Even though I had a choice, I could never have chosen to let him die.
Without paying attention to the people around me, I lifted my father and ran home.
When I arrived, my mother was in panic. Seeing my father unconscious and bleeding in my arms, she froze. I passed by her, laid him on the bed, and asked her not to comment on anything she was about to see.
Taking one of the potion vials I had finished, I made my father swallow the entire contents while I made a small incision to drain the blood that had accumulated from the internal hemorrhage. My mother gasped in shock, but I asked her for cloths and water to clean the blood.
When both of us had calmed down, I said:
"When Father wakes up, I will explain everything. Please do not mention any of this to anyone. After I explain, you can decide what to do."
She looked at me for a few seconds and nodded.
A few minutes later, someone finally knocked at the door. They had come to see what had happened. They entered and saw my father in excellent physical condition, only unconscious. They said that the arrow I fired had struck the Urgal right in the eye, ending the battle. Soon after, they left, commenting on how lucky my father was not to have been badly injured, though I noticed some of them looking suspicious.
It was already night when my father woke up.
When we entered the room, he began by asking:
"What happened? I thought the Urgal had hit me."
My mother answered:
"I don't know. Our son came home running with you in his arms, bleeding and unconscious. He asked me not to say anything about what I saw and gave you something to drink. I was waiting for you to wake up so he could explain."
She finished while looking at me.
I took a deep breath, avoiding their eyes, afraid of rejection or fear, but I told them everything. I avoided saying that, to me, this world had once been only a story, but everything else I told in full.
I knew it was not ideal, but inventing a false story would only make them more suspicious and push them further away.
So I decided to take the risk.
When I finished, I finally looked at them and said:
"Now that you know who I am, I will understand if you no longer want me here. I understand that it is difficult to accept so much madness."
They looked at me for several moments while I stood there staring at the walls, a tightness in my chest.
Then my father closed his eyes and finally said:
"It's better if we go to sleep. Tomorrow we will talk about this."
His tone told me nothing, but I nodded and went to my room.
As I closed the door, I heard them murmuring. I moved away to give them privacy, and also to avoid hearing something I did not want to hear.
I could have looked into their minds, but doing so would not help my case, and if they later discovered it, it could make them hate me.
Lying down, I began to think more carefully. If I had spent less time on my experiments, maybe this would not have happened.
My mind remained restless all night. "What if" after "what if" kept surfacing, doubts gnawing at me. I even thought about simply leaving, but I did not want to distance myself from them.
Dawn had never taken so long to arrive.