Sam

It was nearly night by the time the path finally opened up and admitted them into the wide, grassy, somewhat sloping field that surrounded the farm. The windswept grasses were washed with a rich gold from the deepening sunset. A handful of buildings were scattered about the place like discarded toys.

Although Sam had only spent a few days here and hadn't seen the place in weeks, she still thought of it as home.

Will leaned heavily on her, cold and damp and shaky. He was sagging, and she grabbed him more firmly around the waist to keep him upright. "You did it," she said. "Good job, bud."

"Yeah," Will panted. Despite the obvious exhaustion in his voice, he sounded pleased. "Only took about ten times longer than it should have."

"You know, you don't need to be such a Sulky Stewart all the time."

There were lights on in some of the buildings, and there was already a bustle of activity on the porch of the main farmhouse. A massive shape appeared ducked through the front door and squinted at them for a moment, shading his eyes against the setting sun. Then his big ugly face split in a huge grin and he leapt off the porch, started across the grounds at a bumbling half-run that would have been purely comedic if not for the fact that he was eight feet tall and built like a powerlifter, which made it feel more like staring down a speeding semi-truck.

Will chuckled tiredly at the sight of the troll in his tattered suit, seeming to lend him a little burst of energy to help him stand up taller, working his back straight by using Sam's sleeve as a handhold to drag himself up.

"Best Friend Sam!" Gug shouted halfway, waving a huge, green hand over his head. "You finally came!"

The troll came to an abrupt halt less than one of his enormous strides away from them, his heavy boots kicking up a spray of dirt and plant matter. He immediately went for a bear hug, but Sam held up a hand to stop him.

"Careful, Gug," she said, returning his grin with one of her own. "I'm really happy to see you too, but let's leave the hugs for a while, okay? We've got an injured person here, so let's be gentle around him, yeah?"

"Oh," Gug said, suddenly caught up in sober thought, and put a sausage finger to his fleshy lower lip. "I'm very very sorry. I wasn't thinking." His beady little eyes peeked out from under the blocky shelf of his forehead, studying Will carefully. "Is this…?"

"Will Greene," Will said with a hint of a smile, letting go of Sam so he could take a careful step forward and hold out his left hand. "I'm—"

"Friend Will!" The troll lunged forward with frightening intensity, but caught himself at the last moment. Instead of crushing Will's proffered hand in his fist, he gently, gently enfolded it with the utter concentration of a surgeon, chewing on his tongue, then slowly, slowly gave a small shake. "You're the best friend of my best friend, so I've been very very very excited to meet you. After all, a wise man once told me: 'A friend of my friend is my friend, my friend'." Quickly yanking his hand back, he looked over at Sam with a tentative smile. "Was that a good handshake?"

Sam gave a big thumbs up. "Ten outta ten, big guy."

"Then, I was a good troll?"

"The best."

Gug's polite smile spread into a huge grin. "Heh." Turning his attention back to Will, he said: "I've heard a few things about you from Sam, but there's oodles more I'd like to know."

"I'm very interested in you too, as it happens," Will replied. "We'll need to have a proper man-to-troll talk, you and I. For now…" He inclined his torso in a small, stiff bow, prevented from going any further down due to his sorry state. "From the bottom of my heart; thank you. For being Sam's friend, and for helping her get home safe. I'm in your debt, Master Troll."

Gug thought about that for a moment as Will straightened out, the troll tapping a finger against his blunt chin. "Debt…? Then, could I ask you for something to pay me back?"

"If it's within my power, sure. Name it."

"Will you be my friend?" The eight-foot colossus shifted awkwardly, braiding his fingers together like a high school girl nervously awaiting a response after asking out her crush.

"That's it?" Will asked, chuckling. "All right, Gug—I'll be your friend."

"Hehehe. Oh, and!"

"Yes?"

"Can I read the books in your library?"

"Of course."

Gug nodded in satisfaction. "Good, because I've already been perusing them."

