ESTHER

Someone once said fear was an illusion, that it was just a way our bodies reacted when we are shocked or shaken by something. Esther would very much like to meet the idiot who said that, because here she was, all numbers and codes, but yet she still felt fear.

Her father lay bleeding beneath her hands, and with every passing second he drew closer and closer to death. So far no body knew what death would be like in Zion, no body had been stupid enough to risk it. This was now the reality of billions of people, it was only natural that they all took it seriously.

You only have one life on earth, was there a reason for it to be any different here, Esther was not sure, and like the millions of other people who have had the same thought process as her, she was not willing to risk any thing for a sense of immortality that might not even be true.

So far, with how isolated Orun was to the outside world, Esther had no idea what the stance about dying was in this world. Do you get a respawn, or is that it for you, once you’re dead you’re dead.

And at the moment, she has never been so close to death in her entire life, it was quite natural to be scared, especially when her father’s life still depended on her. Esther could feel her hands shaking as the fatigue and strain of keeping a constant connection to the celestial plane, began to wear her down. At this rate she was going, she was not even going to last five minutes.

“Esther you should take a break. I’ll be fine.” Hearing her father’s voice shook her concentration a little, but she was able to gather herself quickly enough to regain control of her heal spell. But she was glad to see he had regained consciousness. And that was when she started crying. Apart from the fact that she was partly to blame for the state her father was in, Esther’s emotions were still over the place after her fight with Nathaniel, and she was much to weak to keep a handle on them.

“Its ok, girl it’s not you’re fault.” Her father tried to console her, but Esther was having non of it as she shook her head in disagreement.

“But it’s my fault. Everything is always my fault. At least that’s what Nathaniel thinks.” Esther cried out, letting her tears fall unhindered over her father’s body.

“You know Nathaniel doesn’t think that. You’re his sister, and he loves you.” Her father defended.

“But that’s not true dad. Whenever anything goes wrong he blames me, sometimes mom and Faith do the same thing. Even y…” Esther’s words got stuck in her throat, as she couldn’t bring herself to tell her injured father that he was part of the people who loved to shift the blame on her. But her father had no such qualms.

“Even me right?” he spoke up, completely ignoring Esther’s startled twitch.

“Dad you know I don’t mean it like that. I….”

“But you do.” He cut her off before she could say anything else.

“It has always been a tradition of sorts in Africa for the first born of every family to shelter the woes and responsibilities of the entire family. At least until that child gets married. But we have strayed, no I have strayed from the path our ancestors used to raise our children.

They believed responsibility of a family belongs to the first born son, your only job was to be a girl who was taught the values of keeping a home, of being a good wife. Instead I ruined everything.

Sometimes I can’t understand how I came to fall so low, how I somehow became the perfect example of a failure as a father. I could not keep my son from living like a hooligan, I could not teach him the proper way to be man.

And you, my sins against you are the worse. I could not stand up for you my child, I let your evils incarnate of a mother sell and bound your future to a dark path. I sat back and watched her destroy your innocence. And when things really went wrong and you were involved in any way I joined hands to blame you, because I did not see you as a person anymore. Only a used rag, dirty and unclean.

Oh God! I’m a monster. I failed you Esther, now I am cursed to watch the three of my children fall apart just like your mom and I did. Forgive me child, forgive your brother, and forgive your sister. But even if you can’t forgive me, remember your siblings, because in the end they are all you truly have left in this world. This place is not any less dangerous than earth, in fact its more dangerous, and you need each other.

You still have to protect them Esther, that would forever be your responsibility as their elder sister. But I promise when the time comes and it matters, they will protect you too. Because family always look out for each other.”

Life was a very complicated idea. And chief among its problems was love. There was no way you looked at it, that the answer does not remain the same; love was made to cause pain. No matter how strong a love you have, it will always cause you pain. It made Esther wonder if love was not just a curse on all its own. Maybe life would have been better off if love was not so integral to it, it would have made a lot of things easier.

Esther had nothing else to say to her father as this point, the old man had made his point. But she doubted him, because she was not so sure this family could look out for their self when it really counted. Nathaniel was not man enough, and their mother was just a figure head.

She stopped being a part if this family a long time ago. Faith might as well be the person who points a gun at their family’s face, and her father never had the courage to stand up for himself much less his family. No matter how you looked at it, this family was doomed to fail.

Esther looked up at the sound of grass being parted. It was Nathaniel with a batch of dry wood for the fire. He looked like he was about to say something for a moment, but turned his head and kept his mouth shut. He placed the wood on the ground and moved closer taking about five steps before he stopped about ten paces away from Esther, it was obvious he wanted to ask how their father was doing.

But he was unable to talk to Esther. And Esther did not care what his reasons were, she was not saying anything unless he opened his mouth, and that was if she even decided to talk to him.

