A quick word before the second chapter—which is going to be much longer than the first—is that I got my inspiration for this story from Kirokami's The End Saga.
The light hurts my eyes. I look around me, scanning the tent. A man in brown hood was sitting near the back, messing with a bow.
"There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity," he said. "The best thing to do when pigmen are chasing you is to stand your ground or hide."
"Who are you?" I asked.
He put his bow down.
"My name is Marcus. I'm a ranger, scouring the lands for survivors from the nether invasions. Although, I must admit, I didn't expect it to take this long for the Nether to spread to your village."
"How long ago was your home attacked?" I questioned.
"Three years," he answered.
He picked his bow back up and finished restringing it.
I heard a screech. Pigmen were near.
"Crap!" Marcus shouted. "They found us!"
He threw me a sword, along with two knives.
"Stand your ground," he said.
"Right."
He nodded at me, and we both charged out of the tent. I had never held a sword, so I was quite clumsy. I was swinging a sharp blade around like a drunkard. He ran with his sword at his side, slicing through multiple pigmen at once. One pigmen was left, and Marcus backed away.
"What are you doing?" I shouted. "Help me!"
"This is your fight," Marcus paused, "and you'll never learn to use a sword if you don't practice in a real battle."
The pigman and I circled each other, swords at the ready. I charged at him, holding my sword high above my head. I brought my sword down, and I heard a clang. The pigman blocked it. It put a foot behind mine as I stumbled back. I fell backward, and Marcus caught me. He shoved me back toward the pigmen, then put his sword on his back and loaded an arrow into his bow. I swung my sword at the pigman, and heard another clang as it blocked again. I swung again. Another clang. Then I got smart. I swung my sword to his right, but before he was able to block it, I pulled it back and swung at his leg. I heard a screech that could make ears bleed, and the pigman fell to the ground. I turn my sword so that I was holding it back-handed, then thrust it into the pigman's chest. Another screech of pain, then utter silence. I fell onto the ground and dropped the sword. I couldn't believe it. My father had always told me not to kill. I had just killed a creature. It was in self-defense, but I was horrified. The blood of a living creature was on my hands, and the body of that same creature in front of me, a pool of blood around it.