I guess you can say I’m sheltered. As a 30 year old man that’s still living with his parents I never felt the need to get out much. My parents provided me with everything I could ever ask for. It’s not like I was a greedy person, no, I was pretty compassionate when it came down to it. But under the circumstance in which I grew up, I never felt the need to give others what was mine, which is exactly why I find myself in the situation I’m in right now.

My parents and I return from the annual sacrificing ceremony to Demeter, the god of agriculture. Every person in my town was supposed to sacrifice something important to them in return for a year of flourishing crops. Little did they know that I never sacrificed anything.

Just as I get comfortable on the living room couch my dad entered announcing, “We have a guest.”
I turned to look at my father and noticed the slight tremble in his step, fear evident in his eyes.
“Hello, I’m Demeter,” the guest announces. My eyes immediately snap to the other figure standing in the room as he walks closer to me, confidence in each step. “As everyone knows, today is the annual ceremony of sacrifice, but it has come to my attention that not everyone sacrifices their possessions to me,” he says, shooting me a glare.
“I-I…” I stammer, my heart pounding quickly in my chest.
“Save it. Every year I let it slide hoping that the next year you’ll actually sacrifice something, but no, you never do, so you will be punished.”
“No, please I’ll do anything!” I yell, panicking.
A mischievous look crossed his face before he snaps his finger, “I’ve got it. You will travel to the sacred river and bring me back some water. You have exactly one week to accomplish this task or I assure you the consequences will be deadly.” With that he abruptly disappears from the room in a flash of white light.

So here I am five days later, lying on the cold, hard ground staring at the setting sun. The wind blew by the whispering trees in the woods, the darkness taunting me to enter. After my encounter with Demeter my father forced me to go on this journey the next day. Once I set off on this journey, however, I realized how impossible it really was. I’ve met vicious animals and nearly died from my lack of skills and knowledge on simple tasks. Just earlier today, I ran into a group of six men wearing black cloaks. I approached them in hopes of being able to get directions to the lake, but instead they robbed me of everything I had and left me beaten, battered, and bruised on the ground.
As I lay here I ponder the little I know about the world, from the people to the animals to simple survival skills. I had learned more in the five days I had been outside of my hometown than I had in my whole life. Maybe being sheltered wasn’t as good as I had thought, I considered as my world slowly faded to nothing.