How could I have been so foolish?

Two days after Drei supposedly left for good, he was already back. However, he wasn’t back because life became too hard, no. He came back because he realized he forgot his sword.

He knew his family was going to gift him his very own sword, a real sword, on his 15th birthday. He planned on taking it with him, but he completely forgot about it until the day before.

Drei rode through the quiet night on his horse. Nothing but the sound of hooves running grazed his ears.

I’m almost there. The town is almost in sight.

The moment Drei realized that he left the sword, he immediately began to rush back home. He wasn’t sure what his family would do with his sword once they realized that he had left. He also felt that he may very well need to defend himself, so the sword was very important in his eyes.

He arrived in the village soon enough. And when he did, he slowed his horse to a halt. He tied the bridle onto a nearby fence post, and continued on foot.

He wanted to be in and out of the village without being seen or heard as quickly as possible and he figured that he may draw attention to himself if he rode on a horse. Despite being a few hours before dawn, someone was bound to be awake and with how bright the moons were on this particular night, it was very possible that someone may spot him.

Drei immediately began heading toward his old home and tying up his horse.

Drei had a sheltered upbringing, to put it lightly. The only time he was really allowed outside the house was during training. However, he did sneak out a few times at night when he was much younger. He was caught on the 4th time doing it, and was beaten for doing it.

Despite only doing it a few times, he still remembered the streets; he had very little scenery in his life, so he still memorized the street layout immediately and still remembers it to this day.

The streets were dead silent on this particular night, eerily so. The only light was coming from the two moons. It felt like the village was recently abandoned or a group of assassins came in, quickly and quietly murdered everybody, and left no trace behind.

Drei made it to his old home soon enough, encountering no problems at all.

Well, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Drei felt extremely lucky that no one was out at this hour. He even let his guard down, which was a direct contradiction to his father’s teachings.

Drei’s plan was to enter through the front door, sneak into the cellar without making a noise, and grab his sword.

He knew the sword was stored in the cellar because he came across it when he was down there one time. He asked his parents why they were keeping a sword down there, and his parents confessed that it was supposed to be a surprise birthday gift when he turned 15.

Drei opened the front door very quietly and made his way toward the cellar.

Just like outside there wasn’t a noise to be heard except Drei’s very quiet footsteps.

That’s strange. Usually, you can hear Father’s snoring.

Neil was a loud snorer, so it was a little strange that he couldn’t hear any snoring. Despite this, Drei continued on

It was very dark, but Drei’s eyes were already adjusted to the dark, and he knew the layout of the house because he had lived in it all his life, so he knew exactly what direction he needed to go in and what he needed to avoid getting to the cellar.

He was about halfway to the stairs when he stepped in some sort of thick liquid.

Hm? What is this?

He looked down at his feet, but he obviously couldn’t figure out what it was since it was dark.

He continued moving.

He eventually made it to the stairs and went down to the cellar.

He knew the approximate location of where it was kept and made his way there. He ruffled through some junk, being careful not to make any noise, before finding it.

Ah, here it is.

He grabbed it and started quietly making his way to the stairs.

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Just as he was about to climb them, he suddenly heard loud crying. He immediately recognized it as Karine.

Dammit.

Drei stopped in his tracks and stood perfectly still, making sure not to make a noise, and listened.

He heard two pairs of footsteps, which sounded like they were heading toward his sister’s room.

I’m going to have to wait this one out.

A few seconds passed and Drei heard voices. They were too quiet and faint for him to recognize who was speaking, let alone what they were saying.

The voices eventually grew louder as the footsteps began to come closer. As they did, he realized that both voices were male and also came to the realization that these weren’t voices he recognized. He still couldn’t make out what the people were saying, but they were definitely not voices he has ever heard before.

Are those burglars? Wait, are they kidnapping Karine?

Drei realized that the crying was also getting closer with the voices.

Drei then heard laughing, and now knew for sure that there were strangers in the house with Karine.

