Chapter 153. The First Loss

“Althy…” a sweet voice in the darkness called me, but I just didn’t feel like moving. “Althy, dear… come on… wake up already…”

I refused to listen, and instead turned myself away from it. I had no desire to move from my spot or to look away from the darkness, no matter how hard that voice tried. It was warm… and I was comfortable… There was no need to wake up, so I tried my best to get away from anything that tried to pull me away from it.

At least that would’ve been the case if my head wasn’t being softly caressed and a hand placed on my shoulder. “Come on, Althy. You won’t have anything to eat if you don’t wake up. Cinnamon is going to eat your breakfast.”

I snapped my eyes open and turned to look at the woman that had been calling me, my mom. She was such a pretty woman, just the kind of woman that I’d dream to become one day, with her long, flowing brown hair, bright green eyes, small rose petal-like mouth, and slightly sun-tanned skin color. Apparently, she had a lot of men going after her, but in the end, dad was the only one that managed to conquer her.

I slowly rose from my bed. It was warm and nice, more during these days where it wasn’t as cold as winter or as hot as summer. Just the right time to sleep away all the time. I looked out of the window of our wooden house, and there, standing right by the frame of the window… I saw her! It was Cinnamon! A large brown bird with a thick crown on her head, golden eyes, and a smart look.

“Oh, looks like she’s here already,” mom exclaimed, placing a hand on her mouth with her eyes wide open. “You might have to fight for it.”

I threw away my wool blanket and readied myself to run, but Cinnamon was much faster than me as she flapped her wings and flew all the way across my small room and to the entrance.

“Hey!” I shouted and scrambled out of my bed.

By the time I was already on my feet, Cinnamon was out of the room. Chickens were fast, strong, and nimble animals like that… My legs were too short to compete with her! Hmmm I might have to use magic to get there… but nobody in my family knows that I can use magic already… and I wasn’t going to risk doing something to Cinnamon or ruin our house, so I just had to run.

I turned on the doorframe and ran after Cinnamon. I saw her big, fluffy, cream-colored butt hurrying just as much as me, and in one last flapping of her wings, she flew to my chair, immediately going for the few pieces of bread that mom had readied for me as her head bobbed forward and back at incredible speeds.

“No! Cinnamon, no! That’s my food!” I shouted as I approached the table.

In one quick shove, I moved aside the bird, forcing her to take a couple of steps to the side of the chair, but she still refused to let go of my food, so I had to use my arm to block her. She still tried her best to move around me, but even if she was a big bird, I was still bigger and I could properly keep her away.

I quickly moved my plate away from the edge of the table with my free hand and glared at Cinnamon. “You have plenty of food out there! Why do you always come in here and try to take mine!?”

Cinnamon, however, just looked at me with a side glance, and tilted her head in confusion. I pouted and continued to glare. That chicken… I was sure that she could understand me, and was just acting like she couldn’t.

While I was having a glaring battle with Cinnamon, the door to our house was opened. “Ah! Althy! I see you’re battling with the chicken today as well!”

It was dad. He had a large wide sword resting on his shoulder. My eyes brightened when I looked at him. If mom was pretty, then dad was the perfect match for her. He was tall, strong, with the same pale skin color that I got from him, jet-black hair, brown eyes similar to mine, and sharp facial features. The perfect kind of look that a knight should have.

Or, at least that’s what I insisted that he was, but he said that he’s just a common soldier who only knows how to swing a sword around while patrolling the roads, nothing more. He said that the Viceroy had to recognize him as a knight, but he didn’t want to deal with anything like that, and that he was pretty happy living with us in the countryside, so… that’s where we stayed.

“Chicken’s about to get what remains of your bread,” my big brother pointed out as he took a step to the side and around dad.

I urgently turned to look at Cinnamon. She had maneuvered around my arm to get on top of the table, and continued to quietly peck my bread.

“No!” I shouted and leaped on top of the table, my hand passing right under Cinnamon’s fluffy butt, and in one quick motion, I pulled what remained of the bread to me.

It was a half-eaten piece of bread… I looked at it with regret, but as Cinnamon turned once more to look at it, I quickly shoved it in my mouth. There was no way I was going to lose what little remained.

Big brother laughed as he approached, his boots making a stomping sound on the wooden floor until he was next to me. I turned to look up at him while my cheeks were full of bread. He was similar to dad, with the same sharp facial features and black hair, but he had inherited mom’s wheat-like skin color and green eyes.

