「It’s cold.」
I woke up in my room while it was still dark. The sun hadn’t risen yet and I could feel my eyes starting to close again. I had the urge to dive under my covers, but instead I threw them off in one motion.
「It’s cold!」
The sudden blast of cold air helped me wake up completely. I got out of bed and grabbed a coat before turning back and making my bed. I’m sure I would have seen my breath in the air if there was enough light in my room. After finishing up with my bed I went to my window and could see the light of the early morning sun starting to show in the distance.
Fighting the urge to dive back into the bed, I changed into my work clothes. They were well-worn and recently they no longer seemed to fit. In the chill of the morning I could feel the cold air nipping at my ankles where the pants were too short.
「Should I double up my socks?」
I’d be working out in the cold on my Uncle’s farm today so I was tempted to layer my socks, but I decided against it.
Grabbing my coat again I decided to head to the kitchen. Even my coat was looking a little small. The sleeves no longer went down to my fingers like they had when I’d first gotten it. Now they barely made it to my wrists.
「I’ll have to ask Mom or Dad if they can alter these a bit. If it were Spring already I wouldn’t bother, but it’s just too cold!」
Once I opened the door to my room I could smell breakfast coming from the kitchen. I’d thought that I had woken up early, but somehow my Mom always beat me to the kitchen.
Charo: “Hey Mom, whatchya cookin’”
Mom: “Oh, Charo. Here, can you taste the stew? I have to wake your father.”
Charo: “Yeah, I got it.”
My mom left the kitchen and headed towards my parents’ bedroom. I tasted the stew and added a little bit of salt, making sure to stir it occasionally to keep it from burning. It was just a stew made from leftovers, but it was a great way to start your day off on a cold morning.
I stopped stirring to look out the window. We lived on the second story of my parents’ tailor shop. I could see smoke rising from the nearby houses and could hear the crowing of a rooster in a few different directions.
「’Least the weather looks good today. No clouds that I can see.」
Mom came back into the kitchen while I was staring out the window and returned to tending to the pot on the stove.
Mom: “How’d it taste?”
Charo: “Oh, it was good. I added some salt though.”
Mom: “Okay, it’s pretty much done then. Go ahead and take a seat.”
I moved over to the table and took a seat. Shortly after, my mom brought over a bowl of the stew and a loaf of bread that she’d had in the oven and took a seat at the table as well.
Charo: “Hey Mom, I’ve noticed my sleeves and pants are a little too short. Can you or Dad fix ‘em up?”
Mom put down her spoon and got up from the table. She came around to my seat and took a look at my sleeves.
Mom: “Hmm… There’s not much material to work with on these clothes anymore. We’ve already altered them in the past. How much more are you going to grow? You’re already 17.”
She took a look at pants as well.
Mom: “No, we’ll have to make some new clothes for you. These won’t work much longer.”
I always felt bad mentioning needing new clothes to my parents. Even though they ran a tailor shop, any time that I needed new clothes I felt bad asking them. They’d have to end up using materials from the store’s stock on me. While I had learned basic tailoring from them over the years, I hadn’t quite reached their level of skill. I could mend a garment without a problem, but making a full set of clothes was too much.
I guess I’d stopped moving while thinking, because mom stood up and put her hand on my head. Her eyes were closed and she had a kind, motherly smile on.
Mom: “It’s okay. You’re our son. Besides, it’s been a while since we gave you some new clothes so it’s about time.”
She wasn’t wrong. The pants I was wearing had been mended and patched multiple times. While my parents were tailors, I tended to help out at my Uncle’s sheep farm more often. Farm work was hard, and I had to mend my pants regularly.
While Mom was patting my head Dad walked into the kitchen. With a final pat my Mom went over to the stove to dish out a bowl of stew for him.
Dad: “Morning.”
My dad is not a morning person, and you could see that he was still half asleep sitting down at the table. With his eyes and his mouth half open he looked incredibly dumb. Mom came over and sat the bowl of stew down in front of him before taking a seat again.
My dad was about a half a foot taller than my mom, not quite at my height. His hair was a light brown, while my mom’s was slightly darker. They both had tired faces with bronze eyes that shone with the happiness of a peaceful life. I guess that I’ll probably look pretty close to my dad when I get older. My hair’s about the same color as his, but my eyes are more like gold than bronze and I’m still about a half foot taller than him. If anything, I look more like my Uncle Falkr. He was taller than my dad, but had the same color hair and eyes. Though, he was definitely thicker. That was probably due to his time in the army before working on the farm.
