Kimen sat upon the edge of the fountain, peering down into the water being sloshed around with the stick he found. He had decided to stay in Truce for a little longer not only because it meant being close to the healer, but also because he felt guilty just leaving town and going home after what happened.

Forte stepped into Truce from the western pass, apple in one hand, which he was munching merrily away at. As he made his way into the fountains square, Forte looked around, swallowing his mouthful before eyeing the kid also there. "Hey Kiddo."

Slosh. Slosh. Kimen lifted the stick out of the water and looked up at the man who greeted him, offering him a small smile through her gloomy expression. "Hello." She replied politely. People had a tendency to come to this spot, it wasn't a surprise at all to her that this man showed up here to eat his lunch. He didn't seem to stand out too much compared to the other types that showed up here, but Kimen's eyes couldn't help but fall upon the band on his arm, and she tilted her head slightly to the side as she wondered what it meant.

"Look pretty down there, kid." Forte looked around the area, before scratching his head. "Lost your stuffed animal or something?" Moving up next to Kimen, Forte sat on the lip of the fountain. "Come on, you can tell ol' Forte."

The man seemed friendly. And Kimen really wanted to talk to someone about what happened but he wasn't sure if he should be sharing what was on his mind with a stranger. "Stuffed animals can be sewn back together or replaced." Mr. Periwinkle was a complete loss, but a stuffed animal didn't mean as much as other things. Kimen's eyes remained fixed on the man's arm for a long time trying to place where he had seen that crest before. After a moment it hit him. "M-Mister, are you one of the guards here? You don't seem to be wearing their uniform but..." The child pointed to the band on his arm, "You're wearing Guardia's crest, aren't you?"

Forte took another bite of his apple, and chewed it before nodding and swallowing. "Yup. MoMA branch. My job is general peacekeeping, along with... well basically detective work. I'm the guy that catches bad guys and puts them away."

"I see." Kimen replied quietly, placing the stick in her lap and staring down at the ground. If Kimen had to talk to anyone about what had happened recently, then it would probably be this man. And yet, while she knew it was the right thing to do, and something she needed to do the child was having trouble bringing herself to say it out of fear; Fear that this man would no longer be so friendly towards her, and fear regarding the punishment she would recieve. Kimen was pretty sure she deserved it though. And because of how people in this world were, the only way that girl and her family would get any justice at all would be if Kimen turned herself in. "I need to talk to you, then." As Kimen spoke those words she felt her chest tighten and an uncomfortable sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Once they were out there was no turning back. And they needed to be out.

Forte raised an eyebrow, before finishing off his apple. With that distraction out of the way, he hunkered down a bit, settling his elbows on his knees before looking over to Kimen. "Sounds serious kiddo. What's up?"

Kimen's eyes remained fixed on the ground, fearful of meeting his gaze and seeing the look on his face when he told him. "I...I..." He squeezed his eyes shut and took in a couple deep breaths in preparation for his confession. "I...murdered a hylian girl, mister! I... I didn't mean to! I..." Kimen clutched the stick in his lap, a few tears falling onto the back of his hand. It was hard to say, but it was all out now. And it was the right thing to do. Kimen had to do the right thing, and had wanted to. And while confessing it had provided some relief, he was afraid of what was next. Was he going to be imprisoned? Executed? Worse?

Forte stares at the kid for a few moments. Obviously, with how torn up they were, Kimen was being serious. But, at the same time it was still hard to just take a child at face value when they say 'I murdered someone.' Regardless... This was Truce. And things around here were often much weirder. Forte stands, settles his hands on his hips, and sighs. "Alright kid, Take me to the place where you murdered her. If you are confessing, you shouldn't have a problem doing that, right?"

Kimen nodded and silently stood up, placing the stick on the ground and giving a small groan as she did. The pain killers the healer gave her seemed to cut some of the pain, but moving the wrong way reminded her that she was still injured. Still, she just couldn't remain laying in bed all day. "It happened in Truce Canyon. Just under the bridge." Kimen said quietly, still refusing to meet the man's eyes. She slowly started off in that direction.

Forte began moving after Kimen, keeping an eye on the kid both to get a feel for who he was dealing with, and to make sure they suddenly don't go bolting off, laughing about pranking him. "When we get there, I'll look around the place. As a show of things, I'm going to need to handcuff you, but I can catch you if you try to run. Don't worry about that."

"I understand. And I won't run." His words probably didn't assure much. No doubt a lot of people tried to run after finding themselves in this kind of situation. But Kimen wasn't going to. The child's head sank a little more as he raised his arms up and braced for his hands to be cuffed together.

Forte settles the handcuffs around Kimen's hands, the metal clicking into place in a slightly uncomfortable fashion. "Okay kid, show me exactly where this took place."

Kimen flinched as the cuffs clicked into place, then the child silently led the man to the area under the bridge where the incident happened. There was still evidence of the explosion happening there recently. Some of the grass was charred, branches broken, and even little bits of cotton and fabric remained of Kimen's stuffed animal. There was no sign or remains at all of the hylian though.

Forte looked around the area, before eyeing Kimen. "Sit. Legs crossed when you do so." That order given, he began moving through the scene, looking for things like blood, debris of explosive material, or some sign of what the fuck happened here.

"Yes, sir." Kimen awkwardly negotiated their way into the sitting position the man described trying to avoid falling over as well as causing himself any more pain. He lifted his head slightly though as the man begins examining the area, watching him. "I don't understand how it happened. I thought I was being safe. I thought I was being careful. And then I let my guard down. The spell I was working on backfired once on me, and I know I should have expected it to happen again but I thought I had cleared up my mistake from before I..." Kimen choked back a sob, looking down at his legs and letting his bangs fall over his eyes. Sure the child was trying to be careful, but he still made a mistake; One inexcusable mistake that had cost someone's life to be snuffed out.

