A Peasant's Hope

Chapter 1

Life in Clearindale was as good as it could get for a peasant's village. Laura had lived there her entire life. She did't mind the hard wrok as much as the treatment she and the people of her village got.
Laura lived during the rule of Queen Jaria. All of the other queens before her were much nicer than she. The other peasants would tell stories of the good queens. The elders in the village said that Jaria's mother, Queen Gretrude, was the kindest woman that you would ever meet. However, what they said about the late Queen's daughter was just the opposite.
"That new queen, Jaria, she ain't nothing like her mother. You know what the say about the apple not fallin' far from the tree? Well, that ain't a bit true. Her Highness is as evil as they come!" one of the elders, Aldn, said one night.
"If you were a talking horse I'd still believe you!" Caraline, another village elder replied.
They had talked long into the night, discussing what to do about wheat rations, low water supply, and the starving children in the village. That was a long tine ago, though. Laura was sopposed to be asleep, but she couldn't help over hearing. Her father had been an elder before he died at the hands of the Queen. She had been five at the time, and people still say that she has the "curiosity streak" in her. Her big brother, Petar, had pulled her back onto the small mat that they had shared and whispered in her ear so that his father couldn't hear, "Laura if you don't hush, I'll tell Father on you!"
Laura's brother had always acted as if he was her keeper. Even though he was only three years older, Petar, never let anyone near Laura. Once, at age seven, he had told off the butcher's son because he had taken Laura's doll. He told him that if he didn't leave his sister alone then he would get his Father to chase him off with his dragon! Of course, his father never had a dragon, let alone ever encountered one!
However, it had worked on the bully. He released Laura's doll and ran away as fast as he could into the Forgotten Woods. This had startled Petar, because he had heard stories of people never returning from those woods. Although he felt very proud and his little sister had stopped crying, he had a criosity for those woods for the rest of his life. Today was different though. Petar, now eighteen, had taken it too far.
It was harvest time. The time when all the crops were given to the Queen so that she could sell them for money to buy new servants. Every year, after his father had died, Petar had worked to provide for his younger sister. His mother was rarely spoken about. Laura and Petar knew nothing about her. The only thing that they knew was that she was from some important family with a ton of money, and she had left her home at eighteen to marry their father. She was considered a disgrace and was banished from her home forever. It was also known that she had one sibling, a girl, named Jaria.