I braced myself for the pain, but it didn't come. All I heard was a loud thud and a wet squelch. I slowly opened my eyes to see the baker reaching out, to lend me his hand. On the ground next to me was the rat-faced man, blood trickling from the back of his skull.

“See? This is why I have the club,” the baker said, as I took his hand.

He pulled me to my feet and lead me to the counter. He gave a searing look to the customers.

‘You should all be ashamed!  Watching, as a grown man almost kills an innocent child. Get out of here!” he bellowed, fury saturating his every word.

“This young man is a paying customer! If you ever want to buy something from me again, you better apologize to the lad!” the baker said, while lifting his bloodied club.

All of the patrons scoffed at the man as they left. There were plenty of bakeries in the city. Why belittle themselves in front of a child just to buy bread.

The baker shook his head and spat in their direction.

“Disgraceful, the whole lot you!” he said, while slamming the door shut.

He turned back towards me, displaying a concerned smile.

“Are you alright there? You took some nasty hits,” he said, gripping my shoulders and guiding me to a chair. He quickly examined  the area where the man’s boot had hit my head.

“It broke the skin, but didn’t fracture your head,” he spoke, as he parted the clump of hair where the gash was.

I was too shocked to say anything; I was paralyzed. Just moments ago, I expected to be maimed or killed. Instead, I was saved by a man who had threatened me only an hour earlier. It wouldn't have been the first time a street urchin was killed in public, the guards wouldn’t have cared and would have simply declared that the kid was a thief and moved on.

I pushed his hand away and straightened up, asking, “Why did you do it? You could have just done nothing. You already have my money,” I just couldn't figure out why he had helped me, of all people. He threw away a decent number of customers just on principle.

The man saw the distrust in my eyes and stepped backward.

“Listen lad, I think we got off on the wrong foot this morning. My name is James. I used to be part of the Imperial Guards, before I retired and took up my father's baker profession,” the baker said. I was going to interrupt, but James held up his hand to signal that I should let him finish.

“I did not help you out of pity or because of the fact that you're a paying customer. I stepped in because that man was picking on someone weaker than himself to stroke his ego,” James said, as his old eyes ignited with an angry passion.

“As an Imperial Guard, I was surrounded by and served nobles, and if there's anyone that makes a sport out of  harassing those lower than themselves it’s the nobles. They are constantly abusing their power against those who are weaker, and I was never able to protect those people. When I saw that man beating you, I couldn't stop myself.” James had a more somber look in his eyes now. It made him look simultaneously world weary, sad, and wise.

I didn’t say anything. I just let him have a moment. Eventually, he stood up and went behind the counter.

When he came back, he was carrying the sweet bread. It was so large that I began to think I would not be able to carry it back by myself.

“You should go, here is your order. Make sure to clean that wound, you’re filthy so it will become infected if you don’t,” he said, in a neutral tone, while setting the bread on the table.

“What about him?” I asked, pointing at the unconscious man on the floor.

“I’ll tie him up and deliver him to the guards. If he is dead, I’ll report that I did my duty as a citizen and prevented the murder of a child in my establishment,” James said bluntly, with a cold and distant voice.

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I realized that James was no longer in the mood to talk, so I shakily picked up the bread  and walked out the door.

I slowly made my way back to the slums of Athros, carrying the wrapped sweet bread. Every now and then I had to stop and rest. I probably had a concussion, thanks to that asshole in the store, but I wasn't going to let him ruin my day.

I forced myself forward, making my way back to my home. After a torturous hour of walking, I finally entered my home with a fake smile plastered on my face. I was greeted by the sight of everyone laughing and smiling. Herald had must have gotten back a few minutes before me and everyone was eating their food.

A couple of the bolder kids ran up to me, having caught the aroma of the sweet bread.

“What's in the bag?” “Is it the sweet bread?” “Can I have some?” “Can I have some, please?” -I set the bread down on a wobbly table nearby and pronounced that it was fair game. The kids practically jumped on it.

