Time and Date: 05:17, 18th day of the third Fire Month, Year 6835 of the Divine Calendar

Location: Boys Bedroom, Family House, Family Farm

~~~

Cain’s Abel, better known these days as Gato, woke up to the sound of birds chirping and chickens clucking. He didn’t need an alarm clock to get him up sooner than that. After all, he lived on a farm.

It wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to be like this, all things considered, even if he was the last viable person to inherit the family farm. He knew he had to repay his family for letting him stay. That was the main reason for his actions.

“Well, I’m up and at ‘em. Time to see what the rest of the family needs me to do for today.”

He swung out of bed, getting out of his dirty sleepwear and putting on some clean clothing. He knew the importance of having clean clothing, but the rest of his family didn’t even bother with that. It was something that he felt would bite them where it hurt.

He shrugged. It wasn’t anything worth going over.

When he got his shoes on, he walked out of the shared bedroom for all the boys in the family. He needed to be on his way. There was no rest for those who lived on the farm.

One time, back when he was only five, his parents caught him trying to take a break in the middle of the day. That resulted in him being punished with no dinner that night. He learned his lesson ever since.

Still… wouldn’t it be nice to have a fair bit of excitement for once? I can see it now. No working on this farm, and all the world cheering me on for finding some hidden truths.

With a sigh, he headed to the broom closet on the ground floor. Upon opening the door, he found it empty.

What gives? Where’d the cleaning supplies go?

He barely could look when he heard someone walking up behind him. “Ah, Gato, there you are. Your father and I were wondering where you went.”

“Mother, I hate to ask this, but where are the cleaning supplies?”

Gato’s mother in this life raised an eyebrow delicately. “Wait, you mean we don’t have any now?”

“Unfortunately, that is the case.”

Gato could only sigh. It had been almost 14 years to the day when he was born in this world, and much of his life here on the family farm was dull and monotonous. He needed a chance to shine on an adventure.

If only I could go out on an adventure…

“Well, I’ll have to speak with your father about this lack of cleaning supplies. Maybe someone stole them? I don’t know.”

Figures, Gato thought. Of course, he didn’t hate that outcome, but it had been rather predictable by this point in time. In fact, he could count on one hand how many times the exact outcome he was dealing with had not happened, and he’d have two fingers and his thumb left over for counting.

Then again, his mother wasn’t one for investigating the truth‌. That she never wanted to find the truth on her own was rather telling.

“The idea of someone stealing the cleaning supplies is rather odd, Mother,” Gato said at last. “Who would benefit from stealing what is ours, especially when we don’t have a monopoly on it?”

Inwardly, he grimaced at using such a turn of phrase from his previous life. Of course, I need to be sure not to use that ever again…

“What do you mean by the word monopoly?”

Gato’s mother gave him a weary gaze, as if she had it up to her eyeballs regarding his use of words that nobody had heard of before. She didn’t know about his prior life, nothing of the sort.

Gato intended to keep it that way, and no way would he say anything more than needed.

“A monopoly is when someone, or more than one someone, controls much of the supply of what people are looking for.”

“Oh, so like a farmer controlling all the wheat in the area?”

“Yes, Mother, like that.”

Gato sighed. This task was hard, no matter how many times he had to deal with it. How do I possibly explain these things when nobody has a common frame of reference for what I mean? It’s like I need to take a long vacation.

“I see. Well, maybe we should talk about the next task your father and I have lined up for you.”

“What sort of task are you talking about?”

Gato tilted his head to one side. It wasn’t often that his parents had a task outside of the norm for him to do.

“It’s quite simple, really. We need you to head to town tomorrow on your own.”

Gato suddenly felt sweat pour down his back. Uh-oh… why do I have a bad feeling about this?

He didn’t have a good way of handling that mess. It was ridiculous.

The last time he went on his own somewhere, he had to run from a Liger that was about to eat him. Admittedly, he was out on his own without his parents' permission, but that was on him. He wasn’t even aware of why he had to stay on the family farm way back then.

“Mother, is it possible that you can explain why I’m being sent out of the house tomorrow?”

Gato had to ask, especially to make sure he was understanding it correctly. Surely his parents would not put him on such a trip when the last time he was on his own was still in recent memory.

“Oh, that? It’s because we’re giving you a chance to shop for us as a household. Didn’t you say that you wanted to give us a break from shopping for our needs for the rest of the year?”

Gato blinked twice, then put a hand to his chin. He did indeed say that, didn’t he? That was a month before the Liger incident, as the rest of his family would put it these days. However… did he truly deserve this task?

“Well, yeah, but—”

Gato’s mother raised a hand to forestall any further conversation. “Please, Gato, take this opportunity for yourself, will you? It’s for the best that you learn how to handle these things.”

Gato cautiously nodded. “Very well, mother, I understand.”

Indeed, he understood what he had to do, especially given the circumstances of this trip. However, he didn’t know why he had such a bad feeling about going. It was like he had to run away from trouble that would affect him… or was that an exaggeration?

“Good. Now, before I forget, please remember not to deviate from the trip going to and from Alfheimwood tomorrow. We need all the materials from the market before things go bad. Do you understand?”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Gato’s mother asked him that last question to see if he was paying attention to what was supposed to happen. Fortunately for him, he had been.

“Yes, mother. I’ll keep that in mind, I swear.”

I just hope that the trouble coming up, whatever it is, won’t affect us as a family. May the Divine Spirits of Nature protect us all.

If only he knew…

#

Time and Date: 08:00, 18th day of the third Fire Month, Year 6835 of the Divine Calendar

Location: Field around Family Farm

