Zelnard had been quiet for six months when he first arrived in Zouken, or thereabouts, since that fateful day when the great Solean Sea swallowed his parents somewhere between Morian and Karaz. The details of the incident were murky, shrouded in the cold embrace of the sea, and though he longed to know what happened, he understood that some truths were too brutal for an eight-year-old to bear. No one would dare mention the details with him...no one, that is, except for Dunstor, a boy too eager to wield cruelty like a weapon. Zelnard’s silence wasn’t something he chose. It was more like a fog that descended over his mind, a natural response to the grief that oppressed the love and happiness that once welled within him. There were fleeting moments when the fog lifted, like when a fleeting smile betrayed him or when a laugh nearly escaped his lips, but each time, he quickly remembered that joy felt like a betrayal.
Dunstor is a classic bully, what should Zelnard do in the face of such cruelty. Explain in Thy Quests to move forward.