"Yawn!"

 

Hello, dearest morning. It's never a pleasure to deal with you.
To be precise, my motivation to go "rise and shine" is quite low, while the sun isn't even close to doing the same yet.

 

"Hey, sleepyhead! Wake up!"

 

And there is the lovely voice of my mother.
Pointing out the inevitability of my fate to embrace a gloomy, dark, wet, and, as far as I can tell, physically exhausting day, instead of simply staying in my bed.
Her name is Farrah, by the way.

As for who I am:

My name is Erys.
I am a seventeen-year-old girl, but my birthday isn't too far away.
Even if it is questionable if there is anything to celebrate in the first place when you live with your six-year-old brother and your parents on a farm, remote from any noteworthy settlements at the border of a country that isn't interested in us in the slightest.
There is not really much a girl can look forward to.

 

"Now get yourself ready, or I might allow your brother to pursue his idea of using a bucket of water!" (F)

 

Sigh!
Sleeping a bit longer was such a tempting prospect.
But I guess I have no choice.
Why isn't there a profession that allows you to just stay in your bed?

Yes, I know I should get ready.
As much as I know my family, the part with the bucket wasn't a joke.
The good part of our home is that I have a room for myself.
It would be quite embarrassing to share it with my brother, or worse, my parents.
So I stand up, fetch myself some clothes, and put them on, not thinking much about how I look.

Who would see me?
It's not like there's anyone who'd be interested in whether or not I have a clean face.
And it's a rather plain one as well.
Grey-brown eyes and neck-length dark-brown hair.
Nothing special.
The part of me who cared about looks died a long time ago when my mother confessed to me that our lifestyle would never allow me to dress up or go to any kind of festivity where that matters.
The advantage of not caring lies in the point that I am for this reason done in a blink with all my morning deeds.

So I am soon ready to open my door and step into the main room.
And I find my brother.

 

"Is that a bucket?" (E)

"Muuum! She's up!"

 

God, Toris can be such a nuisance!
He's one of these far too wild young kids who you need to watch extra carefully, so they don't run off and cause problems.
Well, he's not particularly bad.
And he doesn't break as much as one might think.
But right now, his energetic self is just too much for me.
So I drag myself to the table.

 

"Couldn't you wash your face first? Maybe Toris should have used that bucket." (F)

"Mum! I simply don't get why anyone, when already waking up to a cold morning, would develop the sudden urge to sprinkle themselves with even colder water." (E)

"It isn't cold! It's summer!" (F)

"Mustn't mean that I like cold water." (E)

"You really are no morning person. I guess if you could, you would spend the whole winter sleeping in a cave under the earth like some animals do." (F)

"If it would just be possible!" (E)

"But since you're already looking like this, you can go and work a bit before breakfast. Someone needs to look for the chicken and feed them." (F)

 

As I don’t wish to prolong this talk, I go ahead and walk outside.
It's still dark, which might explain why there has been no crowing from the stable yet.
I grab the fodder and bring it over to the pen, where I diligently do the feeding.
You might not believe me after this start to my day, but I am, in fact, a diligent worker and help out quite a lot around the farm.
For example, those huge fields that reach my height have grown not in a small part through my contribution.
Aside from different vegetables, we grow mostly wheat and yellowsprout, which is like corn but grows from rather large shrubs in a bright yellow color.

Also, I get along with my family quite well.
I'm like Mother said, simply not a morning person.
Before Mother can say anything else, I wash my face with our rain barrel, as I'm now awake enough to endure it.
This doesn't mean I like unpleasant things.

After I'm finished with my tasks, I head back in.
I've fetched some eggs while feeding the chickens and decided to bring them directly to Mum.
When I get inside, Dad is already at the table.
His name is Rowen.

Regarding why he didn't get the same terror morning call, I did...
You see, yesterday he worked on the fields until very, very late.

 

"Hey, Mum, I'm back. Found some eggs!" (E)

"Sorry, dear. Breakfast is already done, and it's just porridge. The eggs we'd better keep for dinner." (F)

"Guess you are right. I'm more for meat, but we can't just kill our livestock." (E)

"No, we can't. So better eat up now. You will need the energy." (F)

"Yes, yes. Fieldwork!" (E)

"Don't get snappy! It's what keeps us all alive here." (F)

"Yes, Mum." (E)

"You could as well say something, Rowen!" (F)

"Mhm. Yes." (R)

"Thank you for your input, honey." (F)

 

Yep, Dad is more the silent type, and just like me, not a morning person.

