Still

A Map

Even with the map, The Soldier still felt lost. However, he continued to walk on, until Marian stole it from him. She folded it up into a tiny sheet, and shoved it down her pocket. The Soldier would have grabbed for the map back, but his strict code of chivalry went against it. Thou shall not touch a woman in any way they would feel uncomfortable in, after all.

Marian stuck up her tiny nose, and marched along. Her green hair bounced as she walked, and The Soldier almost wanted to smack it. She looked like an actual bush. Was she aware of that? Because that was all The Soldier thought about when he had to follow her, and he just waited for the day that red berries would suddenly sprout out of it.

They had only been on the trip for twenty-one hours or so, and they had already bickered through half of them. Usually it was playful, and usually it was because The Soldier was being dumb. He was completely aware of his stupidity, but Marian reminding him didn't help the cause. He probably only had a few days to live, and every second he spent with her was literally killing him.

The two marched along in almost perfect silence. All they could hear was the crunching of the leaves and twigs under foot, as well as the water besides them, trickling away. Marian hopped over a rotting branch, not even bothering to tell The Soldier that it was there. He thought about that bitterly as he stepped over it.

"Can I have my map back?" The Soldier asked.

Marian continued walking, keeping her head forward. "What's the magic word?" she asked.

"Please?"

"No."

The Soldier was confused. "Is that not the magic word? Are you actually looking for an incantation or something?"

Marian shook her head. "That was the right word," she said. "I just don't want you to have the map back."

Thou shall not smack a woman-eth, The Soldier reminded himself, even if they really deserved it at the moment. 

"Why not?" asked The Soldier.

"Because you don't need it."

The Soldier didn't know what to say, so he shut up. He really felt like he needed the map, but he couldn't just tell the nymph that. Knowing her, she'd ask why, and then he would have to answer honestly: He didn't know. Or, even worse, she'd force him to admit that she was probably smarter than him.

He should probably make his own set of rules to follow, now that he was no longer a real soldier. The first rule would be to never let a woman take care of financial problems, such as what to buy and how they kept their money safe. The next would be to make sure a woman never knows that they were ever right.

The Soldier began to wonder if he had these rules back from wherever he was originally from. The Tree of Life had strong, magical abilities, and could probably help him get his memories back. He could live a new life, maybe as something boring, like as a shoe maker.

"I told you we didn't need a map!"

The Soldier looked up from the ground, and saw that Marian was showing off the giant wooden wall in front of her. At the gates of the wall was a sign, saying: 'Forest Town: A Town in the Forest'. Underneath it, another smaller sign read: 'Please knock for entry'.

Despite their new discovery, The Soldier was still in a sour mood. This stupid town and its stupid name just proved that Marian was right, even though she was acting very rude.

Before Marian could make another declaration to him, The Soldier stomped over to the gate, and knocked firmly on the wood.

"What are you doing?" Marian asked.