A few days later, Drake had healed enough to finally be of some use. Gigi hadn’t minded playing doctor, but she was relieved to see him on his feet. In a few days’ time it became abundantly clear to Gigi that whatever use Drake was going to be at the bakery, it was likely not as a baker. Every lesson was a comedy of errors, from coating the entire kitchen in flour to egg-shells in every muffin. Gigi was perplexed how someone could be so completely talentless for something she found so simple. It wasn’t that he couldn’t take orders. The problem was that was all he could do. Drake lacked the ability to take initiative with the baking process. He stared at the recipes as if they were a foreign language. After the fire, Griselda forbade Drake from the kitchen.

Drake slunk off to the back garden to stew in his failure, Gigi’s siblings giggling as he departed. Griselda turned to Gigi.

“He’s your pet, take him for a walk or something today. Perhaps tomorrow you two can do the deliveries.”

Gigi sighed and nodded, following the soldier into the garden. He sat in the grass, staring off into the forest beyond the village. The air was just beginning to become crisp with the smell of autumn. The earthy aroma of decaying leaves mixed in with the sweet sting of pine enveloped her. Her apron fluttered in the breeze as she approached Drake.

“I’m sorry,” he said, hanging his head.

“Eh, forget about it,” Gigi waved her hand, “apparently baking isn’t for everyone. I mean I’m good at it and I still hate it.”

“Really?”

“I can’t stand it. How exciting is it to watch bread rise?” She shrugged off her apron.

“I think it’s kind of amazing.”

Gigi looked at him skeptically. “It’s just a bakery.”

“You can turn white powders, milk, and eggs into amazing things that make people happy. You don’t think that’s worthwhile?”

Gigi frowned. What nonsense. She didn’t care a lick if their bread made folks cry from joy. Making it still made her feel like the center of a donut. Empty. What she didn’t want to admit was perhaps, making bread was all she was good for. It was a terror she wrestled with herself daily. However, she wasn’t going to admit that to someone she barely knew.

“Um, thanks.” She stood next to him, folding her arms. “Also, who cares that you can’t bake? You’re, like, made of magic. You could be a sell-sword from here to the coast and be so laden in gold and women within a month that you could retire,” she said with a hint of irritation.

Drake said nothing. She nodded, kicking the ground a little. They weren’t the same. Maybe he was lost like her, but he could so easily find his way back to that path society had set for him. A flash of envy cut through her. It would be so simple for him to join up with another army or live on his own terms.

She didn’t even know what her terms were. Gigi couldn’t say why she stayed in Poppy. Sure, she loved her family, but that was just an excuse, as her own siblings pointed out to her. She knew she wasn’t bound here by anything other than the fetters she tied herself. How could she not envy him a small amount? This man offered death to the world and would be paid handsomely for it. What did she offer? Cookies?

“You don’t like being a baker,” Drake said.

“Nope,” she said, plopping next to him.

“Well, I don’t like hurting people.”

Gigi sat stunned for a moment, not sure what to make of him. Lots of men just said whatever they thought a pretty girl wanted to hear. Then again, she had been pretty enthusiastic about him being a soldier when they first met and he still hadn’t talked about it.

“Guess that makes you a pretty bad soldier,” she said finally.

Drake smiled. “Not so great a baker either if you hate it.”

“Guess not,” she shrugged.

She looked over at him and really studied him for the first time. She wondered how many of the things she had assumed about him were wrong. The sun caught the blonde stubble on his head, surrounding him in a golden aura. After a few moments, he turned to her. His blue eyes were watery as if trying to hold back tears. There was a great sadness locked behind the frosty blue of his irises.

Gigi had met lots of soldiers passing through Poppy. More than a few dwarves and goblins had offered to make her their “war-wife.” A term she was pretty sure was just soldier speak for mistress. This one was wholly different though. Those men talked of the battlefield and the glories to be had there like it was a playground. She suspected Drake carried his battlefield with him.

“What do you like to do?” he asked, catching Gigi off guard.

“Hmm?”

“Well, you don’t like baking, so what do you like?”

She liked all kinds of things, but what did she want to share with him? Poetry, cryptids, board games. She laid back in the grass, staring at the sky. What would he think of her, and why did she care? Maybe she should just offer something neutral, to test the waters.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Well, I love the forest. Maybe I can show you around?”

Drake turned back to the army of trees that lay beyond the town’s domain. It stood dark and foreboding, a world away from Poppy and its citizens’ problems despite its proximity.

“Let’s do it,” Drake nodded with a smile.

***

Gigi ducked under a low branch of a massive tree. Drake followed, getting smacked in the face by the foliage for his trouble. Massive trunks were dug deep into the ground all around them. Their twisted arms spiraled high into the sky, creating a green ceiling for those within.

