The Promised King (REIGN)

Chapter One

AN • Before you begin reading, I wanted to give a big shoutout to mystrielle who helped me create this chapter. Without you, this chapter will still be looking like a first grader wrote it haha.

Thank you.
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Alana

THE sun was shining brightly on top of my head, a sign that it was around noon. The harsh rays had a piercing feel as it touched my skin. Birds chirped in a sing-song manner that I find amusing. The only comforting company as I walked along the beaten path home.

I held my bag tightly against my chest, a protective instinct I had grew accustomed to. It was not the best of times nowadays. The whole country was struggling financially due to involvement with war from a neighboring country that ended a year ago. The kingdom lose in the war. Villages had the worst of its effect.

The look of poverty was everywhere. Some houses are left to rot or in uninhabitable state. Some sick and dying on alley way due to lack of alms. Farmland renting individuals had enough to feed themselves. Basic goods in the store are expensive.Taxes are a common problem around. Employment was just as bad.

Some people, especially those of lowest class, had resorted to stealing from anyone to fill hungry stomachs for the day and continued to do so.

Things which was not the scene I remember when I was still a kid.

It was a good thing that I am able to keep my sanity from all these things happening around me. I still vie for a just and better life amidst this hard times.

I smiled when I remembered my Poppa. He was the very reason why I could still go through this life. He is my strength. I could not imagine life without him.

My smile was short-lived as I realized that I dawdled too long from my musings. I scold myself as I hurried home. I have to feed him and give him the medicine that I had traded for a coin from an old wise woman in the village.

I caught sight of our humble home. It was sitting in a grassland just a couple of walks away from the river. The piece of land came from the Baron that Poppa served. He paid the rent with every produce he could offer.

When it was not as hard as nowadays.

I solely look for a living around the village. Pretty much happy to be taken in as a maid in the Baron's manor. It was a good thing that the Baron's youngest daughter was kind.

Poppa had to, even if I refrain him to do so, continued to tend to the piece of land given to him. Until he grew weaker each day.

I shunned the worrisome thoughts away as I focused on the structure in front of me.

The house had a thatch roof, walls are made from carefully layered stones secured in place with mud. Windows are small which has wooden shutters. The back part facing the river had a tilled land for growing vegetables and some crops.

I could not help but admire the place I grew up at. Poppa built the house with his bare hands when he was at a young age.

Arriving home, I stood behind the closed wooden door. My eyes roamed around the place. On my left was the livestock quarters where we put our farm animals every summer nights and all day come winter time. It once had a cow that provided milk, chickens that laid eggs and a source of meat and sheeps that I helped Poppa in shearing wool and had fun doing.

I felt sad as those days had gone. Only an old hen laying eggs stayed and I was afraid would be killed for its meat soon.

My eyes went to the middle of the room where big rocks formed in circle acted as barrier for the fire. On top of it was a suspended cauldron where we most cook our food. A small opening on the roof was where the smoke escape out of our house. The table and stool was situated next to the window, beside it was a shelf where my homemade jam and other preserved food are kept. Hanged on the wall are farm tools my Poppa had and our cloaks.