A Plant’s Life - Chapter 32 Everyone has a story to tell!

If benefits were not in sight, those with power to do something would not move, helping the weak was for idealists. After becoming an adventurer, all of the party members had experienced many hardships, becoming devastated more times than they could count. Slowly slowly, they learned to be realistic, gathering power, one step at a time.

The world was too harsh for any charity, any injury sustained in this line of work would cost a large sum to be taken care of. If the party did not have the necessary funds or simply found it as an extravagant expense, and did not pay for it, the wounded member had to use basic bandages. In a life filled with danger, many lost their lives on a daily basis, not being able to use full power proved to be fatal.

In such a setting, how was it possible to spare time and effort to care for a stranger, when no benefit was insight. Any time or resource used in such a manner, will without a doubt become a hindrance in the future. Many had found themselves in deep predicaments, due to lack of the simplest tools.

Amity was meant for the weak-willed, only those not capable to generate benefits for others, expected goodness of heart. The mentality to avoid herds had been engraved within the mind of these adventurers. A small group of capable comrades formed after a common goal could be far more reliable, than goodwill.

Not all members of their community shared this ideology, some helped others at their own expense. However, these people had overwhelming strength or backing, making them a different social class. No one truly knew their motives though; some thoughtful sentiment offered by them could be contaminated with sharp thorns of schemes!

Due to Ginger’s bad luck, none of the members of this small group had the liberty to extend a helping hand. Then again, if her luck had been good, her situation would not have escalated to extent of despair!

Dahlia looked into the eyes of Ginger; she felt some familiarity with such desperate gaze. suddenly a flash of light took her mind away. She stood tall beside a young child, the child had dark brown hair formed into two buns on either side of her head, tied firmly by red ribbons. The child wore a long dark green skirt and magenta blouse completed with white socks and white shoes! Witnessing the small child of 10 years, Dahlia felt her heart tighten. She remembered this scene of her childhood vividly, yet she could not muster enough strength to look away for what was about to happen.

The young Dahlia happily opened a door without knocking, jumping inside, giving the young man and women a good scare. She entered and screamed:

“Today is my birthday, mom, come see what I found to wear all by myself. See I have all grown up, I can go to the market with father now. I wanna help him as much as possible, will you tell him when he gets home or should I? I think it is better if you do…”

An angry woman marched to towards the petite girl and slapped her as hard as she could. The blow made the poor child fall, bleeding from nose and mouth, small drops of blood fell on the ground and her sleeves as she tried to stand up in shock. Her mother had never been this angry, in her confusion, she heard the screams of hysterical woman:

“AGHHHHH, I TOLD YOU A THOUSAND TIME, NOCK WHEN YOU BARGE IN A ROOM. DAMN IMBICIL, NEVER LEARNS ANYTHING. WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU WEARING? DID I NOT TELL YOU TO WAIT IN YOUR ROOM UNTIL I CAN COME AND DRESS YOU PROPERLY? YOU LOOK LIKE A DMAN CLOWN. GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM, STAY IN YOURS UNTIL I COME TO GET YOU”

The mature Dahlia stood there with tears in her eyes, she could hear the sound of a little heart being broken. She took another look filled with hatred at the naked young man in bed, then followed the crying girl wobbling to her room. The child sat the cold floor, silently sobbing, snot, blood, and teardrops covered her delicate face. A big red handprint had almost covered one side of her skin, it started showing signs of swelling. Mature Dahlia slightly touched the red mark, it made her feel a hot numbing pain on her left cheek.

This had been her biggest secret, finding out about her mother’s adultery by accident. It had not taken long after that for her to mention this event by mistake later, in her father’s presence.

Her lovely father, her hero, the man she worshiped had kicked both of them out of the house. While labeling her as a bastard offspring, and her mother as a whore. After losing one parent, Dahlia had felt her world crumbling, yet worst came when her mother sold her daughter to a slum lord. That day her life changed forever, she strived strength to become truly independent, so under the tutelage of old slum master, she learned the way of thieves. Soon she became one of the best in looting, yet wanting more, she ran far, starting as an adventurer and formed this small group.

All of these events had occurred because of a simple secret, which she learned later. Dahlia had been color blind all her life, not being able to differentiate between many cloths. This had been the reason her father, a fabric merchant did not agree to her presences at the stall. She increased the workload by misplacing the rags and giving wrong information to customers!

On her tenth birthday, she had tried to wake up much earlier, trying every dress she had obsessively. In her young mind, if she proved her taste and maturity, the issue would be solved once and for all. Finally, after an extended period of time, she reached a conclusion, being very proud with the result, her budding heart was unable to wait any longer. Thus, she trotted towards her parent’s room, where all of her hopes and dreams had shattered.

To this day, Dahlia had yet to tell another soul about her biggest secret, her color blindness! To cover this matter, she only wore and bought black clothing. Which ironically helped much in her line of profession.

Due to her own experience, she hated weakness and despair. So, once a second passed and her flash back-ended, instead of feeling sympathy, she felt anger and disgust towards Ginger. She could not explain the reason for her feelings, they may have been directed at herself. Since she had yet to confront her birth parents after 20 years.

She did not mention anything towards this matter, simply turned away and pushed her complex emotions deep inside.

After Rod gave half of his burden to Ginger, they started to slowly advance towards the dark entrance. The smell of blood and doom could be felt more clearly, staying there would give any normal person a strong ominous feeling, making their hair stand in fright. However, none of the crowd present had a qualm with such matter.

They walked towards the fences guarded by soldiers, their capital, who was visibly much stronger and had shinier armor, loudly yelled:

“You bunch, show me your papers, if you don’t have any slowly back off, don’t think about making any trouble or we will send you to prison or kill you right here!”

Link, the most charismatic of the bunch, replied with a smile:

“Hello good sir, I hope you are having an excellent day, I have the permit for our group, the name is Rolling Rock, you can see for yourself. We would not dare cause any ruckus”

The captain happily rolled his thin mustache, he liked those who knew their place. After receiving their permit from Link, he thoroughly checked it before responding:

“Ok, your group is clear, but be mindful of the rules

1. Don’t harm others and if anyone is after you report them to internal stations

2. Don’t pass our outposts stationed inside without proper papers

3. Don’t try any contraband, any gains must be reported to us

4. Your time in the dungeon should not be more than a week, or you will be deemed as dead