The next day, in a lush and peaceful forest, was Norville walking at a steady pace.
He had been for some time, wanting to try and find the address on the contracts that he memorised before leaving his house.
Though, Norville did not account for the large acre that stood between him and the place.
Either way, Norville trudged along the dirt path, looking around from time to time.
Despite this, he did not notice a pair of eyes watching him.
These two eyes belonged to a creature that looked like a humanoid sunflower.
Turning his vision away from view, he had the binoculars snatched from him by another sunflower, who looked eagerly at the mug.
"Is that him?" The sunflower asked, visibly shaking with excitement, "Is that our target?"
"Shh!" The first one said, slapping his hand on his friend's mouth, "Want to ruin our chance, Bernard?"
"Well, you are ruining our chance for making a louder noise than I did," Bernard answered, "Is that not right, Mortimer?"
"Oh shut it," Mortimer said, "Let's go tell the other two back at camp,"
Bernard nodded, "but be quiet about..."
He could not finish his sentence as Bernard was pulled away with Mortimer, who ran up ahead, careful not to make any noise.
Once running past an oblivious Norville, the two reached the camp in time.
On the logs around the campfire, sat two more sunflowers, one was roasting a marshmallow, while the other one was reading a newspaper.
When Mortimer and Bernard ran in, one was tired, while the other was disoriented.
"What is it now?" The one with the newspaper asked, annoyed, "You can see I am reading for the next race,"
"Sorry, Engelbert," Bernard said, now recovered, "Our mug has arrived,"
"What he said," Mortimer muttered, huffing.
"I see," Engelbert said, "So we should hurry, we must not be wasteful,"
The sunflower roasting the marshmallow soon brought out three more on sticks and handed them to Engelbert.
"Oh, uh no Roscoe," Engelbert chuckled, "I did not mean the marshmallows, but our time,"
"Alright boss," Roscoe replied, giving Mortimer and Bernard one instead.
"After you guys are done," Engelbert said, weirded out by what Roscoe said, "We will get into positions by the ambush spot up ahead, and after that, follow the plan,"
"You got our knives, Bernard?" Mortimer asked.
"Of course," Bernard exclaimed, taking them out and giving one to each of them, "I'll never forget, unlike you,"
"Why you little..." Mortimer said with anger in his voice, ready to stab him.
"You can take your anger out on your target," Engelbert said, "Alright, let's go,"
"I hope I get my share," Bernard said, getting up.
"You will," Mortimer said, "Make sure not to take any of my share with you,"
"I have dibs on the mug's head," Roscoe said, making the other three look at him.
"Sometimes, whatever you say weirds me out, Roscoe," Engelbert said.
"I just need a new mug after all," Roscoe replied looking down.
"Be it as it may," Engelbert began, as the group walked to the spot, "Remember the plan, and you all can guarantee a drink from me and your pay from those porcelain lackeys from the casino."
The other three nodded, and the group went to their positions, waiting for their prey.
Not too far away, Norville was walking casually,
now looking at the axe he brought along.
By looking at it more, he found something weird.
Staring at the blade of the axe, it looked really big, as if it could do its job a bit too efficiently. Not only that, but Norville now noticed a clip and a button of some sort on the axe's handle.
"Weird," He said to himself, feeling the edge of the blade, and realising how sharp it was.
At that moment, a memory washed into his head. A memory he did not think of a lot.
It was of the place he had been before he moved to the Inkwell Isles.
In front of him, on a chair, sat another mug, similar to Norville, but much older.
Of course, Norville could not forget the image of his dad.
"Dad," A now younger Norville asked, looking at the axe in the man's hands, "what is that point for?"
"Oh, this?" Norville's dad said, looking at the spear tip and placing a finger on it, "It's for protection,"
"Protection?" Was the last thing Norville remembered before coming across a clearing and hearing a bush rustle.
He stopped to look at the bush and expected a rabbit or a deer to jump out.
But instead of that, a person walked out of it, with a straight face.
"Erm, hi?" Norville greeted, watching the sunflower slowly walk towards him, "can I help you?"
The sunflower replied with a knife, raised in one hand, and an increase of pace.
Seeing the knife, the amount of fear that scorched through Norville was enough for him to aim the axe's spear tip, as a way to seem scary.
"St-stay back!" Norville shouted, trying to sound intimidating, "I-I will hurt you,"
This did not work, and only cause Norville to sprint away, fear propelling his legs.
The sunflower watched Norville run away and heard a voice from another bush.
"Nice work," Bernard said in a mockery tone, "You really needed to scare him?"
"Maybe it was not a good idea to let you attack him first, Roscoe," Engelbert said, shaking his head.
"How about you go and run after him?" Mortimer said to Barnard, "I'm sure you will do a better job,"
"Oh I will," Bernard said, throwing the knife down, "And I will kill him using only my hands!"
"Wait don't..." Engelbert tried to stop Bernard, but he was already too far away to hear.
"Okay," He sighed, "Come on, you two, he will need backup,"
Far ahead, Norville was still running, not turning around, expecting to see that sunflower run at him.
'Maybe he is gone?' He thought, finally deciding to look behind him.
