Crocodile tears

Jez had left his home in good spirits, he was already a warrior that had undergone the herbal baptism and respectively, was much tougher than the average man. His sword hung at his side and a small bag was strapped to his back, he had only carried with him a canteen, a bedroll, a fire starter, a mess kit, and a book with familiar red veins. He had started the journey to the Academy two months in advance to account for the travel time, he was headed to the capital of Korza, Metris. The trek would only usually take three weeks but Jez had wanted to take a forested path to do some hunting. The number of monsters and beasts that live in the forest would be great grind stones to strengthen his body and instincts. As he walked through the forest, his body turned tense, something was off, wrong. He was being watched. Jez rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, and put his head on a swivel. A grunt rang out from his side and he drew his sword in time to catch sight of a large boar run towards him giving him enough time to jump to the side. A wild boar that had grown to the size of a cow or mule. It turned to stare Jez down wince more, and charged. Once again Jez started to turn to the side, however this time he used the movement of the boar to run the blade of his sword down the side of it, producing a large slice across it's back. Because of the position of the slash, it stopped at the ribs and failed to do little more than superficial damage, but it did bleed profusely. The boar shrugged off the pain with a squeal but hesitated to charge like before. It backed up cautiously, observing Jez, who took the time to start casting a simple spell with fire, taking one of the splintered pieces of wood from when the boar had charged earlier, he started to cast fire around it to heat it up, but prevented it from burning even well past it's flash point. As the wood splinter became super heated, Jez tossed it to the side, no longer under the influence of his magic, the fire spread out in a medium sized plume that startled the boar, who had never seen fire before. It is a good trick but useless past a distraction. The distracted boar failed to notice Jez's charge until a few seconds later, by which it was too late, and the blade of his sword had already bit home into the boar's throat. Blood stained the ground, Jez stood quietly over the body, he felt sick, he wasn't new to death, it had been everywhere, disease, famine, war, poverty, crime and even justice had it's execution.But the reason he was so shocked by this death was the fact that he did it, it had gained a more personal perspective as it was his hands that took the life, his eyes that watched the vitality drain from the boar, he had put the end to this being. 'Both you and the boar needed food, it played the gamble with you and lost, you won and took its life' Jake commented in Jez's head, 'I know but it still hurts, I ended it.'. There was a pause as Jake thought of a response, 'In life, one doesn't need to justify to others, as they will never know the full circumstances of any action someone else commits, but one must justify to themselves why any action they committed must have happened, this what allows humans to be humans, forethought and hindsight, we can think to the future and learn from our past. Even if you think you have done something wrong, work to fix it

 You already killed the boar, nothing you can do now will change that fact, no matter how much you regret or hurt from your actions. But don't let that break you to being less than an animal, even if that means having crocodile tears, the dead have no duties, it is the job of the living to carry their torch. Use what they left behind and don't let deaths ever be in vain.'. this speech had earned a nod from Jez as he started to harvest meat from the dead animal, tears streaming down his face. The dead have no duty, they pass that torch to the living.