Another World

Out in the fields

You and your parents start to shuffle into the large crowd of people gathering at the southern gate, waiting for it to be opened by the Immortal Drone guards that are herding you toward it. The sun has still not yet risen, but you can tell by the color of the sky that it will shortly.

You see a small band of The Wretched standing at each side of the gate, eyeing you and the other slaves with their empty eye sockets. The Wretched are also known among the common folk as 'Vile-kin.' They are corpses of the long dead that the witch raised as her first soldiers in her immortal army. Many of them--at least, of the ones you've seen guarding your own town--are fully skeleton, but there are a few that still wear a little of their former flesh. You've even seen one with eyes before, though that is quite rare.

They like the more human, still breathing, but equally vacant 'Immortal Drones,'--are under a spell that binds them to serve the witch. You know little else about them, except that the witch has charged them with keeping the peace and enforcing every law that she has made. They feel neither hunger, nor pain, nor compassion. It is said that they can smell fear and sense deceit. Should you break the law in their presence, they'll slaughter you without mercy.

As the gates of the city creak and groan to life, rattling as they open, you get a glimpse of the golden fields outside and the greater walls that surround them. It is harvest time. You adjust the bag around your shoulder and march forward with the crowd of farmers, trying not to shudder as you accidentally get too close to one of the Vile-kin guards and you smell its rotted mouth. You wander into the tall stalks of grain and follow after your parents until you find a place to begin.

You cut through the stalks with your sickle and you listen to the sounds of the farmers around you. The air whistles with the sound of blades slicing through it and the stalks. You gather all of what you cut down and continue until your satchel is full. You spy some spare grains that have fallen to the ground and know you could slip them into your pocket if you're careful.

Of course, all this grain is technically the property of the crown ...

When you are certain that you are out of sight of both the other farmers and of the guards, you duck down just long enough to gather up a couple handfuls of the spare grains that have fallen on the ground and slip them into your pocket. It's not very much, but little bits add up and it will help your family.

You bring your load back to a cart waiting at the gate where it is then bound up and placed on the pile. You are then shooed away to continue gathering grain. You, your parents, and the others continue this process for hours, only stopping for a couple breaks to eat and drink. Finally, the sun begins to set, the last bundles of this section of the fields are loaded up, and the three of you are given leave to return to your homes. After all, no one but The Witch and the Immortal Drones are allowed to be outside the city after dark unless it is on the Witch Queen's orders.

You shuffle back toward the gate and are separated from your parents. It's a common enough occurrence and you know your way back home very well. You wait until the crowd grows smaller, just enough so that you can squeeze out onto the right street.