Will seemed to think that making it to the farm clearing constituted a successful mission, because he allowed Sam to pick him up and bring him inside from there. Gug went and fetched fresh water while Sam sat Will down on a chair in the kitchen and lit a candle on the table to see by. ADAM the robot was there, watching them in ominous silence from outside the circle of soft candle light. His unblinking gemstone eyes burned through the shadows.

"Please remember to keep your voices down," the robot reminded them in a soft voice—almost a whisper—while Sam was grunting in her effort to peel off Will's sweat-soaked tunic. "The child is currently sleeping."

"Got it," Sam replied, trying and failing to push aside the uncharitable thought that she found the tall metal fellow more than a little unnerving. As for the noise, she didn't mention the fact that she probably wasn't the one he ought to be worried about as the troll came bumbling into the house with a slopping pail of water, boots thumping on the wooden floors. ADAM gave the troll a long, dirty look that its recipient didn't seem to notice at all as he set the pail down on the table. Something told her the two of them didn't get along too well.

She made Will drink two mugs of water, then wiped the worst of the sweat off his torso with a wet rag. Apparently, ADAM had been the one to see the coming, in turn alerting Gug to their presence. She was keenly aware of the rifle that the robot wore slung over his shoulder, a steel thumb hooked under the strap like he thought he might need to shoot them dead at a moment's notice.

Real friendly, this fellow.

ADAM did set his weapon aside after a while, though he looked no less comfortable at having them there, and cooked up a thick vegetable broth that Sam made Will gulp down another two mugs of to help recover some of his strength. She and Gug split the rest between them. It tasted fine, but a little bland, which wasn't too surprising considering that ADAm wasn't a big eater himself.

After that, Sam carried Will off to bed—luckily no one had assumed squatter's rights over their room—and bundled him in under the blankets.

When she woke up around mid-morning she was alone in bed. Somehow, that blind bastard had woken up before her. Based on the pleasant smell tickling her nostrils, she had a good idea where he was at.

Slipping into one of his tunics, comfortably snug around the chest and shoulders, she padded barefoot through the house and wound Will sitting on a chair by the stove, giving an occasional toss to a crackling stir fry.

"You're supposed to be resting," Sam pointed out, hands on hips.

"Yeah, well, blame the robot," Will muttered without looking up. "After that dishwater you tortured me with yesterday, I felt I had to take matters into my own hands."

"Don't push yourself."

"Oh, I would never. You know me."

"Bro, that's why I'm worried."

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"Take it easy, Sam. I'm not going to die of exertion sitting down. Besides, this is relaxing for me."

Sam gave a loud harrumph. "Well, fine. But I'll be watching you, mister. If I think you're taking things too far, I'm choking you the fuck out."

"I accept these terms," Will said, smiling wryly. With his eyes closed, the expression looked kind of cute.

Once he finished cooking the meal, he used Prepare to finalize his creation and instructed Sam to fetch Gug out of the living room. The troll was sitting cross-legged on the floor, wiggling his big green toes while flipping through a book that looked positively diminutive in his leathery hands.

He was excited by the prospect of eating something, whispering somewhat guiltily that neither ADAM nor the 'other woman' were particularly gifted in the culinary arts.

Sam did not get the chance to ask who the 'other woman' was. When they returned to the kitchen Sunny was tottering in from the hallway leading to the bedrooms, rubbing sleep from her eyes, with an adult woman right on her heels, red-haired and full-lipped and gorgeous. By the look of things, she was a Level 9 Entertainer.

The kid's tiredness vanished instantly once she spotted Will setting the table, breaking into a clumsy run. "Uncle Will!" she exclaimed as she collided with his side. Will stumbled half a step and gritted his teeth against the pain, but tolerated the child latching onto him without complaint.

"Uncle Will, now, is it?" he mused, setting down the last two plates. He ruffled the kid's straw-blonde mop, just about managing the movement with his shaky right arm. "I don't remember doing anything to deserve that kind of treatment."

