I open my eyes, look around, hear unfamiliar noises, and then I start to make noises myself. Loud. Screaming. It's so cold. Where am I? Two large things are making noises while watching me scream, what are they?
A month later.
These large things are my parents, my name is Asins, at least I think that's what they have been calling me. I am the illegal child of a duke's daughter and a mid-ranking adventurer, so they don't exactly have the healthiest living area for me. But it's fine, I have no complaints. My mother has grey hair and bright red eyes, fair skin and a beautiful face. She is a nice and just all-around helpful person. My father is tall, muscular and handsome, his light brown hair and dark brown eyes are an unfitting match for his enthusiastic personality.
They also showed me myself in a reflective object I believe they called a mirror; I have a hair color that makes me seem like I am an exact mix of my parents. My eyes are a dark red all throughout and in the middle is a much darker crown shape. I seem to be the same gender as my dad, as he and my mom both said that I was a boy, just like him.
Another month later.
I am starting to understand that my parents are talking to me and asking me to talk back should I? I think that I will try. "Blag Blac Blan." I don't think it worked…
A year later.
I have been able to move by myself for a while now, crawling around and exploring the small shack is entertaining. Although I haven't seen my father for a while now I think it's fine.
A month later.
My mother dropped me off at a large building. The people from that building took me in and started to take care of me, I haven't seen my mother since.
Another month later.
I have been able to talk for a few weeks now, all of the others are looking at me with sad faces, I wonder why that is?
A year later.
Some fancy looking people came into the large building and chanted something at me. It was a language I didn't understand. After that a mark showed up on my left wrist, it stays Pitch black no matter where I go.
A few years later.
Today marks the day I turned four, I was given a cloak that was big enough to the point I could barely walk in it.
A few year later
I woke up, Today is exactly like any other day.
"Hey! Asins! Can you go to town to get some produce for us?" My elder brother screams at me minutes after I woke up.
" Sure!" I yell back.
He hands me a small bag of coins, probably enough to get a few loaves of bread and sends me out the door with a "good luck" face. The forest to the town I live outside of is rather dense, and lively. I have to avoid a few slimes and goblins as I don't have anything to defend myself with, thankfully wolves are only active at night.
As I enter the market my world brightens up in comparison to the woods, bustling streets filled with shops and merchants advertising their shops, couples walking around arm and arm, it feels like a festival.
I walk down the street as I normally do, targeting a certain bakery that sells their produce for a small amount of coin. There I can get more bread than at any of the expensive shops. Which is incredibly helpful as we don't need to ration it as much, nor need to keep the other foods in smaller amounts for those who get more bread.
I walk into the store and breathe in the fresh smell of bread, the sweet smell of cake, and the smoky smell of burning wood. It is a bright, compact shop, but an incredibly reliable one.
"Good afternoon!" the baker says as he sees me walk in. The baker is a middle aged man, balding, and the physique of someone who goes to the tavern every other night. He may look untrustworthy but it's quite the opposite, he is a kind man who cares if the orphans are fed so he gives us a discount for bread.7
"Same as usual?" He asks with a large smile on his face.
"Yup, Same as usual." I reply to his question trying to sound as respectful as I can.
"Alright then," He says as he goes into the pantry where he keeps all the baked bread. "How many loaves can you afford this week?" He then asks as he comes out with four loaves of bread.
As I count the coins in the pouch I tell him, " Four loaves please!" as I take 8 copper coins out of the pouch and put them on the counter, leaving it half full.
"Alright." He says as he puts the four loaves of bread in a basket and hands it to me.
" Thanks again!" I say as I grab the basket grunting a little as it was heavier than I expected it to be. I head back down the festival-like street, walking past all of the attractions, and back into the woods.
The fresh air fills my lungs once more as I leave the active streets into the fresh forest, the smell of pine fills the air. The sound of squirrels crunching on acorns is all around, making me worry about the noise being goblins walking through the brush. I really need to stop going out without any weapons to protect myself.