Suddenly, with a smirk, he ruffled my hair, and I felt annoyed by it, but I couldn’t tell him to stop because I was still busy chewing my piece of bread.

“When are you going to beat that chicken, huh?” he said, my hair turning into a complete mess, so I urgently went to grab on to his hands to stop him, which, thankfully, he did. “If you want, dad and I can teach you how to properly fight! And no chicken is going to be a danger to you!”

That was an attractive idea… but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be cutting things down with a sword. I would rather stay home and let them do it for me while I looked after mom, the house and the animals outside—even Cinnamon, despite how annoying of a chicken she was.

“No, no. She doesn’t need to worry about that yet,” Dad said as he leaned his large sword by a wall. “I’d rather she does whatever she wants to do… be that a fair maiden or… a powerful knight!”

So he said, but judging from the way that he got excited after saying that last bit, it seemed like he wanted both me and my brother to be knights…

Mom finally appeared and approached dad with a bright smile. Dad returned that smile, and then… They kissed! I looked away, since I didn’t want to see them doing that, and fortunately, it was just for a couple of seconds.

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They remained close to each other and mom just looked him up and down. “It looks like everything went well?”

“Ahhh, well no, not everything. There were a few bandits trying to sneak into the neighboring town, but—”

“But we cut them down! Just like the dogs that they are!” Big brother suddenly interrupted, puffing his chest out proudly with the same smirk that he usually carried.

Mom’s face turned into a frown. “You’ve got to stop saying things like that. It worries me that you might be enjoying something that you shouldn’t be.”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” brother dismissively replied, waving his hand in the air. “These are not real people. They’re more akin to demons, or goblins, so it’s not a big deal. I just see them like that, that’s all.”

“Hm…” mom thoughtfully replied with the same frown on her face.

“Don’t worry, dear.” Dad said, softly caressing mom’s cheek. “I’ll make sure the boy turns out to be a great man.”

Mom thought about it for a moment longer, and then with a sigh, she nodded. “Okay, I’ll trust you about it…” Then turned an angry glare at brother. “But I better not hear about you getting into trouble!”

Brother took a step back with a wry smile and his hands raised to the front. “T-that’s not going to happen! Promise!”

I never understood why both dad and big brother cowered whenever mom said things like that. She was a very caring woman, and they were strong fighters… so if they wanted to dismiss her, then it would’ve been as easy as when a rooster fights back a boar.

“L-lets not think about that for now,” Dad said, taking a step forward with a similar wry smile as brother’s. “There’s still daylight, and we still have to help out in the fields. So let's get to it quickly so we can finally go to bed.”

“Right!” Brother replied, leaving to his room in quick, wide steps.

Dad stopped next to me, looking at me with a soft smile… and suddenly gave me a peck on the cheek, before caressing my head and going to his room as well. Cinnamon walked over to the edge of the table and looked at both my dad and brother leaving. Did she want attention like that? Aren’t there plenty of roosters looking after her as well…? Well it didn’t matter. She was still a good chicken, so I pet her on top of her thick comb for a moment, and then, like my dad and brother, I went back to my room and got ready to help out as well.

* * *

“Phew!” Big brother let out as he cleaned the sweat from his forehead. “That’s that!”

It was noon by now. Brother had been helping with cutting wood, moving heavy things around, and inspecting the few things that we planted near our house. It wasn’t nearly enough to feed a whole town, but it was enough for us and to trade at the town or the few merchants that sometimes came here.

As for me, I followed him around for a while, and looked at what the chickens were doing. I had to be careful whenever I wanted to take their eggs… since they sometimes got mad when I got my hands close to them, but if I politely asked them for them, they would usually step aside and let me take a few. Not all of them, since they somehow knew which ones they were going to warm and which ones weren’t good enough for a new chick…

Chickens were so full of secrets…

While I had my eyes on my brother, I noticed that something shiny was coming from the road. It looked like a golden pebble… but I knew that it was much bigger than that. Once I focused my eyes, I realized that it was a man in bright golden clothes; too stiff and wide to be comfortable. He was riding on top of a big white horse… and even if I didn’t know who he was, or why he was here, I knew that he was important.

Brother also seemed to know, since he frowned before turning to look at me. “Go back home and stay close to mom.”

