Zalan looked between his four companions in confusion, as they continued to watch him carefully, like something dangerous was creeping from within him. Rep looked like he was trying to calm the others down with his eyes alone. Zalan turned around to make sure that the Boznok was dead, then looked to Fran, desperate to break the strange silence. 

“Good fight, right?” Zalan asked her. She looked away from him, discomfort written starkly on her face. She turned her whole body around, focusing on putting out the fire she started in the den before any serious structural damage took place. “What’s going on, what happened?” Zalan asked.

“Were you blinded in battle? Are your eyes harmed?” Yelsa asked. 

“Is that all? No, I’m fine, we won without any big injuries!” Zalan smiled, only for it not to be reciprocated. Another moment of silence passed between them. 

“Did you see the Boznok before you killed it?” Gorb asked. 

“Yeah, how else would I hit it?” Zalan asked. 

“You saw the motion it made?” Gorb pressed.

“Like, saw it raise a hand at me? Sure. Right before I killed it,” Zalan said. 

“It is fine,” Rep said immediately, addressing the others, but was bulldozed by their visceral responses.

“What is wrong with you?” Yelsa snapped. 

“Such evil,” Gorb breathed. 

Fran shook her head solemnly. 

“What? What are you talking about?” Zalan asked, growing angry over the lack of answers. 

“The Boznok was surrendering. It held its hand up and asked for mercy and you killed it,” Gorb said. 

“So what? I wasn’t going to suddenly drop my weapon against it. It had just tried to stab me with a horn!” Zalan replied. 

“But it surrendered!” Yelsa protested. 

“So what?” Zalan repeated louder, throwing his arms open. “The thing was trying to kill me and Rep, but as soon as I have the opportunity to stop it, you want me to go easy? Look at all the ones you killed!”

“We killed them because we had no choice. None of ours surrendered,” Fran said. 

“And we did not shove our blade into their chests repeatedly! We delivered quick and painless deaths after our intrusion!” Yelsa added. 

“Intrusion? They came outside to attack us! I would have been perfectly happy not fighting them at all if they stayed in their home,” Zalan said scornfully. 

“Yes, that is true,” Rep said, still trying to get a hold of the situation, but was again ignored.  

“So, what, I was supposed to let it gore me with a horn or something?” Zalan asked. 

“It surrendered! If you were scared of it attacking you, a swift cut of the head would end the confrontation. You killed it with such brutality. You tortured it when it asked for leniency,” Yelsa said.

“He did not know,” Rep said. 

“How can he not know what a surrendering Boznok looks like?” Gorb challenged. 

Rep opened his mouth to answer, but Zalan exploded,

“Because you never told me! You didn’t tell me anything about these creatures or how they acted or if they were intelligent! You don’t tell me anything until it’s too late and then you blame me for not knowing! You were all so proud of me when I killed a bunch of Roaches, but apparently there’s no equivalence to all monsters? You put these accusations on me when I’m pretty sure you’re the ones at fault for leaving me in the dark and expecting me to pick up all these things!”

The others, Rep included, stared at him with wide eyes, the outburst stunning them all. Gorb cleared his throat and spoke gravely. 

“Rep, you told us he could be trusted,” Gorb said. 

“And he can!” Rep insisted. 

“His mind is at odds with itself. He purports to know nothing of the land, changes his emotions on a whim, and even releases vehement emotion to his allies,” Gorb said. 

“I’m right here!” Zalan snapped. 

“Are you?” Gorb opposed immediately. “Your mind has not yet drifted back to its ‘old world’ and left us to pick up your ignorances?” 

“Gorb…” Rep said, at a loss for words. 

“Oh, so first you think I flow too well with your plans, but as soon as I give you a real opinion, then there’s something wrong with me?” Zalan said, stomping his way to close the gap between himself and Gorb. 

“There has always been something wrong with you if you were capable of this act,” Gorb replied boldly.

“Enough!” Fran shouted violently, slashing the frenzy of anger away and giving the group a chance to look at her before continuing. “The Boznoks were not at fault. They were awoken to see foreign invaders with weapons at their door,” Fran said loudly. 

“You did that!” Zalan screamed, feeling like he was the only sane one around. “You were the one that literally intruded on their home!”

“Exactly. And I take the blame in all this,” Fran said, another look of shame cast over her.

Zalan realized for the first time that she had shown no excitement in the battle. None of them did. He was the only one happy to see his improvements in battle. The others were reeling from what was taken to be a massacre from their perspective. Self defense, sure, but an unnecessary fight. After the fight, he was trying to celebrate an act that none of them were glad to have committed. When he thought about it like that, there was no wonder they looked at him with so much mortification.

“We should try to get him to understand…” Gorb began, then blinked in shock as Fran slapped his chest with the flat of her sword to silence him. 