" Hey! What are you doing leaving the city unarmed?!" I hear an unfamiliar voice call out, not any of the guards I'm used to hearing.
" I am simply heading home, I understand that it is dangerous but it is something that needs to be done." I announce back to the person that called me out for being unarmed, there are no bandits in this area as it isn't the richest city on the island.
" Well then how about we have a spar to see if you are able to be out all alone unarmed!" The unfamiliar voice then shouts as I get hit in the arm causing me to almost drop the basket.
" What the- Then at least let me set my basket down!" I shout after they hit me in the arm with what seems to be a wooden pole.
" Fine, set your basket down then I will lend you one of my wooden swords, can't have you going around unarmed all of the time like this." They say as they throw a wooden pole into the ground near me.
I set down my basket full of bread and grab the wooden sword. The wooden sword is made of a dark type of wood and it is quite smooth compared to its rough looks. I get into a crude stance that makes it obvious I'm not used to this kind of thing, and prepare myself for a sparring match.
As I face the person who decided to have a fight with me I notice how fancy their clothes are and how confident their stance is, there is no way I will win…
At my second glance I notice their golden eyes that are made as if to show off his prestige as they look as if they were made with actual gold. His pitch black hair being a complete and utter opposite of the light from his eyes, while at a short length.
We both nod our heads as we run at each other and start the battle.
He swings his sword directly towards my face, I sloppily block it and push his sword away, then I swing towards his arm to no avail.
"Nice block and counter!" He says while He expects me to understand what that means, while I don't.
"Huh? What does that mean?" I ask out in confusion, lowering my guard.
" Do you seriously not know?" He then asks, lowering his guard a little.
"Am I supposed to?" I ask, completely confused at this point.
"Have you never been trained before?" He then asks with a bit of seriousness in his voice, almost at a threatening level.
"Nope, I have never been trained by anyone, not in fighting." He then charges at me and swipes a fast powerful swipe right at my gut.
"GAH!" I yelp out in pain as I barely manage to block that strike, still taking damage, I fall to my knees.
"Then why are you strong?" He asks, seeming almost sarcastic.
"What do you mean I just lost in two hits?" I ask completely out of wonder how he thinks I'm strong.
"Against someone with three years of training, you still managed to hold on, without any training." They say seeming annoyed by my way of thinking.
"Well it's not because I don't want to be strong. I don't have anybody that could teach me." I tell truthfully, as I am an orphan living with a bunch of kids and a few orphanage overseers.
"Sigh- Well my name's Viktor Vacuus, you?" They state and ask quickly, although he should have said that before our spar.
"My name is Asins Wefr." I then state as fast as they did.
"Well, let's spar again, maybe I'll train you a little too." He states as confident as can be, It seems like he is trying to make friends. Well I don't have many so why not?
"Sure! Sounds great, same time, same place?" I ask when we will do our practice.
"Sure, every seven days." He says quickly, as if he's in a rush as if clockwork he then says this "It's getting rather late, I should head home."
"Alright then, take care, I'll see you next time." I say as I pick up my basket, and attempt to hand back the sword.
"Keep it." He says as he sees my attempt at giving his wooden sword back, he does have two but why does he want me to keep it? Oh, for practice.
The sun starts to set as we both walk in separate ways, my bruises ache in pain, yet I feel great, that was fun. The bread is still fine, thankfully I didn't drop it when I suddenly got attacked, that would have been terrible. The wooden sword is under my belt under my cloak, it is not that hard to walk with, but it is different from what I am used to.
As I make it through the woods the world grows ever darker, to the point that once I saw the light of the orphanage I was overcome with joy.
"I'm home." I annonce as I walk through the large doors of the orphanage. Looking at my home since I was a child I realize how nice it truly is, the dark wood and stone mixed together to create an incredibly sturdy structure.
"Welcome back." Someone said to me, One of the orphanage keepers is sweeping in the main hall. I assume that they were the one who said it.
