True Love's Cry

Chapter 1

I open my eyes to the rising sun shining through the crack in my tent. I stand up and look around. My father is not around so he must have already joined the others in my colony. I decide to go join them as well though I feel a little saddened today. It is not easy living the way we do, but that is how it has to be. I walk outside to the field filled with the other tents. I walk straight into the field towards the largest of the tents. It is our living area. We go there if a meeting is called, for our meals, for those scary times during storms when we are not sure if we will survive, and anytime we feel like being together. We are not alone often considering the colonies depend on each other for survival.

I come up to the living area and step inside. I walk over to my father who is speaking with some of the others. My father is very important to the colony, being the quote leader. He helps us ration things out and solve disputes between those in the colony. It is never good to have issues among each other. He looks up for a second and notices me.

My father says, "Good morning, Kierra. Would you like breakfast?"

"No thank you. I'd rather wait till later." I reply.

Sensing my sadness, my father says, "If you wish. You look pretty today."

I respond, "I know you mean well, but I'm not pretty, none of us are. We are not like the others and never will be. If you wish to make me happier, find another way, please."

With that I turn and walk back outside. Having nothing to do, I decide to go walk into the town. Although really I will go watch everyone in the town from the alleys. I will not fit in there. I run to the opposite end of the field past my home to a bridge that sits there. I walk under it and turn into an alley.

The alley is wet and dark with the exception of a few slivers of sunlight. I start down the alley towards the town. I come across a puddle that is in the alley and look down at it. I can see my reflection in the puddle. I look for a few seconds and immediately continue back down the alley. I know I am not pretty, I am aware of that. My long, black, wavy hair is a mess. It is tangled and has dirt in it. My tan skin is covered with patches of dirt and muck. The dirt makes my blue eyes dull. My mouth is small, but my pink lips are chapped. When I smile my teeth are slightly yellow and crooked. Though I know others in my colony who look worse.

As I continue down the alley I look down at my body. I am very skinny and have on very worn clothing that is slightly too small for me. I wear old shoes that have holes and are also too small for my feet. I guess that is just the cause of being a Nobudee. My group in the system is the lowest. We are poor. We live in tents made up of scraps and old blankets. We have to eat scraps of food we find in the garbage. We live in colonies of about 15 people, because more than that would make it hard to survive. There are probably six colonies of Nobudees. Our lifestyle is so bad, my father has to limit everyone in my colony to the number of children they can have. The people can not have more than two children though even that is pushing it. I am an only child. My mother died when I was very young. Now it's just me and my dad. I am the heir to the quote throne, so that brings a lot of responsibilities and stress, more than a 17 year old girl should have, but there is not much I can do about it since I was born into the Nobudees.

I continue down the alley. I reach the end of the alley when I realize I am becoming very hungry. I should have eaten when my father said so. Oh well I'm used to being hungry. Sometimes my colony and I will go weeks at a time without eating anything. I will just have to wait until I return to the colony.

I look out upon the crowded street. It is more crowded than usual, I wonder why. I decide that I will get a bit closer, but not too close. I come up to the very edge of the alley to see what is going on. As I look out into the town, I notice that the royal family is outside. That explains the crowd. Then I notice two boys murmuring to each other. One of the boys is the oh so famous prince. I can see that he has short, black hair. Since his hair is short it appears curly, much like mine when it is cut short. I see he has blue eyes. He is much lighter skinned than me, which is to be expected as he is not a Nobudee. The other boy with him appears to be younger than the prince. The other boy turns towards the crowd. The two boys begin running in my direction. The prince takes a left, while the other boy continues to run in my direction. Before I can back off into the shadows, the boy runs into the alley and into me. I fall hard to the ground.