Chapter 9: The Village

After two days of walking and encountering a few creatures along the way I could finally see the village before me. The wound on my shoulder has begun to slowly heal. To my luck it didn’t get infected and saved me a lot of trouble and maybe even my life.

The village before me wasn’t really big but it seemed like I would be able to at least acquire a horse here. Eventually, I reached the front gates of the village, to meet two guards stationed by the entrance. The guards looked at me before one of them spoke.

“Hey kid are you alright? Did a beast attack you in the forest? Why are you all alone?” one of the guards bombarded me with questions. I looked at the guard that spoke to me. He was pretty tall and had short brown hair that went well with his dark brown eyes. He was wearing leather armor and had one hand on his sword at the moment.

“I seem to be fine other than the wound on my shoulder that I received from one of the beasts that I encountered. It was bleeding pretty heavily so I had to seal the wound, but if it is possible I would like for someone in your village take a look at it. Also, I was wondering if I would be able to resupply here?” I asked them.

“Let me see the wound” the other guard spoke. He had the same equipment as the other guard but compared to the other one this one had black wavy hair and dark green eyes.

I showed him my wound through one of the tears in my clothes, just realizing how damaged they were. I sighed mentally, now I had to buy new clothes. The list of necessities just keeps on growing bigger and bigger while my coin pouch grows smaller.

The guard examined my wound. “It seems like that it didn’t get infected since the wound was sealed in time, but I would check in with the village doctor just to be sure. You can stay in the village for a few days and resupply, but I suggest that you don’t leave by yourself. This time you might not get away with just a wound.

You can stay at my place if you want, I’m sure my wife won’t mind. You can tell me what exactly happened later in more detail, but for now let's go get that wound checked out to make sure it’s not infected.”

The guard turned around and indicated for me to follow him. I quickly caught up to him to walk by his side, trying to match his pace which was a bit faster than mine.

“What’s your name, kid?” asked me the guard as we walked through the village.

“Atilius.” I replied back

“Just Atilius? Do you not have a family name?” the guard asked curiously.

“Feste, Atilius Feste. That is my full name.”

“I see, well my name is Hein Dorn, but you can just call me Hein.”

The rest of the walk we didn’t talk much, just walked in a bit of an awkward silence. From time to time he would ask me some questions like where I was from or how old I was. Eventually we reached a small wooden house that had a small herb garden next to it.

Hein walked up to the door and knocked. We stood there for a few seconds before he knocked again. This time there was a reply, “Coming! Just give me a second here.”

Finally, after a minute or two of waiting the door opened to reveal a short man that was slightly taller than me. He had blond hair and grey eyes. “Oh hello Hein, what can I do for you?”

Hein pointed at me. “This kid just came into the village and has a pretty big wound on his shoulder. I brought him here so that you could take a look at it and make sure it’s not infected.” Hein explained to the short man.

The short little man looked at me, as if he had just noticed that I was there before leading as into the house. Inside the house there wasn't anything grand, it was relatively simple. There was one big room for the guests and two smaller ones. In the main room stood a plain wooden table surrounded by four chairs, one on each side. On one of the walls there was a window that showed the herb garden outside of the house.

“So, who are you young man?” the short man asked.

“Atilius Feste,” this time I gave out my full name, not wanting to bother with people asking what my family name was.

“Nice to meet you Atilius. I’m the doctor of the this village, Leuthar Hart. Now Hein has told me that you are injured, do you mind showing me the wound?” Leuthar asked and I nodded back in response.

I showed him my wound and Leuthar examined it for a bit. “It seems that there will be no infection, but just in case let me give you some medicine. Follow me.”

Leuthar turned around and went towards one of the doors that led to one of the small rooms. Me and Hein trailed behind Leuthar and entered the room. When I entered the room I was a bit surprised. Along the wall there were hundreds of jars filled with either liquid, powder, or had some sort of herbs in them. In some of them there were even eyeballs floating around. It was a bit gross, but I still managed to find it somewhat cool.

“Have a seat,” Leuthar’s voice broke me from my daze. I turned my head to face him, to see him pointing to a bed that was by one of the other walls.

I walked up to the bed and sat down, quietly sitting there and examining all the weird substances within the jars. After a minute or two Leuthar turned around with a jar that had gooey substance inside.

“Could you take of your shirt? I’m going to apply some medicine that will speed up the healing process and prevent infection.” I nodded and took off my shirt, revealing a cut along my shoulder.

“This might sting a bit,” with that he took some off the goo out and smeared it on my shoulder where the cut was. I bit my lip from the burning pain that spread through my shoulder. Just what the heck was he putting on me? This definetly wasn’t just a freaking sting, it was agonizing pain! I tried not to cry out from the pain. At this point my lip was bleeding because I bit it too hard. Finally, I felt him stop applying the goo of pain and the pain slowly leaving me.

“I’m surprised you managed not to scream, it must of have hurt like hell.” Leuthar spoke with a hint of surprise in his voice.

I sent him a glare and was about to say something rude, but decided against it. I didn’t really want him on my bad side. After all, I still might need his treatments later in the future.

After that Leuthar gave me a new clean shirt so that I wouldn’t get any infections and well… lets just say mine was more of a rag at this point. Hein and Leuthar talked a bit afterwards and then we left Leuthar’s place. We didn’t really speak on the way to his house, just walked in an awkward yet comforting silence.

Finally we stopped in front of his house, it wasn’t big but it had a nice home like feeling to it. Hein walked up to front of the house and opened the door, I followed. As soon as the door was closed behind me a little girl, probably around four or five years old came running towards Hein.

“Daddy!” she exclaimed happily and running into his arms. Hein laughed and picked her up. “Hey sweetie, how was your day?”

“Mommy showed me how to plant flowers today!”

