Struggle#00

Objective: Become the hero of the forest village

Sub-Objective: none

So, if I get this correctly, I’m in a sort of game were this Book tells me what I have to do.

What is this thing? A disguised laptop or something?

Sigh, I'm way too hungry find a logical explanation right now. I guess I have no choice but to make contact with the local people. They don't seem dangerous anyway.

Most of them are way past their forties. No, actually, they are all old. What’s the matter, are the younger ones away or something?

As I approached the edge of the first house, one of them spotted me.

I know that seeing a stranger can be startling, but his reaction was quite surprising to me.

“Jola Ky!!!”

He screamed something I didn't understand and all of the others immediately gathered around him, joining him in his violent shouting toward me.

Obviously, I’m not welcomed here… for a second I thought I could try explaining my situation to them, but when I saw someone coming with an axe I realized it might be wiser to just run away for now.

Arms up, walking backwards, slowly…

I never thought I would encounter the cliché townspeople anti-stranger like that, and I have to say, I feel pretty bad right now. Like I did something wrong.

As soon as I was far enough from the village, I took out my book again.

No doubt about it, this thing wants me to be the saviour of those guys. What a good start.

Do I really have to do it? What if I don't? What if I do? Is there a reward or something? Darn, this thing is actually making me asking questions instead of answering them! What a useless item!

Grrooooowwwl…

And now this… I’ll have to postpone my ‘struggle’, or whatever it is. My stomach comes first.

It's already been a few days that I spent in that forest. She does look a lot like the ones I live in, but a lot… ‘greener'. Luckily for me, I found some fruit on the first day, enough to fill me up.

There is only a handful of animals to hunt here, I spotted and avoided some wolf, but that was it. Just in case I meet them again, I crafted some basic stakes to serve as a weapon.

I am starting to fear that the situation I am in will take way longer than expected to be resolved. I considered getting out of the forest to find another town, but I think I still need to try and finish this struggle I got.

I really don’t like to follow directives, especially when I don’t know the reason behind it, but my instinct is telling me it’s my best course of action.

However, seeing their first reaction, I won’t be able to join their community that easily, let alone becoming a hero. That, and I don’t understand the language they’re speaking…

Nonetheless, I have a plan. From my limited experience, I know that people are more inclined to listen to you when they're alone, so I just have to wait for someone to leave the village and try to befriend him. Seeing how this adventure is stereotyped so far, I might as well found him surrounded by a pack of wolves.

Anyway, I quickly found my perfect target. This ‘him’ is a ‘her’: one girl, or young woman, well, around my age, leaves the village every morning to gather some plants.

I wanted to talk to her as soon as I saw her away from the village, but as I approached, I realized she looks a lot like Nami, and because I have as much courage as a hypochondriac pigeon, I ran away from the image of my ex-girlfriend.

Yup, she has the same long dark-blue hair and beautiful emerald eyes. Talk about a coincidence…

That was 2 days ago, but this morning, I convinced myself that my survival was more important than my childish shame, so I decided I will talk to her today.

But…

I said that as a joke, but as she went deeper than usual into the forest, she encounters a handful of hungry wolves, that were now surrounding her.

I am not a fighter, well, I’m not as good as the others, and I don’t think saving one girl is worth risking my life over.

Right?

She ‘s really in a pinch though…

No! It’s not the first time it happens, I’m not fit for this!

But, she will die…

Sigh…

Every morning, Laura go into the forest to gather some medicinal herbs. She knows it’s dangerous, but her job is way too important.

Today, she couldn’t find any of the flowers she was looking for, so, despite the risk, she went deeper…

That’s how she ended up surrounded by four wolves, staring at her with an intense desire to transform her into their next dinner.

Her back against a tree, she tried to think of a way to get out of this situation, but she was too scared to do so. She tried to scream but her throat couldn’t emit a sound.

One of the beasts started to approach her, slowly, without diverting his eyes from hers.

She could feel it, it was the end. The animal will jump on her and in seconds she will be eviscerated.

She closed her eyes.

And it came, the wolf roared and a blunt noise resonated in her hers.

…

She wasn’t hit.

She opened her eyes

Instead of a wolf, in front of her was the back of a young man with white hair. Under him was the beast, with his head shoved into the ground.

Samsy has made his entrance.

‘This quest wants me to be a hero? Fine! I’ll be a fucking hero!’

This was his answer. As he was lacking courage, he chose the path of madness.

With a stake in each hand, Sam rushed toward the nearest wolf, a few meters away, and tried to stab him. Of course, the beast dodged, and our hero was ambushed by another one coming from his right side.

He guarded with his arm, and the beast plunged his fang into his flesh.

“Aarrrgh”

Shouting from the pain, Sam randomly stabbed his attackers with his free hand, and managed to get the eye.

This time, it was the wolf who screamed. Following it, Sam stabbed a second time in its neck.

The second wolf was dead.

But the fight was far from over, and the dodging wolf from earlier was already on his leg.

Sam fell over, and lost both of his stakes in the process. This wasn’t good, and the last wolf was also approaching.

But he felt it, his valid hand was touching something hard. He grabbed the miraculous stone and hit the beast’s head as hard as he could.

The wolf released his bite and backed away.

Disregarding the pain, Samsy went back on his feet to face the last remaining animals. Even though he managed to beat the others, he had only one valid arm and his left leg was also injured.

However, he wasn’t afraid. It was as if something inside him was awakening.

He was stronger than them, that’s all he was thinking about.

The situation had totally changed, the wolves weren’t hunting a resistant prey, they were facing a foe.

Even Laura could see it.

The man that came to her rescue was looking down on the animals.

And to her surprise, they started to go backward. Without diverting their eyes from him. Roaring and showing their fangs, they were running away.

A few seconds of total silence followed their escape.

Samsy was not moving at all, still staring at the place the beast left.

‘So… I’m a hero now?’

With a sarcastic smile on his face, he finally fell down. Unconscious.