I didn’t need to question him, so I put aside the few sticks I had in my hand and ran over. The door opened and my dad walked out, frowning just as much as my brother. He looked at me for a moment, nodded and walked past. Mom was inside, so I went over to her as I looked back at both dad and big brother going over to the man in the golden clothes.

The big man stopped his horse next to both of them, not sparing a glance our way. After a moment, he reached to the side of his horse and pulled out a piece of paper. He read it and then put it aside. Dad and brother looked at each other with tight-lips, and then said something to the man in the golden clothes, who in turn nodded, before turning his horse away and leaving just as fast as he came here.

Dad and brother looked at the man leave for a moment, and once he was out of sight, they both walked back to the house with grim expressions on their faces. Mom was the first to move over to them.

“What happened? What did that Holy Knight want?” she urgently asked, while still trying to hide the worry in her voice.

Dad shook his head in a regretful manner. “They… They came here to draft us.”

“What?!” mom exclaimed, her eyes widened and the flush of her cheeks fading. “What do they mean ‘draft’ you?! Doesn’t the emperor have more than enough Holy Knights?! What do they need a couple of men from the country for?!”

“Apparently…” brother responded first with a forced smile. “The forces of darkness are encroaching at the Empire’s borders… and since there’s no Hero of the Holy Gods anymore, they’re gathering every abled fighter they can to protect the lands.”

“B-but! We’re so far away from those lands! Surely you can say no and—”

“There’s no way to stop them,” Dad interrupted with a shake of his head. “He said that they will cleanse those that refuse as if they had betrayed the Gods. We… go or…” He didn’t finish what he wanted to say as he glanced at me. I could feel the pain in the way that he was looking at me, but after a moment, he smiled and nodded. “But don’t worry. I’m sure that if the Holy Gods are calling for us, it's because they’re going to look over us.”

“That’s right! The Holy Gods have blessed us with strength and fighting skills. This is just our calling!” brother followed up, pumping a fist up, close to his face, and then looked at me with a wide smile. “Hey, who knows? Maybe your big brother will be the next Hero of the Holy Gods, and then, you won’t have anything to worry about.”

I couldn’t understand exactly what they were talking about, but I knew that whatever was happening, it wasn’t good. Still, I forced a smile and nodded, though… from the way that his smile broke, it seemed like I wasn’t good enough at convincing him, just like mom…

“Argh! Quit making those faces!” Dad suddenly exclaimed, placing one hand on my shoulder and another on mom’s. “Even if we aren’t a ‘Hero’, I’m sure that we’ll be back before you know it! We’re not Holy Knights, after all, so they won’t throw us head-first into a group of demons!”

Mom forced a better smile than mine. “Yes, you are right. When do you leave?”

“We must leave… right away,” Dad said, “I guess we’ll rest on the way there…”

Dad and big brother then moved around us to go to their rooms. I followed mom and helped her get things ready for them, among those, a few things to eat on the way there, and a couple of herbs that could get them a bit of energy. Cinnamon was standing by the edge of the table while we were doing all of that, and I thought about the pale-green eggs that she laid. They were probably full of energy like the chicken herself, so while mom was busy, I prepared a couple of scrambled eggs.

A few minutes later, they were both standing by the door, a couple of bags over their shoulders, their large swords strapped on their backs, and a tight-lipped smile on their faces. I didn’t want them to go… but I knew I couldn’t stop them.

Mom handed them the few things that she prepared, and I gave them the scrambled eggs. It took them just a couple of chomps to be done with them, but if it made them feel better, then it was fine if they couldn’t enjoy them.

“Please come back soon,” I said as I looked up to them. I wasn’t a small girl, but they were still a few heads taller than me.

Dad smiled and caressed my head. “We’ll be back before you know it.”

Dad shared a kiss with my mom, embraced for a few seconds, then turned to me, hugged me tightly to the point of even lifting me from the ground, and finally, after a few looks with us, turned to leave to the road.

Brother, instead, grabbed both me and mom at the same time and shared a hug that was just as tight as dad’s. After looking at us with a confident smile and a nod, he followed after dad.

Both me and mom walked over to the edge of the door and just saw how their backs were getting further and further away. Mom grabbed my hand, and I looked up to her. There were a couple of tears falling from her eyes. Just from that, and looking at both dad and brother leave, I couldn’t help but share in the sadness that mom was feeling.

But for some reason, as I saw them leave, I felt like I wasn’t going to see them again, and like there was something more that I had lost… I felt like… This wasn’t fair, I felt like…

I had to be stronger.