Ch 3: Resolve

Lila pushed me into the house and closed the door with a bang. Then she grabbed the only chair we had and used it to further barricade the entrance to the house.

'Lila, what was that?' I asked. Obviously, we were chased by monsters, but I've never heard about such an occurrence before.

'I'm not sure. They have never come this close to the village before...' For the first time, I see my sister, not her confident self. She had a very worried look on her face.

'They?' I asked.

'Monsters. They have always stayed in the forest, so why...?'

'Lila, what happened?' The voice of our mother surprised us. I guess we were still shocked that we didn't see her in the small house we occupied. Lila then proceeded to tell her everything that happened.

'Goodness! Are you both okay?' Mom then hugged us both tightly as if not wanting to let us go for the next million years.

'Ye-ap mom.'

'Yesh, we're oka-,' we tried to speak with our mouths slightly smushed during the hug.

Seeing my still confused face, they both realized that I'd really been holed up in the house for too long and that they never bothered to tell me more about what was happening in the outside world.

This world is indeed a fantasy world, with monsters and heroes. Unfortunately for us, a small insignificant farming family in a village on the outskirts of the country, there are not many people who can fight monsters. Fortunately, monsters usually keep to their own territories in the woods. This time, however, that assumption has been destroyed. Yes, lately, there has been news of monsters getting more violent, but we never thought they would be brave enough to go out of their own territory.

'In short, the country is in danger. We still don't know the cause of why the monsters are getting more restless, but everyone in the village knows that the situation is getting more dangerous,' my mother explained with furrowed brows.

'Then what do we do?' I asked. Surely, there was a way to fight back the monsters. Build fences to keep them out, possibly?

'Not much we can do but wait for a brave adventurer to come and help us clear out the monsters near the village.'

What? Seriously? What happened to the brave independent mother I have grown to love and admire? But now that I think about it, I do hope she never has to encounter monsters and live safely.

'Sigh... I hope your father comes back soon.' He surely must have heard about the monster attack by now. Though since this is the first time this happened in the village, many people must be panicking right about now. Still, I'm amazed by the brave farmers that came to our rescue. I wonder how they're doing...

...............................................................................

That night, my father finally came back. There was a really awkward moment when he tried to open the door, but we hadn't removed the chair barricading the door yet, and he was unable to open the door. So he tried to open it with force, but mom ended up shouting at him to stop it and removed the chair. It caused some damage to the door and resulted in an hour-long scolding from our mom to dad.

Ha. He deserved it. Always trying to play with me but never telling me about monsters or my status and whatnot. Yup, it was completely his fault and not mine, even though I refused to go outside.

After the scolding ended, he told us about the result of the monster attack. After it was taken care of, all the farmers in the village were gathered in the village chief's house and given the bad news. One of the farmers that helped us kids run away, his name was Tier, had died in the fight against the monsters, and everyone spent the rest of the day preparing for his burial.

When I thought about how someone had died protecting us, I felt a gaping hole in my heart. But what could we kids have done? Me especially. A level one villager with no skills and terrible stats. I might not have known Tier, but I pleaded with my father to let me follow him to his funeral that will take place tomorrow. Seeing how desperate I was to go outside for the first time, he caved in and agreed to let me follow him tomorrow.

Other than that, the kid with the yellow hair (I thought it was mean to keep calling him the fat one), James was his name, had suffered a great amount of damage. But he is currently being treated by the village chief, who knows a little bit about medicine.

That night was very silent. The house was eerily quiet for the first time in a long while. Usually, it would be filled with the sounds of laughter from dad and mom or Lila scolding dad for some stupid thing he did during the day to annoy her.

Our whole house was dark except for one candle we had lit for tonight. We usually slept in complete darkness, but tonight dad wanted to stay awake and keep watch in case something happened during the night. Or in other words, he was looking out for monsters that might come in.

The night that showed a crescent moon in the sky had passed by seemingly longer than usual. I couldn't sleep a wink as the three of us, mom, Lila, and I, were curled up in the same worn-out bed.

Finally, the morning came. My dad and I went to the funeral, which was really just burying Tier's body in an empty space in the graveyard. It was difficult to see his body which had been attacked by the goblins, be carried into the hole into the ground. The village chief then made said some quick words of goodbye. Tier's wife was crying on the side of the crowd watching the burial. Apparently, he had no kids yet.

I could barely look in the direction of the grave as they covered it up with dirt to hide the body. Silently, I gave a small prayer to no god in particular for Tier and his widow.

'Adam, are you okay?' my dad asked me worriedly. I wondered if my face showed how I was feeling at the moment.

'I will be.' And I meant it. No more sitting around the house with mom. I have to get stronger.