He wasn't getting through to him, the big guy was still depressed! By now in Viatrus' eyes Toby looked like a large, sad puppy someone had kicked one too many times. How to change his opinion, the halfling thought, how to raise his self-esteem. If a man thinks he's a monster, how do you convince him otherwise? Inspiration struck, by comparing him to real monsters.
Only problem, Viatrus didn't know any monsters. At least, not real monsters. Maybe this big guy would accept a metaphor. "You're not a monster." Viatrus said emphatically. "Monsters don't save people. Do you know what monsters do?" He didn't wait for an answer. "They hurt people. That's what they do. Do you see those bodies there?" Viatrus gestured behind him to the crumpled forms of the three crossbowmen. "Men like those, those are monsters. But men like you, folks who save strangers in the forest for no good reason? Those aren't monsters. Those are heroes!"
Viatrus' voice was rising, he was putting emotion in it to make his point and he punctuated every word with a poke at the larger man's thigh. "If there are monsters than there are heroes too! And you're one of the latter I tell ya!"
Suddenly, the last few minutes, his rescue, the fear of death, the shame of killing someone, came crashing down on Viatrus. He'd been repressing, but it was all coming back in a rush. He started speaking, faster and faster, and he felt hot tears on his cheeks. Fake emotions started to become real. Viatrus wondered how much of what he said was ploy and how much of it was true. He couldn't tell anymore. His head was all scrambled.
"Cause, cause, cause you can't be a monster, you just can't." Viatrus was hitting the bigger man now, smashing his tiny fist into the other's leg with every word. He was trembling, there were too many emotions, he couldn't sort them out.
This wasn't like him, thought a detached portion of his mind. He didn't usually melt down like this. What was it about this big man that let Viatrus express emotions long since hidden?
By this point Viatrus was full out bawling, "Cause, *hic* cause if you're a monster, what does that make me?" Viatrus looked up with tear-streaked eyes into the bigger man's. "What does that make me who was saved by a monster?"