The Fateful Heart

Evaline tossed his one-word response back and forth in her head. She found herself distancing herself just a little bit from him, almost like the tiny tension forming in the air decided to lightly push them apart to give them some space.

She decided to keep pushing the boundaries, asking another question.

"Did they ever hurt you?"

James's eyes flicked back to Evaline. He noticed how she drew away, just a little.

"Not me," he said, looking forward. "Not me personally. Physically."

Well, she knew that. He could have just said no.

Evaline tried to think. James was so mysterious, but so was she. Maybe it was better if neither of them talked about this.

But she couldn't shake the feeling that crawled under her skin. Why wasn't he more angry about what the goblins did? Why always run away and avoid them?

More questions decided to come out, and she hoped he wouldn't start to feel like he was being interrogated.

"What are you not telling me?" she said with a hint of annoyance. "Did something else happen with you and goblins? Something that happened just before meeting me? Why avoid them?"

James glanced back at her, briefly sending her a pointed look.

"I avoid them because it almost always leads to trouble if I don't," he said. "Goblins don't like humans, and we don't speak the same language. There is no bargaining. There is no trying to understand one another. There is no peace. In my best interactions with goblins, we have simply ignored each other and gone our separate ways, and that was only because I was alone and showed no hostility. Alright?"

Evaline wanted to object, but she couldn't argue with his reasoning. They were completely valid; some groups just didn't get along and will never get along. Sometimes, the only answer was violence.

They didn't really need that right now.

She was going to drop this topic altogether, but she realized that James kept dancing around the main question she asked. Maybe she had to fish harder for answers, but not force it out of him.

"Is that what happened last time then?" she asked. "You came across goblins before meeting me, and you had your 'best' interaction with them?"

James didn't glance back at her this time. Instead, he looked away. They were passing some goblin tracks. A few were hardened in dried mud. He wondered if Eve noticed, but he didn't let his gaze linger on them too long.

"Not exactly," he said.

"I was fleeing Butch when I ran into them, and Butch was close behind. They let me get away, but I think Butch ended up... fighting them."

He pursed his lips.

"I didn't stay to find out. But they're the reason I got away."

Evaline was quiet for a moment. She still felt like there were so many pieces of the puzzle she didn't have yet. Goblins were violent creatures who hated humans, but they were also able to pity humans? She wasn't sure if goblins were either misunderstood or if James still wasn't telling her something. Maybe both.

Her eyes broke away from the back of his head and back into the hill below. It was probably a good thing they were able to get away from goblins before they were seen. They didn't seem as ruthless as a bounty hunter, but James was right: it was best to avoid trouble.

"Goblins sound like complex creatures," she said instead, her gaze now falling to the ground. She noticed an odd looking print on the mud, but she had no reference on what that could be. It was oddly humanoid, though. Was it a goblin?

She decided to turn the conversation around so it became less personal.

"What would you do if you did encounter a goblin again? Run away?"

People, he thought. Not just creatures.

"If I could, yes," he said. "If I was forced to engage in combat, I would do whatever I could to deescalate the situation, and then leave, or flee."

Evaline knew she was basically drowning him in questions, but at least she wasn't prying for details anymore.

"Okay, so say a goblin were to appear right here, right now," she began, laying out a theoretical idea that popped in her brain. "How would you fight them?"

She knew James was probably well-versed in fighting due to his military background, but she had never seen him become aggressive. She couldn't even imagine how a fight would go down.

Evaline wasn't sure if that thought should amuse or scare her.

"Hard to answer if I don't know what weapon they have, or how they're fighting me, or how skilled they seem to be with their weapon," he said. "But since I'm currently unarmed, the goal would be to not get hit, first, and if I could, get close enough to them to disarm them. I don't know. It really depends. On a lot of things."

These goblins were starting to sound more and more sophisticated. Like humans, it sounded like they could fight tactically and strategically.

"What weapons do you usually fight with?" Evaline asked. The memory of bullets in the saddlebag and him saying he knew how to use a sword fluttered through her mind.

James sighed, and tilted rolled his neck on his shoulders for a moment, thinking through his response.

"I'm proficient with many types of swords but I prefer lighter ones, like rapiers," he said. He didn't know how much she knew about swords, so he figured he'd gloss over the details. "I rely more on agility than brute strength."

"I know how to use a gun, but I'm only a decent marksman. My eyesight has never been particularly keen, and that's always hindered my abilities with long-range weapons, so I focused more on what I could do up close, with my hands. And, well, though I learned the ways of the sword, I prefer hand-to-hand combat. But in this world, most people looking to fight are armed. And, well, I was required to learn how to use different weapons because of my schooling, but not everyone has that background."

It was funny listening to hear James talk about his preferences. Evaline didn't want to admit it, but she disliked fighting. With some exceptions, she only really knew how to defend herself enough to escape, which, funnily enough, was the current tactic James seemed to be using.

There were plenty of things she could have asked him more about, and there were plenty of opportunities where she could have shared something of her own.

But a thought crossed her mind, and she wanted to know.

"Have you ever..." she paused, but she didn't really know how to soften the words, so she continued with, "killed anyone?"

James stiffened - his shoulders arching upright, correcting what little slouch he had, and he came to a stop and looked at Evaline. He met her eyes, but only for a moment, with his eyebrows drawn together, and his eyes narrowed and darkened.

He broke eye contact and turned away, starting to walk again.

He didn't want to answer.

"You really have a way with words sometimes," he said dryly, sarcasm seeping in. "You know that?"

At least the streak of questions lasted at long as it did. Evaline kicked a pebble on the ground in defeat.

"Yeah," she said through a long sigh. "I get told that a lot."

A brief silence fell between them, but her head was buzzing with a thought. The thought. Now suddenly felt like the right time to bring it up, and she was afraid that if she didn't bring it up now, she'll never bring it up at all.

She quickened her pace and briskly walked past him until she was standing in his way.

"Hey, can we talk for a minute?" she asked, trying not to let her nerves affect her voice.