Unending - a Sword Art Online Fanfic (being rewritten)

Chapter 3: Raid!

Well, not many have bothered to read this story yet, but maybe this chapter will change your minds. Enjoy Chapter three everyone.

Kirito's POV:

Kirito woke up the next morning to see Asuna still asleep in his arms. He gently brushed her hair out of her face and smiled. "There is nothing as good as waking up to someone you love." He thought to himself. Though he would happily stay where he was all day, he knew that there were important decisions that needed to be made, so inching out of bed so as to let Asuna continue sleeping, he quietly left the room and made his way to the great hall.

Kirito found John there waiting for him. "Good morning Kirito. I trust you slept well."

"Yes I did. Thank you for asking." Kirito yawned and stretched before addressing John again. "So where are the others?"

"They are mostly awake, though I would guess it's because they don't know the joys and pleasures of having a wife yet." John gave him a suggestive wink and elbowed him.

Kirito blushed before stammering out a reply, embarrassed at such a question being directed at him. "That is not what happened, I assure you."

John laughed. "I was just teasing you. However, no doubt it will happen at some point, so never say never." John gestured for Kirito to follow him and went up the stairway to the ground floor and outside.

Kirito had been following John for a few minutes before he looked up to see fields of meagure crops growing on the sandy soil. He saw that, except for Asuna, Liz, and Silica, all the other players were helping the NPCs to begin harvesting the grain. Kirito joined in and spent the morning working in the fields.

"What about the others?" Kirito asked.

"Oh. You mean your wife and the other girls? They'll get recruited to help make lunch and bring it and some water out to us in another hour or two. Don't you worry. They will certainly get their share of the work. Knowing Merida, they will get to help do the housework as well."

"Merida?" Kirito said confused.

"My wife's sister. She's a bit of a taskmaster, but she's fair, and knows a thing or two about the family life herself. Her husband is one of the men taken in last years raid as well. So I let her move in with me and my girls to sorta keep the seat warm until my wife returns."

"Oh." Kirito turned back to harvesting more crops. There was a surprising variety. He saw wheat, carrots, peas, and several other vegetables as well.

"Speaking of which." John said. "There they are now."

Asuna's POV:

(That morning, after Kirito and John left)

Asuna had been having a really good dream when she was roughly shaken by someone. She knew it wasn't Kirito, as he wouldn't shake her like this. She opened her eyes to see a young women staring down at her.

"Get up already. Even your husband has gotten up." She said with an annoyed tone. "You need to help pull your weight around here if you want to eat, so get up."

Asuna groaned as she sat up and then got out of bed. She got dressed, made them bed sheets up, and then followed the woman down the hall until they reached the Great Hall.

"Follow me." The woman said as she went towards a doorway. Asuna remembered it from the previous night.

"This must be the kitchen." Asuna thought.

The woman turned around in the doorway to look at Asuna. "Alright, here's the deal. All the boys from your group have already been sent out to the fields to help with the harvest by John. Meanwhile, you and the other girls are going to help me make lunch for them and then after you've all helped me serve it to them, you're all going to help with any of the house chores around here so I don't have to break my back so much." She walked through the doorway before turning and saying, "Oh, and don't get on my bad side, ok?" She added, turning back and heading into the kitchen.

Asuna followed and, saying good morning to her friends who were already at work, began to put her efforts in so that the woman didn't call her out for slacking.

"Well this is different from what I expected." Liz said.

"Yeah." Replied Silica, who was washing dishes. "I thought we might get to relax and take it easy for a little, but here we are, doing chores alongside a village of NPCs."

"Alright ladies." Came the woman's voice. "I want you to stop what you're doing and come help me take lunch to the men in the fields."

"Coming." Asuna, Silica, and Liz replied, quickly dropping whatever chore they had been given to do and picking up the food that had been all packed up.

"Alright. Let's go see if those boys of yours are as mighty as they say." The woman said, a big smug smile on her face as she began ascending the stairs.

<Timeskip>

Asuna, Liz, and Silica had thought they might take it easy, having completed the list of chores for the day hours ago. Unfortunately for them, they hadn't counted on all the NPC women to quickly go and start on piles of clothing that needed to be patched, or that all three of them would be forced into helping to speed the process along. Usually it took all day, but with the three girls However, late afternoon was when they finished and began taking it easy, along with all the other woman who, amazed by how hard hardworking they were, joined them.

The girls and the NPCs were all enjoying the break when suddenly a teenage girl came running into the town square yelling as she came to a stumbling stop. "There coming!"

Asuna jumped to her feet and grasped her rapier. "Whose coming?"

The woman who had been ordering her about all day had gone pale. "The slavers, their back!"

<Timeskip>

Kirito's POV:

Kirito, the NPCs, and the rest of the players were all in a state of shock. They had come back just in time to see the raiders on horseback riding out the other end of town. Kirito currently was frozen, the image of Asuna's terrified face from where she was tied up on the back of the last raider's horse permanently fixed in his head.

"Kirito," came Klein's voice. "We need to move now if we plan to try and catch them."

Kirito didn't respond.

"Kirito." Klein repeated. "We need to go now."

"I can't." Kirito said softly. His face a mask of pain and sorrow. "I can't."

"Why?" Klein said, confused.

"Because I failed. I let them take her. I wasn't there to protect her like I said I'd be." Kirito felt tears spill down his face. "I promised her Klein. I said I would look out for her just like she did for me. And I failed." Kirito broke down and fell to his knees.

"Alright. That's enough." Came a stern voice. Klein looked over as Kirito looked up. Agil had an angry face on as he looked down at Kirito. "If you sit here and believe you've failed then you really will have failed. The longer we sit here, the less chance of us catching up to them."

"Your right." Kirito said, standing up. "Let's get going."

Agil smiled before replying. "Good. Now, we need to see about mounts, otherwise we won't catch them whether we go or not."

"I might be able to help with that." John said. He turned and started heading for a slightly larger building on the edge of town. "Follow me, I've there is something you need to see."

Yes. That is the end of the chapter. Sorry I haven't posted in the last week. School seems to hate me right now. However, I will have another chapter for you hopefully soon. Tune in next time to see what happens next. Until next time, BYE!!!