"I'm so excited!" Thimble shrieked. "I'm not." I grumbled. He looked at me smiling so large, even the moon couldn't do it justice. "What? You seem like the adventure loving type. I glared at him. "I've seen too many adventures, and frankly, so have you." I replied. "I've barely had any adventures." He replied, still smiling wickedly. I nodded. "A adventure is something you must not yearn for, every adventure happens naturally, and frankly I wouldn't rush into one. Every adventure makes you grow better or worse, for a cost. Every adventure has a guaranteed risk, one you must overcome to grow, to overcome your adventure. I've seen so many of these risks, and spoiler alert sometimes you fail to overcome the risk and your adventure does not end happily ever after, even if you do succeed, you lose. Whether you lose a piece of your old identity, or may it be literally your left eye, or the love of your life, or even your own child. One adventure is enough, and you'll be lucky to never have to adventure again, which may never happen of course, since we're all stuck in the ground, forever more war-bound." I explained, deep from my heart. "I'm still excited." Thimble replied. "Of course you are." I sighed, feeling slightly defeated for sharing actual feelings with an idiot. Thimble and I exited the village and headed South East. we began walking the familiar fields of Estern we had encountered on our way to the village a little while ago. We walked for a solid two minutes before Thimble started ranting again. "You...your little speech back in the village....you mentioned a, uh...love of your life?" I sighed. I didn't really want to talk about, but I had brought up to my sudden and emotional speech. So I probably had to talk about it now. Now that I think about it, that spiel had been quite random and out of nowhere. Perhaps It had came from the fact I was trapped in yet another war. "Huh, yeah, I....lost my true love...a long time ago. Her name...was Madelyn, and...I lost her. That monster took her from me. You know the one?" I asked. Thimble nodded. "The Nightmare angel thing, sir?" Thimble asked. I nodded. "Yeah, that devil, took her away from me." I replied, trying to hide any emotions. "It also took my son..." I sighed, losing my guard a little. Thimble nodded. "Sorry to pry, but since we're being...."emotional" did it claim anyone you loved?" I asked bluntly. Thimble nodded no. "No, I saw it once, it....it killed someone I knew, or...thought I knew anyway, it was merciless. and...you know what eats me up about it?" Thimble asked "What?" I asked. "In a sick twisted way, I enjoyed it. I know I shouldn't of, but it was so.....satisfying." Thimble sighed. We walked in silence for a moment. "Your not alone kid, for so long I enjoyed war, I would stare into the eyes of my enemy and watch them stare up at me, pleading for life. Their silent plea would almost always be met with some painful fatal wound from me. I'd bask in the glory of seeing the horror in their eyes, and then watch them slowly die. blame the war, never yourself, even if it's wrong, its better on the conscious" I replied. Thimble looked back at me and slowly nodded, accepting my ideology. We walked for a considerable long amount of time until we could see a river. "Wow, that river looks so clean!" Thimble remarked. I nodded. Back in Pacem Bellum, water was a rarity, and what little of it we had was dirty, and of course seawater was not safe for consumption either. We stopped and starting drinking from it. It was God like. Thimble's whole head was practically within the water. "Kid, don't frickin drown on me." I commanded. Suddenly, the ground broke from underneath him, and he fell into the river. He fell in extremely confused, and fell into the dark rushing river. "What did I just say!?!?" I yelled. He remerged from the water, as he was being pushed down stream. His arms flailed helplessly. "Help! I can't swim!" Thimble shrieked, in between gurgles and mouthfuls of water. I swore to myself as I jumped into the river and swam after him. "I'm coming!" I shouted as I swam as fast as I could. Secret was, I wasn't the best swimming either, nobody from Pacem Bellum knew that well. I swam towards Thimble, trying to keep control of myself. He looked at me with terrified eyes as he sank downward into the watery abyss. Again I swore, as I dived underneath. The water burned my eye, as I looked through the fast paced aquatic chaos. I spied the top of his green hair even more far below. This was a very deep river. I dove more, holding my breath as best as I could, avoiding getting pushed into sharp rocks by the current. Soon I reached him, and noticed that he was passed out. I grabbed him, and tried to swim upward. He was extremely heavy. Suddenly I opened my mouth to breath. The water began to flow in. I swam up as quick as I could, taking in too much water. I arose from the river, holding Thimble, trying to stay afloat, while gasping deeply. I took Thimble to the shore and collapsed dropping him. Tired I moved toward him. Quickly I began to perform CPR on him. Soon, he spat out a immense amount of water from his mouth. I listened and determined he was breathing again. I flopped back down by the passed out kid. God, what a stupid way to die that would of been. I looked over to Thimble. If it weren't for that green hair, I would of never had found him. I slowly dozed off.

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I woke up a few hours later to notice Thimble was gone. I got up confused. I save his life and he just gets up and leaves. Jerk. I soon spied him sitting down stream staring into the stream. I walked over to him. "I'm....stupid." Thimble sighed. I sat down beside him, evening was approaching. "I...won't argue with you there." I sighed. Thimble sighed. "Your lucky you got green hair kiddo, you would of died today." I admitted. Thimble nodded. "I hate my hair." Thimble sighed. I looked at him confused. "Kid, I just said it saved your life." I repeated. He nodded and looked at me teary eyed. "Sometimes, I wish I would die." Thimble replied. "Kid, you telling me that was a suicide attempt?" I replied flabbergasted. "N-no....It was an accident, but have you ever been in a situation, where your in terrible trouble, and finally come to peace with dying? Only to wake up...alive? Like, I want to live, but how do I live with the fear of death always after me?" Thimble asked. I pondered the question. "You cheat it, you live your life to fullest, and when death peaks it's ugly face, you cheat it." I replied. "You make it seem so easy, Z." Thimble sighed. I patted him on the back. "You'll get it someday kiddo. Now, we should find some shelter for the night, it's getting dark." I commanded. Thimble nodded and the both of us got up. We found a small cave a mile away and set up a fire in it. Thimble was practically impressed about my fire creating skills. Nobody taught this kid how to make a fire in the wild. We sat around the makeshift fire. "So....Why is your hair green. I pestered. His face went grim. "It....Its always been like that." He muttered. I sighed, He'd had a bad day, so I'd go along with the obviously fake lie. I stared at the fire, watched it dance it's fiery dance. The night crept in. The fire died down, and I passed out.I reopened them to find myself in a different place. Behind me sat a mansion. I knew this mansion. My son died near here. From the ground a hooded creature climbed out. I stood back. It was the grim reaper himself. "Are you here to reap my soul?" I asked. It's empty face, did not move. It stood there not moving. "Death comes to all, Zachary Kilfer, You are not immortal, and your years are beginning to catch up to you. Even immortality is a illusion." It breathed. I nodded. I shot him the face. "Don't care." I replied. I opened my eyes to the sun rising outside the cave. Damn dreams.