“You are still too slow Troy. You will never catch me if you don’t train some more.” I yell laughing while I run through the forest’s border, Troy following just a few paces behind while stumbling over his own legs due to having no breath left in him. “That’s not fair. Why is it that you are always faster than me even though I am a year older than you?” Troy complains after stopping and leaning over to catch his breath.
Some might find it strange to hear Troy say he is older than me because I don’t look like I would be younger than him at all. “-Except for my chest area sadly.-” I just don’t seem to grow there much at all. Even the girls two years younger than me either overtook my growth in that place or are close to.
Ever since the villagers took me in I lived together with Amy, the villages Tailor. I say Tailor but the only thing the villagers don’t do themselves is making the clothes themselves. They prepare the leather and strings themselves and hand it over to Amy to assemble the clothes in the end because it hastens the production somewhat. In turn the other grown up villagers are responsible for hunting, woodworking and other similar things of the sort. Like this I learned how to make my own clothes by watching her over the five years I have lived here.
“You are just not made for running Troy. You should rather go hack some trees or something with your kind of body.” He listens to me in earnest and starts posing while flexing his muscles. “Yeah my body is admirable, right?” He grins from one end to the other while slowly catching up to me. I turned in the direction of the village and started to walk in a normal tempo this time. “Let’s go back to the village, we were told to be back before midday so we have to hurry.” Troy begrudgingly followed behind and I thought I heard him mumbling about density. He is really fixated on his muscles. “-Boys!-”
We arrived at the village slightly after the sun passed its highest point in the sky, thus coming too late for whatever they were planning for us to do today. “Both of you dont take life too lightly. You just don’t know how harsh it was until just one hundred years ago.” Old man Gregory lamented our late arrival in the village. “Now come with me to the community hall, we got many things to tell you before the day ends.” Gregory told us with a sad smile. I faced Troy and asked him with curiosity. “Do you know what all this is about? Did we do something we should not have recently?” Equally curious Troy told me he does not know what was happening too.
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After we arrived in the community hall we could tell it was filled with all the people of the village over the age of thirty, looking in our direction with an equally sad expression as Gregory. Slowly I get scared by the looks on their faces because I don’t know what will happen and it looks like it is nothing good. Maybe because it was written on my face or because they anticipated it they relaxed their expressions and Gregory told us in a kind voice. “Troy, Rya you did nothing wrong so don’t think like that but either way, you both will have to leave the village in the not too distant future.” I was just about to burst out pleading to be allowed to stay, when Gregory held his hand high and continued talking. “We are sorry you two but it was foretold more than a hundred years ago, that the two people, descendants of the skies, that you two are, will be forced to go on a journey, as soon as they both reach the age of sixteen years. In exchange for taking care of you two, our ancestors and us were granted with a place to live without having to fear any monster or bandit attacks until you leave this place.”
This could not be true I finally got used to living in this village and was happy with it. “You can’t do this to us. You just can’t. Where do you expect us to go with just the two of us. We don’t know anything about the area except for the village and the woods surrounding it!” I cried out lout while tearing up, almost sobbing in the end. At this moment Troy shoved himself in front of me to shield me from their gaze. “I was wondering when you planned to tell us all about this. I knew all along that this would happen at some time since I eavesdropped on you just after Rya arrived here. I hope you won’t just send us our way with clothes only since you mentioned bandits and monsters before and it feels like we will definitely encounter one or both of em as soon as we really leave from here!” Troy exclaimed resolutely and obviously planning to protect me in the future.
A uncomfortable silence permeated through the room, as the others tried to come to terms with Troy’s changed behavior. “We are really sorry. We would love to have you with us permanently but don’t have a choice in the matter either. And of course we won’t send you off without any means to protect yourself. The bow you always wanted, was in fact prepared for you Rya and Troy, the spear and shield over there are meant for you to use to protect against any harm coming your way.” Amy said while slowly tearing up. The remainder of the day passed like a dream for me without really catching much of what we were told. I just hoped Troy would be able to explain everything to me, once we met the next morning.
“It’s cold.” I mutter while slowly waking from my sleep. “After I got overwhelmed by the huge news of me and Troy having to leave, I just fell to sleep instantly as soon as I arrived at home and I don’t remember leaving the window open, so why is it so cold in here?” Right after I fully woke up my eyes shot open just to see I was not in my room anymore, instead I was on the ground in a wide open plain, I never saw before, with Troy standing a few steps away, looking into the distance with a serious expression on his face.
“They really did it. They drugged our dinner to move us while asleep.” Troy muttered, not yet having realised I was awake. I looked down besides where I lay and found the bow and a few arrows scattered around it. My whole body shaking, I picked up the weapon and its ammunition, slowly rising with the bow in hands. “-I won’ forget this. Gregory!-”