“no"

“I never said you could refuse,”

“I don’t care. Why would I spend time with you two?”

“It will be a good experience; a dangerous adventure filled with action. What do you say?”

“Still no, and why would you take your two sons to a place you know it’s dangerous?! What’s wrong with you?!”

“Nothing’s wrong, all part of the plan. I’m going to teach you two some important stuff before...”

“Before what? Are you going to die or something?”

“That’s grim, oh son of mine! Why is my firstborn always in such a bad mood? Anyway… on what the outing is about… will tell you two once we set out,”

This discussion continued for a while. Ran watched from a corner as the two debated over everything and daydreamed about what kind of place they would go to.

Time for an adventure! Are we going to get real swords?! Well, not that I need one. Now that I’m a mage I can just blast everyone away.

Alden returned inside once Lucian had been convinced the outing wasn’t optional. He packed a few necessities, changed into a more combat-appropriate attire, and notified everyone about the trip and how much time the men would be out. This was more for the show, since Freesia and Gabrielle already knew about everything.

It was supposed to be a one-night thing, shouldn’t take more than that, near the black woods northeast of Hillside.

No one had any problems with it except for Lucius, who complained the whole way.

Why do I have to spend a night with Him and Raanan, guess that’s just my luck, I would rather swallow a beehive, anything else right about now

Once goodbyes were said, the party of three walked to the town entrance where a young twenty-seven-year-old man called Jadon was sitting in a stool spear by his side and a small helmet on his head. One of the few town guards in Hillside village.

This was another one of Alden’s proposals. Amos allowed him to create a small force under his command, thinking it could help to smooth things out between them.

This just ended up in the retired adventurer looking for the fastest runners and forming a 7-man group that would stand guard at the village entrance.

“Luckily, you can only access the hamlet through the south, so you only needed one guard that can run fast enough to my home in case of an emergency,” That’s how Alden pitched it.

This small guard was composed of Jaden, a “jack of all trades” sort. The man worked as a fisherman, mason, farmer, and guard.

Fabien, a fisherman father of two, last time Edwin had seen him was months ago during the squid incident.

Ebin is a small, lean, blonde eighteen-year-old that talks too fast and loose about becoming an adventurer. Often time Edwin would speak with him, asking him about the adventurers that come passing through town.

Raff is the town’s kind and funny, alcoholic carpenter that still lives with his father. Of everyone, Raff is probably Edwin’s favorite. They both speak on the same level and it’s easy for Ed to understand him.

Valen, a craftsman apprentice born back in Moorside, but after a fight with his parents, he decided to leave and find a new home in Hillside. Sometimes people will make fun of him for it, but Edwin doesn’t understand the jokes.

Xav Fang whose name was weirder than most given that he was an orphan of the Erzuli region, Fang was the surname given to the kids on his orphanage and Xav was the name given to him by a tired old man, like many other weirdly uninterested, often unimportant orphans were.

The last one is Paul Hillside’s heart breaker for some scum of the earth for others. Blond hair and green-eyed, his beauty give him access to the hearts of many a young maiden, every guy’s worst enemy. All Ed didn’t like him. People always talk about him going on misadventures. For an adventurer aficionado like Edwin, he was an enemy.

The tree passed by the guard, who waved them goodbye and stepped out into the world.

The travel took all day even though they weren’t going very far, they followed the road south, then east and finally moved up towards the north road close to a small settlement that had been put in place about a year ago and was about a day away from town. It had been built by disgruntled farmers from Florence Town who just wanted to live freely.

At one point and with no warning, Alden stopped walking. Ed, who was following close behind, crashed against him and fell but first to the ground.

“Hey! Careful!”

“Hahaha, you must always remain vigilant. You never know who may be looking or what can happen,”

“Are you going to keep spouting bullshit or are you going to explain why are we here?” Lucius asked. He kept his distance at all times and was at least 5 meters behind them.

“Well… I thought this was a good time to tell you guys why I took you along. What we are going to kill is a Lehwen,”

“what’s that? Is it dangerous?” asked the mixed-raced boy

“Well, yeah, for normal people maybe, but you kids are with me!” Alden said while pressing a fist to his chest and smiling widely, showing off his bravado.