There was something about the forest that deeply calmed Gigi. Maybe it was her swamp-dwelling ancestors’ influence, but she felt like she could take root and stay forever. Despite being a public space, the woods were a deeply private place for her. It was where she could be free. She felt like this man could use some of that freedom.

“It’s beautiful,” Drake huffed, pulling his boot from the mud.

“And deadly,” Gigi rejoined.

“Is that why you like it?”

“Shut up,” she smirked.

“Are you a hunter?”

Gigi blanched at the thought. “I would rather die.”

“Why?” he asked earnestly.

“I don’t like to murder innocent things. It’s a pretty simple rule to follow.”

“So... No meat?”

“No meat.”

Drake shrugged. “No meat,” he agreed.

Gigi bristled with irritation, the hairs rising on her arms. People, but especially men, always talked to her like a child when it came to animals. They would prattle about how cute it was that she saw animals as equals while gnawing on their mutton. She doubted Drake was any different.

“You said you don’t like hurting people right?”

“I don’t,” he said grimly.

She dodged another branch. “What about hurting animals?”

“I don’t hunt if that’s what you’re asking.”

Her ears twitched. That was unexpected. Still, she felt like prodding further. “But you’ll eat them,” she jabbed.

He stopped walking, considering her statement. “I guess so, yeah,” he looked to the sky. “I guess that’s weird, isn’t it?”

She stopped and turned to him. “It’s not strange at all. Who wants to remember that their dinner had a family?”

Drake looked back at her, meeting her brown eyes. He stood there for a second, chewing on what she had said.

“Maybe I shouldn’t eat them either,” he said thoughtfully. “I’ve never had a choice before.”

Her heart fluttered again. This guy couldn’t be serious. “No. I can’t imagine being a vegetarian in the mess tent would make you very popular.”

“Um, I didn’t eat with the other men,” Drake said looking at the ground.

“Why not? Was it the body odor?” Gigi teased.

Drake shrugged and rubbed his tattooed neck. “I don’t know. They just never let me eat with the others.”

“Were you at the super soldier table or something? Flagons of wine and women at your beck and call.”

“Um, I ate alone. Sometimes Sargent Cid would come by my tent, but that was it.”

The way he said it made it clear to her this was not by choice. She frowned, perhaps she had misjudged him, slightly. “So, no wine I take it?”

Drake shook his head no. “Never had a drop.”

“Did they not let you?”

“No, but even if they had, it makes men...ugly.”

Gigi’s mouth went slack. A soldier that didn’t drink. Well, that was almost unthinkable. She had only known one man in her life to have never touched a drink - her father. Despite the fact she enjoyed her mead more than she might like to admit, she felt a little easier knowing that he didn’t.

“No, wine... Does that mean no women either?” she dug.

Drake snorted. “They didn’t let me sit at the same table as the other men. You think they let me even look at a woman?”

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

“Can we, um, get going?” he asked, jaw clenching.

“I ask you all of that and you don’t want to know anything about me?”

Drake began to walk again, motioning for her to come. “Well, let me think of something. Some of us don’t like to pry,” he said with a wink.

“Oh, come on! You're not the least bit curious about the woman who saved your life?”

“I never said that.” A moment passed. “Did you know the man who taught me to wink only had one eye?”

“Really? How did you know he was winking and not just blinking?”

“You know, I’m not sure, but you could tell the difference.” A few paces later a loud metallic snap sounded next to her, ringing out through the forest. “Ow,” Drake said in surprise.

Gigi stared in amazement. Drake raised his leg, revealing a metal trap clamped around his ankle. He reached down and grabbed it. As he yanked on it, the metal slid through him as his skin took on a black hue.

“Good thing I stepped on that and not you.”

“Yeah...” she said slowly. “What did you just do?”

“Oh, it’s just one of my many nifty tricks. If I need to I can kind of, well...turn into shadow, I guess you could say?”

Gigi stared at him slack-jawed until a fire came into her eyes once more.

“If I stabbed you with my dagger, it would go right through?”

“Why would you want to stab me?”

“I wouldn’t, probably, but I was just curious.”

Drake shook his head. “What is this anyway? Are they going to slow down an army?”

he asked, holding up the trap, shaking Gigi from her stupor. Adrenaline subsided and reason regained its hold as realization hit her. Molten rage began to course through the goblin woman.

“Cowards. What absolute cowards!” she seethed.

“What is it?”

“That’s for animals. Worm-sucking poachers that are too afraid to hunt use them.”

She brusquely grabbed the trap from Drake, using all of her strength to smash it against a rock. The machine exploded, bits of metal and screws falling useless to the ground. She would have to clean that up later.

Drake said nothing, merely looking down at the broken heap. “How many of these do you think there are?”

“One is too many,” she growled.

A blood-curdling scream sounded nearby. Gigi winced from the pained cry. Somebody else just had Drake’s misfortune, but she doubted they would be able to free themselves so easily.

“Come on!” She commanded.