Chapter 17 Right and wrong.
As we set up camp only a few miles away after moving the tree out of the way, me and Sarah laid together in one bedroll, she still shivered occasionally as she held onto my tail, the tail ring being set to the side while I lay down to sleep.
“Xion, did we really do the right thing?” She asked me quietly. I responded by hugging her a bit tighter.
“I hope so, Sarah I truly hope so…”
This seemed to be a good answer as she settled down and stopped shivering as often.
We fell asleep tangled together until Jean woke me up with a tap.
“Xion, it's your turn on watch.”
He said with red puffy eyes, he most likely took some time to cry during his watch. As I got up I spoke to him for a moment before he laid down in his bed roll.
“Jean, you can talk to me if something is bugging you ok? We're all friends, we've all been with each other for close to a decade. You can lean on my shoulder if you need.”
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Jean takes a moment before he begins to quietly speak.
“Xion… I know we did something terrible, but when I saw the XP we got from winning… I was fucking happy we did it for a moment. That we got rid of some trash and got a level from it. Fuck im gonna become evil some day aren't I?”
He croaked the last few words out as fresh tears stained his cheek. I sat down next to him as he quietly broke down again. I patted his shoulder as I began to try comforting him.
“Jean… you know that feeling is wrong. That killing other people is bad. Even if you felt good about it for a moment, so long as you know that it's bad you won't be evil. Just dont forget ok?
I gave him a quick hug as I finished my small speech.
“Try to get some rest, I'll take the rest of the night's watch.”
[Skill has leveled up! Leadership-through thick and thin you've held on and kept your allies close, range and effect is increased, enhanced cohesion and morale when helping allies outside of combat. "You did the right thing lad, it was you or him, there's nothing wrong with trying to live…” commander of Pai's army.]
I sat down on a low branch of a nearby tree, making a pebble hover with my gravity magic as I waited for dawn to come.
I woke everyone a bit past dawn, letting them sleep in a bit today. After a quick breakfast we were off again. The remaining few days of travel went by smoothly, I occasionally had to comfort some of the others over killing the bandits but it would seem Derek and Alice were doing alright, finding peace with each other and from Alice's scriptures.
I had taken a small curio from the bandits, a small insignia they all had on their trash armor, if I was lucky there would be a bounty for them and we could enjoy a day or two before setting out again if there wasn't any work at pinebrook.

