This is it, Ande thought. He realizes I don’t belong here.
“Get yourself together,” the man shouted in his face. “Get back in the fight, like a Halfician warrior, and we will prevail!” He shoved Ande backward, towards the fight and the fire.
An arm locked around Ande’s throat, and he couldn’t breathe. Black spots clouded his vision, until suddenly, the hand was gone, and he collapsed to the ground. Glancing up, he saw the same man who’d shoved him, pulling his blade out of a goblin’s torso. A still living goblin, ready to attack again. The goblin turned on the man, angry at the attack. She shoved him up against a building.
Ande wobbled as he stood, his throat afire. But that man had saved his life. Even though it was better for the plan to abandon him now, letting the goblins and Half
