Norben Fletcher 4/7

Norben sank down upon an old oak stool, pipe already lit, lazy sweet smoke quickly filling the room with a haze illuminated by the mid-morning sun streaming in through this home's one window.  The steel plates of his armor reflected the angled light, piercing the shadows of the otherwise dim room.  He was in an unfamiliar house, with a tiled roof and enough furnishing to suggest a well-to-do local craftsman lived here, or perhaps a landowner who didn't do his own farming.  Something metallic dropped to the floor unseen in another room, and Norben scooted his stool closer to the doorway and its cracked frame.

A man in his youthful years, tall but dirty in torn leathers, came running around a corner, halting dead at seeing Norben blocking the only exit that didn't involve jumping through glass.  He scanned the walls, panicked, looking for another option.  "Have a seat, boy.  Don't worry, I won't hurt you.  This isn't my home."  He took another puff from his tobacco, then gestured with the pipe-stem towards another stool across the room.

"Look, I wasn't...I mean, I'm not...I wasn't going to take anything important.."
"Mmhm."
"Hey, don't turn me in.  I want refuge.  Yeah, those folks'll hurt me."
"Darn straight they're fixin't hurt you.  Son, you seen that pile of rocks they're stacking by the well?  They're gonna strap you to that thing and stone you to death.  Make an example outa you."
"What?!  I don't want to die, I just...I just needed some money, I needed something.."
"What you need, child, is salvation.  Now I ain't gonna turn you in, boy.  I turn you in, they kill you, you ain't learned nothin' and the Devil has another soul.  What you need is forgiveness, and you'll only find that if you give yourself up and beg mercy."
"How..how do I do that?"
"Imma leave you here.  You steal or you don't, ain't nothin but between you and the Lord.  You pray real hard.  You go look at those rocks, feel how hard they are.  If you think you can let the Lord purify your heart and light your soul, you come find me in the square this afternoon.  You might just live to see tomorrow, son."

Norben took one final breath off his pipe before hauling his packs up off the floor nearby, slinging the straps over one shoulder, leaving the other arm free to tap out the spent tobacco as he exited the cloud haze.  It was time to lift this burden off his shoulders.  He walked to the village square, waving to passersby and shaking hands as he sought somewhere to set up shop.