"Uhh, what happened? Why does my head hurt so much?" I held my head in my hands to try to stop the pain. As I did that I looked around the room to see if I could gather any clues as to what had happened. I'm in my room, which doesn't really bring back any memories. I also expected to see Ana and Astra taking care of me. It is then when my memories started coming back.
The king had come to visit us and had tried to force Ana and Astra to leave. They left in order to allow me to stay. However as they left I challenged the king in hopes that he would take back his decision. The king accepted my challenge and gave me two trials to pass. I then did both of the trials.
I guess this means that I failed the last trial since Ana and Astra aren't here. I hope I was at least able to hit the king. I'll definitely have to leave the Forest of Calamity now. If I'm quick I might be able to catch up with Ana and Astra. I hope they won't be mad that I left their sacrifice in vain.
While all these thoughts were flowing through my mind the door to my room opened. From the doorway I could see Ana and Astra in their humanoid forms. I immediately looked away since they didn't have any clothes in their humanoid forms. While I was looking away both of them ran up to me and hugged me. I thought they might have even been crying a little.
"Don't do that ever again sylvi." Ana said to me.
"Yeah Sylvain, you almost died. You should have just let us leave."
"I couldn't do that. You two are like a family to me. I don't want to abandon my family."
"You idiot. If we are your family then you don't have to do everything by yourself. We could have left together then."
"But this is your home. It wouldn't be right to just pull you from the home."
"Sylvi, our home isn't here, it's with you. You helped us out so much. No one here has ever done as much as you have."
"Yeah you're our home and our family. So don't go doing reckless things that would most likely end in your death."
"Speaking of that, how did it go? Since you are still here I'm guessing I passed."
"The king wanted us to tell you that you have passed his challenges and we are all allowed to stay within the Forest of Calamity. He also said he would come back in a week or two."
"Do you know what he will be coming back for?"
"No clue Sylvain. He didn't elaborate on that part. He just left after telling us this."
I wanted to talk a bit more, but my stomach had different plans. It growled out loud making its presence known.
"It seems like sylvi is pretty hungry. You haven't eaten for a whole day, so just let us cook the food for you."
Before I am even given a chance to respond both Ana and Astra leave my room. I presume they are either going to cook some food, or bring back already cooked food. I wanted to get up and follow them. After all we do have a kitchen to eat in. However the moment I tried a sharp pain ran through my head. It was worse than a headache, and instantly caused me to lay back down. I should have faced much worse pain when actually using the spell, yet this amount is enough to keep me bedridden. The only thing I could do now was wait for Ana and Astra to come back with the food.
Luckily I didn't have to wait for a long time. They soon came back each with a large plate of food. It looked more appetizing than usual. It was probably because I had not eaten for an entire day. When they placed the plate win front of me I instantly started eating. The food even tasted better than usual and before I knew it my plates were cleaned of food.
"Thank you for the food. It was very delicious."
"Your welcome Sylvi. We tried our very best."
"Yeah I'm sure you did. So what are we going to do now?"
"I think you should rest while we go out and get food for us. We still have some in storage so we should be fine for a couple of days though."
"Not what I meant, but I think I should do the hunting. I usually do the hunting and we still need to lay low. I may have gotten approval of the king, but other foxes may try something. I'm sure that Watson's mother will do something."
"But you're in no state to go out and hunt sylvi. You just had a fight with the king and you can't even get out of bed."
"What? I can definitely get up and go hunt."
"Oh yeah then prove it, Sylvain. Get up and try to use a spell."
"Okay then." I say as I get up. While I'm getting up the pain comes back again, but I lower through it. I have been through worse after all.
"See I'm able to get up with ease, and watch me use my hiding spell. O spell of."
I was going to use my hiding spell to prove that I was able to go hunt. Even if I did have a headache the hiding spell would be able to help me make up for any mistakes. However when I started the spell pain began coursing through my head. It started to feel like knives were being drilled into my skull again. Other than that my mana was rampaging within my body. I tried to control it, but that only made it worse. I had no other choice, but to stop the spell as I grabbed my head to try to stop the pain.
"See Sylvain. You can't use your spells so you're in no condition to fight. Don't even say that you can fight without your spells. We both know you are in pain just standing up. You may have though you had hidden it, but we saw you grimace."
"Yeah your right. I can't even use my spells and I would be distracted by the pain in my head. I'm in no condition to fight. I guess when we run out off food you will have to go hunting. Just try to be quick about it and don't track attention to yourselves. I'll still be the one doing the dismantling though."
"Okay sylvi, but what did you mean when you said that this was not what you meant."
"Huh. Oh yeah. Sorry we went off in this tangent that I forgot what I was originally asking. I was originally asking what we are going to do now in terms of the king. He did say he would return in a week so I was wondering what we would do."
"I don't think we really need to do anything fancy. He is the one coming to us after all and if he does complain we can just say that you were recovering from the fight. Besides the king probably won't expect anything grand from us."
"I guess you're right Astra. So I'm guessing I'm going to be confined here until I recover while you two will be doing something else."
"Close sylvi, but no. I will be here to make sure you actually rest and take care of anything you may need."