Sunny peeked up through double handfuls of his tunic. "You saved me, though! Everything was so scary, but then you came and made it okay again."

"She's been asking pretty much every day to go visit you in the city," the red-head added. "It's a good thing you finally showed up—I was starting to feel like a bad person having to tell her 'no' all the time."

"I see," Will murmured, sounding a bit uncomfortable. He'd never been very good with positive reinforcement. Gently, he pushed against the little girl's head to peel her off, holding her at a distance once she began giggling and grasping for him again. "I assume you're some kind of caretaker, then?"

"That's… Aunt Ember," Sunny explained through strained grunts, wheeling her little arms around in a vain effort to bat Will's away. "She found us after the burning."

Ember gave a slow nod while fussing with her skirts. "There was a whole group of us girls who helped raise her in the Red House. Aside from the lord, we were the only ones who knew she existed. None of the others, uh…"

Will nodded in understanding.

"I was away from the Red House when everything went down, which is why I was able to make it out when the others didn't." She went quiet, biting her lip. "I'm not supposed to talk about any of this, but… Sunny is going to need a benefactor. It used to be Brimstone, but now he's gone, and I guess you already know about her anyway, so…"

"She's got ADAM, doesn't she?"

"Well, yeah, but he's…" Ember pumped her eyebrows significantly. "You know."

"I think I do. And don't worry, I'll do my best to look out for the girl."

"As for me…?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, you should stick around, obviously. It'll be good to have someone who actually knows how to care for her."

Ember inclined her head again. "Thank you, sir." There was an air of practiced meekness in her voice and the way she kept her gaze somewhere around Will's feet.

"Sure," Will grunted in reply, his attention clearly elsewhere. "Now, let's eat before—"

"Wait!" Sunny shouted, leaping back before bouncing off into the hall. "I just remembered!"

Will raised an eyebrow at the woman as the kid disappeared, but the red-head just shook her head in a tired 'don't ask me' kind of way. It wasn't long before Sunny returned though, chubby cheeks red with exertion, holding up a slightly wilted yellow flower.

"A dandy-lion!" she announced with a beaming smile, up on her tiptoes. "I picked it yesterday, but you can have it!"

"Wow," Will replied, sounding less-than-impressed. He took the flower from the little girl, gently rolling the stem between two fingers while he turned his head one way and the other in that owl-like way of his. "It's pronounced dandelion, by the way."

"Dan-dy-li-on," Sunny repeated carefully.

"Dandelion."

"Daaandy-lion."

Will sighed deeply. "You know what, sure." He squatted stiffly, groaning with the effort while pressing his free hand against his side. He held out the flower. "I appreciate it, Sunny, but flowers are wasted on a guy like me. They were never really my thing. You keep it, okay?"

The little girl's round face screwed up with adolescent rage. "No! It's yours now." She shoved his hand back with both of hers. "I need to give you something."

"You don't need to—"

"I need to give you something!" Sunny insisted, pumping her little balled-up fists. Calming down a little, she let her arms drop and became bashful instead, looking out through the window on her right. "Because you saved me, and that makes you my hero, and heroes are supposed to get presents like flowers and stuff when they come back from the fighting—it was always like that in Mommy's stories. About knights and things."

Arms crossed, Sam nodded to herself with satisfaction. Yuuup. This kid really gets it. She's got good taste.

Will went quiet at that. Then, after a beat too long, he straightened out and tousled Sunny's hair with a companionable laugh. "In that case, we really need to find you a better class of hero somewhere. You'll turn out rotten if you spend too much time looking up to me. But all right, I'll keep the flower."

Sunny tried to say something else, but Will interrupted her by harshly ordering everyone to sit down and eat already. "I'm sorry to say," he said, motioning with a spoon to Sam on the kitchen couch and Gug on the floor beside her, "but you two are gonna have to hold back a bit. I haven't taken a full inventory on food stocks yet, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot lying around. I'll be able to make meals more filling with Prepare, but we should still ration our supplies until we can get some forage going. Got it?"