 

"Grumble"

 

Suddenly, the earth shakes, and one of the eggs falls down, shattering on the floor.

 

"Hell! That this had to happen now, of all times!" (F)

 

Just to say so, the earth was never very calm here.
And due to that, most of our stuff is stored in a way so it cannot fall or break.
Because of that, no one is deeply invested when there is a quake.

I eat my fill, as we will not have dinner until late.
Dad will help me plow the fields, while Mother is looking in the surroundings of our farm for wild herbs for our meal.
Most of the time, my dad and I work next to each other, but don't talk all that much since, as I said, he isn't really into talking.
I guess that relates to why we live in a place where you don't have to deal with any people.

For the question, how someone as passive as Dad got together with Mum:
She told us that she was the one to ask him out.
And well, he didn't say no.
Okay, I'm overstating it a little.
The two make a good pair.
There were never any hard feelings between them or anything bigger than smaller quarrels.
Like him not stamping off the dirt when coming back inside.
So much for him.

Because of this, working with Dad is a silent job.
I have no problem with that since I took after him in that regard.
However, I had something on my mind.

 

"Dad?" (E)

"Hmm?" (R)

"I wanted to ask you: Aren't you worried? The last time we sold our harvest, they said there is a conflict with Koreso. We are here so close to the border, you wouldn't be sure if we belong to them or Tarsona. Isn't it dangerous?" (E)

 

There were always some tensions between our nations.
Tarsona is a rich country and has a strong focus on trading and sailing.
While the ocean is difficult to cross due to all the monsters inside it, we are proud of our naval tradition.
Our capital city, Valera, is the biggest haven this continent knows, yet only three countries have access to the sea.
Naturally, this wealth draws unwanted attention.
Hence Koreso.

While they are very proud of being a republic where the people rule, these guys are extremely aggressive towards their "less developed" neighbors.
It strikes me a little odd here that people who are this proud of their liberal government occasionally turn their prisoners of war into slaves.
And now it seems that these people have decided once again that the rich Tarsona would make for a good target.
With all this going on, it might be understandable that I'm concerned our farmland might turn into a warzone.

 

"Hmm, I guess we should follow the advice of your mother and not think too hard about it. It's not like we can just abandon the farm. We are rather far away from any of the main roads or any other place of remark, so it's unlikely that we'll get targeted." (R)

"Maybe." (E)

"Sorry that I can't be more assuring." (R)

"No, no. You're right. It doesn't help to fret about this. For now, I just hope this batch of corn grows as well as the yellowsprout. I mean, some of the crops are bigger than me." (E)

"I know. But we should wait a little longer to make sure they are all ripe." (R)

 

I'm not soothed by my father's words, but I realize that we have no real choice.
It's not like we can just abandon everything and run away.
Refugees aren't that welcome in the bigger towns, and we would have no way to make money.
So I stay silent, and we just do work.

We stop before it gets evening.
Even though we are peasants, it's not like we do nothing but work.
We’ve got quite a lot done and have earned ourselves the right to call it a day.
Mum is already back and starts to prepare dinner, while I play a little with Toris.
After all, he is my brother, and I should be nice to this little brat with his bucket.

It takes a while, and when dinner is finished, the sun already starts to set.
We sit around the table, and as declared, Mum roasted the eggs along with some of our crops.
It is rather quiet since my brother's mouth is stuffed and dad and I don't speak that much, but are also both quite exhausted.
And exactly this is the reason why I notice something rustling through our yellowsprout field.

 

"Mum, Dad! I'm going out for a moment. Think I saw something." (E)

"You sure about that? It's starting to get dark." (R)

"That's the reason why. Any later and I won't see anything at all. You can stay, I’m only checking if it's bad for the field or the chickens." (E)

"Should I accompany you?" (R)

"Nah! If it was anything at all, it was rather small." (E)

 

So I head out, into our fields, to the place where I heard the rustling.
I don't expect much, as it's almost impossible to find something in here.
Nonetheless, I notice movement.
It's certainly too small to be a wolf, barely surpassing my knees in height, raising my confidence to pursue whatever this is.
I can't really make it out, especially with the twilight, but the shape is weird.
As a last attempt, I jump more or less blindly in its direction.

 

"Screeeeeehhhhh!!!"

 

That startled me.
The moment I moved, this thing jumped in my direction, and looked gruesome, before it just rushed away from me.
So I turn back to my home, having had enough of this.
This was not worth it!

However, when I push myself back through our field, I face a bright shine.