The Servant Queen

Ani's Past

Ani

Kei laid on the black grass beside me. A small stream trickled by, about a meter below our bare feet. We were a couple miles away from the village in a forest. It was strange... Talking to one of the village's peasants, especially one who was around my age, seven, was like a dream.

I know that if close my eyes... even for a split second, I might wake up.

Three months ago in the darkness of the night, Kei and I met for the first time in our life. After running away from home, I saw a small boy chasing after a group of older village boys into the forest with all his might. I've never seen such desperate brown eyes before.

I followed them. They laughed at him as they dropped a necklace into the river. Without a moment to think, the boy jumped in the river. He didn't come out for a while, so the older boys ran away, afraid that they'd killed him. I came out of the trees and dove in after him. I saw that he had his foot stuck between tree root, unconscious. There was a golden locket in this small hand. Even though he was no longer conscious, he didn't dare to let go of it.

By this time, I've seen him about fifteen times already. Kei taught me how to fish, catch fireflies and frogs, and how to read and write. He did so much for me, yet I haven't been able to do anything for him.

"Ani, I've been wondering, but won't your parents be worried when you go outside to play at night all the time?" he asked. "My pops said that girls shouldn't go out at night. He said that there's a lot of monsters that come out at night that only eat girls. My mom got eaten by one."

I looked at the sea of stars trying to search for the only constellation that I knew of: The Servant's Mask. It was composed of eight dim stars that make a symmetrical oval and one bright star directly in the center of it. My mother attempted to teach me many, but I couldn't remember any. But when she told me that The Servant's Mask was her favorite, so it became my favorite and only constellation I knew of.

"Truthfully, it's a secret that I'm out here, Kei. It's easier for me to sneak out at night, than it is during the daytime," I said.

He sat up quickly and looked at me. "So you're not allowed to go outside your house at all?"

I held out my hand to the night sky as if I was trying to grab something. My eyes looked steadily at the gray piece of cloth tied on my left wrists that hid the four digit numbers imprinted onto it. The ugly, 5601. My identification, 5601. The binding, 5601.

"Yep. The first time I met you was the first time I went further than the garden's pond of my home," I said.

I turned over to my side to look at him. I could see the full moon glisten in Kei's eyes between his brown hair as if it was a still lake as he looked back at me.

"You must be lonely," he said. His voice was quieter than usual.

I sat up.

"Of course not!" I said. "Mother and you are with me, so I'll never be lonely!"

He smiled, faintly.

"So... you better not ever leave me, Kei... Or I will...I will be..."

I couldn't continue.

"Cat caught your tongue, Ani?" he said, with a giggle. "You're silly. I won't leave you."

"Even if you can't run freely under the sun, you don't ever need to feel trapped again, Ani," Kei said, "because I'm here. I'll even come here every evening to be with you."

Kei sounded so much like a grown up. He sounded like my mother.

"Is that alright for you though?" I said.

He nodded once. "Yes. We're friends, right?"

I nodded rapidly up and down.

He furrowed his eyebrows in thought and stared at his hands.

"But, let's say...what if you found out that I did something really bad, but helps people, would you still be my friend?" said Kei. "I mean, you know, hypothetically."

I don't get it.

"Of course!" I said.

"C...could you promise then, Ani?"

"Yep, I promise."

On the other side of Kei, I finally noticed The Servant's Mask. It was hidden in plain sight even though it was the brightest constellation out of the sea of stars. It was a wonder how I couldn't see it before.

"When I'm free, I'll help out all the people who are just like me right now," I declared looking at the constellation.

He smiled. "Until then, you can always count on me, Ani."

I bumped my shoulder into his.

"Remember how you said earlier that there's monsters that might eat me at night?" I said.

"Yes?"

"I don't think that they will with you by my side, Kei."

A/N: Fa-lling here! I hope that as you read on, it'll be more comprehensible.

Here's a quick sketch of the Servant's Mask constellation. Nice art, right? Just kiiiiiidding.