Mom: “Dear, Charo needs some new clothes.”
Dad: “Uh huh”
Mom: “We should use some of the adventurer equipment materials.”
Dad: “Uh huh”
Mom: “Oh and while we’re at it, why don’t we make him some nice clothes for his trip. We can spoil him a little.”
Dad: “Uh huh. Wait, what?”
Mom: “Nothing dear.”
With a sweet innocent smile on her face, my mother acted like nothing happened and continued eating her breakfast.
「Truly, a wife knows the weaknesses of their husband!」
Now that he’d woken up a bit, Dad started to eat his breakfast.
Dad: “How’s Falkr doin’ lately?”
Falkr was my dad’s brother, and he owned the sheep farm that I work at. He used to be an adventurer but now he lived on the outskirts of the town so that his sheep had plenty of grazing land. He rarely left his farm and my dad barely left his shop, so they rarely visited each other.
Charo: “I guess he’s alright? Same as he always is.”
Dad: “He’s taking you with him to the capital this year, right?”
I was still eating, so I had to wait to finish chewing before I answered.
Charo: “Yeah, he said he needed a hand with the wool this year. He’s planning to bring some extra from storage because of the festival.”
Dad: “The festival, huh…”
My dad trailed off, so I took another bite of bread with a spoonful of stew. The festival happens every year, however this year was special. The story goes that every 100 years the festival is used to summon heroes from another world and apparently it’s been exactly 100 years since the last summoning. No one I know was alive 100 years ago, so I couldn’t really feel any sense of excitement over something that might not even happen. Besides, we lived on the outskirts of the country. It was peaceful and I liked that.
Charo: “I don’t see what the big deal is. Whatever happens in the capital doesn’t really affect us out here.”
Dad: “Charo… you’re young. You’re supposed to be adventurous and rebellious. You bore me and I’m an old man!”
Charo: “It’s okay to be boring. I have everything I need.”
I wasn’t lying. I really feel that way. I didn’t really have any sense of urgency for exploring or adventuring. In fact, most of the townspeople told me that I was like an old man, just wanting to take life easy. It’s not that I lacked drive or motivation. I just really didn’t see any point to putting my life in danger for something as silly as fame or fortune.
I don’t have anything special. I’m just the son of some tailors who works on a sheep farm in a corner of the kingdom. The only thing waiting for me on an adventure is death.
Mom: “That’s not good Charo, you need to think a little bigger or else you’ll end up like your father. A no-name tailor in a small town in the countryside.”
My mother covered her mouth with her hand while looking at my dad, but I could tell that she was smiling.
I finished my breakfast and moved the bowl aside. I pulled out a piece of wood I’d been carving. Perhaps the one talent I did have was that I was good with my hands. Regardless, I had a lot of spare time while the sheep graze, so I had started to carve wood as a hobby.
Dad: “Charo… even your hobby is a little too old for you… also don’t do that while I’m still eating. I don’t want to eat wood with my stew, thank you.”
Charo: “Ah, sorry. I wasn’t really thinking.”
I scraped up the few shavings I’d made and brought them to a trash bin. When I turned around I noticed my dad was eying my clothes.
「Eh, I didn’t think he was listening earlier.」
Dad: “C’mere.”
I walked over to my dad, who proceeded to examine my sleeves and pants like my mother had.
Dad: “Sorry, I hadn’t noticed. You really do need some new clothes. We’ll have ‘em done by the time you have to leave for the festival.”
Charo: “Thanks, sorry to be a bother.”
Dad: “Don’t be so apologetic. It’s our responsibility and pride as parents to care for you.”
My dad was grinning cheesily while giving me a thumbs up. I threw back a thumbs up and couldn’t help but grin as well.
Charo: “Okay, I’ve gotta head out.”
Mom: “Take care. Were you coming back tonight?”
Charo: “Depends how much we can get done today, if I’m not back by sundown I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Dad: “Tell that bastard to come over for once.”
Charo: “Yea, yea. Alright, bye!”
I headed down the stairs and left out the front door. I already had everything I needed with me. Pretty much just the clothes on my back, my knife, and my current carving project.
