BANG

  I jolt awake. Breathing hard. A flash of panic through my mind as I quickly search around me, just to feel sweet relief wash over me as my sight is met with the ceiling of my bedroom. My body aches. Head pounding. My throat feels tight, and every breath scratches its way in and out. My legs and belly feel numb, and with a cursory pat down, it seems that Monster's spine was removed. Bandages are tightly wrapped around the area.

  Trying to sit up is pretty impossible, it feels. Any attempt just makes my neck hurt. My body feels like it’s being weighed down by stones.

  Jolting again by reflex as I hear another BANG from outside my room. Like someone hitting something wooden.

  I can hear yelling out there. By how muffled it is, it’s likely from the kitchen. It sounds like Mama as well.

  My heart starts beating quickly, and nausea settles in my stomach. She definitely sounds really mad. More mad than I think I have ever heard her before. But I can hear another voice as well, speaking more calmly. Deep and gravely. Probably Mr. Thorpe.

  I can’t tell what they are saying, but I can definitely guess a lot of it. Their voices are vibrating the walls a bit. I just hope Leo won’t be in too much trouble. It isn’t his fault I was out there. But…he wasn’t really supposed to be out there either. So I guess I can’t really complain if they're mad.

  My lips curl down into a frown, warm tears welling up in my eyes. Sniffling a bit. A sound which causes a stir of something nearby my bed that I hadn’t seen. Turning my head towards it as my eyes meet with a pair of sleepless, bloodshot ones. Framed by the messy tufts of curly black hair on the teenage boy.

  My voice cracks. “Leo?”

  His eyes widen as he lifts himself off the floor where he was lying, reaching out to me and hugging me to his chest. “Thank god Liore…I thought…” His voice catches in his throat, choking back a sob. “…I thought I had gotten you killed…”

  The way he is clutching onto me hurts a little, but I don’t want to worry him anymore. Weakly wrapping my arms around his neck. Unable to stop myself, I begin to weep into his neck. “I’m sorry I followed you…I just didn’t want you to get into trouble,” I blubbered out, my tears soaking into his tunic.

  But Leo grabs my shoulders and settles me back down against the bed. His eyes are frightfully wild with guilt. It scares me somewhat. “No Liore…none of this is your fault…I shouldn’t have done that…but if you hadn’t been there…” His face gets a little pale. “I probably would have died.”

  His expression pains. “You saved me. But you shouldn’t have had to in the first place. I was being an idiot. Pushing my luck, and I paid for it.” Leo’s voice is getting angrier. Not at me, but at himself. His head lowers as he clutches either side of it, nails clawing into his scalp. Gritting his teeth. “You are like this because of me…”

  I hate seeing him like this. My chest aches, and I want to cry even more. I don’t want him to feel guilty or to hate himself. So I reach out my hand to grab his before it can dig its nails in too deep. “Leo…please don’t hurt yourself.” I manage to say in between sniffles. “I should have just told Mama when I saw you sneaking out. But I didn’t want you to hate me…which was pretty silly to think looking back at it now.”

  Leo lifted his head somewhat to look at me. His expression is still contorted in a way that I don’t like. After wiping my nose with my arm, I smile a little. “You looked really cool fighting those things, though. Like a Hero.”

  He stared at me for a few seconds before looking off to the side a bit sheepishly. “Don’t say that. Nothing I did was heroic…it was just stupid and selfish.”

  My smile fades a little. “I mean. A little bit, yeah…” I admit, sliding my hand over to give him a flick on the forehead, which makes him flinch a bit in surprise. “But I guess that makes me pretty stupid and selfish too.”

  Leo frowns, but more in a ‘fine whatever’ sort of way. “You got hurt way more than I did. So you should keep resting.” His eyes flicker over to the door as his mouth trembles. “I…I’ll go tell Mama that you’re awake. You’re probably hungry.”

  He stands up and heads towards the door. I want to say more to try to assure him, but there isn’t much I can really say. No amount of comfort will cover the fact that he was doing something dangerous just to prove he could. And…well, I didn’t exactly help the situation.

  Watching him open the door slowly and apprehensively. Likely quite afraid to face our mother. But he manages to power through and closes the door behind him. Leaving me to stare back up at the ceiling.

  “May the Blinded See…”

  _______________________________________________________________________

  [LEVEL-00]

  //Name: Liore Perro

  //Age: 9

  //Class: [???] [Unlocks in 3 Months 7 Days 22 Hours]

  //Status: Injured [Severe] [Stable]

  [PASSIVE]

  [???]

  [??? ???]

  [SKILLS]

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  [???-???]

  [CLASS QUESTS]

  //null

  ______________________________________________________________________

  What?

  The status part is new but seems normal. I guess I’ve never really gotten hurt enough to warrant it appearing. But Mama and Mr. Thorpe said it would show up eventually.

  But what the heck is wrong with my window? Where is my class? And I have passives now, but I can’t see them. And…a skill too…But I can’t see that either.

  The door to my room slowly swings open to break me out of my confused trance. My mother stands tall in the doorway, looking distraught and exhausted. Eyes somewhat bloodshot from countless tears shed. Her hair is unbound and unbraided, a somewhat tangled curtain of natural volume. A black wool cloud that reaches past her waist. She stifles a sob as she just stares at me for a moment. Silent.

  My brows knit with concern. “Mama…are you okay?” I ask. Which only causes her to quickly move across the room to envelope me in her embrace. Her grasp of my weak frame is tender and painless. Showering me with kisses. Causing me to wrinkle my nose and pout. “Mama…please…”

  The tall woman's head raises up, her hair forming a faultless cone around me that blocks out the rest of the world. Her face contorts with so many emotions that she seems to be having trouble parsing through them. “You…” She starts through gritted teeth. “You do not get to push me away, young lady. You almost got yourself killed! I will coddle you as I please for now, and you will deal with it!”