Forte sweeps his eyes over the area again, before turning back to look at Kimen. "Alright, walk me through exactly what happened. You were practicing a spell? And how did the girl get involved with this?"

"I had just completed the hardest part of it and was trying to test it when she came along. I guess she spotted me from the bridge and came down to inquire about it. I mean, a free-floating ball of magical energy can be pretty bright. Ah--- I know its considered pretty taboo to have something like that feed from the land unless it is an emergency! I was only feeding it my own energy!" Kimen said the last part in a hurry, not wanting the man to think even less of her for this.

Her voice sank a little as she continued, "The hylian girl started asking about what I was doing and what the orb was. I explained what it was a spell that was used to gather magical energy from a desired target. Kind of like a battery I guess. But... Then she tried to take it and put it into her bag for some reason." Kimen explained to the man, sniffing back the tears, "It was like my brain has slowed then. Maybe I was too surprised to react, and maybe if I had reacted right away and released the magic it was gathering, maybe she would have lived. It was gathering so much when she touched it... so... much... l-like it was inhaling it." Kimen started crying, unable to help herself, "by the time I realized what was happening and tried to take action it was too late. There... There was an explosion and it knocked me off my feet. And I was swallowed in smoke... and... Somehow was in a different place."

Forte frowned, trying to play out what happened in his mind. "So, you came this far out of the city by yourself, to attempt to work on a magical spell. And then some girl came out of nowhere and tried to steal it? And that made you lose control of the spell."

Kimen nodded. "Uh-huh." It sounded so much simpler when he said it, but that is pretty much what happened. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" He cried, sinking his head lower to the ground.

Forte frowned as he scaned the area again. It was an accident. The girl had interrupted the kid as he was trying something new, despite obvious precautions he had gone through, and despite common sense, she had brought death on herself. He stepped over to Kimen and kneeled before him. "Kid, this wasn't your fault. With as much trouble as you went through to both make the situation safe, and the blindingly obviously dangerous nature of the spell? This is not your fault. It is an accident. A tragic one, but one that you did the most you could have to prevent. Especially if she had suddenly just... Grabbed the spell. I cannot fathom what made her try and do that." Forte shook his head, before moving behind Kimen, fiddling with the handcuffs.

The cuffs come off with a 'click', and Forte stood once more, offering a hand to Kimen. "I can't charge you for this. The best thing we can do is put news of her death in the obituary, and wait to see if someone claims her memory. But... Here that's not likely."

Once Kimen felt the handcuffs loosen she brought her hand up to wipe away the tears streaming down her face, "H-Her friends c-called her Kait." She sniffed before reaching up and taking the man's hand. It was hard accepting that this wasn't her fault, perhaps it was due to the fact that her death was still fresh in the child’s mind and Kents warnings about magic were echoing in her head, but the mans words were comforting. Once she was on her feet again she looked up at him with red, teary eyes then wrapped her arms around him, sobbing quietly.

Forte gave Kimen a hug, gently rubbing at the child's back as they cried. "Thank you for being so strong during this. Not many people would have come up to someone and told them. You did a good job."

Kimen nodded, knowing exactly what Forte meant. He had seen people fight and kill and not even bat an eye or feel any shame at all for doing it. He didn't think anyone ever got the local authorities involved. In fact, Kimen was kind of amazed that there was some form of that in place here in Truce. Sure the child had seen guards at the gates but... "M-Mister, what is your name?"

"My name is Forte. Sorry, I don't have a last name to give you. But, if you ever get in trouble, get the word out that you want to see Mr. Forte, okay?" He gave a small grin to the child, and worked on brushing some of their hair behind their ear. "One last important thing I need to know kid. Who were Kait's friends?"

Kimen nodded, wiping away the last of the tears and looking up at the man with a sad expression. "A hylian woman with blond hair and wings and a pumpkin head with tattoos." Kimen answered, pointing to the spots on her own face to indicate where the tattoos were. She couldn't remember what any of them were specifically though. "They saved me from the weird place I ended up. And when I started asking about the hylian girl they said her name was Kait."

Forte patted Kimen on the head, before offering a hand to them. "Good job, kid." Pausing for a moment, he dug around in his back pocket, before offering a very, very battered card to Kimen, bearing the address of the Castle of Guardia, and a specific room within. "That's where I can be found when I'm not patroling, okay? You go there if you get any issues. There might also be a big giganto guy, by the name of Ivan. He's a cool guy."

"I'll be sure to tell him about this cool kid I found named..." Forte frowns a bit, before looking down to you. "Shoot, kid. I never got your name. What is it anyways?"

"Kimen." The child took the card from the man and looked at it, turning it over in his hand and studying it. He seemed to be thinking about something as he did.

Forte nodded. "Alright then, Kimen. Let's get back to Truce. I've got a few things to take care of now. What I want you to do?" He smiled and patted the kid's head. "Keep being safe. Keep making my job easier. I would not have liked to arrest you. Straight up would have ruined my day."


****


Not long after this event, Forte would find a small bouquet of wild flowers sitting by the door of his office, placed in a small brown vase and held together with a piece of yellow yarn tied into a bow. Accompanying it was a small card with simply drawn flowers on it, and the words 'THANK YOU' in large letters and bright red marker clearly done by a child's hand. Inside in purple was this; "Thank you Mr. Forte for your hard work. --Kimen"