About 2 weeks later, Everyone in the house was woken up by the startling sounds of Mom groaning in pain. We all immediatly knew that today was the day the family would gain a new member!

“I-its t-time, right?!”

“Y-yes honey, it is…”

In contrast to Dad’s almost contagious enthusiasm, Mom’s voice was clearly full of pain. I felt a little scared for Mom, as this was an unusual sight from the usual strong and independent version of her we were used to.

Dad quickly took me in his arms and woke up maia .After quickly handing me over, he ran to our neighbor Lyanna’s house.

As I sat in Maia’s hold, I thought, It still doesn’t feel real… I don’t even know how to react.

I looked up to see if Maia had anything to say, but all I saw was an exaggerated, bright smile, alongside glowing eyes that screamed :“I can’t wait”. I decided not to interfere with her Moment.

With a growing sense of excitement, we went to the living room, and did the only thing we could do in that situation, which was waiting.

The Moment we sat down, Lyanna and Dad bursted through the front door with Aldric following them. When Lyanna entered the room part of my sense of excitement was replaced by a sense of both confusion and fear.

Her usual smile was nowhere to be seen, and she had the most serious expression I had ever seen; even in my previous life. Seeing that calmed my sense of fear; It showed how much she actually wanted to make sure Mom would have a successful labor.

Maia looked down at me and said,“I still can’t believe it, you’re going to become a older brother in just a few hours”

Maia seemed genuinely happy about it, but I was too overwhelmed honestly, and all I could feel at the Moment was anxiety about what could happen during the birth, hope that everything would be fine, and then finally joy about the fact that I’d soon be an older brother.

After 3 worry filled hours of Maia walking around the living room, they still weren’t done, but we could tell it started.

“Aaghh!”

“Aaaghh!”

Screams. Loud ones. The usual strong Mom we saw on a daily basis was screaming so loudly that the ground was shaking all the way in the living room.

I started uncontrollably shaking, genuinely scared and concerned about her. I tightly grabbed Maia’s shoulder as she held me.

Maia looked down with a face trying to hide worry and said,“Don’t worry Cael, it was actually worse when you were born haha, I was even scared than you now too”

I looked up at her and asked,“You were scared?”

I honestly couldn’t really picture that… I had never seen her anything close to worried or scared in the past year.

Maia continued explaining her face visibly calmer,“I was so scared. I was clinging onto Aldric the whole time while Dad was with Lyanna helping Mom… so I know how you’re feeling, but trust me. Just like it was for me, I’m sure the Moment it’s over you’ll be nothing but overjoyed”

Hearing Maia’s story soothed my anxiety. While I was still worried as hell, I was definitely calmer, and it was thanks to her.

I don’t remember how much time actually passed from that Moment until when they finally allowed me and Maia to come in, but it didn’t matter. Eventually, Aldrie walked into the living room with an extremely tired, but excited face and took us to the birthing room.

When we got inside the room, Mom was sleeping on the bed, in her arms there were 2 babies.

Huh.. What’s going on?

I could feel something running down my face, I reached to check, and I felt my fingers getting wet. They were tears… I didn’t even feel them coming out, and I didn’t think I had a reason for them to, but they still did. All I could think of was how glad I was that all 3 of them were safe.

Dad laughed and said,“Seems like your older brother is quite the emotional guy”

Dad walked up to Mom with a joyous face and took both my newborn twin siblings in his arms to let Mom rest.

Dad turned around and walked up to us, saying,“Maia, Cael, meet your younger twin siblings, Nala and Rune Ashford.”

so these are my younger siblings …

I intended on just living my life without any particular goals other than traveling around the world, learning magic and just having fun, but at that Moment something inside me awakened that made me completely change my mind.

I have to protect them... At all costs!

I don’t know whether it was my newly brotherly instincts or just me being delusional, but I thought.. No I Knew that if I didn’t get strong enough to protect them, I would be a failure as an older brother. At that Moment I swore that I’d become someone they can rely on, someone that could protect them.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

After Nala and Rune’s birth, time passed quickly. Things around the house were way more active, more akin to a hornets nest than a home, and with that came exhaustion, comfort, and genuine fun.

And so 4 years had passed, and I was now 5 years old. Maia would turn 13 later that year, and Nala alongside Rune had turned 4 years old a few months ago.

I turned to Maia and asked,“Maia, are we still going today or not?”

