Servitude

Chapter Twenty-Three

It took around 4 hours of walking before we found our first water stream.

While on the way to it, we talked about his kingdom, and he told a few stories about growing up there. I did feel a pang of jealousy when he spoke about spending weekends with his family.

He then explained to me how they celebrated their birthdays which I had only recently learned didn't just happen in book. He then told me that religions are not that prevalent, which is very different to what most books stated.

Jacob had been saying that you could talk to anyone on this planet, and each person will give a different account of what they believe in. Most of the books I had been given talked about Christmas, Easter, and Honaker. When I asked about them, he said they didn't celebrate religious holidays like that. Instead, they had new ones, with each kingdom celebrating different ones. His kingdom would celebrate the start of harvest with a huge celebration where they would exchange crops and animals around.

I was the most surprised when he said he got gifts, cakes, and a party to celebrate the day he was born every year. I know they were called birthdays, but I never knew that everyone celebrated theirs or that everyone knew there's. I didn't know the date I was born, but it had never really stood out to me until hearing Jacob talk about his.

I knew that pigeon lady on Earth had said I would be turning twenty-one in a few weeks when I was let out, but that probably wasn't my birth date. I don't know my actual birthday; I could be any age, for all I know.

Jacob gave me a lot to digest. He also gave me a purpose in hearing how people can have happy lives. I had only ever really witnessed terrible events. It was nice to hear that people celebrate good events.

As we filled up our water bottles, we could hear the water stream. It was loud yet so peaceful. It reminded me how much I had been dreaming of experiencing these wonderful things in nature. I guess with everything going on, I had got so caught up that I hadn't even appreciated being out and free.

If anything, this natural beauty makes me wonder why everyone on Earth is so determined to be powerful. Not only have they destroyed Earth they now want to destroy this planet. No one needs this much power. People shouldn't have this much power. It's unnatural.

Look at the people on Elbnar. They don't try to progress their abilities to the extreme. They just use the ones they were born with and don't try to gain more. No wonder Earth is almost dead, and Elbnar isn't.

"Daisy, you there? You seem to have drifted off?" Jacob was now waving his hands in front of my eyes. I must have been very deep in my thoughts.

"Yeah, I am, sorry this planet is just so beautiful. I've spent so long locked up and kept indoors that I feel I should be embracing this freedom more than I have been. I may not know what's going to happen, but at least I'm in charge of what I do right now." I bent down and filled my bottle with water.

"I've heard about your kingdom and the one I'm from, but what's with these other kingdoms?" Unfortunately, I didn't see that he had just thrown a mouthful of berries into his mouth. He swallowed them quickly, coughing a bit as he did.

"Honestly, we don't know much about them as they are very secretive. I think all kingdoms would be, but as mine and yours did a lot to help Earth, we ended up having to contact one another occasionally. But before Earth contacted us, we rarely saw any other kingdoms; we very much relied on providing for ourselves. That being said, my kingdom does occasionally swap goods with the others, but we have a meeting point far from any of the kingdoms. We give them food, and one of them gives us electrical goods; the others give us odds and bodds, but I can't remember exactly. It's more my brother's job. I'm one of many children and the youngest at that, so I barely know anything about the in's and out's. It's pretty rare to have a royal family with only one child. Your family seems to be the outlier."