~~~

Gato sighed as he walked around the farm, carrying his scythe around in both hands. It was one of those days when he had to do the chores assigned to him, and he knew he needed to be grateful to his parents that he was alive at all. What he needed to do was shear the wheat and other grains, and yet he couldn’t help but wonder if he was allergic to the food made by his parents in the farm’s kitchen.

Man… talk about getting a rash from eating wheat-based flour.

He remembered the last time such a thing happened. His parents made a loaf of bread dedicated to him for his birthday a year ago, and they made it with wheat-based flour. The sheer amount of rashes that he got from the incident was astounding.

He sighed after remembering the incident from all that time ago. That was ‌not the first time he had to deal with rashes from food allergies. It might not even be the last time.

Still, what do I need to do in order to get past this hurdle in life? My parents are trying everything to get the rashes to go away, short of actually removing the wheat from the diet…

He had to give his parents credit for persistence, though. They never stopped giving him wheat-based foods, but they added other types of grains into the flour mixture. It was a trend that he approved of, even if slightly, but how to tell them that…

“Hey, Gato, are you feeling okay? You’re not shearing the wheat.”

Gato turned his attention to who said that. Tall, vibrant golden yellow hair, sea-green eyes, and a bushy mustache. Yes, this was his eldest brother, Jeremiah.

Now that he thought about it, though, he didn’t work as much as he was supposed to. He barely had a tenth of the field cleared by then. That was a problem.

“Sorry, there was a lot on my mind, Jeremiah. I don’t know what happened this time…”

Indeed, he didn’t know what happened. The last thing he wanted was to be punished for things beyond his understanding or control.

“I understand. That trip over to town had better be worth it‌ for all parties, especially you, brother.”

Jeremiah nodded as he said that. It was as if he was saying something utterly profound.

Suddenly, Gato felt a chill run down his spine, as if he had a bad feeling again. No, not that he had a bad feeling again. It was more like the bad feeling from earlier came back.

What the… what is wrong with this picture?! Why do I have to deal with these bad feelings all the time?!

Still, he had to mask the fact he had a bad feeling, if only to keep from leaving his family’s farm tomorrow. He didn’t want to be on the farm forever, but things were going to be troublesome if he didn’t defend himself properly while he was on the road.

Wait… defend myself? Why didn’t I think of that sooner?!

“Listen, Jeremiah, do you think Father would be against me borrowing the family sword?”

Jeremiah, who was about to walk toward Gato, stopped in mid-stride. “Er… you’d better have a good reason you need to borrow the sword, Gato.”

Oh, right, I’m going to need to word this right… drat. I don’t know if Father will allow for me to do this on me saying that I have a bad feeling.

Gato put a hand to his chin. This was something he needed to do right. He didn’t want to get his chances of leaving the farm for the day gone.

Wait… why do I have the feeling I won’t see my family again after I leave the farm tomorrow?

