Silence


    Sitting in my garden, I enjoy the sweet, oh so rare moments of silence. But I feel this serene moment of bliss is about to end. I can hear it. I can feel it. Somethings coming. I turn around. It jumps at me and before I can react, it grabs me by the neck.


    “Got you, Daddy”, my sweet Ava nearly shouts in my ear. As I feel my eardrums practically bursting, I hold back the face of pain I was about to make, just to not worry my daughter.


    “You sure did, do you feel proud of yourself scaring your old man like that? What if you gave me a heart attack?” I ask her, half-jokingly.


    “Daddys not that old yet! And even if, then Daddy would become a powerful Scherzaaan!” My daughter holds her head above her head, As if launching some kind of powerful spell. Forgetting she’s supposed to hold onto me, she starts falling. I, of course, immediately catch her, and correct her “Its Schmerzan Sweaty, and you focus on not turning into one yourself.”


    Schmerzan’s, the mages of this world. Through extreme pain of any kind, the people of this world can start their journey towards strength. I was never much of a pain guy, even as a child I cried over every little scratch and bruise. My mother always indulged my behavior, which may or may not have made it worse. No matter, I have no need for strength.


    In our little town, Vallendell, there are only a handful of people, my family included. Why go trough pain, when I can just live my little life, away from all trouble.


    “Ashen! Ava! Dinners ready!” I hear my wife, Adira, call our names.


    I grab my daughter and put her on my shoulders. “Yay, food!” My daughter laughs and nearly falls of, again.


    We hurry back and sit down at the table in our backyard. Our property is big, considering my occupation as the town’s hunter. I hunt all kinds of wild beast, from fish to small forest critters, to the occasional big herbivore.


    I even managed to kill a Ferther. It’s a large predator, at the apex of anything you’re going to find in this region. It has thick fur, paws as big as my head and more endurance than anything I’ve ever seen. Its at least 8 feet tall, has 4 legs and is way to silent for something its size. But I was lucky, way to lucky. Story for another time.


    “Here, my famous Daar Soup” My wife places 3 bowls of delicious smelling soup infront of us. Little cubes of bites sized Daar meat (a Daar is a medium Herbivor with Antlers and hooves), suspended in heavenly broth, consisting of carrots, potatoes and porrey. Next to the soup is my wifes freshly made bread, still steaming. With the sun in my back making the food look even more divine I can’t wait to dig in.


    “Thank you for the meal” we say in unison, as we start our dinner. I taste the slight smokey aroma, the harmony of all the flavors as the meat and vegetables dance their way down my tummy. I can’t hide my pleased expression as my wife takes it as an invitation to feel proud of herself. I let her, because she deserves it.


    I know this might sound wrong, but her cooking skills were one of the reasons I ended up marring her. Not to say that she isn’t beautiful. Her long, blond hair, her dark gray, almost black eyes and her astonishing figure were also good reasons. I don’t mean to brag, but I’d say I was pretty good looking myself as well. My long black hair, tied in a knot at the back, my dark blue eyes and well-toned, but still slank figure for my occupation were quite the looker. Sometimes I just look in the mirror and think “damn.”


    Enjoying the meal, I take it all in. I’m a lucky guy. I have a beautiful wife, a wonderful daughter and I’m damn handsome. Dear god, if something like that exist. Just let it be like this, forever.


    After the meal, we clean the table and get ready to relax for the evening. Adira is cleaning the dishes, while I get some firewood for our oven. Ava picks up a piece of wood that’s nearly as big as herself and tries to help me. I laugh as she struggles to lift it, but she manages, she always does. she’s a strong girl, and I’m proud of her.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    “See daddy, I’m strong enough to go hunting with you soon! Then you can show me how to hunt with the bow as well” “Well see about that, how about you try lifting the bow properly first?” I set down the wood and look for my bow, which I usually set down next to my reading chair. I enter our house. I’m greeted with the familiar site of our cozy little cottage. Our small living room with my chair, and a little couch, followed by our bed in the next room, and a smaller bed in another room. Our house is home to way too many plants, and I have my wife to thank for that. I walk to my chair and look for my bow.