「I probably don’t need to lock the door since they’ll be opening the shop soon.」
The street was mostly empty, but there were a few shopkeepers starting to set up their storefront. I waved hello at the ones who noticed me as I walked by. I knew most of them by name, but I didn’t feel like standing around and talking for too long. I wasn’t in a hurry, I just didn’t feel like being very social.
The road that I was walking on was lined with shops and went all the way out of the town. It was the main road of the simple town that I called home. We didn’t get many visitors, but apparently having the shops on the road made the most sense.
As I was passing by one of the last shops on the road, I was startled by a loud shattering sound. I looked over and saw a young boy nearly in tears on the ground with the remnants of what appeared to be a large pot in front of him.
I walked over and gave him a pat on his shoulder.
Charo: “You okay? What’re you doing?”
Boy: “Uu, uu, I’b fibe, uuu, uuuu.”
There were a couple large pots in front of us, with a few more behind. It looked like he’d been setting up the storefront.
Charo: “Were you carrying these? They look heavy, no wonder you dropped it.”
Boy: “Uuu… uu yeah.”
Charo: “Come on, let’s clean this up.”
I walked into the store since the door had been propped open. Even if it wasn’t open, they shouldn’t really mind.
Charo: “Hey Mr. Potter! You got a broom?”
There was a little bit of rustling from the back, and the head of an older man popped out from the corner of a wall.
Mr. Potter: “Ehh? Charo? Whaddyu want? We ain’t open yet.”
Charo: “Ah yeah, that’s fine. There’s just a bit of a mess out front and I was wondering if you had a broom I could borrow.”
Mr. Potter: “Oh yeh, there’s one under the front counter. Help yerself.”
With that the old man disappeared back around the corner. I walked over to the counter and grabbed the broom. Although, it was less a broom and more of a dust pan. With that, I headed back out front.
Charo: “Alright. Do you have a container we can put this mess in?”
By now the boy looked like he was able to hold back his tears, though he was still sniffling.
Boy: “Yeah. I’ll get it.”
The pieces of the broken pot were all over the ground. By some stroke of luck the boy hadn’t been hurt by any of the shards. Sweeping them up into a pile didn’t take much time, and by the time I finished the boy was back.
Charo: “Okay, let’s put this trash in there. Be careful with the pieces, don’t cut your hands.”
Boy: “O-okay.”
「This kid sure is timid.」
We were almost done with cleaning up the mess when I heard a yelp.
Boy: “U-u-u-u uuuu.”
When I turned to look at him, he was holding his left hand and was in tears again. I rushed over to look at it.
Charo: “I told you to be careful! Here.”
I took the boy’s hand and looked at it closely. It was starting to bleed and looked painful. I grabbed the knife out of my pocket and cut the bottom of my shirt into a strip. Wrapping the cloth around the boy’s hand tightly, I tied it off with a bow.
Charo: “The bow looks a little girly but bear with it for now. Sit here while I finish up for you.”
It didn’t take much time to finish up cleaning. I brought the container inside and set it on the counter before returning to the boy.
Charo: “Lemme show you a trick so you don’t have to carry those heavy pots.”
I walked over to one of the pots that was on display and turned around to face the boy.
Charo: “It’s much easier to move these if you do this, see?”
Since all the pots were round, I just tilted the pot a little and held it so that it didn’t fall over. While it was on its edge, I started spinning it so that it rolled on its edge on the ground. I moved it a few feet over to fill in the gap where the broken pot was most likely going.
Charo: “See? You have to use some strength to keep the pot from falling over, but no where near as much as carrying it.”
The boys eyes were still teary, but they were wide as if I’d just shown him a magic trick.
Boy: “Wha… Do you work with pots too?”
Charo: “Nah, I just have to deal with heavy things pretty often over at my uncle’s farm. I learned this trick a while back and it made my life much easier.”
Back when I first started out at the farm, I’d had to move heavy barrels full of who-knows-what for my uncle. I figured out this trick one day when I’d caught a barrel that I’d almost knocked over. I walked over to the boy and ruffled his hair and gave him a grin.
Charo: “Take care of that hand, and I’ll leave you to take care of the container I left on the counter. By the way boy, what’s your name?”
The boy got up, seemingly flustered from having his hair ruffled and ran over to the door before turning around.
Boy: “My name is Gerri. Gerri Potter. And I’m a girl!”
The girl disappeared into the store, so I turned towards my uncle’s farm and started walking.
「Oops.」
