Heavy is the Head

Pocahontas - 2

Chapter 23

3 years ago

Pocahontas' first ever job was as a helper at a summer camp. Mavis had suggested it to her after she came into the florists one day ranting about how nobody ever wanted to hire people under 18. It was a lot of fun and a great experience overall, especially because she got to work alongside someone she already knew. 

"I have a question for you, Pocahontas." Mavis said, one day, tossing Pocahontas a pack of marshmallows for the campfire later on. "Ever heard of the trolly problem?"

16-year-old Pocahontas caught the marshmallows with ease and put them beside the tin of hot chocolate. "No, what's that?"

"So, imagine this: You're an onlooker and you have the choice to save 5 people in danger of being hit by a trolley, by pulling a lever to divert it and kill just 1 person. However, let's add an extra factor. That person is the love of your life. What do you do?"

"I don't know. I'd feel responsible for someone's death either way and that's not something I think I could ever handle. I'd probably leave it alone, right? Then I'm not directly responsible."

"Yeah, but you still have to watch at least one person die." Mavis sat down for a few minutes, staring off into the distance and popped a marshmallow into her mouth, "I just wonder sometimes, how that one person would feel if the lever got pulled. Dying alone doesn't sound fun on a good day let alone when you're killed by someone claiming they love you."

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That exchange had never left Pocahontas' mind. Partially because the question was so different to the ones Mavis normally threw  at her which went along the lines of,  "What is your favourite letter?" or "Would you rather fight a goose or a cat?". Partially because Pocahontas was haunted by the expression on Mavis' face before she went back inside herself and slapped the mask back on. It was like she was a completely different person.

"Yeah, she'd get really weird and gloomy out of the blue sometimes. She had a really difficult upbringing, you know? Sometimes I forget that because she's acts so happy all of the time." Aurora explained during one of the rare occasions that they caught each other in the common room. "My grandparents weren't good parents and Aunt Flora was basically your age when she became Mavis' legal guardian so she had no idea what she was doing."

"Have your grandparents passed?" Pocahontas asked.

"Grandpa has. Grandma is in prison."

"Oh."

"Yeah. It's best not to ask." Aurora said. "Anyway, Anna snuck in and got us 'The Chronicles of Fire, Version 1'  book from Mrs Oldenburg's office and there's a map on the first page that we were looking into."

Pocahontas crossed her arms, about to give a disapproving speech but her curiosity stopped her. "Do you have a picture of it?"

"Yeah." Aurora put Jasmine's second phone on the table and pulled up the picture. 

"Huh. Well, Milo Thatch knows a lot about cartography."

"Jasmine thought the same thing. So we went to see him yesterday and he said a whole lot of stuff that none of us understood and then showed us how it mapped out a route to a place called 'Valley of the Living Rock' which is known in Arendellian folklore to be where mystical trolls with magical powers live."