The New World: Old Habits

Chapter 20

The rain was falling hard outside, hopefully enough to put out the forest fire that Jim started, or at least Turg assumed he did. Jim was very good at starting fires. One of his favourite activities. The two were in one of the small caves at the entrance of the gorge waiting out the storm, sitting against the wall and not saying a word. Turg was daydreaming about things, not paying attention to what was going on around him. 
Jim would break the silence by asking "Did I hurt you?"
Turg snapped out of his daydreaming session and shook his head in response. He was in no pain and lost no blood. Unlike Jim who had bloodstains on his clothes, though he wasn't bleeding anymore. 
"You struck me pretty hard though, my head still hurts from it." Jim said rather cheerfully as Turg responded with "Turg sorry."
"No, don't be. I deserved it." Jim assured Turg. Jim did deserve it. 
"Was Jim afraid?" Turg decided to ask. Jim looked at him for a few seconds before answering with "Yes, I was. Doesn't matter anymore, I was just seeing things that weren't there." 
"What Jim see?" Turg asked again as Jim replied "Ah, the usual. That being my father who's been dead for many years." 
Turg decided to not ask any more questions about that, he knew Jim didn't like talking about him. Though Jim would begin rambling with "Y'know Turg, I've been thinking."
Turg knew that Jim was about to say something wild whenever he started a sentence with that. Jim stood up and started pacing around as he explained "This world is cruel and punishing no matter what you do. It doesn't matter if I'm a good person or not, same with you."
Turg remained sitting on the ground and hearing Jim out. 
"Why should we be good to a world that's been nothing but cruel to us? Do any of these people deserve our kindness?" Jim started asking as part of his explanation. Turg wasn't sure where Jim was going with that. Jim would then elaborate with "Think about it, Turg. You're nice to everyone but a lot of the time people are not nice to you. They're mean to you, take things from you, use you for their personal gain and call you a monster just because of how you look."
Jim then started backing away a bit while looking at the ground before adding "But I'm the monster, not you."
"Jim okay?" Turg asked as he stood back up. 
"No! I'm not okay! I don't think I ever have been!" Jim angrily exclaimed in response, he was starting to sound like he was about to cry. He then grabbed Turg's upper arms and told him "I wish I could be like you. I tried to be like you. But I just can't. I try to be nice and, well, you know what happens when I do that." 
Turg wanted to help make Jim feel better but he didn't know what to say. 
"That was a lot to put on you, I should just stop talking now." Jim then said as he let go of Turg and wandered over to the cave entrance. He stopped by it and continued looking outside. 
"Jim right. About world being mean." Turg was trying to tell Jim but he was struggling to put it to words. Jim turned around to look at him as Turg continued "People mean to Turg. But Turg can't be mean back. It hurt Turg." 
"Yeah, it was stupid of me to even ask." Jim said as Turg kept speaking "Turg like be with Jim. Turg just happy to be there. Turg love Jim. Turg only want Jim be happy." 
Turg could see Jim smiling a little as he started wandering back over to Turg. He was expecting Jim to say something more but instead Jim started hugging Turg rather tightly. Turg did the same back. Neither of them wanted to let go. 
"Y'know, I kinda miss living on the docks back in that town." Jim said, his voice slightly muffled by Turg. Turg did too, life wasn't perfect there but he enjoyed doing questionable tasks with Jim to get by. 
"If only a certain someone didn't blow it up." Jim then added as they let go of each other. Turg mentioned "Jim burnt it."
Jim giggled a bit before responding with "Yeah, I burned down the town too. Only because I love you that much."
Turg didn't remember much of that time, he just knew some things happened there that caused them to move overseas far away from it. 
Jim looked back outside and pointed out "I think the rain has stopped. Hope the thunder didn't bother you too much."
Turg was too focused on other things to even notice it, so it didn't. Turg said "It okay." 
"I am sorry for what I did back there. I truly am." Jim apologized to Turg as he turned back to look at him. Turg smiled and told him "Turg hold no grudge. Turg want Jim be okay."
"Of course you do, you always do, though you should also focus on yourself." Jim responded to what Turg told him. 
Jim then rambled "I also need to see if I can cure this werewolf-ness I got going on before I end up seriously hurting someone I don't mean to harm, like I did to you. I destroyed your staff I'm pretty sure and made you lose your amulet again. Hopefully Grim found it." 
Turg did like Jim's werewolf form, he found him adorable, though he was scary when he couldn't control it. It was for the best he got rid of it. 
Jim continued rambling "I've been many things at this point. Was born a spellcaster, I was a vampire, merman, ghost, king, a man with no magic and now a werewolf. Who knows how much damage this has done to my body but it doesn't matter if you can seemingly live forever I guess." 
Turg was still confused by how Jim could be so many things, though he chose not to think about it too much. Jim then held out his hand to Turg while smiling and asked "Wanna go commit crimes together?"
Turg took his hand, he did want to go do that with Jim, who would then add "After we recover from this because once the adrenalin wears off I am going to be in a lot of pain. Let's go home first."