Emerald was a wonderful child. She was so exuberant and happy, Joy felt that he could spend years in this house with the little girl and her mother. He would do dishes in their house every day rather than go back to the prince's retinue.

But something itched.

Some part of Joy knew that this couldn't last. This was going to be a brief respite, and he had to move on.

He cried at those parts asking, why does it have to be me?

The parts responded by saying, who else?

Joy had seen the prince's plan. He knew that the prince was going to break the world, and Joy quite liked the world. There were little kids like Emerald and wonderful food and music and colors that could only be seen here. He didn't want to become part of the prince's Human god, he just wanted to live as he was.

But that begged the question, how could he stop the prince?

Joy was mildly talented at fighting and getting his way out of sticky situations, but that wasn't exactly the resume of the Hero of the Age. He didn't have the skills or the know-how to take care of this problem. So, what could he do?

He could outsource.

There were strong people hiding around the continent. There was that young man, Hope, and the tribe of people from the Frozen Continent. There was princess Dahlia, who had disappeared abruptly after his fight with Ian. There was Ramses, the man who he had nearly lost to in the knight tournament.

Someone, somewhere, had to be capable of solving this problem. All Joy had to do was find them and tell them that they were needed.

But first, he couldn't impose on this family any longer. It had been a wonderful reprieve, but Joy knew that David was an intelligent man. He would not and could not allow someone who knew the full extent of his plans to run around freely in the world, spreading rumors. So, Joy had to leave to keep this family safe and to help his friends.

Joy was not one to dilly or dally once he had come to a decision about something, so he started packing everyone's things into a massive bag that Emerald's mom had let him borrow.

"Are you leaving?" A little girl's voice said quietly from behind him.

"Yes. I think we will be able to keep you and your mother safe if we leave now." Joy tried smiling at the little girl, but he couldn't make his face do what he wanted.

"But I don't want you to go." Joy's heart cried out for the little girl. But he was an adult, and adults knew something that children hadn't quite learned yet.

"Sometimes you must do things you don't want to. Life is a series of compromises." Joy ruffled the little girl's hair and then yelled, "Theo! We're leaving."

He started strapping the sled he had jury-rigged for Lillian to his back before lightly placing her limp body onto its accommodating floor.

Joy walked outside the house and looked at its inhabitants. Emerald and her mother were standing outside watching him leave. Emerald had tears in her eyes as she tried to keep a brave face while her mother looked on with worry in her eyes.

Theo was slowly making his way towards Joy, using his newly acquired stick to help guide him through his new unseeing world.

The air smelled like a farm. But that wasn't a bad thing. It was the smell of a hard day's work, of the pain that it takes to keep on living every day. Joy looked at the house and bowed deeply.

Gratitude flowed out of him like a river. These people owed him nothing. These people were struggling in their own ways and had still decided to help a man and his two injured friends for nothing.

Emerald and her mother were what was good in the world. And they were the reason why Joy had to stop the prince.

There were no tyrant gods to overthrow. It was always people making choices. The gods didn't make the world good or bad; the only beings that had any ability to do that were the ones living in it.

The prince was a child throwing a tantrum against his parents because his sibling had destroyed his toys.

"Be safe!" Emerald's mother yelled out at Joy as he started trotting away from her house. Joy just smiled and waved back at the lovely pair. Happiness is short lived, but that's a good thing because it tastes all that much sweeter when one has it.

Joy decided that he and his merry band would follow one of the large rivers that flowed throughout the continent.

The sun rose and set day after day as Joy and Theo kept marching forwards. They kept their accommodations sparse, and they were thankful for the good weather. Now that the freak storms from the disastrous series of events in Vena Cava had passed, the entire continent seemed to be residing in a perpetual summer.

The days were hot and muggy with a perpetual weight of heat upon their shoulders. But that meant that Theo and Joy could sleep outside with very little effort going into their campsite. No need for fires or tents when the days were so wonderful.

The river business had not stopped because of the events of Vena Cava. If anything, the river became much more crowded than it usually was this time of year. There were a glut of ships trying to provide aid to the healing city and many left the city to try and spread out some of the large numbers that were displaced by the disaster.

