It's dangerous to go alone -- Spare AMitA Prompt
Pipi raised the sacred weapon and hollered the sacred vow, "I found a stick onna ground, an' now I'm gonna use it! All the power that I found, I don't wanna abuse it!" Their voice echoed in the streets and no other kids called challenge. Nobody else called dibs. The obvious next thing to do was become a Hero.
Which meant that Pipi needed to become a protector and helper to the poor, the weak, and the downtrodden.
It took them forever to find someone to protect and help. A whole half an hour! And even then it was two out of three by technicality. Old man Kosh was technically poor because his pet had died a couple of weeks ago. And he was technically downtrodden because some people hated Hellkin for no good reason. And he was an old man. That wasn't part of the Heroic thing, but it was generally a good idea to be kind and helpful to old people.
Besides, old people were more likely to have candy in their carry-pouches.
Pipi ran to catch up with old man Kosh, who slowed his long steps. "G'mornin' citizen. I'm a Hero. Well. I'm gonna be."
"Oh, you are," said old man Kosh. "How do you plan to do that, then?"
"I got a stick," announced Pipi, holding it aloft.
"Ah, you have to be careful with something like that. Someone could get hurt."
"I know," said Pippi, holding the stick against their hip like it was a sheathed sword. "It's called a-spon-sa-bility. Ya gotta look after people who don't got a stick."
"One way to put it, ja," old man Kosh smiled just a little bit. He hadn't been smiling very much since his dog-goat had passed on. "I don't company on the way to the cheesemonger's. You might get to rescue me from a turnover at the baker's."
Pipi put on their proudest strut, marching towards the market square. Until an idle teenager tripped them. Two more on the edges of the same street laughed.
"You're all new here," said old man Kosh. "You'd best to pick up the kinder and apologise."
"Yeah," said Pipi. "Manners are important."
"And what if we don't?" One of the teens, bigger and wider than the others, swayed into the middle of the street, and stood on Pipi's hand. "What if we decide to be rude?"
Old man Kosh said, "I'll have to teach you manners. And I am a very good teacher."
"And I have a stick," added Pippi.
The five teenagers laughed. It wasn't a nice laugh. It was the kind that made anyone not laughing feel very small. And Pipi was already small enough.
One of the teens threw a knife. The next thing Pipi knew, that knife was in the thrower's arm. There was a confusion of shadows, and the weight on Pipi's hand went away.
They got up, stick at the ready, only to find five formerly arrogant teenagers injured and groaning in the gutters. Old man Kosh was inspecting one of their wrists. "Olikent property tattoos. I'll send along a public assistant to heal you."
Pipi waved their stick at the leader, "You are lucky that I didn't get a chance to use this."
"Ja, it's fortunate you were here," agreed old man Kosh. "Gekkomen sie. Let's sell this cheese and get that turnover."
[Special thanks to Deathshead419 for the solicited stick pics ;) ]
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