Fairy tale games (1)

Sakura's father shouts into the air and quickly gathers the attention of the passing guard.

"What's going on here?" A blond-haired guard inquires.

"My daughter and I were attacked by these ruffians."

"What?" Sakura looks around in confusion as her father stumbles to his feet and pulls her away.

"Ruffians?" I grin as the guard turns to look at me. "Nick? What's going on here?"

For whatever reason, Sampson is the one who answered Jacques cry. How he got here when we just saw him at the gate, I have no idea.

"This is all a big misunderstanding." I shake my head in my best attempt to seem innocent. "Sakura's father was understandably concerned about his daughter joining the Adventurer's Guild so he was having a spar with Josh to test his mettle."

"No, that's a lie! You attacked me! you both attacked me!" Jacques shouts while pointing his sword at us.

"It's uncouth to evade admitting defeat in a fair match with such fabrications." I throw his own manner of speaking back in his face.

"You dare call me a liar?!"

"It's not just me, I'm sure any of these people would be more than happy to recount their experience." I motion at the disgruntled crowd all staring at us. Jacques face pales as he meets their gaze.

"I think I get the picture, but I still need to take you in for tonight."

"Unfair."

"Josh, relax." I turn back to Sampson and keep as calm as possible. "I understand. Do you need us to hand over our weapons?"

"Please."

I don't have anything on me but Josh reluctantly hands over his wooden training sword after some coaxing.

"Ha! Justice is served!" Jacques throws up a fist in victory but doesn't notice the storm brewing behind him. I can only imagine how upset Sakura is going to be knowing that her father got Josh arrested. "Alright sweety, let's head inside and get ready for dinner. Sakura? You're not upset are you? AH!"

The last thing I hear before rounding the corner are fearful shrieks.

"By the way, Sampson, what were you doing all the way out here? We just said goodbye to you at the gate."

"Well, I overheard a bit of y'alls conversation and felt I needed to check on you and make sure you're okay. I was honestly a little worried about Sakura; I've never seen her cry like that."

"Same here. She usually puts on a tough face but I think this has been heating up for the last couple weeks."

"That would explain why it escalated so quickly. Good thing I found you, it may have been a different story if any other guards had shown up."

"Thanks again for that."

"Don't worry about it, I'm glad I could help. Truth be told, watching you kids train everyday has motivated me to apply for a squad leader position. I'm going to try out some of those exercises you guys do and get back in shape." Sampson pumps his arm to show his determination. Although I didn't intend it, I can't help but feel that I used him. He went really far out of his way to help us even though it didn't benefit him.

Relationships like that make me uncomfortable because they can easily become parasitic if both people aren't careful. I once read that people are more willing to do a favor for someone if they'd previously done a favor for that person. You would think that people would only want to help someone that has reciprocated but that isn't necessarily the case. It's almost as if we feel the need to continue to do favors for that person to justify the previous favor; like some kind of sunken cost relationship fallacy.

It's obvious to see that something similar is occurring here. I'm sure I could manipulate the situation to keep extracting value from Sampson but that wouldn't sit right with me, so i make a mental note to figure out a way to pay him back. Hopefully, it will make him feel less obligated to go so far out of his way for us.

"I'm glad we could help." I respond absentmindedly.

"And, um, sorry about this but we need to detain you for the night. I'll make sure you both get released first thing in the morning but there's nothing I can do until then."

"Thanks." I find it easier to accept people's apology in situations where they didn't do anything wrong; comforting them may just make them feel worse or induce more apologies.

We continue our walk to the guard house in silence and Sampson shows us to our cells.

"I'll make sure to get you something to eat."

"Thanks. Can you let our parents know what's going on? I don't want them to worry."

"No problem."

I watch Sampson leave before turning to look at my cell. It's small. Two cots are positioned within a foot of each other and take up most of the space.

"I'll take this one and you take the other. I guess we can just sleep until tomorrow."

"Okay." Josh curls up on his cot and hides under the thin blanket. I'm sure it's confusing for him to be wrongfully punished like this.

"So, you friends with the guard?" I hear a maliciously sensual voice from across the aisle.

"…"

"Too scared to talk? Don't worry, I won't bite." I a dirty blond-haired woman presses her face up against her cell bars to get as close to me as possible. I note her messy hair and dirty clothes, it seems that she's been here a while.

"What do you want?"

"Why so rude? I just want to talk." I can almost hear her hiss as she snakes her way through the conversation.

"You would only talk to me if you thought you could gain something for yourself."

She frowns.

"You're a little brat, aren't you?" Her voice sharpens as she drops the act.

"That's more like it."

"What did you mouth off to some noble or something. Arrogant little pricks like you piss me off."

"I suppose I got what's coming to me." I shrug.

"Good, I hope you rot in here."

Now that she's stopped trying to manipulate me, I feel much more comfortable talking to her.

"So, what are you in here for?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"That is why I asked."

She growls at me before returning to her own cot.

"I was snagging some food from the baker."

"Seems reasonable."

"Piss off, I hadn't eaten in three days."

"I wasn't being sarcastic."

Silence fills the air as we each contemplate the other's words. It looks like she's from the poor district and is struggling to make ends meet. I wonder what kinds of work she does for money?

"I'm sorry things have been so hard for you." I finally break the silence. "You should have to steal to avoid starvation."

"Fuck off." And with that, she rolls over and goes to sleep.