    “Honey, where is my bow?” I ask my wife, hoping she just moved it, and it was not me having forgotten it back at my hunting outpost, again.


    “I have not seen it Ashen. Don’t tell me you forgot it again. That’s the second time in the same day, how is that even possible?” She teases me.


    “No, I left it there on purpose. Anyway, I will go get it now. Ill hurry.” I said as I opened the door and left the house.


    I kiss Ava on the forehead. “Wait for me, ill just quickly go get my bow. Try to stay awake.”


    “If you left it there on purpose, why did you ask- “I close the door. I could have sworn I heard someone question my totally not made-up reason. Must have been the wind.


    My outpost is pretty far into the forest east of my house. It takes about half an hour if I hurry, about an hour if I take it slow. Because its already getting dark, I try to hurry.


    As I arrive at my outpost, I see my bow laying on the ground, the string broken. “Tsk, damn critters” I inspect the string. It looks chewed, by some kind of small rodent. I vow to take my revenge, angrily shaking my fist at the sky.


    As I pick it up and sigh.


    I suddenly hear something, followed by feeling lightheaded. I fall to the ground. No, I’m forced to the ground by a massive shockwave, slamming my body into the cold forest floor. I hear something crack inside my body. Throbbing pain is coming from everywhere, especially my ears. I hold my hands against them and feel it. I look at my hands.


    Blood.


    I can’t hear anything. I look around. The forest is gone. All the trees around me have fallen, destroyed by the shockwave, whatever that was. The air smells like fresh wood and wet moss, but the cold air bites my nose.


    I try to stand up, I fail.


    As I try to stand up again, I feel like I’m missing something. Suddenly my heartbeat quickens to a level I thought impossible. Panic, unimaginable panic spread through my body, forcing me to my feet at a nearly impossible speed.


    I run. I run I run I run I run. Back home.


    I trip over the remnants of a tree. Before my face reaches the ground, I push myself up with my hands to keep up my momentum. I run and jump and run even further.


    My lungs are burning, my heart is screaming, and my legs are begging me to stop, but I don’t. How could I stop over something as insignificant as pain. I feel something I have never felt before. Fear. Fear in its most primitive and gut-wrenching form, the primal kind of fear one feels when they lose their very essence for living. The fear hammers against my skull, nearly splitting it open with its intensity.


    My heart feels like its bursting out of my ribcage, pounding against my broken ribs. Keep pumping.


    My lungs feel like they are tearing apart, the cold air burning like thousands of needles in my body, suppling barely enough oxygen to not die. Keep breathing.


    My feet and legs are running at what I thought impossible speeds, as I feel my muscles tearing apart from the inhuman forces, I’m driving them to exert. Keep running.


    I feel something. Something carving a passage inside me. It hurts, it hurts so much. But I don’t care, I can’t afford to care right now. Its chiseling my very being away, to make space for something else. I feel my body breaking, invaded by this foreign entity. I don’t care.


    Suddenly, my body changes. My bones shift back into place. I feel them moving, pushing and grinding against each other. It hurts, but I keep moving.


    They fuse back together, under unfathomable pain. My heart moves more blood, forcing my veins to expand, causing agony, making me feel like I am about to burst from the inside out. It hurts to much, but I keep moving.


    My Lungs grow, keep growing seemingly endlessly. I let out a scream, as my lungs practically leave through my mouth, before they shrink back down. Stronger than before. I feel stronger. But it hurts, it hurts like hell. It hurts so much that I can’t even remember the world without pain.


    I get faster. I get faster and faster as I feel my muscles growing back. Denser and stronger. I feel each cell forming, duplicating, like millions of ants biting and crawling under my skin, making me faster.


    The forest, or what’s left of it, blurs behind me as I keep getting faster.


    And then, I stop running.


    Not because I can’t run anymore, but because I arrived. The trip that took me 30 minutes took me barley 5 minutes back. I don’t have time to think about why I was so fast, because I have arrived.


    “W-What… It’s gone”