The Thieves of Otar

A Vow of Silence

"Cap'n?" Archibald said hesitantly.

Jay turned to face his redheaded friend. "What can I help you with?" He had been speaking with Percival, but now he turned to face the Scullinder.

Archibald swallowed. He was loath to speak what he was about to say, but if he didn't, the company could find themselves in a tight fix.

When Archibald still seemed nervous to speak, Jay asked him, "What is it, Archibald? Speak your mind."

"I've thought of somethin', Cap'n, and I'm no' sure it's good news," he said slowly.

"Well, if you've got something to say, don't be shy. Let's hear it."

"It's jus', ye see, sir, we only brough' enough provisions for th' thirteen of us to las' for two weeks, and tha's on light provisions. With an extra mouth to feed, I'm afraid we won' las' the trip."

"That's a good point. You're right, Archibald," Jay said, seeing the logic in his words. "I didn't think about that. We could find ourselves in a tight spot."

"What about the provisions in the wagon the smugglers stole?" Percival suggested.

Jay shook his head. "No. Those provisions belong to Skilae."

"You do know that they're our enemy, right?" Percival pointed out. "We're on our way to stop their men from invading our own country- to kill them even."

"Be that as it may," Jay said, looking his companion in the face, "these provisions were stolen from innocent villagers in Skilae. If we use them we'll be no better than the smugglers."

"It doesn't matter if we're no better than the smugglers if we're all dead because we're too weak from hunger to fight," Percival pointed out.

"What are we goin' to do with them, then?" Archibald asked. "Take them with us? Return them to the nearest village?"

Jay nodded. "That's exactly what we'll do."

"No offence, Captain," Percival said, "but that's not exactly the brightest idea you've ever had."

"And why do you say that?"

"Our mission is to stop the attack- that's it. Once we've done that we are to report back to the King to make preparations for the final battles. This girl doesn't change the mission- she just complicates it a bit. And so do these provisions. We can't take that wagon back to Skilae. It will it will just be in the way when the time comes to fight. Besides, even if we did get past the Skilaens, there's no way we could know where these things came from, so it'd be impossible to actually return them."

"But the provisions would still be going to the same kingdom-"

"Where a greedy tyrant is the ruler," Percival cut off. "He'll be taking the provisions from the people anyway. But if we take them and use them, they'll be going toward a good cause."

Jay pondered over Percival's logic. He had a point, Jay had to admit, but he still didn't feel right about using the food of the people that was unjustly stolen from them.

"I know you mean well, Captain," Percival told him. "You're a good man. But sometimes the things you want to do aren't always the things you can to do."

Jay sighed. He could hardly disagree with that. "Very well," he conceded. "We will use minimal provisions from the wagon, and we will return anything that we have not used once the war is over."

His companions agreed, and he felt slightly better about his choice.

"It's all well and good to use as li'l as possible, but wha' will we do with the wagon?" Archibald questioned.