Dream in Colours

Imagine a kingdom bright and rich, with fields of gold and grass as green as the most precious jewels. Pierced by rivers and lakes, shimmering and cold as the stars in the night-sky. Imagine such a sky. Blue and rich as the sea, soft and calm like a breeze in midsummer. Imagine a country with no boundaries. Everyone is free to go as they please. People can travel wherever and whenever they want. Imagine it, just for a second. It is beautiful, isn't it? Oh it was. Relsvik was a wonderful place to spend the days of your life. Mild winters, hot summers and fruitful autumns. Everyone lead a peaceful life. Calm and steady. Whenever the sun would rise above the mountains in the east new life would fill the country. Animals would venture in the woods; humans would set off for work. Ships would fly through the sky and darkness would fade until the sun was about to set, drowning into the see, casting it's last golden glow over everything living and moving, existing and just appearing. One last sign of hope and a signal to return to the safety of one's home. Relsvik was filled with wonders. Big and small alike. Magic was prominent and only a view gifted creatures could wield them. They were the protectors of the lands, of the people.

Dragons.

They would roam this land again, securing us, protecting us from the evil deeds of the Shazar. Those bloodthirsty creatures only alive through an accident. Those half breeds, not human, not animal, not dead and not alive. Once corpses now they roamed the fields, destroying everything that came in their way. When they first appeared the Dragons did good to protect the people of Relsvik when mistrust and hatred began to grow and grew within the hearts of the humans, a dark seed in their hearts for they also longed for power. Power to safe themselves. They would never depend on those creatures and their king! They hunted them down and as soon as the last few fled chaos took over the land. Nothing was left of it now. Dragons now only were creatures of legends, danger was lurking behind every corner. What once was a blooming land was now filled with hatred and greed, people separated, desperate to survive at all cost. Money divided our society. Those that had enough of it would not only reign our country, but would also build houses, even cities high above in the sky, safe from the Shazar, who ventured on the ground. Terrible creatures they were. Leathery skin over disfigured bones, part monster, part human, with eyes piercing and cold, only alive when it came to fresh blood and warm flesh. Human flesh. Every night we would hide, hoping to survive another day and I would keep watch over my family.

 My mother, my younger sisters and my brother. Father left our family when I was a child. He set off to one of his journeys as a merchant to a land behind the mountains and never returned. I exchanged my imagination for hard work.

Once full of dreams reality sunk in, leaving me hollow and cold. To survive was my only goal, to earn a living for me and my family my aim.

 We were the poorest of the poor, barely able to protect ourselves from the night, marriage the only way of escape, but who could love someone so poor? Who would take in a family as broken and torn as ours? No one would. And I never dared again to dream of such things for it was an expensive luxury. A luxury I could never afford.

~*~

"Get down here that instant!", I yelled. "Why? I helped yesterday, it's Jovials turn.", my sister was giving me one hell of headache again. "You are here right now so get down and go to work.", I growled. "It is not very ladylike.", she retorted. "Well we are no ladies, are we?", I asked tired. We only owned a small ship, barely enough to transport all of the goods we traded across the village and the country.

We had a small garden, mother was known for her potions and most townspeople would buy them. I tried to expand our business, to no avail. Nobody would trade with a woman on his free will.