Simple is as simple does and I’d always considered myself a simple man. It didn’t take much thought to be simple and perhaps that’s why it was best I wasn’t complex. I didn’t need to fester over intricate relationships or the politics of anything other than my own wants and needs. I didn’t care about the semantics of conversation or ulterior motives… I just was and would be simple.

It didn’t matter that Ashamin thought me a pompous ass or that his companion was just as muddled about all the things I’d presumed of them. I was nothing more than a simple man and there was no need to decorate what I was thinking. I guess that’s just how I operated and some time ago I’d learned to cope with how the outside world disagreed with it. If I’d had time to grow up as anything other than simple, I would have taken more initiative in the colorful world around me. I would have made an effort to perfect the art of chivalry or perhaps I would have desired a family… Sometimes I wish I’d grown up more complex like the rest of my species and not so separated as it were.

Even there, in the depths of a forest far too vast and shrouded in darkness, I felt suddenly bereft by the faces that accosted me. Neither of them understood me nor would they ever… In fact, I didn’t care what excuses they cared to spew in order to bridge some sort of understanding within their own minds. I didn’t care about their formalities or their mock kindness. Didn’t they know we lived in a world of complexity? They’d been trained to act accordingly and I… well I’d climbed another mountain. Where they were still working toward the top, I was staring down at them with a gallant smile. I’d perched upon Mt. Simplicity and ended up its namesake. “Friends, lovers, or strangers… they’re all the same,” I answered easily while looking each in the eye, one right after the other. “But, I’d like to go North. If that’s where you’re headed then I suggest we get moving, unless you’d like to remain here in the dark forest waiting for light.”

At that, I turned away from them both, my ears pointed ahead as if I were the sole captain manning the helm. Neither of those plucky little twats was going to step up anyhow, no matter how complex they were.

Once, I turned to regard them with lost, emotionless eyes and I wondered… Were they really so complex and I so simple? Or was I just the opposite of what I’d always believed? They did as they were taught and nothing more and nothing less; maybe they were the simple ones… but where did that leave me?

“Let’s go then.”