“Its okay Nathaniel, I’m fine. Esther is doing a good job”

Well it seems their father had a different idea as he gave Nathaniel the answer to his unasked question. Esther found it annoying, she would rather take every opportunity given to her to torture her brother rather than reassure him. He deserved to suffer.

Nathaniel still did not, or couldn’t say anything as he left the tiny clearing and made his way back into the dense foliage. Esther hoped he was stewing with guilt and hoped he also got bit by a snake or a bug, a mosquito would do nicely, or maybe a hundred of them.

It didn’t take long for Faith to find her way back to them. But she had no qualms about speaking, in fact she did not seem to be affected any by the previous fight. She matched straight for Esther with a bag filled to the brim with herbs.

“I found a batch of cello moss and reg grass. They’re main components for low level heal potions. Reg grass has cellular regeneration properties, however I haven’t learnt a lot yet, so I don’t know how to apply it properly. The cello moss is a disinfectant, I don’t have a catalyst or a bind herb that would mix the properties of both of this plants, so we have to apply them separately and in different ways.”

As she was speaking Faith was busy bringing out different things from the bag she took with her into the forest. First she brought out an eating bowl and a huge flask of water. Then she spread it at their fathers side and looked up at Esther who was staring at her silently the whole time. Then Faith said to her.

“You think you have me all figured out, I’m not saying what you have discovered about me is wrong. But let me tell you something Esther, you don’t know anything about me, or at least not everything. I care about this family too, after all you’re my family. Our father is failure, our mother a cheat and our brother is on his way to becoming and even bigger failure than our father and you’re a slut.

One of us has to have balance so that the others can be taken care of.”

Esther could no resist asking Faith some questions of her own. After all she seems to be in a sharing mood.

“So you have us all figured out. You know our future and how we’re all going to be massive failures or already are, and it’s your job to save us.”

Faith raised an eyebrow at Esther as she focused on pouring a little bit of water into the bowl before her.

“That was the plan. To save you people. But things have changed……..or I should say the world changed. Now I don’t have to do that anymore, on earth going from being as dirt poor and shamed as we were to an otherwise better life, even with all of the stellar early education you and Nathaniel had, and I was currently going through, was impossible and a child’s dream.

My destiny was tied to all of you. Saving you was a choice I was forced to make, there was no where else for me to go, so the only thing I could do was sit still and make you guys better so that my life would be easier.”

Faith paused and turned her head to look their father in the eye, then she turned and took the reg moss and placed it into the bowl. Then she started stirring it with slow methodical precision. And as she stirred she kept on speaking.

“Now Zion has offered me a chance to make my own path, to find my own future. I’m no longer forced to save you, because now I’m not tied to you anymore. This world has endless potential, and Nathaniel's idea of selling drugs is a prime example. There can be a place for me here, a place without any connection to my broken family.

But I also realize that now I can make the choice to save you guys from yourself. Now its not as if I have no choice, for the first time in my life I get to choose and not be a victim of circumstances or bad luck. This time I choose to save you guys, then if I still want, I can pack my bags and be gone with the wind. At least that way I can say I have done my part and pitched in. Whatever happens next is not my business.”

She stopped stirring the moss, turning the water within into a soft green color, then she pulled out a white piece of cloth, and dipped it into the moss water, then she slowly cleaned their father’s wound, using soft strokes and swipes to not cause him any pain or discomfort.

“I’m not looking for any of your approval, but we’re descended from the great Attah’s of Igala. Ours is a noble blood, even if we’re now a bunch of data traveling at light speeds through a server, it doesn’t change who we are. We understand duty, honor and tradition, just like our father said It is our way.

I will keep to the values our ancestors believed in, even though culture has all but disappeared in the modern world, our family has stuck and believed in it. Honor to your father and mother, no matter how messed up they are, they gave you life, so you will continue to honor them for it. And respect your elders……..lets get on thing straight Esther, I don’t respect you. Tradition or not there’s also reasons it why it has become obsolete, some rules just don’t stick well with me.

To be honest you and Nathaniel disgust me. My respect for you is that I don’t call you out when you do wrong and I try to stay out of both your ways as much as possible. Culture and tradition or not, the both of you are not worth my respect, and I don’t think you will ever be.”

Faith certainly had a lot she wanted to get off her chest, and it seemed she did. Esther and their father were silent the entire time. And when she was done, none of them had anything to say so they all lapsed into an awkward silence, and watched Faith as she worked.

After she had cleaned the wound, she poured the disinfectant water away, and then placed the reg grass into the bowl. Then she proceeded to mash it into a red paste with a rock she got from who knows where. She spent fifteen good minutes on it, before she decided it was pulpy enough. Then she looked up at Esther and said to her.

“You can stop healing him now. I got it from here.”

Esther was a little apprehensive about stopping, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It was time she gave this bitch of a sister the benefit of the doubt and trust her enough to save their father. As soon as Esther raised her hand up she let out a soft gasp as a system alert showed up in front of her.

