Handy, slowly at first, took the proffered shield back from Joachim. He considered it for a moment, something tugging at the back of his mind. It wasn’t quite conscience but something like it, the small part of him that wanted to be the bigger man. He looked out into the birch wood forest to the south as he worked on quieting that niggling part of him down, and then looked back up at his first friend in this world.