THE MOMENT
"Wait a minute, what are you doing?" Karin asked urgently while trying not to sound upset. The young girl with brown hair and green eyes, Six, froze mid-step before she reached the kindly old woman. Karin, her twin sister Davina, and Six were adventuring together when they came across the ancient stranger. She had long silver hair and far too many wrinkles to be wandering through a monster-infested dungeon alone. She seemed happy to see the girls and offered them some blessed rations for the rest of their delve. "It was the SECOND rule! Do not accept goodwill unless you know what will be demanded of you in return!"
"Uhuh," Six nodded. "But, it's cancelled out by the first rule," she said. She didn't move forward, but she didn't back away either. She still seemed intent on accepting the gift as soon as Karin was okay with it. The old woman remained nearby with a silent smile.
"What? No, it doesn't," Karin shook her head, and her twin also swiveled her head with an uncertain expression. "If we're not supposed to trust anyone, we can't trust her and shouldn't accept gifts!"
"Oh, you guys totally would've had a harder time if I didn't need the quest too," Six giggled and shook her head. "It's kind of a trick," she said.
"What? How?" Davina asked. She'd been silent, but she also wanted to show Karin she was on her side. She thought she'd had it figured out, but she wasn't entirely sure, and it looked like Six was about to reveal the key anyway.
"The first rule is ' do not trust anyone, not even me'," Six said. "The old man's very first line was telling us not to trust him. Therefore, if we don't trust him, the rest of his rules are bunk," she said. "If we trusted him, we wouldn't accept help in the dungeon and have a much harder time."
"That doesn't mean you can go around blindly trusting everything down here!" Karin said. She raised her voice, and Davina smiled. It was rare she got worked up about anything, and it was likely Six's presence helped. Karin was usually herself only in front of Davina, and occasionally her parents. She was more reserved with others, but Six looked like a 10-year-old girl, and it was easier for Karin to deal with her presence. And it helped that the girl was nothing but friendly and outgoing. "It's still a dungeon! It might be a trap!"
"Well, yeah," Six nodded with a giggle. "That's kind of the whole point; we're adventuring!"