The World Of Sebastian

On top of the usual school subjects, children were also taught self defense and martial arts. Since that day children have started to work out once they´re twelve years of age, practising shooting with crossbows, archery, and wielding a sword. In order that we´ll be able to defend ourselves. That´s what we´re reminded of over and over again. Our mayor is especially insistent on the subject. I can´t stand his guts. He´s smarmy. “It´s our duty to protect our kind!” His words are echoing uncomfortably in my head.

My father interrupts my thoughts. “Come on, Sebastian. You won´t need to eat much. The earlier we get there, the faster we´ll be able to leave again!” He does not enjoy these morning rituals in the community center very much either.

With a groan, I finally nod my head. “If it needs to be.”

Meanwhile, also my grandparents have arrived at our doorstep, clad in their jackets and ready to go. We all walk out and hurry along the main road. It´s not far to the community center. I´m wondering who else will accompany us to see Tilla. Horst, my grandfather? Probably not. Right after breakfast he´ll retire to the old blacksmith´s shop where he makes all the tools and weapons the village needs. He´s a master blacksmith in the third generation, and nobody can do his work as well as he does. He´d like me to follow in his footsteps one day. But no matter how much I respect his profession, I doubt that I could ever invest as much devotion into it as he does.

Martha, my grandmother, will probably go into the hothouse first, where – apart from the food for Tilla, our female gorilla, and our koalas, she also grows important herbs with potent agents she needs to produce the medicine we need. Eucalyptus, camomile, sage, and ginger, for example. My grandmother went to medical school and has passed on her expertise to my mother and my sister, Isabelle, whom we call Belle. She takes care of the inhabitants of our village.

A few minutes later we have reached the community center, and I soon sit down for my breakfast, consisting of sheep cheese and bread. For today´s lunch, we´ll all have a little piece of meat with potatoes, and in the evening it will be sheep cheese and bread again. Anyhow, suddenly pangs of hunger raise up in my stomach, and I wolf down cheese and bread. Apart from the fact, that I´m in a rush.

 “Sebastian, please eat a little more slowly. If you keep on cramming down your food like this, you´ll be in bed with a bellyache later,” my father warns me. Being bedridden is last thing I need right now, because then I´ll miss out on everything. Therefore, I pull myself together and try eating more slowly. I haven´t finished breakfast yet when Belle comes storming into the community center.