Devil's Advocate

I smiled as the gentle breeze caressed my hair, I sighed and closed my eyes, completely lost in the calm environment. It's been a few days since I got beaten in that ring and the pain has slowly subsided, leaving me with the reminiscent of broken hope. That was the reason I was now walking by the lake, searching for internal peace.

"Hey..." I turned around and saw Evelin standing behind me with a soft smile.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

"What are you doing here?" I asked, motioning her to sit down.

"I went to your house to see you but your brother told me that you went off to the meadow."

"Oh.."

"So how are you?" She tucked her hands inside her sweater as it was getting a bit cold.

"Better." I sighed and laid down on the ground.

"You know you don't always have to bottle up your feelings, sometimes it's better to let someone in."

I gazed at her carefully and said, "I'm afraid of getting hurt."

"You are hurting yourself, either way. If you ask me, it's better to take a risk than deal with the pain yourself."

"Maybe, so uhh why do you want to become a warrior?"

"It's not like I have a choice." She said with a dark expression.

"What do you mean?"

"Well let's just say that I have my reasons." She smirked.

"That's not fair, you ask me to confide in you while you hide things from me." I pouted at her.

"Okay okay," she raised her hands in defeat. "Actually my family is very poor and I just want to help them, you know that after becoming a warrior, I would never have to work hard to feed them."

"So...you do not want to become a warrior because it's your passion?" Her eyes widened and she quickly shook her head.

"Of course it is! It's just one of my many reasons for choosing to become a warrior."

I nodded. I don't know why I suddenly felt something odd, I mean it's not wrong if she wants to become a warrior for the sake of her family but she could have chosen anything, why a warrior when it was clearly the riskiest and hardest occupation? Chill Flair, it's none of your business.

"So, your brother is also in our academy, right?" I nodded. "Do you think that you can maybe introduce us to one another?" I looked at her surprised while she smiled innocently.

"Hey, what happened to the shy girl?"

"Don't worry, she's still here somewhere."

I chuckled and held out my hand to her. "I think I'm ready to go home now, let's go, I'll introduce you to Alex."