“There’s nothing on this region your father can’t kill, I promise you that much, and going back to the matter at hand, A Lehwen is a... kind of like a dog, it moves on four legs, it’s very big and very lean, like a starved human with long arms and some ugly antlers on its head, an ugly piece of work,”

“And how do you know that thing is in the black forest?”

“That, is the value of communication and contacts, a messenger came yesterday morning, poor bastard came running, said one of those appeared on their village and killed someone, they drove him outside but the fucker fled in our direction so they came to warn us of a possible attack,”

“You think it’s possible?”

“It’s a possibility, his kind love the forest, they feed off the black sap, and for meat… they’re known for preferring human flesh so if he’s roaming around the area, it’s a definite possibility it could attack someone, but as the village protector I’m not about to let him attack first, I won’t wait for someone to get killed before taking action,"

“And why do we come with you? I’m scared now,” said Edwin.

“There’s nothing to be afraid Ran, I said it, didn’t I? as long as I’m here, nothing will hurt you. Besides, isn’t it nice to go out on an adventure with your old man from time to time? You love stories, yet you get scared easily while creating one of your own?”

“Yes, what a surprise, I’ve never gone to that forest and much less tried to hunt a people-killing monster!”

“Well, then you’re welcome!” Alden laughed while patting the young child on the head “and to answer your previous question, this will be a good experience of the outside world, neither of you get to go outside the village very much, and we live in a relatively safe region so there’s nothing to fear, but that doesn’t mean the world is a safe place, and you two have to learn that to grow up, Lucius will be of age in just a few years after all,”

What does that mean for me? Aren’t I supposed to stay? I’m going to become the village head so there’s not much meaning in learning about the outside world, is it now? I’m not going on any adventures nor fighting any monster. There isn’t even that much sense behind learning magic, right?

“But that’s just me. Raanan is going to become the village chief so he won’t get to go out much. Why did we bring him then? Aren’t you putting the future of the village at risk this way? It’s not like it matters if he learns about the outside or not,” Lucius spoke to Alden as if reading Edwin’s mind and piercing through his insecurities.

“Don’t say that Luc, it's not like he doesn’t have any interest. After all, if he didn’t, he wouldn’t take the magic lessons that seriously,”

Yeah, but magic is one thing, this is another!

“Shut up now. We are close now so we’ll camp outside the forest and look around in the morning. Hopefully, we can find him while he sleeps and avoid having to fight. Lehwens are nocturnal creatures,"

They followed Alden’s order and set up camp in a wide-open space close to the forest, away from the trees, so if something came out looking for a fight, they would be able to see it and have time to react.

Lucius and Raanan worked in silence as Alden told them what to do, how to start the fire, how to set up a sleeping place, how to make sure no bugs would bite them in their sleep.

Once all work was finished, they sat in front of a bonfire and cooked some of the food Alden brought.

“Now, the second reason I’ve brought you two here… is because I will be leaving on a trip for a few months”

Both brothers looked at him.

As far as Ed remembered, this is the first time his father said anything like this. He couldn’t remember him ever leaving the village, at least not for a prolonged time.

“Are you visiting grandfather Tobias and uncle Lawrence?”

If so, I want to go too, I always go!

“No, I will be going a lot further away for a business, You don’t have to put those faces. It’s not like I’m not coming back,” He added a small, amused chuckle at the end.

Lucius reacted to the news. “Who would worry about you! Leave if you want, I don’t care!”

“Come on, don’t be mean!” Edwin rebuked his older brother, but his moment of bravery lasted all of three seconds before Lucius glared at him as if daring him to say another word, he played dumb “I will miss you dad”

Alden just sighed at his two sons' silent war. This time he decided to ignore them. “You two, more than anyone, won’t have time to miss me since you’ll be busy helping a friend out,”

“Who?” Lucius questioned.

Meanwhile, Edwin connected dots on his mind, reaching a hypothesis that had him excited as soon as the thought entered his mind.