SYSTEM ALERT: SKILLS

[THE SKILL HEAL HAS LEVELED UP TO LEVEL THREE, THE SKILL NURSE IS NOW LEVEL TWO]

[YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE HIDDEN SKILL ENDURANCE.]

[ENDURANCE: LEVEL 1: PASSIVE (GENERAL): ALL STATS INCREASE BY 20% FOR 10 SECONDS WHEN HEALTH AND ENERGY LEVELS REACH CRITICAL OR 1%]

It was as the system prompt showed up that Esther realized that there was a different way she could have gone about this. She made the most unexpected mistake, most people would expect others to treat Zion as to much of a game and ignore the realistic part of it. However Esther was so ingrained in the reality of Zion, not to mention she was so afraid that she had forgotten she had other skills that could have helped.

Her skip [BLESS] increased her allies stats by 5% for one hundred seconds, she might have been able to boost her father’s natural recovery that way, and she could have also used her other skill [PRAY] and increased the effects of her spells for 30 seconds. Things would have been a while different than now. But for now until she recovers her energy all she could do was watch faith and assist where she could.

Faith carried a handful of the red goop that used to be the reg grass and smeared it all over their father’s wound. He hissed in pain, but it seemed like it was a little sting since he did not scream too loud. It was obvious he was in pain, but he was holding up nicely.

“The raw form of the reg grass can’t render much help, but it can do what you do with your heal spell for a much longer time, though at a slower pace. If we depend on just the reg grass he should be completely healed without a scar in about two weeks. But we don’t have time, so you would have to use the heals at intervals. We will have to change the reg paste and disinfect the wound again every six hours. So I guess all we can do is pray and play the waiting game.”

Faiths explanation of the whole situation was confusing to Esther, because she was rather surprised by how much Faith had learnt in the short time they have been in Zion.

“How do you know all this?” their father asked, saving Esther from having to be the one to ask the questions.

Faith busied her self by cleaning the tools she just used, and covering the spot where their father had bled on the ground with dead leaves, dirt and other herbs. They couldn’t move him yet so the area around him looked really messy. It was obvious she was doing this to mask the scent of blood. It was part of the lesson their father had taught them during their trek through the forest. Faith seemed incredibly good with multitasking, choosing to speak while her hands moved around doing other stuff.

“My class instructor is a little different from others. After she taught me about the most basic way of identifying poisonous mushrooms from edible ones, she had me memorize a few basic knowledge about herbs, then she focused on teaching me about healing herbs, where they grow, their effects and the best way to maximize their abilities. She also taught me how to grow them, and how to use and apply them in an emergency situation. Orun is a pioneering town, and there are many unknown dangers around the town. Health care just seemed the most important thing to learn before branching out. It seems she was right.”

Esther would not say it, but she was impressed, the efficiency and speed with which Faith absorbed knowledge was envious, and she knew how to apply what she learnt in the best possible way. Faith was a genius in her own right, so maybe it was the price of that intelligence that made her act like she had a ten foot pole stuck in her ass.

“But are herbalist doctors, it seems as if the class was tailored for healing like a cleric.” Esther asked.

Faith was a little surprised when Esther talked to her. Esther could see it in the way she raised her eyebrow and tilted her head. But Esther didn’t care, asking her was not supposed to mean anything, she was just asking for information.

“Yes herbalist are doctors. But there are also farmers. The class advancement options for Herbalists include, witch doctors, poison maester, apothecary. Witch doctors are a balanced class that deal with both the healing, defense, and attacking properties of herbs. They use a touch of mysticism to work. Poison maesters are very proficient in using and making poison from herbs. While apothecaries are just the opposite, they make elixirs from herbs, just like alchemist, but more natural.”

Esther nodded her head after Faith finished speaking. Faith seemed to always be a treasure trove of knowledge it was hard to imagine she was only fourteen. But what will be will be. Esther now had to come into acceptance of a lot of things, but most of all she needed to change. However what the end result of her change might be, was something even she did not know. It could be something good, or something very bad.

SOMEWHERE IN THE FOREST

A lot of people know that blood carry a scent, but they did not know how intoxicating it was to the person who perceived it. Especially when that blood was human blood, and the perceiver, a very hungry and recently awakened 400 year old vampire.

He could feel the scent of the blood from a mile away, his underground castle did nothing to prevent the smell of blood from seeping through the earth, and into his dedicated nostrils. He felt his mouth water, and he felt his body tingle with anticipation. Sexual urges that always seemed to accompany his taste for blood came awake as his dried body strove for excitement.

He couldn’t tell what sort of human it was yet, but it was bleeding a lot. And come sundown, if hopefully it was still alive, it would bleed some more. Now all that was left to do, was to play the waiting game.