Desires and Memories

Housed together in Enoch Village, Schierke gives each of the party a lock of hair to tie around a finger, its magic linking their od for limited telepathy. She asks the others to follow her lead, which sets off Isidro, who resents her taking charge. She reasons that as a witch she knows most about fighting trolls, a point Serpico accepts at once, and even Guts is content to serve under her since the extermination is her task and the rest of them are there to assist.

Humiliated, Isidro storms to the stream at the village edge to train, swinging so hard he loses his balance and topples into the shallow ravine. Soaked and slumped by the water, he broods over his stalled one-handed swordplay and over Schierke leading despite being the newest to join. Morgan appears, out searching for fish to cook for the group, and warns the boy that wandering outside the village alone is unwise before building a small fire to dry his clothes. He tells how Enoch once thrived on an old highway's traffic until a new road diverted travelers and left the village near ruin.

When Morgan brings up Guts, Isidro admits he does not admire the man himself, only his skill, and follows him solely to be taught to fight. Asked about his parents, Isidro turns the question back, wondering what family would let an old man roam a forest after a witch, and why Morgan stayed in Enoch when the villagers never thanked him for bringing one back. Morgan answers that devotion to his people, his age, and his family's graves in the village cemetery keep him there. Growing wistful, he recalls a boyhood of wild imagination: when his mother fell ill he sought the mythical witch, and Flora gave him the medicine that saved her, though he never found time to return to the forest until the troll raids came. Isidro snaps at him for abandoning his dream and stalks off, watched by Guts, to whom Morgan confides his sense that the boy admires him; Guts says nothing.

At the heart of the village stands its church, where Schierke lingers meaning only to scout the likely site of the next raid, yet she cannot shake her unease before the Holy See's presence. Two boys creep up and pelt her with stones in fear, scattering when Guts arrives. Schierke thanks him for the quick thinking that talked the priest into admitting them, though she worries their lie to the villagers could bring ruin. Impressed by how well Flora has trained her, Guts asks what she would have said to the priest, and she answers that not only he but all humans are mistaken.

Schierke links the group by od for telepathy and takes command of the troll hunt, angering Isidro. By the stream, Morgan recounts Enoch's decline and how Flora once saved his mother, and Isidro criticizes him for abandoning his dreams. At the village church, Schierke confronts her unease with the Holy See and tells Guts she believes all humans are mistaken.

This twenty-one-page Millennium Falcon chapter ran in Young Animal issue fifteen on July 26, 2002. It is a character-driven interlude that cements Schierke's leadership over the mission, fleshes out Morgan's history and bond with Flora, and closes on Schierke's conviction that humanity has fundamentally misjudged the world.