A week later, you end up fighting off a bandit attack

Perhaps your arrival is divine providence in the eyes of the villagers, you think to yourself, as you stand in the muddy square, wiping the grime from your blade.

Your arrival to the place coincidentally takes place during a bandit attack. Bored from traveling, the three of you literally junped at the opportunity to help fight off the bandits.

With the leader and many of them felled, the bandit threat was defeated.

The village head, a man whose face is a map of exhaustion and relief, invites you and your companions to stay in the village for a few days to recuperate, allowing them to provide you with the hospitality you deserve.

As the invitation is issued, a ripple moves through the crowd. The first to step forward is a brawny man with a bandaged shoulder,the very man you pulled from the path of a bandit’s mace when you first rode into the fray. He nods to you, a silent debt of life-debt in his eyes.

Beside him, an elderly couple you shielded near the well shuffle forward, their weathered hands clasped together in a gesture of humble gratitude. Then, the circle widens as a young woman holding a small daughter steps into the light, followed closely by a sharp-eyed matriarch. Even a small boy, the one you shielded from a swinging knife, tugs insistently at his mother’s skirt, urging her toward you.

A young husband, his arm draped protectively around his strikingly attractive wife, joined the line; they both watched you with a hunger that spoke of relief and something much deeper. A woman in her early forties, her hair coming loose from its pins and her bodice damp with the sweat of the struggle, stood her ground with a quiet, confident allure that seemed to promise a different kind of respite.

An unexpectedly large number of households offering their doors to you, the fake merchant.

Kaelen and Elian exchange a knowing, weary look and then nod toward you. Refusing is rude, and would probably expose your identity. You nod back.

The village head watches you expectantly, his eyes darting between the volunteers. Your companions have already been claimed by other houses, led away by men and women eager to host the secondary heroes of the day. Now, you stand alone in the center of the square. You take a breath, stepping toward the house that will be your home for the night.