"While she's helping you out, I'll continue working on expanding the base. We are almost done and will probably have it done in the next few days. Of course we will be switching on a daily basis until you're recovered, so tomorrow I'll be helping you while Ana will be digging."
"All I got from that is you don't rust me to not do anything, so you'll be watching over me. Well at least the expansion is almost done. How long have you guys been working on that now, like a week."
"Well we did start when we decided to lie low, so it would definitely have been more than a week. Honestly Sylvain, I don't remember how long we've been working."
"Who cares how long it takes though. The important thing is that we are almost done. Have fun working Astra."
"Yeah I will." She grumbles as she walks away from my room. I guess that means that from now on Ana will be helping me when I need it. I realized I was still standing from the time I tried to use a spell so I sat back down onto the bed. I moved as slowly as I could so I would not feel the pain anymore. I still felt it, but it wasn't as intense. Then I just laid there on the bed.
The next couple of days were very boring with nothing much to do. I would just lay in bed while either Ana or Astra tended to my needs. They were even willing to go as far as to help me into the bathroom. Luckily I was able to convince them otherwise, but it still hurt when I moved. However as the days passed on the pain also began to lessen. Even though the pain lessened there still wasn't much for me to do. We were eating food in storage, so hunting and dismantling was not needed. Winter was still a little bit away so we didn't need to worry that much about food.
It was at times like this where I realized how little entertainment we had. I would probably want to have some games to play on days like this. I don't really know any good games though. The only games I do know require movements, like chasing or fighting people. I'm not allowed to move so I for sure wouldn't be able to play these games. Even if I was I doubt Ana and Astra would play with me.
I would like some board games, but I never got an opportunity to play them in the village. The only reason I even know of them is due to travelers who came from the capital. They were mostly adventurers out doing a quest. They would use these games to help pass the time in between quests. Too bad I wasn't able to see any of them. I should probably try to make my own games when I'm better.
I finally got a break from this boredom the day after I decided to make my own game. We ran out of stored meat, meaning Ana and Astra would have to go hunting. As such I would then have to dismantle what they hunted. They wanted to keep one person here to check on me. I told them that they should both go hunt, and that I would be fine for a day. Luckily they listened to me and went out to hunt. Although I wanted to work on my games, if I did that they wouldn't trust me, so I didn't. I just waited patiently for their return.
A couple of hours later they had come back with demonic beasts. I had them put them in the dismantling room. Then I got them to help me into the dismantling room. Once I was there I started to work. I was so glad that I had something to do after all these days of nothing. I tried to work as quickly as possible, but the pain definitely slowed down my progress. I was only able to complete one full dismantling. This was pitifully low compared to the amount brought in. They would also probably bring more demonic beasts.
Well at least from now on I will have something to do besides staying in bed. I will also be able to improve my dismantling skills. I would have to use less power and effort to minimize the pain felt. This would in turn make my skills go up. Also since this is the only other thing I am allowed to do this will be the only thing I would do. As such I would be gaining more experience and technique.
Soon an entire week had passed by with me doing the same thing. I could tell that my dismantling skills had definitely gotten better. It wasn't a substantial change, but it was still there. The pain was also almost fully gone. It would still hurt when I did rapid movements or when I chanted a spell though. However I wouldn't be needing to do that with Ana and Astra hunting for our food. I would say that I need another week until I am back to normal.
Well anyways today is exactly one week from our encounter with the king. In other words today would be the day when the king returned. Ana and Astra had gone all out to make the cave more presentable. Even though they were the one who said that we didn't have to make it look nice. That we could have just blamed it on our injuries. After they said all of that they then worked to make the cave nice. Well at least the cave looks nice.
We ate a quick breakfast before waiting for the king outside the cave. The sun soon began to climb the sky. Soon it was directly above us. I thought by now we would definitely see the king. If not we would have at least felt his aura, yet nothing. The only thing I could think off was maybe he was late. We then decided to go eat some lunch first before continuing the wait for the king. The sun began to set and soon became half the way down.
When this happened I turned to Ana and Astra and asked, "are you sure he is coming today?"
"I believe so Sylvain. He did say that he would come to see us in a week."
"I'm going to ask again, are you positive that is what he said? Is there no doubt in your mind that he told us to meet him the following week. Try to think back."
"Un. I'm pretty sure he said a week."
"Wait Astra, wasn't that about sylvi though?"
"Huh. What do you mean by that Ana?"
"I mean didn't he say that sylvi would get better in a week or two? I don't think he said anything about him returning."
"So what you're saying is that you both heard him wrong. You thought that he would come back in a week's time when in actuality he was only talking about my condition. I'm not even going to question how he knew about my condition, but how could you not hear that."
"I don't know sylvi."
"He is the king, and at that time we thought you were dead. Not exactly the best situation to try to remember important things."
"I guess you are right about that. However please try to remember the important things. I don't want to stand here and wait for someone that may or may not show up."
"I'm sorry Sylvain."
"Yeah sylvi, we are sorry. We will definitely do better next time."
With that out of the way we then went back inside the cave. While I was on edge thinking the king would come back, I'm glad it was a fake alarm. If he did come back and tried to kick us out, then I wouldn't have a chance against him. I'm glad he is upholding his promise.