Octavius POV

Chapter 24: A cowardly man

"I wasn't really planning on working together with you," Agrippa said before anyone else said something. "Romans fight alone."

"You already dislike me and I didn't even introduce myself," Jedediah's boy said. I could see a proud sheen in his eyes when the boy spoke.

Agrippa walked towards Jacob and they looked at each other for a moment. Jacob hesitantly reached his hand to Agrippa and Jedediah looked already suspicious at Agrippa. I wasn't sure what Agrippa was planning to do, but I knew Agrippa would never attack the guy out of the blue.

"You are sure we can trust them?" Agrippa asked me, but still looked at Jacob.

"I trust Jedediah and I stay with him," I said without hesitation. In a blink of an eye Jedediah looked at me before he watched Agrippa carefully again.

"Marcus Agrippa," Agrippa introduced himself.

"Well Marcus, I'm Jacob," Jacob said, still wanting to shake Agrippa's hand. But Agrippa turned around without grabbing the hand.

"Okay, that's also done," I said to ease the situation a little bit. Jedediah nodded one time.

"Now we only have to find a way to get of this table," he said and already looked around. Then his eyes stopped on a spot in the distances.

"You have an idea?" I asked and I followed his view, so I could see the same monkey we saw before. Now Jacob and Agrippa came standing besides us too.

"If Jacob is right about the lions," Jedediah started. "Then it's the same for the monkey too. Maybe he is willing to help us."

Agrippa raised his eyebrows, but then he nodded. "I rather put my life in the hands of a monkey than in the hands of a giant."

"Good," Jedediah said. "Come here, monkey." The monkey still sat on the ground before us, just looking at us. "Come on, monkey. The giants can be back any moment now," Jedediah tried again, but without any result.

"Maybe you should call him by his name." Jacob said suddenly. "Monkey sounds a bit like an insult. Didn't the giant call him Dexter."

"All right. Dexter, could you please help us over here?" Jedediah asked. I almost laughed about the polite way Jedediah spoke to the monkey. "We need to get off this table before the giants come back." And then the monkey moved towards us and jumped on the table.

He looked calm when he reached out his hand towards us, his head a little skewed. We all looked at each other, amazed and hesitated, but is was Jacob who walked towards the monkey first. The monkey sat still, his hand open. Slowly and hesitating Jacob climbed up in the palm of the monkey's hand. The monkey closed his hand around the little cowboy and jumped of the table. On the ground he released the cowboy and without any injuring Jacob walked of the hand.

"It's save," he yelled to the rest of us and smiled. Dexter jumped on the table and reached his hand towards us again. This time Jedediah struggled and walked towards the monkey. Also he came down safely. After Jedediah it was mine turn and after me Agrippa's.

"Thank you, Dexter," Agrippa said when he jumped of the monkey's hand.

"You know where the giants are by change?" I asked to the monkey. "The giants Cecil, Reginald and Gus." The monkey pointed at a hall on the right and on that moment we could hear Cecil yelling again.

"Well, thank you," Jedediah also said to the monkey. "But we really have to go now." Dexter held his hand up high and it looked like he waved at us. We waved back before we turned around and ran away. Dexter ran towards the giants, maybe to give us a head start.

We ran till we found a place which was good enough to catch your breath.

"We can't stay here," Jedediah immediately said to me. "The giants will find us here."

"Jedediah, what will happen when the giants find us?" Jacob asked with a trilling voice.

"He is a coward," Agrippa spitted out before Jedediah could say anything. "He is a coward and naïve. How did he ever manage to get in an army?"

"Jacob is not a coward!" Jedediah shouted back. "I'll bet he is…" He stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and then continued, speaking calm. "I'll bet he is a better man than you'll ever be."

For a moment I was proud at Jedediah, finally he stopped shouting for once, but then I could see the anger by both men.

"Don't you see it yourself?" Agrippa asked calm, but angry at Jedediah. "He doesn't even dare to stand up for himself. Let alone he dares to fight in a battle. The moment he sees the giants he will flee and leave us behind."

"You know nothing about Jacob," Jedediah said back. It is a long time ago since I heard Jedediah speak with so much anger in his voice. "You say one word about Jacob that isn't true and I'll make sure you're gonna regret it."

Jacob looked begging at me and somehow I knew he wanted me to stop this fight. I nodded to the boy and stood between Jedediah and Agrippa.

"Stop," I said quickly. "The giants can return anytime. We don't have time to discuss this nonsense. We better find a good place to hide before dawn." Jedediah looked at me, but then walked angry away from me and Agrippa.

"I'm sorry Octavius, I'm just still not sure what to think about those cowboys." I nodded one time and putted my hand on his shoulder to show him I understood. I walked away again, but turned around when I heard Agrippa talking to Jacob.

"The subject of the conversation still said nothing. You really are a cowardly man, aren't you?" Jacob looked sad at Agrippa for a little moment.

"Oh, I get it by now," Jacob answered him. "I get it. I am stupid, I am cowardly, I am annoying, I am a burden. I already get it, so please don't remind me of it all the time." Jacob smiled to Agrippa, but his eyes looked sad. Then he heard Jedediah calling and walked away.

I never saw Agrippa more surprised before.

Och, I never wanted to hug my own character so badly! Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter.

And I want to apologize I didn't upload last week. A lot of shit was going on and I really didn't feel like writing anything... :s