Role

Chapter 4

It was almost becoming routine. The thugs would come every week with the
same threats, and the same demands. And my mother would comply. It was
all she could do to keep paying them off. We were eating crumbs. The
crops had mostly been burned. The cattle killed months before, still
rotted in the pasture. There was nothing left. Nothing but their demands,
and my mother's fears.

I would have stopped them. I could have, too. I was a man now, I should
act like one. 17 years of age, and the only man of the house. But she
wouldn't allow it.

But then the money ran out. There was nothing let to pay, and they still
came. This time they did not want money. They did not want food. They
wanted my sister. Only 13 years.. the monsters.

If I was there, it would have been different. But I'd taken on work at a
neighbors farm.. anything to earn a few copper coins to keep them at bay.
When I returned home, it was too late. My mother was a crumpled mess,
crying into the pile of straw she called a bed. My sister wasn't even
moving.. I could only faintly see her breathing. Alive, at least. Barely.
And the thugs were laughing. All three of them.. they were proud of what
they'd done. For a moment, at least.

But their pride quickly faded away to fear. I wish I could say I erupted
in anger.. but I never felt more calm, more purposeful. I was never a
warrior, but I always felt.. strong. And here, I knew why. They winced at
my very sight, doubling over in pain before my blows even struck them.
When it was over, three evil men lay dead. My sister and mother
traumatized.

It took two days for my mother to regain her senses. She never looked
more fearful. The damage had been done, he said.. I should have let them
walk away. They would come back. They would kill all of us. They would
chase me, not her. She was scared for my sister.. they were going to
Aturi. I wasn't to come with them. We had a cousin in Galadon, she said.
I could hide there. Or my deceased father's kin were in Darsylon. Perhaps
there. But away from them.. they would be after me, not her.

I would never see my sister or my mother again. It's for the best, I
suppose. I know now, I'm not meant to be a farmer.