“IS SHE COMING?!” He couldn’t help himself. After all, he had been waiting for this person for months already.

Lucius now seemed puzzled. While Alden confirmed his suspicions.

“Yes, she’s coming, Joanne, and yes she’s a wolf warrior descendant… before Ran pisses himself from joy,”

YEAH! Finally, a real adventurer! A strong warrior at that!

Realizing Lucius needed further explanation, he continued.

“She is one of my and Free’s old bandmates, from when we still took on jobs in Assythia, before Lucius was born, I haven’t seen her in like fifteen years but she agreed to come, either way, she will be staying at our home, as our guest, and will be taking my place as a replacement for village guardian. Who knows, she might teach you guys some cool stuff? Maybe she can make you more manly!” He laughed, Lucius's eyebrows reflected how annoyed he felt on the inside, while Ran’s eyes rolled into his head.

“And why are leaving? The real reason, you’ve never left for anything before, only to visit your father and brother with Raanan,"

“Well, the job is to help out another friend, he asked me for a favor I can’t refuse, so I have to help him out, its nothing dangerous, won’t take more than a few months… then I’m back for good, at least for a while,”

“Where are you going? Can you stop trying to be all mysterious for a fucking second?” Said the elf boy, clearly annoyed at Alden’s secretive tone.

“Well well well, now look who doesn’t want daddy gone. Never saw it coming from Lucius Donn, you are a daddy’s boy after all, ha Luc?... Wait! don’t pull your sword, I gave it to you for self-defense, not self-interest!” After a fit of laughter the man took a deep breath and continued “anyhow she should be arriving in a few days and I’m probably setting out as soon as she gets here… your mothers are already aware of this, that’s why they let me take you kids out to a dangerous mission… getting some experience before becoming her helping hands,”

“Us two...?”

“It will mostly be just you Luc since you already know the basics of a village guardian. You will be teaching her all the little things. You also will be going with her on any hunt so you can gather as much experience,"

Very much unlike himself… Lucius agreed without much of a fuss. Even Alden seemed surprised.

Didn’t pull much of a fight now, did you? Maybe it’s just me, the hated one... guess I had it coming… Alden said to himself before reaching to the fire and pulling out a piece of cooked deer meat.

“Now, how’re the magic lessons coming, Ran? I’ve seen you casting a spell, that’s quite impressive. I remember your mo- Freesia… told me it took her a year to cast her first spell,”

“Mhm, really? Teacher Taft makes us practice a lot. He says that the more we practice the spell the better we get. I still can’t cast it properly yet. Unlike Lan, she can already make the water ball fly off,”

“So that’s where it came from”

the little troublemaker… knew it! that water didn’t come from any bucket. My own daughter using me as a practice blank!

The father mused to himself. Meanwhile, Ed looked at him, thinking he must have realized that Lan was using him as a training dummy, she had told Ed herself a few weeks ago.

“Dad stays still a lot when training Lucy, he is a good target…”

Even if Lan hits him with a spell, dad just laughs it off. He has a soft spot for her. I wonder what would he say if I did the same…

“And how is your teacher? Met him at the bar, heard he’s from the capital, a total city boy, isn’t he?”

“Not at all, teacher is really cool! He can cast all kinds of spells very fast, and he told us he started practicing magic at a very young and that he has always been good at it!”

“isn’t that just bragging?”

“Then you totally brag too, right? You do it all the time,” Lucius entered the conversation with a jab.

“What’s this bullshit I’m hearing? What are you saying, oh! seed of mine? I never brag, humility runs in my blood,”

“Humility? more like humidity. Just a few hours ago you said there’s nothing in the region you can’t kill,”

“Just stating a fact it’s not bragging if it’s true, I’m strong even if neither of you cares, now, you two get to bed tomorrow we set out to look for the Lehwen,”

Despite the order, the three of them talked for a while longer until Ed fell asleep, Lucius fell after. Alden took it upon himself to guard all night.

Vigilant of the creature they may encounter in their sleep, listening to the cacophony of the night.