"Wake up, sweetie! I need you to do some chores around the house!" Drea's mother said, banging on her door. As her mother pounded on the rough, splintery planks, the fragile ceiling of her daughter's room hailed down dust. 

     "Nnnggggghhh... Mom, stop." Drea whined.

     Drea waited for a moment, then sighed. Her mom had already gone, and she would be expected to clean all this dust up herself. Groaning to herself, she pulled off the thin sheets of her bed and yawned. She had a sour taste in her mouth. Feet hitting the cold floor, she shuffled towards her door, which creaked as it opened. The hallway outside looked so much more well-kept than her dusty bedroom.  Meandering down the hallway, she opened the door and sat at the table. Her brother looked at her from across the table as he ate his jam and bread, his large blue eyes and tuft of dirty-blond hair setting off his childish appearance. He didn't seem to be speaking much.

     Contrary to her brother's childish look, Drea didn't resemble her brother at all. Her hair was a dark, chocolate brown, and her eyes were more gray than blue. She was also thin and scrawny, but very tall: sometimes her mother referred to her as "The Willow Tree" because of this.  

     Drea took one look at the small, measly piece of bread and jam that she was expected to eat and immediately got out of the chair she sat down in. What good would eating that do? It wouldn't give her much energy if that was the portion that was given to her. Considering her options, she settled on the idea that she'd help her mother with her assigned chores first. That way, she'd have more free time at the end of the day. Quickly, Drea sprinted to her room and hastily jumped into a pair of brown jeans and a three-sizes too small red t-shirt; those were the only things that she could find. She tied her shoes as quickly as she could and hurried outside to meet her mother.

     As she casually walked out of the door, Drea was hit by a fierce stench of rotting vegetables. Coughing, she looked around and spotted the family pigsty. 

     "Mom, what are you feeding them this time?" she asked, accompanied by a cough and a wheeze.

     "Last week's vegetables," responded her mother, who had been working with the pigs for so long now that she'd gotten used to the smell. "Oh, and honey, could you run down to the market and get me two bags of carrots and a carton of milk?"

      Drea gave her mother a perplexed look, then continued waving away the smell."Sure, but don't we usually get two cartons of milk and three bags of carrots?" she asked her mother. 

     "..."

     "Mom?"

     "Honey, we- we're a bit short on money right now. Could you run down to the store--"her mother stopped in mid-sentence as she scooped some rotten vegetables into the pigs' trough.

     "-please?"

     "S-sure, mom."

     As Drea walked down the cobblestone-paved streets of the village, she reflected on what had happened. Her family was running out of money. That was why she had gotten a smaller portion of jam and bread. That was why her brother had been so quiet...

     ...that was why her father had died.

     Near the village, right outside Mrs. Taylor's shop, which sold clothes, there was a mysterious cave. No one had given it an official name, but it was known in the village as "Death's Cavern". It was rumored to have riches inside it beyond peoples' wildest dreams, however, it was also rumored that monsters guarded the treasure with their life, attacking anyone who came close. The only way to escape this nightmare of magical monsters was to use a special book, normally called "The Mage's Flight". Once the book was obtained, all the holder would have to do to exit the cave was open the book. Drea had learned from her mother that sometimes, helpful mages would enchant normal textbooks and leave them lying around in the cavern. However, only one person had managed to escape that way so far.

     Her dad-- a bearded, jolly, muscular man-- had entered the cave, saying that he would "plunder the cave, and bring them back enough treasure to feed everyone in the village and their family for years"! But... once he went in, he never came back out. Drea was five when this happened; nearly seven years ago, but the memory and pain was still fresh in her mind almost as if it had happened yesterday. Vivid dreams and memories had plagued her after that incident; her mother weeping at the foot of the cave, her brother, Tamtun, in his mother's arms, not even crying, but wondering what had happened to his father, and Drea, lying a fragile lily flower carefully on the rough, dirty ground.

     She'd always wondered why her dad had gone into the cave, despite the fact that people went missing every month. Now she understood. her family was poor, and she was barely pulling her own weight herself. As these thoughts swam into her mind, a wave of sadness washed over her. She tried to hide her sniffles by holding her arm up to her face. She quickened her pace, determined to get her milk and carrots without anyone seeing her cry.  As she walked, lost in her thoughts, she found herself at the foot of the cave. A family was there, weeping for another person who lost their life in the cavern. A tiny girl was kneeling on the ground, her face in her hands, she was wearing  a small pink dress, but it had been dirtied by the soil on the ground.  The girl lifted her face out of her hands for a moment and met Drea's eyes. Drea suddenly felt rude for intruding, so she hastily walked back towards Mrs. Taylor's shop, then off to buy her milk and carrots. She had seen something in the girl's brown eyes, a familiar mourning. Had that girl lost her father, too?

     At the door of her house, Drea tried coming up with a plan. Her father's memory was fresh in her mind... she needed to avenge him somehow, while also helping her family's money problem.

     Suddenly, she was struck with an idea. She knew that it was ludicrous, but it was worth a try. 

     As she opened the door and set the milk and carrots on the table, she smiled to herself. This was the perfect plan.

     She went to bed early that night.