ESKARINA

What few precious hours of rest I had was interrupted when I heard a loud crash eminate from downstairs. I bolted upright in the bed,suprised to see Lukas and Bilquise still fast asleep. My mind was overloaded with countless thoughts. Had someone broken in? But I thought I was under the protection of the guild? Was one of their members breaking in? Was it Mikael? Regardless,I leaped out of the bed,caring little for whether I woke up my sibling's or not.

If someone was breaking in,then keeping them safe was my top priority. I slipped out the room and into the hallway. The lamp's were on downstair's,and I could hear faint voices speaking. I carefully made my way down the steps and soon heard a familiar voice.

"My sincerest apologies sire,I didn't mean to drop the cup. Please,let me make you another"

Mother. I could never mistake that voice even if I tried.

"It's quite alright" A different voice this time, the voice of a man that I could not recognise.

"Thank you for saving us. We are forever in your debt. We don't have much to offer but please,take whatever it is that you want"

Father's voice

"Before we continue this conversation," A new voice said, a woman this time "It appears someone is eavesdropping"

Everyone was silent as I tried to creep away.

"Come out,we already know you're there."

With a deep breath I slowly descended the steps and found myself in front of Mother And Father as well as two individual's who sat opposite them in the chairs at the dining table.

"Eskarina-"

"I'm sorry." I said,cutting mother off. "I woke up after hearing the crash and I thought someone was breaking in."

The room was covered with an awkward silence that filled the air. I shuffled my feet across the floor as one of the individual's,the man,looked at me.

"Come and sit with us." The man said.

I did as I was told and nervously sat down in between Mother and Father.

The woman seemed to be somewhere in her mid twenties,with purple curled hair and blue-red eye's. The man seemed about the same age as the woman. His head was lined with strangely shaped zig zagged hair.

Both of them were clad in armour,steel plated armour which covered their whole bodies excluding their heads.

"We're sorry for waking you child. Before we speak further allow me to introduce both myself and my comrade. My name is Sven,And I am the Captain of The Imperial Army of Mordrid. This here is my companion Pauline,she's a corporal of the imperial army."

The Imperial army. Roman's army. Considered the most powerful army on the face of the planet.

A strange sense of anxiety washed over me as this fact dawned on me.

"Eskarina...Eskarina Lyria. Farm girl outside of Firekeep." I jested.

Pauline gave a soft giggle and smiled at me "You're quite the little jester aren't you?"

I shrugged. "I try."

I scratched my neck,slowly building up the courage to ask what I wanted to.

"So...um...If I may ask" I began.

"What is it child?" Pauline asked.

"Well..."

I looked down to hide my face behind my hair.

How was I meant to ask this? Would it seem rude?

"Please don't be afraid. Feel free to ask us anything you like." Sven said.

Taking a deep breath,I finally mustered up the courage I needed to ask my question.

"I'm sorry if this might sound rude but What...exactly are you doing in our home?"

Sven gazed at my Mother before Pauline spoke.

"She deserves to know."

My gaze fell onto my parents,who refused to look me in the eye. "Deserve to know what?"

Father spoke over my question,as if to try and cut me off even though my question was already out. "We agreed that our daughter would know nothing of the sort"

"Of what?!" I questioned.

Still no answer from my parents or the soldiers as Mother now spoke instead of Father. "She stays in the dark"

"But I'M RIGHT HERE AND CAN HEAR EVERYTHING YOU ARE SAYING!" I yelled.

I noticed Father about to speak again,only this time,I didn't give him the chance. Picking up Father's cup of tea,I threw it as hard as I could. The cup flew across the room before shattering against the wall.

Now,everyone's attention was on me. Father stared daggers at me,but I couldn't care less. What mattered to me was that I had grabbed their attention.

"That was one of the only cups we had Eskarina." Father Growled.

"I don't care" I snapped. "Tell me what happened. Like the woman said,I deserve to know."

"I did say that,but after that stunt you just pulled,I'm contemplating on whether I should tell you anything at all."

