The Chosen Star

Chapter Three

All day, Jasmine has been taking down paintings she painted and lyrics of songs and poems she framed since they were masterpieces, according to some commoners.

Jasmine placed them outside of her shop, and the guy who requested the painting that Jasmine was painting earlier had already come by, paid her two silver coins, and left once he had it in his possession.

Once all of the paintings, songs, and poems were down and outside of the cottage shop, Jasmine wrote a few signs in capital letters that said, "FREE!"

Whether people believed Jasmine or not, that was up to them.

It was about to be the fifth and last hour of noon before the first hour of evening.

Jasmine closed the door to the cottage shop and locked it so no one could get it.

Not that anyone would care enough to enter anyway.

She entered the other part of the cottage that was her home and went under the sofa to grab the three big bags of silver coins her father stored for her just in case of an emergency.

Then she went upstairs to her bedroom and grabbed her own emergency stash of silver coins that had only three gold coins mixed in with one of them.

After having four bags filled with lots of money, which Jasmine knew she could've used but then it would've cost her so much later, she grabbed a bag and began to pack a few clothes and two essentials she knew she would need.

She grabbed a few pairs of pants and flats that belonged to her mother, a few shirts that belonged to her father, and a couple vials of medicine she made for herself.

Jasmine stuffed them in the bag, then the big four bags of coins, grabbing a few silver coins from one of them.

Once everything was closed and sealed up tight and there were a few silver coins in her pocket, Jasmine was about to turn around and leave until she saw her reflection in the mirror.

Her long, dark brown wavy curly hair was in two cornrows; her big, black eyes showed brown due to the natural light coming into the bedroom; her mother's commoner pastel purple dress was still as beautiful as ever; and her deep caramel brown skin color was glowing from the sun peeking through her window that had no curtain.

Her bed was pressed up against the window, and she only had one closet that was so big that it matched exactly the height and width of a normal-sized door.

Everything was beige or white in her room except for the closet, which was tannish gold.

Jasmine was leaving this behind.

Leaving her life behind.

If she agreed to King Wright's arranged marriage, she would be leaving behind the shop.

Either way, this place was going to be gone from her life forever.

She might as well decide how she was going to leave it.

Jasmine got on her knees and grabbed an important piece of paper and an inky pen.

She signed her name on the dotted line and left a mini note on the back of it that said why she was leaving.

The information above the dotted line says that she gives up her rights to being the owner of the cottage, and anyone can do whatever they please to the place once a day has passed.

There was also an extra piece of paper that Jasmine found under her bed, and she wrote on that one, too.

It was for Gary and Yuri.

She was saying goodbye, and she'll try to write to them once she's in a safe place, saying that she loved them as big brothers she never had.

Once done with that, Jasmine slung the strap of the bag over her shoulder and went downstairs with the two papers in one hand.