I shook my head and smiled at their antics. Herald tumbled out of the other side of the room as he wrestled with a couple of the kids. I attempted to make my way to him, but after a couple of steps, I was forced to lean against the wall.

Herald’s jovial face instantly turned worried as he dashed to my side. One of the kids spotted the blood in my hair and screamed.  They all went silent staring at me.

Herald bent over and instantly noticed that some of the blood was still trickling from my head.

“What happened Thorin? Who messed you up? Was it the Jacob brothers? I swear to god I'll fuck them up!” Herald said, getting angry on my behalf as he saw my bruised and bleeding head.

“No, it was just some asshole. Don't worry about me, I just need some rest. Come on, enjoy the party,” I said in an effort to erase his worry, as I attempted to stand back up. My exhausted and battered body didn’t have enough energy to pull it off though.

“Alright, if you say so, then I’ll ignore it for now. Let me help you to your bed and take a look at your head,” he said, while helping me get to my feet.

I saw the worry in his eyes and tried to reassure him as he led me to my bed.

“Don't worry, the baker looked at the wound and said that it was nothing serious. I will try to find something to bandage it up and I will tell you everything in a few minutes. Just get out there and let the kids have fun. Right now, they're all out there scared for me instead of enjoying themselves,” I said, urging him to leave me alone so I could drop the facade of my painless demeanor.

“Alright fine.  Just yell if you need anything. I’ll save you some food for later if the kids don't eat it all,” he said, with a nervous grin, before leaving the room.

It warmed my heart that he was concerned about me, but I had dealt with worse. I was just upset that it had happened today. The kids really need this little party of sorts to raise their spirits, and honestly I had looked forward to seeing them all happy.

I had a pounding headache and was semi-nauseous, so I wasn't in good enough shape to be out there running the party. I moved down to the end of my bed where the pile of cloth scraps, that some of kids had collected, were. Normally they were used for patching up clothes, but for now they would function as a bandage.

I sifted through them attempting to find a clean one. I accidentally revealed the coin pouch in my search and looked at it for a moment.

I grabbed it and thought for a moment. I realized we hadn’t even counted the money yet. Honestly, I just thought that counting the money would make me feel better. Perhaps, if there was enough, I could even get my wounds treated with it!

I opened the bag, pulling out one coin at a time and making separate piles of each type. I ended up counting a total of twelve gold coins, twenty six silver coins, and three copper coins. I blankly stared at the coin piles and realized that the money wasn’t actually that plentiful. Before, when Herold poured out the pouch, I got overly excited. I mean, yeah there was a lot there, but we still needed to be smart with it. I was about to put the coins back when the blue sphere I had set aside earlier caught my eye.

Really noticing it  for the first time, I picked it up. It was about the size of a marble and it was very shiny. It was a deep blue and it was somewhat transparent. I laid down on my back and held it above my head, lost in thought. A cloud moved and a ray of light poked through one of the holes in the roof. The beam of light hit the sphere and it lit up. Due to the light brightening the room, I was able to see almost all the way through the cloudy gem-like sphere. When my eyes focused, I noticed small specks of colors floating inside of it. Surprisingly, it almost seemed like the specs were moving. Before I could take a closer look, the clouds covered the sunlight shining through the roof.

At this point, my interest was piqued. I sat up, despite my head’s protest, and hunched over the sphere, holding it at different angles to see if I could see the specs again. Blood was still seeping from my head wound and pooled at the top of my forehead due to gravity. I ignored it as I studied the weird sphere in my palm. Perhaps I had just been seeing things or my head wound was worse than I thought, as I could no longer see anything odd about the sphere.

I was about to lie back down and put the sphere away when a single drop of blood dripped down from my forehead. It fell through the air and splattered on the sphere. I moved to rub the sphere on my pants to clean it off, but as soon as the blood touched the sphere, it was absorbed. For a second, I thought that I had just imagined it but suddenly, I felt a burning sensation in my hand. The sphere lit up and the pain amplified. I tried to throw it away from me but my body wasn't moving. I tried to scream for help or even voice my pain, but not a sound came out. Eventually, the pain became too intense and I passed out.