"Got it," she and the troll replied glumly in one voice.

Will hastily got through a small portion for himself, and Sam grinned as she watched his discomfort at the barrage of random questions and anecdotes Sunny kept throwing his way.

"Sam, do you mind if I leave the cleanup to you?" Will asked as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then slowly levered himself upright with the chairback, right leg splayed out awkwardly straight. "I need to look over my medical supplies in the workshop."

Sam gave a crisp salute. "Sir yes sir! Not one stain will escape my wrath!"

Will smiled thinly. "Great—that really puts my mind at ease. Once I'm done in the workshop I want to have a proper catch-up with you though, so don't wander off too far."

"Fiiine." She rolled her eyes dramatically at Ember. "Men, right? So controlling."

Ember cracked a doubtful smile at that, glancing at Will as though trying to gauge if she was allowed to poke fun at him. Finally, she said: "They do seem to enjoy pinning a girl down—in various ways."

Sam grinned. "Ha! Nice." She offered out her palm across the table, and again the redheaded Entertainer hesitated for a moment before giving a light high five.

"What's funny?" Sunny asked, chewing open-mouthed as she kicked her dangling feet.

"The entire male population, sweetie," Ember said while vigorously rubbing the girl's scalp with her fingertips.

"Okaaay. I dun get it, though."

"I don't need to listen to these slanderous assertions," Will cut in with a haughty snort, limping for the door.

"Love you!" Sam called after him. More quietly, she leaned toward Ember and murmured: "I keep him around for his ass."

Once Will was out of the building, Sam's gaze naturally fell on the half-finished plate of stir fry he had left behind. She noticed Gug also eyeing it hungrily, and the two of them shared a hard look.

"Rock-paper-scissors?" she asked.

Gug's brutish face fell slack with despair. "I don't have any of these things," he said sorrowfully, turning his empty pants pockets inside out. "I'm very very sorry."

She swatted him on the arm with a snort of laughter. "No, it's a game! You don't need anything to play it except your hands. Whoever wins can eat the leftovers."

The troll lit up at that. "A game! I'm a certifiable virtuoso at all manner of games!"

"Attaboy." She turned her attention to the kid and her carer. "What about you guys? Want in on this?"

"I'm good," Ember said with a demure giggle. "But if you must know, I'm mostly a scissors kinda girl myself."

Sam smiled incredulously at that.

"I wanna play!" Sunny declared, throwing her fists in the air.

Gug won. He ate his second portion with a supreme smugness that somehow managed to be more endearing than anything.

Sam didn't have much to do after cleaning the dishes, and was left idly wandering around the property. Somehow, it felt strange not to have any chimps around to liven the place up. She thought about working out for a bit, but thought that Will would probably just show up and interrupt her the moment she got started, so instead she decided to beat him to the punch and go bother him instead.

Jogging up to the little stone building behind the farmhouse that served as Will's workshop, she axe kicked the handle down and hip checked the door open, bursting inside with a loud clattering.

"Hey, hey!" she said with a flat-footed leap across the threshold. "Better not be jerking off in here! You've only got the one ball, so you need to save up those cummies for…"

Looking around the clutter, she trailed off when she saw Will sprawled sidelong on the floor, a small puddle of bile and wet food chunks swimming under his cheek, a sticky trail of it trembling between his lips with every ragged exhalation he let out.

"Butcher…" he muttered, his one eye staring right past her. "Misfortune… Evil-Eye… Assassin… Killer… Monster…" His sightless gaze swiveled onto her as she rushed to his side and grabbed his shoulder to keep him from falling forward into his own vomit. "Hero," he concluded dryly, like the word had a bad taste to it. He shook his head almost imperceptibly. "It doesn't sound right, does it?"

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