My life didn´t change at all. We were all unsure what happened to the promises the priest made, but he never came back. And even though nobody wanted to voice it, there was only one possible reason for that. He was dead, killed by a vicious monster that liked to roam this area.
And truth to be told, his disappearance was only the beginning. More and more adventurers came back beaten up, and quite a few went missing altogether. Dad always told me not to worry, but even he wasn´t getting out of the forest unscathed anymore.
I was still allowed to go outside and play, but an adult always watched over us. And so it happened that after a month of the priest´s disappearance, a few friends and I played catch on a field.
“Sofie … come to me.” It was as if a whisper carried by the wind itself reached my ears, and only my ears alone. Immediately, I stopped running and looked towards a nearby hill, still within village borders. A beautiful woman stood on it in a green dress, staring into the distance, completely invisible for anyone else.
And apparently, so was I. Nobody even noticed me as I ran away from the group towards the goddess, feeling incredibly fortunate that I could ask her all the questions I had.
“The priest is dead.” She said completely calm. “And this village will fall within a few days.”
“Uhm …” I muttered, flabbergasted as she revealed that so casually. “What do you mean by fall?”
“Twenty years ago, we reincarnated someone like you from the spaceship. His reincarnation was a bit … unfortunate though. He isn´t human and neither is he an elf. He is a demon, a very powerful one at that. Trough his sheer strength, he managed to unite quite a lot of demons under him, forming a force that is to be reckoned with. They are currently rampaging through the north of the human territory, and part of the elven forest. This village will be cut off from the rest of the kingdom within two days. If you do not hurry up, you might not make it out alive.” She said full of worry. Her face was so full of pity that I immediately believed her words.
“You want me to … do you think they will listen to me?” I asked even though I knew the answer very well. I couldn’t exactly claim a goddess spoke to me and just my word alone wasn’t enough to get the whole village moving.
“… try to convince your parents.” She said carefully.
“I will not leave my friends behind!” I claimed. I already lost my family on the spaceship, I won´t lose more people I held dear.
“Sofie, you need to make it out of here.” She said, quite desperate all of a sudden.
“I won’t go alone.” I claimed. I knew this goddess was kind enough to warn me, and so I knew there had to be a way to solve the issue at hand.
“I cannot protect you.” She stated sternly. Even though she was a goddess, she did seem to be severely limited in her abilities which did strike me as rather … odd.
“Dad will. He always did.” As far as I could see, he was better than any of the adventurers.
“Your … you know as good as I that he has no chance against what will come.” She said and balled her hands into fists.
“Then I will help him. I just need to use magic.” In all these years, I failed to do even the simplest of magics and as nobody in the village could use magic, I didn´t even know where to start.
“Sofie, you need to be trained to use magic. Despite the support the system offers, it is still impossible for you right now. Sofie, you need to go …” She said but stopped as soon as she looked into my green eyes.
“No.” I stated. I would find a way, no matter what.
“… fine. I will look what else I can do for you. But it may come with a price you don’t want to pay.” She said and vanished into thin air. Leaving me standing there with a wide-open mouth and so many unanswered questions.
As soon as I managed to close my mouth though, I immediately ran back towards the village and stopped only as I was in front of my mum who was sewing something.
“Mum, we need to warn the others. Something horrible is going to happen!” I shouted at her, which was the start for a rather lengthy conversation. We discussed and discussed, but it was all for naught. Once again, they didn´t believe me, possibly because I acted too much like a child the whole time while I was living here.
“Mum, dad, we seriously need to go!” I said bitterly after hours of discussing with both of them.
“Honey, it has always been like this. Sometimes it is better, sometimes worse.” But this time, it was worse than worse.
“The goddess of life told me!” I admitted and looked into their eyes firmly.
“Sofie, did you have a nightmare again?” Dad asked gently. The gods weren’t in contact with humanity. Not even the pope himself could claim to have met a god. And thus, nobody believed me.
I was useless. I was so useless. I couldn’t convince either of them. They lived their whole life in this village and thus, it was only natural to see it as something eternal. The Worchester Kingdom went through hundreds of years of peace, and with it, went the sense of danger. Even the monsters in the woods weren’t able to change that at least until a certain night in which humanities and elves suffered a crushing defeat, inflicted by one of my friends. Inflicted by someone I had called my family in the past.
The signs were all there. The increased demon presence, how they most of them wandered north, and how the more intelligent ones of them started to work together … and all these signs were ignored. To all of those in charge, peace had become self-evident. Peace had become natural for humans and elves alike, so much that nobody even thought that there was someone who wanted war, even though the odds were stacked against him from the very start.
