CH O1: Sickly Youth
In a delicate house was a boy of twelve to thirteen years. The house had no furniture just a coarse bed which the boy lay on.
''Cough cough'', he had been coughing since last week.
"Its crazy" the boy thought.
He got up on shaky legs and walked to where he had stored his water.
Near the only hole to be called a window was a very brown linen. If you would listen closely as you stepped on it, you would realize that the ground was hollow.
In this era of darkness, you would mind to keep everything essential in darkness where no one would see it.
If not you would not see the next light of day.
The boy removed the linen and started digging.
"cough, cough'' he kept on coughing.
''Aaah'' he hoped the remaining water would help him last until the next ration.
''Damn this forgotten forsaken world" he said.
This world was not meant for the weak.
Its was a world of martial arts where if you had any slight of improvement in your martial arts, you would have a healthy body and rumors had it that if you could reach a certain stage in your martial arts training, you would live longer.
But this was just a pipe dream for the boy.
His parents had died earlier on from a plague that was also slowly killing him.
Sometimes he asked himself why he was born in this world.
He had no prospects, no siblings to account for and the only family he thought he could count on had sold all his parents assets as soon as they had been buried.
He couldn't do anything as his Uncle, the blood brother to his dad had bribed the authorities.
The only thing remaining was a blue pendant around his neck, it was tied using a piece chain that had rusted a long time ago and .if you could wash it, one would see a fleck of gold.
If he could sell it he could get a lot of credits to carry him on for a month.
But no. This was the only thing that remained from his mother.
As he kept on digging, his fingers touched metal.
''Finally got it'' he said
He removed the soil around it and revealed a metallic can. He removed the cover and he saw the remaining water.
''Hmm'' he said.
''It is only going to last me a few days'', there was a frown on his face.