I looked at Pauline who shrugged at me. "Nevertheless,you are a member of this family and deserve to know just wha-"

"Momma...?" A voice came from the hallway.

All of our heads turned to see Lukas and Bilquise standing at the bottom of the staircase,weary and exhausted eye's staring at us. "Welcome home."

I felt my heart melt. No,what's all the noise about,or why is there so much screaming this time of night. Instead the first thing the two twins did was welcome Mother and Father back home.

"OH!" Pauline said as she lept from the chair and ran up to the twins. "What adorable little munchkins are you two?"

"We aren't munchkins!" Lukas said

"We're twins!" Both said in unison.

Pauline smiled as she ran her hand through their hair,which was something I usually did. The two looked at me,then back at Pauline.

"You're strange." Lukas said.

"And really beautiful." Bilquise said after.

"And both of you are absolutely adorable! I could just eat you up!"

The twins exchanged looks before they stared at Pauline. "Why would you want to eat us?"

"Are you a monster?"

"She doesn't look like a monster."

"Even if she is,she can't eat us. Remember what big sister said? We bathed,and so we taste soapy and ughy to monsters,and monsters don't like that taste. Monsters only eat dirty,filthy people."

Pauline looked back at me,smirking evilly at me.

She soon turned her focus back on the twins and smiled. "I can assure you I'm not a monster children,and I certainly won't eat you up. That was a figure of speech, It's also cannibalism."

"What's a figure of speech?"

"What's canni...canni...cannibalitism?"

"Cannibalism" Pauline corrected.

"Cabbagalism?" Lukas asked.

"No no child. Can-uh-buh-liz-um"

"Canuubuulizum?"

I felt ready to burst out into laughter. Pauline was learning the hard way that the twins were a unique pair of children. They were undoubtedley stupid,but such is expected of any child their age whose only education was how to speak normal words not complex words such as cannibalism or euphoria and the such. They couldn't go to school. No money could pay for their education. Even though they didn't have much brains,the two were undeniably cute and adorable,and I loved them dearly.

Noticing that Pauline was fighting a losing battle,Mother stepped in and took the twins back upstairs where she set them to bed. In her absence,Pauline continued despite father being there to stop her or interrupt. Strangely,he did nothing,and let Pauline speak.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted by those adorable little goblins, back to the matter at hand. It's been far too long and so I'll simply cut to the chase. Your family was attacked by a Revenant,we happened to stumble by,help and they offered us a cup of tea,and here we are now."

Pauline spoke in such rapid succession that it took me a few seconds to process what she had just said.

My eye's widened as the realisation dawned on me.

The Revenant. It had attacked my parents.

My parents!

Sven took the oppurtunity to jump in and stop me from speaking any further.

"Your parents needed help and we provided said help. Unfortunately the Revenant was able to escape and we could not identify him. His face was grotesque and disfigured,much different than other Revenants I've seen but regardless we were able to save your parents,but the beast is still out there."

I was stumped. To think that members of the Imperial Army was willing to help lowly peasants such as us...It was quite extraordinary to hear.

With nothing else I could think of, I bowed my head in gratitude. "Thank you. So Much."

"Please" Pauline's voice came. "There's no need to thank us."

"There is. I must. You saved my parents. Thank you...please,There must be some way I can repay you."

"There will be no such thing. The tea was more than enough to compensate for the issue."

I bit my lip. If there was one thing I hated,it was having a debt to pay,and even though they said I had no debt to pay them,I personally felt as though I did. And then,it dawned on me.

These two had single handedly fended off a Revenant. What took six city guardmen to do in a few weeks, was done by no more than two people in a matter of minutes. Granted they had only fended the Revenant off and it was still at Large,however they had managed to not only fend off the Revenant,but to do it without having so much as a scratch on them,whereas the guards were all rotting corpses by now.

In that moment,I made up my mind. I thought about it,and that was my decision.

"Then...I humbly ask your permission to join the imperial army"