The Heart of King Travis

Compassion

After about an hour of exploring the castle, I made one final conclusion. King Travis had excellent taste. The artwork was what I mainly looked at, although I peeked inside of many recreational rooms. The only things those rooms contained were marble chess sets, but they still looked very expensive. Eventually, Avery found me and said it was time to go back downstairs for another chat from King Travis. Joy.

As we walked down the hallway, I noticed the king's theme. Sky blue, white, and gold. With curiosity, I turned to Avery and asked "Why does he use the same three colors over and over again?" He shrugged. "I don't believe he's ever told anyone, but there are lots of theories. I raised an eyebrow. "Theories? What kind of theories?" I asked, suddenly interested in learning more about Travis. "Lots of people say those were his son's favorite colors. A select few say he once courted someone who wore those colors. Again, those are just rumors," he said as if he didn't care. "How do you think he would react if I brought it up to him?" I asked calmly, not wanting to sound too suspicious. Avery gave me a side glance with a fake smile and replied "Not well, Dearie." I laughed and he smiled a bit more.

"So, what are we doing next?" I asked, pretending the previous conversation never happened. "I believe we're going downstairs to rub the old man's feet," he joked. I turned to him, startled. "You don't mean Travis, do you?" I asked in a confused tone. I thought that his advisors were supposed to like him, but apparently Avery didn't. He nodded and started to laugh. I froze in shock for a moment, but soon began to laugh with him. Avery didn't support Travis like I thought he did. Maybe he wasn't as bad as I thought.

As we walked down the quartz staircase, I looked at Avery again. His features were rounded in a way that made him seem like more of an easy-going person. He talked very eloquently, but he wasn't stuck-up. Mika waved to me when I got down and I walked over to stand by her. I could tell she was happy to see me, but her face expressed pure stress. Griffin probably put a lot of pressure on her and Noah to get the spot on the team of advisors. I couldn't blame the guy considering he had twice the chance.

My eyes turned to Noah once more. He was talking to his advisor, a tall blonde girl who was dressed in a rather short sky blue cocktail dress. Her hair had an elegant side part and her makeup looked like it could have been done by the best artists in Pleamonte. Noah winked at her before turning to the boy dressed in all black. I quickly looked away. Maybe he was changing...but I had to give him a chance...

Before I could worry myself more, the room became silent. It was time for Travis to speak. "So, now that you've explored the castle, it's time for you to see one more thing. Next, I'm sending you to the village where you will be accompanied by your advisor. Leave." With that last word, he flicked his hand and walked up the staircase. I glanced at Avery and he gave me a sly smile back. "Let's go," he said with a wink. As we walked, someone bumped into my shoulder. "Sorry," said a familiar voice. I immediately looked up to see Noah. Butterflies formed in my stomach before he spoke again.

"Wait a minute. Arden, is that you?" he asked in shock. "Yah," I mumbled as I looked down at the floor. "I saw you earlier and thought you looked familiar. That makes sense!" he exclaimed. He wrapped an awkward arm around me and I looked up at him. The castles glow illuminated his hair to make it more vibrant than usual. His face looked like the face of a prince out of a story book and the way he gazed into my eyes made me look right back at him. I was glad I found him. His hug seemed to last a little bit longer than a friendly hug, but maybe that was just me. Before I could say anything else, Avery grabbed my arm.

"I think it's time to go to the village, Arden," he said in a cheerful voice. I noticed Noah's advisor staring at me before she took him in another direction. I was dazed for a minute, but then I remembered I wasn't at the camp to flirt. I was there to give King Travis his heart. Then I could flirt.

As Avery and I began to walk, I took in the villages and their shabby chic glory. The little houses were planted on hills that seemed to stretch on for miles. Their tiny glass windows were covered with dirt, but their white stucco walls were clean. Most of them were one story, but a couple of them had two stories. Stone paths snaked in and out of houses, but there was one main path that made a vertical line straight through the village. I saw the occasional shop or vendor stand, but there wasn't much in the way of community life. Sunburned men harvested crops in a large field that laid farther down our hill in a large clearing. There was also a small mine in the side of a hill that looked like it was only a few days away from collapsing. Men with pickaxes walked in and out of it, putting their goods in small wood crates that were to be shipped away.

