Dawn- An age of Darkness

Chapter 12 - Fighting For Survival

Dune told me to sleep the whole day. I couldn't necessarily sleep but lied down on the bed anyway. I didn't want to return to his home but I couldn't say no to Dune.

I hated my house, my family. I had all the right reasons to. I'm pretty sure they hated me as well. A lot had happened to for them to literally hate me but it was true. So I didn't really like the idea of playing family in another world. All of this kind of irked me and I wanted to stay as far away as possible. But I couldn't really say no either. And since I told them about my lies of memory loss, I couldn't ask much about this world either.

"You up?" Dune called from outside the room

Sounds like it's finally time. I looked out the window. It was evening. I didn't even notice how time had flown. Obviously, I couldn't sleep. "Yeah."

"Time to move out. Grab your sword."

Training begun at night. It was more like me running around with an iron rod. I couldn't even properly lift the damn thing. It was heavier than the sword from the undead. Besides, my body was still heavy.

"Are you sure you killed five goblins?" His sarcastic tone bothered me, but still he tried his best to teach me.

Yes, I was sure that I killed five goblins. But I was also sure they almost killed me every single time too. "Trust me, I'm as surprised as you are… but aren't we supposed to protect the wall?" If my memory served correct this wall was the only thing keeping all those monsters out.

It was well past evening, but no undead had come near the wall; yet.

"As long as the fire's burning, there's no need to worry." Dune reassured me with a pose. I didn't know if he was trying to be funny or not but that pose almost made me chuckle.

"I've been meaning to ask, how come they're afraid of fire?"

"You see all living things fear fire. Even after death they think it might harm them. In reality it does, so maybe that's why?" Dune explained but he didn't seem convinced either.

So you don't know either? Hey, wait! People are afraid of a lot more things than just fire. I wanted to say that to his face too. "But-"

"No more buts now focus!" He swung his sword at me, I tried to block. It didn't work. I fell on my back.

Strength really was his strong suit. He didn't give me a break. But I still knew nothing about this world. And was this guy seriously just using basics to beat me like this? Granted, I didn't know how to use a sword, but this guy still seemed like an experienced fighter to me.

He sighed. "Get up." For some reason he was utterly devastated. Regrettably, I could guess that reason.

Somebody started shouting. "Dune the other side!"

I got up. The fire was about to go out in the other side. We took a torch and ran for it, barely making it at the last moment. There were basically just five of us, including me.

Every time the fire weakened a little, undead come pouring. And with just the five of us, it was hard to maintain this almost a kilometer long wall.

The whole training combined with the relentless pursuit of the undead, was brutal. I already felt faint.

"Tired already," Dune smirked. It was a little past midnight.

I could fall asleep at a moment's notice. "That ain't funny!" I breathed heavily and panted.

"But that just shows what happens everyday. But honestly these last few days were the worst. So I'm glad you're here." He was sarcastic all night and suddenly thanked me now. It felt weird.

But why? Why was the undead moving like this? Dune told me that it wasn't like this even a few months ago.

I still didn't know how to kill those things apart from using sunlight though. Were the undead even killable? Fire was effective in scaring them but was it enough to kill them? "Oh and we chased them away but how do we kill-"

Dune cut me off. Was he expecting this? "We don't. Only a priest can purify them or someone who has holy powers. We can cleave them with proper swords but they'd still move around. Although they won't be harmful that way. Or just burn them. That seems most effective, honestly. And I prefer that too; they'll probably be back in a few days though. You won't believe how well they burn!" His eyes showcased his passion for burning. There were these types of people in my world as well. These people just loved to burn stuff.

"Sometimes I wonder who the bad guy is." My voice was barely a whisper.

"Did you say something?" And he had the ears of a bear.

"Nope!"

It went on like that for the whole night. I couldn't even move my arms after it was over. Dune's training was as brutal as a bite from the damn goblins. But when morning light peeked through the eastern horizon, I felt at ease. My heart fluttered and I knew it was over- at least for tonight. Wait, I have to do this again? My heart sank a great deal when I actually thought about it.

I was spent. So I slept till noon. Who cared about breakfast anyway? Not me.

"Oi!"

"Hey!"

"YOU!"

I woke up. Something or one was screaming in my ears. It was a high pitched voice. My ears rang.

"Argh…" I groaned. Just what was wrong? Did they have to scream so much? Didn't they know I was spent?

I looked around, still half asleep. It was the little brat again. "What?"

"Lunch is ready, they want you down."

They want me down? You almost sound like a mass murderer. I was disappointed. I wanted to sleep some more. It felt like one those days when I accidently got too excited over a book or movie that I spent the whole night on that. Actually it probably was.

I didn't seem too convinced so, the brat explained things to me. It was lunch time some time ago but they were waiting for me to get up this whole time.

"Huh?" My brain jumped started. It was already past noon and they waited for?

I gasped, grabbed my head and sat down. My head hurt. The little brat led me to the place with water.

I washed my face outside the home and went to the designated place: the fated dinner table. Dune was as bright as I last saw him. How tough was the guy? But the geezer was there too. And as usual, he greeted me with his solid glare.

I ate lunch. I couldn't talk much. And they didn't say much either. Maybe they were mad that they had to just sit there for all this time?

"You look sick…" Milai said.

And I totally was. "Back where I'm from, that's a compliment." I tried to act funny. But I most certainly wasn't.

They all laughed. Maybe they were too kind.

I could barely keep my eyes open. Once finished, I thanked them, went upstairs and slept for another two good hours. I woke up in the afternoon and went outside the house. Sheila followed me. How the hell did she knew I was going out?

"What?" I asked. I didn't like kids.

"Let's go fishing."

I never liked fishing either. Patience was never my strong suit. Why would I even want to sit down for hours with little hope of actually catching something good? "Huh? Why?" Two of my hated things, combined? I didn't want any part of it, that much I was certain.

"You're eating our food. The least you could do is make up for it, right?" The brat gave me a solid grin. She had me just where she wanted.

Aren't I doing enough already? I couldn't talk back to that though. Even I knew that she was right. The way she talked indicated that she might have been older than she looked. "Wait, how old are you?"

"Thirteen."

You don't say… Of course I didn't believe her. "You don't look a day over ten." I wasn't convinced. She was too much of a brat.

"I'm THIRTEEN!" She was pretty persistent though. She kept yelling and shouting until I gave up.

I sighed in resignation. I had got myself into troublesome shit once again. "Yeah, sure, sure. Lead the way." I didn't want anything to do with it, but now I had to.

She ran back home without another word.

I was all alone in the road: I was left here thunderstruck. What just happened?