods yet. I'm staying here in case it comes after us."

"Old man. Your blind trust in me is your strongest weakness. Oh wait, not sure that makes sense, but you know what I mean."

Odja turned to face him, placing his left hand over Touji’s shoulder. "Listen, Touji! We make this out alive, you can have my daughter."

"Generally in this situation that’s not the first thing I’d think of and as a father, you should be ashamed. Now focus on the beast behind us instead of selling off your daughter."

"So will you take her?"

"No. I'm far too young for that sort of thing."

"No, you’re not. I got married two years younger than you."

"No comment!"