Chapter three:

“Ugh, my head hurts.” Looking around, I was in an unfamiliar house. A man was sitting next to me. Taking a closer look at him, he seemed familiar. Oh, it was Uncle Samai.

“Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling?”

“Not that bad Uncle, it could be much worse.”

“Good. I was worried you might have gotten a disease from those filthy goblins.”

“Oh, you saw them?” I asked confused, forgetting about the dead goblin bodies.

“Yes, I saw their kin’s dead bodies. You did a good job boy, still you should have waited for help. You could have become goblin food.” Samai said, grateful for my intervention.

“You are still a bachelor, right boy?” Uncle Samai asked, out of nowhere.

“Y-yes.” I stammered, surprised.

“You know, boy, I have a girl your age. If you want, I can reach an agreement with your father.”

And that was my cue to leave. “It seems that my headache has abated, I’ll be leaving then. thanks for the hospitality Uncle.” Standing up, I wobbled a bit but still managed to reach the door

Uncle Samai reached out with his hand as if to hold me down, but it was just a gesture commonly used in the village. “Wait, where are you going? My wife is preparing a late supper, you should stay and eat.”

“I can’t Uncle, my family will probably be dead worried about me now. Maybe another time.”

Opening the door, I gave my farewells, then went off.

……….

Reaching home, nothing interrupted me this time. The moon was at its zenith. Entering home, no one was waiting for me. It seemed no one cared…

……….

Walking up in the early dawn the next day, I was sleep-deprived but persisted in continuing my routine. Doing the usual twenty laps, I managed to finish before Father woke up.

Then I went through all my farm work, from checking on the cattle to watering the crops and removing all parasitical plants and many other jobs.

Today Teressa, my younger sibling, was the first to wake after me, even before Father.

“Good morning Teressa, I see that you awoke before Father?”

She seemed proud of that, “Of course I did, who do you think I am? I’m the greatest.”

“Is that so? I heard Aunt Dolmar was mad at you for not doing your homework.” I guessed without even knowing if her Teacher was really mad, knowing that she like the rest of our family, didn’t like studying.

Her face lost color as she gave an excuse to run away, “I have work to do.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Father, for a small service of course,” I said before she could escape.

“Yes?” She replied hesitantly

“Tell Father that I have done all my work, so I’ll be going to Uncle’s home early.”

“He’s awake you can tell him yourself.”

“I will, and I think I’ll make sure to tell him about your studies.”

“Fine, I’ll tell him,” Teressa replied, annoyed.

“Also, there seem to be goblin sightings, so tell him to be careful.” I didn’t tell her that I faced them personally, as that might get my family worried, though I doubt Father would be fazed. Mom would go crazy if she was still alive, and most of my siblings wouldn't even notice if I disappeared, maybe only Teressa. Sigh, ‘I miss you greatly, Mom.’

“G-goblins, you mean the m-monsters. I’ll go tell Father immediately.” She said scared. Well, goblins did have a reputation for kidnapping kids.

“Don’t forget to tell him the other stuff,” I shouted after her, as she took off running, she pretended not to hear me, trying to annoy me.

……….

“Hey Uncle, guess who is the talk of all the people in the village?”

“I don’t know, you, I guess?”

“Exactly, I fought half a dozen Goblins, killed two, and scared the others.”

“Ha, and I killed a Dragon.”

“What? No, I’m not joking, I’m serious. Maybe I was joking about being the talk of the village, but I swear, I killed two goblins on Uncle Samai’s farm.”

Uncle raised his eyebrows in skepticism. “Are you sure you killed goblins?”

“I’m pretty sure. They were small creatures the size of children, with dark green skin dotted by yellow spots, their teeth were glossy black, and they were bald with a smell that could kill.”

Uncle got serious, “Well, that’s an accurate description of Forest Goblins. If what you said is true then we should eliminate the rest.”

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“How can we kill the remaining Goblins?” I said, scared at the thought of facing the Goblins again.

“Not we. Go to the village hall, you will find the Adventurer Guild’s office there, report to them what you saw.”

“What about the village’s guards, should I tell them?”

“No need, they are slow to act. Goblins reproduce fast, they should be exterminated quickly.”

“Then I’ll be on my way.”

“Wait! Adventurers don’t do work freely. Take these as payment, and be sure to give the money to the receptionist at the office.” Uncle handed me four silver coins which equated to an average monthly family wage, or at least what I thought was the average. I was shocked as I never handled this much money. I was used to copper coins, as every silver coin equals ten copper. This was a first for me.

“Go! What are you waiting for.” Uncle urged me.

“Yes, Uncle,” I replied, snapping out of my daze at the huge amount of money.

……….

Running through the village, I quickly reached its center. The village center was packed with stone houses, unlike the wooden ones of the rest of the village. Also, here one could see different shops with all kinds of professions like smithing, carpeting, shoe making, and many others. There was even an inn that I had eaten at once; I remember the food being bland.

I headed straight for the village hall. Reaching the doors I nodded towards the guards standing there, they eyed me suspiciously, probably because of my young age, but still, they let me pass.

The hall was big with many people moving through different rooms. I saw farmers, guards, social service providers, and even people wearing leather armor, probably adventurers, unlike the metal ones of the village guards.

Looking around I instantly found the Hall’s Receptionist, as there was a line of people in front of him. Joining the line would be a waste of my time, so I asked for directions from a random person. It seemed that Adventurer Guild’s office occupied the entirety of the third floor, which was also the final floor.

