Chapter 25: You are no different

Jean POV:

It is not every day, that one gets woken up by guards, who demand that he pay bail money for his party members. I tried to explain, calmly and reasonably, that I had no money. Offered to let some crops in our rented garden grow faster, but the kind guards were of a different mind.

I thought I was the first nature spirit who had landed in debtor jail. History will remember me fondly. One thing I couldn't understand was, why the heck did I have to sweep the streets of Mirstone, just because my party members got in a brawl?

"I think I am done," I said to a guard, who looked at me critically.

"You call that sweeping?" He was right. It wasn't sweeping. More like leaning on the broom, and attempting to nap.

"I am a nature spirit. I wasn't raised in a city!" My patience was now at its end. In my true form, I could easily run away. I doubted that the guards could follow me in the air. Still, Mike was here, probably didn't want to come and live in a cave or on a cloud with me.

Oh, romance, why did you curse me so?

"Then pay the fine!" The guard was very stubborn. It wasn't every day that someone asked a nature spirit for money. I was beginning to believe that this particular guard had ear wax problems. He seemed unable to remember all the times I told him I had no money.

"Look, if you just let me grow some herbs..." I received narrowed eyes, which was my hint that I had to get back to napping while standing up. Oh, fate was really in a bad mood today.

"Jack, leave him be. Let him just bless all the community gardens or something. The people could use the extra food," said the partner of the guard named Jack, I had to remember his name, so I could wish him foot fungi during my next prayer to mother nature. That was something that was of extreme importance for me.

"What? Just because he is a nature spirit, he is above the law or something?" Oh, Mother Nature and all of the saintly nature spirits above! Why did I have to deal with racists every time I went to a city? 

I was doing this for Mike. I had to remember that. If I hit the guard, or catapulted him into the azure vastness up above, I would never be allowed back to Mirstone.

"I wasn't saying that, but honestly, just because he is a nature spirit, you think..." I was beginning to feel fond of this second guard. Him I wanted to bless.

"He stole from the farmers who supply Mirstone! For weeks, there was barely anything on the market! My mother wanted just a potato soup before she died. There were no potatoes in the entire city, Clark!"

Ah well, fuck.

I was not pure like the snow. My belief that the blessed fields belonged to me was misplaced. It was just at that moment that I was confronted with the consequences of my actions.

My hands moved; the broom started doing what brooms did best. But Jack was not ready to let me off the hook.

"Oh, so you can work, eh? What, stealing was not the only thing you could do, eh?" Jack was picking up steam. 

Had his mother lived a couple of days more, I would have personally made her the soup. But from Jack's words, it was pretty clear that the poor woman died without the meal she wanted so badly.

I was in deep shit. My ears were heating up. Words that I would never say to someone were going through my mind with the speed of the northern wind. 

"I am sorry," I managed to mumble, as the broom swept away the leaves which were scattered on the road. Honestly, did Mirstone sweep the roads only when they had someone in debtor's jail? It was April, for crying out loud!

"You are sorry?" I was in for a beating, or so I thought. The broom started moving with the speed of an erupting volcano. Which was not good at all.

It caught on a stone; I didn't react fast enough. Soon the broom was broken in half, and I was rolling on the ground.

"Pathetic," Jack spat near my feet, then marched away. There I lay, blood on my knees, dust in my hair. Ears and cheeks surely red like the strawberries which were available in the market.

Well... when I didn't eat them straight from the fields.

"Hey, don't think too much of it," Clark offered me his hand. I was too ashamed to accept it. "Jack's mother was more than one hundred years old. She lived a good life. It is just that... she was the only person he had. It is not like Jack can have children. A scoundrel cut him pretty badly during a chase once. What woman would have him?"

God-damn it, Clark, what did you want? That I prostrate myself and beg for forgiveness? I was of the mind to, yes, but I felt that Jack would surely land me in the hospital if I did that.

No, such men didn't want to hear a lame sorry. They wanted actions.

"I can do it," I blurted out. "I can bless the gardens, and the fields, and the..."

Before I could suggest that even the potted plants in the houses needed a blessing, Clark began to chuckle.

"You are a good kid, you know that?" he offered me his hand once more. I let him pull me up. "If you want to help the people of Mirstone, then you are welcome to do it. Honestly, don't do it because of Jack. Don't do it so you will get away from debtor's jail easier. Do it just because you can."

Then he took the broken broom, turned away, and just disappeared in the distance. Leaving me questioning who I was.