Hey! BlackishSheep here! I wanted to thank you for reading this and hope you enjoy! Also, if you find any grammatical errors/missing words, let me know. I do these quite late and usually have some mistakes.. anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter!
-Sheep
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Ata Daijon’s POV:
“Ata! It’s time to get up! Breakfast is ready!” A woman’s voice rang through my room. “Coming Mom!” I said as I sat up in my bed and put my feet on the cold hardwood floor. I looked around my room, which only had my bed and a dresser in it, as I stretched my body before getting out of bed.
I walked toward the window in my bedroom to see what the weather would look like today. ‘Wooo! Not a cloud in the sky!’
As I was looking around outside I noticed my reflection in the window. Yikes, I am going to need to cut my hair soon. My black hair was all over the place, going in all directions possible. I ran my hands through it to smooth it out and checked it again. There, perfect! I looked to see if there were anymore things I needed to fix. Nope, handsome as always! ‘With light blue eyes, dark hair and this kind of face, what girl could resist me?’ I playfully thought as I winked at myself in the mirror.
“Ata! What are you doing in there?! Hurry up” I heard my mom call from outside my room. “I’m coming!” I replied. Oops, spent too much time fixing myself up.
I opened my door and headed down the hallway to the kitchen. When I walked in I saw my dad sitting down waiting for me. “Ooh this is rare. I haven’t seen you sleep in for awhile. What’s the occasion?” My dad asked as I made my way to the table and took a seat.
“Hehe, sorry. I kinda lost track of time when I was practicing last night. Before I knew it, it had gotten pretty late” I said apologetically while scratching the back of my head. I looked at the table and saw an array of foods in front of me. ‘Ooooahh, Mom has the best cooking’ I thought as my mouth was watering.
“Hmm, It’s good and all that you’re working hard, just remember you need your sleep. If you don’t sleep well you’ll stay short forever.” My dad teased. ‘You just had to go there’ I thought as my dad pointed out one of my most sensitive flaws. Yes, I was short. I was around 1.15 meters (or 3.8 feet/ 45ish inches) tall, and for an 8 year old, I was short.
Compared to my dad, who was a hulk of a man, measuring around 2 meters ( around 6’ 5”) I was basically bite sized. My father was an adventurer of sorts when he was younger, and apparently a pretty good one at that. He was known in our village for how well he handled a sword, and I’m proud to say no one can beat him. He has short black hair, brown eyes, and a chiseled face. He was by no means ugly. His usual attire is dark pants with a collared shirt. He carried a sword around his waist when he went out.
“Dear, you shouldn’t tease him about his height, you know he hates it.” My mom said while bringing the final dish of eggs over to the table. “And plus, he’s still a growing boy. I bet he’ll grow just as tall as you” Mom added and pointed a smile my way. ‘Ahww. Thanks mom for always having my back’ I thought.
Mom is a beautiful woman. She had long brown hair that went to her waist, with light blue eyes that looked like an ocean and a smile as warm as her heart. Her skin was like white jade and her body looked sculpted. Truly she was an image for perfection.
“You know, now that you’re close to your due date, you should really let me cook.” Dad said with a worried look. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I was soon to be a big brother! Usually kids are upset when they find out that they were soon to be sharing their parents, but I personally couldn’t wait!
“Oh it’s fine, I can do most of it with magic anyways. Plus you suck at cooking.” Mom giggled when saying that. I almost spit the drink that was in my mouth out. ‘Mom, please warn me before you are about to do something like that. It would have been bad if I choked’ I thought as I coughed a couple of times.
“I thought you said that my cooking was delicious.” Dad said while looking dejected. “I have over exaggerated a lot of things over the years.” Mom teased. ‘Mom. Please, stop. Any more will be bad for my heart. I can’t breathe.’
“Anyway, Ata I heard you were practicing last night. What were you practicing?” Mom questioned me. I gulped down the meat I had taken a bite of and smiled. “Oh yeah! I wanted to show you something! Look!” I said excited while raising my hand outward and pointing my palm toward the ceiling. I closed my eyes and felt the flow of magic in my body. Slowly. Very slowly I concentrated it toward the center of my palm. Building it up and out to the tips of my fingers, then back toward the center of my palm. Then I gave it an image. A word. ‘Fire!’ I thought as my hand combusted into flame. I opened my eyes to see a large blue flame in the center of my hand. ‘Success!’ I yelled in my head. I looked to see the reaction on my parents face’s.
“Amazing Ata! Truly remarkable! To be able to conjure such a strong and beautiful flame as this is outstanding!” Mom said with a smile. “Very good job Ata! Keep this up and you’ll be one of the top Envoys in this country!” Dad exclaimed.
“Thanks! I’ll work hard not to disappoint you guys!” I said giggling from being praised.
We continued eating and talking for the remainder of breakfast. Afterwords, we thanked the gods for our meal and I got ready to start my chores. As I was putting up my plate a knock was heard on the door.
