With a happy smile on her face, since she knew she was going to get to eat again tonight, the girl quickly made her way home. What she did not know was that the entire time she was making her way over to her harvesting spot, a few kids, two boys and two girls, had followed her. The older one of the group, a young boy, looked at the weeds that the girl had just picked and sneered. “That useless thing thinks she can survive eating these weeds? Let’s see how long she lives if they are gone.”

The boy came out of hiding with his three friends and made his way over to the weeds. He looked at them for a moment before raising his foot and stomping on them. His three friends did the same. They even laughed and mocked the girl as they destroyed all the weeds. 

The girl who had just returned to her broken-down home put the weeds she had just picked to the side and began working on starting a fire. She had collected water from the river earlier and even found a few river snails. She plucked the snails out of their shells, and with some water, she tossed them all in the pot before turning to prepare the weeds. They were bitter, but they were still better than nothing. And making a soup with them made them go further so her stomach would at least be filled even if it was ninety percent liquid.

The river was located on the other side of the village, and to even get there, she had to sneak around the entire village early in the morning, risking being eaten to even get water. The other villagers did not want her anywhere near the river. They all seemed to want her to die but did not wish to do the dirty work themselves. They seemed to want her to die on her own from hunger and thirst, but the girl did not want to die. Which was whys he was enduring hardship and searching for food every day. She had to risk her life in order to keep going. 

After tossing the herbs into the old clay pot, she now only needed to let it cook for a while. Until then, she sat down next to the fire and used a stained cloth, a worn cloth she had washed many times now, and used a tiny bit of water to dampen the cloth before wiping the sweat off her body. It was hot, very hot, but with how drafty her house was, it was not as bad inside her home. It shaded her from the hot sun and allowed the wind inside to cool it off. The only thing she hated was the bugs. But she had long gotten used to them.

She only had the one pot of bitter soup that had a tiny bit of snail meat in it to last her the entire day. She did not leave the house during the hot weather unless it was to go to forage for more weeds. 

When night fell, the area cooled down a lot, allowing for some relief from the heat. The girl used tattered clothes to cover her bed made of dried grass to keep the bugs off her as she went to sleep. 

Every night, she would lie there under the clothes, thinking about the days she spent with her parents before they were eaten by monsters during a monster wave. She had survived, thanks to her parents hiding her, but they did not make it. The dried blood from their corpses still stained the floor of the broken-down home. She still remembers looking up through the crack in the hidden space in the floor and watching as their bodies were torn apart and their blood dripped down on her face. 

Instead of offering her help, the village ignored her even as she was forced to collect the remains of her parents and bury them in the back of the house. Her tiny body was covered in blood that day, and even to this day, her hair still had some stains left in it. 

When her parents were alive, she could play with the other kids, but now they shun her, call her useless trash, and tell her to die. The adults would not say anything when they saw this, as if it was a silent agreement. 

Her once easier life was now gone, and she had to do everything she could to survive, even if it meant eating bitter weeds. Her life was saved by her parents, and she did not wish to waste it.

The next morning, the girl did her normal routine and snuck around the village to get water. Once that was done, she had to wait for midday to go to the spot where the weeds were growing. She suffered under the heat but quickly made her way to the location only to find that all the weeds had been stepped on and crushed. “This….” 

“Haha! Are you going to cry? Such a useless thing. You should have died already. I am just helping you.” A mocking voice came from behind her. She turned to see the leader of the village kids standing there with his arms crossed across his chest. Her eyes were already brimming with tears, but seeing his mocking smile and proud look, her sadness began to turn to anger. Her little hands grabbed hold of the rock next to her, and she waited as the boy walked over. Luckily, he was alone today. It seemed he just wanted to see her reaction, but sadly, as he went to bend over, the young girl swung her arm as hard as she could and smashed the rock in her hand off the side of the boy’s head….