008: BREAKING THE RULES

"I thought I told ya not to shoot it," Satero said, staring at the mangled body in something between horror and fascination.

"I see no point in that," Corosa said. Killing the thing had brought him no joy, but it was the only way he could have gotten it. And shooting it had been hard enough. He was not about to tell that to Satero, though. "As long as I managed it."

Satero turned his head around to stare. His expression was unreadable now, but judging by the long silence, Corosa had the impression that he was holding something in.

Satero jerked himself awake. "Sure ya managed it, but that was a cat. What the hell happens when you're fighting something bigger?"

"I run."

"Fuck that. Wanna go back and take that wolf on again?"

"And why would I go back there?" Corosa was certainly not going to throw himself into danger again.

"Listen, Corosa, the wolf's not the point. I'm talkin' in general. Anything bigger and faster than this and you're gonna be fucking dead." Satero's eyes flickered towards the cat.

Corosa had to concede. It was one of the many reasons why he was cursing the day that he met Satero. This test had only shown him that the mastersmith was right, and that living was going to be near-impossible without his right arm. He had a sneaking suspicion that if Satero hadn't stuck with him, he'd have been dead by now.

"What, nothin' to say?" Satero asked. Corosa did not have to look at him to sense the mockery.

"No," Corosa answered. "But whether you're right or not matters little. There's nothing we can do about it."

"Sure we fucking can. If you'd just stick around in the cities some more, there's no fucking chance of you getting torn apart by some monster out here."

"Then I'd sooner die." Corosa wondered how many times he'd said that already.

Satero was thinking the same thing. He swore and picked up his axe, beginning to walk off. "I swear if I hear you say that one more time, I'll kill you."

"You're taking this too personally," Corosa said as he followed the mastersmith. The flies had been gathering around the cat's body for a while now. He was not interested in seeing what else would follow.

"'Personally'? What the fuck are you on about?" A definite outburst of irritation, though Satero quieted down after the first question. He was controlling himself.

Corosa was hard-pressed to do the same. "You're not doing this out of concern for me, you're doing it for yourself. Alleviating your own guilt."

"And shit, why the hell is that a bad thing?" Satero stopped walking and turned around. Corosa managed to stop before they collided, but Satero yanked him close by the collar of his shirt. "Maybe you're right. But what does it fucking matter? What else would you expect me to do? You got injured because of me and we even fucking look the same. You think I can just walk off? Would you?"

"Yes. But that's hardly the point." Corosa was old enough to realize that not everyone thought the same way, and that if the conversation continued spiraling off into this direction, things were only going to get worse.

But Satero either did not realize that, or was being guided by his emotions rather than rationale. He answered before Corosa could change the subject. "Oh, that so? Then why the hell haven't you run off already?"

Corosa ran his hand through his hair, holding in a frustrated sigh. "Because I'm hardly in any position to do so."

"Fucking hypocrite. What's the difference between you leaving me or me leaving you?" Satero had lowered his voice again, but had stopped trying to control his temper.

"I never said I wanted you to leave me alone--"

"To hell with you. That's exactly what you just said."

"Will you stop interrupting and hear me out for once?" Corosa asked quietly, letting his irritation get the best of him.

Satero blinked, drawing back just slightly. Then he muttered something under his breath and let Corosa go. "Alright. Go on."

Corosa did not continue just immediately. He paused, taking time to regain composure. The last thing he needed was for them to start screaming at each other. "I would not be surprised or hurt if you left. But I do not mind you staying, either. The only problem I have is that you keep trying to force things on me."

Satero did not respond immediately, either. In fact, it seemed as if he had not heard a word; he was too busy digging the blade of his axe into the ground. But when neither of them said anything more he finally looked up and drawled, "May I have permission to talk now?"

Corosa did not rise to the bait.