Gato shivered as that thought flitted through his mind. Of course, he didn’t want that to happen, but the possibility was still there.

“Is there something wrong, Gato?”

Jeremiah looked at Gato with what had to be some measure of concern in his eyes, if what Gato saw was true. Of course, he couldn’t be sure of the truth with his eldest brother.

“No, nothing’s wrong, Jeremiah. I just need to explain my reason to Father about why I need to borrow the sword.”

With that, Gato got back to work and sheared the wheat from the stalks. He had a lot to deal with, especially regarding the patriarch of the family.

Now, how am I supposed to explain this to father? Will he even believe me?

#

Time and Date: 17:00, 18th day of the third Fire Month, Year 6835 of the Divine Calendar

Location: Oxen Stable on the Family Farm

~~~

Gato sighed as he walked into the oxen stable. This was going to be the one chance he had to talk with his father about his concerns for the trip the next day, and he didn’t want to mess this up. Truly, this was something he would prefer not to make a mess of.

Well, it’s a good thing I know how to use the family sword, because this would be difficult to achieve otherwise.

Indeed, it was a good thing he had the skill to pull off using the sword. That he had to train in how to use it was proof enough that he had the skill level needed to bring it with him.

He wasn’t the only one on the farm to have training in how to use his family’s weapon, though. His older brothers all trained in how to use it, but none of them had the same level of persistent training that he did. It proved that he had a lot of issues to work on with his survival.

“Father, are you in here?”

Gato looked around for any sign of his father. He didn’t want to get this wrong, especially with the location of where people were on the family farm. Last he had checked, his father was working in the oxen stable, trying to get the carts ready for the next day.

The only sounds that permeated the area were the moos of the oxen, which didn’t fill him with confidence.

What a right pain in the bum, that —

“Gato, what’s the matter?”

— oh, wait, spoke too soon.

Gato turned to his left to see who spoke. It was his father, holding onto a hammer that seemed about ready to break apart. How come it still hadn’t done so? He never figured it out.

“Father, I need to borrow the family sword for tomorrow.”

Gato blurted out what he had to say. Best to rip that bandaid off, or so he knew the saying.

“Huh? Why do you need to borrow it?”

The family patriarch raised an eyebrow. This wasn’t how this sort of conversation would go under normal circumstances.

Gato sighed. Of course, this wouldn’t be easy, he thought.

“It’s because I have a disastrous feeling that someone’s going to target me for death.”

Gato said at last. He didn’t want to be seen as correct in this case, but it was best to keep a trump card up his sleeve.

It didn’t help that he was legitimately worried about his bad gut feeling, the sort of worry that might get his whole family killed. He didn’t want that at all.

“I see… is your reason truly legitimate?”

“Eh?”

Gato blinked as he processed what his father said. Why would he think my reason is not legitimate?

“I mean, I wouldn’t want you to die tomorrow, but it’s your turn to go out on this errand. Is this an attempt to get out of doing the errand?”

Gato’s father placed a hand on Gato’s left shoulder, which was enough for him to realize he needed to stay still. There was a good reason for this, he was sure.

“No, father, not at all. I was planning on heading on that errand, but many gongs pounded inside me to keep me from getting killed. Please believe me.”

Gato lifted his father’s hand off his shoulder, which was not an easy feat to accomplish. Gato was tall for his age, but not overly muscular. His father was both tall and full of muscles.

“Is there anything else you need me to hear before I decide if you can borrow the family sword?”

Gato’s father began walking out of the stable as he spoke. It was likely that Gato could not get his request granted… not without a fair bit of convincing words.

“I don’t have any other reason for you to hear about needing to borrow the family sword, Father. I’m sorry.”

Gato walked with his father. True, there was a bit of a head start for the patriarch, but that wasn’t a big deal.

“No need to worry, son. I was just making sure you didn’t have any other motives for borrowing the family sword. You may borrow it tomorrow.”

Gato’s father took a left to walk to the house. He did his part in making sure Gato stayed alive.

Gato‌ nearly tripped over his own two feet when he heard the words his father said. It took him a bit to get balanced, but he was still shocked.

Just like that? How does this work out?

He eventually shrugged. It wasn’t worth thinking over.

Now, what am I going to do to keep father and mother happy while I’m on the errand tomorrow?