{So, what should we do?}

  [I dunno, I didn’t expect… this.]

  The goblin continues to thrash, trying to reach out and bite us but failing to get close enough.

  [I… Don’t think I wanna eat this.]

  {Can’t say I disagree. It’d feel wrong. I mean… this thing is way more humanoid than we are.}

  [Well, since we’ve got it, might as well kill the thing for levels.]

  {...I don’t really know. I feel bad.}

  [Why? This thing was stalking us. It's clearly not friendly.]

  {Well… it was only because it was scared of us. It’s probably never seen something like us. And it looks like it was right to be afraid of us.}

  [That doesn’t matter! We’ve killed plenty of things before, what’s one more!]

  {I just… I don’t feel like we should.}

  [Whatever! Just look away, I’m doing it!]

  Before Gloria can do anything, I roll off of the goblin, allowing it to escape our grasp. As it frees itself, it quickly runs off into the jungle, hissing as it fades into the dark.

  [Fir! Why’d you do that!]

  {I… I just didn’t want to kill it. It felt wrong. That thing… was humanoid. I couldn’t let you hurt it.}

  [I thought our goal was to become human again? How are we gonna do that if you won’t let me kill things for XP?]

  {Just… just kill anything else.}

  [Whatever. But if we catch another one of those, I’m not letting you stop me.]

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  It’s been a little while now. Since I let that goblin go, Gloria hasn’t spoken to me. She’s definitely upset… But still, I don’t regret letting it go. I thought I could do it, I thought I’d be ready. I’m the expert on stuff like this. At least… I thought I was. I thought, that when the time came when we encountered one of the classic, humanoid game monsters, like a goblin… I didn’t think I’d be the one to hesitate.

  But, this… doesn’t feel like a video game. It isn’t one. That goblin wasn’t just some code. It was a real, flesh-and-blood, living creature. And when we were on top of it, our sharp claws mere inches from its neck… it was scared. It didn’t want to die. I saw fear in its eyes. Its body was trembling.

  I couldn’t bring myself to kill it, or even allow it to be killed.

  It’s not a human, I know that. It’s just a goblin, I know it… probably doesn’t think like humans do. But when you’re that close to something that looks vaguely human… you can’t help but project your own thoughts onto it.

  Or maybe not. Maybe I’m the weird one. Gloria was willing to kill it then and there, not even to eat it. Maybe that’s the normal reaction.

  But if it is… I don’t think I want to be normal. I don’t want to be in a situation like that and feel nothing.

  So I don’t regret letting it go. And I don’t plan on sitting by and allowing Gloria to kill any of those goblins.

  I couldn’t live with myself if I did.

  Ugh, what is up with Fir? We had that monster in our grasp, it was right there! Just a few inches, and blam! We would have had XP! But he just haaaad to go and let it go.

  I really don’t get it at all. We’ve killed so many things up until now, why’d he go and draw the line now of all times?

  He promised we’d get back to being human! He said we’d stop at nothin’ to grow stronger, and get ourselves a body we can be comfortable in! Was he lying all along?

  I’m sure that thing would’ve had plenty of XP for us. So far, stronger things or things that’re just harder to kill in general give us more, I think. And that thing was super hard to catch, so it definitely would’ve been a lot of XP!

  I really just don’t get it. Isn’t he scared? We both saw the same thing when that Rorthal thing came in and forced us to run away, to leave Nea behind. Does he not care about being stronger, so we won’t have to run away anymore?

  Whatever. Whatever, whatever, whatever!

  If he won’t step up and make us stronger, I’ll have to step in and do it myself.

  Because I don’t want to be stuck in this body forever. I don’t want to have to keep running away from our problems. I don’t want to have to leave the only other things we’ve met that we could communicate with behind. I want to live. Not just survive anymore, but live. And the only way to really live is to get out of this damn cave, to beat up all the monsters that stand in my way, to escape into the world and see the sky again. To be human again.

  That’s what I need to do. Fir refuses to be strong, so I have no choice but to be strong for both of us.

  Next time we find one of those things, I’m cutting its throat before Fir can even think of stopping me.