"Alright, I'll take that as a yes. Now you listen to me." Satero put his axe down and brushed himself off. "I'm forcing things on you because you're being childish. You honestly think you can get through life like this? Without going anywhere near civilization? Maybe you could do it before, but one of these days you're gonna have to realize that having one arm is a hell of a lot different to having two. No, shut up, I'm not done yet," he said, when Corosa started to interject. "You're fucking refusing to do anything about it, and if I left you now you'd be dead by tomorrow."

Corosa took a deep breath. He was getting as sick of this phrase as Satero was, but the mastersmith was being incredibly thickheaded and had not yet gotten the point. "If surviving means setting foot anywhere near the cities, I'd rather shoot myself."

Satero yanked Corosa close again. "Goddammit, are you just gonna give everything up because of something stupid in the past?"

"Are you ever going to realize that survival is not my number one priority?" Corosa asked, voice not rising above its normal volume.

Satero shook his head in disbelief. "That's just unnatural."

"You want unnatural, go visit a battlefield sometime." Corosa tried to push himself away.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Satero only pulled them closer together, close enough for Corosa to breathe in the mint on his breath. "What exactly happened to make you become so fucking scared?"

Corosa winced. "Nothing I'd want to inflict on anyone else."

"You've been avoiding this question all this time."

"I've answered before."

"Not well enough, if that's not obvious since I still don't understand shit."

"There's nothing you can do about it, even if you did understand." Corosa didn't half-understand himself, but he knew that he never wanted to think about it again.

"Will you stop being so damn pessimistic? All this time, you've been saying that. 'Nothin' you can do about it'. You know how fucking sick I am of this? Sick enough to want to do somethin' about it." Satero shoved Corosa away. "I'm gettin' this story, whether ya like it or not."

The abrupt motion nearly sent Corosa reeling, but it did not stop him from realizing things were going too far. He rubbed his head and said, "I can't tell you, and you won't find anything yourself."

"Fuck that. Prontera's fucking enormous. Nothin' happens there that someone won't find out about."

"The fact that no one could find out was one of the reasons why I was so affected." Corosa scowled, more at himself than at Satero. The words were too clinical and lifeless. They didn't come close to getting Corosa's point across.

"Corosa, you're not a fucking island. Someone's bound to know something." Satero picked his axe up and slung it over his shoulder, starting towards the city without another word.

Corosa stopped him, planting himself straight in the mastersmith's path. "There's no point."

"Huh. I'm beginning to think there is." Satero grinned. "You seem pretty damn set on keeping me away."

Corosa's eyes wandered past Satero's shoulder, finding the small cloud of flies gathering over the cat further down the road. He continued to stare at them without seeing as he thought.

It was unlikely that anyone in Prontera would remember him, but they could very well remember his family. Still, if Satero followed that path, he'd find nothing but a few graves and an asylum.

The problem was if Satero traced all that back to Corosa's address.

"This is not about my problem anymore," Corosa said, slowly. "You're putting yourself into danger."

"Hah. I'm doing this because you're putting yourself in danger. What if I told you I'd rather die than see you dead first?" Satero smirked, and pushed Corosa out of the way.

Corosa swore under his breath. "That argument won't get us anywhere, either."

"Alright, let's put it this way," said Satero. "You can't, or won't, tell me what the hell's going on. So I'm gonna find out myself. Hell, maybe put myself through it if everyone else ends up like you."

"You honestly want to end up like me?" Corosa snapped. He had no patience with heroes.

Satero grinned again. "If that's the case, at least we'll stop arguing, won't we?"

Corosa swallowed. "You..."

But he had no time to finish; Satero was already striding away, whistling an unfamiliar tune to himself.

There was a fleeting moment in which Corosa nearly ran after him, before the old fear froze his steps and all he could do was watch the mastersmith disappear further down the road.

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AN: I'm still alive! Sorry for the lack of updates. My school is Very Strange and decided to dump us with a bunch of homework in the last few weeks.

Thanks to RicePaper for getting me to get this thing rollin' again. :D