Troubles and hope

Eventually, I learned more about this world. The village didn't have a library but there were some books in Dune's house. I was still a little surprised by the new few found power of language. Yes, understanding other languages were useful, but couldn't I get some sort of amazing superpowers? But I guess, being able to talk to almost anything intelligible was a superpower too.

I could read the weird characters of this world and so I did a little digging. Unfortunately, there was only one history book and it was rather old in this whole house. It was handwritten so I couldn't understand half of it. The fact that I could read and understand the language was still a little jarring. The writing looked like a weird form of Latin, but it wasn't.

The kingdom I was in was called Destoa, and the world- the dark realm, as most of the world was unknown. At this point, this wasn't surprising, but it also wasn't something I wanted to hear (read) either. After all, just who in what mind names a world 'the dark realm'? "There so many undiscovered continents that people took the liberty of calling their world something this ominous." Is this a book or someone's autobiography? The book for most of the part was written in a hilarious language. Perhaps the man who wrote it was just having fun writing rather than actually writing.

"As for the undead, they first came to be when ancient races waged war. The forests nowadays are remnants of those times and thus are home to the undead. And all those who die there are said to have turned into them. It is said that most undead are incapable of conversing and human functions but they for some reason crave human blood as though it would do them any good. But that wasn't confirmed. However, some have shown to have sentient capabilities." Wait, what? Does that even make sense?

There wasn't much in the book. The author was probably long dead. Just who is this JKB. Sarjeon? The author's name was kind of weird but somehow it made me feel a little nostalgic. But in the end, it did help me understand more about this world.

For one thing, this was an entirely different world, not some weird forgotten past. There was no moon in the sky and the stars were closer than usual. The water tasted different and so was the smell of air. All in all, I was in another world. And yet, I wanted this to a dream and wake up already.

The pictures in the book were blurry and I couldn't read much of the scrambled texts. The only other thing it contained was the information on races. "There were thirteen races in the beginning. Now only five remain. The others were all lost in time. Some of their progeny still live as half breeds but the purity is scarce. As for the current races, there are humans, demons, elves, dwarves and demi-humans, and the near-extinct true Alves. True Alves are probably the rarest species on the planet." Almost like a game, huh? Could it be possible there are bunny-

A sharp voice interrupted my reading. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Um… reading a book?"

She hummed and gave me a grin. It was Shelia, the little brat. Honestly she might have been even worse than my own sister. "Come with me, we gotta fish!"

"Again?" Just when this was getting good. And why was this brat so frigging obsessed with fish?

"Yup!" Sheila gave me a long wide grin and swayed her head as she hummed something. For whatever reason, she was in a terribly good mood. Which also meant, she wasn't taking no for an answer.

And so I went with her. But my view of the world changed dramatically as time went on. But honestly, I just wanted to get off this rock.

Actually fishing wasn't that bad once I got used to it. I could catch fish as big as my fist now. Occasionally Sheila would catch one at least ten times bigger than mine and taunt me. But I was no kid, and so I just let it slide. If I let every little thing get on my nerves, than I was better of being dead. Cause this world wasn't a place for quick tempered folks. And I wanted to pretend that I was an adult.

"Looks like tonight we'll have a feast too." I mumbled. For the last couple of days dinner was being made rather extravagantly. I guess these guys really knew how to treat guests.

"You know." Sheila started. She seemed a little hesitant. "Maybe, you weren't so bad-"She was almost mumbling.

"What?" I heard her before but I instinctively asked, and regretted it for the last couple of seconds.

"Nothing." Sheila sighed and picked up the fishing gear. "You carry the fish. Grandma's caught a cold, so I'm glad we caught a lot." She was being awfully talkative today. Lately she wasn't as hostile towards me as before. It was probably just my imagination.

Just a little more and she might actually start to like me. Of course my goal wasn't to get everyone to like me, but it couldn't hurt. I wasn't some egotistical bastard, but somehow I felt at ease knowing these guys liked me. "Let's hope she gets plenty of rest too." I picked up the bucket of fish and walked towards Dune's house with Sheila.

Every day I practiced with Dune during the night. I did as he instructed and by the end of the week we had fended off countless attacks not just by the undead but even the goblins. I was skeptical about my skills but as I practiced with him, I gained experience extraordinarily. Guarding the wall was relatively simple. As long as the fire burned on top of the wall, the undead would never come. But maintaining that fire, all across the wall was tough.

In rare occurrences some undead did get on top of the wall. That's where me and Dune came in. Dune really loved burning them, and watching them groan. I might have misjudged him a little. Hell, I didn't expect it to be like this. But I couldn't blame him. He hated the undead with all his might. After all, these things was the root of our troubles.

In another day or two, the other guards of the wall, would be back on duty. They were almost healed. So it made sense I thought about what I'd do next. I couldn't forget about my goal, after all. But maybe this wasn't so bad. The time spent in this village felt surreal yet, so tranquil.

Lately I'd been thinking about heading towards Moire, but the journey was supposed to be rather hazardous at this time of year. So the villagers recommended that I at least stay for a month. I could smell their actual intentions from miles away. But I didn't peg them for it. After all, this wasn't so bad.

"That's the seventh time tonight."

I huffed and panted. My breath never felt so shallow. "Are you sure these pyres are good? Cause-" Lately the undead were striking whenever the pyre was about to go down. It was almost as if someone or thing was commanding them. Tonight was no exception.

"But that's all we've got." Dune's voice got heavy. He knew this was bad.

I didn't have a response. In this past week, two of the other guards got injured and the other two would be back soon. Now only he and I were left but things were about to get better- or so I hoped.

On top of that, the pyres weren't in the best of shapes and the undead were like getting smarter with each passing day. Life was getting harder by the day. And honestly, I didn't want any part of it.

"Samel should be good to go from tomorrow. So we'll have it easy, hopefully," Dune said. He didn't seem all that hopeful though. "Kamel said he'd be good the next day too."

Doesn't sound like you're hopeful though. "Yeah." I tried to act casual but I couldn't either. We both knew, things really weren't going in the best direction. But we had hope as a last resort.