Drei immediately sprinted upstairs as fast as he could, unsheathing his sword as he did so.

“W-what do you t-think you’re doing?” Drei was extremely nervous and a bit scared as well, so his heart was beating out of his chest and his voice was a bit shaky.

Drei’s voice didn’t sound pathetic, just a bit shaky, which made Drei feel a little better.

The two silhouettes looked back at him. He couldn’t see their faces, but the way they suddenly looked back at him reflected surprise.

Drei returned that surprise when he saw the shapes of their silhouettes. They were featherly like a giant bird.

What kind of clothes are those? I’ve never seen anyone wearing bird feathers as clothes… wait, that’s not important right now.

One of the figures began laughing. It was the same laughter Drei heard just moments before.

“Koolch elkes hteres nother eon dihing,” the figure on the right said. Drei didn’t understand a word he said, but he could tell his tone was an amused one.

Drei was very confused for a moment, but set that confusion aside, as this was a very serious situation.

Drei didn’t know anything about the outside world, so he didn’t even know that there were other languages out there. Considering that his father taught him a lot of words, he found it strange that he didn’t recognize a single word the man said.

Suddenly, the same man who just spoke threw some sort of throwing knife at him.

Out of reflex, Drei swung his sword at it and knocked it in another direction.

“Oooh? Stis eon ist dogo. i kthin LL’i vahe mose nuf.”

The figure pulled some sort of weapon out of his sheathe. It was a bit hard for Drei to tell in the dark, but he could see that it was a spear, but with a blade attached at the end of it; in other words, a weapon Drei had never seen before.

“Hwta rae ouy? Mose rost fo ychophtasp? Nife stuj ruhyr.” The other voice spoke up for the first time. He had a lighter voice than the other guy. His tone was a fed up one.

The figure on the right began to move toward Drei. Drei readied his sword in response, he was shaking, and cold sweat dripped down his body. His head flared in a head rush. With each step the figure took toward Drei, the foggier his head became.

But then, the figure paused. He took something out of his pocket. Drei couldn’t tell what it was through the darkness, but it was a thin cylinder.

The person gave the object a little shake and it lit up. Drei had never seen anything like it before.

Immediately after he lit it, he threw it on the floor to Drei’s left.

The light was probably about as bright as a lantern. So, it wasn’t bright enough for Drei to make out the figures when on the ground.

Drei’s eyes naturally followed the object as it was thrown to the ground. It lit up a good amount of the floor. And what was on the floor was traumatizing, to put it lightly.

His family were all lying on the ground covered in blood and dead. Pieces of their organs were on the ground. Neils and Sessa’s eyes were open. Lifeless and empty.

A lump appeared in Drei’s throat and tears began to pour out of his eyes. He began to choke. His knees buckled, he dropped his sword, and fell to his knees.

Drei didn’t know what to think–he couldn’t think.

Logically speaking, Drei lost nothing in that moment. He had committed to leaving and never seeing his family ever again just hours ago. But none of that mattered to Drei.

The figure laughed when he saw the state that Drei was reduced to. It was like this was the funniest thing in the world to him.

Time passed. Realistically, it may not have even been a minute, but to Drei it felt like hours.

Suddenly, Drei heard crying. Drei assumed that it was his little sister.

The crying seemed to act like a trigger for Drei.

His vision went red; his despair turned to pure rage.

He picked up his sword, got up, and began relentlessly attacking the figure.

No thoughts crossed Drei’s mind. He committed himself to one thing: killing these people.

The figure was caught off guard but was able to parry Drei’s blow.

Drei was relentless, however, and continued swinging his sword, one after another.

Drei pushed the figure back. He was even able to cut him a few times.

Drei was a talented swordsman, so in a fair match Drei may have won. Coupled with the fact that Drei caught the man with his guard down practically assured his victory.

However, there were two men.

Out of the corner of his vision, Drei noticed what appeared to be a long stick being swung at his head at high speed. Before Drei could react, his vision went dark.