Dolen Stoll closed his diary after rereading the first entry a few times.
“Wow that’s cringe.”
‘I was in the zone when it wrote it and I man do I sound a little crazy…..ok maybe I am a little crazy but still this is too much. I always did have a flare for writing but this not very impressive. What's with the quote out of nowhere? Who even said that…sigh, this amnesia is troublesome and how can I have amnesia at two different times? I also forgot what happened in that accursed cave. All I remember are blurry moments with unspeakable horrors down there, makes me wonder how I survived. But somehow the writing is even worse. This is my dark secret that no one must know about.’
Dolen quickly took a leather belt and wrapped it around the thick journal completely securing it and then put a lock on the buckle.
‘Now no one will know,’ he thought
Over the years he had recovered fragments of his memory that he lost again after escaping that cave. All the little snippets of information about what happened in the dungeon and what he remembered from his previous life were written in that book. There were some dangerous things like physics, chemistry and his rudimentary theory on how to build guns. Later he came to know that they are referred to as A’stra or roughly translated as “Dungeon”. They are called this way by the people because they believe them to hold the souls of the damned Veeranu or “Monsters”.
“What is that?”
A voice asked from behind. Dolen jumped in jittery shock and threw the diary in the chest, locking that as well. Spinning on his heel he faced the ambusher to see his wife’s face.
“It’s nothing, I swear it’s just a book I write my thoughts in.” ‘and you won’t ever know my dark secret because I wrote it in English, hehehe’
Suddenly there was a look of understanding and acceptance on her face. Yuriel looked off into the distance, placed a hand on the side of her face and sighed “hah I see. We are finally in that stage of our marriage where the husband starts to keep secrets from his wife.”
“Yuriel, it’s not like that.”
“No no, it's fine. I knew this day would come. No matter what you do you can’t keep the spark alive forever. I guess this is where all the women start to use Physical encouragement”
Dolen felt a shiver down his back. He knew how easily women tend to reach their own conclusions so he had to remedy the situation otherwise he might have to sleep on the sofa. He stepped forward and embraced her, covering her smaller frame in his arms.
He slowly whispered in a sincere mellow voice into her ear and decided to be honest, “Yuriel. You are my light. My everything. You know I would never betray you. It's just that there are some things that I can't tell you yet. Things that I remember in that dungeon, don't let me sleep at night. Trust me. Someday I will tell you the whole story but even I don't know everything yet. They are just memories with weird feelings attached”
Yuriel looks up into his eyes, “ Alright, but if you ever feel too overwhelmed you should at least talk to be. I am not a fragile maiden Dolen, I am a retired adventurer you know? i can take it.”
“I know. I know.” He gently caressed the left side of her face, some tension leaving his body, while he peered deep into her eyes and playfully said. “But Mrs. Stoll, your eyes are just so pure and innocent, makes me want to protect you from every wile thing in this world.”
“Hoh, Mr. Stoll I didn’t know your words were as sweet as a honey-suckle Fruit”
“Oh yes, that’s one of the ways I was able to woo you of course. Sweet things are your weakness.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Oh no, Mr. Stoll. You are not doing a very good job of protecting me if you say my weakness out loud”
Dolen’s body stiffed and eyes dilated for a second at that statement, ready for anything, but he immediately relaxed again.
“Don’t worry about that. I already checked the perimeter in the morning.”
Yuriel stepped away a little and sighed, “When will you relax? We live in a populated town and a garrison full of soldiers to stop any unlucky monsters”
A sigh also escaped from Dolen. “I know. But I just don’t want to take a risk. I don’t want even a 0.01% chance …I don’t know what I’d do if something happened.” Dolen sighed.
“I know,” Yuriel whispered back.
“Alright, forget about that and be ready for today's surprise,” Dolen said, slowly letting go of his worry.
Yuriel immediately got excited at that sentence, “Are you finally gonna make the ripper berry cream cake?”
Dolen nodded.
At the confirmation, her face blossomed into a excited smile.
______________
The setting sun had set the sky aflame with shades of red and orange. The lit candles and the orange washing through the window created a very comfortable atmosphere in the kitchen. Dolen had just finished applying the jam of crushed ripper berries and cream between the layers of the cakes and was in the process of covering the whole cake in an outer layer of frosting. He was on dessert duty while Yuriel was busy preparing supper.
“Click”
” creeeaaak”
“Thud!!”
“Mom, Dad, I’m home!”
A preadolescent voice came as the main door opened and then closed. A girl of around 7 years walked into the lounge area.
As the kitchen was separated from the lounge area by a high-top counter, the whole house was bathed in the aroma of hot beef stew and ripper berry jam making Anika feel even more hungry.
“what's for supper?” she asked peaking over the counter.
“Nothing until you wash yourself off, young lady. And no shoes in the house,” Yuriel lightly scolded her.
Anika looked down and saw her shoes and trousers caked in dry mud and dirt. While the rest of the clothes were sweaty and smelly. She sent a pleading glance to her father.
Dolen gave a side glance, “Listen to your mother, Ani.”
Anika, having no choice huffed in frustration as she walked towards the bathroom.
“Shoes, dear shoes!” Yuriel shouts from the back.
So, she turns around and goes to deposit her shoes by the front door, then goes back to wash up.
____________
The Sun had set, the sky was almost dark and the family was having dinner.
Anika was animatedly explaining today's adventures. These usually involved playing knights and thieves or saving the princesses. Most of these games were usually inspired by stories told to them by the adults but Dolen had also introduced her to classics like The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast. Although they did not quite have lions, in this world there were similar monsters. He had even seen a few wild wolves so he just replaced them with the lions.
And was he worried that she would start to fantasize about animals having feelings and not willing to kill them? No, those fantasies died the day he decided to take her hunting.
Even at the cost of severe verbal lashing from Yuriel, he thought it was the right decision. Now she knows that not everything that doesn’t look like her is not an enemy but if it tries to kill you, you don’t need to hold back or feel guilty.
Dolen and Yuriel happily listened to Anika talk about her day while they also corrected her on some things like not fighting with her friends or hurting anyone while cautioning her about what she might do but is not safe, like voiding a few places and staying away from certain people.
As the dinner came to an end the family cleaned the table and moved the dishes to the kitchen.
Anika was tired after the whole day of playing and running around, so she fell asleep as soon as her face hit the bed. While Dolen and Yuriel also got ready for bed as well.
Dolen took his shirt off in the bathroom while looking into a smudgy copper mirror. He looked very different form the vague image he can recall about himself. his hair were a dull forest grey, matching his eyes. his face had a youthful shine making him look like he was in his 20s (truth be told he had no idea how old he was). His skin was fare but tanned over because of working as a blacksmith with Yuriel's father. His chest supported clean, cut and toned muscles and was riddled with scars. Long slashes running across his torso, arms and legs (made him wonder how his face was left alone). He ran his fingers along the scars, deep in thought, when two slender hands came forward embracing him from the back.
He smiled lightly and turned around within the embrace. Dolen looked at his wife. Brown eyes and hair with a beauty mark on her left cheek. She was the most Beautiful woman Dolen had ever seen (Definity no bias due to love being involved).They looked into each other's eyes for a while and then Dolen gave Yuriel a deep kiss. Both just stayed like that for a while.
Yuriel looked into his eyes again and saw that he was not thinking about anything anymore or more accurately only thinking about one thing. Yuriel Smiled. Dolen smiled with her.
He picked her up like a princess and walked toward their bedroom to continue the night.