"Any injuries, or anything exciting?" I asked though I was only half listening to him. I didn't know what his mood was about. I could only try so hard to uncover the source of his foul mood.

"Nothing good," he dismissed. He was struggling with the buckle on the left side of his armor, the same one that always seemed to give him trouble. I could take a pocket knife and make the holes for the buckle a little bigger, but I wondered if he'd let me touch it at all.

I ...