Taking the stairs to the third floor, I saw half a dozen leather-armor-wearing people. They seemed intimidating with their purposeful and serious gazes. I took a curious glance at one of them, he was huge, the biggest man I’d ever seen. He adorned a heavy metal Shield that covered his back and had a thorned Scepter strapped to his side. I didn’t manage to inspect them further as they passed me.

Upon reaching the third floor I knocked on the door, but no reply came so I entered.

Walking in, I took in the room. It was a big room, the left side had a big board with some papers strapped on it, and the right had round tables with chairs, no one was sitting there. At the center of this office, there was a big desk behind it was the receptionist, she was a middle-aged woman with average height and normal features. Even behind her was a back door, which I can only guess where it led. But, the most eye-catching was the man standing in front of the receptionist.

The man wore red metal armor, with a long sword on his back. His height contested with the huge man from earlier, combined with his wide shoulders, gave him an intimidating look. The man also had sand blond hair which was rare in my village but not impossible to find. But, the most unique thing about the man was his eyes, the irises seemed to be entirely black fusing with his pupils. He looked like a demon from hell.

“Hey, How can I help you?” The receptionist said as the man was eyeing me curiously.

Stuttering I replied, “Um, I-I was hoping to request something,” I was clearly intimidated by the man, combined with my lack of knowledge on how such procedures normally went, made me seem unconfident. ‘Unconfident! I look like a fool probably in their eyes.’

Thankfully the Receptionist seemed nice as she said, “Of course, tell me what is it you wanted to request.”

Calmed at her nice voice I replied more confidently, “Yesterday, I saw goblins.” At that, the black-eyed man's gaze intensified on me.

“Another gobbling sighting that’s weird. Can you tell me how many you saw? and where and when did you last see them?”

“Yes, north of the village at Uncle Samai's farm. I saw six goblins.”

“Ha, it seems we got two identical reports. Don’t worry kid Uncle Samai has reported it to the village Head, who in turn has put a hunting Goblins mission on the board.” She said as she reviewed some papers.

“Oh, you must be mistaken kid. There were only four Goblins sighted in the report made by the village Head, are you sure you saw six?”

“Well, I killed two, but the others managed to escape,” I said, trying to show off in front of the huge man, which, surprisingly, seemed to work as he gave me an evaluating look.

“What? We have no time for jokes kid.” The Receptionist said, a bit annoyed, thinking I must be pranking.

“No, Amana. He’s saying the truth.” I was surprised at the huge man’s voice, he had a heavy accent. ‘He is not from the empire?’

The Receptionist raised her eyebrows at the man but said nothing.

“Hey, kid come with me for a second.” The man said as he took his helmet that was on the desk and went to the sit at table in the corner.

I looked between the man and the Receptionist, who like me seemed confused. ‘He can’t do anything to me in the Guild, so I might as well follow him.’

Sitting in front of the man, I made eye contact with him for a second before breaking it. His eyes seemed like two endless black voids. ‘Are his eyes a result of an innate ability?’

“What’s your name kid?” The man asked.

“Haitham, sir.” I immediately replied.

“No nickname?”

“No sir, I’m just a farmer,” I said as respectfully as I could.

“Relax Kid, you can call Captain Black Eye,” The man said, trying to appease my worries.

“Yes, Captain Black Eye, sir.”

“No, Just Captain,” The man said, annoyed a bit.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Let me be frank with you kid, how did you get your ability?”

“What! I don’t know what you're talking about.”

“So, you do have one. It seems I wasn’t wasting my time,” the man said, smiling.

“H-how did you know?” I asked as fear gripped my heart.

“It doesn’t matter. I want to see your ability, come with me.” The man said as he stood up.

“I’m not showing you my ability!” I exclaimed, getting ready to shout for help.

“Stop.” Black Eye said in a low voice, a whisper some might consider it.

I tried to shout for help, but nothing came out of my throat, even my lips didn’t part to form words, they stayed sealed together. Horror gripped my heart, I couldn’t even flinch.

“Follow me.” Black Eye said as if everything was normal. My body obeyed his orders without my consent. As ideas flowed through my head of what was happening, I felt my blood turn cold, ‘Could he be using his ability to control me?’

We passed by the Receptionist who ignored us. Going down the stairs, my mind was going crazy with ideas of what the man might do with me. ‘A-am I Going to die?’

As we reached the ground level I wished with all my heart that someone would save me, but the people we passed by just gave us curious or fearful eyes. As we reached the Hall’s exit, I tried to move my head to look into the eyes of the guards, but my body didn’t obey my orders.

Exiting Black Eye headed for the Inn. Upon opening the Inn doors all eyes went to us, but the man’s intimidating aura scared anyone from staring too much. Walking to a table that had six people on it, Black Eye sat with them. I remained standing beside him. I immediately recognizing the party, these are the ones I saw on the steps.

“Captain, what took you so long? And who is this boy?” The Huge man with the shield and scepter said.

Black Eye ignored the man saying, “Pack all your bags, we’ll be leaving Leafanton in half an hour.” The party seemed confused but quickly moved at their Captain’s orders.

Upon hearing that the party was leaving Leafanton, my village, despair started to sit in. ‘Who the hell are these guys?’ and 'What do they want from me?'

……….

It didn’t take long for the men to get ready for departure. We left the Inn and moved through the streets, heading south. Soon, the houses around us diminished as farmland stretched ahead. As we continued moving south, I wondered what the future held for me, if I even had one.