My life didn´t change at all. We were all unsure what happened to the promises the priest made, but he never came back. And even though nobody wanted to voice it, there was only one possible reason for that. He was dead, killed by a vicious monster that liked to roam this area.
And truth to be told, his disappearance was only the beginning. More and more adventurers came back beaten up, and quite a few went missing altogether. Dad always told me not to worry, but even he wasn´t getting out of the forest unscathed anymore.
I was still allowed to go outside and play, but an adult always watched over us. And so it happened that after a month of the priest´s disappearance, a few friends and I played catch on a field.
“Sofie … come to me.” It was as if a whisper carried by the wind itself reached my ears, and only my ears alone. Immediately, I stopped running and looked towards a nearby hill, still within village borders. A beautiful woman stood on it in a green dress, staring into the distance, completely invisible for anyone else.
And apparently, so was I. Nobody even noticed me as I ran away from the group towards the goddess, feeling incredibly fortunate that I could ask her all the questions I had.
“The priest is dead.” She said completely calm. “And this village will fall within a few days.”
“Uhm …” I muttered, flabbergasted as she revealed that so casually. “What do you mean by fall?”
“Twenty years ago, we reincarnated someone like you from the spaceship. His reincarnation was a bit … unfortunate though. He isn´t human and neither is he an elf. He is a demon, a very powerful one at that. Trough his sheer strength, he managed to unite quite a lot of demons under him, forming a force that is to be reckoned with. They are currently rampaging through the north of the human territory, and part of the elven forest. This village will be cut off from the rest of the kingdom within two days. If you do not hurry up, you might not make it out alive.” She said full of worry. Her face was so full of pity that I immediately believed her words.
“You want me to … do you think they will listen to me?” I asked even though I knew the answer very well. I couldn’t exactly claim a goddess spoke to me and just my word alone wasn’t enough to get the whole village moving.
“… try to convince your parents.” She said carefully.
“I will not leave my friends behind!” I claimed. I already lost my family on the spaceship, I won´t lose more people I held dear.
“Sofie, you need to make it out of here.” She said, quite desperate all of a sudden.
“I won’t go alone.” I claimed. I knew this goddess was kind enough to warn me, and so I knew there had to be a way to solve the issue at hand.
“I cannot protect you.” She stated sternly. Even though she was a goddess, she did seem to be severely limited in her abilities which did strike me as rather … odd.
“Dad will. He always did.” As far as I could see, he was better than any of the adventurers.
“Your … you know as good as I that he has no chance against what will come.” She said and balled her hands into fists.
“Then I will help him. I just need to use magic.” In all these years, I failed to do even the simplest of magics and as nobody in the village could use magic, I didn´t even know where to start.
“Sofie, you need to be trained to use magic. Despite the support the system offers, it is still impossible for you right now. Sofie, you need to go …” She said but stopped as soon as she looked into my green eyes.
“No.” I stated. I would find a way, no matter what.
“… fine. I will look what else I can do for you. But it may come with a price you don’t want to pay.” She said and vanished into thin air. Leaving me standing there with a wide-open mouth and so many unanswered questions.
As soon as I managed to close my mouth though, I immediately ran back towards the village and stopped only as I was in front of my mum who was sewing something.
“Mum, we need to warn the others. Something horrible is going to happen!” I shouted at her, which was the start for a rather lengthy conversation. We discussed and discussed, but it was all for naught. Once again, they didn´t believe me, possibly because I acted too much like a child the whole time while I was living here.
“Mum, dad, we seriously need to go!” I said bitterly after hours of discussing with both of them.
“Honey, it has always been like this. Sometimes it is better, sometimes worse.” But this time, it was worse than worse.
“The goddess of life told me!” I admitted and looked into their eyes firmly.
“Sofie, did you have a nightmare again?” Dad asked gently. The gods weren’t in contact with humanity. Not even the pope himself could claim to have met a god. And thus, nobody believed me.
I was useless. I was so useless. I couldn’t convince either of them. They lived their whole life in this village and thus, it was only natural to see it as something eternal. The Worchester Kingdom went through hundreds of years of peace, and with it, went the sense of danger. Even the monsters in the woods weren’t able to change that at least until a certain night in which humanities and elves suffered a crushing defeat, inflicted by one of my friends. Inflicted by someone I had called my family in the past.
The signs were all there. The increased demon presence, how they most of them wandered north, and how the more intelligent ones of them started to work together … and all these signs were ignored. To all of those in charge, peace had become self-evident. Peace had become natural for humans and elves alike, so much that nobody even thought that there was someone who wanted war, even though the odds were stacked against him from the very start.
