the poor serf

As the crisp cool wind blows through the slightly warm sun rays that beam down on those working in the long wheat fields. Men of all ages rush to cut the wheat down its stocks, as the season of farming is almost coming to an end. A young boy is shown with a sickle, cutting the wheat and barley down with his father. The boy looked to be the age of six and had dirty worn rags as clothes, With dirt smudged on his face and sweat running down his face. Along with the sun rays that were hitting his face and body, the body heat was unbearable in this weather. They worked in the fields all day and only took breaks to eat food. He worked swiftly in the fields along with the other men that were harvesting as well. This young lad was named Charles, he's been working in the fields all of his life. By working for so long he began to have big calluses that ran through his hands and feet through time. His father often helped him cut the wheat and barley with a big scythe he had. Charles wasn’t as strong as his father, his whole body was fragile but was durable.
        
      He looks like he's been starved, as there wasn’t enough food for everyone nowadays since crops have been rotting randomly and animals have been dying from diseases. His bones were visible to the naked eye but you could still see slight muscles on his arms. Meanwhile as the men in the fields were working, the women were doing other chores in their tight packed homes. Weaving the wool from the sheep or after slaughtering the sheep for meat, skinning the dead sheeps, trying to make heavy clothes for the winter that is coming near. This past year has been miserable, with the heavily cold winters and the stormy wet summers. The weather was so terrible for plants and animals, that food nowadays was very valuable to people in the village and manor. 
                               ***
          The heat of the sun made me sweat buckets of water, As I tried to wipe the sweat from my face. The heat from the sun was not making my day good and neither has this year been good for anyone. I looked around my surroundings through my blurry vision trying to see if my father was around, so I could tell him that I wasn’t feeling so hot. I started to panic through my eyesight, as my vision started to darken. As if I was fainting, I could hear my dad shouting something before everything went dark.
  
       “Charles!”shouted my father before I collapsed into darkness. By the time I woke up on my bed, which wasn’t the most comfortable thing ever but it was still a decent bed. My bed was made of hard slabs that were covered in moss and straw. I had a blanket that covered me and made me warm. I saw that my father was by my side, I must have worried him. I must have collapsed from over exhaustion and the heat from the sun.
   
       “Charles don’t scare me like that, I thought you got that illness that was going around.” my father said in relief,
   
      “I’m sorry father.” I said shakenly. My hands are gripping the blanket around me weakly.

      “Can I still work in the fields?” I asked, I know I wouldn’t be able to in this condition but I still had to ask.

      “Heavens no my son, you should…no you need your rest. I'm putting you on bedrest for a couple of days, we don’t want you getting that illness that's been spreading around.” my father worriedly muttered to me, I signed in exhaustion and weakly nodded my head.

      I slowly go back to sleep in my bed. When I woke up my mother made me some cabbage soup, to help give me strength. That ‘illness’ my father was talking about yesterday, was about this disease that came from the ports where the sailors came from. Now the illness has been slowly coming to different parts of the world and near the area where my family lives. Some people call this illness the ‘great pestilence’ because of how millions of people have been dying from it. Physicians are trying to find a cure but so far nothing has worked. Many of the Physicians died, trying to find a cure and many others lost hope. First when you get this illness  you get a fever, Then you get these red blisters or bumps in certain places of your body and Finally you die from infections that happen in the body.

It’s a scary way to die and I hope my family doesn’t get it or else I wouldn’t know how I would live without them. People have been having theories about why this pestilences had been caused, some people say that god is angered by us, others say that god is punishing us for our sins and others say that other cultures were to blame for. Is God really punishing us, have I committed a sin? Is God mad at us about the wars we made? Oh, may god have mercy on us please.
                                 ***
      Many years have passed and many people have died. People are giving up hope on finding a cure, usually the person dies before finding the cure. People are fighting each other and people are living in total fear against this ‘apocalypse’. Many Jews were executed for things they did not do. People thought they were doing witchcraft and thought they were the ones that made the plague happen. People were afraid of going into the deadly corrupted air. People were afraid, so now people have been neglecting jobs, farming, and duties. People were afraid that they started abandoning their children, family, and even spouses. More rats are living in the area and more livestock are dying. I have fallen ill and this may be my last time that I get to see my father. My mother died from this disease and so am I. I’ll I want to say for my last words are this:

      ‘May lord have mercy on my father, as I have made an oath to my mother that I'll be there for my father whether it’s the spiritual realm or the living. I bless my father with my protection and may god find peace in this place. May god lead my heart to the heavens and let me protect my father through my watchful eye. May my soul find rest and guide those into the heaven light’.

    Later that year in 1347, Charles had died from the plague but he never forgot to keep a watchful eye on his father and the many spirits going to heaven.