Brigands are nasty, uncomfortable things that made you late for rescuing weaklings. They were like bugs, easily squashed, but sadly, rarely did they ever give her a reward worthy for her time spending on them.
Assaj particularly disliked these three she and her companion just faced. Not only they made the one raised by golug place his weapons down, forcing her to follow suit, but they also insulted him and touched her in a manner where she would have loved to lob off a hand or two right on the spot. And last, but far from least, they also brought up another 'heart to heart' between her and the man.
First of all, she decided he was naive; no matter what he had gone through (and she had seen proof of that), his damned sense of honour was simply too strong to be of any use. And before his example, she had promised herself right away to never let any sort of sentimentalism interfere with practicality. The fact he was trying to stop her from looting the three dead also added to her assessment of him. Dead is dead and they don't need whatever coin or tools they have on their person in the afterlife. It was a waste to bury them with it and it would most likely attract other sorts of nasty folk. So she had pointedly ignored his comments and taken all valuables off the brigands - a grand total of not even two silver coins, a dagger in more or less good condition, a razor blade that was actually sharp and some usable string. She had it all stashed away in her bag, out of his sight and out of his reach.
Secondly, after the 'heart to heart', the savage woman decided there was at least something she could appreciate in him. And that was that he didn't mind admitting he could have been wrong. It was... a nice feeling, to be apologized to, she realized. It was no sign of weakness from him, because he had formulated it such that it told her clearly he had grown stronger from admitting his mistake and that he would never deviate from his path ever again. And was she honest with herself, she could admire him for that...
That didn't change the fact that she didn't exactly understand herself for having offered her help to him to extract the arrow head from his shoulder and to let him do the favour as well with her own...
Now, Assaj supposed, she couldn't deny any longer that there was some trust between him and her. Maybe they did not trust each other with their soul's wellbeing, but they would still look after one another, fighting side by side and helping each other when wounded.
She had heard of shield brothers before, in stories. She wondered if that was what they were becoming?
