My name is Anish and today on 1st January, I turned 10. Not only me, but my elder brother Harry turned 12, and my little sister Chloe turned 9.

 

YES!! All of us are born on the same date.

 

Coincidence? Nah. The academies in our continent enroll students aged 12 and above as of 1st Jan of that year. So my parents whose belief is to learn things as fast and as young as one can gave us birth on 1st January. At-least that’s what I heard my father telling his friend with a proud face! 

 

My father and mother are revered among the common folks in our town. They are powerful and have kept this town safe from monster attacks. As a result, the entire town respects them.

 

Today, my talented elder brother Harry has been admitted to the most prestigious Knights Academy in our country [Knight Academy of Royalty]. Though, I have to admit that the one who named it must either have poor taste in words or just got stuck naming it, so decided to name it whatsoever.

Tomorrow morning, my brother Harry is going to leave for the Academy. I consider him as my idol, supremely talented, hard-working, and the best of all, an amazing big brother. For others, getting admission to the academy might be a stunning feat, but for my brother Harry... I knew he would achieve it. 

 

As for me, I am average at best. I have never liked to hunt monsters. The elders in my family always say that I was possibly a weakling or coward in my previous life. Guess what, they are apparently right. The 1st time I went hunting I actually vomited at the sight of a dying monster. It’s the same case with my sister. So, we placed all hope of succeeding my father on big brother.

 

But, just because I and Chloe are weak, doesn’t mean that we are treated poorly. All of us love each other plenty. Also, it might be too extreme for me to express it, but my big brother is slightly on the dumb side. As for me and my sister, we have always been praised for our big brains. Our grandparents always say, “If only Anish and Chloe had a little more guts...”.

I feel a little bad about my lack of talent and thus I and my sister Chloe did our best. For our Family. Thus, we trained hard so as not to disappoint our parents and big brother Harry.

A few weeks later, we are finally following our father for a hunt. This is my and Chloe’s first hunt. Till now, only big brother used to go on a hunt with father, but finally, it’s our turn. I am a little excited and scared at the same time.

I have been practicing sword and magic these past few days and I think I can finally take down a wild rabbit cleanly with 1 hit. I hope so because I don’t think I could hunt it if I don’t do so in a single clean hit.

We were following our father and a few soldiers, but suddenly we came across a herd of Orcs. But why? They shouldn’t be in these parts of the forest. My heart started racing, and I was a little panicked. My father noticed me panicking and thus asked me to take Chloe with me and run home as fast as we can to be safe. He asked me to call for reinforcements once we reached home. I obliged.

And so we ran. Ran as fast as we can. 

[Thud]

Suddenly, I heard a sound. I turned and saw that Chloe fell down. Her leg got caught up in a branch. She seemed to be in a lot of pain. I had a worried expression on a face, seeing that Chloe assured me it’s okay. She tried to stand up, but.

[Thud]

She fell again. Apparently, she had sprained her leg. Not only was it swollen, but it was bleeding, too. There was a stray branch pierced into her skin. It looked painful. I got worried. I asked her to be calm, but truth be said, she was probably much calmer than I was. I carried her on my back, and this time we started walking back home.

 

But, it seems luck was not on our side. As I was walking, suddenly I noticed a wild beast in front of us. But it was no normal beast. Having a horn on his head and 4 eyes that gave him a wide view of the surroundings, it seems unlikely that I can escape the eye of this beast.

What is its name again? I am sure I have read about this beast, but at a critical moment like this, I don’t seem to recall anything. 

 

My heart was beating wildly. What do I do here?? Chloe is unconscious on my back. Should I just continue? Will the beast attack me. It wasn’t attacking me now, but there is no guarantee it won’t if I get closer. 

 

Usually, I am cool-minded, but I am losing my mind right now. This is a life-and-death situation. Ah, my legs are shaking. 

 

“Brother”

I heard a faint noise. But my mind was preoccupied.

“Brother! Brother!”