"So, where do you want to go first?" Avery asked. "There are a couple of shops and vendor tents that we can look at. I'll get you something if you want." He gestured toward a tent that laid a few yards away. Instead of listening to him, I was looking at the field where the men were working. "Can we go over there?" I asked as I pointed down to where they harvested the crops. Avery just gave a disappointed shrug and nodded. "I guess so. But there are lots of more interesting places." I just shook my head. "I want to go watch them work. I need to ask you a few questions."

He reluctantly nodded his head and we walked down the hill to where the field was. "Why do you care about them? They're just workers," he said. However, they weren't just workers. When I thought about the sad looks on their faces, I thought about the man from the story Spencer told me about Kinsley. "I just want to know why they're worked so hard. Do they even get time to focus on their families?" I asked the question even though Spencer had already told me about this. I was just hoping maybe Avery could expand on the idea, considering the fact that he was the king's advisor. "Yes. They do get time to work on their own crafts on Sundays. No one has to farm for the king and no one has to mine. That's the time when the tents are most active, but the king still recruits unpaid employees to run them for the rest of the week."

"Is there any type of barter going on?" I asked. He nodded. "There's a trail called the Montico that attracts vendors from different kingdoms. The king hires people to trade products with them, but people also get to visit the vendors on break day. Would you want to go visit the Montico right now? It's Sunday." He smiled at me and I could tell he secretly hoped I would say yes so he wouldn't be quite so bored. Suddenly, I got a little annoyed. "Do you know what these people have to go through? Or does the king do all of the work?" I asked, trying to hide my angry tone. He raised an eyebrow at me. "Why so mad all of a sudden? I can't control any of this," he argued in an infuriatingly calm voice.

Before I could get angrier, there was a scream from the field. Avery and I instantly looked over to see a figure in the distance collapse. Before I could even think about anything else, my impulse made me jump up and run toward him. My nimble feet leaped over rows of crops and my black flats wore down as they rubbed through the dirt. In about thirty seconds, I reached the fallen man. The worker was wearing a black cloak so I couldn't see their face. "What happened? Is everything OK?" I asked in shock. The figure pulled the cloak off and I realized something surprising. It was not a man, but a woman. Her eyebrows were arched in a regal way and her cheeks had a rosy hue. Her brown hair stuck to her sweaty forehead.

When she saw me, tears began to trickle down her cheeks. "I can't work anymore! It's torturous! Please...help..." she whispered in choppy words. All of a sudden, she stopped talking and her eyes slowly closed. I got down on my knees to check her breathing. After a few seconds, I couldn't feel anything. Instead of getting up, I sat on my knees and sobbed. It was all so confusing and I just couldn't understand what happened to her. I felt a hand on my shoulder. Through my watery vision, I could see Avery's kind face. He looked down at the woman and then back at me. "Would you like me to revive her? We can bring her back to the castle and get someone to help her." I looked down at her and nodded. The tears immediately stopped flowing.

"What are they going to do with her?" I asked him. He looked down at her again. "Since this is a woman, we'll probably have to find her a husband to make money for her family. Peasant women aren't supposed to be making money in Pleamonte." I scowled. "Do you support it?" I asked Avery. He paused for a moment and then shook his head. "I don't, but that does not matter at this point in time. I'm going to go ahead and revive her, so you should stand back a little bit." I took his cue and walked back a few steps. He waved his hand and a clear white stream of light came from his finger. He kneeled down by the woman and put the tip of his finger to her heart. It took a couple of seconds, but she finally opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Thank you, sir. You saved me," she whispered.

He looked down at her and I could see true compassion in his eyes. "We'll take her back to the palace and heal her," Avery said to me. He had my unwavering respect.