A map to meaning

The Man

While Jacob walks back to the town, now would be a good time to explain more about who he truly is. Jacob was born with a debilitating disease preventing him from being nearly as strong as the average man should be. This was in exact conflict with his dreams, to be a member of the Corps. The Corps was a sort of elite military who guarded Order and hunted monsters in the forest. Being disabled shattered this dream, however it did give him a sort of arrogance. See, after his birth he was given one year to live. At this current time in the story, he is fourteen years overdue. Few people can go through something like that without believing they have some hidden importance within them.

While one could call him an "Arrogant Jackass" on the inside, he certainly did, he was an "Arrogant Jackass" with a guilty conscience. As such he always put on a false show of humility, however one can only fake something for so long until it becomes a part of their character. His humility made him weak and unable to stand up for himself to the point where even placing an order for food at a restaurant gave him a miniature panic attack. While many drawbacks came with it, he did learn to be exceptionally polite and chivalrous. The latter, however, was quite an interesting skill to learn as he had no good father figure with which to look up to in order to learn chivalry.

He also possessed a twisted and dark humor which turned many away from interacting with him. His intelligence was above average and was truly remarkable... but unable to articulate these thoughts, always a misused word would derail everything he laid out or he would get lost with another thought as he was in the middle of formulating an articulation of another.

This frustrated him very much, thinking in ideas instead of words made him slow in meaningful debate and made himself mischaracterize his own thoughts. He thought in the abstract though as well, and loved creating stories as a way of piecing together his thoughts. He would see himself as a great warrior, or a great leader. In reality he commanded little to no respect and thus he felt often as though his opinions were discarded and ignored by even his own friends however good they may be.
Well, Jacob has now arrived back at the outskirts of the town and the information above should suffice in informing you of what kind of man he is.

Jacob walked from the treeline and saw the familiar corps soldiers pointing their rifles at him.
"Hey fellas," he called out, "Thank you all so much for your service here-"
The captain interrupted him
"Yeah we got it the first fifty times. You're welcome, now for the forty third time, stop thanking us"
Jacob truly did want to, but he just always seemed unable to stop himself from doing it. He pressed on towards his home. On his way back he passed the theater in which he worked as a choir member. He wasn't making much money as he was simply a choir member mostly and background actor on occasion, but it made him happy and was the only thing keeping him from disappearing in the forest.
As he walked by he saw his friend Alyssa Oakly. Jacob had met Alyssa after he ostracized himself from his old friends. He began hanging out inside the theater in his free time, and she was often there. She was not an actor or singer but her friends all seemed to work there as well as her boyfriend Alexander Mastoff. While Jacob was an arrogant jackass with a guilty conscience, Alex was simply an arrogant jackass. A renown tenor making a lot of money, he would be thrown into the forest within the next year or two. Alyssa had two years at least more than likely, as did Jacob.
She was beautiful; hazel green eyes slightly slanted up, brown short hair, small button nose, full lips, thin frame. Jacob could honestly say that she was the most beautiful women he had ever seen in his entire life. However, he couldn't have her as long as she belonged to Alex; and that didn't seem to be in danger of changing anytime soon.

"Hi Jacob!" She cheerily called out, she always seemed happy when he was around. Normally he would say hello but he was more concerned about her attire
"Where the hell is your jacket!" He said as he began to take his off to give to her. He tried to put it on her but she kept avoiding it, but not with too much effort as to discourage him from trying.
"I'm fine I promise!" but it was in vain as he finally threw it on her and she greedily covered herself up. Surprisingly, Jacob did not feel, as he had expected he would, like the stabbing cold was getting worse... He actually seemed, warm for once in his life. "Thank you" she said
"Anytime, now where is your coat?"
"I went to spend the night at Alex's last night and suddenly an emergency came up, he wouldn't tell me what, but he rushed me to his car where his driver took me home. In the rush I guess I left it there, he promised that he would bring it to me after his rehearsal finished." almost as if on queue, Alex walked out of the theater. Heavy coat, scarf, mittens, ear muffs, and even a gaudy cape to protect from the cold.

"Hey baby!" she called to him, a small burst of cold hit Jacob. "Did you bring my jacket?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" He said very dramatically "I completely forgot about it. How about you come by later tonight and pick it up."
"Okay..." Alyssa said, obviously very disappointed.
"Jacob, come with me. I want to talk to you about perhaps advancing your career. I could put in a good word for you, just come with me for a while-"
"I think I'll pass, thanks," Jacob said with far too much politeness than he had intended.
"Suit yourself" and with that Alex got in the car and his driver drove him off. Jacob turned to Alyssa, who was visibly upset, and said
"Let me walk you home"
"No, you don't have t-"
"But I want to make sure you make it to warmth alright." He insisted.
"But you'll be freezing"
"I'm fine, I promise"
"Thank you so much"

They walked most the way in silence until she finally asked
"What've you done today?"
"Just took a little walk in the forest," He said. It wasn't necessarily a lie, but it was far from the whole truth.
"That sounds fun. You do that a lot," She noted, "Maybe I could join you one day."
Jacob chuckled
"Forest is a dangerous place, especially the paths I take." He said matter-of-factly causing Alyssa to scoff in offense
"You know, I have more experience in there than people think." then she took on a happier playful tone,"Besides, everyone knows you got that massive revolver. I'm sure you could protect me with that." She nudged him with a playful punch. It was true his revolver was known around town as extremely powerful. At least so the rumors went, no one had ever seen him use it. He pulled it out a few times and usually wore it on his hip for everyone to see, it made people fear him which made people avoid him.
If only they knew, the truth was, the weapon was basically useless to him. It was a magical pistol and he had forgotten how to utilize it and was unable to pull the trigger when it was pointed at anything, except himself. For some reason the trigger was allowed to move back when he pointed it at himself.
"Yeah..."

They arrived at her house and she thanks Jacob. She gives him his jacket back and he feels the cold again, but not nearly as terrible as it was. Jacob begins his walk home thinking nothing else of the night. All he would know was that she would be going to Alex's for dinner that night. All he would know for now, that is.