Alan once again got into the routine of getting up early, doing all the household chores, practice combat skills and training with weapons in the morning. After lunch, reading and discussing various topics with his grandmother.
After that, both of them would go out looking for small games, collecting vegetables and other herbs required for their meals and to practice medicine.
If they encounter any wild beast, Alan was more than happy to take them down.
Days passed by without any incidents and Alan's 10th birth year was approaching fast.
One day when Alan came back from hunting, he noticed his grandmother packing her cloths and other items into her bags. He was surprised to see this.
"Grandma, do you need any help in packing?" Alan asked.
She turned arround and smiled at him. " Get your belongings packed my dear, we will be leaving this place soon."
"What?!! Could you please repeat what you said once again, grandma?"He was stunned for a moment and asked in disbelief.!!!
Helen laughed out loud watching Alan's expression." You heard it right my dear. We will be going to Green Town soon. If nothing goes wrong your grandfather's friend John will be here to pick us up in a few days."
Alan started to protest. "But grandma...."
Helen cut him off in the middle of his sentence and continued.
"It was decided 10 years ago itself dear. The day I found you, myself and your great uncle had discussed this. We both agreed to get you to go to the Winden City's Adventurer's Acadamy after your 12th birth year.
We had even decided to leave this place once you reach 10. So that you can get accustomed to the new environment. And John will come personally to pick us up.
Me and your grandfather always had a dream of letting our children and grandchildren follow our footsteps if they like to. If they don't then we had planned to support them in whatever path they choose. So, go now and start packing." Helen ruffle Alan's hair fondly. She noticed that his head already reached her chin and thought, he would outgrow her in an year or so.
Next day, Helen found her grandson sitting in front of the door deep in thought pondering something.
She went to him and asked " Are you alright dear? Is there anything bothering you?"
Alan turned around, smiled & shook his head." Nothing grandma. I was thinking of going for hunting deep inside the forest. Can I go?" He asked her sincerely.
Helen felt uncomfortable by this question. She was reluctant to send him into deep forest but she knew he was capable enough to handle himself. She had already seen him take down fully grown wild beasts with ease. After contemplating for sometime, she agreed.
This is the first time he was planning to leave her for more than a day. No matter what, he would have always came back home for dinner.
"Make sure to come back within 2 days. Your 10th birth year is on the third day. Alan nodded and started walking towards the deeper regions of the forest. He had his hunting knife on his waist. 2 small battle axes on his back along with a quiver of arrows. And held the bow in his left hand with an arrow knocked, ready to draw and let it loose at a moments notice.
Helen sighed, shook her head in amusement and went back inside the hut and started putting all her book and valuables inside her storage pouch.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye.
Alan had a great time hunting. He had taken down 5 fully grown wild beasts. 2 of them were mountain bears. 2 were the red eyed tigers. And one wild boar which was almost as big as the red eyed tiger. Taking that one down took some effort. He had used different weapons to kill each beast and used his hand to hand combat skills to take down the wild boar.
He even received a small wound on his left shoulder from its tusks. He took it as a lesson well learnt from his ignorance and overconfidence. Alan realized that day that, no matter who the enemy might be, he will never take them for granted nor consider them inferior to him in any way.
After that he decided to head back home. Next day was his 10th birth day. He was excited and looking forward to see how the outside world would be like. He had only seen them in pictures and had not seen personally nor had any practical experience.