Everything feels... weird. It's so warm. Wasn't it raining last night? I should be cold right now... I kinda feel like going back to sleep.
"Rise and shine V. We've got a whole lot on our plates today."
I smacked my lips and groaned, still glued to my restful sleep.
"Still tired. Too sleepy to move."
"Too sleepy? Well I guess the hedgebear that's near us will have a full stomach for today. It was nice knowin' ya V."
Hearing those words had me standing up like hair in a storm. Dad always taught me how to survive with a bit of comedy for good measure.
"I'm awake! I don't wanna get eaten dad!"
"Oh don't worry, the hedgebear is only tracking us from half a kilometer away, we still have some distance on it."
"That's a lot closer than you're making it sound, dad."
Dad always had a way of keeping the mood light no matter how dire the situation actually was. He probably just doesn't want me to be scared. That big smile rarely left his face.
"I want it closer to be honest. Today is the day we put the sima I've been teaching you to use. Practicing against me has its limits, so I thought we should use a live, hostile subject for this!"
"Isn't that too much? What if I mess up? Will I get eaten?"
"You won't mess up, because I believe in you. You can do it just fine when it's with me, but these are things that will help the most when you're in trouble or really stressed out. If you can't do it in those kinds of situations, then there was no point in teaching you."
"Umm, I kinda get it... I think."
"For now that's all we need. Now get ready, it's moving slowly but it'll be here real soon."
Dad jumped to a high up tree branch and sat on it in preparation. As soon as he left I started to lose my cool.
Okay! Don't panic! Dad won't let me get eaten right? If I mess up and the hedgebear spots the real me then he'll save me! That's what I gotta think even if it ain't true.
Dad taught me how to make fake things, how to make it really dark and hard to see, and how to make things really, really cold.
"GROOOAHH!"
Oh no oh no oh no that's the hedgebear right now! What do I do? What do I do?
"Hey V! Keep calm, you'll be fine. Take some deep breaths and calm your nerves."
He's saying that but he's hiding up in a tree right now. Still, I should listen anyway.
Deep breaths...
In...
And out...
In the time it took for me to calm down, the hedgebear was able to show up. It was twice my height even on all fours. I wouldn't be able to beat that thing head on even in my dreams!
Okay, first up, make it darker so it can't see me. But even if it can't see me, it can still smell me, so I should throw around some of my clothes to confuse it. Ripping up my shirt and tossing the pieces to different places should work. Then, while it's still dark, I can make clones of myself to confuse it even more when it can see again. By the time the darkness clears and it can see again, I'm already circling around it and climbing up a tree while it's looking at my copies. As soon as it relaxes for a second because the copies aren't moving, I drop right on its back, ignoring the pain from its quills stabbing into me, and make the temperature around the back of its neck so low that it passes out.
"Groawww..."
It whimpered as it went down. I took out my knife and stabbed it in the neck, slitting its throat, killing it. I... did it? That was simpler than I thought it would be. I just did what dad would tell me when we practiced, and everything worked. I mean, I'll have to do something about these quills, but otherwise I'm totally fine.
Dad dropped from the tree with a celebratory mood. "See what I was tellin' ya V? I knew you'd be fine! You're a natural! I'd say that I wish your mother could see this, but to be honest she'd probably bite my head off for letting you do that, hahaha!" He was laughing so hard that he started coughing, but that didn't bring his mood down even a little.
~A few hours passed-
After skinning the hedgebear and preparing a fire, we cooked the meat and ate. Dad always taught me to not be wasteful. Sometimes you'd have to take a life, but when you do, you should make full use of the body of that creature, as a show of respect. He'd say that we're all equal under the eyes of Elecunza, and to disrespect another life is to disrespect both yourself and Elecunza.
"Hey dad, why've you been teaching me this stuff all of a sudden? I'm still a kid, but you want me to be strong enough to fight off things as big as hedgebears on my own."
"..."
It was rare that my dad had nothing to say, but that usually means that it's something really serious. It made it really awkward somehow.
"... You know how your mom's not with us anymore right?"
"Yeah, I do. You said she died when I was born. What about her?"
"I know this is gonna be hard to hear, but... your dad won't be too far behind her now. I'm real sick, y'know?"
I froze trying to process what he said. Dad's gonna die soon? Would I be alone soon then?
"Can't we do anything to stop it? Aren't there doctors in Loptair? Can't doctors make medicine?"
"Well, they can, but they don't help people like us y'know? The king only lets certain people have the good stuff, and the medicine I need is one of those things. I've only got a few more months left before this disease gets me for good, and I don't think that's enough time to get in his good graces."
"I... dad..."
"I know, V."
I cried the hardest I'd ever cried in my dad's arms that night. The next few months were agonizing to get through. Having to do more and more on my own as my dad got worse and worse. He stopped smiling as much. He'd laugh occasionally at his or my jokes, but not for long before he started coughing. He got tired much faster. His coughing fits got worse and he started coughing up blood. His tiredness eventually left him bedridden. By that point, he was already gone, I was just waiting on the day I'd have to dig the hole for him. That day finally came, with him passing away while we were sleeping. I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse that I didn't see his final moments as they happened. I was bawling every second of it, but dug the hole to bury my father, and reflected on every moment I had with him in my short life. He taught me a lot in that time, so I'd never forget him. One of the things he taught me was how to read and write, so I left a message carved on the tree I buried him next to.
"Here lies Gralu Siber, the best dad on Vasil."