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"But we are on our own," Tavi points out. "There isn't anyone out there to take care of us anymore, and we have never been on our own before."

"You seem old enough to be on your own," Barlemus says. "Besides, once you save your sisters and go to town, I'm sure you'll find some good men who you can marry and take care of you."

"Do I need to be taken care of though?" Tavi asks curiously, glancing over to Barlemus. "I might be on my own, but I think I've done okay so far. I haven't died, so I consider that a good thing. I know my oldest sister will probably be out there looking for a husband the moment that I get her out of that cave."

"I guess that's something you'll learn along the way," Barlemus says, lying down and putting his hands under his head as he looks up at the starry sky. "Although there's more to life than just not dying," he adds, a rare nugget of insight from him.

Tavi scoots over to Barlemus, and lays down beside him with her arms at her side as she looks up at the sky. "Like what?" she asks softly. Tavi was young, so she didn't know all that life had to offer just yet. Right now, it seemed like everything was either life or death.

"Like being happy, doing something that gives your life meaning, finding your place in life," he says. "Otherwise, you're not really living, you're just kinda...existing, I guess."

"So are you really living then?" Tavi asks.

"I think so," Barlemus says. "I get to travel, hunt gobos, and help people. That makes me pretty happy. I'm good at what I do, it keeps things interesting."

"But doesn't that get old after doing it for so many years?" Tavi asks. "Don't you want more than that one day?"

"Uhhhh...dunno," he says with a shrug. "Maybe someday? Guess I haven't really thought about it before. I guess one day I could get married and have a family. Dunno what else I could do for work other than fight gobbos, though. That's all I really know. My pa is a fisherman, but I was never any good at it. And dunno if I could live a boring life like that, either."

"To the people that have that type of life, it isn't boring to them," Tavi points out with a small smile. "And I don't think my parents thought that their life was boring since they raised three girls and ran a farm." Tavi turns her gaze back to Barlemus for a moment. "You could always make money for your family by being a mercenary or something I guess. You wouldn't be home a lot, but you would be supporting them."

Barlemus nods. "Yeah, guess so. Although I guess if I ever died or something, I'd be leaving my family all on their own. I wouldn't feel right about that."

"You died trying to provide for them. They couldn't possibly blame you for that," Tavi says. "My grandfather kind of did that exact same thing to my grandma. He ended up dying, leaving her with children to raise. She did pretty good. She was probably the strongest person I knew."

"Heh, guess if I do settle down, I'll need a pretty strong wife then," Barlemus says. "Ut, this conversation sure got bleak, didn't it?"

"I think it is because we are both hurt," Tavi points out with a small smile. She scooted just a tad bit closer to the larger man, soaking up the warmth of his body for the moment. "Do you spend a lot of time looking up at the stars?"