Lex is baffled by his behaviour. Maybe shocked would describe it better. Scared even, one could say. ‘What the fuck is wrong with him?’, she wonders. “What are you laughing about you maniac?”

His insane laughter completely loses all restraints. “I just thought.. pfft.. How funny would it be if the chosen one actually appeared now.. Like.. the actual chosen one?! HAHAHA! And he actually.. solved the problems of all those people! And mine too, since he is already here! HAHAHAH!”

Her fear turns into contempt in an instant. “But you are the chosen one! What would be so funny about it?! You can actually save people over there!”, she screams at him furiously, blood flushing her face.

Nathan looks at her and wipes a tear from his eye. “Ah, I am sorry, you would not catch the joke, would you?”, he asks himself more than her. His face suddenly turns back to it’s normal, blank state, and so does his voice. “I do not really see where this is my problem.”

Lex walks up to him, and swings her arm back for a huge slap, but Nathan catches her hand. Her face is still bright red, and tears roll down her cheeks. “You’re a monster. People are dying right this moment because of YOU! This isn’t an issue we didn’t fix ourselves! It’s something that you-”

“That I brought about by being betrayed by the majority of my squad members, shot by two arrows, stabbed, and pushed down into a canyon, is that it? Yeah, you are correct, I brought this attack about by doing all that shit. I will be careful to not repeat my mistakes, I promise.”

“Okay! Fine! Then it’s not your fault. But having the power to do something to help all those people in agony, and deciding not to do anything about it, it’s just cruel.”

“It seems we agree for once. It really is cruel. Having the potential to grow strong, protect the people one cares about, and have them live a long and happy life, and not using it in any way whatsoever, spending the time whining about how someone who did use it is supposed to help them once they need that strength… That seems to me like a really, really cruel thing to do.”

“Don’t act like you’re one of the people who chose to grow strong for protecting someone! Even if you did train to achieve your prowess, you didn’t choose to do so yourself! And you don’t even have anyone to protect or care about! You’re just a loner who was forced to train and never had the choice to decide to protect something for himself in the first place!”

Nathan lets go of her hand, and pierces her gaze with his ashen eyes. “That’s exactly right.”

She is at a loss for words. “Then… Then why don’t you choose to protect the village, not for us, but for yourself? I’m sure the chosen one shouldn’t have any problems dealing with a few measly bandits, especially if he isn’t the only one fighting. But if you don’t go, then all the one’s who helped to keep you fed until now and supplied you with what you needed, they’re all going to die. So in terms of effort, isn’t it easier to fight them now, and keep being fed later?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He slowly strokes his hair and then moans. “Why didn’t you start with that?”

Lark arrives at the barricade point. While still far from complete, the wall consisting of chairs, tables, fire wood, rocks and anything else people can find around those parts grows speedily, and Marc is the one coordinating the one’s building it.

“Lark! You’re alive!”, he yells.

“Just barely, man.” He slowly climbs over the obstacles, and walks right past him.

Kaze comes out of a a house behind the two, carrying a wooden beam, and spots him as well. “Lark!”

“I’ll go rest up for a moment.”

Nathan scrutinizes his body, concerned not by the scratches or the bit of ash on him, but by his burns. “Sure. Go get yourself a weapon while your at it, Elaine is helping to hand them out right now. With our current strategy, we hope you won’t need to use it, but better safe than sorry.”

“Yeah, I’ll go see her.”

“Everyone who knows how to fight with a sword, come over here!”, Elaine shouts onto the marketplace. She looks around if anyone else decides to que up, and notices Lark coming up the plaza. Without telling the others handing out the weapons, she grabs one and hurries over to Lark.

“Told you I wouldn’t die, stupid.”

She embraces him with a big hug. “I’m glad you were right.”. A small tear drops onto his shoulder, and she pulls away again. She holds out the sword in front of her, but as she’s about to open her mouth, she notices the wounds on his body. “You didn’t get into a fight, did you?”

He caughs a few times. “Those wounds are just from falling debris.”

“That’s not what I asked you… I’ll scold you later, but for now, we don’t really have time for this.”. She presses the sword into his hands. “It’s not good, and proabably dull, but it’s better than not having anything as a last resort.” She pokes his chest with her index finger. “Get it? Last re-sort. In case everything else goes wrong. You shouldn’t look for a fight, and just rest up now. Sit down on the bench right here, and I’ll go get you some food and water, alright?”

Lark watches her walking towards the other end of the plaza. ‘She has to be an angel.’ As she slowly disappears out of sight, something else enters his senses. ‘What’s that sound?’ The dull knocking seems to come the direction where most of the elderly and children are hiding right now.

“THEY’RE COMING!”, a scream appears from the line of baricade. His focus switches, and he looks towards the street. He moves to get a better sight of the situation. There, he can see arrows flying. But after only a couple, it stops. ‘Those savages should be charging the baricades any moment, what are they doing?’, he wonders.

“WATCH OUT! THEY’VE GOT CROSSBOWS”

Thud. A man drops out of a second story window, his skull pierced by an arrow.

“STAY IN COVER!”, the chief’s voice penetrates everyone’s ears.

Marc and Kaze stay in cover paitently, and see Lark at the end of the street. Arrows come flooding into the barricade and the houses. But not just any arrows, burning ones. As the line of defense slowly catches fire, the archers, as well as the swords- and spearmen, all back up, but stay in range for attacking possible enemies crossing over. It remains silent for now.

Marc walks up the street towards Lark. “Do you have any clue what they’re doing?”

He shakes his head. “Not the slightest. Setting that on fire won’t really stop us from defending it, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. As long as it doesn’t spread too much, it might even be easier to -”

CRASH!

The loud sound originates from where all the one’s in need of protection are staying. The two run back on the plaza and look for the cause.

“It’s… breached.”, Lark notices.

“It’s breached?!” Marc turns back towards the barricade, and yells from the top of his lungs, “THE WALL HAS BEEN BREACHED!”