Animosus: Special Memories

After my second year at the temple I was allowed to return home for a break. After returning home to a warm welcome I started to help out with various tasks with our home and business. MIRNA as usual was giving me a hard time. I decided to cast detect evil on her and said, “that’s strange, I thought for sure you were evil.” MIRNA was not at all amused. She did ease up on me for a while. Years ago my father GLAR was doing some business with a merchant from far away lands. After a couple of days it became obvious that they were unscrupulous. He canceled negotiations with them even though he needed to sell off his inventory desperately. I asked him why he would give up a chance to make some needed profit and get rid of some extra inventory. He said, “The profit you make today may be less than the price you pay later.” I never forgot this lesson. It turned out that they were arrested months latter for various crimes and the merchants who dealt with them lost their inventory or were even charged with crimes. My brother PAVLE was in a fight and almost lost his life. There was a group of thugs that were extorting various merchants. They were promising to burn down stores and kill merchants who would not pay them off. PAVLE’s friend Hermies owned a business that was targeted. Hermies could not pay them off because business was slow. PAVLE helped guard the store and was there the night the thugs tried to burn it down. PAVLE killed one of them in a very serious fight. The rest backed off, but later caught up with him and back stabbed him. He healed up and because of his courage he was able to identify his attackers and prove the person he killed was worthy of such treatment. From this I learned many things. Those who trade off safety for security deserve neither. This applies to the other merchants who just paid off the thugs. Those who kill in the name of justice will be righteous. This applies to my brother PAVLE who was awarded for his bravery.