Joy knew he could get on one of those river barges and move much faster, but he was terrified. He could feel King David's minions closing in on him. The paranoia was eating him alive.

In Joy's mind every tree held foes and spies, and getting on a river barge was just asking to be stabbed in the middle of the night.

So, Joy kept walking.

The forested area they had begun in was slowly turning into fields as the group got further and further away from the capitol.

After a month of travel Joy felt less and less dour. The world seemed brighter, and the nights seemed less foreboding. The air smelled like fresh flowers and Joy knew that he had almost reached his destination.

This wandering had not been aimless, and he was almost done. He knew that this would not be his final stop, but he hoped that it might be Lillian and Theo's.

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Lillian looked like she was wasting away. She was in a coma and only the attention of Joy had kept her from dying of hunger or thirst, but she still had lost all the muscle that she had on her body. Her face was gaunt from too little nutrition and no exercise.

Theo wasn't wasting away like Lillian. He was fending for himself with his walking stick, refusing help from Joy for anything, always saying "I can do this." But he too was in no condition to go on an adventure with Joy.

He couldn't abandon them at Emerald and her mother's house, but here they may be safe while Joy tried to stop the prince.

Joy could see the beginnings of a village when a man stepped out from behind a tree. His arms were massive, and his grin was predatory.

"Sam told me I would find you here." A man that Joy did not recognize spoke to him. He wore no armor but there was a massive object strapped to his back. It was almost larger than the man himself.

It was so comically large that it took a moment for Joy to realize that it was a giant hammer. A hammer larger than the man that wielded it.

The image was so funny that Joy started busting up laughing.

"You think this is funny, punk? I don't know what you did to get on the new king's bad side, but I am here to kill you and your friends." Joy just kept laughing. What sort of hired assassin monologues like this? Or even announces that they're there to kill you? What an awful killer.

With a roar the man brandished his massive hammer. It moved too easily through the air and Joy calculated that there were two options for what was happening. Either the man had a gift that made him stronger, or the hammer was not actually all that sturdy.

Joy loosened the straps that connected him to Lillian's sled and handed them to Theo who had a look of confusion on his face. "Please run away from the sound of the fighting, Theo. This is going to get a bit hairy soon."

Theo looked dazed but followed Joy's instruction. He started running with little consideration for anything else. Joy just hoped that he wouldn't injure himself or Lillian by falling hard.

The man was far away from Joy, but he swung his hammer with gusto in Joy's general direction.

Joy was on edge. No one ever just swung a weapon when it was obviously going to miss. Something gift related was going to happen, and unfortunately, he had no idea what.

A massive nail appeared directly in front of the hammer. The nail perfectly matched the size of the ridiculous hammer. But the nail was hit by the hammer and was abruptly brought up to an incredible speed directly at Joy's face.

Joy dove to the ground, hearing the woosh of wind over his head as the nail embedded itself completely through a tree that was several hand widths larger than Joy.

Well, that answered his question. The hammer was probably a focus for the gift. The gift probably was something along the lines of 'summons a nail directly in front of the hammer.' And using a massive hammer created an oversized nail. That made some things easier and some things harder.

The man would be easily subdued if Joy could get him away from his hammer. However, the flying nails were far more difficult to deal with than just a big, strong, hairy man.

Joy tried to spread his arms theatrically to challenge his opponent to a duel of games. But he suddenly had to duck to dodge a flying nail.

"Oh, no you don't!" The bear of a man yelled as he kept flinging nails at an incredible speed.

It was too much to hope that the prince would keep his goons in the dark about Joy's capabilities. But this was nothing to be discouraged by, he just had to get the words out.

"Want to…" Joy dodged a nail that flew over his head by diving to the ground. Still, he kept direct eye contact with the other man, "…play a game?"

A grand voice announced, "Stump. Any of you need the rules explained to you?"

In front of Joy and the other man two massive nails appeared floating in the air with their points barely grazing the dirt below them.

"Yes, please!" The other man shouted to the voice, obviously he had been informed that the games that Joy forced his opponent into were fair. Or at least close enough to fair.

Joy muttered under his breath, "yes."

