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 enrol students aged 12 and above as of 1st Jan of that particular year. So my parents whose belief is to learn things as fast and as young as one can decided to give 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 greatly revered among the common folks in our town. They are very powerful and have kept this town safe from monster attacks. As a result, they are respected across the town.

Today is a day of celebration, not only because today is our birthday but more importantly 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.

Tonight 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 it getting admission to the academy might be an amazing feat, but for my brother... I knew he will achieve it.

As for me though, I am average at best. I have never liked to hunt monsters. The elders in my family always say that I was probably a weakling or coward in my previous life. Guess what, they are probably 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, all hope of succeeding my father is placed on my big brother.

But, just because I and Chloe are weak, doesn't mean that we are treated poorly. All of us love each other very much. Also, it might be too much for me to say it, but my big brother is a little 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 we had a little more guts...".

I feel a little bad about my lack of talent and thus I and my sister Chloe decided to do our best. For our Family. Thus, we decided to train 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 practising sword and magic these past few days and I think I can finally take down a wild rabbit cleanly with 1 hit. I do hope so because I don't think I would be able to 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 panic and thus asked me to take my sister with me and run home as fast as we can to be safe. He asked me to call for reinforcements once we reach home. I obliged.

And so, we decided to run. Run as fast as we can.

[Thud]

Suddenly, I heard a sound. I turned and saw that my sister 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 my sister 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. It seems like a stray branch pierced into her skin. I was 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 the presence of 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 it's name again? I am quite 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?? My sister seems to be sleeping 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 a bit mocking considering Chloe seemed displeased at my remark.

She shook her head and replied, "Well... Perkos are known for not attacking anyone unless they are attacked. So why should we worry?"

Hearing Chloe's explanation I started to calm down and suddenly I remembered... "Citrus fruits!!" I exclaimed in delight. "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 decided to annoy 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.

"AAh!!", Chloe exclaimed. "Marmalade sandwich"

"Yup"

"He-he. You actually have got a good 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 signalled 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 known to be among the strongest beast on the continent. The very next moment, the soldier's leg was gone, and then his arm.

I turned around, grabbed my sister's hand and we started running, no we were dashing. Ah, this situation was a disaster. My sister 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 the very next moment my sister fell again.

[Be-beat, beat-beat]

I can hear my heart beating like crazy. This situation was no good, it was the worst which could have happened. Shit! Shit! Shit!

Miracle, I need a miracle here. I checked over my sister 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 need 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 that it stopped following us. But what I saw shocked me. The beast 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 have no idea 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 apparently, she had fainted, 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 started to slow down facing the sky to thank the god.

Oops, I thanked the god way too early, because in 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 seems like I lost my consciousness.

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.