I made my way towards the door and opened it. There, standing in the doorway was a large man wearing fancy clothing. He was a stout man, with large arms and brony shoulders that would make him look intimidating to anyone who didn’t know him. On his face he had a scar that went from the top of his forehead across to the start of his left eyebrow. His eyes were a nice hazelnut and he was wearing a warm smile. This man was the village chief, Laurel, who so happens to be my dad’s best friend.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Yo, Ata! Nice seeing you! Is Dominic around?” Laurel asked. “Uncle Laurel! Welcome back! Yeah, Dad should be in the kitchen, come on in.” I replied and let him in. He walked in and inhaled through his nostrils “Ahhhhh. It’s nice to be able to smell Lailah’s godlike cooking again. Speaking of which….is it possible that there is any left?” He practically druled. I laughed “Yeah. Just go in the kitchen. It’ll be on the table.” I assured him “Yaaaay! Thanks Ata!” he said before making his way to the kitchen. I followed.
“Yo! Dom, I’m here!” Laurel said. “Laurel! You’re back from the capital already?” Dad asked. Laurel nodded in response. He had recently gone to the capital in order to ask for them to expand their patrol to our area. Since our village is far away from any other city, we are always having trouble with monsters that show up. Laurel grabbed a plate and piled on food. “So how did it go? Did the king accept?” Dad question. Laurel shook his head. “The king said if you were here, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. He’s just mad he couldn’t convince you to become his personal guard.” Laurel responded as he shoveled more food into his mouth. “MMMMM Shhoo gwood!” he said.
Dad just shook his head, “That greedy king... Oh well, I guess I can hold them off for now, though…” Dad drifted into thought. “What is it Dom?” Asked Laurel. “It’s just, they seem to be getting more organized. I mean, it’s common for orcs or goblins to travel in groups of 4 or 5, but it seems they’re moving strangely. Maybe it’s just my imagination though.” Dad said, and had a look of deep thought as he looked down toward the floor. A strange atmosphere had developed in the room.
‘Ehhk.... I don’t quite understand what they’re talking about, but it seem serious. I better leave and do my chores.’ And with that I left and started my chores.
Our village is fairly small, having around 20 families. We are self sufficient, but we all have our own jobs to maintain that. My job is to help maintain the farm my family owns. We grow vegetables like potatoes and we also grow grains like rice and wheat. All families provide something for the village and get together in the local market to trade and such.
As I was walking to the farm, I heard the crunching of gravel to my left. I turned to see a small child jump on to me. “Surprise attack!!!” yelled the child as he landed on me and I hit the ground. “Ha got you Ata! You fell for my surprise attack.” The child said with a triumphant smile. “Yes Zach, you got me. Good job, but I have one question. Doesn’t screaming surprise attack before you attack defeat the purpose?” I replied. Zach was a child in my village that lives nearby. He has short red hair, blue eyes and freckles on his cheeks. He’s around 5 years old and quite...tall for a his age, almost the same as me. We play together when I have free time, so we have gotten pretty close.
“Zach, didn’t I say to be careful when doing things like that. What if you accidentally jumped over Ata and missed? He’s quite the small target.” I heard a voice coming from the same direction Zach came from. I looked up to see a boy my age looking down on us. “Connor! You!” I said angrily. Connor was Zach's older brother. He was 1.4 meters tall with blonde hair, blue eyes and an athletic body. Connor was one of the students my dad was teaching swordplay to. We naturally saw each other a lot and became friends. Well I say friends, but as he picked up my dad’s habit to make fun of my height, I see him as an enemy. Though we still get along quite well when he isn’t making fun of it.
“Now now Ata, It’s alright. Anyway, where were you this morning? I waited for an hour and you didn’t show.” Connor asked. ‘Oops, I forgot.’ Me and connor always spar in the morning before breakfast. “Sorry, I was up late last night and slept in this morning.” I said apologetically. “Hehe It’s fine. Just make up for it tonight! I need practice!” “Yeah, okay.”
And with that I got up and the three of us made our way to the farms. As we were walking I got a sudden chill run up my back. I looked toward the hill near our village. ‘What was that?’ I stopped in my tracks.
“Ata what’s wrong?” Connor asked. “Oh, um nothing. Sorry got lost in thought.” I replied. ‘Must have been my imagination...right?’ I thought as we continued onward.
That hill is where we send offerings and prayers to the gods. It has an altar near the top that looks down at our village. The village goes there once a month to send prayers for a good harvest and such.
I quickly forgot about the weird sensation I had felt as I made my way to the farm.
When I was finished with my chores, It was past noon so I quickly made my way back toward my house. I smelled a wonderful sent drift through the door as I walked up. ‘Mmmmm Lunch time!’ I opened the door and was blasted with the wonderful smell of Mom’s cooking.
“Yo Ata! Welcome back!” Uncle Laurel waved while sitting down at the table. “Uncle Laurel! You’re still here?” I asked. “Of course! It’s lunch time after all!” Uncle Laurel said while looking at the plate of food Mom sat down. ‘Ah he’s drooling again’ I sat down and joined everyone for lunch. We talked and ate for the duration of lunch. We put our plates up and said our thanks.
The day went on peacefully like this. Mom taught me magic after lunch, then I went to Dad where he taught me and Connor swordplay. Afterwards we ate dinner and talked for awhile.
‘Ahh! I wish things would stay like this forever’ I thought as we happily talked in the living room.
But of course, that wouldn’t happen. As me and conner were about to leave to spar, my body froze and chills went up my back.
*BOOOOOM!*
A loud crash was heard outside near the village gates. The sound that turned my life of happiness, into a life of vengeance and sorrow…..
Chapter End