Chapter 1

As soon as the sun rose, Clay woke up. She got up and looked at her sleeping soundly. The blanket was half off their bodies, so she fixed it and stretched.

When she got out of her room, she saw her father sitting at the table looking worried.

"Daddy? Are you okay?" she asked him with a slight frown as she walked closer to him.

Leon looked up at her daughter and gave her a small, tired smile.

"Yeah, just having a little problem with money." he told her and reached out for her. "Good morning, my baby."

She walked up to him and kissed his cheek. She leaned away and saw his blood strained eyes and the dark circles under his eyes. He looked extremely worn out.

"Did you not sleep last night, daddy?" she asked him and looked at him worriedly.

"I was just looking at some things to see if there was something I could do without money problems. I didn't realize that it was already morning." He told her.

She sat down on the chair beside him.

"Is it really that bad?" she asked him.

He didn't want to answer her question and make her worry when it was his job to take care of his children.

"I'll figure something out." he told her and caressed the side of her head.

"I can help, daddy. If I let you overwork yourself, you'll get sick." she told him in a worried tone.

"I don't want to put my burden on your shoulders." he told her.

"I'm the eldest daddy. And I'm no longer a little kid. I'm grown and I can help." She told him and held his hand. "Let me help you, daddy."

Leon sighed in defeat and looked at his daughter.

"Do you have something in mind?" he asked her.

She nodded.

"I can hunt, and that will help us with food. I can also make those straw baskets and you can help me sell them. I have some other things in mind too." She told him.

He nodded at her.

"I understand, but don't take too much on your shoulders. I would blame myself if you got sick because you were overworked." he told her.

"Don't worry about it, daddy." She comforted him with a smile. "Do you want some breakfast?"

"Yes, that would me nice, my dear." he told her with an exhausted smile.

"Omelette?" She asked him.

He nodded at her.

Clay got up and tied her hair before she went outside to the small chicken coop they had.

There were 5 chickens and 3 hens in the coop that her father had built himself for the family.

"Good morning. I need eggs for breakfast." She told them in a singing tone and went inside.

She grabbed half of the freshly laid eggs from the chickens and left the other half so they could hatch into chicks. When the chicks would grow up, they could either eat them, sell them or get more eggs from them.

After gently placing the eggs on the basket, she took it to the small kitchen, which was also outside the house.

There was a small circle made with rocks, and inside the circle was a bunch of burned and unburned wood.

Clay placed the basket on the floor and grabbed two big rocks, and smacked them against each other. They made some spark which ignited a small fire. She blowed on it until the bonfire was big enough for her to cook on.

After beating the eggs and frying the omelette for her father and siblings, she put the fire out and went inside to give two omelettes to her father.

"Thank you, my dear." Leon told her and ate it hungrily.

Clay set the rest of the omelettes for her little siblings for when they would wake up, after taking one out for herself.

She sat down at the table with her father and ate it.

After they finished eating, she made her father go to sleep.

He laughed at her gently.

"You're stubborn like your mother." he told her with a smile getting up.

"Someone has to take care of you in her stead." She told him with her hand on her hips. "Now go to sleep. You look really tired."

He kissed her forehead and looked at her.

"I'm glad she left me with such a precious gift." He told her.

She smiled at him.

"And I'm glad she gave me such a wonderful father. Now off to bed." She told him.

He chuckled at her and went to his room to sleep.

She didn't remember her mother much. Her father told her that she loved her and her siblings very much, but soon after Ryan and Emma were born, she got killed in an accident. Everything that she knew about her mother was from her father and from the way he told her about her mother, she was proud that she got to be a daughter of such amazing parents.

She went to her room and woke up her brother.

"Ryan." she said in a low tone and shook him gently.

He woke up and looked at her sleepily.

"I made breakfast for you two. I'm going out and will be back by lunchtime. And don't bother dad or make loud noises. He was up all night and just went to sleep." She told him.

He nodded at her.

"Stay safe out there." He told her.

"I will." She promised. "You can go back to sleep now if you want."

He nodded and went back to sleep because he was up late.

Ryan and Emma were twins and just 4 years younger than Clay, so they knew how to take care of themselves.

She went outside after grabbing her bow, arrows, and a small knife.

Clay knew that their situation was bad from the way her father was so stressed out this morning, so she decided not to waste a second and ran to the forest to hunt for food.

She had been hunting for a while and got two rabbits. All that walking around made her thirsty, so she went to the river to drink some water.

She had just kneeled down beside the river back when she heard a soft ruffle.

"Excuse me?" She heard a man's voice.

She turned around to see who it was when she saw a young, handsome man covered in mud and dirt.

It was her first time seeing someone this handsome, and his beauty mesmerized her.