She looked back at me and said,“Of course we are, but it’ll be a bit longer till we leave. I'm preparing our bags now, I have to make sure nothing is missing since we’ll be out the whole day. Also have to make sure Nala and Rune will be fine”

I gave her a quick thumbs up and said, “Alright”

Nala and Rune had heard about Harasawa river, it’s a nice spot that’s a bit deeper into the forest behind our village, and had been begging Dad and Mom to bring them there. Mom and Dad always said no though, to all of our dismay, even after we brought the fact that Dad works in the forest… Eventually though Maia convinced them. Something about maia being able to handle any monsters

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

As I sat there and waited for Maia to get done packing our things, I thought, Every day it keeps getting more obvious, though it was from the start, but Maia really is our older sister.

…

And so, after making sure we didn’t forget anything, we were on our way.

It was going to be a pretty long walk, but none of us seemed to mind. The younger ones so hipping and hollering on the way there so they didn’t have a problem with it. Thanks to a few breaks, and carefully walking around Maia, we eventually got there. The view alone made it worth it for me.

The river had almost invisible, gleaning, clear blue water. It was wide, but not deep, and the current was pretty tame. Overall, it was the perfect river for kids and fish a like to play in.

I watched the twins play in the water while Maia prepared the picnic. Their innocent laughter and playfulness sparked a sense of both joy and innermixed calmness.. A few times the twins tried to get me to join them, but I’ve never been much of a swimmer.

Everything went pretty well, we didn’t have any particular problems for most of the day, but of course, something just had to ruin one of my first real outings with family in this world…

As we were preparing to leave, with the sun low in the sky, we heard some noise coming from some bushes on the other side of the river. Maia’s face immediately got serious as she looked at the bushes. She quickly gathered me and the twins and put us behind her back.

“Maia, is it..?”

“Yeah, goblins. But don’t worry, no need to hide, just stay behind me and nothing will happen”

Don’t give me the “you don’t need to hide” crap?! We’re standing on the other side of the river completely open, whatdo you mean no need to hide?

I was trying to distract myself from the encroaching sense of fear, me not even realising my weak knees were wobbling uncontrollably.

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh SHIT.

I tried to get mad at my sister for telling us to stand behind her in the open during an attack, but my mind was overwhelmed by the fear of the unknown.

Maia gripped her bow and pointed it towards one of the bushes across the river, ready to fire at any give Moment, which did make her look kinda cool, but I couldn’t stop thinking of what those creatures might do..

How can I help here….

I tried thinking of any way I could help protect my siblings depending on what came out of those bushes.. First I should probably try to get us out of this horrid positioning.

“Mai-” I started speaking when a bunch of ugly small green imps bursted from the bushes and began running towards us.

The moment a goblin ran out of the bush Maia was aiming at, she released the arrow which flew through the air with a loud whistle before flying straight through the goblin’s head and imbeded itself into the floor.

The other goblins relentlessly didn’t stop their charge and began running through the river water. Unfortunately for the goblins, they were too slow. One after another, in a speed that far surpasses what my young eyes could fathom Maia quickly shot all 7 goblins with arrows directly through the head killing them all.

Maia turned to us, as if nothing happened, and said “See? Told you no need to hide right?”

The adrenaline in my body was replaced by anger as I thought of what may have happened to Rune and Nala had it been some other monster that Maia couldn’t kill almost instantly. The rage grew and I looked to Maia to say something but then Saw Rune and Nala with tears in their eyes and my rage instantly vanished. Replaced by disgust, from the dead goblin bodies, and compassion for my siblings I told Maia :

“Let’s go back.”

To which she smiled and said “Of course! A bunch of goblins aren’t enough for me!” before picking up Rune and Nala.

Her casual smile made it more reassuring for not just me but even the younger twins as we started walking home, so even though her behavior was reckless, it wasn’t from cockiness, but from confidence. Maia was a prodigy and she knew it.

When we arrived at the village’s entrance, I was looking trying to use the familiar environment to calm myself down , but couldn’t help but notice that a few kids that were around my age were using magic.It was super basic yes, but it still made me wonder.

When am I going to be able to use magic?

I pushed that thought aside at the moment though, since I had a feeling that Mom and Dad were gonna tear us a new one when we got home….

Maia pushed open the door with her foot and yelled out, “We’re home!”

We heard mom yell back from the kitchen,“Welcome back kiddos how was it?”

Maia and I quickly walked into the kitchen before placing the twins down and said,“It was fun! We played a lot, and really enjoyed the lunch you packed us Mom, we only had a small scuffle before going home”

Mom looked at us with some confusion on her face and said,“Scuffle? Are you all alright?”