I head to the kitchen to put the bread away. It's a medium sized kitchen made for around 4 people to cook at the same time, and made to feed around 30 people. I head back to my room through the long eerie halls. After I get there I take out the wooden sword and start swinging it, imagining the quick battle as I do.
After an hour of training, I go outside of my room to grab something to eat. I grab a sixth of a loaf along with an apple. I then sit at the dining table to have a relaxing meal. After I eat I go back to my room and start training again.
I then wake up, I guess I fell asleep without noticing it, I am on the floor after all. What should I wear? Wait, forget that question. I only have one outfit. But that's fine I am not worried about having different clothes, my current clothes are fine.
Today I will practice more and then do work in the field. As I said I start my practice and start reimagining the sword battle in my head while copying what I saw, over and over.
An hour later.
As I finish my first session I start to head out the door of my room to get breakfast. It is an average breakfast, a cooked egg with a piece of bread. It is all you need to get your day started, especially a day of work.
As I finish my breakfast, I exit the kitchen into the main hall. I see the orphanage keeper cleaning the halls, I wave to them and leave the building, then I head to the field. The field is expansive, it has plenty of plants and trees. My favourite plant that we grow in the garden is probably the potato. It tastes good and is easy to grow. But my favourite food is probably the eggs that we can get from the chickens sometimes, or the exotic fish from the market that I am asked to pick up sometimes.
I weed the garden and feed the weeds to the chickens as usual, none of the poisonous or demonic plants grow here so it's normally just fine. After I feed the chickens I check to see If they laid any eggs, if they do, I collect them, if not I do nothing.
After I take care of my share of the garden I go out to the forest with my practice sword, maybe I will find one of those weak little slimes that are hard to hit but are almost harmless, when they touch you it just causes irritation.
"Wait. . . Is that one of them?" I blurt out silently and accidentally before an arrow flies past my shoulder.
" What!?!?" I yell out as I turn around and struggle to grab my wooden sword.
"Gruahh" A goblinoid says to another before it prepares another arrow, well then again I call it an arrow but it's more like a stick with a rock attached to it, a blunt rock. The bow is basically a stick with some rope on it, an old deteriorated rope that looks like it's going to break down any day now.
I charge at them with my wooden sword, as there are only two of them and goblins aren't that strong in this low of numbers. They flinch as they hear my yell and see me start running towards them with my wooden sword in hand. The one with the bow shoots on reflex as it flinches and somehow manages to send it flying in the opposite direction.
After I close my distance with the goblinoids who are shorter than me by a small amount, I swing and miss as they were a little faster than I expected originally. After my miss one of them swings back at me with a small sharp stone dagger, It scratches me right on my arm. The scratch was barely even that, something you would get by being hit by a branch someone else swung at you.
I swing again and this time I aim for the one with the bow as being knocked out by a rock to the face doesn't sound like fun. I hit and they fell to their stomach, gripping their head, blood was dripping from their nose and mouth, at least I think the purple liquid was blood.
As the one with the bow falls to the floor the one with the sharp stone charges at me again. This time in an attempt to stab with fear in its eyes, like its natural instinct is telling it to try and stab me before it ends up like its friend. It charges toward me while I lift my wooden practice sword up and swing down as it reaches range. Blood splatters everywhere as its head is split in half, I am confused on why its instincts didn't tell it to run, but that doesn't matter.
After my little battle I hurry to the river to clean myself and my weapon off, the goblinoids blood still dripping from my wooden blade, as I reach the creek I notice a red splotch near it, blood, I then proceed to carefully sneak to the creak as to not alert anything that wants human blood. I wash myself and my wooden sword off and then proceed to head back to the orphanage.
It's nearly dark when I get back to the orphanage, this time enriched with the pleasure of victory, although a small one, it was still nice to win a battle. When I got inside the orphanage the keepers asked where I was, I told them I was exploring and they nodded their heads saying "Of course a young boy like you should have fun in the woods like that, but be careful." before walking away to go check on other kids as they do, mostly the younger ones.
I walk to my room and lean my sword against a wall, then I plop into my bed and fall asleep.