On a bright morning, Jin woke up in his simple little home, feeling the usual ache in his back. With a familiar sigh, he muttered before pushing himself up to sit straight
"I hate this bed."
Even though he looked thin and pale, Jin who's 14, has white hair, and is around 160 cm tall looked kinda good, but he never really cared much about how he looks.
Groaning, I decided to get out of bed and go help my grandfather Adrian to gather herbs for the day.
Adrian was already in the kitchen, cooking and humming while stirring soup. He greeted his grandson with a warm, gentle smile. "Morning, kid did you sleep well?"
With a tired sigh, I answered, "Not really… my back's still killing me from yesterday."
"The soup tonight is gonna be good, so make sure you come back early today."
"Oh look, the old man's bragging about his cooking skills agian."
Adrian laughed and pointed the wooden spoon at him. "You little brat."
I gave a small smile, said goodbye, then left the house to take a warm bath.
In this modest city, luxuries like a private bathroom were way out of Jin's reach. He regularly went to one of the public bathhouses scattered around the poorer neighborhoods.
Jin had lived his whole life in the Anvil, a humble city located at the far northern edge of the continent of Marta.
Anvil was well known for its abundant crops especially medicinal herbs. Traders from the town collected them and shipped them off to distant southern and western regions during the summer.
Even though the city was modest in status, it had at least two million people living there. It offered a somewhat decent refuge… but it was full of problems.
One of the biggest problems was the massive population growth, which created an economic crisis. That pressure led to a huge social divide with the poor made up the overwhelming majority and got almost none of the benefits that the rich upper class enjoyed. The wealthy held power through money and weapons.
The people of Anvil moved through their daily lives on gravel paved streets lined with crowded alleys and lanes, noisy markets, a mix of old stone buildings covered in ivy and aging wooden structures.
The air carried a fragrant blend of blooming herbs, thanks to the large farmland areas just outside the city walls.
The poor worked those fields, growing the crops that traders would buy and sell in the city markets.
The markets themselves were always loud and busy rich and poor mixing together. Stalls overflowed with herbs, handmade goods, and strange curiosities that merchants brought with them.
Anvil was surrounded by tall, huge walls guarded every day. Soldiers were usually posted along the top, taking shifts through the evening and morning.
For Jin who had a cold, somewhat lazy personality and often preferred being alone in quiet places this city felt like a nightmare.
His white hair stood out and sometimes got him gentle teasing from the village kids, who were amazed by the rare color of his hair that they almost never saw in the city. But Jin just ignored them simply because he was secluded and didn't really care what anyone thought.
After wandering through the city for a few minutes, I reached one of the public bathhouses a simple wooden building with steam rising from it, packed with older men and other locals.
I stripped down, jumped into the water.
"Ahh this feels so good what a bliss, one day ill be rich and I'll have my own private bath."
I stayed there relaxing and dreaming to have my own house and my own library for a half of hour, then got dressed and headed out to the fields to start the day's work.
The farm where Grandpa and I worked had a bunch of crops ready to harvest today, tomatoes, eggplants, and several kinds of medicinal herbs.
I started picking the herbs, lost in my own simple thoughts for a few more hours.
While I was working, I noticed some of the farmers looking worried and whispering to each other. Curiosity got the better of me, so I edged closer, pretending I was just gathering the eggplants around me so I wouldn't draw unnecessary attention.
"Did you hear what happened in Avaghida village two days ago?" one of them whispered, sounding anxious.
Another quickly tried to hush him. "yoo, keep your voice low. We shouldn't be talking about this here."
"Come on, we can't just ignore it. You know how fast rumors spread!"
A third farmer joined in. "I heard, they found torn up bodies… looked like they'd been ripped apart by some kind of predatory animals."
"You think it's…?"
"Shh, don't say it out loud. We'll get ourselves in serious trouble," the second one hissed, glancing around.
"If a wrong person hears us, we're done for."
The third one kept going. "My cousin lives near Avaghida. He told me the whole village was wiped out overnight."
"The survivors said the creatures that attacked them were… like wolves."
"Wolves? Ha. Wolves don't bother turning village buildings into rubble like you said," the first one scoffed.
"Shut up, you idiots lower your voices! We're really gonna get ourselves in problems," the second one snapped.
While they were talking, four more guys joined them. I realized these ones were traders from outside the city.
"Traders from out of town? Now this is getting interesting," I thought as I got little closer, still acting to harvest an eggplant like it was the most important thing in the world.
One of the traders spoke, his face heavy with sadness. "I'm afraid it won't be long before those chaos creatures reach Enfield."
Another nodded grimly. "Yeah. We need to leave as soon as possible."
Their conversation kept circling back to what happened in Avaghida. I couldn't catch everything because of the distance, but I picked up a few hints.
It sounded like they have lost some good friends there… I could tell from the grief on their faces.
One of them seemed really angry cursing the soldiers who had already fled, calling them completely cowards.
Clearly, the idea of getting out of the city as soon as possible was taking over everyone's thoughts. They were scared that if those creatures invaded Anvil, everyone here would be dead.
I rested my hand on my chin, thinking "What even are these 'chaos creatures'? Some kind of wolves or something?"
The more confused I got, the more I figured they were probably just talking about a regular threat like a pack of wild wolves and decided their panic wasn't really my problem.
"Time to head back. Grandpa will get mad if I'm late."
I slipped away without anyone noticing, heading home.
As I walked through the streets, I could feel an unusual tension in the air. People were whispering more than usual, and there were way more guards walking around more than usual.
"Hmm… that's really weird," I muttered, looking around.
A few minutes later I reached my house and found Grandpa sitting in his usual chair by the fireplace.
"Hey, I'm back," I greeted him.
He looked up with a calm smile. "Welcome home, dinner is ready so go change your clothes before diving in ."
I changed my clothes and sat down next to Grandpa, both of us enjoying the tasty meal together.
"You really outdid yourself this time, Grandpa."
He laughed and said he's a skilled cook, and I couldn't help but laugh along with him. Yeah… he really is good at cooking.
The room filled with the warm smell of food, and I felt comfortable sitting there beside him, but my mind kept drifting back to that conversation I heard from the farmers.
Curiosity was eating at me.
"Hmm… maybe I should just ask him about it."
I stared at Grandpa, then up at the cracked ceiling, hesitating for a second before I spoke.
"Grandpa… do you know what the 'chaos creatures' are?"
Suddenly his spoon clattered onto the table, and his smile vanished, replaced by a deep frown. The air instantly felt thick with tension.
"Where did you hear that?"
His sharp look threw me off. "What's wrong, Grandpa?"
He grabbed my shoulders hard and shook me, his eyes wide with fear and anger. "Tell me where you heard about that?" His voice was trembling.
What the hell is going on…? Why is he acting like this?
His face grew even darker, like fear had completely taken over. "You need to tell me exactly where you heard this… right now."
I could feel the weight of his fear, so I started explaining everything in detail what I had heard between the traders and the farmers.
And with every word I said, his expression sank deeper into gloom and terror…