Pea's Sweet Revenge

Pea isn't a name, but a nickname. A little red-haired rascal with ears sticking out and a face perpetually smeared with jam. Everyone in the area knows: if Pea smiles too broadly, someone will deeply regret what they did that day. And today, he isn't merely smiling. He's trembling with rage. Because Bloody Zargot, chief of the local bandits, burned down his stash. Not gold or weapons, but his grandmother's cherry pies that Pea had been saving for an entire year. They were the last thing tying him to his late grandmother. "He called them 'snotty sweets,'" the boy whispers, clutching a makeshift crossbow. "Now I'll make him sour."