“I take the blame. Anything you wish to reprimand Zalan on should instead be directed to me,” Fran ordered. 

“You did not kill a surrendering…” Yelsa tried to get a word in but was cut off by a glare from Fran. 

“I take all the blame. We have been treating Zalan like a loveable fool, but I believe he sincerely is lost to the knowledge of this world. He has told us several times that he is ignorant, and I still placed him in this situation,” Fran said, looking at Zalan. Zalan just nodded in reply, feeling like he was understood for the first time in this discussion. 

“I am certain he did not mean any real harm,” Rep said on Zalan’s behalf.

“I really didn’t,” Zalan agreed. 

In reality, he didn’t think it mattered. It was a dream world monster. And it was trying to kill him and his friend. There wasn’t a real consequence to taking out the monster whether it was by the head or the chest.

“Oh, come now. Zalan was able to attain an Elemental Power while knowing nothing of the world?” Yelsa asked. 

“He had help,” Fran lowered her sword from Gorb’s chest and put it back in her sheath. 

“You do not find it suspect that he has had a surprisingly small amount of questions regarding what a dragon is?” Gorb asked skeptically. 

“I kinda know about those already,” Zalan admitted abashedly. 

“Your answers never make sense,” Yelsa sighed. 

“Because we have not made the effort to understand,” Fran said. “Look at him. He looked like how I remember myself when I was first learning to wield a sword. He does not know the etiquette of battle. He barely knows how to hold his weapon or carry himself.”

The four others looked down at the sword in Zalan’s hand. Zalan realized with some embarrassment that he was the only one with his weapon still out, the others having sheathed it soon after the battle. He clumsily placed it away, needing two tries to get it to slide in the sheath. 

“I see your point,” Gorb finally said to Fran. 

“So are we to treat him like a toddling child until we teach him everything he should already know?” Yelsa asked Fran, cracking her knuckles nervously. 

“I would rather not be treated like a kid,” Zalan said. 

“Indeed,” Fran said, her wry smile finally making an appearance. “A child is far too advanced. Treat him like an infant who has not yet learned that fire is hot.”

Zalan would have normally felt embarrassed, but he was so relieved that someone was smiling at him that he smiled back. He couldn’t help but reciprocate her energy.

“You doing okay? You sound way smarter than usual,” Zalan smirked, trying to keep up the levity. In the back of his mind, he remembered Gorb’s accusation that his emotions were out of balance and his movement from rage to jokes felt in line. He quickly ignored that sinking feeling in his stomach. 

Fran raised an eyebrow and continued her smile. 

“Oh, so at first you thought I was reckless, but now that I have taken responsibility for my actions something is wrong with me?” Fran teased, matching the cadence in which Zalan asked his similar question earlier. 

Gorb scoffed, amused by the exchange, then nodded to himself and began making his way to the path. Fran skipped along behind him. Yelsa shrugged and followed as Zalan turned to Rep. 

“Is it bad to ask if we should search for an Artifact in their den?” Zalan whispered. 

“Bad idea. We had to kill them, but we do not have to steal from them,” Rep advised, patting Zalan’s back and lightly guiding him back to the path with the rest of the group. Zalan suppressed a smile, happy to have Rep on his side during the whole confrontation. 

“You okay? The Boznok got you pretty good,” Zalan asked him.

“I am fine. I just wish I could be of real use in battle,” Rep sighed, not wanting to further discuss his failure. “How did you do that trick with the lightning and the mace?” 

“What trick?” Zalan thought back to it, not thinking anything special about it. 

“You blasted the mace with lightning at its tip, but the Boznok decided to let go of the mace. Was it a trick of the eye? Were you actually able to hit his hands, forcing him to release his weapon?” Rep asked. 

“What? No, I just hit the mace and the metal conducted the electricity enough to hit his hands,” Zalan explained. 

“I do not understand,” Rep shook his head, the sentence meaning nothing to him. 

“I uhhh…” Zalan thought of a quick explanation. “Metal makes lightning go through the whole thing. So, even if I hit one point, it will feel like I zapped all of it, given that it’s made of metal.” 

Rep widened his eyes, his eyebrow twitching in wonder as he tried to put the idea together. 

“Where did you learn that?” Rep asked. 

“Back in my world. I studied physics at a university,” Zalan replied. 

“I see…” Rep considered. “You have had this knowledge for that long yet you still cannot imbue the metal of your blade with lightning?” Rep was being facetious, but it actually elicited a strong reaction from Zalan. 

“That’s what I’ve been saying! It should be way easier!” Zalan agreed. 

Rep chuckled as the group saw the river and town becoming clear on the horizon, the journey to the castle growing closer to completion.