  My mouth curves down into a frown, averting my eyes. “I…I’m sorry…Mama…” Tears welling up in my eyes again. “I should have just woken you up…b…but I…”

  She quickly cuts me off with a growl. “NO BUTS! Yes, you should have woken me up, no matter how you felt. It was bleedin' stupid for you to put yourself in such danger just to try to cover your brother's ass.”

  Pulling herself off of me to kneel beside my bed, moving her hair back behind her. In the time that she had been looming over me, Mr. Thorpe had entered the room and sat down on the bottom edge of my bed. While Leo is now standing in my doorway, awkwardly twiddling his fingers.

  Mother huffs out a sharp sigh. “But it’s no use dwelling on what you SHOULD have done. What matters is that you are alive to learn not to make such thoughtless decisions in the future.”

  Both Leo and I nod as we answer in unison. “Yes mama.”

  Mother gives both of us a sharp look before she settles her gaze back onto me. “Now your brother is leaving to be trained in a matter of days, so I’ll have to leave his punishment up to them. But you, young lady…I’ll have plenty of time to figure out your punishment while you are recuperating.”

  I feel my blood run cold just like when that Horned Wolf was staring me down. And the fear I felt then is starting to look silly in comparison to the fear I feel now in front of my own mother. I gulp. “…y…yes mama…”

  She seems satisfied with my answer as she comes to a stand. “The neighbors have been donating a few nice meals to us today. I will go warm up something for you. You will need your strength.” She says sternly before she swiftly turns and steps past Leo, giving his hair a tussle as she passes.

  Once she’s gone, I turn to look at Mr. Thorpe, who meets my stare. He doesn’t look much better either. Paler than usual. I can see tinges of guilt across his face.

  I take a deep breath. “Um…I checked my window…and some new things have appeared.”

  The old man's expression perks up a bit. “Let me guess…it’s a Status section?” He would ask with a wry smile.

  My cheeks must be getting a darker shade because he chuckles as I simply nod. “But that’s not all…it…a section called Passive showed up with something in it. And a skill appeared too…”

  Mr. Thorpe's eyes widened like saucers as he leaned in closer to me. “You got a passive AND a skill? What do they say? What are they called?” He asked seriously, his earlier downtrodden expression all but gone. Leo, as well, steps further into the room as he overhears this, looking concerned.

  Their attention makes me slink back a bit. Pressing myself further into my bed. “Uh…I don’t know. The titles are just all question marks.”

  The old man's brows furrow deeper but at least he looks like he understands something about it as he sits up straight. “Ah…so you earned a passive and a skill, but you haven’t unlocked them yet.”

  Leo chimed in with his attention on Mr. Thorpe. “You said some passives can appear at random or be triggered by certain events…maybe it’s the…trauma from all of this.”

  The Old guard nods along as he scratches his chin. “Maybe…it’s not unheard of. But the conditions here don’t sound right to get anything like that.” His attention returns to me. “Did anything happen while you were out there? Other than the Horned Wolves, of course…”

  With both of them now staring at me again, it is making me feel a bit uncomfortable. But I am just as curious. “Well…when I was running from that wolf, I fell into a hole under a tree. And there was some sort of stone room down there.”

  Leo’s eyes widened as he lowered himself down to his knees next to my bed, glancing up to Mr. Thorpe. “Yes, that’s right. I didn’t stop to get a long look at it, but she was definitely in some sort of ruin when I found her.”

  Mr. Thorpe’s mouth got a bit tight-lipped. His bushy brows thoroughly pressed together now. “And I’m guessing something happened to you down there?”

  I nod slowly. “I found a big book that was blank inside…some of my blood got onto it, and then words started appearing really fast…it made my head hurt so bad…Then I couldn’t move afterwards…”

  My voice trailed off as I noticed the look of utter shock on Mr. Thorpe's face. His hand came up to cover his mouth as his eyes seemed to stare off into space. Lost in thought.

  “A skillbook…from the sounds of it.” He finally states quietly after almost a minute of being entirely silent.

  Leo clears his throat nervously. “Um…aren’t those like…Relics?”

  The old man rubs the back of his neck. “Technically, yes. But they're usually found in Labyrinths. Which there shouldn’t be any near here at all.”

  Thorpe looked over to Leo. “If I take you out there during the day, do you think you’d be able to lead me to the spot where you found her?”

  My brother looks a bit stunned at the question, but eventually answers. “I think so. I have explored around the area a little.”

  “Good…I’ll talk to your mom about it. I want to see this ruin for myself.” The old man stands up and points at me. “You get some rest, Liore. I’ll be back to check on you later. We’ve got a [Doctor] coming in from Llanercost to help you. So just have to sit tight for a bit.”

  The idea of a Doctor makes my stomach churn. “Okay…just be careful, Mr. Thorpe.”

  Old Guard smirks and gives a thumbs up. “No worries about me. We’ll get this figured out.” His hand gestures to the teenager next to me. “Come on, Leo, let your sister rest more before she eats. You and I need to have a chat with your Mother.”

  Leo grimaces but stands up as well, giving me a wave. “I’ll be back too…” Before the two of the exit my room, closing the door behind them.

  At this point, I am definitely feeling incredibly overwhelmed. Unsure how to feel about all of this as I stare up at my [Window] still floating above me.

  I didn’t even mention to Mr. Thorpe that my class is gone too. But something about it made me too afraid to tell.

  I wonder what those skills are.

  I am a bit scared to find that out, too, though.