I quickly unpacked our things as the twins began playing, knowing mom was about to go crazy.

Maia scoffed and waived her hand before saying,“Yeah, we’re fine. It was just a bunch of goblins”

gulp

An immediate feeling of anger came from my mom and spread to everyone in the room before she stopped cooking and yelled,“Goblins?!”

We then heard a loud noise as mom slammed a ladle down and began walking towards Maia, the twins seemed scared.

Maia had a confused look on her face as she said,“Yeah, but it’s fine, I took care of everyth-“

See you in heaven sis

Before she could finish her sentence, Mom had slapped Maia across her face letting out a resounding SMACK through the house. Maia touched her slapped cheek with 1 hand and looked at Mom with shock covering her face. The expression on her face showed that she couldn’t understand what she did wrong.

Mom continued yelling, “That’s why we didn’t allow them to go in the first place! You think that just because you’re better than kids your age at magic you can put your siblings in danger?!”

Maia put her hands up and said, while stuttering, “B-but I killed them! And none of us even got scratched, so what’s the big deal?!”

Mom’s face was red at this point, mixed with both anger and worry, she said “You should’ve had ran away as soon as you heard noise! Not try and fight goblins while you’re out with your younger siblings.”

But didn’t they agree to let us with Maia because they knew she could protect us? I was confused.

It seems like Maia was thinking the same thing as me, but she actually said it out loud instead.

“If you didn’t want me to fight then why did you agree to let me go with them?!”

Maia’s face also started to grow red as she spoke. This was the first time I’ve ever seen Maia like that.

Mother pointed at Maia and continued yelling,“I allowed you to bring them there because I believed you would be smart enough to run away in case of any danger, instead of risking your and your siblings safety to fight some goblins. Your father thought the same”

Maia yelled back, although she was visibly shaking,“What’s the big deal?! No one got hurt, and I killed the goblins almost instantly. Everything went fine.”

Mom saw this and began speaking slower and at a lower volume,“You might be right, everything went fine this time. But what if it wasn’t a bunch of goblins, and instead it was a bunch of orcs? Do you think you could’ve had handled that, miss prodigy?”

Maia put her head down and spoke very quietly, “That’s…”

Mom sighed and said, “Exactly.”

Mom then got on her knee to be on the same eye level as Maia as she put her hands on her shoulders before saying: “I’m sorry for hitting you, i shouldn’t have, but I want you to understand something. You might be a prodigy, but you’re still my beloved daughter. I still get worried about you. This time it went fine because it was just goblins, but if it hadn’t been goblins, not only you but also your siblings could’ve had been hurt. Think about that for a second, Maia. Your responsibility as the oldest is to protect your younger siblings.”

Maia looked at us while Mom spoke; and from her sorrowful expression, it seemed like she had understood what Mom meant, and that was what broke her armor she had put around herself as being a prodigy, and started crying as she hugged Mom.

Tears flew down her face as she said, “I-I’m sorry”

Mom embraced her fully, tears also going down her face,“It’s fine, as long as you’re all safe”

Looking at the scene unfolding before me made me realize that even though Maia was a prodigy, she was still only a 12 year old child.

Mom let go of the embrace and said to us all with a smile on her face, “I’m making all of your favorites for dinner tonight to celebrate the first time you went somewhere without us, so why don’t you 4 come and help me?”

The Twins had been clinging on to me for the whole time the scene unfolded, and they had started crying around half of it, but seeing Mom go back to her usual cheerful and caring self, the eventually calmed down Twins rushed to Mom before hugging her legs..

I heard Maia whisper, with her head still down,“Seems like I failed as an older sister today”

Maia approached me as the twins started hugging Mom.

Why are you telling that to your 5 years old brother anyways?

I hadn’t really noticed it until now, but it wasn’t just Maia that treated me as if I was older than my actual age, everyone around me did. I’ve tried to not talk too much or act too grown around any of them, but it seems like I was also at least seen as smarter than I should’ve been for my age.

I shrugged before saying, “Not at all, you were very cool earlier”

Maia tilted her head and said, “Is that so? Even tho I put you all in danger?”

I nodded quickly before saying.“You were the coolest when you took them out so fast that they didn’t even reach us, though us almost dying wasn't cool weirdo.”

Maia’s expression went jokingly blank as she said, “I see”

Maia’s expression had softened, and it seemed as if she was feeling better even if just a little bit, which was all I needed to know.

She wasn’t just an independent child prodigy, at the end of the day she was our older sister.