I awoke to being shaken wildly and opened my eyes to see Dad behind the shaking, his arms on my shoulders.

"Oh... Dad..." I groaned. I couldn't even see any light outside yet.

"Wake up, son. It's time we head out." he ordered as he lifted me to my feet. I was left stumbling for a moment before my feet worked. When I was awake, he led me out. We passed by the dimly lit living room. Mom was probably still sleeping. Lucky her...

Dad brought me outside, where I could see that the sun was just lifting off the ground in the distance. I noticed many specks of fire in the fields outside the village and pointed to them as Dad guided me away.

"What's that?" I cautiously asked him, my mind still somewhat in a fuzz.

"Nothing that you need to worry about anymore, son." he replied, keeping his head focused ahead of us. I followed Dad as he gripped my fist tight.

A moment later, we arrived at a building larger than most of the other ones. It was almost entirely made of cobblestone blocks, with a few windows here and there and some logs on the corners. I recognized it as the building that the knights trained at.

As we went inside, it became apparent that the building was mostly one massive gym. I could see a dozen other knights training in various ways. Some were lifting iron ingots, others were dueling with weapons, and I could see a few were stretching as though preparing for a workout. Even though it was early morning, the place reeked of body odor and I could only imagine how many sweat particles had formed and fallen in this building. Dad took me into a corner of the room.

He knelt down to me and looked me in the eyes, a serious look in his.

"David, no son of mine is going to be kicked and tossed around by kids who think their opinions matter. I'm going to train you to be able to defend yourself, understand?" he told me in a determined voice. I nodded, keeping silent.

"I'm not sure how often we can do this, but I think we'll be able to make a good amount of progress. Just always remember, I'm teaching you to fight so that you'll be able to protect yourself against an attacker. You should never use what I teach you to become an attacker yourself, got it?" Dad informed, and from his tone I could tell he was dead serious. I nodded again. Satisfied, Dad went down onto both knees and raised his arms up in front of his face, hiding his head behind them.

"Good. Now, do what I'm doing." he ordered as he peeked from the side, and I raised my own arms towards my face. "You're going to need to put your arms in front of your face, pointed upwards. No, not like-" he then grabbed my left arm and positioned it, then brought his arm back to its original position.

"There you go. Now, the rule is you need to open up a gap between your arms that is half the width of your arm. For me, my arms are four pixels large, so I would open it up by two pixels." He opened his as he spoke. "As for you, your arms are two pixels, so you open them up by one pixel." I took a look at my arm and counted, then did the math and opened my arm slightly, and was now able to see through the gap. I could see Dad through them.

"Good job, son. The reason it's half the width of your arm is so your arms can protect your head, while giving you enough room to see in front of you. Your head is one of the most vulnerable parts of your body and you should always protect it." he explained, and then regained his serious face.

"Now then, now that you know how to defend your head, let's focus on actually fighting back. Since you're from a defending position, you should never seek to land the first hit. You wait until the attacker lands their first hit, and then you retaliate." he explained, then repositioned himself to be right up against me.

"Now, I want you to attack me first." he ordered. I blinked.

"You want me to attack you?" I muttered, and he nodded.

"Hit me, son." he said once again.

"But I don't really... I don't want to hurt anyone." I told him, my voice shaking. He lowered his arms and put one of them on my shoulder.

"David, you're being bullied. And the best way to deter them is to show them that picking on you isn't worth the trouble." Dad pointed out, his voice a lot gentler now.

"But can't I just avoid them?"

"David-" He started to speak but I continued.

"I don't want to fight these guys."

"David-"

"They'll just hurt me some other way!" I snapped. At this, Dad grabbed both of my shoulders.

"David!" He brought his head towards mine. His face was stern, but I could see a hint of emotion in his eyes. After a pause, he continued. "You need to learn to defend yourself no matter what. One day, you'll be out in the world, and these skills will be vital for you." I brought my head back down as I heard this. "I need to get you ready for that day, whenever it will be. So, just... do what I say."

"Yes, Dad..." I replied glumly, and we both went back into position.

"Now, hit me." he ordered sternly, and I readied myself, and then swung one of my arms at his. It made contact, and his body flashed a very light shade of pink, but he quickly brought his other fist hurling at me. I flinched, but as the fist made contact, it was a lot lighter than I had expected, barely even a punch at all. He had definitely held back a lot on the hit.

"You see what happened there, right son?" he said. "Your punching left yourself vulnerable to my own punch, so while you hit my arm, I had full access to your face. That's exactly how many kids your age fight. Always go on the defense, because they will often leave themselves open." Dad explained. "Now, I want you to try. I'll punch you, and you retaliate."

I raised my arms back up and waited for him to make his move. Soon, he began and launched a punch that ended with lightly hitting my right arm, and I quickly shot my fist back at him, aiming past his defending arm and hitting him squarely on the jaw. He flashed red this time and stumbled.

"Sorry!" I stammered. He shook his head.

"No, that was great!" he responded and look back into my eyes. "You got a strong fist, kid. Let's try this some more!" And so we continued for several more moments.