Seeing nothing, Norville was relieved, but looking forward again, he was hit by a fist that took him to the ground.
Groaning, a pair of hands wrapped around what appeared to be Norville's neck, and lifted him, setting him face-to-face with Bernard.
"Looks like you have some loot work taking," Bernard said in a cheerful tone, looking at Norville's bag and axe, which fell out of his hand, "but it would be embarrassing for me to loot it from you before I kill you,"
Bernard's grip grew tighter until Norville started to choke, "So I'll kill you right now!"
This, and with oxygen cut off, Norville began to struggle, punch and pull on Bernards's face and body, but nothing worked.
Before Bernard could end his life, one of Norville's fingers found itself on his left eye,
and with the adrenaline kicking in, Norville put all of his force into pressing his eye.
A squish was heard, then a scream from Bernard, who let go of Norville and held his eye, stepping a few feet back.
Norville, still catching his breath, found his axe right next to him.
"You bastard!" He heard, seeing Bernard cover his left eye, "Your reward money will be worth my eye,"
With the dash that Bernard did, Norville's body acted on its own. It showed no signs of aggression, as it was only in self-defence, and did so by picking up the axe and shoving it forward.
Norville did not expect the spear to go through Bernards's neck.
"What..." Bernard questioned, feeling the wind on his exposed wound, "what happened? Gck-"
He choked on his own blood, before falling, and never moving again.
No matter how horrid Bernard had suffered in those few moments, Norville looked to be the one who suffered more.
His eyes were big, his body in a state of shaking, and he was on the brink of tears.
The first time taking someone else's life was not something Norville thought he would do.
But with that kill, came the same memory.
"Yes, in case while I am working and something attacks me, I can defend myself," His dad said.
"Has that ever happened to you?" Norville asked, "Where you had to do it?"
His father looked at him with a sad face, "Norville, that is an adult subject that I cannot speak to you about,"
"Okay," Norville said.
"But I will say this," His father said, placing his hand on Norville's shoulder, "I hope it won't happen, but if you are in that situation where you must defend yourself, you may feel something, and it may hurt,"
"Is getting past that feeling hard?" Norville asked.
"It is not easy," His dad answered, getting a nod from Norville.
Just like the first time, the memory was interrupted again when the other three arrived.
"Bernard? No, no!" Mortimer shouted, looking away.
"I should not have let him go," Engelbert sniffed.
"It does not matter," Mortimer growled, "Our friend is still here,"
The three looked over at Norville, who was looking back but was frozen.
"Let's attack together," Mortimer spoke again, "If he can kill one, he can't kill all of us at once,"
"Alright," Engelbert said, while Roscoe nodded.
"I never am the best at remembering things," Mortimer said, "but I will always remember you, Bernard!"
In sequence, all three of them charged at Norville, with killing intent as shaped as their knives.
Even though they had knives, and were more scary and dangerous that way, Norville was not scared.
He felt nothing, but he knew if he did not do anything, he could die.
'Hold on,' Norville thought, remembering something, 'What my dad told me... could help me right now,'
'It's dumb, but what can I do?' He thought, now bringing the axe back, ready to swing.
Feeling the clip again, Norville realized something, 'Now I understand what these are for,'
Despite seeing Norville pull the axe back to swing, the group knew that even if he swung, the range was not enough, and they could just swarm him before the axe could do any damage.
Weirdly enough, when Roscoe, Engelbert and Mortimer were still out of the axe's reach, Norville began to swing, but they paid no attention and did not stop.
On time, the memory played again in Norville's head, now certain that it won't be interrupted.
"You know, son," His father spoke, "Do you see this clip and button on the axe?"
He pointed to where they were, and once looking, Norville shook his head.
"Well, this contraption is used for when I defend myself."
"Do you use it with the spear?" Norville asked.
"I may prefer that, but I use it with the axe," Norville's dad replied.
"Why would you use the axe blade?" Norville asked, confused, "Don't you use it for chopping down trees?"
"I do, but I use it for something else," His dad said.
"For what?" Norville pleaded, now wanting the answer.
"Crowd control."
With an end to the memory, came the start of an opportunity.
As the swing began, Norville unlocked the clip and watched as the axe began to extend, becoming longer and longer, until its stop, which was blocked by none other than Mortimer, Roscoe and Engelbert.
The axe did not have a problem with this, as it sliced through all three of them.
As the now six pieces of body parts dropped to the floor, Norville looked on in disbelief.
"I...just..." He let out, smelling the fresh scent of blood, "I...should go,"
Before he could do that, he looked at the now-extended axe, which was around twice his length.
'It's like a spear,' Norville thought, 'no wonder my dad never got any scratches,'
Putting his hand over the button, Norville pressed it, and felt the axe shrink, until it was back to its normal length.
"Where was I?" Norville asked himself, trying to ignore the bodies near him, "Oh yeah... The Root Pack,"
He took out the contract again and looked at it. Just as expected, their address was outside of this forest.
Placing it back into his bag, Norville took one long look at the people he killed, before walking off.
'I hope,' He thought, 'I hope I don't need to do that to those debtors.'