Ah, it’s my sister. I turned my head and asked, “What happened? “

“Perko, it’s Perko. Surprising, isn’t it? Such a rare creature.”, replied Chloe in a delighted voice.

I can’t fathom her delight, though. In this life and death situation, she is delighted. “Chloe, shouldn’t you be concerned rather than delighted... right now?”

 

I guess my tone sounded mocking, considering Chloe seemed displeased at my remark.

 

She shook her head and replied, “Well... we know Perko doesn’t attack anyone unless we attack them. So why should we worry?”

 

Hearing Chloe’s explanation, I calmed down and suddenly I exclaimed in delight... “Citrus fruits!! Chloe, they like citrus fruits, don’t they?.”

 

Chloe burst out laughing at my remark. In a teasing manner, she replied... “Now who is excited?”

 

Annoying... Her laughter is so annoying. I put smacked her down on the ground, put her down on the ground gently, and took the bag Chloe was carrying.

 

“What are you doing?”, she asked. I can see how surprised she was.

 

I smirked. I was in no mood to reply to her after her laugh, so I annoyed her to my heart’s content. “What do you think?” But my idea failed hard as she just ignored me.

 

I retrieved the lunchbox mother packed from the bag.

 

“Aha!!” Chloe exclaimed. “Marmalade sandwich”

 

“Yup”

“He-he. You actually have got a wonderful presence of mind. Only if you can be calm like me.” 

This stung. Is she taking a dig at me? Probably not, but still. “Ah!! What can I say? Not a suitable Big bro, am I?”

“Come on, don’t put yourself down like that.”

And then, I put the marmalade near a tree and signaled the beast Perko with eye contact. I withdrew from that point and waited a few seconds. Perko came and started eating the fruit.

 

I signal Chloe to climb on my shoulders again.

 

She tries to move her legs and replies, “It seems okay now. I believe I can walk.”

With relieved faces, we started crossing over. But,

[Bang]

 

What was this sound? We turned around and saw a soldier who injured Perko’s leg using a bow. It seems like my father sent him to look after us because he was worried. The intentions were good, but this soldier just made a mess here. 

 

I don’t think that this soldier even knows about this beast, because if he had he would have never made this terrible mistake. Perko is among the strongest beasts on the continent. The very next moment, the soldier’s leg was gone, and then his arm.

 

I turned around, grabbed Chloe's hand, and we started running, no we were sprinting. Ah, this situation was a disaster. Chloe was definitely struggling to run with her injured leg. But I was doing my best to support her. But it seems like our best was not good enough because at the very next moment my sister fell again.

 

[Be-beat, beat-beat]

 

I can hear my heart beating like crazy. This situation was not good, it was the worst which could have happened. Shit! Shit! Shit!

 

Miracle, I need a miracle here. I checked over Chloe and picked her up in my arms. I started sprinting. As fast as I can run, I ran. My legs were screaming, my sensations were getting dull second-by-second. But, at this moment, I cared for none of that. I just needed to run, and thus I kept running.

 

With a bit of hope, I turned around. There was no way that I could have outrun that beast. Still, there was a faint, faint hope it stopped following us. But what I saw shocked me. The beast was not near us, rather it was still by the tree eating the lemons. I was shell-shocked. The beast never followed us. Did it understand that we meant no harm to him?

 

Well, I do not know why it didn’t follow us, but I don’t care. The good thing is that we will live to see another day. I saw my sister, and she was unconscious. There was no injury mark on her, so I was a little relieved. The moment the panic subsided, I lost all strength in my body and slowed down facing the sky to thank the god.

 

Oops, I thanked god way too early, because the next moment my leg got caught in a branch and I started rolling down the hill. In a moment of panic, I curled around my sister to protect her, and then it seemed like I was about to lose my consciousness. Suddenly I saw something lighten up on my left hand.

 

When I finally woke up again, I was told I was unconscious for 2 days. But for me, it felt like an eternity. I actually thought that I was dead, but it seems like it was only a dream. ‘Only a dream? ‘, I felt something was off.