“Oh really? Will you show me later?” Hein asked her with a smile on his face.

Watching them I couldn’t help but smile and remember the good times that I had with my dad. It brought a few tears to my eyes which I quickly wiped away.

Finally noticing me the little girl looked at me. “Who is this daddy?” she asked in an innocent voice. “Is it a friend of yours?”

“This is Atilius, he will be staying here with us for a few days. Come on, introduce yourself to him.” Hein said as he put her down.

The little girl walked up to me shyly with her hands behind her back, trying her hardest to make eye contact but was too shy to hold it for too long. “Hi, my name is Chloe,” she introduced herself to me in shy and quiet voice.

I smiled and bent down to be at her level. “Nice to meet you Chloe, I’m Atilius. Do you want to be my friend?” I asked her hoping that she would open up to me. Chloe just smiled and nodded before running off.

“She’s a bit shy, but once she gets used to you she won’t leave you alone” Hein said with a light laugh. I chuckled and couldn’t stop from smiling at how innocent and cute Chloe was. It’s like she was a tiny angel. She had curly blond hair and clear blue eyes, truly having looks of an angel. I could tell that when she grows up she will become extremely beautiful and guys will probably fight over her.

“By the way, you can put your stuff in one of the rooms.” Hein told me before leading me towards one of the rooms. I put my stuff inside and followed him to most likely meet his wife.

When I saw his wife i was completely stunned she was the most beautiful women I had seen in my life so far. She looked exactly like Chloe but more mature and ten times more attractive.

“You must be Atilius that Chloe has been talking about just now. I’m Diana, it’s a pleasure to meet you” spoke the women in a soft voice.

Finally, I managed to break out of my trance and replied back. “Uh yeah, I’m Atilius. It’s a pleasure to meet you too.” She just chuckled slightly at my response.

“I just finished preparing dinner, help me set up the table. I would really like to hear more about you Atilius.” I nodded and helped set up the table.

The food was delicious, maybe it’s because I had been eating dried spider meat lately but it was truly the best food I tasted in awhile, maybe even in my whole life. I couldn’t help but think that Hein’s wife was a goddess or something. She was just too perfect to be a human.

As we ate I told them where I was from, why I ended up all alone, and where I was heading. When they heard what happened to me as a kid they looked at me with pity and sadness in their eyes. I didn’t elaborate much at what happened my village was attacked because Chloe was sitting with us, but I could tell that they understood what exactly happened without me having to tell them.

I told them about my life back in Kraposs, how I lived in the orphanage and worked as an apprentice to a blacksmith. They were a bit surprised when they found out that I was an apprentice to a blacksmith, which confused me a bit. I couldn’t understand why they would be surprised that I was a blacksmith apprentice.

We talked and talked through the evening, Chloe managed to fall asleep when I started to talk about how I set off with the mercenaries to Prares, which gave me a small relief. I honestly didn’t really want to talk about the fight with the Phantom Wolf and everything else that happened in the forest. It might be a bit too much for her.

When I told them how we got attacked by the Phantom Wolf they looked at me as if I was alive, not understanding how I managed to escape. I explained to them how I encounter the Heavenly White Tiger, which fought with the Phantom Wolf, allowing me to escape.

As I described the fight to Diana and Hein I couldn’t help but lightly smile at their popped out eyes. They were intently listening to every word that I was saying, having trouble believe what happened to me. When I finally finished none of us spoke for a few minutes. We just sat there at the table as Chloe slept quietly in Hein’s lap.

“You have some amazing luck kid, it’s almost as if the heavens are watching over you. To be able to encounter two of the strongests beast on the entire continent and live is unheard of, yet here you are alive. Most people will not believe you, but I can tell that you aren’t lying. The way you described everything, the way you spoke, I could clearly tell that you had experienced all of the things you said” Hein said with amazement in his voice.

With that we sat there for a bit more talking before cleaning up the dishes and going off for the night. I had to share a room with Chloe, but I didn’t mind. She was a sweet girl and I was too tired to care in the first place. I layed down on the floor with some blankets since they didn’t have an extra bed and passed out almost immediately

Overall, I ended up staying around a week in the village. Chloe got really attached to me and it kind of hurt to leave her. As hard as I tried not to get close to her I couldn’t help it. She was so sweet and innocent that it was hard not to like her. Eventually I just gave in and opened myself up to Chloe. Chloe was like the little sister that I always wanted but never had.

My objective was to go to Prares earn some money and apply to the academy. I managed to get a black horse in the village and sell some items, but not everything. I planned to sell the rest at the Mercenary Guild because they would sell for more there, after all, it was the capital. The prices there were higher for everything.

Along with the horse, I bought a new set of clothes because the old ones were all ripped and two bags: one big one for the horse to carry and a smaller one for myself. The web pouch worked pretty well, but it looked a bit weird and it wasn't as big. With the couple items I sold, which were mostly parts of the spider and a few herbs. I managed to raise my small fortune to one gold coin. I had enough to enter the academy now but I needed to pay the yearly tuition still, so I need more money.

Saying all of my goodbyes and convincing Hein that I was fine travelling alone was a bit hard. I grew a bit attached to the villagers, even though I tried not to, knowing that I would leave soon. Chloe cried when I told her that I was going to be leaving, she didn’t stop until I promised her that I would visit her soon.

Finally, I departed from the village. I looked back a few times to see Hein’s family standing there watching me go off into the distance. Chloe’s small hand was waving at me, I smiled sadly, knowing that it would be some time before I would be able to see her again.

Riding off into the distance I already started to slightly miss Chloe’s presence. I will definitely grow stronger and come back to visit Chloe again, maybe I will even bring her a souvenir from Prares. I’m sure she will love it. With these thoughts in mind I rode off towards Prares, thinking about the future and the challenges that lay before me.