    ********

Later, the knights were beginning to head out. I looked at a clock on the wall and realized that it was evening. Dad noticed as well, and ended our training.

"Honestly, that went a lot better than I expected it to, son." he complimented, his voice filled with pride, as he stood up and looked down at me. "You really gave it to your old man." I looked down anxiously.

"I'm sorry that I hurt you, Dad." I apologized.

"Nonsense, David. That was nothing. I've taken a lot more damage than that." he assured me. "Come on, I think we've earned ourselves a treat." Hearing this perked me up.

"Okay!" I replied with excitement. Dad smiled and then reached down to try and pick me up. Quickly, I pushed him away. "Stop that, Dad! I'm not a little kid anymore." I told him with a scowl. He let out a chuckle.

"Yeah, sometimes I forget. You're still my little kid, though." Dad promised as he grabbed my fist. Together, we left the gym and headed out towards the store.

A moment later, we had arrived and went inside to check out the many things on sale. While Dad checked out various things, I went straight to where the bottles of honey were stored and opened the chest to see it chock-full of delicious honey bottles.

I really wanted to grab as many of them as I could and try to convince Dad to buy them all, but I knew he wouldn't, so I instead grabbed four bottles, hoping I could convince him to get me an extra. With the honey in fist, I went back to Dad, who looked like he had just finished grabbing what he wanted as well. I showed him the four bottles.

"David, put one back." he ordered.

"Come on, Dad! We never get honey, and I need one more to hold me over. Please?" I pleaded, putting on my best smile.

"No, son. Three is enough for each of us."

"Please?"

"David, I said no."

"Pretty please with sugar on top?" I pleaded again, putting my smile at maximum power. He looked at me for a moment and sighed.

"You're so lucky that you're adorable right now. But that'll change once you're a teen." He took the bottles from me and pointed at me with the corner of his fist. "Just this once, and only because it's a special night." he stated, his eyes giving me a wide stare. "Capiche?"

"Capiche!" I exclaimed. "Thanks, Dad!" He brought all the food to the clerk.

"Two beef and two porkchops, that will be four emeralds. With the three fish it's six emeralds. Adding the four bread makes it eight emeralds. And the four honey bottles makes it sixteen emeralds." the clerk calculated. Dad stared at me, his lips pursed, as he pulled out a bunch of emeralds.

"Here you go." he replied as he gave the emeralds to the man, then took all the food and stored it in his inventory. Then, gripping my fist once again, the two of us headed outside, where the evening sky had now changed to night.

We quickly moved through the village, listening to the heavy thumps of the village golems as they patrolled the place, until we reached our home. Once inside, I could see Mom getting dinner ready. She looked over at us as she was moving cooked salmon to the table.

"Hey boys, how was it?" she asked, excitement clear in her voice. Dad spoke up first.

"He did really good for his first lesson. I got to teach him the basics." Dad answered proudly. "So, as a reward, we went and got some honey."

"That's good to hear. Come sit down, dinner's ready." she said. The three of us went to our seats and sat down. Dinner was cooked salmon and bread. I got to work on my salmon as Mom and Dad spoke.

"So, I went over to Ralph's mother, and we talked. She was very understanding and assured me that she would talk to him about it." she started.

"Good..." Dad responded, listening intently.

"I spoke with another boy's mother, and she seemed a lot less interested. She was barely listening, I had to repeat myself multiple times, and when I told her she needed to talk to her son, she snapped at me, lecturing me about how I shouldn't tell her how to treat her kids, and how Miguel was a good boy." She shook her head in frustration. A scowl formed across Dad's face.

"The nerve of that woman. Her boy attacked David, and she chooses to take it personally." he growled.

"I know. I tried what I could, but she wouldn't hear me." Mom replied, sighing. "Tomorrow, I'm going to speak with the other two mothers." Dad looked over at me.

"I can't take David to train tomorrow, the boys and I need to prepare for our expedition in two days. And then we'll be-"

"You'll be gone for two weeks, yes, we know, Joseph." Mom finished. I looked back at Dad as I ate my bread and waited until I was done with it before speaking.

"Where will you go, Dad?" I asked him.

"Well, son. I can't really talk about it. Higher-ups' orders. Us soldiers can't talk about the missions we go on. All I can say is that it won't be quite as nice as being home." he replied, shaking his head as he bit into his salmon.

Eventually, Mom and Dad finished their food, and Dad pulled out three bottles of honey. He gave each of us one, and then we all took drinks from them. I savored the sugary sweet taste of the orange drink.

"Mmmm" was all I said as a smile crept across my face. After finishing the honey, I laid my head back and felt a burp rush out. "Excuse me." I followed.

"Honey's always a good way to end the day off." Dad remarked, content. Mom turned to me.

"It's time for bed, honey." she said, a smile forming after having made her pun. I got up from the chair and rushed over to my room, pausing for a moment before turning back to them.

"Good night, guys." I said and they responded with their own as I went into my room.

I jumped onto my bed, once again welcomed by the cozy bedspread. Wondering what tomorrow had for me, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.