The grand voice sighed in mock boredom, "the rules are as follows. Each of the contestants has a nail in front of them. They must zealously guard their nail from the other competitor. If your nail is slammed fully into the earth by the other player, you will be forced to take a shot." The smell of cheap and strong booze filled Joy's nostrils as the word shot was spoken. "After the shot, the player will be provided with a new nail."

Jot hated that the game was heavily stacked against him. He didn't even have a hammer, but he was a master of the draw. If anyone could win a game with odds like these it was him.

The other man roared and sent another nail flying at Joy, but Joy easily dodged it this time. The other man was obviously struggling a little bit. His muscles were taxed, and he seemed unused to fighting this much.

Why would David send such a bad assassin after me? Joy thought to himself, but he was too worried about the fight to truly spend the time to think about it.

Joy decided that there was only one way that he could win and that was by being decisive.

Wind blew his growing hair into his eyes and Joy burst forward. He moved so quickly the other man could not even raise the hammer in time to defend himself. Joy gripped the handle of the hammer as tightly as he could and forced the other man into a standstill. Neither man budged as they forced the hammer back and forth between them, jerking and twisting it, hoping to get an advantage.

Joy noticed that the nail had followed him and now the two men were sparring between both of their nails. With a jerk and a tug, Joy slipped his foot behind the other man's legs and swept him from his feet. The weight of the hammer and the sweep caused the man to fly backwards and slam his own nail into the ground with his body.

A deep odor of alcohol filled Joy's nose, and the other man started smelling as if he had just gone on a bender with his friends.

The man wasn't out of the fight yet. He rose to his feet, wobbling only slightly before facing down Joy. The hammer swung and a nail went careening far to Joy's right. The other man was losing his accuracy.

A new nail appeared in front of the man and Joy started approaching him. With a slow and determined gait he dodged every blow that the other man threw at him.

Joy stood an arm's length away from the other man and pushed down on his nail. It slid quickly into the soft earth and the hammer slipped from his hands.

"Lightweight." Joy scoffed as the other man collapsed to the ground.

Joy picked up the hammer and started levering it up. He was aiming to smash the other man's head in with his own trusty tool.

Memories of another pulped skull flashed into Joy's mind as he recalled Ian. Joy remembered the blood dripping down his arms as he beat Ian's head into the ground over and over and over again.

The hammer slipped from Joy's grasp as he started shivering. Joy turned his back to the man on the ground and started walking away.

Joy didn't notice the man's form shifting as he reached into his pocket and fished out another hammer. This one was much smaller than his massive one; but size doesn't matter.

The man was incredibly drunk, but pure luck guided his hand and wrist into an elegant motion that made the gift-created nail go flying directly into Joy's back.

Joy staggered as the nail embedded itself deeply into his back. A flare of agony ripped through Joy as he collapsed to the ground.

He writhed in agony, trying, and mostly failing, to get to his feet to finish off the other man.

Shuffling feet sounded closer and closer to Joy. The pungent smell of bad breath, sweat, and alcohol mixed together drifted towards Joy and he let out a scream of pure rage.

He raged against the world. He raged against King David. And he raged against his luck failing him.

Joy heard the other man chuckle and the unmistakable sound of the massive hammer being raised above his head.

This is the end. Head crushed underneath a massive hammer. I wonder what they'll put on my tombstone. Joy thought as he felt the air rush down from the hammer's descent.

But he heard a whoomph, as the hammer was suddenly stopped above him. A deep, familiar voice said, "what are you doing?"

"Huh?" The man with the hammer said as he was lifted into the air and thrown far into the distance. The man had become a spot over the horizon before he hit the ground.

"Thank you, thank you." Joy said repeatedly as he felt another pair of hands, much smaller than the pair belonging to the deep voiced man, pull the nail out of his back.

"We saw your friends come into town and thought we might check it out." Another familiar voice belonging to the hands pulling the nail out of his back spoke.

"Have you had your fill of adventure yet? Come home with your tail between your legs?" Joy's parents faced him as he started hobbling forward. A small smile spread across Joy's lips. Maybe everything would be okay.

"No. I don't think I'll ever be done adventuring. I just came home to give you some extra work before running off into the night." Joy's smile was jovial as his parents helped him hobble towards the old healer's house in his village.

Here he would be safe for a while. He was home.

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